It's Crunch Time

Up and down the East Coast yesterday morning, Ivy League basketball players and coaches were waking up to the same realization: it's crunchtime.

Friday and Saturday marked the first full weekend of league games.

At Briggs Cage, it became obvious to Harvard fans that the sleepy, early-December contests against Babson and St. Francis are things of the past; the Crimson's played two of its most hard-fought and physical games in recent memory.

"It's going to be like this for the rest of the year," Coach Frank Sullivan said after Saturday's scrappy 66-61 win over Brown (which followed Friday's scrappy 62-57 loss to Yale). "We're in for a bunch of tight Ivy League battles."

The new get-tough attitude was evident throughout the weekend. Players dove on the floor, shoved each other going for rebounds, and did not hesitate to get in each other's faces.

"I came here to see a basketball contest," said one courtside fan, Mike Does '96, on Saturday, "and a hockey game broke out."

To wit: sophomore Mike Gilmore, a generally mild-mannered person, seemed to metamorphose this weekend on the court. After engaging in some significant jawing with Yale's Dan Okwonko on Friday, he nearly came to blows with Brown's Brain Lloyd the next night.

The same change overtook--among others--junior Dan "Church Mouse" Morris, who exchanged words with Lloyd after Harvard's defeat of Brown. Asked later what he had said, Morris smiled and said, "Oh. I was just wishing him lick on the rest of the season."

What was Lloyd's perspective on the situation? "It's part of the game," he said tersely. "[The Harvard players] were getting physical, throwing some elbows, and we had to throw them back."

That's the way it is with Ivy League games this season, especially those involving the Crimson. The team bears the imprimatur of Captain Tarik Campbell, who himself has never been at a loss for intensity.

The 5'10" senior was in top form against Brown, slashing through the lane, crashing the boards--yes, crashing the boards--and beaming passes at his teammates.

The Crimson will need more performances like that to make a significant move up in the standings. As Sullivan points out, all six Ivy teams except Penn and Princeton remain tightly bunched in terms of record and talent, leaving effort as the only differentiating variable in a given game.

For Harvard, the next four weekends consist entirely of Ivy League games, beginning next week with two tough but winnable road games at Cornell and Columbia.

"They'll be big challenges, no doubt, but we'll be up for them," Sullivan said.

They better be. Because across the League right now--all the way from the Quakers at the top to the Big Red at the bottom--serious, intense competition awaits.

Peter K. Han is a Crimson staff writer. He also enjoys hockey fights.

YALE, 62-57 at Briggs Cage (Friday) Yale  30  32  --  62 Harvard  29  28  --  57

Yale: Lintz 2-4 4-5 8; Kawahito 3-3 1-2 9; Jennings 1-10 0-0 3; Franklin 3-7 0-0 7; Mellman 0-2 0-0 0; Okonkwo 5-12 0-1 10; Rosnack 1-1 0-0 2; Delaney 0-0 0-0 0; Fitzgerald 7-10 5-7 19; Colson 0-3 4-4 4. totals 22-52 14-19 62.

Harvard:Campbell 3-7 1-2 8; Leake 2-6 0-14; Gilmore 2-7 2-2 7; Morris 0-1 0-0 0; Mann 0-3 2-2 2; Scott 1-4 0-0 2; Snowden 7-10 3-3 17; White 2-7 0-0 5; Fricka 0-2 0-0 0; Rankin 4-9 3-4 12. Totals: 21-56 11-14 57.