The Best Ever?

Tim Hill starts every game the same way.

As the other nine men on the floor are exchanging gibes and handshakes around the tip-off circle, the Harvard men's basketball team's senior point guard stands 20 feet back at his own free-throw line, one fist raised in the air.

"It's just a habit of mine," Hill says. "After coming out of the huddle to start the game, I don't really like to talk to anybody. While the national anthem's playing, that's my quiet time. I think of how I want the game to be run, just mentally prepare myself.

"When I come out of the huddle, I would prefer not to say anything to anybody. So I just nod at the referee and let the other guys know it's all business."

Hill's business over his four years in a Crimson uniform has been nothing short of excellence.

He will graduate with more assists than anyone in the history of Harvard basketball, having passed Tarik Campbell '94 with his 571st last weekend. He will likely finish in seventh place on the all-time scoring list, just behind one-time teammate Kyle Snowden '97, who had 1,429 points.

This season, Hill has been widely recognized as the Ivy League's most talented point guard, comfortably leading the conference in assists with 6.4 a game (12th in the nation) and placing fifth with 16.1 points per game. He features a three-to-one assists-to-turnovers ratio and has played 953 of a possible 970 minutes.

But Hill prefers not to talk about his laundry list of impressive individual numbers. To his credit, Hill is most proud of a record he accomplished with the help of countless others.

"The aspect of my career that I'm most pleased with is the fact that with one more win, we're going to be the winningest class in Harvard's history," Hill says. "That's a great accomplishment considering that there hasn't been much of a tradition of basketball here at Harvard."

Certainly not before Hill arrived. In the 1994-95 season, Coach Frank Sullivan's fourth at the helm, Harvard was 6-20 with a 4-10 Ivy League record. Since Hill's rookie season, the Crimson is 56-46, 28-26 in the Ivies.

But Hill has been one of a cast of four seniors--including captain Paul Fisher, shooting guard Mike Beam, center Bill Ewing and guard Chris Dexter--that has put Harvard basketball on the map.

Last Saturday, on senior night at Lavietes Pavilion, Hill and Harvard snapped a 17-game losing streak against Princeton, posting an 87-79 overtime upset. Hill, characteristically, led the way with a game-high 27 points and four assists.

"I don't think we could have scripted Saturday night to be any better," Hill says. "The fact that it was our last game at home, and it was Princeton--whom everybody in the country knows about--made it an incredible way to go out."

Indeed, it was a fitting Hollywood ending for a career that began with the highest of expectations.

The Ijamsville, Md. native was a four-year starter at prestigious DeMatha High School, where in his senior year he captained a team ranked No. 10 in the nation by USA Today. A touted recruit, Hill was courted by several ACC schools but opted for Harvard early decision.

"At DeMatha, you're definitely groomed to go to big-time basketball schools," Hill says. "And I was looking that way until my senior year, when I realized that I could get everything I needed at Harvard--a Division-I basketball program and obviously the best education in the country."

But the 5'11 guard also had reservations about committing to a bigger program.

"The thing with me was, if I had gone to an ACC school, you always run the risk of having a player who's 6'5, is just as quick as me, and shoots just as well as me coming in, and then I'm buried on the bench," Hill says. "It's been an awesome opportunity to come in, be handed the ball and for a big part of the time, be in charge of a team's destiny."

That was a sizeable burden for the man Princeton's Jadwin Gym crowd delights in heckling with chants of "Tiny Tim." But Hill responded beautifully, winning Ivy Rookie of the Year honors after averaging 10.1 points and 5.2 assists per game during his freshman campaign.

That same year, the Crimson upped its record to 15-11 and finished 7-7 in the Ivy.

But during his sophomore year, Hill started on a 17-9 team that boasted superstars like Snowden, Chris Grancio '97 and Mike Scott '98 and that managed to knock off Penn at Lavietes. It would be the Crimson's only win against the Quakers in Hill's four years and symbolized a leap into the Ivy's top tier.

Also emerging in the 1997-98 season was a rivalry that would grow to be among the Ivy's best--the battle between Hill and the felicitously-named Quaker point guard, Michael Jordan. Named Rookie of the Year one year after Hill, Jordan posed perhaps the biggest personal match-up challenge of the Ancient Eight.

"The Jordan thing--two years ago, when I was a sophomore and he was a freshman, the Penn newspaper called me up, and they were trying to get this whole Jordan-Hill thing started up," Hill says. "But I didn't take the bait. I didn't give them too much to write about."

Historically, Hill has let the on-court squabbles provide the fodder for copy. Last year at the Palestra in Philadelphia, Hill held Jordan without a field goal for the first time in his collegiate career. And last Friday at Lavietes, Jordan, marked man-to-man by Hill most of the evening, committed nine turnovers.

"Hill's an outstanding basketball player," said Penn Coach Fran Dunphy after Friday night's 81-76 Quaker win. "It was also outstanding to see him foul out [for the first time since his freshman year]. But it's been a real privilege to watch him play these four years."

Hill has matured in ways that exceed simply not fouling out anymore. He has gone from a flashy rookie to an even flashier veteran, always the first to draw raves from coaches around the nation.

And Hill consistently occupies top priority on scouting reports, as bewildered staffs no doubt look at film of his slashing drives through the lane or his unconscious perimeter feeds and wonder how to contain him.

"It's a sign of respect," Hill says. "I'd rather have it that way than not be on the scouting report. It's a challenge week in and week out, but it only makes you play harder. When you're the hunted, it keeps you on your toes."

A Second Team All-Ivy selection for the last two seasons and a First Team favorite in this one, Hill more often seems like the hunter. But now that professional clubs in the U.S. and Europe have begun to send out feelers, Hill has to feel like the focus again.

"I'm getting some bites to play professionally, so I think I'm going to explore those options," Hill says.

Those options include a July camp in Italy, attended by scouts from several teams in Italy's First Division, as well as a potential invite to one of the three major NBA pre-draft camps in Portsmouth, Va.

"I'm being considered for the Portsmouth camp," Hill says. "They only pick 64 players, so the chances are slim, but it's nice to know that my name is floating around out there and that people at the next level have recognized my accomplishments."

Outside of professional ball, Hill has a pretty attractive Plan B: he's spent the last two summers in New York working on Wall Street for Goldman, Sachs.

"It's a fairly nice situation to be in," Hill says. "The guys at the firm are supportive of me wanting to play somewhere after college, but they know that long-term, I've probably got to go to work some time."

While in New York, Hill worked out periodically with the NYU and Columbia basketball teams and even sampled some of the Naked City's seamier sights.

"I went to the Tunnel [a club] one night," Hill says. "And my mouth was hanging open, my eyes were about 10 feet wide. I couldn't believe some of the sights in there."

Hill's seen a little bit of everything, from wins over the likes of Penn, Boston College, Santa Clara and Princeton to the long-term achievement of leading Harvard to the best four-year record in program history.

But for all that he's experienced, Hill has never seen the bright lights of March Madness, something that, but for a simple twist of fate, might have been his.

Any regrets?

"Every once in a while, you might say 'I wish I had gone to a better basketball school,'" Hill says. "But in the end, I've got no reservations. I couldn't have had a better four years."

Hill even had a chance to look into the other side of the mirror last December in San Francisco. While training for the Cable Car Classic at the Golden State Warriors' practice facility, Hill bumped into North Carolina's Ed Cota, whom he trails by less than one assist per game on the Division I leader board.

"North Carolina was practicing right after us," Hill says. "And I was kind of like, 'Man I want to jump into that practice and see what it's like.'"

Chances are, Hill could have held his own. But that just would have meant the rich getting richer. Harvard basketball is an infinitely better place for having had Tim Hill in it.