Ugh! Men B-Ballers Drop Another One

HANOVER, N.H.--Ugh. Ugh Ugh Ugh Ugh Ugh.

To say that all is not well for the Harvard men's basketball team would be quite an understatement. Last Saturday the Crimson lost to the Big Green in Hanover, 73-65. The loss extends Harvard's losing streak to nine games, and drops its record to 1-3 in the Ivies and 3-12 overall.

If a season consists of peaks and valleys, then the Harvard cagers must be real close to ground zero. Which, in a way, is good, since the only way to go is up.

Harvard did not get blown off the court either on Saturday or in most of its other losses--in fact, pretty much all of the games have been close. But second place will always mean no cigar, and the Crimson haven't been smoking much lately.

The game started off well. Harvard's passes were crisp, and the offensive plays were largely successful.

But on defense, things soon broke down. Harvard fouled like crazy, which haunted the Crimson for the rest of the afternoon. Only 7:23 into the first half, Harvard committed its seventh and put Dartmouth in the penalty.

That's right, the Big Green had more than 12 minutes of free throw fun, which doomed the Crimson. Perhaps the most telling statistic of the day was that Harvard made seven more baskets than Dartmouth, so without its 31 fouls for the game, another team would have won.

"Our guys came out with a strong disposition," Harvard Coach Frank Sullivan said. "They tried to play aggressively in their excitement."

Such a thing was understandable. The Crimson hate losing as much as the next team and wanted to end the dry spell as soon as possible.

Thankfully for Harvard, in the first half the Big Green was totally incapable of shooting free throws, making 11-of-21. So, when the half-time horn sounded, the Crimson was able to hold a 35-33 lead.

Everything was not perfect for the visitors in the first half, but a lead is a lead. The shooting was decent, and the defense stopped Dartmouth pretty well when it wasn't fouling.

The second half was not nearly as good. The Big Green broke out of the locker rooms with a 15-4 run and would never lost the lead again.

"It's tough to say what happened in the second half," sophomore center Kyle Snowden (13 points, 11 rebounds) said. "[At halftime] we made the point to come out into the second half like we came out at the gate."

It didn't happen.

As a result, the Crimson had about 14 minutes to make up a nine-point deficit. That's not impossible, but Harvard faced a host of other obstacles as well.

Starters Snowden and senior guard James White were unable to play because of foul trouble. At the same time, Harvard reverted to a zone defense--not the Crimson's favorite style--to keep the fouling down.

In short, Harvard had to be aggressive to score some points, but at the same time be careful not to put more Dartmouth players on the line.

"The whole foul situation was disconcerting," Sullivan said. "It showed its ugly head at critical points in the second half."

There were bright spots on the game, such a freshman Mike Scott's personal high of 17 and the team's 43 rebounds. But all of those things are overshadowed by the fouls.

It is not often that you can point to one thing and say. "This is what caused the loss." But Harvard can do that for Saturday's game, and you can bet that it will be on the team's collective minds for the rest of exam period Dartmouth  73 Harvard  65