ANOTHER SHOT

James Blackwell '91 and his basketball teammates get a second chance at the Ivy title.

Inside the Leede Arena, another one of what Coach Paul Cormier calls his "blue-collar, no-non-sense practice" sessions is in progress. At the far end of the gym a lone player is shooting endless free throws. "Every time I practice shooting foul shots," says sophomore point guard James Blackwell pointedly, "I always make sure that the first one goes in."

Last season Blackwell was a key player in a classic sports drama. With seconds left on the clock in a key bout with Yale, Blackwell was fouled. If he made both free throws, Dartmouth would beat Yale and have the opportunity to spar with Cornell for the Ivy tide. A victory could also mean a trip to the NCAA Tournament. One miss, though, and Dartmouth would lose the game, the title shot and the tournament bid.

Blackwell's first shot fell short. "To come so close was

devastating," Cormier said. After all, his team didn't run stadiums and shoot thousands of shots in an empty gym just to finish second. So what if it was the school's best record in years? So what if it was more wins and more drama in a frozen Hanover winter than most undergraduates can remember? It wasn't the title ring.

Missing that free throw clearly hasn't crushed Blackwell, though. "Being put in the position of coming off the. bench and having to lead in that Yale game was emotionally and physically a high point for me," Blackwell recalled. "Missing the shot is going to keep me striving so that it won't happen again."

"Time does heal wounds," Cormier noted. "And in a way, we reached our goal last season. As long as, I'm coach, we want to be in a position to win the Ivy League. Now the players know what kind of excitement we can generate, and our goal is to make the most of it."

That excitement was reflected in regular sellouts of Leede Arena and a spirited student section that sounded at times like a Madison Square Garden crowd. The team returned the favor by losing only one game in the new arena to Cornell.

There are holes to fill this year, and Blackwell will be called on to help fill them. "James will have to take charge and run the show," Cormier said. "If he doe's that, and if we play better defense and rebound better, we'll be in the thick of things again."

By running the show, Cormier means bringing the ball up court, getting the assist, throwing the perfect pass, beating the press—things Bryan "Ice" Randall '88 can no longer do now that he has taken his diploma. It may also mean popping the occasional three-pointer, which Len Bazelak '88 can no longer do, now that he has gone to the business world (working, incidentally, for John Berry, the man who built the gym).

Dartmouth's backcourt will welcome the return of John'Mackay '88, who took two years off from college to do Mormon missionary work in Colombia. Mackay was elected team captain as a sophomore before he left, and he earned a reputation as a tough defensive player and a strong shooter. He may well fill Bazelak's sneakers for this year's team, and for next year's as well.

A pair of strong freshmen may help address Dartmouth's persistent rebounding problem. Six-six Michael Lombard and six-eight Hanks Oshinaike will help proven sophomore Brendan O'Sullivan cause trouble on the front line. And junior center Walter Palmer (7-2) and senior center Jason Lobo (6-11) will also return.

Then there's senior Jim Barton, a first team all-Ivy pick who was in the top ten in the country most of last season for points per game and freethrow percentage. Barton flat out won the tense Harvard game in Cambridge last year, throwing in a threepointer at the end of the second overtime. Passing to him just about guarantees an assist, a fact Blackwell notes with glee. "I cannot wait to start giving him the ball," Blackwell said. Barton should set the school record for most career points before January, and he has an excellent shot at Ivy Player of the Year this year; he only missed it by one vote in '88.

Hard facts have to be faced, though, and one is the schedule. There are visits to Virginia, Vanderbilt and Memphis State (ironically, three schools that Dartmouth beat out in the recruiting battle for Barton). Big East power Boston College is paying a visit to Leede. And, for the first time in years, Dartmouth is hosting a tournament of its own. "People will probably be as skeptical as they were last year when we played lowa," Blackwell said. "But we're ready to compete with anybody."

The rest of the league is at least as nervous about the Green as they were at the start of last year's season. "Dartmouth has to be considered one of the favorites," said Harvard Coach Rick Roby (Dartmouth '79).

No team can be taken for granted in the Ivies anymore, but Princeton and Harvard look like the most trouble. Harvard "has the most athletic talent," Cormier said. The Crimson team has everybody back, including Ralph James, last year's Rookie of the Year. Princeton, the slowdown killjoys who never seem to go away, recruited very well last year. One of Penn's starters, Ben Spiva, who burned the Green for 23 points in Philly, has bolted for Memphis State.

That helps things, but Penn is always a problem. "We are still one of the younger teams in the league," Quaker Coach Tom Schneider admitted, "but we have experience."

And Cornell? Well, it backed into the title last year, winning it all because Dartmouth lost in New Haven, but the Red lost 80 percent of its points and 74 percent of its rebounds at graduation last spring. Yale got hit hard by graduation, too. But that won't get it any sympathy from the Green. The memory of the free throw falling short in New Haven is still fresh.

Blackwell still feels the foul in his bones, and he still hears the crowd yelling and stomping. He sees himself go to the line. He sees the clock nearly spent. And then he feels that shot go off...

And then it stops. It has to, because now it's a new year. "I came here to win," he says. And he and his team have a second chance to do just that.

Women a Top Threat

Most teams who lose their number-one player don't count on contending for the top spot in their conference the next year. But it is a mark of the success of the women's basketball program that, despite the decision of last season's Ivy Player of the Year Liz Walter '89 to forego her senior season for an off-campus study program, the Big Green is still a top threat to get a seventh Ivy League title this season.

Fourth-year head coach Jacqueline Hullah welcomes back a veteran team; every starter except Walter returns. Dartmouth led the nation last year in field goal percentage, and the backcourt duo of juniors Sophia Neely and Ute Bowman is one of the reasons for that success.

On the front line, senior forward Nancy Fitz and junior center PattyWebb give Dartmouth plenty of experience in the paint, while sophomore Nicole Hager provides the scoring punch.

Top competition for the Green will come from Harvard, last year's co-champions and spoilers of Dartmouth's Leede Arena opener. Princeton has recruited well over the last two years and handed Dartmouth a rare home-court loss last year.

Skaters Rise

Hockey Head Coach Brian Mason got a one-year contract extension after last year's 10-15-1 record, and he lost only four players from that team. Dartmouth finished just one place out of the playoffs last winter, and a boost from this year's freshmen may put the team back in post-season action.

Dartmouth's strength is in goal, where junior Steve Laurin and senior Tim Osby have kept the Green's hopes alive in many a game. Laurin has made 40 or more saves in 11 games of his Dartmouth career; he had 58 saves in a Green win over RPI last year. Osby, for his part, notched six wins last year.

Scoring will come largely from captain Tom Finks, the team's leading goal scorer for the past two seasons. Juniors Dave Williams and Jamie Hanlon should also fill the net regularly.

Mason had an interesting recruiting year; three of his players came from Choate and two from Hotchkiss. The years these freshmen have spent playing together could give Dartmouth an instantly cohesive squad.

James Blackwell will be "running the show for the Green this winter,"says Coach Paul Cormier.

Football 1-3 overall, 0-1 Ivy. First win 24-3 at Davidson; showed signs of significant improvement in opening loss to Penn and in a tough. 17-3 loss at Holy Cross. Men's Soccer 4-3 overall, 1-1 Ivy. Lost a tough one at Princeton, 2-1, but still in Ivy title hunt. Men's Cross-Country 10-1 overall. Lost first dual meet since 1983 to Providence. Still likely to win the Heps, though. Women's Soccer 2-4 overall, 1-2 Ivy. Up and down, but every game has been close.