Hun grad has helped Dartmouth
By: Justin Feil
Cal Arnold had been a part of six other games against the Princeton University men’s basketball team. But until last Friday he’d never been on the victorious end of a game against the Tigers. All that changed for Arnold, a Hun School graduate who is a junior at Dartmouth College, when the Big Green overtook Princeton, 50-42.
"Obviously, their style of play allows you to stay in ball games," said Arnold, a 6-foot-9 forward who finished with five points, four rebounds, two assists, two blocks, one steal and no turnovers in 30 minutes of action last Friday. "That probably helped us. Being able to stick with it and believing in ourselves helped. We hit a couple big shots. Then it was putting together the right run at the right time."
Dartmouth closed the game on an 18-1 run over the final 4:30 before an increasingly interested Leede Arena crowd. The loss to the Big Green started a three-game slide for the Tigers, who hope to get back to their winning ways when they host Cornell 7:30 p.m. tonight at Jadwin Gym, but Arnold never sensed any greater vulnerability in Princeton.
"I’ve known some of those guys for a while being around the team," said Arnold, a California native who drew interest from Princeton before committing to Dartmouth after a post-graduate year at Hun. "I’ve known Will (Venable) from back in high school. They seem like a very strong team. Judson Wallace is a great player. The other big player from Napa (Mike Stephens), he stepped up and is playing well. They seem just as strong as ever."
During his high school days in California, Arnold played on the same Oakland Soldiers AAU team as Venable. When he came to Hun, Arnold saw plenty of Venable and Princeton as a fan in the stands. He was a Hun teammate of Matt McKillop, who earlier this year visited Jadwin Gym with Davidson in a 70-68 double-overtime Princeton win. In the year’s second meeting of teams with former Hun players, Arnold got the upper hand team-wise though Savage had 10 points to lead the Tigers.
"I played pick-up with him that spring of my post-grad year," Arnold said. "I only played with a couple of times and I was more trying to get his personality than what he did. He definitely plays hard. That whole team plays hard. That was one thing we had to pick up on. The first couple possessions, they were running so hard. I think Will is a great player. He just runs the whole game. He’s going 100 percent. All their guys play so hard. Noah, he fits into that."
Princeton recently has started to struggle under first-year coach Joe Scott. Arnold and his teammates have also found changes under first-year coach Terry Dunn.
"Practices are a little more intense," Arnold noted. "People are bringing an attitude of winning every day to practice. It re-energizes us to come with some energy."
The Big Green have endured their share of downs with the ups. They took a blow when they lost last season’s Ivy League Rookie of the Year Leon Pattman before the start of this season. And after topping Princeton, they fell to 5-14 overall, 2-4 in the Ivy League with a 24-point loss to Penn on Saturday. But Dartmouth can go back to its win over Princeton as something to build upon.
"It was a tough loss (to Penn), but for our seniors, that was the first time they beat Princeton," Arnold said. "I think it re-energizes us a little bit. We’re looking forward to these games and looking to compete. We’re looking to get some good things out of the season."
Dartmouth will play at Yale 7 p.m. tonight and at Brown 7 p.m. Saturday as they aim to even their Ivy record. They showed plenty of ability in fighting back against the Tigers last weekend. They’re hoping for more of the same.
"We always believe when we got into every game, our goal is to win," Arnold said. "We think we have the ability if we keep it close to close out a game. In the Princeton game, we didn’t have time to think about it. It was just a question of we never gave up. We just kept playing. Once it was tied, we knew if we kept on playing the same way, we’d have a chance to win it.
"We didn’t do anything specifically differently (in the last 4:30). Guys on our team took the initiative. We made a concerted effort to make stops. We had been playing good defense. They got backdoor cuts on mental breakdowns. I know I did it once. Once it got later, we started understanding that and playing them more solidly. We forced them to hit tougher shots."
The Big Green proved they’re an improved team. Arnold, a double major in economics and history, sees plenty of improvement in himself since his year at Hun. He had a career-high 19 points in a loss to Colgate last month. He is second on the team in rebounds per game and leads the Big Green in blocked shots while starting 18 of their 19 contests.
"I’m a little more consistent shooting the ball with the strength I’ve added, which isn’t much," the 210-pounder laughed. "The little I’ve added has helped. I think I play harder than when I was at Hun. If you look at tapes of yourself from then, you don’t know how to play hard."
In his third season at Dartmouth, Cal Arnold has found a way to play hard and well for the Big Green men’s basketball team. Last Friday, he was part of a Big Green team that played well enough to hand Princeton the first of three straight losses. Dartmouth goes for something even rarer a season sweep of the Tigers when Arnold returns to the area as the Big Green visit Jadwin Gym on March 5.

