Healthy Cagers Lead Crimson Spurt

For the coaches of Harvard's Ivy League opponents, the last few weeks have brought a lot of ups and downs.

News of injuries to All-Ivy candidates Ralph James and Ron Mitchell, as well as Co-Captain Fred Schernecker, had rival coaches licking their chops at a chance to get the Crimson early before its frontline got healthy.

Too late. All three are back and playing significant minutes, and James is almost fully recovered. At least James has recovered enough to earn Ivy League Player of the Week honors for his 43-point performance in the Crimson's sweep of Cornell and Columbia this weekend. In the two games, James shot 60 percent from the field (15-for-25), 91 percent from the line (10-for-11) and sparked a key Harvard 24-3 run early in the second half against Cornell.

"Ralph James is a very good player," Cornell Coach Mike Dement said. "Everybody's going to have trouble with Ralph James. He's very good off the move, very quick, more athletic than anybody we have."

Mitchell is also presenting some trouble for opposing coaches. The sophomore had a respectable weekend himself, pumping in 36 points and grabbing 18 rebounds.

Big Bench: The Crimson bench, led by Dana Smith, Schernecker and freshman Tyler Rullman, far outclassed their opposing reserves. The trio accounted for 51 points this weekend. With the Crimson leading Cornell, 77-75, and 52 seconds remaining in the game, Rullman stripped the ball from Co-Captain Monte Boykin at halfcourt and drove in for a game-clinching layup.

Smith backs up starter Tarik Campbell, giving the Crimson a 40-minute guard who can push the ball up the court and tire out the opposing point guard.

"The early part of the season was basically a feeling-out process," Smith said. "I was trying to see what the coaches wanted from me. I feel more relaxed and confident now and the team's more at ease."

Quotable Coach: Columbia Coach Wally Halas, after watching his team get spanked, 87-74, by Harvard just one night after losing to first-place Dartmouth by two points was not at a loss for words to express his disappointment.

"We played very well [Friday] night, we played hard, out-rebounded Dartmouth by 15 to 17 rebounds and tonight, we just didn't have it.

"Our perimeter people...were lethargic on the ball, passing reversing the ball. Everything we've done the last couple of weeks so well, we just didn't do well.

But Halas finished with a challenge.

"We'd like to get them down on our place on a Friday night."

See you there, coach.

Quote of the Week: "We're going to do that all year. We're going to press, press, run, run, run and, hope-fully, win, win, win."-Dana Smith