Lehigh and Lafayette were the first two legs of the trip to Duke. "It's been bad since the Lehigh-Lafayette trip," McLaughlin said after Columbia downed Harvard a month later and his team fell to 6-5 in the league.
Little consolation lay in the fact that the Lions would go on to a second-place Ivy finish, because the slide had already begun. Emotion could do only so much, and it had helped to carry the Crimson past insignificant early-season opponents like Manhattan, Holy Cross, and even lowly Merrimack. The peak came too early to help when it really mattered.
Even the squad's other big weapon, its deadly free-throw shooting, faltered once opponents caught on to it and adjusted their strategies accordingly. Suddenly, Harvard was being outscored in the second half, and just as suddenly, Harvard was losing.
The five starters did yeoman's work, playing the whole 40 minutes more often than not. Arne Duncan, Pat Smith and Webster all set career highs in scoring over the course of the season. Senior Co-Captains Joe Carrabino and Bob Ferry turned in performances that would make them, respectively, first- and second-team All-Ivy selections.
After the second Columbia game, Ferry could only shake his head in disappointment and remark. "I don't know what happened--I don't know what to say."
And so it went. Exhausted, the starters finished almost every game, for even when McLaughlin went to his bench, he found freshman nerves and inexperience, not the skills he needed.
All but two of the freshmen played with the j.v. this year, working on fundamentals. A more enthusiastic bench would be hard to find. But finding replacements for Carrabino and Ferry--Harvard's first and third all-time leading scorers--will nonetheless be a long, difficult task.
The best player in a program's history, such as Carrabino, come-along just once in a lifetime. A recruit as highly heralded as Ferry is hard to find even at a traditional basketball power which Harvard certain is not.
"I was disappointed for them," Webster said after the pair finished their careers in defeat. "They had pretty brilliant careers."
The burden falls now on the recruits who came after Ferry, who have spent the past two or three years in the co-captains' long shadows steadily improving.
Watching the imaginary activity in empty Briggs, the players separate into to distinct figures. Carrabino takes a pass in the corner, looks around, and releases a perfect 22-ft rainbow. Ferry drives to the lane, fakes left, and goes in for the easy layu.
Just as clear, though, is the memory of Duncan, disappearing into traffic along the baseline and reappearing underneath the basket, drawing the foul as he shoots.
Playing defense, Smith takes a charge, then brings the ball up, sails to the top of the key, pulls up, and hits the jumper.
Webster, the best athlete of the five, runs with anyone else's fleet guards and eludes them. He barks out a play, passes and, a moment later, appears out of nowhere to can an unchallenged jump shot.
Less distinct, and less familiar, is the squadron of players who mostly watched this year. The heaviest burden is on them, and on McLaughlin, who says he will need help from the Harvard administration to bring the program up to its potential.
"You can't get a better group of kids to represent a university," he said Saturday, "but you can't expect miracles either."