Since opening the Ivy League season on Jan. 4 in Cambridge, the Big Green men's basketball team has sent a youthful lineup, containing only four upperclassmen, onto courts from Providence to Philadelphia. There, the Big Green youth movement has done battle with veteran opponents, including Brown's Earl Hunt and Alai Nuualiitia, Princeton's Kyle Wente and Ray Robins, and Pennsylvania's First Team All-Ivy trio of Andrew Toole, Ugonna Onyekwe and Koko Archibong. Despite Dartmouth's 0-6 league record (4-15 overall), the results have been encouraging for Dartmouth head coach Dave Faucher's young team.
In the Big Green's Feb. 1 game against Princeton(10-8, 4-1 Ivy), a team-high 15 points from point guard Steve Callahan '05 and late-game sharpshooting from rookies Jason Meyer '06 and Calvin Arnold '06 helped Dartmouth scare the defending Ivy tri-champions, as the teams were deadlocked in the final three-minutes of the game before clutch free-throw shooting from Robins allowed the Tigers to escape with a 57-52 victory. One week later, against Brown (11-9, 6-0 Ivy), Dartmouth pushed the Bears for 40 minutes before succumbing to the same fate as the rest of Brown's Ivy League opponents, falling 61-53.
"We're at a position where we're competitive in every game," said Faucher. That fact stands as a compliment for a Dartmouth squad that has given up the advantage of experience every time it takes the floor. It also gives a sign of hope as the Big Green prepares to do battle with Cornell (7-12, 2-4 Ivy) and Columbia (2-17, 0-6 Ivy) this weekend in Leede Arena.
In describing this weekend's visitors from the Empire State, Faucher said, "We're all kind of in the same boat. We're playing to win, but we're also trying to develop the younger guys."
Dartmouth's young players will have ample opportunity to test their development this weekend. For Cornell, sophomore forward Eric Taylor leads the Big Red attack, averaging 13.6 points and 7.2 rebounds per contest. Classmate Cody Toppert also scores in double figures for head coach Steve Donahue, averaging 10.7 points in each outing. Junior guard Ka'Ron Barnes provides veteran leadership for the Big Red, averaging 12.2 points per game as one of only three upperclassman on Cornell's roster. Rookie Lenny Collins has made an impact for the Big Red, averaging eight points per game, including a career high 16 in Cornell's 80-73 win over Lafayette on Jan. 5.
Columbia comes to Hanover with only two players who averaged 10 or more minutes during the 2001-02 season. One of them, senior guard Marco McCrotty, leads the Lions with nine points and 7.3 rebounds per game, while the other, senior center Chris Weidemann, is the Lions' defensive stopper, blocking 2.4 shots a game for the Light Blue.
The Big Green will look to use a wide variety of offensive weapons to frustrate the defense-minded Lions and outgun the Big Red. As with the visitors from New York, Dartmouth's offense starts with senior leadership, as Big Green co-captain Charles Harris '02 leads the team in scoring and rebounding with 12.9 points and 4.6 caroms per contest. The backcourt duo of Callahan and Mike McLaren '05 is right behind, as the two sophomores combine to average17.7 points per outing. Both McLaren and Callahan have recorded new career-highs this season, as McLaren scored 21 points against Harvard on Jan. 11, while Callahan tallied 19 points at home in Dartmouth's 67-61 win over Binghamton on December 3.
In the middle, Dartmouth has begun to get solid play from the trio of David Gardner '05, Scott Klingbeil '04, and Arnold. Gardner has scored in double figures six times this season after failing to accomplish the feat during his freshman season, while Klingbeil scored a career-best 12 points against Yale last Friday. Arnold, meanwhile, has used a combination of size, shooting range, and court vision to quietly fill the Dartmouth stat sheet, and currently ranks second on the team in assists despite only playing 13.2 minutes per game.
It is often said that close only counts with horseshoes and hand grenades, but Dartmouth's strong efforts against more experienced teams have served to instill confidence in the young Big Green squad. This weekend, the Big Green will use that confidence to their advantage against Columbia and Cornell, and attempt to open their four-game homestand with a pair of Ivy League wins.
