There is often a mentality in sports to overestimate the importance of a single game to a team's overall season.
Unfortunately for the Big Green, this weekend's homestand against Cornell and Columbia is a must win situation if they wish to stay alive in the Ivy League title chase.
Dartmouth, 9-3 overall and 1-1 in league, has shown it has the talent to compete for the title this season.
However, Monday night's loss to Harvard means that the Big Green face an uphill battle the rest of the season, knowing that the eventual Ivy League champion will certainly not have more than two or three losses.
Combine that knowledge with the fact that the Big Green still has all four contests against league powers Princeton and Pennsylvania remaining and the harsh reality that there is no more room for a letup like the game against Harvard.
If they are to overcome their offensive woes that plagued them in the Harvard game, Dartmouth must find a way to get guard Sea Lonergan '97 and Brian Gilpin '97 back in rhythm after the two struggled down the stretch in the loss to Harvard.
The team's two leading scorers, who are averaging 16.9 and 11.7 points per game respectively, were nowhere to be found when the team went cold, contributing only six points in the second half.
Furthermore, the team must find better offensive production from the rotation of Shaun Gee '00 and Keith Stanton '97 to help take pressure off of Gilpin in the post position.
When Cornell comes to Leede Arena tonight, the Dartmouth defense faces the task of stopping perhaps the two best players in the Ivy League.
Senior guard Alex Compton and forward John McCord have powered the Big Green's 7-3 start as they head into their Ivy League opener with the Big Green.
McCord, a junior college transfer, is averaging 18.2 points per game along with 8.7 rebounds and has recorded four games with 10 or more points and rebounds.
Compton, one of the deadliest scorers in the league last year, has combined with backcourt mates DeShawn Standard and Michael Roberts to give Cornell over 30 points a game from the guard positions.
After upsetting Penn last year, it was a loss at Cornell that helped to send the Big Green reeling and out of the Ivy League title hunt.
"Cornell is 7-3 which is not that far off from our mark of 9-3," Head Coach Dave Faucher said of a Cornell team that has a 1-2 mark on the road. "We need to be ready for them because McCord and Compton are possibly the best players we will face all year."
While the game against Cornell will be a stiff test for the Big Green, the 2-7 Columbia Lions are part of the bottom tier of the league this year.
Like Cornell, the Lions possess a standout backcourt, led by All-Ivy senior guard C.J. Thompkins, who is averaging over 20 points per game for the Lions, who are just 2-7 on the season and haven't won a game on the road in five chances this year.
Sophomore Gary Raimondo is the other standout on a Lions team that almost upset Dartmouth in Hanover last year as the Big Green needed two Kenny Mitchell '97 free throws to pull out a last-second 57-56 victory.
