M. Basketball Challenges Lehigh

After a promising 5-2 start last year, the Harvard men's basketball team floundered the rest of the year, finishing with a 9-17 record (5-9 in the lvy League). Entering this year, on the strength of four returning starters, the Crimson had hopes for both a strong start and finish.

With 10:19 left last Tuesday night against Holy Cross, Harvard held a 51-38 lead. A win and a 3-1 record would build the foundation for another impressive beginning.

But, as Dick Macpherson frequently used to say, it was just not meant to be.

The Crusaders pressed the Crimson off the court, outscoring Harvard 37-17 the rest of the way for a 75-68 win. The loss dropped the Crimson's record to 2-2.

But do not despair. After it hosts Lehigh today in a rare Saturday afternoon game at Briggs' Cage, Harvard opens its lvy schedule next Tuesday against Dartmouth, and then after four non-league games, starts the lvy season in earnest January 7 at power-house Penn.

What this all means? With four more non-league games, the Crimson have some time to get the house in order for the paramount lvy schedule.

Fortunately, the team is confident that that order will come. And in the tradition of Celtic greats K.C. Jones, Sam Jones, M.L. Carr, and Dennis Johnson, the proof is in the defense. Harvard is holding its opponents to 45.9 percent shooting from the field, while zoning in at a 48.5 percent clip itself.

Furthermore, Harvard is stealing at a record pace of 13.6 per game, way ahead of last year's school record 10.9 per game. In fact, according to junior forward Darren Rankin, the Crimson's Achilles' heel against the Crusaders was not defense but offense-a relatively good sign amidst the taste of the defeat itself.

"It was really our offense's fault against Holy Cross, not our defense's," Rankin said. "Against Lehigh, we can play defense like we did against Holy Cross. Overall, the defense is the best since I've been here."

Harvard beat Lehigh by one point last year, 71-70, on the strength of a game winning basket and a career high 26 points from Rankin. The junior forward, the Crimson's leading scorer last year at 12.3 points per game and its second leading rebounder at 5.4 boards per game, is the Crimson's leading glass wiper this year at 7.2 per game and second leading scorer at 12.8 per game.

Sophomore Kyle Snowden is also posting impressive numbers, averaging a team-leading 15 points per game (despite notching only four points versus HC) and 6.5 boards per game. Last year, Snowden shook off the freshman butterflies to average 11.4 points per game (second to Rankin) and a team-leading 7.5 rebounds per game.

Like Rankin, Harvard coach Frank Sullivan, a Lehigh assistant for 1977 to 1981, also has good memories of the Engineers. At Lehigh, Sullivan worked with Brian Hill, who is now the head coach of the Orlando Magic. The Engineers improved every year that Sullivan was there, and the 1980-1981 squad posted more victories than it had in 60 years.

The soft spots on the Garden parquet that Magic Johnson used to complain about are still around, but otherwise, basketball is a sport where tradition and leftovers from a past day pale in influence to what happens now. (Just ask the hapless C's.) And, the "now" is giving Harvard some quiet confidence.

"Lehigh is a strong offensive rebounding team, but we don't feel they're as strong defensively," Snowden said after viewing some game film of the Engineers. "We won't change our offensive scheme against them. We plan to go inside and out against them.

"They're not too deep at the guard positions. They have one 6-foot-2 starter, and the rest are between 6-foot-6 and 6-foot-8."

Lehigh has been touring the lvy League of late, beating Cornell and Columbia, but losing to Princeton and, after blowing a big lead, to Penn. However, these results-losing to the better lvy teams but defeating the suspect ones-suggest that the Engineers will be tough opponent for a psychologically maturing Crimson squad.

"Mentally, there is a big difference between two and three and three and two," Snowden said. "Getting over the .500 hump is important."

And, in the grand scheme of things, getting over the hump from a mediocre team to a good one is exactly what Harvard wants.