Thanks to those who shared their thoughts on their hopes and expectations for the Big Green this season:
Dartmouth
Haiku Corner – Dartmouth season preview edition
Welcome to Haiku Corner, where we analyze what to look for with each Ivy squad this upcoming season, three lines at a time (with supporting links to boot):
Miles ahead of them,
Can Big Green underclassmen
Fill the Baltic void?
——————————————
Defense a given
Dartmouth, your upset special
If Gill fits the bill
——————————————
How many of us
Wish we could break a leg
As Keggy the Keg?
Dartmouth all-time moment No. 1: The 1957-58 NCAA Tournament run
We’re counting down the top 10 moments in each Ivy school’s history as part of our Ivy League at 60 retrospective. Of course, Dartmouth’s top 10 countdown ends at this post’s conclusion because nothing gold can stay.
The 1957-58 Dartmouth squad is quite simply one of the best teams in the past 60 years of Ivy hoops.
The team finished 22-5 for an 81.5 winning percentage, eighth-best in the country. Two of those wins were NCAA tourney wins.
Dartmouth all-time moment No. 2: Securing 1959 NCAA Tournament berth
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 Rudy LaRusso once had a cameo in an episode of Gilligan’s Island.
A season after winning the Ivy League championship and winning two games in the NCAA Tournament, Dartmouth vied with Princeton for the 1959 Ivy crown. The teams split their meeting that season, the only loss either squad suffered.
So on March 7, 1959, the Indians (before they were the Big Green) and Tigers matched up in a one-game playoff at Yale to determine who would represent the conference in the NCAA tourney.
Dartmouth all-time moment No. 3: Beating Yale to win CIT bid
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 Gabas Maldunas delivers.
Our No. 3 all-time Dartmouth moment just so happens to be the same as the No. 8 all-time Harvard moment.
Dartmouth went into its regular season finale on March 7, 2015 needing to defeat Yale to finish 14-14 and thus qualify for the College Invitational Tournament (CIT), for what would mark the program’s first postseason appearance since 1959.
Dartmouth all-time moment No. 4: Jim Barton graduates as Ivy second-highest scoring leader
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 Rachel Dratch, Buck Henry and Mindy Kaling all went there. Comedy cred for all time right there.
Continuing on from our previous Dartmouth all-time moment, another Jim Barton-focused item, we turn to Barton’s place as the second-greatest scorer in Ivy League history.
Barton graduated after four seasons in 1989 having scored 2,158 points, second only to Bill Bradley (who scored 2,503 in just three seasons). Barton’s career clip of 20.7 points per game ranks second in school history (behind Paul Erland ’72) and ninth in league history, a clip that not a single player in the conference has matched since then.
Dartmouth all-time moment No. 5: Jim Barton posts 48 points at Brown in 1987
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 we’re keeping it kosher.
There’ll be another post forthcoming on Jim Barton’s scoring exploits, but suffice it to say for now that he was a great scorer.
That talent was on full display Feb. 7, 1987 when Barton, then just a sophomore, notched 48 points on 18-for-29 shooting in a 98-96 overtime loss to the then-defending Ivy champion Bears.
Barton’s 48 points set a modern Ivy League single-game scoring record among players not named Bill Bradley that still stands. Again, more on Barton still to come in this countdown, but a scoring performance like this one simply could not be ignored.
Dartmouth all-time moment No 6: Doggie Julian retires as Big Green winningest coach
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.
Dartmouth all-time moment No. 7: Sea Lonergan nabs third straight first-team All-Ivy selection
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.
Dartmouth all-time moment No. 8: Beating Penn at the Palestra in 1997
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.