With the victory over Cornell last Saturday, the first win in League competition since it rejoined the Eastern Intercollegiate League last year, the Harvard basketball team seems at last to have won at least a small place on the map. With the season only half over, the team has won four games, one more than the total number of victories gained last year, and bids fair to continue if not to increase its winning ratio.

When Wesley Fesler came, like young Lochinvar, out of the West, to herald the renaissance of Harvard basketball last year, a renaissance devoutly to be wished after dark ages under the tutelage of Ed Wachter, local fans and wise-acres tossed caps in air and cheered for the undefeated season that was to come. When it didn't appear, dark gloom settled again, but Fesler persevered, with the encouragement and critical advice of Big Bill Bingham, in his attempt to instill the rudiments of the game into his charges. Now it seems that he has succeeded. The last period victory that his merry men dragged down on Saturday must have afforded him considerable satisfaction, as it did to those players who, despite two years of bi-weekly defeat, continued to come out and to endeavour to perfect some kind of a team.

Boys, Fletcher, Gray

Outstanding amongst those who have been toilers in dark places are Captain Dick Boys, and Dick Fletcher, both two-letter men in the sport. Boys played at center on his Freshman team, and in his Sophomore year substituted with King Upton '33, at the Varsity pivot post. This year, with the advent of Bill Gray, otherwise known as Roslyn Heights, the "six-foot-seven Sophomore," who really stands six feet, five, Boys has been alternating at forward and at guard with excellent results. He it was who downed Cornell almost single-handed by scoring five points in the last two minutes of play.

Outstanding man on the floor Saturday, however, was Dick Fletcher, who, playing at guard without any rest, held little Lou Freed, the Cornell high scorer, to a single basket by one of the finest exhibitions of defensive play ever seen in Cambridge. Fletcher was captain of his yearling quintet, and has played consistently ever since on the Varsity squad, persistently turning in a hard-played first class performance.

The other three men on the present starting lineup are all Sophomores. Bill Gray is sinking them persistently at center, by the simple process of holding the ball up out of reach. Leavy White, captain of last year's Freshmen, has been doing an adequate job at right forward, with occasional flashes of brilliance, as against Tufts, although he is prone to tire easily. At the other forward, Tommy Stephenson is being pushed hard by a multitude of candidates, first and foremost among them being Ray Lavietes, a Junior, who played for the Jayvees last winter.

Meet the Reserves

Among the reserves, of whom few have been seeing real action are Charley Kollinites, Graham Spring, Byron Moser, and Jack Mason. Kollinites is a Senior; he was captain and guard on the Jayvees last year, but has not come up to preseason expectations this year, being handicapped by a weak ankle. Spring is a transfer student from Tulane; he played tackle on the Varsity football team this fall. With the cagers his uses are two: to give Bill Gray an occasional rest, and to frighten the enemy, both of which he does to perfection. High scorer on last year's yearlings was Byron Moser, now subbing at forward. He has a deadly eye for the basket when shooting well, but is a bit light for League work. Mason, nominally a guard, is now being employed as man of all work.

So the cagers are set to go to town. The only specific thing Fesler would like from Santa Claus right now is a tall guard, but such a thing doesn't seem to exist in Cambridge. As it is, the Crimson quintet is hardly recognizable as the aggregation of former years. The seven lean years are over, and the future should show continued improvement.