Catching a Lizard

You ever tried to catch a lizard?

Seriously. You know, those little lizards that you find when you're out in the country (people from New York City can just use their imaginations). Whenever I see one, I get the uncontrollable urge to attempt to catch it.

The problem is, grabbing those suckers is hard. Real hard.

For one, they're damn fast. But if you sneak up on one very carefully, you can usually catch its tail.

Which immediately falls off.

And you're left with a damn lizard tail in your hand while its previous owner is sitting there laughing at you.

Because after all that work, you're right back where you started.

The Harvard men's basketball team is most assuredly sympathetic to those out there with massive collections of dead lizard tails. For in Saturday's game against Lehigh, whenever the Crimson threatened to take control of the tempo, Lehigh would grab the momentum back.

In other words, Harvard left Briggs cage carrying a lot of tails and not too many lizards.

"That's our legacy," Harvard Coach Frank Sullivan said. "We weren't consistent when we needed to be."

Case in point: in the first half, with about 7:30 to go, Harvard was down 23-17. But then the Crimson came alive, going on a 10-2 run that included a James White slam off of a Paul Kubiak rejection and a trey by Mike Gilmore.

Harvard's up 27-25, Briggs cage was rocking, and the Crimson had a golden opportunity to go into half-time with a big lead.

What happens? Lizard tails. Lehigh immediately scores nine unanswered points, and the halftime score is 36-29 in favor of the Engineers.

Can you say, "streaky?"

The second half was more of the same. With 10 minutes left in the game, Harvard had whittled the Lehigh lead to just 51-49.

This method didn't work too well either. Yet again, the visitors engineered another spurt, this time an 11-3 run. Harvard would never be close again.

"At halftime it felt like we were still in the game," Gilmore said.

But if Harvard can't keep the tide rolling in its favor for longer periods of time, all of its games will be like the Lehigh game.

The reason that the Crimson lost wasn't as much Lehigh as it was Harvard. Sure, the Engineers did a good job, but they weren't that good.

Harvard really could have won on Saturday and knows it. Lehigh's runs were as much the doing of the Crimson as anyone.

Both times that Harvard came close, Lehigh got a whole bunch of fast-break baskets or was the recipient of unnecessary fouls. Consequently, the Engineers' score seemed to be rising as fast as the game clock fell.

Tomorrow, the Crimson plays Dartmouth in its first Ivy League game. The Big Green isn't the best in the lvies--but also not the worst.

If the Crimson is as inconsistent in that game as it was today, Harvard will lose. Without a doubt.

But at the same time, the team knows that it can win. It just has to start aiming for the lizard's head.