A Touch of Garlic

Two championships were decided in Philadelphia last weekend: an Ivy basketball title lost and a squash championship won. The similarities between the matches were many. Harvard was clearly the challenger, playing before a large, partisan crowd. In each case, the result of the match meant the difference between a great and a mediocre season.

"It was the old story of lousy material, great coaching today," squash coach Jack Barnaby joked after the victory. "Seriously, everyone on this team trained hard, they were all tough, nobody blew it, and they all were in it all the way."

Certainly Barnaby deserves much of the credit for the win, for in squash, despite its individual nature, coaching is of the utmost importance. After his Princeton match Friday. Jaime Gonzalez said of his opponent, "He was a good tennis player. He had the classic swing and good shots, but he wasn't too much as a squash player. He didn't slice the ball or feather it, and he didn't surprise me with the walls." The challenge of squash is never just to return the ball but always to do something with a shot, and that is what Barnaby has worked on all year.

But more than that, Saturday's squash match was a test of the team under pressure. The crowd was large, and every Penn point on another court sounded like a game won. Harvard had to play the first four games as though they were down, 3-0, in the other matches, but there was never any sign of panic or desperation.

At eight, Neil Vosters faced Rick Wheeler, 6' 5", who used all his size to control the center of the court and hit some lucky wood shots. But Vosters kept to his basic game until he was far behind in the final game. At five, Alan Quasha ran his opponent all over the court and still found himself behind in a five point set of the first game. Quasha held to his finesse game and won. "I got the breaks," Quasha said. "I was close to losing and I got a nick, and I said to myself, 'Gee, a nick! I can use that.'"

Ed Atwood had no excuses for his first collegiate loss in three years. "He hit some fantastic shots that I just couldn't believe," he said. Even at number one, where tempers flared, let calls didn't come from pleading but from both players' determination to hit their best shot every time.

The basketball game was quite similar. Under pressure, down by 15 early in the game, before a large partisan crowd, the Crimson became frustrated. In almost every offensive play, Harvard left its game plan. Sometimes the ball was thrown away on a risky pass, but more often the game resorted to a one-on-one drill. It was a "look for the hot-hand" approach, and bad shots were taken out of sheer desperation. Players were shuffled in and out and each tried his 20-foot through. Hal Smith and Rod Foster each took his turn pitting himself against the whole Penn team and the result was frustration and more risks.

Barnaby has taught his team the percentage shot, and against Penn it was the percentages that carried. Looking tired and falling behind in the fourth game, Gonzalez played conservatively and won several long points to beat Kapur at number four. Luck? "I could see he was more tired than I was. He kept stalling between points and I was beating myself by hitting the tin," Gonzalez said. "So I decided to just keep the ball in play and let him force a shot to end it, and I won," he said without the slightest hint of surprise.

Texas football coach Darrell Royal has always said, "You dance with the girl who bring you." Penn won the first Harvard basketball game despite a cold shooting hand in the first half. Lacking confidence in itself, Harvard could not overcome frustration Friday night and resorted to long, looping passes and individual efforts. The result was a 31 point deficit.

Saturday night, Harvard came from 17 points down in the second half against Princeton. The Crimson needs to develop that poise and confidence in its plays to keep up in a game it is anxious to win.