The "D.C." Story: Finally, it's Dan's Team

Several games into the 1997-98 season, Harvard men's basketball coach Frank Sullivan made a good decision. A very good decision.

A few minutes before game time, against Holy Cross, Sullivan informed freshman forward Dan Clemente that he was going to start.

Three years and many accolades later, Clemente is the captain and undisputed leader of a tight Crimson squad that has the potential to go further in the Ivy League than any Harvard team before.

"This is definitely the closest team I've ever been on," Clemente said. "Everybody hangs out off the court; everybody's really close."

"D.C.," as affectionate Harvard fans call him, is the glue that keeps the team together both on and off the court. A tough inside and outside scoring threat--he averaged 18.6 points per game last season shooting from all distances--the 6'7 Clemente is the best thing this Harvard team has going for it.

Part of the Clemente mystique is that there is none. He has been described by friends and teammates as open, honest and accessible. Much like last year's captain, Damian Long '00, was the heart and soul of the Crimson, Clemente is the mind and body of this year's squad.

The Dan Clemente story is a good one to tell. Clemente is not a "shoulda, coulda" type of guy. Over his three years at Harvard, he has been injured numerous times yet plays through the injuries with a seeming nonchalance that has earned him all-Ivy honors many times over.

Clemente grew up and attended high school in Albany, N.Y., where he started all four years for his varsity basketball team. A Larry Bird fan, Clemente said his room at home is filled with all types of Bird memorabilia, from jerseys to posters. After a short stint at St. Thomas More, a prep school in Oakdale, Conn., Clemente came to Cambridge. But the decision wasn't as automatic as some might think.

"[Harvard] always had their eye on me, I think." Clemente said. "They were recruiting me, but I never really took it seriously. I was going to go to St. Louis, and you know I was just gonna sign my scholarship and go."

However, a higher authority intervened.

"My dad was really pushing Harvard, and I think I made a decision beyond my years," Clemente said. "I think I definitely made the right decision."

Clemente arrived on the Harvard campus in the fall of 1997, and while he didn't get to start immediately, he knew he would eventually. In fact, the prep school league in which he had played was known for having Division I caliber players, so Clemente wasn't worried about his game.

His freshman year, the team went 6-8 in the Ivy League, but Clemente did better, picking up the Rookie of the Year award. The 1997-98 season also marked the first Clemente injury, a sprained ankle that kept him from four games.

"I was on that team with Tim Hill '99 and Mike Scott '98, and they were really supportive of me," Clemente said. "I think they saw I could play a little bit, and they told me to take my shots when I was open. They gave me some confidence."

During the summer before sophomore season, Clemente had sprained his ankle repeatedly. He went to Florida for two weeks before school started to rest and get ready.

Once preseason workouts started, unfortunately, the injury kept nagging Clemente, and it bothered him off the court too. It was that injury that started Clemente's love affair with the medical profession.

"I went and saw a bunch of doctors, and basically they told me I needed surgery, and wouldn't be able to play the season," Clemente said. "It was kind of a bummer. I found a doctor in New York City who told me if I could play through it, I just might be able to do it."

So Clemente did it. He went to the trainers and they worked his ankle with "joint mobilization." Structurally, they fixed it to the point where Clemente could deal with it and play basketball.

Sophomore year, Clemente believed, was the year it could all happen. He played effectively through injury, and Hill was a senior that led a good team. However, Harvard stumbled through another 13-13 season, going 7-7 in the Ivy League.

"I thought we were a little better than we played," Clemente said. "It just didn't come together, the guys didn't come together as a team. You know, everyone wanted to win, everyone worked real hard, but they didn't all know their role on the team, maybe something like that. We just couldn't put it together for a whole season."

Last year was another bittersweet season for Clemente. Coach Sullivan essentially called for a do-over, bringing in four freshmen looking to shake things up. Finally, it was supposed to be Clemente's team, where he led the offensive charge with his post-up play and spectacular long-range shooting.

Harvard started out the season playing well and adjusting to the new lineups, which included Long and freshman point guard Elliott Prasse-Freeman. The Crimson won its first three games and lost a few more until fate once again nailed Dan Clemente in the face.

"I was watching TV one day and I had my contacts in, and I was looking at the TV and thinking, 'Gee, it's blurry,'" Clemente said. "So I took my contacts out, thinking something was wrong with them. I put my glasses on, and it did the same thing. It wasn't my contacts."

But Clemente never thought anything of this incident, and barely mentioned it to his parents or friends. One day during the season, his father came down for a game and took Clemente to a doctor in the Square. That physician couldn't see anything wrong and referred him to another doctor the next day. Clemente missed the appointment because he had practice.

He missed the appointment for a week, and in the intervening time played both Navy and B.U., two losses.

"My appointment was after the B.U. game, and I went there and it was kind of weird," Clemente said. "I was in Boston and they kept sending me from doctor to doctor. I was there for about two hours, and I knew something was a little off when the guy came in and told me I needed to have surgery that night, if I didn't get it fixed I might go blind."

Clemente had a detached retina. Along with "blind" comes "out for the season" or "never play again." The kind of things a college athlete, or anyone for that matter, never wants to hear.

Clemente had the surgery, and his thoughts immediately turned to basketball. The doctors' prognostications had him out at least four months for recovery--a full season-- and he looked into getting a medical redshirt, which would give him another year of NCAA eligibility.

In a cruel twist, it turned out that the game against B.U. had put him over the limit. He had played one too many games, and so was in position to lose an entire basketball season.

Clemente refused to give up. "I kept going back to the doctor every three weeks once I got back to school [following winter break]," Clemente said. "He kept saying, 'OK you can ride the bike now,' or 'OK you can run now,' until one time in February he said, 'I can't say it's going to be better in two months than it is right now.'"

His eye looked great, and he was cleared to play. After informing a surprised Sullivan with his decision, he scored 24 points against Cornell and started the final nine games of the year.

Clemente's return lifted a team depending on then-freshman Onnie Mayshak and then-junior Tim Coleman for inside play, and he worked hard to get back in sync with the new guys. Harvard finished the year having exceeded expectations in the Ivy League, including a near-win over Penn and two straight wins at Cornell and Columbia to close out the season at 12-15 (7-7 Ivy).

"We showed some signs last season that we can be very good," Clemente said. "Coach had said he believed we could play better the next season, and everybody believed it and worked hard this summer."

After three years of hardship and drama, Clemente looks to a calmer, albeit more successful, final season at Harvard. While he won't comment on the starting lineups other than himself, Prasse-Freeman and guard Drew Gellert, he believes this deep, shorter team will be extremely effective against league teams.

"I think the five we put out there are going to be much different than any five we play, and we can use that to our advantage," he said.

Clemente also recognizes the importance of rebounding. At 6'7, Clemente is one of the tallest and strongest players on the team. He claims that he could rebound in prep school and that Harvard somehow dulled his skills, but that he will pick up seven to eight rebounds a game this season.

Of course, the humble Clemente refuses to think too far into the future. He refuses to think beyond the first game of the year. He refuses to hear the cries of a possible NCAA tournament bid. He knows that, despite a close-knit team that works well together and can score points, there are great obstacles in their way.

"Penn's always going to be top of the league," Clemente said. "Penn is a basketball school, they have basketball players that go there, the crowd is basketball fans. They're always going to be good because they have this attitude, you know, they're not Ivy League, they're better than any Ivy team. They come in with that attitude to every game and that's why they win. The guys on their bench could start on any Ivy League team."

However, the two killer "P's" are a bit down this season, and Clemente is impressed by the individual play and maturity of all of his teammates. As opposed to the 1998-99 squad, everyone knows their role, especially the sophomores who comprise the core of the team.

Clemente also finds that, because of the nature of last season, even the young guys are experienced veterans, which ought to be a large advantage for Harvard.

"When I was elected captain last year, I thought, 'Jeez, this is going to be the easiest job in the world,'" Clemente said with a chuckle. "Everyone in here could be captain. It's more of a group thing-- everybody respects Drew, and what he brings. He leads the defensive end, me on the offensive end, Elliott at the point. Everyone has a role, and that's why I think this team fits so well."

Clemente will soon be a 1,000-point scorer and Harvard's leading three-point shooter. Those records will have to find space on the trophy case next to the Ivy Rookie of the Year, the Player of the Weeks and last season's First Team All-Ivy selection.

But in a way, Clemente has already passed the hardest test. He's still in one piece.