The Runnin' Crimson

Except for the fact that "The Runnin' Crimson" sounds rather stupid, the Harvard men's basketball team might be due for a name change this season.

Because suddenly the cagers (5-6 overall) are scoring points at a pace that the UNLV "Runnin' Rebels"--the perrenial NCAA scorin' leaders--would be proud of: 85.7 points per game. The 1986-'87 cagers are on a pace to break this school's all-time season scoring average mark of 84.5 points per game set back in 1971-'72 (which finished with a 15-11 overall mark).

The gimme 19-ft., 9-in. three-point shot is no doubt partially responsible for the scoring surge, but turn all the Crimson's three-pointers into twos, and Harvard is still averaging 81.7 points per game, far up from the 60.7 Harvard managed last year.

Five times this year the Crimson has surpassed the 90-point mark, a plateau it never reached last season. Not since the 1980-'81 campaign has Harvard surpassed 90 five times in one season.

The cagers have even prospered when their opponents have tried to slow the ball down; witness Harvard's 75 against Holy Cross on Monday. The Crimson will doubtless be in for more of the same stall-ball this weekend when the notoriously low-scoring Princeton Tigers come to Briggs Athletic Center.

Overall, Harvard has bettered last year's squad in nearly every team statistic: points per game, field goal percentage (.504 to .416), free throw percentage (.737 to .736) and assists per game (17 to 11.6).

Home Sweet Home: There's a certain symmetry to Harvard's 5-6 overall record this year: the Crimson is 0-5 on the road and 5-0 at home (with one game played at a neutral site).

There's nothing new about that stat, however. Last year, the Crimson was 0-11 on the road and 6-9 at Briggs. Harvard has not won on the road since it defeated Columbia in New York in February, 1985. Overall, Harvard has dropped 19 straight road contests.

And, with all five of the Crimson's January games at home, the streak is sure to be alive and well when Harvard journeys to Brown on February 6--at which point the cagers will not have triumphed away from Briggs in two full years.

Why the disparity? For one thing, Harvard has played some of its toughest opponents (USF, Boston College) on the road, while it has faced two of its easiest (Brandeis, Merrimack) at home.

Consider, too, the revealing statistic that four of Harvard's road losses have been by five points or fewer. That suggests a bunch of games which just slipped away--something which happens more frequently in front of enemy crowds.

Dandy Dons: Harvard spent a few not-so-merry pre-Christmas days in San Francisco at the Met Life Classic. The Crimson was blown out by the host Dons in the tourney opener and then lost a close one to the Fordham Rams in the consolation match.

USF is enjoying a fine season in its second year back in action. The program was cancelled after the 1981-'82 season following a series of scandals involving payments to star players. It's good to see a program with such venerable alumni as Bill Russel, K.C. Jones and Bill Cartwright back on its feet.

Then again, The San Francisco Examiner called Harvard, "an athletically underpriviledged opponent," after the Dons downed Harvard, 86-65.

Same Time, Last Year: The Ivy season opens this weekend as Penn and Princeton come to town. Until Brown copped its first league title a year ago, the two powers had combined for 16 straight league crowns.

Harvard earned a split in last season's Penn-Princeton home weekend, losing to the Tigers, 61-43, before earning one of its two Ivy victories of the year with a 62-53 defeat of the Quakers.

Two years ago, the Penn-Princeton weekend set the Briggs attendance record. A combined total of 5900 jammed the arena as Harvard was swept by its southern foes to end its 1984-'85 Ivy title hopes.

Those title embers had been fanned by the Crimson's first-ever road sweep of the mighty duo earlier in the year.

The Notebook's Notebook: Bill Mohler registered his first assist of the year Monday against Holy Cross, and is now averaging one assist for every 183 minutes of playing time this year. This puts him "ahead" of other Crimson big men David Lang (who has registered an assist every 118 minutes) and Kyle Dodson (an assist every 94 minutes)....Harvard Co-Captain Keith Webster has both taken and made more three-pointers than Harvard's opponents combined (Webster is 30-for-70 on the year).