Forget about the last two losses.
The rest of the season for the Big Green begins tonight when they open up a pair of games against Ivy lightweights Yale and Brown.
Dartmouth has lost two in a row and four of their last seven but only one of those games was in league play.
As a result, the Big Green still sits tied for third place in the Ancient Eight with a 3-1 record, just one game behind Pennsylvania and Princeton.
The most important thing for the Big Green is to get back on track and regain the form they displayed early in the season.
From this weekend on, all of the remaining ten games will be against Ivy opponents -- meaning there's no room for error.
The players believe that getting back home and playing in front of their fans in this weekend's pivotal games should help them rediscover their winning ways.
"We've lost some close games on the road, games I think we might have won at home," co-Captain Sea Lonergan '97 said. "I think the team has been pressing a little bit. We need to find our rhythm and hopefully playing at home with the crowd behind us will make the difference so we can start winning those close games. We have five Ivy weekends left so every game is important now."
"These games are very pivotal," guard P.J. Halas '98 said. "We'll see how resilient we are as a team. We haven't played well but we still have plenty of games left to reach our goal of 20 wins. As a team we just have to relax, go out and have some fun, and beat teams by a lot of points."
Yale and Brown, who were both picked to finish near the bottom of the league in the preseason poll, may be just the perfect medicine to end the Big Green's skid.
Although Yale has shown signs of improvement over the last few weeks with key wins over Siena and Brown, they enter tonight's contest in Leede Arena with a league record of 1-3.
The Bulldogs, who are 5-8 on the season, are led by senior forward Daniel Onkwonko, last week's Ivy League Player of the Week.
Onkwonko and guard Gabe Hunterton are the only two Bulldogs averaging in double figures in scoring, averaging 14.7 and 10.3 points per game respectively.
While Yale may be on their way up the Ivy standings with their improved play, Brown is a team that has been struggling all year long.
The 2-15 Bears have shown flashes of adequacy by beating Yale and leading Penn at the half but will come to Hanover with an 0-12 record on the road. Sophomore guard Aaron Butler has been the only bright spot for the Bears, scoring in double figures in 11 of Brown's 13 games.
The key for the Big Green is to find their rhythm offensively after having two of their worst shooting performances of the year in their consecutive losses to Vermont and Army -- shooting under 40 percent from the field in both contests and even worse from beyond the three- point line.
"We're playing good defense, rebounding hard and getting good looks at the basket," Head Coach Dave Faucher said. "But besides P.J., we have a lot of inconsistent shooters. Those looks just need to turn into baskets."
"When we're playing our game and getting the ball in the hoop, there isn't any team that we can't beat," Lonergan said.
Both tonight and tomorrow night's contests will tip-off at 7:30.
