Upended in Texas, 91-68, Crimson to Face Brown In Ivy League Opener

Harvard varsity basketball: Take nine.

In spite of mixed reviews through the first third of the season, Crimson coach Frank McLaughlin isn't about to take his squad back into the shop for anything approaching heavy editing.

Instead, the hoopsters head into tonight's contest with Brown (7:30, IAB) with the same cast of characters and the same script as those which brought the Crimson to a 4-4 mark through the first eight games of the 1980-81 slate.

The main difference between tonight's contest and those first eight--a 91-68 loss to Texas December 29 being the most recent--is that this one is for keeps. It's an Ivy League contest--the first of the year--and as McLaughlin is wont to say, "Tuesday is the start of the real season."

Brown comes into Cambridge with a less than awe-inspiring 2-7 record, and returns to competition after going 2-4 at a couple of holiday tournaments. But, says McLaughlin, "their record is deceiving. They've been in a lot of games only to lose in the last three or four minutes."

The Crimson, on the other hand, has been known to play some of its best basketball in the closing stages of the second half. Most recently, the squad came from seven points down with five minutes to play to nip UNH, 80-79, just before Christmas break. For that reason alone, it should prove an interesting match-up.

That's not the only thing that will make it a game worth climbing three flights of starirs to the top floor of the IAB to see. Bruin coach Joe Mullaney brings a patient, slowed-up offense into town, a quintet that will pass the ball around the perimeter for minutes at a time while looking for a sure shot.

Mullaney's offense is usually geared to one or two hot shooters. Last year, that shooter was Pete Moss, who averaged more than 25 points against Harvard to pace the Bruins to two wins over the Crimson hoopsters.

This year, look for 6-ft. 4-in. forward Ira James and freshman guard Jeff Sampson to fire the roundball all night, with center Bob Stanley picking up his share of the Bruin point total off the offensive boards.

James has averaged more than 17 points so far this season, with Sampson popping for 12 and Stanley chipping in about seven more.

As far as the Crimson's strategy goes, McLaughlin says the team has to "shoot well and be strong inside" and must also "be more aggressive on the offensive boards."

He might have mentioned the defensive boards as well. Rebounding at both ends of the floor has been a Crimson weakness thus far, particularly against teams equalling the Crimson's height.

One of those teams was Texas. The Longhorns camped out under both baskets and outrebounded Harvard, 52-35, with 6-ft., 10-in. center LaSalle Thompson leading the way with 15.

After an almost even first half--it ended with Harvard down by just six, 40.34--Abe Lemon's Longhorns pulled away easily in the first six minutes of the second stanza to take a commanding 16-point lead.

Reserve Montgomery's 22 points led all scorers, and together with Thompson's 20 effectively doused the Crimson's upset hopes. Crimson junior forward Don Fleming topped the 1000-point mark with his 20 points; he now 1017 career points.