The Lost Weekend?

One can't call the Harvard men's basketball team "March's Team."

For the second consecutive season, the Crimson was swept in its final weekend of Ivy action--losing the opportunity to finish above the .500 mark in both years. A 73-62 loss to Penn last Friday and last Saturday's 73-64 loss to Princeton dropped the Crimson (11-15 overall, 7-7 Ivy) into a fourth-place tie with Cornell in the final 1989 Ivy League standings.

The Tigers--this year's Ivy champion--will advance to the NCAA Tournament, which starts March 16 at regional sites across the nation.

In the final weekend of the 1988 season, Harvard fell to Yale, 73-69, and Brown, 103-101 in overtime. The losses dropped the squad into sixth place with a 6-8 league record.

"I hope they'll just relax and go play tomorrow night," Harvard Coach Peter Roby said after Friday's loss. "We've played too well this year. They lost the last two games last year when they had a chance to finish with a winning record, and these guys deserve to finish with a win."

After losing to the Tigers, Roby pinpointed the difference between the Tiger's season and Harvard's.

"They came into our building and they beat us," Harvard's fourth-year coach said. "They went on the road to Cornell and Columbia and beat them, too."

Princeton finished on top in the games it was supposed to win this year--especially sweeps of Yale, Brown, Cornell and Columbia on the road. The Tigers also notched an even 3-3 record against the three toughest teams in the league: Dartmouth, Penn and Harvard.

The Crimson, however, lost two consecutive games on the road against then cellar-dweller Brown and Cornell, which knocked Harvard out of the Ivy race. The Crimson also won only one of its six games against Dartmouth, Penn and Princeton.

Somebody Call a Cop: The Penn-Harvard game almost got out of control last Friday following several altercation between Quaker and Crimson players.

Penn's Hassan Duncombe lived up to his reputation as the Ivy League's "Goon," getting involved in scuffles with Harvard's forwards, especially freshman Ron Mitchell.

Finally, a shouting match between Duncombe and Mitchell, which had to be broken up by teammates and the referees, incited Harvard Co-Captain Neil Phillips and Penn's Paul McMahon to start shouting them-selves. On the next play, the referees called a controversial loose-ball foul on Duncombe--his fourth in the game--in order to try and settle everyone down.

Nice try but no cigar, ref.

Duncombe went into a tirade, having to be restrained by teammate Scott Schewe in order to avoid a physical run-in with the referee. Duncombe was immediately removed from the game by Penn Coach Tom Schneider but, once he got to the bench area, found it within his dignity to hit a fan by kicking a chair into the stands.

Despite coaching a team in the middle of the Ivy League race, Schneider showed class by keeping Duncombe, his best forward, on the bench for the rest of the contest.

The classiest move would be to kick Duncombe out of the basketball program altogether. A fan should be able to go to a basketball game without having to fear the wrath of an unbalanced player frustrated about his poor performance.

Sophomore Vince Curran, who had played only 101 minutes all season long, took over for Duncombe and promptly scored 14 second-half points to spark the Quaker victory.

What is this, Fiddler on the Roof?: Curran finished Friday's game with career highs in points (16) and rebounds (five).

Hey coach, what's this kid's secret?

"[Curran's] got a competitive edge," Schneider said. "He always dives for the ball and he plays hard. He's a Philadelphia kid, he grew up playing basketball in the Palestra and he takes all this Penn tradition very seriously, too, which helps him a lot."

Let's hear it for tradition.

The Net Chords Are Burning:

There is very little chance of accurately describing Princeton's shooting streak in the second half of Saturday's game, when the Tigers popped in five consecutive three-point shots in a five-minute span.

Captain Bob Scrabis hit the first two, Troy Hottenstein and Jerry Doyle added one each and Scrabis capped off the incredible string with another long-range bomb at the 8:46 mark.

The statistician's play-by-play report may have come the closest to capturing the incredible nature of the string:

Scrabis three-pointer. All net.

Scrabis from way outside. All net.

Hottenstein three-pointer from the corner. All net.

"I thought the key to the game was the first several minutes of the second half, when we turned the ball over three or four straight times," Roby said, "instead of turning the screws on them and starting to get them to think about the fact that they lost two when they could've clinched."

"You get that to play on their mind a little bit," Roby added, "and their shots become a little more tentative. We threw it away, and it got them to relax and they stuck those threes."

Princeton leads, 44-40.

All net. All net. All net. All net. All net.

Princeton leads, 59-41.

Tearing up the Ivies: Several Harvard players found themselves among the leaders in the final Ivy League statistics.

Co-Captain Mike Gielen topped the league in assists (5.4 a.p.g.) and steals (2.6 s.p.g.), while finishing third in three-point field goals made (36) and fourth in free throw percentage (80.0). Gielen was eighth in the Ivies in scoring, averaging 15.0 points per game.

Sophomore Ralph James finished fifth in the league in scoring (15.7 p.p.g.) and third from the foul line (80.1 percent).

Rookie of the Year candidate Ron Mitchell's 6.6 boards per game placed him fifth in the league in rebounding.

Junior center Fred Schernecker's hot February performance was good enough to place him eighth on the league rebounding list with 5.9 caroms per game.

And sophomore guard Dana Smith finished seventh in the league in free throw percentage at 79 percent.

True to Roby's coaching philosophy of running and pressure basketball, the Crimson finished first in the league in scoring but last in scoring defense. Harvard was second in free throw percentage, and sixth in field goal percentage and three-point shooting.

I Couldn't Have Done It Alone: Finally, thanks to Coach Roby and his squad for all their help this season.

And of course, thank you, Harvard Sports Information Director Frank Cicero, for not wearing the zebra shirts, as well as Assistant SID Julie Rice and the entire Harvard Sports Information staff for their help. Ivy League Standings

Team  Ivy  Overall Princeton  11-3  19-7 Dartmouth  10-4  17-9 Penn  9-5  13-13 HARVARD  7-7  11-15 Cornell  7-7  10-15 Yale  6-8  11-17 Columbia  4-10  8-18 Brown  2-12  7-19