Buzzer Beater – The Lion Hoops 2011-2012 Final Report Card

Ohio State broke my heart Saturday night and sent Syracuse home for the year.  The Buckeyes’  fierce defense, personified by Aaron Craft, effectively shut down all four Orange guards while their big men dominated down low, outrebounding Cuse by double figures.  So, I am finished as a fan for this year, but before the last Div I dribble resounds off the hard wood I want to weigh in with some final evaluations of the Lions’ performance this past season and hopes for the next.

At 15-15, the Lions were solidly mediocre.  I must say I expected less when last year’s leading scorer, Noruwa Agho, went down with a season ending knee injury  in only the campaign’s second contest against Furman .  It took Coach Smith and the boys 3 1/4 more games before they broke into the win column, but having ended their drought against Manhattan, they proceeded to rip through the rest of the non-conference schedule and entered the Ivy portion of the year at 11-5.  This improved on Coach’s first year first half mark of 9-5 and visions of a lofty finish in the Ancient Eight danced in your correspondent’s head.  Alas, the quality of the Ivy League this past season along with its relentless Friday-Saturday grind for two months revealed the team’s shortcomings while simultaneously wearing it down physically.  It was a decidedly less energetic crew that I watched in early March against Harvard than I had seen in November against the Jaspers.  The Lions staggered home 4-10 for their Ivy schedule.

So, clearly,  the distribution of the W’s needs to change.  Even 16-0 outside league play would be meaningless, if the Light Blue is only going to post 4 Ivy wins.  Conversely, do you know what they call a Lion squad that doesn’t win a single non-league game but sweeps the Ivies?  League champ and NCAA tourney 16 seed at worst, that’s what.  Having finally underwhelmed this past year we look forward with terrific anticipation to watching a team that will return its top five players in minutes played and points scored.  The graduating seniors take 14 points per game with them but as the following critiques show, replacing that loss should not be overly difficult.

BRIAN BARBOUR – What do you say to the kid who leads your team in points per game, assists, minutes played,  is dead cert at the free throw line as well as an All Ivy League First Teamer?  Hey, Brian, we need a little more. Personally, I’d like to see Barbour contributing an additional 5 ppg.   I’d prefer these points come via  2.5  more assists per game, but the Lions leader has been willing to do whatever it takes to help out and a couple of additional buckets per game would not be unwelcome.  He also needs to work on his ball screen communication with big men Mark Cisco and John Daniels.  It will make the entire offense run more easily if he does.  Grade A-.   Off season assignment  –  5 miles per day of interval running so that he has something extra in the tank come next March.

MARK CISCO – Number 55 hauled in 20 rebounds against Cornell on January 21 and should challenge for the league lead in that category come his senior season.   Besides his solid board work, our center works on defense and contributes 10 points per game.  An additional 3 points per game would be very welcome and given his efforts down low,  as well as his veteran status, he should see more opportunities at the charity stripe.  He also needs to put up his 12 foot j more often.  Grade B.  Off season assignment  –  100 jump shots and 50 free throws a day as well as 3 hours per week in the weight room.   He needs to stay strong.

MEIKO LYLES –   The rangy number two brings quickness and length to a tough Columbia defense, but is even more important on the offensive end.  Like the mis-distribution of the Lions’ victories, Meiko has to work on more efficiently using his trey.  At 43.6%, his 3 point shooting percentage is the best in the Ivies for anyone logging his number of minutes.  At the same time, he has either been can’t miss or m.i.a.   Compare his back to back 5-8 efforts versus Brown and Yale with his o-fers opening weekend against Penn and Princeton.   He should work towards a significant improvement in his scoring stats and I think he might be able to jump up to 15 ppg (v this year’s 10.6). Since he will be a well known quantity as a returning junior,  Meiko will have to stretch defenses even more than he has this year.  Grade B-.  Off  season assignment – 100 shots a day from 2 1/2 feet behind the three point line.

ALEX ROSENBERG – The first Frosh to earn significant minutes from Coach this year, AR is a versatile swingman who brought defensive energy and 7.2 ppg to the floor.  His length will be ever more important defensively,  and his aggresiveness on offense should provide 3 points additionally per game.  My two beefs with Alex – he is overly enamored of his dribble and occasionally careless with the ball (see his late turnover v Yale in the 58-59 heartbreaker at Levien).  He has to learn to move more effectively without the ball, to establish the position from which he can make a quick dive to the basket  or turn on his defender for the jump shot.  Grade B-.  Off season assignment – 100 jump shots and 5 hours per week in weight room.  I’d like to see a quick but even stronger AR taking it to Ivy opponents in 2012-13.

JOHN DANIELS – I have an absolute man crush on this guy.  He is a brutal bookend to Cisco on the boards, indeed his exertions down low free Cisco up for many of his rebounds.  Secondly, he is a relentless interior defender.  No one could have enjoyed working against the power forward this past season as Daniels tracks his man baseline to three point line and corner to corner.  Alas, big John is virtually absent offensively.  He needs to find a way to score off rebounds or become more comfortable launching his 10-12 foot jump shots.  The team could really use him doubling his scoring from 3 to 6 ppg.  Grade C+.  Off season assignment – 100 jump shots a day.

CORY OSETKOWSKI -This 6′ 10″ frosh has immproved steadily under Coach Smith’s critical eye.  He has learned to move his feet on defense and is not so prone to the soft fouls he generously doled out early on.  Similarly, he scored 10 points in two of his final three games, moving comfortably in the offense.  I see tremendous upside for him and the quickest returns are likely to be seen on the defensive side of the ledger, especially if Coach Smith employs the 2-3 zone he threw at Harvard in the second half of the 70-77 ot loss at Levien.  Cory was an active and daunting presence on the left corner of the baseline d.  If he can regularly chip in 6 ppg next season, the Lions are going to be a tough out.  Grade C+ . Off season assignment – 50 five foot hooks shots with each hand daily and hit the weight room 5 hours a week.  You’re not in high school anymore;  every one is big and tough.

NOAH SPRINGWATER, VAN GREEN – These two tweeners will stand for the rest of the returning crew.  Noah has an occasionally deadly, deep trey that he needs to hone.  I remember most an ICBM  he launched in the second half rally against Lafayette.  The gym held its collective breath at his audacity before exploding in noise as the shot found its target.  If anything, Noah needs to be a little more aggressive on the offensive end, his defense seems solid and should improve with additional minutes.  Van Green is flat out the most athletic Lion.  His quickness and hops are both well above league averages.  He must literally take care not to hit his head on the rim when fighting for rebounds.  I’m hoping that improved consistency with his jump shot and a more thorough commitment to defensive work will result in increased p.t. for this hoopster.  Combined grade C.   Off season assignment for both – 100 jump shots a day followed by 3 miles of interval running.  They also need to find time for 3 hours per week in the weight room.

COACH KYLE SMITH – Coach has posted his second 15 win season and is plus .500 on his Columbia career.  If  anything, however, coach seemed a bit less effective during this league campaign than in his first time through the Ivy.  After a very exciting December and early January, when the Lions, among other accomplishments, defeated NCAA tourney bound LIU and came back after a brutal first half to down Lafayette, our heroes underwhelmed in league play.  They won a single close game out of, to my eye,  eight possible victories.  Too often when the team needed to find an offensive solution or get a defensive close out,  it failed. The collapse in a 58-59 loss to Yale was especially sloppy.  At least a portion of blame for those late game inadequacies must be shouldered by Coach.  And, speaking of the non-league schedule, the Light Blue needs to have a tougher row to hoe before mid-January.  Coach needs to find two to three scary opponents for the crew.  Slaughtering Swarthmore does nothing for the team’s readiness for the killer P’s and other league foes.  On the plus side, Coach did a nice job bringing along first years Osetkowski, Rosenberg and Springwater in the wake of Agho’s injury.  Additionally, he showed good judgment in occasionally putting the boys into a 2-3 zone.  He featured it for a good stretch in the second half of the second Harvard match and it seemed a natural for his personnel.  Cisco, Daniels, and Osetkowski along the baseline are plenty long and tough.  They need to learn when to collapse to the middle, double the corner or extend on jump shooters.  Alex Rosenberg has the size to spell someone on that baseline or to chase down 3 point shooters up top when rangy Meiko Lyles, who should make life tough for bombers, needs a break.   Brian Barbour will bring his non-stop motor to his defensive responsibilities and should not be over victimized because of his stature.  Come on coach, go for it!  In the three point driven college game, an active and extending 2-3 can drive down opponents shooting percentages and save the Lions some fouls and miles on their wheels.  Those gains might offset the rebounding difficulties that usually haunt zone teams.

Having begun with Syracuse’s fall, it’s only appropriate that I end with those last sentences about the Lions looking to Jim Boeheim’s beloved 2-3 as a possible way forward in next year’s Ivy League for my true heroes.  Forgive my going on at such length but it’s been a fun season and I’ll be a bit lonely till next November’s first tip off.

Till then, LET’S GO METS,

Paulie B