Cagers Avoid Sanctions, Cancel Two Games

Rather than risk its Division I status and a possible NCAA sanction, the Harvard men's basketball team has cancelled two games scheduled for later this season.

The Crimson last week scratched showdowns with Division III squads Brandeis and New York University after it learned it would lose both its Division I membership and post-season eligibility next season if it played either the Judges or the Violets, Harvard Director of Athletics John P. Reardon Jr. '60 said yesterday.

The move came just days after the NCAA denied Harvard an exemption from a controversial rule that forbids Division I teams to play or scrimmage more than four non-Division I schools in one season.

Having already participated in one scrimmage and three games against non-Division I opponents, Harvard has met the limit set by the national governing board of collegiate atheltics.

Games against either Brandeis or NYU would have put Harvard in violation of NCAA bylaw Ll:le, which states that "any [basketball] team wishing to remain a member of Division I cannot play more than tour games against teams outside Division I."

So when Reardon recently learned of the problem from officials at Brown, which is currently in violation of the same rule, he immediately asked for an exemption.

Reardon cited the bylaw's ambiguity as his chief reason. "The rule reads 'no more than four games," said the Harvard director of athletics, adding that it fails to mention anything about scrimmages.

"When the thing was voted, if should have been clear that they meant scrimmages, too." Reardon said of the two-year old rule."

Harvard Coach Frank McLaughlin said that "there's no way we would have scrimmaged UMass-Boston if we knew it was going to count."

The NCAA will reportedly change the wording to "games and scrimmages" soon, said Reardon, who alleges that many schools are breaking the rule but that nobody knows it because scrimmages aren't publicized.

Nevertheless, even if it hadn't scrimmaged UMass-Boston, Harvard still would have needed to cancel one of its games against either Brandeis or NYU to meet the limit of four non-Division I games.

Reardon said the scheduling mixup occurred because both he and McLaughlin had still been working under the former "75 percent rule" that predated the new bylaw and which required only three-quarters of a Division I school's opponents to be from within the division.

If that rule were still in effect. Harvard could have scrimmaged UMass-Boston and played all five non-Division I schools that were originally on the schedule.

McLaughlin said the entire fiasco would never have occurred if Army--a Division I team--had lived up to its verbal agreement to play Harvard this year.

But when the Cadets backed out in August, it left a hole in the Harvard schedule and a lack of replacements to chose from.

"Every Division I team in the country has its schedule set by that time." McLaughlin said. "So we didn't have much choice."

Salem State--a local Division III club--filled the Army vacancy, and as a result, became the fifth non-Division I "game" on the Crimson schedule.

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In reality, all the two cancellations mean is that Harvard (currently 10-1 overall, 3-1 Ivy) will win two less games than it otherwise would have.

But, as McLaughlin points out, it could also mean an easier time during the Crimson's Run for the Ivy Roses.

"Where some people might think this will hurt us," says the Crimson coach. "I think it might help."

That's because the NYU game was scheduled for Feb 12, just three days before Harvard travels to Ithaca, N.Y. for a crucial showdown with Cornell.

"Now we'll be more rested and more relaxed when we go to Cornell," McLaughlin says.

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The only other thing of importance that this fiasco means is that Harvard won't make another Briggs Cage appearance until Feb. 8.

The Crimson's game with Brandeis was scheduled for Saturday in Briggs.

Instead, Harvard will practice until next week, when it'll take off on its longest road trip of the year.

The cagers will meet Lebigh next Thursday, Laffayette next Saturday and nationally-ranked Duke the following Monday.

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Just one more thought on this whole mess.

If the UMass-Boston scrimmage is considered comparable to a game, then why shouldn't it count in the Crimson's record?

Just wondering.

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The Princeton men's basketball team got some good news last week when John Smyth rejoined the Tiger team.

And ironically enough, Harvard might just be an unkowing beneficiary.

Princeton's top player, Smyth cited "personal reasons" when he left the squad for the week that just happened to include Harvard's visit to New Jersey.

With the second team All-Ivy guard noticeably absent, the Crimson had little trouble in a 60-50 upset win two weeks ago.

Two days later, Smyth showed up at practice. That's bound to make Princeton (5-8 overall, 1-1 Ivy) a better team, and that's bound to improve Harvard's Ivy chances.

Because with Smyth, the Tigers are capable of beating almost anyone in the league. Without him, as Harvard found out, they're not.

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Checking the current Ivy League standings provides one of the bigger chuckles of the still young year.

On top are the two teams most figured to be on bottom. At 2-0 is a surprising Yale squad that's recorded Ancient Eight wins over Dartmouth and Brown.

Right on the Bulldog's tail is 1-0 Columbia, which last weekend pulled the biggest shocker of them all.

The Lions knocked off highly touted Cornell by seven points, and what's more, they did it in Ithaca, N.Y.

It marked Cornell's first Ivy defeat at home since 1983 and only its second loss at home in its last 19 games.

Cornell, preseason Ivy co-favorites with Harvard, could find itself in a heap of trouble if it doesn't rebound soon, beginning this weekend when it travels to...Columbia.

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Cornell, despite last weekend's debacle, has replaced Penn as the Ivy League's most feared team at home. But Harvard's no pushover at home, either.

Since Briggs Athletic Center opened three years ago, the Crimson is 27-8 at home. In the last two years alone, Harvard is 17-4 at Briggs.

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From this week's trivia category comes this fact: only two Harvard cagers have started every game in the last two seasons.

Senior Joe Carrabino is the obvious pick, but junior Pat Smith is the surprise.

Like Carrabino, the ever-reliable Smith has started 37 straight games.

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THE NOTEBOOK'S NOTEBOOK: After 11 games last season, Harvard was 5-6...Junior Arne Duncan leads the team in steals (15), but he also leads in turnovers (36)...Junior Bill Parkerson became Harvard's first casualty of the new year last week when he landed on freshman Bill Mohler's foot in practice. He stretched some ligaments in his right ankle and has been out of commission since. Lucklily for Harvard, he's expected to be back soon. The 5307 fans that saw the Penn-Harvard game two weekends ago at the Palestra in Philadelphia were more than Harvard had played in front of in its 10 previous games combined.

The Basketball Notebook Appears Every Wednesday in the Harvard Crimson