When the Harvard basketball team opened its season against St. John's in New York last December. Dale Dover didn't have as much trouble scoring his first three baskets as he anticipated.

The Redmen had confused their scouting reports of Dover, who's best move is the drive, and teammate Mike Janzcewski, who is primarily an outside shot. With St. John's guard Jim Smyth playing him tight to take away his jump shot and calling him Mike. Dale drove for three easy lay-ups before the Redmen decided he wasn't Janzcewski.

Dale, who's one of the fastest back-courtmen in New England according to coach Bob Harrison drives whenever he can.

"I've always like to drive." said the 6'1" junior. "Speed and body mobility are my two greatest assets, and I belong to the school of thought that says you work your opponent with your primary ability instead of trying to mix him up with jump shots and drives," he explained.

Though Dover started taking more jump shots as the winter progressed, his reliance on the drive paid off. At the end of the season last month, he had climbed into seventh place among Harvard's all-time leading scorers with 871 points in two years. He also finished seventh in scoring in the Ivy League.

This winter, Dale led the squad in scoring for the second straight year making 51 per cent of his field goal attempts for an 18.6 point average. His high-point total of 27 against DePaul in Chicago paced the Crimson to a 90-84 victory.

Quick Score

Dale doesn't just score points. Because of his quickness, he often gets the most difficult assignment on defense; guarding an opposing forward or guard who might be three or four inches taller. In Harvard's early-season triumph over Boston University. Dale held All-East forward Jim Hayes to six field goals, and at Princeton. Stopped two-time All-Ivy guard Jeff Petrie with only four points.

Though both Hayes and Petrie are three inches faller than Dale, his ability to jump in part enabled him to contain them. In fact his jumping talents earned him third place on the squad in rebounding this year, and during the first half of his senior year at Evander Chiids High School earned him a starting role at center.

In the second half of the season, he moved to guard and playmaker and scored 65 points against Taft High-his personal high. and was named All-City New York.

Chinese

Off the conrt, Dale spends most of his Chinese complement one another," Dale said. "Chinese makes me really exercise my mind while basketball exercises my body. Another reason I'm interested in Chinese is the importance China will have in the future world political scene-the third world is important to me since I'm a black person."

After graduation "I'd like to play pro ball for a few years to satisfy a childhood thing' I had about being a pro. It would be the ultimate success for me," he said.

When he finishes playing for the pros-time studying Chinese. "Basketball and or if he doesn't play at all-he'd like to continue Studying Chinese somewhere in East Asia. Dale made the first step in his journey to the East last summer when he worked as a messenger between the lesser assemblies in the United Nations in Geneva. While there, he worked at improving his Chinese by conversing with translators and Chinese-speaking delegates.

Dale has a unique fascination that seems to combine his two major interests-an entire wall in his room is covered with pictures of cats. "Cats remind me of the Orient with their sort of slanted eyes and are well-coordinated and graceful," he explained. "So you might say that they tie Chinese and basketball together. In my courses. I study Chinese, and on the basketball floor. I try to be well-coordinated and graceful."

"When I drive. I try to imitate a cat, twisting my body like a cat does when it's dropped so that I can avoid the opposing players." he said.

By most accounts he's been pretty successful.