The Renaissance Man

This is the Renaissance of Harvard men's basketball, and Carrabino is the Renaissance Man.

He's the key that unlocked Harvard's door to success, and he's finally about to find his place in Harvard history.

Barring disaster in his 100th game as a collegian tomorrow night Carrabino will become the Crimson's all-time leading scorer.

More than 1750 points and four years since he sank what else an 18-ft. Jumper from the corner-for his first two collegiate points, Carrabino is closing in on the Crimson's moist prestigious record.

Only 40 points now separate the 6ft.,9-in Fresno, Calif. native from Quincy two games this weekend, the record should come midway through the second half of tomorrow night's contest.

And, ironically, the record will come on Penn-Princeton weekend.

Nothing would signify the Renaissance of Harvard men's basketball more than a sweep of Ivies most feared teams, and no one's more capable of ensuring it than the Renaissance Man.

"I've thought about it happening on this weekend," says Carrabino, who currently has 1758 career points to his credit, "It could be a special weekend for me and a special weekend for the team."

A sweep of Penn and Princeton on the weekend that Carrabino celebrated his 23rd birthday would vault Harvard into first place in the race for the coveted Ancient Eight crown it's never won, and would give Harvard Coach Frank McLaughlin 100 career victories.

In fact, McLaughlin could garner victory number 100 on the same evening that Carrabino-in his 100th game-could surpass. Donald Fleming as Harvard's highest scorer.

That would be a true tribute to the player who has McLaughlin turn around Harvard's fortunes. In his four years here-he took one year off because of a painful back injury-Carrabino has been a part of the resurgence of Crimson basketball.

He's become the main cog on back-to-back teams that are considered among the finest in Harvard's not-so-illustrious history.

And along the way, the slow temperamental senior co-captain has picked up some pretty impressive numbers. The holder of the Harvard record for most points scored by a freshman (380). Carrabino has scored in double figures 41 consecutive times, has or shared the Harvard scoring lead in 25 of the Crimson's last 27 games, and has a career scoring coverage of 18.0 points per game (ppg).

That puts the Economics concentrator and Academic All-America candidate within striking distance of the Harvard record in that department (18.3 ppg).

But there's more.

A year ago, the former Ivy League Rookie of the Year became the first Harvard cager to earn Ivy League Player of the Year honors. A first team All-Ivy selection. Carrabino last year held or shared the Harvard lead in scoring (22.0ppg), rebounding (7.3rpg), field goal percentage (90.5) and minutes played (36mpg).

He also ranked first in Ivy League free throw percentage (90.8), and second in both scoring (21.9ppg) and (21.9 ppg) and rebounds (8.4 rpg)

An finally, the player--whose trademarks are the outside jumper and free throw accuracy--finished second in the nation a year ago in free throw shooting percentage (90.5).

"I guess I've won just about all the personal stuff there is to win," says Carrabino, a legitimate pro prospect who is as deadly from the inside as he is from the outside.

"Basically the last step is the team goal," says the player who admit his teammates are as responsible for his success as he is.

"And we can go a far way towards that this weekend. The Carrabino Watch Harvard's Top Ten All-Time Scorers Player  Years  FG  FT  points 1 Don Fleming  1978-82  702  393  1979 2 Joe Carrabino  1980-85  664  430  1758 3 Bob Forry  1981-85  489  295  1273 4 Kenth Sedlacek  1963-66  505  252  1262 5 James Brown  1970-73  513  216  1242 6 Dale Dover  1968-71  457  287  1201 7 Tony Jenkins  1971-74  447  173  1079 8 Bill Dennis  1951-54  413  248  1074 9 Gary Borchard  1959-62  351  326  1028 10 Bob Hooft  1976-79  408  207  1023 * Sat cut most of 1983 season because of injury.