HARVARD BASKETBALL

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

Mr. Cotton in his recent article on Harvard basketball, states that the team's poor won-and-lost record is partly due to alumni and admissions office indifference and largely due to poor coaching. Implicit in this criticism is the alarming notion that the alumni and admissions staff should actively recruit basketball players for their own sake.

However, by far the most alarming aspect of Mr. Cotton's article was his head-hunting attack on Floyd Wilson.

When Floyd Wilson became head coach, Harvard basketball was in deplorable condition. The team was torn by dissension and it was a disgrace to the College. In the past eight years, under Wilson, a complete turn about has taken place. Not only is the basketball team no longer a disgrace, but its conduct and the calibre of the individuals who play on it have made it a positive credit to the College. This is well known throughout the Ivy League and was given formal recognition several years ago when Harvard was voted the League's sportsmanship award.

It is common knowledge among Ivy League and eastern coaches that Harvard does not have one basketball player who was actively pursued, as such, by another college. (Unlike Yale and Princeton, Harvard, with very good reason does not permit its coaches to recruit.) In light of this fact, the performance of the basketball team stands as perhaps the most outstanding coaching accomplishment at Harvard this year. The team always appeared well drilled and conditioned. Its spirit was high and in the face of loss after loss (many of them by heartbreakingly close margins) it never lost its organizational integrity, and the individual players never stopped trying. In this latter regard they more than vindicated the admissions committee.

The question among Ivy coaches isn't why did Harvard lose so many games, but rather "how on earth did Harvard manage to win any games at all."

Basketball in the Ivy League is such that one outstanding player can make the difference. As long as the other colleges permit their coaches to recruit (in obvious contravention of the spirit of the Ivy agreement), they will have an advantage. It is to Floyd Wilson's everlasting credit and Harvard's good fortune, that he accepts this fact as part of "coaching at Harvard" and that he works faithfully with those boys who came to Harvard to produce the best team possible. Charles J. Egan, Jr. '54,   Chairman, Schools and Scholarship Committee,   Harvard Club of Long Island.

MR. COTTON replies: My principal objection to Mr. Wilson as a basketball coach was not his poor won-lost record, but rather the fact that I think playing varsity basketball has become a dissatisfying and frustrating experience under him. The poor record is only one effect of this situation and among the less important ones. I certainly do not think Harvard should attempt to improve its basketball team by recruiting, nor did I imply that it should in my article.