disappointed, undaunted, ready for another must win weekend

the columbia lions men’s basketball team returns to levien gymnasium this weekend in second place in the ivy league.  a 5 – 1 record, fashioned over three weeks on the road would ordinarily be reason for immense self-congratulation, but, we expect, this crew rues that sole blemish on the report card more than the handful of gold stars.  they know the 86 -72 whipping they suffered at yale was a far closer run thing than the final score indicated.  that 14 point gap reflected the final six and half minutes of the battle when the new havenites pulled away at the foul line, cashing fourteen of the sixteen free throws the zebras awarded generously awarded them over that span.  of course, that advantage at the charity stripe was not simply the consequence of official myopic malfeasance.  yale’s slick ball handling big men, brandon sherrod and justin sears, brutalized the lions all evening down low while scoring twenty five and twenty seven points, respectively.  their front court partner, nick victor, only tallied six but was extremely active on the back boards grabbing 9 rebounds.  that busyness down low drew the refs attention and was rewarded with 17 more free throws than the visitors.  on the lion side, luke petrasek and lukas meisner both suffered through their worst league outings of the season while chris mccomber was pretty much invisible.  alex rosenberg battled all evening but was average at best on a night he needed to be terrific.  center jeff coby supplied some much needed energy off the bench, but not enough to stem the tide on the base line.  meanwhile, the light blue could not generate its accustomed three point attack.  none of the forwards contributed their usual outside points and although maodo lo scored 21 while grabbing six rebounds and snatching seven steals, nothing else of real significance came from the other guards.  the positive spin would be that despite being outplayed up front and lacking their usual efficiency from the outside, the lions were within two with under seven minutes to go and should prove tougher against the elis on the last saturday of the season.  payback will be even sweeter if the game is consequential and columbia’s student body turns out.  the yale student section was rowdily vocal throughout last week’s contest, entertainingly partisan and while providing substantial spiritual support for their heroes.

the lions shook off the sting of their first league loss quickly, but not easily, the next evening when they traveled to providence to battle mike martin’s brown squad.  columbia got off quickly and led 37 – 31 at halftime primarily on the strength of grant mullins’ highest scoring period of the year.  he dropped 16 on his way to 25 for the night.  we love brown coach mike martin’s fiery, no quit demeanor and the way he imbues that character in his teams.  the bruins fell behind by eleven in the second period but refused to go away and behind steven spieth’s 21 points and some sharp shooting by kyle haber, fought back to lead 60 – 59 with just over six minutes remaining.  the teams traded buckets and fouls down the stretch until with 1:43 left, chris mccomber hit his most consequential shot to date, draining a trey from just to the right of the top of the circle that put columbia up 70 – 68.  the light blue, a solid 15 – 19 from the foul line, steadied to nail down the 77 – 73 win.

the successful, though imperfect, road warriors return to levien this weekend for the annual homestand against the (erstwhile) killer p’s.  the quakers and tigers usually sell out levien, though over the last few seasons they have not been contending for the league title.  princeton, at least, is in the thick of things this year and saturday should prove a test with post-season ramifications.   penn will provide a friday evening appetizer for the dust up with the tigers, but the lions ought not take them lightly.  jerome allen has left the quaker bench which is now skippered by steve donahue who has enjoyed terrific success in the ancient eight, particularly between 2005 -08 when he led three straight cornell squads to the ncaa tournament.  that crew, featuring louis dale, ryan wittmann and center jeff foote – arguably the best trio in the conference – was unquestionably the finest ivy league team of the twenty first century, posting 72 wins overall, culminating with 29 in ’09 – ’10 and managing to advance to the ncaa sweet sixteen via wins over temple and wisconsin.  donahue has not had time to show his recruiting prowess for the quakers just yet, but you have to figure philly will prove an easier sell than ithaca.  penn will certainly be in the conference title mix again, soon.  for now, they depend on 6′ 10″ darien nelson-henry to anchor their attack contributing 12.3 ppg while snagging an impressive 8 boards nightly.  he is aided by 6′ 4″ junior matt howard who tallies 11.8 per outing and gathers five and a half rebounds.  antonio woods, a 6′ 1″ sophomore, adds just about eleven points per game while dishing out 3.3 assists.  sam jones completes the bulk of the quaker attack.  the lions have split home and home with the pennsylvanians the last two seasons and should successfully defend levien once more against the 2 – 3 quakers.  we’ll worry about the criminal officiating at the palestra when we get there at the end of february.

on saturday, the loathsome princeton tigers return to levien where they have dropped the lions six straight times.  presently, the visitors trail the lions by a half game in league play at 4 – 1.  though they still favor the “princeton offense” that creates scoring opportunities off motion and back door cuts, they rely far more heavily now on the three point portion of that attack.  indeed, only the lions lead the orange and black five in made treys per game (10.3 v 9.7)  in the ivies. the tiges rank fourth in overall three point accuracy, at .371%, in league play where they stand right behind columbia’s .375% efficiency.  they are led in this effort by henry caruso, a 6′ 4″ junior guard, who tosses in 16.7 points nightly while firing treys at a gaudy 57.2% clip.  devin canady, his first year teammate, is effective 48% of the time from beyond the arc and contributes eleven points per game.  third years spener weisz and steven cook both add better than ten and a half ppg while east brunswick, nj sophomore amir bell tallies nine per battle.  all the lion marksmen need to be accurate from deep to match up against this quintet of shooters.  the corollary of this is that the team which most efficiently moves the ball to an open gunner will prevail.  jeff coby, lukas meisner, isaac cohen and the rest of the lion front court will have to make sure that tiger big, 6′ 11″ pete miller, is neutralized on the boards.  last march maodo lo put on a stephen curryesque display at jadwin, dropping 37 points on the tigers while shooting 11 – 15  from three point land.  that singular outburst was almost good enough to win, but every one will have to contribute this saturday if the lions are to stay on course for a league title.  the dangerous road schedule that opened the lions league season has been traveled, now it’s time to own home court advantage.

peace out and d up,

paulie b