Dartmouth

Dartmouth all-time moment No 6: Doggie Julian retires as Big Green winningest coach

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We’re counting down the top 10 moments in each Ivy school’s history as part of our Ivy League at 60 retrospective. Dartmouth is next because green and white really were Doggie colors.

Boston Celtics fans know Alvin “Doggie” Julian as the coach that preceded Red Auerbach, but Julian made a more memorable name for himself with the Indians (they weren’t the Big Green until 1974).

Julian coached Dartmouth for 17 seasons from 1950 through 1967, winning back-to-back Ivy League titles after the formation of the modern Ivy League in 1956. Dartmouth went 76-27 and 44-12 in conference play in the Ivy League’s first four seasons, never finishing lower than second. Dartmouth nabbed a NCAA East Regional Final appearance in 1958, led by Rudy LaRusso.

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Dartmouth all-time moment No. 7: Sea Lonergan nabs third straight first-team All-Ivy selection

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We’re counting down the top 10 moments in each Ivy school’s history as part of our Ivy League at 60 retrospective. Dartmouth is next because, well, see previous post.

After a 1996-97 season in which senior Sea Lonergan led Dartmouth to a second-place Ivy finish, Lonergan was obviously deserving of a third straight first-team All-Ivy selection, and he was awarded just that.

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Dartmouth all-time moment No. 8: Beating Penn at the Palestra in 1997

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We’re counting down the top 10 moments in each Ivy school’s history as part of our Ivy League at 60 retrospective. Dartmouth is next because Sea (pronounced ‘Shay’) is a great first name, .

Sure, Dartmouth has beaten Penn at the Palestra other times, but it never meant more than when the Big Green pulled it off Feb. 8, 1997, defeating the Quakers 74-70 in overtime.

At that time, Penn was coming off winning four straight Ivy titles and 4-1 in league play, while the Big Green were 4-2 and looking to sustain momentum (despite a two-point loss the previous night to eventual Ivy champion Princeton) from a veteran team featuring senior forward Sea Lonergan, senior center Brian Gilpin and senior guard (and excellent ball distributor) Kenny Mitchell.

It was Lonergan, a three-time All-Ivy selection, who made an odd game-saving move late in the contest.

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Dartmouth all-time moment No. 9: Three-point party at Boston College

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We’re counting down the top 10 moments in each Ivy school’s history as part of our Ivy League at 60 retrospective. Dartmouth is next because once upon a time, Hanover went downtown early and often… in Chestnut Hill.

Look in the NCAA men’s basketball record book and you’ll find a Dartmouth entry for “Number of Different Players to Score a 3-Point Field Goal, One Team.”

That record was achieved on Nov. 30, 1993, when nine Dartmouth players notched at least one three-pointer. Baron Carlson’s three-pointer as time expired gave the Big Green the record, if not the win (Dartmouth lost, 94-73). The Big Green went just 10-16 that season, but they were record-setters nonetheless.

Dartmouth all-time moment No. 10: Hiring Paul Cormier (twice!)

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We’re counting down the top 10 moments in each Ivy school’s history as part of our Ivy League at 60 retrospective. Dartmouth is next because Keggy the Keg said so. 

Paul Cormier has been good for Dartmouth.

In two coaching stints in Hanover, Cormier has turned the program around twice, with a quarter-century between his two program revivals.

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Sizing up the Ivy transfers

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It’s been an awfully busy offseason for transfers throughout the Ivy League. Shonn Miller is off to Storrs. Rafael Maia is pining for Pittsburgh, Alex Mitola is set for D.C. and Denton Koon is headed to Hempstead.

But which Ivy transfer is going to have the biggest impact on their team in 2015-16?

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Alex Mitola transfers to George Washington

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As Alex Kline (@TheRecruitScoop) reported today, Dartmouth junior guard transfer Alex Mitola has transferred to George Washington, where he is instantly eligible.

Mitola, who was also in the mix at Temple, La Salle, Vanderbilt and several other schools, announced his decision to transfer earlier this month, and visited GW Monday and Tuesday. Mitola should fit like a glove at GW, which struggled shooting the ball last season benefit immediately from Mitola”s range as a shooter, as Mitola finished second in the Ivy League in three-pointers made in his final season with the Big Green and has stretched opposing defenses throughout his career.

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Alex Mitola to become graduate transfer, play final season elsewhere

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According to several sources, including his high school coach, Dartmouth junior guard Alex Mitola will become a graduate transfer and play his final season at another school.

“Alex always wanted to see if he could play up at a little bit of a higher level,” Gill St. Bernard’s coach Mergin Sina told Jerry Carino. “Out of high school he didn’t have a chance to do it.”

The news represents a huge loss for Big Green coach Paul Cormier and the Dartmouth basketball program. Mitola averaged 12.4 points, 2.7 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game, good for seventh in scoring, first in free-throw percentage, 10th in assists, second in three-pointers made, second in assist/turnover ratio and second in minutes played.

“I’m disappointed and think he’s making a terrible mistake,” Paul Cormier said to the Valley News of Mitola. “He can’t get that (fourth year at Dartmouth) back. The decision that requires the most substance is staying here and following through with the teammates you came in with.”

The Valley News also reports that Mitola plans to play his final season of college eligibility with a higher-profile program and pursue a graduate business degree before playing professionally overseas.

“We’ve gone from nine victories to 12 to 14 since Alex has been here,” Cormier told the Valley News. “He could have left a real legacy. I hope this isn’t something he later regrets, because it’s not ending the way I think it should.”

“It was hard because I know the situation it puts them in, but I felt it was what was best for me and my career moving forwards,” Mitola said.

The Ivy League will miss Mitola’s potent long-range shooting, superior ballhandling and clutch play. Dartmouth would not have made its first postseason since 1959 this season without him. I discussed what I thought Mitola’s versatility meant to Dartmouth in an On the Vine in February, and One Bid Wonders correctly identified him as the “culture changer” in Hanover earlier this season.

2015 Outgoing Ivy Transfers

Denton Koon

Shonn Miller

Kenyatta Smith

Rafael Maia

Cam Crocker

Galal Cancer

Alex Mitola

ALL FOOLS’ DAY: Dartmouth raises fourth-place banner

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The Dartmouth basketball team on Tuesday raised a banner at Leede Arena to honor its CIT berth this season, the program’s first postseason appearance since 1959.

The banner read, “Fourth Place”.

Dartmouth then raised a 2014-15 Ivy League championship banner honoring Harvard next to the fourth-place banner.

“We made this happen,” Dartmouth forward Gabas Maldunas said.

Maldunas then told reporters a banner honoring him would be raised at Lavietes Pavilion next week. Maldunas said the banner will hang next to Harvard’s own 2014-15 Ivy championship banner and read, “Thank you, Gabas.”

“You’re welcome,” Maldunas told reporters about the scoop, which was later confirmed by Harvard athletic director Bob Scalise.

Yale loses late at Dartmouth, triggers one-game playoff

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Yale had its first NCAA tournament berth in 53 years in its grasp.

And then it slipped away.

Leading 57-52 with 24.1 seconds left and having trailed for just 43 seconds of the entire game up to that point, the Bulldogs collapsed.  Freshman guard Miles Wright hit two free throws for Dartmouth and added a three-pointer that tied the game. A 1-for-2 trip to the charity stripe for Yale senior guard Javier Duren gave the Elis a 58-57 edge with 2.3 seconds left, and Dartmouth had to go the length of the court in that span.

But the Dartmouth cross-court pass was batted out by Yale junior forward Justin Sears, who inexplicably and purposefully batted the ball out of bounds, hoping to take more time off the clock. As a result, the Big Green got the ball under Yale’s basket, where senior forward Gabas Maldunas used a screen from junior guard Alex Mitola to get free for the game-winning layup, clinching Dartmouth’s first postseason appearance since 1959.

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