Freshman Quintet Relies On Fast, Wide-Open Game

George Harrington '59, coaching fresh man basketball for the first time this year, describes his team as "up and down," but is hopeful for a good solid winning season.

So far, the freshman five has posted a 3-2 record, defeating Trinity, Brandeis and Springfield. In both the Trinity and the Brandeis games they broke the 100 mark. "We can score points," says the coach.

In the December 18 game with Trinity, the Crimson fought to a 105-101 win in overtime; they defeated Springfield 77-75 in a last-minute shot by Jeff Grate, a 6-0 guard frims Miami, in their opener, but dropped a game to the University of Connecticut 39-79, December 9.

Captain Bob Beller, a 5-10 guard from Brooklyn, N.Y., racked up 27 points against Trinity, a record in freshman basketball history at Harvard.

Other shiners on the squad are Rick Perrin, a 6-3 forward from Columbiana, Ohio, Cari Kendrick, a 6-4 center from Plymouth, and Dan Orlovsky, a 6-4 guard from Chieago, who is an exceptional outside shooter. The coach predicts that four or five of his players will move up to the varsity next winter.

But as Harrington says, "I can play a lot of people, and there's not much difference between them. The starting lineups have changed a lot. In fact, I'm not sure who will start in the next game."

The freshmen face four more games before exams. Starting with a game at Boston University Saturday, they go on to play Dartmouth twice and Brown at home, January 16.

"We could win all four or lose all four--it's that even," says the coach, "but I'm hopeful that we'll win at least three of them." Harrington rates Yale as the "next best team we have to play this year," next best to Boston College which dealt the Crimson a staggering 101-60 loss December 15.

This year the freshman quintet is playing a wide-open, running game. They have a lot of speed and shooting ability, as shown by their two 100-plus scorings this season. The team works a man-to-man defense.

But the major problem is height, with only one player who is 6-5. "If we can get our share of rebounds," Harrington says, "we'll do all right." This year's varsity also suffers from lack of height.

Another difficulty, according to the coach, is to get the team to jell. "They come from all over the country; they're used to different types of plays. The problem is to get them working together, to pick out the individuals who work well together."

Harrington himself is no stranger to basketball at Harvard. Last year he coached the junior varsity, and while playing for the varsity from 1956 to 1959, he ranked sixth among the all-time top ten scorers, with 800 points.

With 10 games to go this season, Harrington says he is "quite pleased. They have a lot of potential and it ought to be a pretty good year."