Three loose-jointed, lanky, high-scoring mid-Westerners, a rugged defensive guard, and a fast little floor-guard make up the '45 basketball quintet that Coach Al McCoy calls "a strong offensive outfit."

The 226 points the Yardlings have scored to their opponents' 207 for an average of 57 a game are the big reasons for McCoy's estimate of the squad. Only four of the season's 16 games have been played as yet, and McCoy feels it is still early to characterize the team definitely.

After victories over M. I. T., Northeastern, and Brown the Yardlings suffered their only loss at the hands of Exeter by a one-basket margin. Next on the schedule is Tufts on February 4 and then eight more games before the contests with Dartmouth, Dean Academy, and Yale which McCoy is pointing for.

Having made about two-thirds of the team's points, Captain Mike Keene, Frank Bixler, and Dean Hennessey are easily the standouts on the squad. Besides being from the mid-West, Keene and Bixler from Indiana and Hennessey from Illinois, all three live in the north entry of Matthews Hall which always sends a special cheering section to the Freshman games. Hennessey halls from the same town and high school in Illinois as "Bunks" Burditt, star of the Varsity's victory over Dartmouth.

Bixler has been high scorer in most of the games and has amassed a total of 69 points. Hennessey's special department is foul shooting, in which he has the exceptional record of 19 out of 24.

Don Richards and Mike DeLeo complete the first five. Richards is a rugged guard who is very valuable under the defensive backboard. DeLeo, because of his small size and speed, is good as a floor-guard and besides has shown some shooting ability.

Leading the reserves is Dick Forster, tallest man on the squad, who has seen action against every team except Exeter when a sprained ankle kept him out of action. McCoy says that he has shown steady improvement, and Forster should give the regulars a real battle for a starting position in the future. Other promising reserves are Smart, Rudman, Moyer, Post, and Scheer.

Coach McCoy is satisfied with the team's offensive showing, but plans for the future stress some hard work on defense designed to cut down the opponents' scoring.

The substitutes are also going to get some special attention after mid-years. Two hundred and fifteen of the team's 226 points have been scored by the first five players, showing the lack of good reserves. McCoy wants to develop some reliable substitutes so that the regulars can have more rest and so that he won't be caught short-handed when foul penalties take a large toll of players as in the Exeter game.

"Naturally mid-years will set us back a certain amount," said Coach McCoy. No regular practice has been held during exams, so the players will naturally be a little slow in reaching their previous peak.

In his first year as Yardling basketball coach, McCoy is confident of his team's making a good record in the remaining games. Besides coaching, McCoy has done some sports writing for magazines, namely "Open Road For Boys." He writes expositions and is the official coach for this magazine, which means that he checks the technical details of any sport story or cartoon going into its pages. McCoy has received almost 2,000 letters from readers, most of which are queries on athletics.

The record of the games played has shown that the Yardling quintet has better results when it is behind at the half. In the only game that the team has led at half-time, the Exeter game, the Crimson came out on the short end of the score.