BASKETBALL

The line about "the last time Dartmouth had a winning basketball record" has probably become terribly overworked, but the fact is that you don't have to go all the way back to 1959-60 anymore.

The rebuilding program that Dave Gavitt began four years ago has continued under George Blaney and a pair of victories over Yale and Brown on the final weekend of the season turned the corner on a 13-12 season for the Indians, the best since the 14-9 mark back in - you guessed it - 1959-60.

A decade is a long time between drinks but the road ahead appears lush.

While Alex Winn, the veteran senior, missed the final four games of the season while combatting flu, exhaustion and other untimely ills, Paul Erland stepped forward to accept the challenge. The sophomore from Nashville, who came within nine points of the season scoring record of 553 points held by Steve Spahn, scored 28 points as the Indians came from 15 points behind at the half to defeat Yale, 69-66. The next night, against Brown, he scored 25 as Dartmouth won, 78-68, and clinched the winning record.

Erland finished with a 21.8-point average and far outdistanced the best previous performance by a Dartmouth sophomore. He had a 22.3-point average in the Ivy League, second only to All-America Jim McMillian of Columbia, and his performance in sparking the Indians to fourth place in the final Ivy standings (7-7) earned him a spot on the All-Ivy second team. He was Dartmouth's high scorer in 15 of 25 games.

Put Erland with the other sophomore starters - 6-10 center Jim Masker, and 6-1 guard Gary Dicovitsky - and inject the added experience of junior guard Joe Cook (who closed the season with a flourish that included 21 points, 12 rebounds, eight assists in a 72-69 win over Cornell) and the arrival of the "super freshman," James Brown, and you can see why Blaney is keeping a hard eye out for promising prospects. The reason is simple: It's going to take a pretty good act to follow the act that will hold center stage for the next few years.