Tonight Coach Skip Stahley's Yardlings seek their eighth basketball victory of the season against Worcester Academy at Worcester. A win for the '44 quintet will further the current belief that it is one of the finest Freshman teams of the past decade.
Coach Stahley himself ranks the team as almost on a par with the '42 aggregation, which boasted such Varsity men as Ed Buckley, Bud Finnegan, Joe Homano, Ed Rothschild and Bill Webber. The '42 outfit, at this time two years ago, had lost only one game, but that defeat came at the hands of a Freshman team, Boston University.
The present team also has suffered one loss. But it took a hard-pressed Tufts Junior Varsity to turn the trick, 34-32, on December 13, which marked the end of the first week of play for the Freshmen. Since then, the Stahleymen have scored five consecutive triumphs.
After opening the season on December 6 with a clear-out decision over M. I. T., 47-24, the Freshman five days later barely edged out Brown by shooting the tying and winning goals in the last 30 seconds of play. Twenty seconds after Don Lutze had arched a high one through the basket to tie the score, Bob Betts grabbed the ball from the middle of the floor, aimed quickly, and swished through the two points that sunk the visitors, 46-44.
The Baby Bruins together with the Tufts Junior Varsity must have scared the Yardlings out of their lethargy. Since December 13, the Stahleymen have whipped every one of their opponents-Northeastern, Milton, Exeter, Tufts Freshmen, and Boston Boys Club-by at least 12 points.
Their showing is one of the reasons why Coach Stahley, who became head football coach at Brown a week ago, has been wearing such a broad smile. "They have come a long way," said the genial mentor, "since the beginning of the year, but there is still room for plenty of improvement. This year's team is not quite as good as that of two years ago, but it has more height."
Four players are well over six feet. Hugh Hyde, a Groton lad, towers 6 ft., 4 in.; Donald Lutze, who went to Peddie, stands 6 ft., 1 1/2 in. above the ground; Dick Elkin, from Mayville, North Dakota, and George Burditt, hailing from La Grange, Illinois, measure up to 6 ft., 2 1/2 in.
Burditt, the captain and leading scorer, was the center on last year's All West Suburban Conference five, which consisted of players chosen from seven Illinois high schools near Chicago. His teammate, Dave Wrisley, plays on the second team of the Dartmouth Freshmen. One of the teams in the Conference, Glenbard, contributed Jim Olsen, Dartmouth's gigantic Sophomore center.
Burditt thinks that the team's success is due to teamwork. "We sort of hit our stride," he stated, "after the Tufts Junior Varsity tussle. We realized that we would have to fight in order to win.
"The good point about our squad is that everyone figures in the scoring. That, coupled with our zone defense, has been largely responsible for our wins. Six of us have been high scorers in different games. We beat North-eastern, 49-26, yet the high point man, Don Lutze, made only nine points.
Besides Burditt, Elken, and Lutze, Jack. Torgan and William Snyder round out the first team. Edward Hadley and Hugh Hyde have improved rapidly. Other who have shown promise are J. Thomas Axon, Walter Baker, Robert Betts, Malcolm Brodrick, Gordon Browne, Jr., and Richard Eckert.
If Robert Lutz, whose brother Charlie, was the basketball captain of last year's Varsity, had not encountered scholastic difficulties, the Yardlings would have additional scoring strength. Robert is perhaps the best shot in the Freshman Class.
After tonight's game, the Freshmen meet Dummer Academy on Saturday at so, Byfield, Boston University on February 26, and Dean Academy on March 1. The season then reaches its climax with Dartmouth four days later at Hanover and Yale on march 8.
