HANOVER, N.H. – If you think there’s nowhere to go but up for the Dartmouth men’s basketball team this season, you’re probably not alone. The Big Green won only four Division I games last season and were – to be kind – dreadful offensively: 351st nationally in efficiency, last in the Ivy League by a pretty wide margin. And Dusan Neskovic, who was fifth nationally in usage and third in shots taken, is now at Richmond.
The preseason Ivy League poll would agree with you as well. Dartmouth was picked dead last almost unanimously.
But internally, as the Big Green regrouped, it also marked opportunity for them. Outside of Neskovic’s departure, they are not necessarily starting over. And in their Division I opener Saturday afternoon at Leede Arena, with two seniors and two juniors in the starting lineup, they took an early punch from Sacred Heart and came back to win fairly comfortably (with the exception of the final minute), 81-76.
