Next Stop, Europe: The Dan Clemente Show Moves On

Not everybody gets to accomplish even one remarkable feat in their college basketball careers, but last week Harvard senior Dan Clemente won even more individual awards to put in his already well-stocked trophy case.

He earned a first-team spot on the National Association of Basketball Coaches District I team and was named College Hoops Insider's co-Ivy Player of the Year.

Earlier this year, Basketball News selected Clemente as a pre-season Ivy All-Star.

He was First Team All-Ivy last season as well, despite missing 11 games with a detached retina. And in the previous year, he garnered Honorable Mention from the league with a hobbled ankle.

All that was on top of the accolades he garnered his freshman year, when he burst on to the scene as the Ivy League's Rookie of the Year after a celebrated high school career.

This past weekend, Clemente finished his career fourth in all-time scoring at Harvard along with the record for most three-pointers. When he graduates in the spring, he'll be playing professional ball somewhere overseas.

But Daniel K. Clemente, this season's star forward and captain for the Harvard Men's basketball team, is neither happy nor satisfied.

"The one thing I wanted to do when I came here was win the Ivy League championship, so I can't say it's true I've accomplished what I wanted to," Clemente says. "That's something that's incredibly disappointing to me and I haven't come to terms with it yet."

Everyone was disappointed with the five-game losing streak that hit the Crimson in the heat of the Ivy League race, but perhaps no one was hurt more than Clemente.

In his four years at Harvard, he has improved immensely, and to a large extent so has the team in general.

So when someone points out the Crimson's stagnated Ivy record over the last four years--6-8, 7-7, 7-7, 7-7-- it's hard for Clemente to keep his usually cool composure.

"I've had a couple days to get some perspective, but I can't really come up with any reason," Clemente says. "Luck and timing maybe? It's not because we're not working enough."

No one would ever accuse Clemente of not working enough at basketball. Admittedly, the game is his first love. In fact, there may be no more bigger basketball junkie in Boston than Clemente now that Rick Pitino's gone.

He started his ascent as one of the best scorers in Harvard history by starting all four years for Christian Brothers Academy in Albany, N.Y., his hometown. He prepped a year at St. Thomas More in Connecticut before entering Harvard in 1997.

His first three years on the Crimson were marked by consistent offensive prowess but nagging injuries. In his freshman season, he missed four games with an ankle sprain. That injury kept recurring during the summer before the 1998-99 season, but structural work kept the ankle intact and Clemente had a full and effective season.

That year was disappointing, however, because despite fielding a team full of seniors, the Crimson ended up with a 13-13 record, much lower than anybody--including Clemente--had believed possible.

Last season Clemente dealt with more serious adversity. The only star on a team in the midst of a rebuilding year, Clemente suffered some eye irritation several games into the season and went to a doctor after a loss against BU.

"My appointment was after the game, and I went there and it was kind of weird," Clemente said earlier this year. "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, and that if I didn't get it fixed I might go blind."

The diagnosis was a detached retina, and it could have ended his career.

Miraculously, just two months later, Clemente was cleared to play by his doctor, who told him the eye was now fine. Clemente immediately returned to the starting lineup (sporting goggles), scored 24 points in his first game back and led a developing Crimson team to a surprising 7-7 Ivy record, good for third place.

"We always felt safe knowing Dan was on the court," sophomore guard Elliott Prasse-Freeman says, "so when he was gone, we were all definitely hurting."

Fast forward to this past season. Clemente entered the year healthy (and would remain that way), the sophomores had had plenty of seasoning from the previous season and guard Pat Harvey--who had taken the previous year off--was back in the lineup.

If there was going to be an Ivy championship for Harvard, it was going to be this season. Perennial league powers Penn and Princeton had all suffered some significant personnel losses. The race appeared wide-open.

But instead, a highly promising start and an easy non-conference run to open the season, quickly turned disastrous. One night after the Crimson defeated Penn--the defending Ivy champs--at Lavietes Pavilion, 77-62, a last-second desperation shot by Princeton's Kyle Wente gave the Tigers a one-point win.

The Crimson then dropped two on the road at Yale and Brown, then two more at Penn and Princeton. While the rest of the league was experiencing parity, the Crimson lost five Ivy contests in a row, something they hadn't done in six years. They were out of the race and the best chance had passed them by.

"I don't know if we underachieved," Clemente says. "We could have done better, and we all know that. So in a way, I suppose, yes we underachieved. Ever since that shot against Princeton--it stung, and we went on a downhill slide. We never really recovered from that."

Clemente himself had a successful season overall, finishing with 18.7 points and 6.8 rebounds per game, both team highs.

His ultimate low, though, may have come against Yale at home when the Elis pulled off a 85-83 overtime victory. Scoring and rebounding well below his average, Clemente fouled out of the game having made little impact.

"There were times when I would come into the locker room and go, 'Damn, we could use Tim tonight'," Clemente says, referring to 6'10 center Tim Coleman, who missed the 2000-01 season due to academic reasons. "I shouldn't have thought that way but I definitely thought about it."

A month later, he reached a zenith of sorts.

Facing Penn at Lavietes Pavilion in a battle for first place, Clemente scored 29 points and hit six shots in a row during a huge run that gave the Crimson the lead for good in the first half. The next night, he hit the potential game-winning shot against Princeton before Wente's miraculous buzzer-beater.

"I think that's the best he's ever played," Prasse-Freeman says.

Clemente was able to finish his career on a high note, as Harvard returned home last weekend and swept Cornell and Columbia to finish at 7-7 in the Ivy League. He scored 47 points in the two games, moving him into fourth place on the all-time scoring list.

With his college basketball career now over, Clemente has time to look back and think over the good and not-so-good moments from his four years with the Harvard program.

He admits one of the things that bothers him is that, in four years, Harvard never won at Penn or Princeton, despite beating them in Cambridge. It has been ten years since the Crimson won on that road trip.

"[Penn and Princeton] just have a mentality about themselves," Clemente says. "When we go down there, they have the atmosphere, the most people coming to see them play. They have the players, and they're really good. It might just be as simple as home-court advantage."

It will be probably harder to win down there now that Clemente is gone, but he shows no sign of being worried about a team that was heavy with sophomores this year.

"I think I'm going to see a lot of great things," he says. "You know it's funny to think they're just sophomores. I feel as if they've been with me the whole time."

Clemente is also certain that this current crop of Crimson players can develop and win. In fact, he thinks they almost have to develop the current cagers to win.

"When you're at Harvard, it's hard to recruit. It's hard to recruit the big guy especially," says Clemente, who was also heavily recruited by St. Louis University. "Sometimes you just miss. A while back I was talking to an assistant coach about a big guy who's going to Ohio State right now [6'11 center Ken Johnson]. He's all-Big Ten, and he was this close to coming to Harvard."

Clemente's immediate future lies in basketball, and it would be hard to imagine it any other way.

In the spring, he works out at local trainer Mike Boyle's gym, and has spent summers playing in the Beantown Summer League over at Boston College. That league attracts players from U-Mass, B.C., and even a few Celtics.

"I haven't done much here besides basketball!" Clemente jokes. "I've devoted all my time and energy to basketball. To be honest I don't think I've done anything other than go to class and play basketball!"

Which is more than most college basketball players can say.

While Clemente will wait until after the NCAA tournament to talk to an agent, he's almost certain he'll end up playing overseas in a few months.

"Most likely I'll be in Europe somewhere--where I don't know," he says. "There are a lot of leagues coming into form in the U.S. I would like to stay here because my family is important to me. I want my dad to come and watch me play."

Plus, Clemente adds, he doesn't know any foreign languages.

"I have a lot of friends playing over there right now--in England, in Japan, etc. They love it," he says. "Actually some guys don't--they don't know the language, so they can't rent a movie or watch TV. They're just playing basketball and they're bored. A good place like Italy--there's a great experience."

Whether or not Clemente will enjoy success in a premier European league or ever play in the U.S. depends on factors other than his offensive prowess. At 6'6, he is better suited to play at shooting guard than the power forward spot he held down at Harvard.

"Coming to Harvard got me working on my inside game more," Clemente says. "And in my four years, my defense has just gotten so much better. I always joke with people that [Harvard] Coach [Frank] Sullivan is the best coach in the country because he actually got me to play some defense!"

For the Harvard basketball program, Clemente is more than one of its best shooters ever. His coaches and teammates constantly praise his leadership abilities and his consistency on and off the court. He's become popular with a humble attitude towards individual achievements and a strong emphasis on the team.

While he will always be disappointed about never leading his team to the top of the league, after four seasons he has no regrets about choosing Harvard. Despite its relative obscurity in the basketball world (in contrast to its constant exposure for everything else), Harvard seemed to fit Clemente nicely, perhaps better than some of the other, bigger programs that beckoned him in high school.

"I don't think I could have had the experience that I had here anywhere else in the country," he says. "People always ask me, 'Do you ever regret going to Harvard when you could have gone to St. Louis or somewhere else?' I always tell them, no way, not a chance. If I knew then what I know now, it wouldn't have even been a decision for me--I would have taken Harvard right away."

Harvard has been more than glad to accept.