Final Road Trip Takes Big Green to Brown, Yale

DARTMOUTH (9-15, 3-7) at
BROWN (7-17, 2-8)/YALE (18-6, 9-1)

FRIDAY, FEB. 26 AT BROWN • 7 P.M.
PIZZITOLA SPORTS CENTER (2,800), PROVIDENCE, R.I.
Video: ESPN3 and Ivy League Digital Network
Live Stats: BrownBears.com
All-Time Series vs. Brown: Big Green lead 79-73
Last Meeting vs. Bears: Feb. 13, 2016 — Dartmouth 87, Brown 70

SATURDAY, FEB. 27 AT YALE • 8 P.M.
LEE AMPHITHEATER (2,532), NEW HAVEN, CONN.
Television: American Sports Network
Video: Ivy League Digital Network
Live Stats: YaleBulldogs.com
All-Time Series vs. Yale: Bulldogs lead 109-98
Last Meeting vs. Lions: Feb. 12, 2016 — Yale 75, Dartmouth 65

Final Road Trip of the Year
•   Dartmouth hits the road one final time with this trip to Brown and Yale, looking to sweep the season series with the Bears and salvage a split with the league-leading Bulldogs.
•   Last week, the Big Green won their second road game of the year and first in Ivy play with a 78-66 triumph at Cornell. It was the second straight win for Dartmouth at Newman Arena since losing nine straight at the venue.
• The Green's two-game win streak was snapped the next night, however, when Columbia handed them their worst league loss of the year, 73-54.
•   Freshman Evan Boudreaux recorded his ninth double-double of the year against the Big Red with 22 points and a season-high 18 rebounds, the most by a Dartmouth player in 17 years.
•   Boudreaux has also led the Big Green in scoring for the last 11 games, and on the glass the last nine.
•   After going six straight games without scoring in double figures, sophomore Miles Wright — Dartmouth's second-leading scorer — has done so in each of the last four.

Series vs. Brown
•   While the Bears have won 13 of the last 18 and 22 of 31 against Dartmouth, the Big Green still hold the advantage in the all-time series, 79-73.
•   Dartmouth handed Brown a 17-point defeat two weeks ago, 87-70, its most points against an Ivy team in two years and largest margin of victory in a conference game in eight years.
•   Evan Boudreaux had a double-double in that game with 25 points and 13 rebounds, while Taylor Johnson tallied a career-high 22 points.
•   The Big Green have won three of the last four against the Bears, something they haven't done in 10 years against any other Ivy League team.
•   At the Pizzitola Sports Center, Dartmouth has a 10-16 record, but is just 1-9 in the last 10 games.
•   Head coach Paul Cormier is 14-13 against Brown in his head coaching career, 12-13 at Dartmouth.

Scouting the Bears
•   Brown has suffered five straight losses, the last four on the road and three by six or fewer points.
•   The Bears are 6-5 on their home court, however with Ivy wins over Penn and Cornell.
•   Cedric Kuakumensah, the Ivy League's all-time leading shot blocker, nearly averages a double-double with 13.7 points and 9.8 rebounds and can hit from inside (.485 inside arc) and out (.429).
•   Brown has hit nearly 40 percent of its three-point attempts in league play with four of the five starters better than 40 percent.
•   Point guard Tavon Blackmon runs the offense with his Ivy-leading 5.5 assists per game while adding 12.9 points and shooting 45.6 pct from deep.
•   Steven Spieth, younger brother of pro golfer Jordan Spieth, does just about everything with averages of 11.0 points and 7.3 rebounds to go with 3.6 assists and a free throw percentage of 85.6.
•   Mike Martin (Brown '04) is in his fourth season at the helm with a 48-64 record. He spent six years on the staff at Penn before returning home.

Series vs. Yale
•   Dartmouth has played the Bulldogs 207 times entering this contest. Yale has the advantage with a 109-98 mark against the Big Green.
•   Two weeks ago, the Bulldogs rallied for a 75-65 victory at Leede Arena after Dartmouth led for more than 30 minutes.
•   Evan Boudreaux had a double-double (21 points, 10 rebounds) while Miles Wright added 15 for the Big Green in the loss, while Yale got 21 points and 13 rebounds from Justin Sears and 25 points from Makai Mason, 20 in the decisive second half.
•   Dartmouth is 28-53 all-time against Yale at Lee Amphitheater. The Green also played an Ivy playoff game here in 1959, beating Princeton, 69-68.
•   Yale has won 25 of the last 31 meetings.
•   Head coach Paul Cormier is 12-16 all-time against the Bulldogs, 10-15 while at Dartmouth.

Scouting the Bulldogs
•   League-leading Yale has a half-game lead in the standings over Princeton having suffered its first Ivy loss last weekend against the Tigers following a 12-game winning streak.
•   Yale has outscored their Ivy opponents by over 13 points a game while shooting close to 50 percent overall and over 40 percent behind the arc.
•   Reigning Ivy Player of the Year Justin Sears averages 17.0 points and 7.1 rebounds while Brandon Sherrod is providing 12.1 points and 7.1 boards to go with a field goal percentage of 54.8.
•   Makai Mason (15.7 ppg, 3.8 apg, 37.7 3FG pct.) showed off his scoring skills in the first meeting with 25 points, but guard Jack Montague (9.7 ppg, 3.0 apg, 39.8 three-point pct.) has missed the last four games for undisclosed personal reasons.
•   Yale is third in the nation in rebound margin (+10.9), and has done better lately at the foul line (74.5 percent last six games) and controlling the basketball (10.6 turnovers last five).
•   Head coach James Jones (Albany '86) is the longest tenured head coach in the Ivy League, now in his 16th year with an overall record of 249-238 and shares of Ivy titles in 2001-02 and last year.

Yale Game on ASN; Brown on ESPN3
Dartmouth fans will have more ways to watch the Big Green this weekend with ESPN3 picking up the Ivy League Digital Network broadcast on Friday at Brown and American Sports Network producing the Yale game on Saturday. Check your local listings for stations that will be airing the contest, which will also be simulcast on the ILDN.

Boudreaux Boudreaux Golly!
A moment of silence, please, for Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the former UN secretary general who passed away on Feb. 16.
Thank you.
But I just can't stop using this note because freshman Evan Boudreaux has done so much in his rookie campaign:
•   He has been named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week eight times this season, tying the league record set 19 years ago.
•   Boudreaux has led Dartmouth in scoring each of the last 11 games and in rebounding the last nine.
•   For the season, he has topped the team in scoring 17 times and on the boards 18 times.
•   His 18 rebounds at Cornell last weekend are a Dartmouth freshman record and the most by any Big Green player since Ian McGinnis '01 had 18 against Princeton as a sophomore on Feb. 6, 1999.
•   His nine double-doubles this season are the most by a Big Green player since Crawford Palmer '93 had 11 in his one season in Hanover (1992-93).
•   In the last 25 years, only McGinnis, Jvonte Brooks and Gabas Maldunas have had even half as many double-doubles as a freshman (all had four).
•   His 17.6 points and 9.4 rebounds per game both rank second in the Ivy league.
•   In Ivy games, he leads in rebounds per game (11.1) and free throw accuracy (.881), and is second in scoring at 20.6 ppg.

Recent Road Sweeps
Dartmouth has one last chance to get a weekend road sweep for a third straight year. Last season the Green knocked off Columbia and Cornell on their home courts, and the year before at Brown and Yale to end the season. Those two road sweeps were more than the team had in the previous decade (Princeton-Penn in 2008-09).

Strong Finishes
One attribute Paul Cormier's teams have had of late have been strong finishes to the season. In 2012-13, Dartmouth was 2-8 in league play before winning three of its final four games to go 5-9. The next year, the Big Green were 2-9, then won their final three games for an identical 5-9 record. Just last season, Dartmouth ended the regular season with five consecutive victories to pull even at 7-7 and earn its first postseason bid in 56 years. What do the Green have in store this season?

Miles the Mimic
Sophomore Miles Wright lately has made a habit of scoring the same amount of points in each of the weekend games. Case in point, last week, the wing had 13 points in the win at Cornell, then followed up with 13 at Columbia. The weekend before that he put up 15 Yale and another 15 versus Brown. Even the two Ivy weekends when Wright's totals didn't match, they came awfully close with five and seven the first weekend, and six and seven the next. What does this mean? Let me know if you figure it out.

Academic All-District for Boehm
Senior Connor Boehm was honored by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) by his inclusion on the Academic All-District I Team for the second time. The economics major with a 3.61 GPA has played in all but one game in his career while averaging 9.9 points and 5.3 rebounds a night. Three of the other four players selected were Ivy Leaguers as well. The Academic All-America teams will be announced on March 3.

Down Goes Brown
Dartmouth ended a five-game slide by defeating Brown on Feb. 13, 87-70, its largest margin of victory in an Ivy League game since beating Princeton by 19, 71-52, on Feb. 23, 2008. The Big Green have won three of the last four meetings with the Bears, the first time they could claim that against any Ivy team since winning three of four against Princeton during the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons.

The 87 points are also the most for Dartmouth against a conference opponent since tallying 87 two years ago against Cornell. The Big Green have scored 87 or more points 34 times against an Ivy team since the league started formal play in 1956-57, with Brown and Cornell topping the list at eight apiece. But Dartmouth has never reached that figure against either Penn or Princeton, only once topping 80 against the Quakers, and four times versus the Tigers.

Taylor-Made Emergence
Sophomore Taylor Johnson has emerged as a legitimate scoring threat for the Big Green since first scoring in double figures against Harvard on Jan. 23. Over the last nine games, he is second on the team with 10.8 points per game (including his career-high 22 versus Brown) while shooting better than 58.6 percent from the floor and 50 percent (12-of-24) from behind the arc.

Making the Most of Freebies
Dartmouth is having one of its better seasons in getting to the free throw line this year, taking them at a pace that would put them at just over 600 attempts this year, a total no Big Green team has reached since 1971-72. But Dartmouth also has been the most accurate at the charity stripe in the league at 72.5 percent, with Columbia second at 71.7. It helps to have Evan Boudreaux shooting 82.5 percent with nearly as many freebies made (127) than any four teammates combined.

Extensive Glass Work
Dartmouth has been hitting the boards this season and is on pace to collect over 1,000 rebounds for the first time since the 1960-61 season. The Big Green are averaging 36.2 caroms a game with Evan Boudreaux leading the way with 225, a Dartmouth freshman record. That is the most by any Green player since Ian McGinnis '01 had 260 in 2000-01.

Top Freshmen Statistically
Boudreaux is ninth nationally in scoring among freshmen (17.6 ppg), which would be the highest ever for a Big Green freshman, besting Dartmouth legend Ed Leede who tallied 16.5 ppg in a 14-game schedule in 1944-45. The Ivy League freshman record is currently 17.0, set by Brown's Earl Hunt in 1999-2000, though Cornell's Matt Morgan (19.1) is currently ahead of Boudreaux.
When it comes to rebounding, Boudreaux is fourth among freshmen at 9.4 per game, trailing a trio of 6-10 rookies from LSU (Ben Simmons), Eastern Michigan (James Thompson IV) and Marquette (Henry Ellenson).

Schedules