BASKETBALL

One definition for "coach" is a four-wheel vehicle drawn by horses. Another definition is a person who instructs and trains a team.

Like the four-wheel vehicle, a person who coaches a team can get the job done best if he has a couple of horses.

Tom O'Connor didn't have them this season and Dartmouth's 6-20 record in basketball is the measure.

There's no denying the record. It's nothing that O'Connor is proud of, nor are his players particularly pleased. There were perhaps a couple more wins along the way that slipped through the Green fingers but, all in all, it finished up about the way the realists expected.

"A 6-20 record, measured in the cold light of statistics, looks pretty negative," said O'Connor after his first season as Dartmouth's coach.

"I'd like to think, however, that there's more to a season than the won-lost record. We had a great group of individuals who gave us their maximum effort. They simply came up short more often than not."

If there's a single game that demonstrates the effort of a team led by seniors James Brown, Robin Derry, and George Riley it's the Alumni Gym affair with Columbia.

"We had beaten Cornell the night before," said O'Connor, "but we'd lost 17 games, including one by 27 points at Columbia. There were eight minutes left and we were losing again by 13 points.

"It would have been easy to go through the motions and accept another defeat, O'Connor continued. "But they didn't.

With Brown and Bill Raynor, the captain-elect, providing the spark, Dartmouth caught the Lions with two minutes to play. Brown got four crucial points in overtime and Dartmouth won, 76-74.

In the final game of the season, against a classy Pennsylvania team that won the Ivy title for the fourth straight year, the Green showed its stuff for eleven minutes.

When Derry's jump shot tied the game at 14-14, there were nine minutes left in the first half. At halftime, Penn's withering defense had completely stopped Dartmouth and built a 35-14 lead. It was an awesome display by the Quakers and a dismal way for Dartmouth's season to end.

It was disappointing for everyone but especially the seniors. "There isn't a player who worked harder than Derry," said O'Connor. "Statistics can't measure his ability. It's hard to say how good he would be if we were able to give him more help up front."

The senior from Wenatchee, Wash., was Dartmouth's rebounding leader and his 10.3-point average trailed only Brown and Raynor.

Brown, winner of the Dolly Stark Award as the Green's most valuable player, finished his career as the Ivy League scoring champion (a 22.6 average in 14 league games and 22.3 overall). He ranks second among Dartmouth's all-time scoring leaders with 1536 points.

It is hardly a positive statistic to note that Dartmouth has had but nine winning seasons in basketball during the past 25. But that's a fact, for those who measure them coldly and the 13-4 record of the freshmen can be deceiving when the realists consider that the help that Penn, Princeton, and Yale will get from their frosh should be better than that which O'Connor will realize from his new faces.

There's still a long way to go.