Clemente comes back as offensive eyes for Crimson

Dan Clemente returned from surgery to score 48 points in two games. The look on Cornell men's basketball coach Scott Thompson's face must have been priceless last Friday night, when off of Harvard's bench came a whirling dervish of energy and raw scoring power -- Crimson junior Dan Clemente. True, the 24 points and six rebounds tallied by Clemente in the Crimson's 67-57 win over Cornell was impressive in its own right. But throw in the fact that this was the junior's first game back after sitting out two months while recuperating from surgery to repair a detached right retina, and Clemente's on-court exploits become all the more amazing. "I was totally off the court -- the doctors wouldn't even let me play golf," Clemente said of his layoff, noting that prior to last Tuesday, he hadn't shot a basketball since December 7. "I was pretty inactive until two weeks prior to [Cornell], when they cleared me to start working out. And I was only riding the bike and doing the stairmaster and running a little bit. "My right eye obviously was pretty blurry. And that's one of the reasons why I didn't really want to shoot because it was annoying, more than anything else." But Clemente, the Ivy Rookie of the Year two seasons ago, showed no signs of rust from his 11-game layoff, as he followed up his first 24-point effort by netting two dozen more the following night against Columbia. And with this impressive and entirely unexpected showing last weekend, Clemente became the most improbable Ivy Player of the Week honoree this winter. Crimson coach Frank Sullivan, who came straight out and said "it really now is a rebuilding year" after Clemente underwent surgery in December, had nothing but praise for his star forward's play. "[Clemente] is just such an amazing athlete," Sullivan told The Harvard Crimson after his squad defeated Cornell. High praise, considering Sullivan's initial reaction -- "I thought he was joking" -- to Clemente showing up at practice claiming doctors had cleared him to play. Clemente, for his part, had the same reaction, "It took me by surprise; and my parents didn't believe it; and my coaches couldn't believe it." But the Albany, N.Y., native is no stranger to battling through injuries, so it comes as no surprise that he returned to Harvard's lineup a month sooner than doctors initially expected. Hampered by a left ankle injury much of last season, Clemente averaged 14.7 points and 4.6 rebounds per game en route to earning honorable mention All-Ivy status. One of Clemente's strongest showings of the '98-99 campaign came at the expense of Penn, when he dropped 22 on the visiting Quakers in Harvard's Briggs Cage last February -- a display that Penn's players will not soon forget. "He's a major concern -- I watched him last year up at Harvard, and he killed us. He's an offensive threat," Penn forward Frank Brown said. "I would say it takes a couple of games to get back into the flow of things, but surprisingly he came back and was right on point with his shooting." But although Clemente can bomb with the best of them, he is actually the power forward in Harvard's three-guard offense and will spend a goodly portion of his night inside the paint. "He shoots the ball from the perimeter, and he creates some matchup problems because he's a big strong kid," Langel said. "At the same time, he's played a lot of games, so he brings some experience to the table." As the de facto team leader and one of two starters returning to a squad that starts two freshmen, Clemente's return threatens to breathe new life into a Crimson squad (8-11, 3-3 Ivy League) left for dead even a few weeks ago. "A lot of people forget how young we are, with only Damian Long and myself [as upperclassmen]," Clemente said. "It was great experience for those young guys, but now that I'm back, I think everyone is kind of like, 'Alright, let's go and see if we can make some noise here.'" The junior sociology major has already made some noise of his own in just two contests back, as evidenced by a 10-for-17 showing from behind the arc against Cornell and Columbia. But for some around the league, Clemente's triumphant return was not entirely unexpected. "If anybody was going to be less bothered than by time off, it would be a guy like Dan Clemente," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "He's one of those kids that his game is not based on athleticism and timing -- it's more on just knowing how to play. And he is very much a knowledgeable guy in terms of where to be and how he can get his shots." Dunphy himself has first-hand knowledge in the handling of players with eye injuries and, because of this, he was in contact with Sullivan soon after Clemente was diagnosed in December. Last season, Quakers guard Lamar Plummer -- who has left the team and the University for personal reasons this semester -- underwent the same eye surgery that Clemente did, except Plummer's was on both retinas, not just one. True, like the Hair Club for Men preaches, "individual results may vary," but it is still impressive to see Clemente draining 59 percent of his treys just days after being cleared while Plummer connected on only 30 percent of his bombs a year ago. "He's a guy who can score points -- he could wake up in the middle of the night and make a shot," Dunphy said. "Dan was much more a part of their scoring mentality than Lamar was for us, so it was a different hole in their lineup than it was for us. "I think Clemente is probably Harvard's heart and soul." The return of the 6'7" forward brings a surge of new life and credibility to a very raw Crimson squad. Averaging 21.9 points per game, Clemente is a proven scorer who can change the course of any game. "He's the kind of player that everybody has got to be aware of," Langel said. "They run a lot of sets for him, and he's a great shooter and doesn't need a lot of time to get his shot off. So you've got to keep your eye on where he is and try and not let him get open to make some of his shots." As for the future, Clemente is uncertain but optimistic. The junior's 10 three-pointers last weekend moved him into second-place on Harvard's all-time list with 134 treys. He now stands 33 shy of Mike Gilmore's school record. "It feels great from three-point range," Clemente said of his outside shot. "Basically it came right back to me. I don't know, I could always shoot, so it's kind of like riding a bike." One thing Clemente does know for certain, however, is what is in store for him this weekend. When asked about the unsightly, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar-esque goggles he now must sport, Clemente laughed and said, "I'm sure I'll be hearing plenty of that on Friday night."

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