M. Cagers Set for Dartmouth Showdown

It's gonna be a really big show, as Ed Sullivan would say.

This Tuesday night at Dartmouth, the Harvard men's basketball team faces the Big Green in a crucial Ivy league contest that may very well decide the fate of the entire-known universe.

Hyperbole aside, sophomore forward Ron Mitchell nevertheless said, "it's a very important game."

Harvard (6-8 overall, 2-1 Ivy) hopes to wrest first place from the firm fists of the Big Green (8-6 overall, 3-0 Ivy). Since Dartmouth remains the lone undefeated team in Ivy league play, this won't be an easy task. Besides the Big Green's record, the Crimson also must contend with the cycles of recent history.

Every season, the Crimson clashes twice with the Big Green. And every year, in what has become a perverse tradition, Harvard comes up empty handed in both games.

So how important is it? Consider this:

1988-'89: Dartmouth, 103-90, 93-91 (OT)

1987-'88: Dartmouth, 66-58, 91-89 (2OT)

1986-'87: Dartmouth, 74-69, 83-77

It doesn't take a Harvard Ph. D. to see the recurring pattern here. And Dartmouth already defeated Harvard earlier in the year in an electric 75-74 hair-raiser at Briggs Cage. If every-thing works out, the Big Green should rumble over the Crimson with reckless abandon come Tuesday night, right?

Not according to Mitchell and Ralph James.

"Dartmouth is very beatable," Mitchell said. "The key to the game is that we can't let them jump out to an early lead like they did last time."

In the first game, Dartmouth ran up a 9-0 lead before Harvard could put the ball in the hoop. A crucial element those first few minutes, as James noted, "were the early turnovers. They really hurt us."

Besides preventing Dartmouth from assuming an early lead, James outlined three points that the Crimson must check off in order to win this game.

"We need to get off to a really good start," James said. "If we lead early, that'll change the entire complexion of the game. They'll start to run, and then we can start with our press."

Oh yeah, the full-court press. Its effectiveness has been dubious this season. But for a lumbering team like Dartmouth, it can wreck havoc. The Big Green has a tendency, in the words of James, "to fold under pressure."

The early portion of the game won't matter, though, if Harvard doesn't "execute well and get a chance for those good shots," James said.

But the Crimson might also have something else working against them: the debilitating effect of final exams.

"It's hard coming off finals," Mitchell said. "We just need to keep focused."

For James, however, the exam period may have been a blessing. Suffering from a dislocated shoulder that he hurt in practice right before the Boston College game on December 12, James seems to have finally mended. Going into the Dartmouth game, the 6-ft., 5-in. junior tops the Ivies in scoring with a 20.3 average.

"The shoulder feels fine. The time off was a plus," James said. "It gave me a chance to be rehabilitated."

And with All-Ivy guard James Blackwell and the 7-ft., 1-in. Walter Palmer to contend with, the Crimson will need all the help it can get.

Both Blackwell and Palmer have averaged 17.3 points per game in Ivy action. Palmer has also collected 10 blocked shots. Green Giants

Starting Lineup

F-Brendan O'Sullivan (6-ft., 6-in.)

C-Walter Palmer (7-ft., 1-in.)

G-John Mackay (6-ft., 2-in.)

G-James Blackwell (6-ft.)

G-Rob Summers (6-ft., 2-in.)

Statistical Leaders

Scoring

Palmer, 17.2

Blackwell, 14.1

Mackay, 9.2

Rebounding

Palmer, 6.5

Assists

Blackwell 3.2