Frank Sullivan, whose impressive and extensive coaching resume incorporates experience at all levels of college basketball, continues to lead the men's program through its most successful era in history. Sullivan possesses the most head coaching and overall coaching experience of anyone in the Ivy League. In 2003-04, he will enter his 20th season as a head coach -- including his 13th at Harvard -- and 30th overall year of collegiate coaching.

Along the way, he has brought a new level of respect to Harvard basketball, which has set a school record with 110 wins over the past eight years (a figure that ranks third among Ivy teams behind Princeton and Penn).

Last season's highlights include a winning non-league record for the seventh time in the last eight years, highlighted by a victory over America East champion Vermont and road triumphs against Rider and Fairfield. Harvard also reached the 10-win plateau earlier than ever in its history and extended a school mark by reaching double figures in wins for the eighth consecutive season.

Sullivan's finest season to date came in 1996-97 when Harvard went 17-9 (its best record since the 19-3 NCAA Tournament team of 1945-46), collected a program-record 16 Division I wins, and finished second in the Ivy League.

This all followed the breakthrough 1995-96 campaign, when he directed the Crimson to a 15-11 mark, the program's first winning season since the mid 80s. The 1998-99 squad made its own mark with impressive non-league road victories against Boston College and Santa Clara.

The team's philosophy is centered around an aggressive style that shows a commitment to defense, rebounding, and limiting turnovers, and this approach has created excitement at both ends of the court. In each of the past four seasons, Harvard has led or been second in the Ivy League in steals and ranked among the best in turnovers forced and turnover margin. At the same time, the Crimson has consistently been among the League's top-scoring schools.

Some of the these figures have even ranked with the country's best. In recent years, Harvard teams have been nationally ranked in scoring defense, rebounding margin, three-pointers per game, three-point field goal percentage, and free throw shooting.

As for player development, Sullivan has recruited Harvard's all-time leaders in rebounding (Kyle Snowden '97), assists (Elliott Prasse-Freeman '03), three-pointers made (Dan Clemente '01), and steals (Andrew Gellert '02), and has coached seven of the program's career scoring leaders. Several of his players have gone on to play professionally abroad -- from Ireland to Ecuador, Switzerland to Austria and Holland to Italy.

Sullivan was appointed the 16th head coach of Harvard men's basketball on August 29, 1991, following a highly successful seven-year stint at Bentley College, and brought with him energy, experience, and a reputation for being an integral part of building and rebuilding programs.

He began coaching on the collegiate level in 1974 as an assistant to Rollie Massimino at Villanova. He went to Lehigh in 1977 where he worked with Brian Hill, who later coached the NBA's Orlando Magic and Vancouver Grizzlies. Lehigh improved each season and in 1980-81 posted its most victories in more than 60 years. The next stop was Seton Hall, where Sullivan served on the staff of future NBA mentor P.J. Carlesimo.

Sullivan took over at Bentley in 1984-85. His first squad won 24 of 27 regular season games, shared the Northeast-8 title, and earned an NCAA tournament bid. For those efforts, Sullivan gained numerous coaching accolades.

In the 1988-89 season, when the Falcons finished with a 25-6 overall record, captured the Northeast-10 regular-season title, and qualified for the NCAA Tournament. Sullivan was honored by the League for the third time, and named New England Division II Coach of the Year by UPI, the National Association of Basketball Coaches, and the New England Basketball Coaches Association. He was also selected Division II Coach of the Year by Basketball Times and Eastern Basketball. That year's squad spent the entire season ranked in the Top 10, including two weeks as the nation's top-ranked team during February.

Sullivan is a Lexington, Mass., native and played at Lexington High School for coach Rollie Massimino. He then attended Westfield State College, where he lettered for three years and was a team captain before graduating in 1973 with a BA in English. Sullivan later earned a master's degree in guidance from Villanova. Sullivan lives in West Newton with his wife, Susan. The couple has one daughter, Katy (20).