Ra-Hooligan: College Basketball Baby!

For one second, the possibility existed that the Penn-Princeton hegemony in Ivy League men's basketball would be cracked.

For one second, the Harvard Crimson was on the verge of sweeping the dominant duo in one weekend, a feat that had not been achieved by any other Ivy team in 136 straight attempts over twelve years.

For one second, the 2000-plus Harvard fans that packed Lavietes Pavilion on Saturday were waiting to explode, to cheer for their Crimson and its leader, captain Dan Clemente, who had vanquished Penn with 29 points the night before and who had hit what appeared to be the game-winning shot over Princeton just seconds earlier.

And for one second, with the score at 67-66, Ivy League fans in seven states held their collective breath as they waited to see whether or not Harvard could disrupt the Ivy basketball oligarchy that has rested on the 45-mile stretch of I-95 between Princeton, N.J. and Philadelphia for the last half-century.

In that one second, the most incredible game of the 2000-01 Ivy season came down to Princeton forward Kyle Wente's desperate 25-foot, off-balance, one-handed shot. Wente had been stuck with the ball on the perimeter, covered by Crimson guards Pat Harvey and Drew Gellert, and had no other option than to heave up a shot from his hip.

The buzzer rang, and a split-second later the unmistakable sound of swish signified that Wente's Hail

Mary had indeed gone in. Wente's teammates mobbed him as a stunned and dejected Harvard crowd could do nothing but turn to the exits, crushed by the 69-67 loss.

Harvard coach Frank Sullivan later called Wente's shot "a dramatic ending to a tremendous basketball game." Both teams had shot over 50 percent from the field, made minimal turnovers and played excellent defense. Harvard was playing its best basketball in two years, while the Tigers had just suffered a traumatic one-point loss to Dartmouth the previous night. Both squads left their hearts out on the court, but only one got theirs back.

Far removed from the minds of the Harvard coaches and players was the Crimson's 77-62 blowout of defending Ivy champ Penn.

In that game, Clemente and the Harvard offense came out with such fire and resolve that the Quakers left Cambridge stunned.

In the wake of the weekend's amazing action, players and coaches talked less about the particulars of zone defense and backdoor cuts and instead spoke in general terms of what it meant to live through the most interesting weekend in the Ivy League in quite some time.

For example, Penn head coach Fran Dunphy, whose Quakers had lost for the first time in 25 conference contests, said that the loss to the Crimson "is what life is about. You pick yourself up and if you can handle adversity you've got a chance to handle life; but if you can't then there's a whole lot [of] bigger things in this world you're going to be struggling with."

The next night Penn went out and spanked Dartmouth 75-62.

For Clemente, Friday's win was just a hyperextension of his normal approach to the game.

"I play this game because I love it, and I have fun playing it. So that's what I did tonight, I went out and had a lot of fun."

In a way, Friday's win over Penn is redemption for Clemente. Last season, Harvard also had a chance to give the Quakers their first Ivy loss. Down one point, Clemente missed a turnaround three-pointer that clanked off the rim as time expired.

"I had memories about that [shot] all summer. People bring it up and it kills me," Clemente said.

Unfortunately for the Crimson the lasting memory of this weekend will be Wente's miracle three. Unless Harvard can run the table and somehow win the Ivy League, the story of the weekend will be that, once again, fate interceded on behalf of Princeton.

But no matter how strong your belief that Princeton "stole" a victory or that the Tigers didn't earn a win, you can't help but feeling anything but happy for Wente.

An ankle injury and a subsequent surgery limited Wente to 18 total minutes in his freshman year. Starting this season on the bench, Princeton coach John Thompson inserted him in the lineup when the Tigers' leading scorer, Mike Bechtold (10.4 ppg), went down two weeks ago with a foot injury. Since then, Wente has provided the offensive spark needed to guide Princeton to a 5-1 Ivy

start.

On Saturday, Wente had the biggest game of his life, single-handedly keeping his team in the game. He had 22 points to lead all scorers, and picked up the slack left by players who had sub-par games, like guards Ahmed El-Nokali and C.J. Chapman.

Harvard still has to play both teams again, and the main question is how the wild weekend affects the Ivy landscape. The short answer is that it gave the league a glimpse of what parity is like. Every team except Columbia had a victory this weekend, but in the end Penn and Princeton emerged embattled at the top.

"The makeup of our team is that we can beat anyone in this league and we can lose to anyone in this league," Princeton coach Thompson said on Saturday. The same statement is applicable to the Crimson, who has so far split every Friday-Saturday Ivy weekend. It has defeated Penn, but lost to Columbia and Yale.

Even though the NCAA tournament may have been put out of reach thanks to Wente, Harvard still has an opportunity to make its mark as "the third contender" in the conference. The hardest part of its schedule is still to come, as four of the Crimson's last six

games are on the road, including a trip down to Philly and New Jersey in two weeks.

If the Crimson can defeat one of the "killer P's" on the road and finish second or third in the Ivies, it will cement its place as a legitimate contender year-in, year-out. If this weekend has proved anything, it is that Harvard can run with the big boys, and that the sophomore core of the team is intact and experienced.

Even more remarkably, Harvard has yet to lose two games in a row. While that may not seem like an incredibly big deal, it is something that the coaching staff and team prides itself on.

"From the outset, I think our guys were determined not to lose two in a row. I think that's a streak they're starting to value more and more as this whole thing goes on," Sullivan said after the Penn win. (Harvard had lost its last game to Columbia)

Sophomore guard Elliott Prasse-Freeman, who also had a big game against Penn, confirmed Sullivan's thoughts.

"Not losing two in a row is bigger than you think," Prasse-Freeman said, "because last year we let one loss become two losses become three losses and by the time we looked around we were down. There's two ways you can use a loss-- one way is to use it beneficially."

That kind of determination has been evident in the Crimson's efforts so far this season, and it was on grand display against Princeton. Harvard could have done nothing, not a single thing, differently on that last defensive stand. Even more disheartening than losing to Princeton is the knowledge that Harvard cannot control its own destiny-- any post-season appearance would necessitate multiple losses from Penn or Princeton loss.

For the 4000 of you who made it out to Lavietes this weekend, you witnessed perhaps the best basketball college has to offer. Two days, three teams, an upset, a last-second buzzer-beater--it was all there. In the Ivy League, there are no "bubble" teams and hardly anyone is going to the NBA. Every game counts, and every second counts.

Especially the last second.