Clemente to Miss Hoops Season

Talk about sophomore jinxes.

Just two weeks before its season opener at Boston College, the Harvard men's basketball team has learned that standout power forward Dan Clemente must undergo season-ending surgery to repair a degenerative ankle condition.

The 6'7" Clemente, last season's runaway Ivy League Rookie of the Year, aggravated pre-existing weakness in his left ankle with several sprains over the summer. When the ankle did not respond to attempts by the Harvard training staff to treat and rehabilite it, Clemente, Coach Frank Sullivan and team physician Dr. Arthur Boland made the decision to do reconstructive surgery.

"I sprained it for the last time at the end of August, just working out and shooting around by myself," Clemente said. "I was being an idiot and playing on it, not wearing a brace. Then I came to school and played on it, and it started getting ridiculous. I couldn't run on it or anything."

The sprains this summer were the last straw in a series of ankle problems dating back to Clemente's high school career. A twisted ankle last season kept Clemente out of three games last season, including the Penn-Princeton series at Lavietes Pavilion in February. The Crimson was 1-2 in games Clemente missed.

Clemente and the Harvard training staff did not originally anticipate that surgery of this magnitude would be required, and they tried to accommodate it during this pre-season by holding Clemente back from practice and doing light rehabilitative therapy. As recently as the middle of October, Clemente was not expected to miss substantial time.

"He was doing preseason conditioning, but he never practiced, and it was still bothering him," Sullivan said. "The progress was such that it merited further assessment. The thought [last month] was that it could still be rehabbed, and that maybe Dan would miss the first 8 to 10 days of practice. But then during some off-court activity there was still aggravation, and we wanted to get it checked out."

In consultation with Boland, Clemente reached the point where surgery was inevitable.

"I saw [Boland] for the first time one month ago and realized that it wasn't responding to treatment," Clemente said. "[Last week] we made the decision to finally get it fixed."

Clemente hopes to undergo the surgery around Thanksgiving, and the recovery timetable is roughly three months. Clemente will wear a cast for five to six weeks, then do rehabilitation for five to six weeks if all goes according to plan.

"Sometimes guys have ankle problems, do surgery and get back on the court," Sullivan said. "This kind of surgery is a pretty big deal. It's about the biggest deal there is. Dan's going to be out for some time."

Clemente said that he would retain his year of eligibility, but was still deciding how he would choose to manage his year off.

Clemente emerged as one of the League's dominant four-men last season, finishing with 13.8 points and 5.3 rebounds per game, 9th and 11th in the lvy, respectively.

And in a conference chock full of sharpshooters, Clemente was seventh at 43.2 percent from three-point range, converting on 48 of III attempts.

His departure poses a host of questions for Sullivan and the Crimson's reconstituted lineup, particularly now that replacements are needed for two spots in the frontcourt instead of just one--Clemente at power forward and Mike Scott '98 at small forward or swingman.

"We had the luxury of having a skilled shooter at the four-position last year," Sullivan said. "Dan was somebody who could screen or step behind the line, and we don't have that caliber of shooter at the four anymore. This takes a lot of cute wrinkles away from our offense."

The potential to score from distance made Clemente extremely difficult for most power forwards to defend, and when defenses honored the outside shot, it generated scoring opportunities for center Paul Fisher in the paint.

Last year's frontcourt was among the lvy's best, with Scott, Clemente and Fisher all finishing in the top 20 in scoring and combining to produce 39.6 points per game.

That it's a major blow for the frontcourt is the least I can say," Fisher said. "We were hoping Dan would build on what he accomplished last year, but now the spot is wide open. The practices have been much more intense for everyone in the frontcourt. We'll definitely miss his point production and his rebounding."

There was talk even before the severity of Clemente's injury was known of switching the sophomore to small forward while replacement candidates like sophomores Tim Coleman and Chris Lewis or senior Bill Ewing filled in the four-spot.

Now Sullivan will have to revamp the frontcourt with even greater urgency, possibly converting to a modified three-guard offense like the one he employed at times last season with Scott and junior guard Damian Long.

Though veterans, Ewing, Coleman and Lewis have yet to establish themselves as scoring forces in the paint, and certainly none will contribute in the manner that Clemente did from outside.

Any frontcourt point production, it seems, will have to come from inside, and will require greatly improved ability from any of those fill-ins to score down low.

But Clemente's injury will increase the pressure on the Crimson to improve its defense, one of the biggest question marks entering the season.

"The challenge is that we lose a significant volume of three-point shooting," Sullivan said. "Good three-point shooting was a buffer to poor defense last year. It bailed us out of some games, kept us close in others.

"Defense was a top priority going in, but now that we lose 100 three-point shots from Dan and Mike Scott, the players should have a sense that we're redirecting our energies even more toward defense."

The injury comes as a shock and a terrible piece of luck for a team in the midst of the most successful stretch in program history. With 45 wins in the last three seasons, Harvard tied a school record.

The Crimson was picked to finish in the top half of the Ivy and perhaps even challenge a graduation-depleted Princeton team for second place behind the University of Pennsylvania.

Clemente's loss naturally makes a first-division finish more difficult, but team members were optimistic.

"If the people that do the predictions knew that Dan was going to be out for the year, they probably wouldn't think that second or third place was doable, more like third or fourth," Fisher said. "But if we pick things up, there's no reason for a decline."