Junior Damian Long, a regular in the Crimson line-up both at shooting guard and small forward the past two seasons, has been elected captain of the 1999-2000 Harvard mens basketball team. Meanwhile, senior Tim Hill, Harvard's leading scorer who also became the school's career assist leader, received the Ray Lavietes '36 Award as the Most Valuable Player of this year's squad.

Both announcements were made at the squad's end-of-season banquet, held on Monday, May 10, at the Harvard Club of Boston. Other team honors and varsity letters were also presented during the evening. The 6-foot-3-inch Long is an all-around contributor who appeared in 26 games this season (16 starts) while averaging 4.0 points per game (ppg) and 2.3 rebounds per game (rpg). He made 19 three-pointers, third-most on the team, and blocked eight shots, second-highest. Long also handed out 31 assists and collected 18 steals while seeing 20 minutes of action per game. He scored in double figures three times, including a season-high 12 points against Lehigh. Long's finest game of the year came in a 79- 65 win at Hartford when he contributed 10 points (shooting 2-of-4 on three-pointers), four assists, and a steal.

"This is a well-deserved honor for Damian," said Harvard Head Coach Frank Sullivan, whose squad has graduated five seniors. "He has the potential to be a strong and effective leader, and his enthusiastic demeanor is a perfect match for what will be a rather youthful team next year."

Hill, a First Team All-Ivy League selection, scored a team-leading 16.0 ppg and averaged 6.6 assists, which ranked 10th in the country. In his final home game, Hill became Harvard's career assist leader and eventually finished with 590, the second-most in the history of the Ivy League. He led the team in five different categories: scoring, assists, minutes (1,033), steals (50), and free throw shooting (85.0 percent). A starter in all 103 games in which he played, Hill was recently named the winner of the Chip Hilton Award, presented annually to the Division I player who demonstrates strong personal character on and off the court. He also received the Bob Cousy Award as New England's Best Player six-foot-and-under.