Basketball

With all prospects gone a glimmering, and with a disastrous road trip just completed, the Dartmouth entry in the Eastern Intercollegiate League does not conjure up much optimism. The team has just returned home after losing to Cornell 29-28 and Yale 31-20, and with these two games being written into the wrong side of the ledger, there does not seem much cause for hope regarding the standing of this year.

Dartmouth, in a way, was the victim of unfortunate breaks. In another way there is no possible alibi for their showing, and on the other hand, Dolly Stark deserves unlimited commendation on the way he has moulded a team from nothing at all at the beginning of the year.

Those of us who were writing of basketball at the first of the season pointed out only too clearly that this year's five would have to be made of entirely new material, for only Fred Schmidt and John Cheney remained of last year's stalwarts, who blew up the league in the last half and failed to win the pennant by a single game.

An influx of sophomore material was helpful to Stark, but as is the case with any varsity sport, sophomores need time to acclimate themselves to competition which is harder than they experienced when freshmen. Although this is no time to talk of next year, with the season barely half done, nevertheless,

a brilliant combination will be returning again. This year's five has been starless to the extent that no one man has consistently shone in all of the games. There is no Heinie Swartout who burned up the league two years ago. Instead, Cheney will be the highlight of one game, Schmidt will run wild against Princeton, McCall will almost upset Columbia, and Kramer will flash against some other team. But next season will see such sophomore players as Ben Burch, Irving Kramer, Bill McCall, and Aarne Frigard all seasoned in the game.

The league season this year has been typical, inasmuch as no one team stands out as superior to the rest. Dartmouth dropped two games both by one point margins, losing to Columbia 33-32, and to Cornell 29-28. These games were not of the heartbreaking sort, for the Green was ever behind in the Columbia contest, and just managed to pull up to within a point of the Lions as the game ended. The Cornell game, played at Ithaca, gave the boys in Red something to shout about, for they overcame a ten point lead, and nipped Dartmouth in the final minute of play.

The first league game in Hanover was with Princeton, and Dartmouth won by a 28-25 score. Despite the well-timed passing of the visitors and the sensational playing of their young star Goodpasture, Fred Schmidt had one of his best nights, caging six baskets and guarding well so as to insure the game.

The Yale team came to Hanover as one of the features of the Winter Carnival, and Dartmouth, after a shaky start, which yielded a 17-14 halftime advantage to Yale, pulled the game out of the fire with a rousing 39-35 verdict. Of course the major attraction of the evening was little Albie Booth in a Yale uniform, and say what you wish against the boy wonder of Yale, he has that natural color which insures something doing every minute he is in there. We were skeptical regarding his abilities on the court, but after one night of watching we were convinced that the boy is a great natural athlete.

To give a general outlook of the league as a whole, let us take it from a different viewpoint. Pennsylvania's great five, with veteran players in nearly every position was well out in front of the pack when the race was half over. Then Columbia came along to beat Pennsylvania in a hair raising contest in New York. Yale then followed up with a 30-29 victory over Columbia! Cornell, way out in Ithaca, was rated before the season as the weak sister of the league. What did they do? They played Pennsylvania to an overtime period, only to lose out, and then walloped Yale! Then, in the return game, Yale pinned a defeat on them, following which the Ithacans came through with a one point defeat of Dartmouth, which had looked like a strong contender at first.

In the foregoing jumble, one may get a good idea of the Eastern Intercollegiate League. While it does not encompass the best teams of the East necessarily, that honor falling to the Greater New York aggregations of Fordham, C.. C. N. Y. and St. John's, it nevertheless produces brilliant and sensational basketball during nearly every game.

In the Dartmouth case, constantly changing lineups featured the season to date. It seemed as though Dolly Stark were ever trywhen something would happen, and all plans would be off. For instance. In the first half of the Yale game, Dartmouth played high school basketball. The brilliant Eddie Horwitz was shooting baskets from all angles, and Booth was a demon on the passing attack. Then with one fell swoop, Stark lifted Myllykangas, Lewin and Picken out of the lineup, and sent in Burch, Kramer and McCall. From then on Dartmouth took the offensive, and the game was won in the second half.

Lewin, a great center, was handicapped by lack of practice due to medical studies, and only for a while was he of any real use to the team through no fault of his own. By shifting Irving Kramer, a sophomore to center, Stark insured against next season, and also gave him a chance to show his wares.

Before this last trip, when the team played Cornell and Yale, Capt. John Cheney hurt his knee and was unable to make the trip. This undoubtedly affected the team play to some extent, although Cheney had started neither the Springfield nor Columbia games.

Looking over the individual players, Ben Burch bids fair in future years to become one of the best players in the circuit. He is fast, slight of build, and has an eye for a basket which is often times elusive. Irving Kramer is the opposite of Burch in that his weight makes him a stolid player, one who is good on defense, and a fair shot from mid-floor. Perhaps the future laurels will be for Wild Bill McCall. From an inauspicious start in basketball he has worked himself up into the first string lineup and is a fixture there now.

McCall, who flashed on the gridiron last year to score the only Dartmouth touchdown against the Navy, and to take part in that soul thrilling rally against Yale, is an apt athlete. He is a fighter at heart, and his tremendous exertions almost overcame a Columbia team on the court, following which he was brilliant against Yale, when, as luck would have it, he was pitted against Albie Booth.

In these three men, Dartmouth basketball hopes rest. We would not go as far as to saythat the present league season is hopelessly lost as far as the Green is concerned, but it does appear as though the future prospects of the team are of greater significance than the immediate present.