Harvard Basketball Hopes to Feed off Lions Tonight

Maybe a taste of the Big Apple is the tonic that the Harvard men's basketball team needs to end its disastrous 10-game losing streak.

The Crimson last won on December 13 against Dartmouth and last won on the road back at St. Francis (N.Y.) on December 3, and tonight it is back again in the Empire State, facing Columbia in Manhattan. The Crimson then travels to Ithaca to face Cornell tomorrow night.

The Crimson, currently mired in seventh place in the eight-team Ivy League with a 1-3 league record (3-13 overall), has a chance to make some noise over its last 10 games because all of them are against Ancient Eight rivals.

Harvard is only two-and-a-half games behind league leader Penn (11-3 overall, 4-0 Ivy), but overtaking the powerful Quakers (who have already beaten national powers Michigan and St. John's) seems a bit out of reach. More realistically, the young Crimson can finish towards the top of the league with a strong finish.

Harvard's game against Columbia is a prime chance for the Crimson to break the slide. The Lions (3-13,0-4) are in last place in the Ivies, and the Crimson has defeated them 11 of the past 14 times they have met.

Forward Tony Doyle ranks first on the Lions in scoring (13.3 points per game, fifth in the Ivies), and averages 4.4 rebounds per contest. In addition, 6'7" forward Boris Piskun was named to the Ivy honor roll last week for racking up 41 points, 29 rebounds and three blocks in three games.

Harvard will be led by sophomore center Kyle Snowden, who is first in the Ivy League in field goal percentage (54.8 percent), fourth in rebounding (6.9 per game) and 10th in free throw percentage (73.2 percent). He is the Crimson's leading scorer at 13.4 points per game and leading rebounder at 7.1 per contest. Snowden is coming of a career-high 24 points (including 10 straight field goals) in the 73-64 loss against New Hampshire on Tuesday.

Junior forward Mike Gilmore is also playing well of late. He entered the week ranked ninth in Ivy League scoring (12.9 points per game), and has four 20-plus scoring efforts this season.

Harvard hopes to exploit Columbia inside and prevent it from driving to the hoop. The Lions are dead last in the Ivies in field goal percentage (.414), while they have allowed the second highest field goal percentage (.464). Harvard, however, has had the most porous defense so far in the Ivy season, allowing foes to shoot at a blistering .484 pace.

Still, the team is confident.

"Against Columbia, we need to stop them from driving," said junior Darren Rankin, who will miss the rest of the season because of a back injury. "We can get the better of them inside. We just need to relax, and we will start winning the close ones."

Rankin, who was averaging 7.7 points per game and 5.0 rebounds, is scheduled to have surgery today at Newton-Wellesley hospital. He should be ready for next year.

Rankin, who led Harvard last year in scoring at 12.3 points per game, said he injured his back in October. He played with pain since then, and wanted to wait until the end of the year to get surgery. But over the exam break he got an MRI, and the doctors ordered the surgery now.

Before his injury, Rankin appeared in 67 straight games, with 51 starts. 6'8" senior Kevin Fricka has taken his place in the starting line-up.

Tomorrow night's game against Cornell figures to be a tougher contest. Cornell is tied for fourth in the Ancient Eight with a 2-2 record (7-9 overall) and is the second most prolific scorer in the league at 73.8 points per game. However, Cornell is coming off losses to Brown and Yale.

Cornell is led by Brandt Schuckman, who is fourth in the Ivies in scoring (13.9 points per game) and 10th in field goal percentage (38.6 percent), and freshman guard DeShawn Standard, who is third in the Ivies in assists and seventh in steals (1.4 per contest).

"We need to play tough defense against the three," Rankin said, "and we need to rebound well. The team's attitude had been great, and we are ready for some wins."

Rankin says that the team's losing streak has just made the team work harder.

"The big men are working really hard," he said. "It's not just my absence that has made the team more focused. Everyone needs to step it up a notch, and just relax."

Notes

Captain Jared Leake and senior Dan Morris--Harvard's two starting guards--are one-two in the Ivy League in steals. Leake entered the week at 2.7 thefts per game, with Morris following closely behind at 2.5...Gilmore has 105 career three pointers and needs 27 more to set the school record. Mike Gielen `89 is first with 131, Tyler Rullman `93 is second with 128 and Gilmore is tied with Ralph James `91 for third place with 105.