BASKETBALL

Allegedly, Dartmouth's basketball schedule gets somewhat easier than it was through the holidays and in early January, but that may not do Tom O'Connor's team much good.

"We need a win, just to prove to ourselves that we know how," said O'Connor as he prepared his team for Harvard and what could be the end of the longest Dartmouth hoop losing streak since the start of the 1967-68 season.

Since the early wins over Vermont and Holy Cross, Dartmouth has fallen to North Carolina, Delaware (in overtime, 90-85), to New Mexico and Tulsa in the Lobo Tournament, to Boston College, to Penn and Princeton in the Ivy League openers, and then to Springfield.

It hasn't been an easy road and a couple of facts, have become painfully apparent.

For the past three years, Dartmouth has had art inside scoring threat in Paul Erland and 6-10 center Jim Masker. Erland holds the Green career scoring record and Masker, perhaps never the great pivot that people expected him to become, had his good games and created problems simply through his imposing size.

Both are gone and O'Connor has been unable to uncover effective replacements, even though Tom Eggleston and Jim Fleischer have shown promise. Without the inside threat, two things have happened: First, the defensive pressure on guards James Brown and Bill Raynor has become increasingly heavy. Second, the rebounding game has suffered.

Brown, despite a couple of horrendous nights in Albuquerque when he scored 12 points against New Mexico and Tulsa, is still among the nation's scoring leaders with a 23.8-point average. Raynor has a 15-point average and beyond that it dips to forward Robin Derry who has an 8.3-point mark.

"Brown had his problems in New Mexico but is playing well now," said O'Connor after the Green captain scored 37 points and hit half of his floor shots.

Brown entered the Harvard game needing nine points to become the second leading career scorer in Dartmouth history (he needs an average of nearly 26 points per game the rest of the season to catch Erland's career mark). He's the only legitimate scoring threat that O'Connor has at the moment and everyone knows it.

He took a 32-point average to New Mexico and the writing was on the wall against the Lobos who belong among the nation's best teams this year. "No one is going to come in here and score 30 against us," said Bernard Hardin, the UNM forward.

Hardin was referring to Brown but after Dartmouth's slowdown attempt was overcome, the Green never was able to untrack and it looked for awhile like the entire team wouldn't get 30 points.

To answer a too-often-asked question, yes, the score of 107-36 that you read after the New Mexico-Dartmouth game was accurate. Dartmouth shot only 25 per cent against the Lobos who in turn shot 66 per cent (the starters hit 26 of 33 shots). It was that kind of night when O'Connor might have wondered what ever made him consider a career in coaching.

The losses to Penn (65-55) and Princeton (75-60) were tough because the Green played well and was simply worn down in the home stretch by teams that are expected to battle again for the Ivy title.

It's ironic the way things have gone since the Holy Cross game. Before that contest, a Dartmouth player said, "I don't care if we win another game so long as we beat them (largely because the Crusaders are now coached by George Blaney, the ex-Dartmouth coach).

There hasn't been a Dartmouth victory since that night and as far as O'Connor, Brown and the Green faithful are concerned, it's been too long.

Center Jim Fleischer '73 (30) has movedinto the starting lineup and has given theGreen five improved rebounding.