Coaches Vote to Drop J.V. Basketball

The Harvard basketball coaching staff voted last Friday to cancel this year's junior varsity basketball program because of a lack of player interest, according to assistant coach Paul Lyons.

Failure to Organize

The vote came after an unsuccessful attempt to organize a team at the junior varsity level.

Of approximately 25 ball players who tried out for the varsity squad, 15 were kept and ten were invited to play on a J.V. team.

Of those invited to play on the J.V. team, only four players responded and one never appeared for practice, Lyons said.

Lyons, who replaced John Hart as this year's new J.V. coach, originally planned to run a separate J.V. program with its own eight-game schedule. The first game was to be played December 5 against Boston University.

Even after the initial response to the program, plans were made to continue the J.V. team for those who wanted to play. The team practice was combined with the varsity with the three players practicing five days a week. Lyons said he had hoped to use a few varsity players in the J.V. games.

Later J.V. practice was cut back to two days a week after coach Tom Sanders decided the combined varsity and J.V. practice had become too cumbersome.

"We decided that we should spend more time with the varsity, rather than try to stay with a J.V. team," Lyons said. He added that the curtailing of the J.V. program this year is only the result of the present unforseen circumstances. He said that with a number of talented members of this year's freshman team becoming eligible for varsity play next year, there should be a greater interest in a J.V. squad next season.

"We [the coaches] have an understanding that if we have enough numbers next year that we'll continue with the program," Lyons said.

Some of the J.V. players felt that the program gave them a chance of progress through the ranks possibly to play varsity ball sometime during their college careers.