lions lookin’ for a miracle as bluegrass battle beckons

columbia prepared for its fight with the deepest team in college basketball this coming wednesday by playing its best game to date.   they buried the bucknell bisons at levien this  saturday evening past, 62 – 39.  it was their first win over the visitors in three seasons.  the squad played an impeccable first six minutes and built a 14 – 2 lead which shrank to  24 -18 at half time.  chris mccomber, who has  been barely visible offensively since the season opener at stony brook, drained two treys coming out of the break and the rout was on. columbia won mainly via its reliably stifling defense.  the visitors shot but 28 % from the field and a miserable 13 % from beyond the three point stripe.  the lions dominated their defensive back board and bucknell rarely saw a second chance shot.  maodo lo once again led the scoring parade with 20, but the game was controlled by the lion front court and the game’s star was undoubtedly cory osetkowski who scored 12 while grabbing a dozen rebounds and dishing out 6 assists.  additionally, he essentially pitched a shut out against the six bison bigs who could produce but 13 points and grab only nine rebounds amongst themselves.  cory was helped by the seldom seen minnesota mountain, conor voss, who scored a bucket while effectively clogging the lane and boxing out nicely on the boards during his three minute guest appearance.   the ever present isaac cohen took advantage of the two headed center play to snatch 8 rebounds.   he was joined hitting the boards by frosh kyle castlin who gathered up five.  all these lions will have to be similarly effective on the boards in lexington, if the lions hope to compete with the current number one ranked wildcats.  coach calipari plays 11 fellows at least 15 minutes, and no one more than 23.  he sends them at opponents in long armed phalanxes, five players at a time.  and they are relentless rebounding the ball.  before taking a closer look at this terrific challenge and rehearsing our hopes and fears, let’s quickly revisit the lion games now in the books for 2014- 15.

the light blue currently stands 5 – 2 and with five more points or two more rebounds would be 7 – 0.  they fell by one in the season opener at the stony brook sea wolves’  new federal credit union arena when they made but 4 of 13 free throws.  here, too, they failed to box out rayshaun mcgrew whose rebound and put back with seven seconds left gave the sea wolves a 57 – 56 win.  chris mccomber had a nice debut as a starter tallying 13 points but the squad clearly missed grant mullins, sidelined with the consequences of a concussion suffered a full nine months previous, and sophomore luke petrasek,  out because of a virus.  they were missing the following tuesday as well  when the  wagner sea hawks came to levien for the home opener.  sea hawk coach bashir mason won’t be 31 until february and, consequently, is the nation’s youngest div 1 men’s basketball coach.  his youth has not prevented him from winning 38 games over his first two season at the helm, but this campaign he has a green squad.  smaller than columbia at every position on the floor, the visitors trailed all night in a game that featured lion first year kyle castlin’s 18 point outburst and a wire to wire 70 -56 columbia win.  on the penultimate sunday in november we traveled to bethelehem, pa. and had the pleasure of watching the lions take on the lehigh mountain hawks at the hosts’ nifty, if rather empty, stabler arena.  just two and half years ago, the boys of lehigh were rocking ncaa tourney brackets by dusting the imperial duke blue devils.  those heady times are behind them now.  they currently stand 3 – 4 but the crew columbia faced was as yet winless.   the lions came out hot and played well for the first twelve minutes, crafting a 27 – 11 advantage.  that was the biggest edge they would enjoy all afternoon and the mountain hawks had cut the lead almost in half, to 32 – 23,  at the break.  lehigh’s star, 6′ 10″ arizonan, tim kempton began to assert himself in the second period, scoring 9 of his 15 points while grabbing 7 of his 10 rebounds.  that effort brought the home team within six points a few times in the second stanza.  the last time at the 3:08 mark.  sanity was restored, though, and six straight free throws from messrs osetkowski, coby and springwater closed out the 54 – 44 lion victory.  sophomore forward jeff coby did far more than drain those free throws, however, and his sterling performance off the bench led the squad.  the floridian tallied 16 points while grabbing 12 rebounds.  his effort on the glass was augmented by isaac cohen’s 10 boards.  again, coach smith’s boys were very tough defensively and shut out the mountain hawks from beyond the three point stripe where the hosts were  blanked, 0 – 13.

that nice outing to the lehigh valley was followed by the dreariest game so far this season when coach greg herenda’s fairleigh dickinson squad visited levien for what devolved into a series of walks from one foul line to the other.  the officiating crew’s relentless orthodoxy when it came to the rule book drained all rhythm from the battle and rendered the 54  – 47 win very dull sport indeed.  on november’s last saturday afternoon, the defending patriot league champions from american visited levien.  the eagles feature a princeton style offense which when considered against columbia’s own tendency to run their sets deep into the time clock every time down the floor, promised a low scoring contest.  the visitors jumped out to a five point lead, but the lions eventually ran them down and left the court enjoying a 24 -21 advantage.  out of the break american again started fast behind the play of john schoof and pee wee gardner, grabbing a 30 – 28 edge with fifteen and a half minutes remaining in the game.  behind maodo lo’s 20 points and 9 rebounds, however, columbia reassumed command and posted its fourth win of the campaign, 52 – 43.  the low scoring, vigorously defensive game was a pleasure to watch and in stark contrast to tuesday’s foul line parade.  the pace was delightfully brisk and a mere 20 free throws were awarded the two squads.

we could not attend the battle with loyola (md) and thus missed a furious rally by the lions in the last 110 seconds of the game.  down nine points, the lions put together a three point shot from steve frankoski, a driving layup and free throw from maodo lo and another trey from isaac cohen to tie the contest with twenty eight seconds remaining.  the lions failed to grab an absolutely necessary rebound, however, and with two seconds on the game clock, eric laster made his only basket of the evening, drilling a 17 footer to drop the lions 64 – 62.  that summary of a frantic last two minutes must suffice as we will not critique a game we did not see.

the warm up against bucknell successfully concluded, the lions now pack their portmanteaux for the kentucky trip.  kentucky loosened up for the contest by beating a big, highly ranked,  texas squad 63 -51 on friday and then demolishing in state rival eastern kentucky 82 – 49 on sunday.  the wildcats are the nation’s biggest college hoops squad, but it is their unrivaled depth and team wide commitment to defense that makes them a worthy number at this point in the season.  they have yet to look brilliant on the offensive end of the court, but boast the number one scoring defense in division 1, limiting their opponents to 45 points per game.  our lions are similarly tough and stand fourth in this statistical category holding their antagonists to 50 points per contest.

balanced sole of the first sneaker to top of the last head, the wildcats are virtually twenty five feet longer than the lions.  that will make everything very tough.   then again, coach smith was an assistant at saint mary’s when that school had the biggest line up in div 1 hoops.  he should have some ideas about how to defend and attack size.  his most difficult task will be to maximize the time cory osetkowski is not only on the court, but playing without foul trouble.  i expect willie cauley-stein and dakari johnson will go hard at the big californian, so  conor voss will have to be ready to contribute at the five spot.  we’re tempted to go with the 2 – 3 zone the lions have occasionally played but fear that it might make them more vulnerable to kentucky’s attacks on the offensive glass.  every guy in light blue will have to be aware of his man and boxing out when a wildcat shot goes up.  calipari’s kids make their living on the offensive boards.  at the other end of the floor, the lion perimeter shooters will have to be quick and accurate if they’re to stay with their hosts. we hope the lions are channeling the ‘nova squad that dropped the hoyas back in the day by virtue of a perfect game.  or to reach for a more recent historical precedent, let them summon the triumphant spirit of the njit crew that humbled number 17 michigan this past saturday.   though we expect the lions to fall in a defensive struggle, 57 – 42, on any given night . . . .you could look it up.

peace out and d up

paulie b