Crimson Five Battles Weak, Inexperienced Tufts Quintet Tonight

After being run off the court by a powerful Boston College squad Tuesday, the Crimson varsity basketball team will have a breather when it faces Tufts at Medford tonight.

The Jumbos, an incongruous nickname for a team listing no starter over 6 ft., 3 in., have beaten only Middlebury in five starts, and lost to New Hampshire, Clark, Springfield, and Coast Guard.

Tufts' roaster includes nine sophomores from last year's very successful freshman team--three of them in the starting lineup. Their big scorer and rebounder is sophomore center Bill Vrettas, 6 ft., 3 in., who is averaging 16 points per game.

The rest of the starting team is Phil Klein, a 6 ft., 3 in., sophomore, and 6 ft., 2 in., Bill McGrath at forwards, and Leroy Haythorn, 6 ft., and Paul Goldberger, 6 ft., 1 in., at guards. Goldberger, a sophomore averaging 10 points per game, is injured and might be replaced by 5 ft., 11 in., John O'Leary.

Use Fast Break

With their lack of height an almost insurmountable problem, the Jumbos have had to rely on a pressing defense and a fast break offense. The very young squad has still not perfected the difficult patterns used in such a style, hence the 1-4 record.

Recent Crimson Play Weak

On the other hand, the Crimson has not been showing any outstanding play of late either. After unexciting wins over Bowdoin and Brandeis, the varsity finally played a good game, but lost to powerful Holy Cross. They followed this performance with a narrow victory over a surprising M.I.T. team and the horrend- ous 83-51 loss to B.C.

Coach Floyd Wilson was unwilling to place the blame for the team's poor play on any particular man. He explained the weak offensive performance against M.I.T. by pointing out that his squad was playing against a zone for the first time. And Boston College, the coach noted, "was the best offensive team we've played" and we would have lost "no matter what we had done."

Wilson did cite sloppy hall-handling as the team's main fault, but he doesn't plan any personnel changes to remedy the situation. That means captain Bob Bowditch and Joe Deering will start at guards, Gary Borchard and Tom Tangeman at forwards, and either Bill Danner or Denny Lynch at center.

Before the varsity game, which is scheduled for 8:15, the Crimson freshman will face Tufts. The Yardlings' only previous game was an 81-43 rout of M.I.T. last week.

Coach Bruce Munro intends to start Ben Crabtree and Bob Inman, both 6 ft., 5 in., at forwards, Frank Martin, 6 ft., 6 in., or Mike Crichton, 6 ft., 8 in., at center, and Sid Davis and either Barry Dym or Bill Gussetti at guards.

"This is a team without any big stars," Munro noted, "and we will have to play together to win. I was very pleased with the way the youngsters ran the patterns against M.I.T. They work hard and could become a very good team.