Basketball
The basketball team is still in a very uncertain state. They have played only one league game to date, against Pennsylvania in their massive Palestra, dropping the decision by 32-24. However, this single game is not to be taken as a criterion of the season, for it is recalled that Dartmouth usually drops this opening game against Penn, and then comes back strong in the remainder. There is something of the jinx hovering over the Palestra, and the fact that the Quakers always open their season at home may have something to do with it.
The entire Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball League looks strong at present, and interest is always high in the games. To date, Pennsylvania is sitting at the top by virtue of another victory, won from Yale. Yale in turn has defeated Cornell, which seems to be the weakest team in the league.
For Dartmouth, the Status of Reed Lewin, is causing Dolly Stark to revise his plans and lineup quite frequently. As is known, Lewin is a medical student and also the best center on the Dartmouth team. He cannot get in the practice sessions that the squad takes, and as a result he is not in the best of playing form. However, he still has an edge over any other candidates.
A very interesting game was played in Hanover recently, when the Harvard Independents were defeated 34-28 by Dartmouth. The name, which will not sound familiar to sports followers, was taken from the fact that the men who make up the team are all members of the Harvard Law School. Four of them are graduates from the University of Kansas, one from Missouri, one from Butler and one from Holy Cross. Morse and Langdell, names familiar to Dartmouth men, round out the squad.
The brand of game the Westerners, Hill, Jeffery and Hauser, played swept Dartmouth off their feet during the entire first half, which ended in the visitors favor, and their sensational playing caused the Dartmouth stands to give them repeated ovations. It was only the fact that the visitors obviously tired at the close of the game, coupled with the fact that Dartmouth's brilliant Ben Burch let loose three goals in quick succession that gave the game to the Green. For individual work, the Kansas men were unsurpassed, and only an inkling was given the audience of how a team must play in the wide open spaces. The pivoting, passing and shooting all showed a superiority over the Eastern game, and with a little more practice this Harvard Independent quintet could make a name for themselves.
They were managed by Bill Coles, who used to act in the same capacity for the Dartmouth football team, and the only disappointing factor was that Lanky Langdell, the Green's great center of 1928, could not come to Hanover and play due to an injured ankle.
So far the Dartmouth team has lined up with Capt. John Cheney and Ben Burch as forwards, Lewin or Garrett center, and Irving Kramer and Fred Schmidt guards. But an injury to Schmidt in the Pennsylvania game caused Stark to give Fred Tangeman a chance, and he has been doing very well. A revised lineup showed Burch moved to center, with Ed Picken at forward.
This change does not give Dartmouth the tap-off, but it improves the offense fifty percent, and Stark is now debating the advantages of one lineup over the other. Wild Bill McCall and Aarne Frigard are still on the outskirts of varsity ratings, although both have shown that they know their basketball. Another injury hit the squad when Lauri Myllykangas turned up at the beginning of the season with a bad leg, which has kept him out of a majority of the games thus far. Myllykangas broke into basketball sensationally last year after mid year examinations were over, but fell off at the end of the season due to lack of practice. He is one of the best shots on the team, and is a capable court coverer. Kramer and Burch are both sophomores, and with two years ahead of them should go far toward recognition from the experts.
