M. Cagers Suffer Shooting Woes; Princeton Rolls, 75-51

PRINCETON, N.J.--This was to be the weekend the Harvard men finally entered the ranks of real Division I NCAA basketball.

Harvard took its six-game winning streak to Ivy powerhouses Princeton and Penn, who collectively have won every Ivy League title since the Bronze Age, in an effort to end years of "The Big Two and the Little Six" within the Ivies.

Instead of a giant coming-out party, Harvard's southern campaign became something of a Picket's Charge, and left the Crimson reeling in the wake of two double-digit defeats, including an embarrassing 75-51 setback to Princeton on Saturday in which Harvard never appeared to have a chance.

Against both teams, Harvard suffered through two straight aerial bombardments from the perimeter which ceased only when the opposition spotted the occasional player on the blocks for an uncontested layup.

It was a weekend that radically changes one's conception of Harvard basketball, and of Ivy League basketball in general. There is almost no facet of Harvard's game that cannot be called into question--from talent, to coaching, to leadership and guts.

The weekend ended with Harvard coach Frank Sullivan admitting that he did in fact think Penn and Princeton are at a different level, and with Crimson players refusing to voice their unalleviated frustrations for the record.

But Penn and Princeton are not Kansas. While Harvard was busy getting destroyed in New Jersey, Penn lost to a Dartmouth team that Harvard clearly outplayed in two pervious meeting this season.

Furthermore, the Crimson could have exploited their opponents' weaknesses. Combined, Harvard faced one senior and six underclassmen starters this weekend. Harvard's senior-dominated lineup and superior bulk on the interior should have assured that the Crimson would at least stay competitive and keep the games close.

Instead, it was Harvard that alternately appeared scared and out of control.

The team's second-leading scorer and rebounder, senior Chris Grancio, seemed to be the perfect power forward to exploit Princeton's vertically-challenged starting five.

Grancio had four inches and 25 pounds on his Tiger counterpart, Gabe Lewullis, but Lewullis' quickness proved to be the dominating force on the court. Grancio mustered only two first-half points and no assists and was benched for sieve-like defence.

"Chris didn't do the job defensively tonight," Sullivan said. "That negated any advantage offensively he had inside.

Another of Harvard's key weapons, senior captain David Demian, is one of the few players in the Ivy League who can clearly match Princeton's shooting prowess. His 50 percent shooting from behind the arc entering the weekend was better than that of any regular player for either Penn or Princeton.

But Demian disappeared on the court and struggled to contribute offensively, producing a charge, three turnovers, two air balls, and 1-6 shooting to go with five points for the weekend.

"I give credit to Penn and Princeton, Demian said. "They took away [senior forward] Kyle [Snowden's] offense."

Snowden is a superb basketball player. But he doesn't have the ability to take control of a game offensively, and the Crimson can't expect him to.

Sullivan lamented his team's inadequacies shooting threes, but the real problem this weekend seemed to be Harvard's unwillingness to shoot from the perimeter. Junior forward Mike Scott, who is clearly not Harvard's best long-range threat, was forced to take nearly half of Harvard's threes almost by default--no one else on the floor would step up.

In fact, Scott's mediocre shooting statistics (10-23) over the weekend are not so much a testament to his poor play as they are to his willingness to take the weight of the team on his shoulders. Scott tried to carry a team in die need of leadership and a clear vision of its purpose on the floor.

From here, Harvard needs something to take into the rest of the year, and into next year, if it is ever to compete seriously in the Ivies.

In "The Fan", Wesley Snipes decides that he broke out of his slump when he "Just didn't care anymore." I don't claim or want to be that cynical, but Harvard does need to realize that to beat Princeton, it needs to do the same things it needs to do to beat Yale, Brown and every other team on the schedule.

Whether this weekend will convince the Crimson of that is anyone's guess, but hopefully the whole experience this weekend will light a fire of anger under a team that was so close to leaping into Ivy contention, rather than case frustration, depression and acceptance of second-tier status.