A Winning Tradition to Rival the Titanic's

With last Saturday's 82-76 victory over Yale, the Harvard men's basketball team moved to 13-3 overall, assuring itself of its second straight winning record.

And considering the squad's history, that's a big deal.

"I can remember years when winning 13 games was a great year," says Crimson Coach Frank McLaughlin. "There were a whole lot of Harvard teams that would have been satisfied with 13 wins."

That's because a whole lot of Harvard teams have had records rivaling the Titanic's (0-1).

In the squad's 74-year history, only as Crimson clubs have put winning records into the books, and only 12 have won as many as 13 games.

For McLaughlin, it's the third winning season in his eight years here; for Harvard, it's the first time since 1971-72 and 1972-73 that it has put together back-to-back winning seasons. Last year's club wound up 15-11.

With eight games remaining to play, the worst this year's edition could finish is 13-11. The best it could finish--counting only the regular season--is 21-3, and that would mean two Harvard milestones.

It would smash the Crimson mark for most victories in one season, set by the 1945-46 squad that went 20-3. That club also currently holds the record for best winning percentage (.870).

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The race for the Ivy League crown hits the midway point this weekend, but three clubs have already established themselves as the teams to beat.

Harvard, Penn and Cornell--currently first, second, and third in the league--are slowly moving away from the rest of the field.

The Crimson will haul a first-place 5-1 Ancient Eight mark into a crucial showdown at 4-2 Cornell this weekend.

Though it won't be a must-win situation for the Crimson, it'll be close to that for the Big Red. A loss Friday night would give Cornell three league losses, with dates against Penn and at Harvard still on the schedule.

For Harvard, a loss Friday night wouldn't necessarily hurt--mainly because both Penn and Cornell must still come to town. But a loss wouldn't help, either. It would put the Crimson in a must-win situation Saturday night at Columbia.

Penn, meanwhile, will rote its 4-1' league record to Brown and Yale this weekend, while the rest of the league will jockey to stay out of last place.

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In the latest NCAA rankings, Harvard was the nation's second most accurate team from the free throw line.

But just barely.

The Crimson trailed top-ranked Weber State by .0004 percentage points in last week's rankings.

After last weekend's 47-for-56 performance from the line, however. Harvard could find itself in first place when this week's rankings are released today.

Ironically, the Crimson was also the nation's second most accurate team from the floor.

But just barely.

The Crimson trailed top-ranked Indiana by an infintessimal .00005 percentage points in last week's rankings.

But after last weekend's 55-for-96 performance from the floor Harvard could find itself in first place here, too, when this week's rankings are released today.

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With the prospect of Harvard moving into first place in both free throw and field goal percentage. It's time to look into the NCAA record book.

The 1970 Ohio-State squad was the last to finish a season on top in both categories. That year, the Buckeyes hit 80.9 percent of their free throws and 54.4 percent of their field goals.

The 1960 Auburn club was the last before Ohio accomplish the double feat. The Tigers hit 77.2 percent from the line and 48.8 percent from the floor.

Harvard is currently hitting 81.7 percent of its free throws and 55 percent of its field goals.

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Amidst all the talk of this year's Crimson exploits, it's easy to forget that last year's Harvard squad hit an NCAA record 82.2 percent of its free throws.

It's extremely possible that the Crimson's on its way to breaking its own record.

Even if doesn't, there's a good chance the Crimson will finish as the top-ranked team in free throw percentage.

If that happens, Harvard will become only the fourth team in NCAA history to repeat as free throw champion.

Vanderbilt was the last to repeat, hitting a nation-high 80.2 percent in 1974 and a nation-high 76.6 percent in 1975.

Miami, Fla., which will bring back its basketball program next year, repeated as free throw champion in 1964 and 1965.

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Speaking of free throws, the charity stripe has accounted for 12 of the Crimson's 13 victories.

Harvard, which has taken 258 more shots from the line than its opponents, takes a trip to the stripe every 96 seconds. Its opponents take a trip there every five minutes.

That works out to an average of almost 22 more Harvard free throws per game.

And that usually works out to a Harvard victory.

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One of the reasons for Harvard's sudden rise in this year's free throw percentage rankings has been the improved performance of junior Arne Duncan.

The last time we checked, Duncan was hitting at only a .673 clip. Three weeks since, the small forward has hit 12 of his last 13 free throws and raised his average to .740.

Though he's still the only starter hitting less than 81 percent of his shots from the line, Duncan's no longer the main reason Harvard's not hitting at a higher clip.

The dubious distinction belongs to freshman Kyle Dodson, who has connected on just 3 of, his 9 opportunities for a mediocre .33, percentage.

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His free throw performances aside, Dodson last weekend showed the first signs of why many had tabbed him as one of the Crimson's top recruits in years.

In five minutes of action against Brown, Dodson scored four points and played some very solid defense.

Meanwhile, fellow freshman still Mohler continued to impress last weekend. Though he scored just one point, Mohler gave the Crimson some extra height and some defensive help.

The Chevy Chase, Md, native blocked one shot, giving him five for the year. With 33 minutes of action under his belt, Mohler is averaging a team-high one block per every five and a half minutes played.

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Just one more note on Pat Smith's performance last weekend.

His combined stars for the Yale-Brown series read like career highlights: 20 points, eight assists, two steals, two rebounds, one blocked shot and just two turnovers.

The junior guard--who scored a career high 14 points against Brown--has now hit nine straight field goals and two straight free throws for the longest such streak by a Harvard player since 1982.

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Both the Harvard men's basketball team and the Harvard men's hockey team have lost three games this year.

Interestingly enough, each time the eagers have lost, the icemen have lost within 24 hours.

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In this week's J.C. department, senior Co-Captain Joe Carrabino is currently averaging 22.6 points per game, the highest of his career. He's currently averaging 8.4 rebounds per game, also the highest of his career.

He's currently ranked first in the Ivy League in scoring, 27th nationally. He's ranked third in the league in rebounding.

In addition, the 6-ft., 9-in. Encino. Calif, native has upped his career scoring average to 18.0 points per game, and is within reach of the all time Harvard record in this department (18.3 by Keith Sedlacek, 1963-66).

ironically, though Carrabino has earned many honors-including Ivy League Player of the year as a junior. Ivy League Rookie of the year as a freshman and All-Ivy honors a year ago-and has pull impressive numbers in the score books, he is still looking to claim his first Harvard basketball record.

This ought to change by next weekend, however, when Carrabino should become Harvard's all-time leading scorer. Only the second player in Crimson history to pass the 1700 point mark, the forward turned center needs just 71 points to move into first place on the prestigious list.

Carrabino currently has 1727 career points, while Don Fleming scored 1797 from 1978-82. The record will most likely fall when Pennsylvania comes to two next Friday.

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THE NOTEBOOK'S NOTEBOOK: McLaughlin now has 97 career coaching victories. There's an outside chance he could pick up win number 100 when Carrabino becomes the Crimson's all-time leading scored next weekend...Carrabino does hold the Crimson mark for most points scored by a freshman (380), but that is not in the record books, and thus not an official record...Fellow senior Co-Captain Bob Ferry needs just six points to move into third place on the all-time scoring list...Of the Crimson's three losses, two have come in the afternoon. Lucky for Harvard, there are no afternoon contests left on its schedule...Harvard's starting five have accounted for 91 percent of the club's minutes played...The trio of Carrabino, Ferry and Duncan have accounted for 77 percent of the Crimson's 1097 points...Three of the Crimson starting five have recorded career highs this season. Duncan (23). Webster (21) and Smith (14) are the three, while Carrabino and Ferry are the two who haven't...Duncan still leads the team in steals (22), but he no longer leads the team in turnovers. That honor belongs to Carrabino (58)...If you go by minutes played, though, that honor belongs to Dodson (10 in 101 minutes)...Harvard's average home attendance is 837. Thanks to Penn and Duke, its average road attendance is 3,058...The Crimson is outscoring its opponents in the first half by an average of 4.6 points. Its opponents are outscoring Harvard, however, in the second half by an average of .8 points.

The Basketball Notebook Appears (Allmost) Every Wednesday in The Harvard Crimson