Dartmouth stands in a three-way tie for fifth place, having slowly clawed its way out of the cellar after an 0-4 start.
Before the season began, the Green were expected to contend for the top two spots in the Ivies with a depleted Princeton squad and the returning League champion Quakers. Dartmouth's 10-4 record in conference in 1998-99 raised expectations higher than they had been in five years.
But with the loss of small forward and defensive keystone Charles Harris '02 to academic problems before the school year even began, this year's edition of the Big Green immediately started out at a disadvantage.
Dartmouth Head Coach Dave Faucher has experimented in replacing Harris' role alongside center Ian McGinnis '01, power forward Shaun Gee '00, shooting guard Greg Buth '01 and point guard Flinder Boyd '02.
Vedad Osmanovic '02, Mark Kissling '02, Chris Ellis '00 and most recently freshman Greg Friel have started games for the Big Green this season. Justin Whisenant '01, Jason Kemp '00 and Meador Hall '03 have all seen time trying to fill in for the lost swingman.
Tough act to follow
Dartmouth has also had difficulty in other areas living up to the standard it set for itself last year.
McGinnis, who last year led all of Division I college basketball in rebounding at over 12 a game, is pulling down an impressive but still somehow disappointing 8.9 boards this season. He set a season high for rebounds with 15 against Yale last weekend whereas a year ago he grabbed over 15 on several occasions.
Buth, who was recognized by the national basketball Hall of Fame as the nation's best three-point shooter in '98-'99, has not shot as well from the whole floor this year as he did from behind the arc a season ago. Nonetheless, Buth is still averaging 16.9 points per game -- good for fourth in the Ivies.
Buth also won League Player of the Week honors for 36- and 25-point efforts last weekend.
Several players have performed as expected, and have even improved.
Point guard Flinder Boyd '02 has benefited from the removal of a cast that adorned his left hand for all of last season to raise his assist total to 7.0 this year. While reluctant to drive the lane often against bigger defenders, Boyd has expertly broken full court press defenses on several key occasions and is a fair third option as a three-point shooter.
A team captain for the second year in a row, Gee is scoring over 17 points a game for the third straight year. He is a shoe-in for recognition as first-team All-Ivy for the third consecutive year, and has an extreme outside shot at Ivy Player of the Year since he has played for a losing team to date.
Although he suffered through a scoring slump over the Winter break games, Gee has the ability to break out and score 30 points in a night, and he is a fiery competitor.
The 'three'
In filling the fifth spot in the lineup at small forward, Dartmouth has truly yet to find the answer. Friel was the surprise starter this past weekend, but seemed out of sync with the rest of the offense, and only played a total of 33 minutes over the two games.
Kissling is a lanky 6'9" with the ability to play any of the front-court positions, but he has yet to distinguish himself consistently at any one of them.
At times, he has been a force in the middle, blocking several shots in a half. Sometimes, he has remained on the perimeter, but has only hit 10 of his 50 three-point attempts.
Osmanovic stands at 6'6". But where his height gives him an advantage at the two-guard, he is only average for a small forward, and he has mentioned his own inconsistency defensively over the years.
Osmanovic does pose the most immediate offensive threat since he has the capability of hitting a shot from virtually anywhere on the court. He has averaged 7.4 points in just under 19 minutes of play per game.
Ellis started only briefly as a defensive answer to several hgh-scoring opponents and has recorded Did Not Plays in five of Dartmouth's games.
Who will start tonight and tomorrow? Who knows.
Penn
Opposing the Big Green's on-and-off attack will be the unquestionably powerful Quakers. Despite losing a second-team All-Ivy small forward to graduation, the boys from Philly still have the best outside game in the League.
Senior guards Michael Jordan and Matt Langel average a combined 27.3 points per game, and hit over 37 percent of their three-point field goals.
In the front court, center Geoff Ownes provides a tall body in the pivot and freshman forward Ugonna Onyekwe has stepped in as the team's third-leading scorer.
The Quakers have a competent bench and a very confident group of players.
Princeton
The Tigers are young. Power forward Mason Rocca is the only senior on the roster.
But Princeton has gone 6-2 despite their youth and the necessity of giving significant time to nine players because of injuries.
Sophomore center Chris Young, freshman shooting guard Spencer Gloger and Rocca lead the team in scoring -- Young and Rocca also top the team in rebounding -- but a number of other players can play an important supporting role on any given night.
Gloger has been a deadly-accurate 46-percent shooter from three-point range and Young hits almost 50 percent of his shots on the inside. Last year in Hanover, Young hurt the Big Green with 16 points while hitting repeated unstoppable hook shots over Dartmouth defenders.
Preview
The Tigers's fast-paced team-oriented style is fun to watch and often successful, but it is stoppable. Penn and Yale found the solution and maybe the Green can too.
However, Dartmouth will face Princeton after what will likely be a debilitating battle with Penn. Last season, it was the other way around as the Tigers tired out Dartmouth and the Green could not get near the Quakers after the first few minutes, losing 82-49.
Although it may be contradictory, Dartmouth's best chance is against the more successful Penn team because it will be rested and raring to face its annual tormentors.
Whether the Green can come close is unquestioned. They can.
Will they? I don't know.
More importantly, can they win one game or even both? It's a long shot, but hey, you never know.
