Everything is at stake this evening at Morningside Heights when the Columbia basketball team engages the Crimson varsity at 8:30 p.m. Everything, that is as far as Columbia is concerned.
The undefeated Lions, ranked fourth in the nation, will clinch a tie for the Eastern League title if they defeat the Crimson. With the League title goes an automatic bid to the N.C.A.A. tournament this March.
Columbia, therefore, will be up for the game. It will also lack the complacent confidence that showed on February 6 when the Crimson came close to an upset. Columbia took that game, 60 to 53.
The locals, on the other hand, are a rather discouraged bunch at present. In their appalling 44 to 73 loss to Cornell Tuesday, the Crimson players did not work well together and did not appear much interested in who won the game.
Crimson Coach Norm Shepard will stay with the same five men who opened the Cornell game, although he expects to substitute very quickly. Against the Big Red a combination of second-stringers showed up well for the Crimson.
Cambridge court followers will not have to travel to New York to see a Harvard team in action. Floyd Wilson's successful freshmen take on the New Hampshire yearlings at 4:30 p.m. in the Blockhouse.
The Wildkittens have a season's record of six wins and one defeat; the sole blot on their schedule was a one-point less to the Boston University freshmen.
This game is the only basis for comparing the Yardlings and New Hampshire. The Yardlings walloped the Terriers, 66 to 50. But the Wildkits have a fast, balanced team. They lost to B.U. only because they tried to freeze the ball in the last minute, hoping to preserve a one-point lead. B.U. succeeded in stealing the ball, however, and scored the one basket necessary to win.
Wilson will start his first-string quintet, with Ed Blodnick at center, Captain Bill Dennis and Ed Krinsky at guards, and Whitey Gremp and Ed Condon at forwards.
Varsity lineups:
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