Tom Mannix and Mark Harris

With a minute left in the first overtime period of last month's Harvard-Cornell basketball game, with the score tied at 69-all, the Crimson gained possession of the ball and went into a weave, looking for the last shot.

The ball spun around the perimeter, as the Crimson looked to get a pass inside for the winning layup. Dixon to Mannix, back to Dixon, over to Joe Carrabino on the left baseline, the seconds ticked past the half-minute mark and toward another overtime stanza.

But with less than five seconds left and the Crimson still unable to get the ball into the lane, co-captain Tom Mannix received a pass 20 feet out on the right side. The senior guard hesitated for a split second, then let loose with a characteristically flawless jumper, which split the twines for a 71-69 Crimson win.

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In the first half of that same game, the Big Red's 6-ft., 9-in monster from the Motor City--Alex Reynolds--was scoring out of his mind. With a mediocre 11-points-per-game average through the end of January, Reynolds had dumped 13 points over and around freshman forward Carrabino by the time the buzzer had sounded at the end of the first 20 minutes.

In an effort to stop the Cornell forward, Crimson Coach Frank McLaughlin went to Mark Harris--the other half of the hoopsters' dual captainship. The tactic worked. With steady, determined defensive play, Harris held Reynolds to a single second half bucket, helping the Crimson scramble back from a seven-point deficit for the win.

The 6-ft., 5-in. senior forward has done the same thing all year. The squad's toughest defensive player, Harris has consistently drawn the opposition's most potent offensive player and has generally held his man to below average.

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Mark Harris and Tom Mannix are different. They are different types of players, and they are different types of people. Yet as co-captains of the 1980-81 Crimson basketball squad, their combined talents and personalities have led the hoopsters on their most successful campaign in decades.

Currently 14-7 for the season, with a 7-2 Ivy League mark, the Crimson heads into the biggest two games of the year this weekend, when Penn and Princeton visit the IAB for the last time (the hoopsterr hope to move into a newly renovated Briggs Cage this season).

A Harvard sweep will create an un-precendented three-way tie for the top spot in the Ivy standings, with three games remaining for the Crimson, and two each for Penn and Princeton.

Neither Mannix nor Harris has ever been on a team which has beaten Penn or Princeton; Princeton has come out on top in each of the last 20 hoop meetings between the two schools, and when Harvard last beat Penn in February 1978 both captains were playing under now defunct freshman eligibility rules.

Both Mannix and Harris want to win, and both obviously relish the chance to play the Tigers and Quakers on the home hardcourt. "It seemed that every other year something has gone wrong," Mannix said recently. "It's a great year if you have something to play for this late in the season." "Every other year," Harris added, "we were just playing it out."

Freshman forward Ken Plutnicki--who has spent most of his time this year in thoughtful contemplation from the bench--noted the intensity building up in the pair as they approach the big weekend: "They really want it, they really want to win, and it rubs off on everybody."

Plutnicki's comment reveals at least part of the value that Mannix and Harris's leadership holds for the team. It is in the first place a leadership of example. The captains themselves, the other players on the team, and the coaches all concur that Mannix and Harris act as role models, particularly for the freshmen.

"They set an example," McLaughlin said, adding, "If Tommy and Mark work hard in practice, then everyone says, hey, that's the thing to do." Monroe Trout, who has stepped into the Crimson's sixth-man role, said, "They both work incredibly hard. I think that's a good example for the younger kids; they really bust it in practice."

Perhaps the most striking aspect of this year's squad is the total dedication which each member holds for the concept of the team, an attitude which may be traced directly to Harris and Mannix. Trout sums up these feelings: "Mark's biggest strength is his defense and his total commitment to the team. He's one guy who's always out there for the team."

Donald Fleming--an all-Ivy forward and probably the squad's premier individual performer--puts it this way: "I like to think that we're really close to each other on the basketball court and off the court. We'd do anything for each other. In that way, this team has come a long way since I've been here."

"We're a team," said Plutnicki. "We're a finely tuned unit, a finely oiled machine." Credit that to the quiet leadership of Tom Mannix and Mark Harris.