Five Faces Penn, Princeton Powerhouses

The Ivy League's best two basketball teams, Princeton and Penn, will play Harvard in the IAB this weekend. Despite the present lowly state of Harvard basketball, it's very possible that the Crimson could spring an upset in one of the contests.

Princeton, currently leading the League with a 5-0 record, plays here Friday night, Harvard played at Princeton Jan. 15, and dropped a 52-50 hearbreaker when the Tigers' John Haarlow sank a running 45-footer at the buzzer. Theoretically, the Crimson should have a good chance of beating the Tigers when they have the home court advantage. But there will be no upset in this match Friday.

Princeton is a fine, well-disciplined squad. Now that Bill Bradley has graduated, the Tigers have been forced to play team basketball -- and they're doing it successfully. No Princeton player is averaging more than 12 points per game, but the Tigers have talent height and depth.

The Tigers have good big men in 6-6 Ed Hummer and 6-9 Robbie Brown and a fine guard in Gary Walters Princeton plays the style of basketball that Coach Floyd Wilson would probably love to see the Crimson use. They have an agonizingly slow attack, and are willing to wait and wait for good shot. Princeton would have to have a miserable night -- as they did last month -- for the Crimson to pull an upset.

Before the season, Penn looked like a solid bet to win the Ivy title. The Quakers had two brilliant guards in Jeff Neuman and Stan Pawlak, who between them have averaged 43 points per game this season. And Penn's front line averaged an imposing 6-9.

Penn Shows Flaws

But the Penn team has a lot of flaws, as their televised loss to Princeton last Saturday indicated. In the first place, their big men are a bunch of bums: they can't shoot and they can't rebound too well either. And Penn has absolutely no backcourt depth to give Neuman or Pawlak a rest.

Harvard lost to Penn at the Palestra last month 86 to 65. But the Crimson could reverse this decision Saturday night.

The winning strategy for the Crimson could be to use a full-court press constantly. This may seem an absurd suggestion, since Neuman is easily the best ball handler in the backcourt with Gene Dressler, George Neville, Bob Beller, and Jeff Grate. With this depth, Harvard can afford to press and probably wear down Neuman and Pawlak. Besides, if Penn is able to get the ball downcourt Tom Mallison (6-10). Frank Burgess (6-9), and John Hellings (6-8) can murder Harvard under the boards.

Even if Harvard loses the Penn game it should have at least one bright spot, for Keith Sedlacek will probably set the all-time Harvard career scoring record in that game. The 6-0 senior from Valley Forge, Pa. has scored 1038 points to date. The record is 1074.