Cagers Face Yale, Brown In Weekend Encounters

Hal Smith will get the call tonight for the Crimson cagers when they face a vastly improved Brown five in Providence.

Smith has won Jim Fitzsimmon's guard spot as Crimson mentor Bob Harrison is apparently disappointed with the junior guard's play.

Tonight's contest should be a difficult one for the cagers as they try to rebound from their worst game of the season Tuesday night against Dartmouth. Against the Big Green, the Crimson was afflicted by the age-old problem of turnovers. It committed 33 errors in the contest against a very shaky Dartmouth quintet.

Harrison substituted freely during the game in an effort to get some life back into the team. The Crimson managed to edge Dartmouth, 72-68, but was not playing up to par.

The Bruins, unlike the Harvard five, have been surging recently. Behind the shrewd leadership of Jerry Alaimo, one of the finest coaches in the Ivy League, the Bruins have begun to play like a team that expects to be going places in the next couple of years.

Alaimo starts four sophomores, including guard Eddie Morris and center Phil Brown, and has succeeded in getting his outfit to play disciplined basketball. His squad executed an excellent stall during last Saturday's 65-60 win, which left the Crimson bewildered. Harrison said after the game that Harvard was unprepared for the slowdown and had better make some adjustments this week.

Saturday night the Crimson will travel to New Haven to face the Yale Bulldogs. It will be the third meeting between the rival teams this year, and Harvard has won the first two. The Elis gave Harvard a real struggle last weekend and should be tough in their own backyard.

Penn and Princeton are now tied for the Ivy League lead with 7-1 records. Brown and Harvard are tied for third, both having 5-3 records.

Should both Penn and Princeton win the remainder of their games, they will meet in a playoff to determine the winner of the Ivy League crown. The winner of the Penn-Princeton contest would go to the NCAA tournament and the loser would probably get an NIT bid.

Statistics released this week show that James Brown of Dartmouth leads the circuit in scoring with a 22.6 points a game average. Harvard's Tony Jenkins is in eighth place, averaging 17.6 points a contest.