The Ra-Hooligan:

It may have been Senior Night, but the final men's basketball game of the 2000-01 season instead provided a glimpse of the future of the Harvard program.

Senior captain Dan Clemente, one of the most prolific offensive scorers in Harvard's history, scored 30 points Friday night against Columbia but took a backseat against Cornell and finished with a solid 17 points and 10 rebounds.

Meanwhile, his younger teammates were having career nights in the 93-84 win over the Big Red. Sophomore guard Pat Harvey, breaking out of a horrific slump over the past few weeks, embarrassed his defenders by going 6-of-6 from three-point land and picking up a career-best 26 points.

And big man Brian Sigafoos, or "FOOS!" for short, completed his surprising run from junior varsity to the starting lineup by scoring a career-high 17 points.

But this weekend was not really about the future. Rather, the Crimson's two final games at home were attempts to salvage a season gone awry, a season that had started with so much promise but instead fell flat on its face in two short weeks.

Having played itself right out of Ivy League championship contention, Harvard hosted Columbia and Cornell hoping to send off Clemente and fellow senior Bryan Parker with a few more good memories.

"I think there's been tremendous pressure on the guys," Harvard Coach Frank Sullivan said. "The losing streak [five games coming into the weekend]... is the first real adversity the team has had all year long. Dan, as the most significant player, was putting additional pressure on himself to get us through the woods."

Clemente returned to the friendly confines of Lavietes Pavilion and it was as if he had never left after the Penn-Princeton home weekend, as if the last four games had never happened.

Against Columbia, Clemente was the Crimson, scoring 30 of the team's 66 points to avenge an earlier loss in New York. It was a masterful performance and a huge boost to Harvard's collective ego. More importantly, the 30 points put Clemente at No. 4 on Harvard's all-time scoring list.

"He's certainly delivered in terms of the numbers, and I think without all the injuries he would have been 1,2,3 on the all-time scoring list," Sullivan said.

On Saturday, in front of an appreciative crowd, Parker and Clemente received standing ovations and a bouquet of flowers for their service. As the game wore on and it became apparent Harvard was going to win easily, the crowd chanted for more shots from Clemente, for more points.

Despite his best effort, unfortunately, Clemente could not deliver on his final shot. He missed his final three-point attempt--a shot he revolutionized at Harvard (and for which he owns the career record), and Sullivan decided, with 37.1 seconds left, that it was time for Clemente's college career to end.

After it was all over, Clemente made an interesting comment when asked about the individual records and goals he had accomplished in the face of his many injuries over the last four years.

"Individual goals? Nobody really remembers those," he said. "Everybody remembers the record. That's what's important."

So if in 20 years an intrepid reporter from this newspaper looks back in the books, what will she gather about the 2000-01 season? Will she know about the potential it held?

Because if this reporter looks at the record, this season will be marked by the relative sameness of it. Harvard went 14-12 overall, and 7-7 in the Ivies. This is exactly the same Ivy record as the past two seasons and roughly the same overall record. For the fifth year in a row, Harvard closed out the season with two straight wins.

She will see a team that loved playing at home and has been historically inconsistent on the road. In fact, in the ten years under Coach Sullivan, the Crimson has never won a game at Penn or Princeton, which are necessary wins for any team hoping to win the league.

Finally, that reporter will find a team that could never quite find its groove after a home loss to Princeton and ended up an underachiever in a year of Ivy League parity.

"Were they stung by the Princeton loss? Yeah they were stung big-time," Sullivan said. "But I thought they regrouped in practice during the week. I don't think I'll ever really have an answer to that. I don't know if they have an answer to that."

Perhaps the only player who can walk away with something truly positive from this season is Clemente, once he gets over the wins and losses. He stayed injury-free the entire season and did a superb job as captain. He established himself by scoring 18.8 points per game, and while his rebounding average (6.8 rpg) is lower than he'd like, Clemente has put himself in the running for Ivy League player of the year.

His love of the game and his commitment to it means that Clemente will undoubtedly be playing basketball overseas after graduation, probably in Europe. Of course, he can't talk to an agent until the season officially ends. But following the Cornell game, he already sounded nostalgic when asked about his storied career.

"I can't believe it's over--how about that? Tomorrow's not just another day off," he said.

So while Clemente and fellow senior Parker finish up their academic careers and move on, Sullivan and the rest of the Crimson squad will have to scramble to recruit and develop players to fill the rather large shoes of a star player.

"Everybody understands acutely the void left by Dan in the lineup," Sullivan said. "I don't know if we'll ever have a 4-man who can bang out threes like he does. He's been an unusual guy."

Presumably Sullivan meant "unusual" in a positive way.

And let me just say, Dan, from the eye injuries to the Penn victory to the five-game skids, it has been an unusual ride. Thank you.