Penn and Princeton Invade Cambridge; Harvard Faces Must-Win Weekend

Most of New England will be able to peek into the IAB today to see if the men's basketball team is serious about making a run for the Ivy crown.

No, they haven't added any seats to the creaky fifth-floor gym, but NBC will broadcast the 1 p.m. contest against Princeton with former Harvard hoop star James Brown '71sharing the play-by-play chores.

Playing on TV in their home arena ought to give the cagers an extra charge against the formidable Tigers, which they could certainly use. After two consecutive league losses, Harvard (2-3) will have to sweep its weekend series to stay in the Ivy race.

The Crimson faces Penn (3-2) on Sunday in a game originally scheduled for last night but postponed to give NBC plenty of time to lay its cable and position its cameras.

Harvard has struggled since guard Calvin Dixon injured ligaments behind his left knee in December. The speedy ballhandler will not start against Princeton (also 2-3), but coach Frank McLaughlin promises IAB regulars that Dixon will finally leave his spot on the bench today.

Although the Crimson has not taken full advantage of the slow starts by the perennial league powers checking into Cambridge this weekend, McLaughlin points out that two wins would probably put Harvard in second place, behind front running Yale (5-1).

"We've played well, especially against Yale (a 76-69 Crimson loss), but we've been consistently out-quicked," says McLaughlin, taking advantage of that special sports vocabulary known only to coaches.

"With Calvin back in, maybe we can improve on that," he adds.

And indeed, in practice last night, Dixon seemed close to his old self, whipping look-away passes and barrelling through the lane despite a constricting leg bandage.