Impeccable Habits

COACH Gary Walters compares his basketball team to an infantry unit. "Unfortunately, when we go into battle we have little artillery to back us up," says Walters. The Big Green's arsenal lacks two things: size and offensive skills. Walters has compensated for this with a deliberate, pass-the-ball-around offense and an aggressive defense. The guerrilla-style tactics have paid off for Dartmouth. Through 18 games, the Green had an 11-7 record, with upset victories over Holy Cross, Seton Hall, and Princeton, Walter's alma mater. Dartmouth's defense was just plain stingy, yielding opponents a miserly 56 points a game, best in the country for a NCAA Division I basketball team. Only three Dartmouth teams won more than ten games during the past 19 years, the 1969-70 and 1971-72 squads of George Blaney, now at Holy Cross, and Walters' maiden team in 1975-76.

"This team has worked as hard - and has played up to its potential - as any team I've coached," says Walters. "Physically, we're giving away more size and shooting ability to our opponents, but we have compensated with impeccable work habits. We've pulled off some magnificent upsets. The team has performed beyond expectations."

Lack of height has been a problem all season long. "We're very, very small," concedes Walters. "Most high school teams are bigger than we are." The starting center on the team is Larry Lawrence, a 6-foot 4-inch junior from Macon, Georgia. Lawrence gives away at least three inches to opposing centers. "He's a forward playing center," says Walters. "And we're finding out how difficult it is to play without a conventional center. Every other team has one, so we stand out like a sore thumb." Walters finds playing without a big center particularly takes its toll when the team plays games on consecutive days.

Early in February, the Green played at Columbia and held a 14-point lead after the first half, only to have the Lions use a pressing man-to-man defense that negated the Dartmouth offense in the second half. The Lions won the game, 45-40. The Big Green played at Cornell the next night and was defeated, 68-61. "We played tired against Cornell," says Walters. "We've had to work so hard to compensate for our lack of size. It hurt us that second night. In fact, we had nine shots blocked in the Cornell game - I never had that happen to any of my teams before. The team's defensive efforts, up until that weekend, had been able to camouflage our lack of offensive skills."

Dartmouth held its opposition to fewer than 55 points in 12 of the first 18 contests. In the 51-33 upset of Princeton, the Tigers were limited to three first-half field goals and ten for the game by a tenacious zone defense. Dartmouth forced 28 turnovers and stole the ball 20 times in a 69-50 victory over Rollins and caused 22 turnovers in a 55-48 triumph over Vermont.

Walters explains his defensive philosophy: "Defense is a phase of the game enhanced by speed, which is a Godgiven talent. More than any physical aspect, the ability to play defense is a reflection of character. Motivation is of primary importance rather than technique; our players must be mentally prepared in order to play sound defensive basketball. I try to stress to my players that we must play aggressive defense to compensate for our lack of offensive skills. It's good defense that keeps us in every game. In addition, there is even more pressure on us to play well defensively because of our lack of size. We must play aggressively and box out on the boards to stay with the opposition. Our program is starting to develop good defense in the realization that it's necessary for success."

Winter Carnival weekend saw the Big Green bounce back from its double defeat at the hands of Columbia and Cornell. Freshman forward Barry Caldwell of Pasadena, California, teamed with center Larry Lawrence in 19-point efforts for a 62-51 victory over Brown in the Friday night game'. Dartmouth improved its offensive skills in the contest by hitting on 64 per cent of its field goals, including an awesome 70 per cent in the second half. Caldwell scored on nine of ten field goal attempts. "Caldwell has had a fine freshman year for us generally speaking," says Walters. Dartmouth increased its Ivy League mark to 3-4 on Saturday night by nipping Yale, 50-49, at Thompson Arena.