The men's team will look to snap its current five-game losing streak when it hits the road to face Brown (7-16, 1-5 Ivy) on Friday before traveling to New Haven, Conn., for a Saturday night game against Yale (9-14, 3-3 Ivy).
The matchup against the Bears is one of the best chances for the Big Green (4-16, 0-6 Ivy) to secure its first conference win of the season.
Interim head coach Mark Graupe admits that Dartmouth will need to improve its shooting touch if it wants to come away with a victory.
"What we're trying to figure out is how we're going to score," he said. "We've had open looks, but just look at our cumulative statistics."
After last weekend's losses to the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University, the Big Green now ranks 321th out of 334 schools in Division I in shooting percentage, hitting only 38.3 percent of its shots.
Jabari Trotter '12 agreed that generating points will be key to Dartmouth's success.
"We've got to get some kind of offense," he said. "We just need to adjust to what we have and the strengths of our players. Holding a team to 53-54 points for a game is fine, but when we're not putting the ball in the basket."
The Big Green surrendered 53 points to the Quakers last Friday and 54 against the Tigers on Saturday, but still was winless on the weekend.
Defense will also be a key factor for Dartmouth, specifically against Yale and senior guard Alex Zampier, who currently ranks second in the Ivy League in scoring, netting an average of 17.5 points per game. Zampier eclipsed the 1,000 point mark for his career in the Bulldogs' win over Columbia University on Feb. 6.
The Big Green sits in last place in the Ivy League and is the only team without a win in conference play.
Cornell University (20-3, 6-0 Ivy) and Princeton (13-5, 4-0 Ivy) currently sit atop the Ancient Eight. The two will meet at Princeton on Saturday night in a game that will help determine which team earns the league's sole automatic NCAA tournament bid.
Both of the Dartmouth women's games this weekend carry additional importance outside of league standings. The Big Green (8-11, 3-2 Ivy) will celebrate National Girls and Women in Sports Day on Friday against Brown (6-14, 3-3 Ivy), and Saturday's game against Yale (9-11, 4-2 Ivy) is the Women's Basketball Coaches Association Pink Zone game for breast cancer awareness.
Dartmouth is one of over 1,000 schools nationwide participating in the Pink Zone initiative. Big Green players will wear pink warm-up shirts on Saturday, and the first 100 fans to enter will receive a free T-shirt.
The Big Green swept all four of its games against the Bears and the Bulldogs last year, but head coach Chris Wielgus said that past success is not necessarily and indicator of future wins.
"We're focused on the here and now," she said. "What happened last year doesn't have a lot of bearing on what happens this year."
Dartmouth enters the weekend having split its previous two games against Penn and Princeton. It secured a 51-37 victory against the Quakers (1-18, 0-5 Ivy) in Philadelphia but fell to a strong Tiger team (17-2, 5-0 Ivy) on the road, 58-47.
Princeton is in first place in the Ivy League standings and is currently riding a 12-game win streak. The Big Green is one of four two-loss teams tied for second place, while Penn and Cornell round out the Ancient Eight in seventh and eighth, respectively.
Wielgus acknowledged that Princeton is a strong team, but added that there are a lot of games remaining this season, and plenty of time left for anyone to win the Ivy League.
Despite Wielgus' confidence, the Big Green cannot afford to lose any more conference games if it wants to deny Princeton its first outright Ivy League title since 1978.
The Dartmouth women host Brown tonight at 7 p.m. and play Yale on Saturday at 7 p.m., both in Leede Arena.
The men go on the road this weekend, traveling to Providence, R.I., to take on the Bears at 7 p.m. before visiting Yale on Saturday for another 7 p.m. game.
