Basketball

Dartmouth concluded its second worst basketball season in history, with a final record of 3 wins and 23 losses. A diligent search of the records discloses that the only time the Green fared worse on the courts was in 1918, when they lost 26 and won no games at all. This season was an unhappy debut for Coach Doggy Julian, who is universally acclaimed as one of the best coaches in the business and whose past record speaks for itself. The reason for this dismal showing is not difficult to find. There was no dissension on the team, the boys never quit trying, and they continued to give all they had right up to the final whistle. The trouble was very simple—they just couldn't hit the basket. This may appear to be an unduly simplified explanation for a bad season, but it is essentially an accurate one. By and large, the team learned the difficult fast break, give-and-go system taught by Coach Julian. Their work on rebounds was nothing sensational, but it was not too bad either. Their floor work and ball-handling would never set the world on fire, but they too were nothing disgraceful. But they just couldn't get the ball in.

Time and again, therefore, the team would work the ball down the floor, only to miss a set shot or boot a lay-up. In game after game, their percentage of baskets would run 20 per cent or less of the shots taken, whereas a successful team should have approximately 40 per cent in this department. Billy Biggs was the only one who could score with any degree of fluency throughout the season and he had his bad nights. As it was, however, he ended up among the first ten League scorers with 142 points in 12 games, for an 11.8 point average per game. Sophomore Fred Gieg injected some life into the team after the start of the second semester (see below) and proved to be good for around 20 points almost every night. Sophomore Jim Cobb also started out like a house afire, but he went on probation after Christmas and his talents were lost to the team for the rest of the season. Dick O'Neill and Zacl Boyages showed occasional flashes of brilliance, but their scoring was inconsistent. Kent Calhoun, Roger Pierce, and Len Hedberg, who made up the rest of the starting five most of the time, were good off the boards but were ordinarily not strong scorers. In short, there was nothing wrong with this team that a few baskets couldn't fix. But unfortunately that is what they pay off on. Dartmouth 65, Harvard 61—A 13-game losing streak came to an end when Coach Doggy Julian's pupils won an aggressive victory over Harvard on the local boards. This was the only League victory for the season, despite some close ones, and it showed what the boys could do when they were able to hit the basket. The game was marked by the work of Fred Gieg, the 6' 5" sophomore center who had been languishing on probation during the first semester. This operative celebrated his second game in the big time by scoring 20 points, 16 on baskets and 4 from the foul line. The other scoring hero for the Green was Zack Boyages, who dumped in 14 points in the second half. The work of Kent Calhoun on the backboards was excellent and, although he scored only 5 points, he made a considerable contribution to the victory. When all was said and done, the game was won on the foul line, with the Indians dropping 31 out of 44 attempts, whereas the Harvards were able to connect with only 15 out of 25.

Princeton 70, Dartmouth 69—A few days later, the boys almost pulled another one out of the fire. Almost, but not quite. Playing their best game of the year, the Green lost to Princeton on the latter's home court by the narrowest of margins. This was a heart-breaker to lose, for the Hanover boys played consistently good basketball all the way, instead of the sporadic fits and starts which have characterized their performance during most of the season. Furthermore, Dartmouth led practically all the way, a role which has been all too rare, and were only beaten in the waning seconds of the contest, when Princeton dropped in a final basket. The game reflected the ability of the Dartmouth team to hit from the floor, sinking some 44 per cent of their shots for an average which they had not reached all season. All this, however, was not enough to win the game, aided as the Tigers were by some rather questionable officiating. Fred Gieg served additional notice that he is going to be a lot of help to Coach Julian for the next' two years by again leading the Green in scoring with 21 points, 20 of them from the floor, largely on his deadly set shots. Billy Biggs had one of his good nights, coming in second in the scoring with 18 points, and Len Hedberg and Kent Calhoun helped the cause along on the rebounds. Dartmouth has made a specialty this year of losing to favored Princeton teams by narrow margins after uphill fights. This one followed the pattern too closely for comfort.

Dartmouth 69, Brown 68—With a team that was so depleted by the flu that he had to take several reserves on the trip to fill out his ten-man squad, Coach Julian had the satisfaction of arising from the flu himself and watching his charges take a close one from Brown in Providence. This game was almost an exact duplicate of the Princeton game (see above) except that we won this one. The boys were hitting their shots for a change, with Billy Biggs coming up with a phenomenal 63 per cent of his shots from the floor and a total of 22 points for high scoring laurels. Len Hedberg of the Green was second for the visitors, with 16 points, and Fred Gieg had a comparatively quiet night (for him) with a mere 14. These three men scored the bulk of the Dartmouth points, during a game in which Coach Julian used only two substitutes, which was about all he had. Coming with only two more games to play, this one was a nice one to win and showed that the boys definitely had not given up the old college try.

Cornell 69, Dartmouth 48—Dartmouth ended this, its worst season of modem basketball, with a decisive defeat at the hands of a Cornell five, which was second to unbeaten Columbia in the League race. The chronic inability to hit from the floor was again the cause of the Indian's undoing, as Coach Julian's pupils got only 15 baskets in 62 tries, for an average of something over 20 percent. Billy Biggs ended his junior year of competition with 17 points, which again made him high scorer for Dartmouth. These tallies brought his total for the season. as noted, to a respectable 142 points in 12 games. Billy was the only Dartmouth player who scored in two figures, which gives you an idea of the dearth of scoring talent. Even big Fred Gieg, who has been good for 15-20 points in most of his games since the start of the second semester, only got 6. The rest of the scoring was spread over most of the traveling squad, who got into the game for varying periods. To paraphrase T.S. Eliot in this connection, this is the way the world ends—not with a bang but a whimper.