It didn't take Wes Fesler's Sophomore-studded hoopmen as long as expected to get their first court victory of the year. The 51 to 38 margin over the Northeastern Huskies Thursday night was a pleasant surprise, and the squad members enjoyed themselves thoroughly all night. The Feslermen looked very bad Tuesday against a veteran Tech quintet which has been practicing all fall, but bounced back with a much better all-around display against an experienced but small Northeaster five.

Next week the squad hits the road and tackles Brown and Wesleyan in their own back yards and will undoubtedly take a couple of good lickings. This small, inexperienced Crimson hoop squad starts the year with fine potentialities but has much to learn. That the new men will improve game by game is certain, because Coach Wes Fesler is teaching them sound basketball.

Spring Practice

Fesler spent several weeks last spring drilling some of the newcomers on fundamentals, and this work should pay dividends in the future. Now he has a band of willing boys who have much natural ability, and the chances of moulding them into a first-class operating unit are infinitely better. In many respects, the impossible task facing Coach Fesler last year was to make a slick purse out of a sow's ear.

Most of the veterans have been shunted off to seats on the bench to make room for a building process for the future, but some of them are apt to break into the lineup in crucial league games if the Sophomores do not come up to expectations. Junior center Homer Peabody is the most valuable letterman, but a pulled knee ligament threatens to keep him out of action for much of the season.

Veterans Important

Men like Bob James, Sam White, Lee Bird, Chet Legg, Adrienne Simpson have not been lost in the shuffie and may be heard from before long. Senior forward Charley Lutz, of course, takes a backseat to no one in the East as an all-around floorman and is an invaluable steadying influence on the young team.

The squad has been cut down to fifteen, and unfortunately there is no place to give seasoning to the men who had to be cut. There is no Jayvee team, and with its abolition last spring went its coach, Johnny Wood. The sacrifice in player talent has not been important but Fesler has his hands full with his enlarged Varsity squad every afternoon.