Introducing Mr. Smith

The Yale and Brown men', basketball teams--came to Briggs Athletic Center over the weekend knowing just what to expect.

They knew exactly what to do to shut down Harvard's fearsome frontline trio of Joe Carrabino, Bob Ferry and Arne Duncan.

They even knew to watch out for guard Keith Webster, who can get hot while you're busy trying to shut down the Big Three.

But somehow, in the process of not doing ail that, they also managed to overlook the Crimson's fifth starter.

Not surprising, considering that 5-ft., 11-in. Pat Smith didn't appear to be much of an offensive threat, with a career--and lifetime--high nine points and an average of 2.0 points per game.

"The word is out in the Ivics and with everybody who scouts us," said the junior point guard. "Pat Smith is a ballhandler and a defensive sparkplug."

Plus a little something else. In Friday's 75-71 victory over Yale, Smith chipped in six points, followed up by a 14-point outing in Saturday's 82-76 defeat of Brown.

So much for the scouting reports.

"I was really happy for Pat," Harvard Coach Frank McLaughlin said later. "He's such an important part of the team--the things you don't notice, the taking the charge, taking the ball up the court."

In the one department you do notice--taking the ball to the hoop--Smith has been less notable. In his previous career high performance in last season's final game against Columbia, the Kirkland House resident scored five of his nine points from the free-throw line.

Look for the Shot

"Coach has been telling me, 'look for the shot, look for the shot, look for the shot,'" he said, and finally, Saturday night, with the visitors swarming all over the lane, he did.

And those outside jumpers--six against Brown for a combined 9-for-9 weekend -- performance -- started falling.

Not bad for someone dammed with faint praise in the preseason media guide: "has an accurate jump shot when left alone."

With smaller, quicker men guarding Ferry for much of the period, Smith, though not exactly left alone, was able to elude the larger--and slower--Bruins on him.

"On the third or fourth one, I was off-balance--it looked out," he recalled. "But then it went in, and I figured, oh well."

"Pat had a tremendous game," said senior Co-Captain Ferry, a teammate of Smith's at DeMatha High School, a national prep basketball powerhouse in Hyattsville, Md. "They were sagging on Joe a lot and he [Smith] just stepped up and swished everything."

In Friday's game, he even stepped up and rejected a shot, his second block ever. The first in December against Vermont, was as unimpressive as the one he swatted away down "around the ankles."

So while he may not be batting away hookshots next weekend at Cornell and Columbia. "I think I have to keep looking for the shot," Smith said. "To open up Joe and to open up Bobby."

"He had a fantastic weekend," said Webster, Smith's partner in the backcourt. "When he shoots like that, there's nobody in the Ivy League that can stop us. You have to play all five guys honestly."

And if he keeps shooting like that, the only Crimson cager besides senior Co-Captain Carrabino to have started the last 42 games in a row ought to give next weekend's opponents something to worry about.

"It's great to see him get into the act," said Ferry.

Smith absolutely agrees. "I hope I keep shooting like this," he said, "The rest of the year."