Of Freshmen and The Belgian League

We start the inaugural basketball notebook of the new season with a look at the finest Harvard freshman in years, forward Neil Phillips.

The Germantown, Md. native has scored in double figures in each of the cagers' five games and leads the team with 66 points (13.2 points per game). Furthermore, Phillips has shot field goals at over a 65 percent clip (29-44), good enough to lead the squad in that department as well.

Not only has the 6-ft., 5-in. big man put up some excellent overall statistics, but he has been there in the clutch for Harvard (2-3 overall) this year.

In the Crimson's opening game against Merrimack, a 63-62 loss, Phillips made a last-second steal and got off a 16-ft. heave as time ran out.

That shot fell short, but in Harvard's next game against Vermont, the freshman sensation hit a four-ft. bank shot at the buzzer to give the cagers their first win of the year, 64-62.

And to top that all off, Phillips sunk a shot in the last minute of the New Hampshire game, sending that contest into overtime (where Harvard eventually lost, 65-62).

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Not that it means anything, but: in each of the three games featuring last-second Phillips heroics, the losing team scored 62 points.

Makes you wonder, hub?

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Junior guard Keith Webster suffered a jolting in the Merrimack game. After just two minutes of play, the Masuk High School graduate was thrown to the floor in a loose ball struggle, and had to sit out the remainder of the contest.

Nevertheless, Webster has bounced back with four consecutive double-figure outings. His 25 points against Holy Cross were a career high, and his season total of 63 points places the Monroe, Ct. native second on the team behind Phillips.

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The Class of '89 is certainly making its presence felt. In Tuesday's 86-50 trouncing of the Engineers, the Yardlings contributed 57 points.

All of last year, freshmen scored a total of just 41 points.

Especially impressive off the bench for the Crimson has been 5-ft., 10-in guard Mike Gielen. The Bowie, Md. native turned in a gutsy performance as Webster's desperation sub against Merrimack, adding 10 points for the Crimson cause.

Gielen has also hit double figures against Vermont (13 points) and MIT (11).

Fred Schernecker and David Lang, a pair of forward-centers, have also demonstrated poise in the clutch, filling in for Mohler when foul troubles have struck.

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The cagers travel to New York tomorrow to take on Manhattan College. But if the Crimson tries to find the Jaspers in the borough of Manhattan, it's going to spend a long time looking.

You see, Manhattan College is actually located in the Bronx--Riverdale to be specific--right accross the street from the famous private high school, Horacc Mann.

The Jaspers (8-20 last year) lost half of their lettermen to graduation, so the Crimson should have a decent chance to pick up its first road win of the year.

On the other hand, the home team has won all five previous meetings between the two squads.

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While Phillips and his fabulous fellow freshman have shone so far this year, the Crimson's two prominent sophomores have struggled at times.

Forward Kyle Dodson is Harvard's third leading scorer with 34 points (6.8 ppg) but has made only 30 percent (13-41) of his field goals.

And in the Vermont and Holy Cross games, the 6-ft., 4-in., sophomore went a combined 0-for-13 from the floor.

Meanwhile, classmate and center Bill Mohler has been frustrated offensively, averaging just over five points per game--second lowest among Harvard's starters.

Mohler has also had foul difficulty this year, fouling out of two contests while playing less than 20 minutes in each. Amazingly, the 6-ft., 8-in. St. Albans High School product has 35 points and 32 personal fouls in his Harvard career.

But although Mohler has struggled on offense, he has been a defensive stalwart. The sophomore has 11 of Harvard's 13 blocked shots this year, and at least one in each game.

Last year's Crimson blocked-shots leader had just seven all year.

Mohler has also cleaned the rebounding glass effectively--averaging nearly six boards per game--and is just two behind Phillips for second place on the team in that department.

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This week's trivia question comes to us from our New York correspondent, who asks: Who is currently second in scoring in the Belgian professional basketball league, averaging nearly 30 points per game? Answer below.

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From the How Time Flies department: This year's team is obviously very different from last year's 15-9 squad in a number of ways, but you may not realize just how different it is. To wit:

* Last year, three players accounted for 74 percent of Harvard's scoring. Through Harvard's first four games this year, the five top-scoring cagers were responsible for only 71 percent of Crimson points.

* All but one of Harvard's players--Pat Smith--has recorded his career high in one of the Crimson's first five ballgames, a fact which shows you how little court experience the 1985-'86 cagers had before the year began.

* Nine Cantabs have 10 or more points on the year, and the other six players on the roster are likely to reach that mark before long. Last year, only seven hoopsters reached the decade mark.

* The 1984-85 Crimson shot a blistering 52.3 percent from the floor, but with many of those dead-eyes graduated, Harvard is hitting barely 45 percent of its shots (134-for-296) this year.

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But while many things may change, some, it seems, will always stay the same in the Harvard men's basketball program.

Take free throws, for instance. Harvard has led the nation from the charity stripe the last two seasons, hitting at a 81.1 percent clip last year, the third highest mark in NCAA history.

And the year before last, the Crimson set an all-time, all-division NCAA record by connecting on 82.3 percent of its free throw opportunities.

Harvard is at it again this year already, hitting 76 of its 95 free throws (80 percent)--while opponents, given 21 more chances, have only managed to hit the same number as the Crimson.

Tops among the tops are Phillips (a perfect 8-for-8), Keith Webster (11-13), and Mohler--who is 15-for-18 from the charity stripe despite hitting only six of 22 field goal opportunities.

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The Ivy League season won't get underway for the Crimson until the squad makes its annual pilgrimage to Penn and Princeton during reading period. However, it's never too soon to begin scouting the Ancient Eight.

In the early going, Columbia (13-13 overall last year, 9-5 Ivy) is the surprise leader of the pack. The Lions have compiled a 4-1 non-league record.

Meanwhile, Penn is running a 3-1 non-league mark. The Quakers (13-14, 10-14) boast nine returning lettermen--including four returning starters.

And from the All-Important Honors File: Not one Harvard player was named to the first Ivy League Men's Basketball Honor Roll, which covered the week of December 1-7.

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Quiz answer: Joe Carrabino '85, Harvard's all-time leading scorer with 1880 career points, is burning up the Belgian league.