Cagers Await Improved but Still Weak Dartmouth

Walter Peterson, Dartmouth graduate '47, governor of New Hampshire for the past four years and a charter member of the Friends of Dartmouth Basketball, was visiting with members of this year's Green freshman team at Alumni Gym prior to the start of this current season.

I'm certain that each of you will find your years of education and athletics at Dartmouth among the most rewarding of your life. From my own personal experience playing basketball at Dartmouth, I can say that it was a great thrill and an honor to represent Dartmouth on the basketball court. Dartmouth truly has a great basketball tradition."

Unfortunately, Walter neglected to tell the Lil' Pea Greens that for 11 out of the past 12 seasons, winning has not been a part of that great tradition. Last season's 14-12 mark was the first winning record the Governor and his friends have seen in the past dozen at Hanover.

And this year is no different Dartmouth is well on its way to another losing season. When the men from up north pull in at the IAB for an 8 p.m. game with Harvard, they will be gunning for their fifth win in 19 outings, while the Crimson will look for its twelth win to go with eight losses. In the Ivy League, Dartmouth is 2-5 and Bob Harrison's Crimson unit is 4-3.

As Green coach Tom O'Connor said last night, "We haven't won in the won-loss column but we have in a lot of other ways. We're, ah... I guess the word is 'learning.'"

But even at this, the Crimson can't afford to be overconfident. Since Harvard won 90-83 at Hanover earlier this season, Dartmouth has been improving. It has won two of its last three games, shooting over 40 per cent in victories over Cornell (75-73 in O.T.) and Yale (83-69), and also in a game which it dropped in the last 50 seconds to Brown Friday night (61-58).