Buth could be tough to stop Friday

Dartmouth sophomore Greg Buth comes to the Palestra as the third leading scorer in the Ivy League. Greg who? When the Dartmouth men's basketball team invades the Palestra tomorrow evening, Penn fans will most likely focus their heckling on Big Green junior Shaun Gee -- a returning first-team All-Ivy selection -- and sophomore Ian McGinnis, the nation's leading rebounder. But both of these returning starters are likely to be usurped by a relative unknown -- shooting guard Greg Buth. After starting only six games last season, Buth was not expected to have much of an impact in November. In '97-'98, he averaged only 5.6 points -- hardly All-Ivy numbers. Flash forward three months. Already having earned Ivy Player of the Week honors once this season, Buth is averaging 17.1 points per game. The sophomore is in the top five in the Ivies in scoring, steals, three-point percentage and free-throw percentage and leads Ancient Eight guards in field-goal percentage. This is quite a leap for a 19-year-old who was off the court for half the summer while rehabbing the second operation on his left knee in under a year. "I see a major, major improved player from last year to this year," Big Green coach Dave Faucher said. "If there was two words that would describe [Buth], they'd probably be 'hard work.' He obviously paid attention to getting better in the off-season, and he's reaping the benefits, and so are we, right now." The Big Green, picked to finish in the lower half of the Ivies in most preseason polls, come into the Palestra in the unfamiliar position of first place -- due in no small part to the play of the all-time leading scorer at Minnesota's Edina High School. A sharpshooter by nature, Buth has taken the Ivies by storm over the past 2 1/2 months. The Big Green sophomore is shooting 46 percent from behind the arc -- 2 percent better than the Quakers' own gunner, junior Matt Langel. And most impressively, Buth is shooting 49 percent from the field -- a staggering number considering the bulk of his shots come from 20 feet away. "One of my strengths has always been shooting," Buth said. "And this year I've just been able to get a lot of open shots, and I've been able to knock 'em down." The Quakers, ever so quick to understand the quirks of their upcoming opponents, agree. "[Buth's] a guy that you cannot let get his feet set and catch and shoot," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "He's done a terrific job of responding to getting into the right spot and as soon as he catches the ball, the thing can be in the air -- and most times in the basket. He's somebody we have to pay attention to all the time." Earlier this year, some teams allowed the unproven Buth some space to work. But after seeing Buth drop 29 points on New Hampshire, 20 in Dartmouth's Ivy-opening win at Harvard, and 16 on 4-for-7 from behind the arc against North Carolina, it's unlikely that the Quakers will do the same. "It's fantastic, his improvement," Dunphy said. "All we're going to say [is] that we can't leave Greg Buth open." Facing both Penn and Princeton this weekend, it's up to Buth, then, to continue to prove that he can play with the best in the league. "I think Buth has done terrific in Ivy play," Faucher said. "But the [Penn] players are going to see his picture in The [Daily] Pennsylvanian and they're going to tack it up on the wall, and they're going to say, 'we've got to take him out.' So every game will be a challenge." Langel has been assigned the task of keeping the Big Green sophomore from running rampant tomorrow night. "He's a shooter, and he likes to shoot the ball coming off screens and coming off the dribble," Langel said. "Most of the film that I watched, he was coming off screens and they were looking to get him the ball more than he was creating his own shot. But he's able to get his own shot if need be." The inexperienced Big Green knew before the season that they would need one of the older players to strap the team on his back and point them in the right direction. And they found this in Buth. "Definitely without any seniors, you need some underclassmen to step in and take on some larger roles on the team -- whether it's in scoring or leadership or any other respects," Buth said. "And that's definitely what guys like me and Ian [McGinnis] and Shaun [Gee]? have to come in and do this year." So tomorrow night, the Big Green -- in the midst of a six-game Ivy run and a six-game overall winning streak to boot -- take on the Quakers as one of the more unlikely challengers for the Ivy crown. And to no small end, Dartmouth has Buth to thank for it.