early hope

strangest time of the college basketball calendar, no? too many teams refine their games far from their native hardwood. holiday tourneys proliferate, luring squads and their fans to unhooply climes like maui or the bahamas. the columbia lions have not offered light blue clad rooters any such getaways. our heroes have labored in familiar, or at least nearby fields. having fallen in the opener at providence to that city’s friar five, they returned to levien to drop their home opener to visiting suny-albany. that 78 – 75 loss was hard, if not masterfully, fought by both teams and entertained the 750 or so loyal souls in attendance. since then, the lions have run off five straight wins, the first such streak for the morningsiders since 2016. true that run of success has included victories over bard and suny-delhi, two div iii squads, but the asterisks and typographical contortions required to indicate and then explain such wins are best left unmet and elided into the simple statement that columbia is 5 – 2 seven games into the campaign. let the grumblers grumble and the nitpickers pick.

most noteworthy of those five wins was the first, on november 18 over temple in philadelphia. the visiting lions led start to finish en route to a 78 – 73 triumph. true, the owls are no longer the kind of top twenty five team they were early in this century under the great john chaney. but they are a legit mid-major program, playing a national schedule and battling in the always contentious big five match ups of ben franklin’s city. they were also 3 – 0 when the lions came calling. coach engles’ kids contended successfully on the boards, outrebounding the owls 37 – 33. fourteen of those rebounds were grabbed by the rotating center duo of 6′ 6″ senior josh odunowo and 6′ 10″ sophomore zine beddri. they were best supported by the junior guard, 6′ jaden cooper who scored eleven. messr cooper also contributed to the three point attack columbia unleashed on their hosts. geronimo rubio de la rosa and avery brown ordinarily lead the lions’ outside barrage but against temple they were a combined 3 – 10 from the three point line. cooper, meanwhile, went 3 – 4 from deep and combined with forward noah robledo (2-4) and guard kenny noland (2 – 4) to down the owls. the light blue cashed twelve of their twenty six treys, a heady 46% efficiency from beyond the arc. that performance allowed columbia to withstand a late temple rush, keyed by hysier miller (29 points) and matteo picarelli (18 points).

the lions changed up the offensive scheme upon their return to levien for a tussle with l.i.u. the brooklyn squad has a storied hoops past but of late has struggled. though their roster features some sizable ballers – we’ll mention first year center nikola djapa, a seven footer from the serbian capital of belgrade and 6’9″, 264 lb freshman forward gezim bajrani. those big boys contributed a paltry combined 10 points and 7 rebounds in the november 21 tussle at levien. the bulk of the sharks work was accomplished, as had been the case for temple, by l.i.u.’s back court. the tandem of eric acker (20 pts) and r. j. greene (10 pts, 9 rebounds) did most of the heavy lifting for the visitors. the lions held their own on the backboards, edging l.i.u. in that statistical column 39 – 34. once they had snatched a rebound they were up the floor and attacking the paint. after lighting it up from deep against temple, they could only cash 5 – 17 treys at home. not to worry, their work on the interior yielded beaucoup free throws and they sank 28 of the 39 they were awarded by the zebras. up sixteen at the half, the light blue cruised home to win 77 – 67.

then, last saturday, the lions played a game that offers the clearest indications of their season over season improvement. one year ago, the light blue took the endless bus trip from manhattan to orono, maine. there they were promptly run out of town by their inhospitable guests, the black bears of the university of maine. the 93 – 70 drubbing they absorbed was a leading indicator of how bleak a campaign they were to endure during 2022 – 23. on the 25th of this november, our boys had the opportunity to repay the pine tree staters in kind. columbia would play only one different baller from the previous encounter while maine returned all the significant performers from their victory. these included 6′ 7″ junior peter filipovity, 6′ 9″ senior kristian feierbergs and 6′ 3″ senior guard kellen tynes as well as guard/forward jadon clayton and ja’shonte wright mcleish. this quintet had cashed 55 points or 59% of the black bears’ total against the lions last november. this go round they contributed 44 points to the mainers efforts or a stunning 78% of their squad’s offense. those math problems lead allgame to conclude that the jaw dropping turnaround in results stemmed from the relative efforts of the two teams’ benches. the visitors reserves added but 12 points to the team effort while the lions’ reserves tallied 33 in locking down the 75 – 56 revenge win. improved bench play has been an important area of growth for coach engles’s charges. he now can more comfortably slot in kenny nolan, jaden cooper, noah robledo and the baller allgame considers the heart of the lions’ roar, 6′ 3″ senior guard xavian mclean. happily, that depth along side the combined center play of senior odunowo and sophomore beddri has not only added to the efficiency of columbia’s offense but strengthened the crew’s defense, particularly on the interior.

tonight, the lions face the greyhounds of loyola maryland at levien. the visitors are 1 – 5 to date, but their sole victory came over the ivy league’s brown five. we trust columbia will not suffer the ocean staters’ fate and notch a sixth consecutive win. the schedule turns more challenging over the next ten days as the light blue travels to chilly durham, new hampshire to take on the wildcats before returning home to host the lafayette leopards. after those dust ups, columbia crosses the hudson to battle fairleigh dickinson, a team that beat them in overtime at levien last season. none of those opponents is scary, but they have all play slightly more challenging schedules than the lions so far. they are also the kind of mid-major program our boys have to climb over to re-establish some credibility. the atmosphere is brightening but it is still early days. it has been a long time between happy breaths at levien. may it continue!

peace out, d up,

paulie b