The Dartmouth men's basketball team heads down to Providence and New Haven for its final two showdowns of the season this weekend.
This evening the Big Green (2-10, 9-16) plays the Bears of Brown University (6-6, 15-10), a team that features freshman standout point guard Jason Forte and Ivy League player-of-the-year candidate Earl Hunt.
Saturday night's game against the Yale Bulldogs (9-3, 17-9) provides the Big Green ballers with an opportunity to play the spoiler in a tightly contested race for the Ivy title, as Yale vies with both Penn and Princeton for first-place honors on the final weekend of the regular season.
Coming into tonight's match-up at the Pizzitola Center on Brown's campus, the Big Green carries the unfortunate burden of a four-game losing streak. The team has not won a game in three weeks, dating back to a 57-51 Feb. 9 triumph at Columbia.
However, a great deal of optimism is coming from the Dartmouth program right now, as Brown is currently enduring a losing streak of its own, albeit only a two-game skid. Even though Brown defeated Dartmouth 74-71 nearly one month ago at Leede Arena on a clutch three-point basket with 1.3 seconds left on the clock, head coach Dave Faucher knows his club can hang with the Bears.
"We gave a great effort last time," Faucher said. "I was really pleased with the way we played. The main thing is that we have to try to come back with the same type of effort we had at our place, and I think we will."
Considering that the Brown and Yale games mark the last contests of the 2001-02 regular season for the Big Green, Faucher is also looking to see what his prospects will be for next year's squad.
"The idea going into this weekend is that we're going to try to get a little from a lot of people rather than a lot from only a few people," Faucher said. "We're going to play a lot of different combinations so that we can get our energy back."
Lurking ahead on Saturday night are the Elis of Yale University. Back on Feb. 1, Dartmouth played a competitive game against Yale for about the first 30 minutes at Leede Arena. Unfortunately, the Bulldogs clamped down on defense for the remainder of the game, going on a 20-3 run to close out the contest with a 73-55 victory.
Faucher wants his troops to focus on controlling the tempo of play this time around.
"I think we'll really have to control the pace there, especially with the sell-out crowd that is expected [at Payne Whitney Gym]," Faucher said. "Yale has one of the loudest gyms in the League, and they'll be playing for the Ivy League championship."
He added, "We have to control the game and not go down there flying around on an open floor. I think last time they just wore us down. We're capable of scoring against them, and we're capable of defending them."
The Big Green should have some extra motivation to play well this weekend, considering their first game will be broadcast to satellite viewers across the country.
"I think there's a lot of incentive for the weekend," Faucher said. "We'll be playing on television Friday night against Brown on DirecTV, and there will be a sell-out crowd at Yale. So we're really looking forward to the competition."
