Big Green on path to rebuilding

Dartmouth men's basketball coach Terry Dunn had no misconceptions about the job he accepted last summer, taking the reins of a Big Green squad that finished 3-25 the previous season.

"There's a learning curve," Dunn said before the start of the season.

Fifteen games into this campaign, perhaps the best way to characterize this year's Dartmouth squad is to say that they are learning.

In many ways, the team had nowhere to go but up. Dartmouth lost its final 18 games a season ago under longtime coach Dave Faucher. After a victory in the league opener against Harvard, the Big Green closed out its Ivy League schedule by losing 13 straight.

To make matters worse, sophomore guard Leon Pattman, the team's lone bright spot in 2003-04, unexpectedly quit four games into Dunn's tenure.

Clearly, the team was in for some growing pains.

That fact is reflected in Dartmouth's 4-11 record to this point. The team has only three victories against Division I opponents and has had trouble replacing Pattman's scoringability.

The Big Green dropped its first Ivy League game of the season, 76-74 at Harvard. But, continuing on Dunn's learning curve, the team got the best of the Crimson in the rematch six days later.

Dartmouth built a 31-22 halftime lead and then withstood a second half rally to hold on to win, 49-46.

The two contests against Harvard highlighted what the Big Green needs to do to win games right now, namely to keep the game low-scoring. The team simply does not have enough offensive firepower to keep up when the score gets into the 60's and 70's.

And to the credit of the players, they are giving Dunn the type of effort defensively that he needs to help them win games.

They held the Crimson to 33 percent shooting in the last meeting, and they have held six out of their last seven opponents to under 50 percent from the field.

Still, Dunn needs players to implement the type of system he wants, and this season's crop is just the beginning of what Dunn hopes will be several successful recruiting classes.

In freshman forwards Chuck Flynn and Jonathan Ball, and freshman guard Michael Giovacchini, Dunn has three players who are major pieces in the rebuilding process.

Flynn and Ball, who have combined for 11 points and eight rebounds per game, have provided the Big Green with quality frontcourt depth to go with what was already one of the Ancient Eight's tallest big man unit.

Flynn is the more polished of the two, as evidenced by his 46.2 percent field goal percentage and 1.3 assist to turnover ratio, not bad numbers for a freshman forward.

Giovacchini has the ability to eventually replace Pattman as the team's number one scoring option.

The Salt Lake City native comes from a basketball family. His father, uncle and two older brothers all played college basketball, and his older brother David is a senior on the Harvard basketball team.

But while Giovacchini might be more savvy than most rookies, it took the departure of Pattman and an injury to junior guard Michael Lang for the freshman to see his first extensive action of the season, when he played 31 and 40 minutes in consecutive games.

While Lang's injury gave Dunn an opportunity to give his freshman increased minutes, it was another unfortunate turn in Dartmouth's season.

Lang had become Dartmouth's best player in Pattman's absence, scoring 25 points against New Hampshire, only to suffer a groin injury shortly thereafter. But Lang rebounded quickly, scoring a career-high 31 points in an overtime loss to UC Davis. Clearly, with the dearth of offensive ability already present on the team, the Big Green cannot afford to lose Lang in the league season.

In David Gardner, Steve Callahan and Calvin Arnold, Dunn has three experienced players who have helped make the transition between the coaching staffs easier.

All three are talented players in their own right. But this season, Dunn may need them more as teachers.

This season, the Dartmouth basketball program has turned into the Terry Dunn Institute. And clearly, while the team has made some progress, there should be plenty more room on the learning curve once Ivy League action gets into full swing.

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