Colin' the Shots

There are bad dreams and then there are nightmares.

Saturday night at Briggs Cage, the Harvard men's basketball team had a nightmare, losing to Merrimack, 80-72. The squad and Crimson Coach Pete Roby probably won't be able to forget the defeat for a long time.

"We didn't have our heads into the offense, we didn't have our heads into the defense, and we got our heads handed to us," Tri-Captain Mike Gielen said.

Merrimack is a Division II school. Against the Crimson, the Warriors shot only 38 percent from the field. And they still beat Harvard by eight points.

"It was the worst loss I've ever had, and that includes losing by 60 points to Duke," Roby said. "I thought the times of Harvard losing at home to a Division II school were over."

Sitting in his office after the game, the coach looked as if someone had run over his dog. Two or three times.

"It was a terrible loss for us," Roby added. "It sets the program back a few years."

Sure, the Crimson is not as bad as it looked against Merrimack. It couldn't possibly be. But the defeat raises many questions about the Crimson, and some of those questions don't have answers.

"I really don't know where we go from here," Roby said. "I asked the team that after the game."

There are very few brights spots in any loss, but optimists will usually find some kind of silver lining. Saturday night's loss had no lining at all.

Wrong Direction

"Nothing positive came out of this," junior Neil Phillips said. "No one on our team is a better player after this game. We just took a huge step backwards."

Phillips netted a season-high 18 points for the cagers, but it was far from enough to conquer the lowly Warriors. The part-time wide receiver for Joe Restic's football team has returned to the starting line-up for Harvard.

While Phillips may add a little Ivy magic, the cagers could use Tom Yohe and Kevin Dulsky, too.

After facing Manhattan tomorrow and Holy Cross Thursday, the Crimson travels to Dartmouth to open its Ivy schedule Saturday. The Big Green is the early favorite in the Ivy race, and Harvard needs to wake itself up before that game.

"We need some wins and we need them quick," Phillips said. "We have to pull together."

Now or Never

If the Crimson doesn't pull together now, it will have a very, very long Ivy season. Dartmouth isn't the only strong team among the Ancient Eight this year.

Princeton, which many experts expected to be a middle-of-the-pack Ivy team this season, defeated Big East power Seton Hall earlier this year. Cornell returns a number of key players from last year's second-place squad. Even Columbia, which was picked to finish near the bottom of the division, held a lead at halftime against national-power Wyoming.

And Harvard lost to Merrimack. By eight.

"Coming into this season I said that this team was a mystery to me, and tonight was what I had feared," Roby said. "Unless we're firing on all cylinders, I guess we're just not very good."

Harvard has to wake up now, or else the nightmare is just beginning.