Having won its first two Ivy League games last weekend at Cornell and Columbia, the Dartmouth men's basketball team is on a roll right now.
The team is getting help from its young front court on the inside, the backcourt continues to shoot the lights out from the outside and co-captain Flinder Boyd '02 was just named Ivy League Player of the Week.
Who's going to stop these guys? Well, the Killer P's of Princeton and Penn might have something to say about the Big Green's strong play of late, as Dartmouth travels to the mid-Atlantic region this weekend for match-ups against the Tigers and the Quakers.
Despite Princeton's 5-2 record in conference play, for all intents and purposes the momentum belongs to the Big Green heading into tonight's game in New Jersey.
The Tigers have lost their last two Ivy League contests, which included a 60-50 loss to the Yale Bulldogs last Saturday and a 62-38 drubbing at the hands of the Penn Quakers on Tuesday night in New Jersey.
On the flip side, Dartmouth is playing its best basketball of the season.
Strong defensive performances against Cornell and Columbia last week aided the Big Green in earning two six-point victories.
In order to maintain its excellent play of late, though, Dartmouth will have to overcome the absence of inside force Brendan Herbert '04, who will not be making the trip south due to a nagging back injury that required surgery this past offseason.
Additionally, the Big Green men will have to persist with their solid defensive play during these two crucial conference road games.
"That's the first thing we want to take on the bus with us -- defensive toughness," Coach Dave Faucher said in a recent interview. "I think that's critical in facing these two difficult teams."
Dartmouth will also have to utilize some of the tactics that benefited Yale in its recent victory over the Tigers.
Faucher added: "Yale played with a lot of energy, and they really shot the ball well. We just have to get after Princeton and not let them do what they're accustomed to doing. We have to apply more pressure on the ball and on their receivers and then make them adjust a little to us."
While Dartmouth attempts to take Princeton out of its game plan this evening, looming ahead on Saturday night are the Penn Quakers, who also lost to Yale last weekend but came back with vengeance on their minds earlier this week in a road win over Princeton.
Coach Faucher noted that his team must adjust its offense in order to negate Penn's extended defense.
"We have to play a little bit differently offensively," Faucher said. "Penn really extends the floor and tries to take you out, so we really have to drive the ball against them. We really have to take it to them."
After the Quakers shot nearly 60 percent from the floor -- including 57.7 percent from beyond the arc -- in last month's victory over Dartmouth at Leede Arena, the Big Green must also be aware of the Quakers' perimeter shooters.
"We're going to try to make [All-Ivy forward Ugonna] Onyekwe shoot more from the outside," Faucher noted.
"That will allow us to play closer to their other perimeter shooters. We want to give help inside, but at the same time we want to be aware of their shooters."
Dartmouth also looks to take advantage of a healthy Boyd, who performed well despite battling the flu last weekend in the sweep in Ithaca and New York City.
Co-captain Vedad Osmanovic '02 should complement Boyd nicely on the wing where he has a hot hand shooting the ball of late.
