the new normal

back when allgame was first developing his unhealthy preoccupation with lion hoops, the unquestionable marquee matchups of the ivy season were against the “killer p’s.”  the princeton and pennsylvania games were much the most anticipated and challenging games of any ivy campaign.  in the years following the lions lone league championship back in ’68, the tigers and quakers dominated league play as the van breda koff/carrill princeton squads traded off visits to the ncaa tourney with the daly/dougherty penn crews.  nothing more exhilirating than an upset of one of these elite units, nothing more disheartening than a closely fought loss.  but the balance of power has shifted in the league over the last three or four years, and those feelings about penn and princeton have been replaced by paulie b’s lust for the blood of james jones’s elis or mike martin’s brown teams.  since coach smith has taken the helm, the battles with the south new england ivy squads have been tensely riveting, unrelentingly hard fought and filled with the high emotion of great competition.  this past weekend provided the latest chapters of both those ongoing sagas and the fortunate fans witnessing the brawls were rewarded with deeply involving games.

friday night brought the impeccably clad, immaculately groomed professor jones to levien.  he holds a 6 -1 record versus coach smith over the last three league seasons and the elegance of his appearance cannot disguise his commitment to a relentlessly physical approach to the game.  his charges work ceaselessly and efficiently on defense, rarely giving players comfortable room for maneuver while avoiding the kind of soft fouls that currently mar the game, particularly on the perimeter.  his instruction has been taken to heart no more deeply than by his current brightest star, messr justin sears, the 6′ 8″ center from the basketball mecca that is  plainfield, nj.  the lean and leggy junior is surely the best all round player in the ivies and by allgame’s lights the best big man period the lions have faced in a year during which they have battled the likes of willie cauley stein, dakari johnson and marcus lee of kentucky as well as stony brook’s  jamaal warney (also plainfield bred) and uconn’s amida brimah.  the slim front courter is supremely adept at establishing position in the midst of a baseline crowd and beating everyone to a must have rebound or slipping in a lay up through a seemingly non-existent gap.  you would think his lean physique would subject him to exhaustion confronting the bigger boys (such as the lions’ own cory osetkowski) of the league, but sears is whip cord tough and coach jones is extremely disciplined about getting him minutes for recovery on the bench in the course of most contests.  this routine was certainly on display friday night during a brawl that featured columbia racing out to an 11 – 2 margin in the opening five and a half minutes before the bulldogs began a relentless march back.  the yales had pulled to within two (28 – 26) when jack montague nailed a trey with 3:41 remaining in the period and by halftime had forged a 35 – 32 advantage.  the second stanza featured a series of pushes by the lions to even the match, and though they would get to within a single point twice, they could not catch the dogs.  it was altogether fitting and proper that sears ended the lions’ hopes with a block of maodo lo’s last second trey to seal the 63 – 59 win for the visitors.  sears posted 28 points while grabbing 8 boards (5 of them offensive) on the night.  the absurd margin (27 – 6) the elis enjoyed in free throws, reflected sears dominance down on the blocks where every columbian and his brother took whacks at him and the light blue’s preference for scoring from beyond the arc, from whence they shot an admirable, but insufficient, 10 – 18.

the good news from that less than happy ending was that the lions were once again their usual fierce selves on defense.  if sears was sui generis, and more than doubled his ordinary offensive output, the rest of the bulldogs were well controlled by the blue.  javier duren, who ripped columbia for 33 points late last march in a cit tournament quarterfinal contest, was held to 15 and was the only other eli in double double figures.  just as importantly, maodo lo, the columbia floor leader, who had turned in three straight sub-par games, returned to his usual form and scored twenty points.  his re-emergence was most welcome and the entire columbia offense moved a bit more efficiently than it had since the turn of the year.

whatever lessons were learned friday had to be quickly applied because this is the ivy league and back to backs the ordinary routine.  saturday offered this season’s visit to levien by coach mike martin’s boys from providence.  the young, fiercely competitive martin has imbued his teams with his personality and brown fights all game long.  two years ago they twice rallied from better than ten points down to catch the lions at the buzzers, the second time on a flawless sideline out play with less than three seconds remaining at levien that freed tucker halpern for a trey from the  top right side side of the key.  down two points with less than two ticks left in last year’s battle at levien, martin’s kids ran a very similar set but, fortunately, the dangerous sean mcgonagill was forced a step beyond his deep range as the lions successfully defended home court.  during the 2014 – 15 campaign, martin has struggled to find adequate replacement for the graduated mcgonagill.  besides that, the bruins would play at levien without their current scoring leader, leland king.  shorthanded or not, the bruins took court ready to work.  behind three point shooting from tavon blackmon and steve spieth and the staunch rebounding of rafael maia, brown rallied from an early deficit to forge a 26 – 19 lead with seven and a half minutes remaining in the first period.  from there the lions raced back, riding three pointers from maodo lo, steve frankoski and chris mccomber to fashion a four point advantage at the break.  just as important as mccomber’s six points was his solid defensive work against maia.  in keeping the beefy forward off the boards and denying him position on the baseline, mccomber defused one of martin’s crew’s essential weapons.  the providencers are always loath to leave a fight early though, and five minutes into the second stanza tied the game at 50 all on a j r hobbie trey off one of those inbound sets that torment the lions.  the game see-sawed from there but at the 6:44 mark, after  steve spieth drained a pair of free throws that brought brown within one at 64 – 63, the lions proceeded to leave the visitors in the dust, burying them beneath a 22 -2 run led by luke petrasek, a resurgent maodo lo (who turned in his second solid performance of the weekend) and first year kyle castlin who headed up the columbia stats line with 21 points and 9 rebounds.  the confident frosh from geogia has the most complete offensive repertoire on the squad already and should provide plenty of thrills as the league season continues.  the lions’ 86 – 65 margin was their biggest since bashing bucknell early in december, but should not deceive allgame afficionados about easy pickings to come in providence.  in 2012, columbia buried the bruins at levien only to be manhandled in the rhode island rematch.  columbia, though, seems clearly the deeper team, right now.  even with osetkowski sidelined by a bruised thigh, the lions outrebounded the visitors and though all five brown starters registered low double figure scoring stats, martin’s bench could only contribute 6 compared to the 22 provided by smith’s subs.  that should be a winnable game on the 20th of this month.

the weekend left columbia at 2 – 2 in league play, trailing the undefeated elis and the one loss, defending champeen harvards.  they also trail the tigers who stand at 2 – 1.   they need to stay close and dropping both princeton and penn  will be important.  those two former incomparables visit levien this weekend and allgame cannot wait for their demolition.

peace out and d up,

paulie b