jump start

the columbia men’s basketball team boasts an 11 – 2 record. they have also lost two of their last three games to div 1 squads. on december 4 they traveled to albany to be dropped by the suny-albany great danes by fifteen in a game that was effectively decided by half time. on the 11th, they rallied to down a visiting fairfield crew at levien and then broke for exams. they celebrated their return to the hardwood on december 30 by traveling to piscataway and losing to the rutgers scarlet knights by 27. both losses featured lousy ball handling and passing by the light blue. they turned it over 19 times to albany and 14 times to rutgers. more alarmingly, they were unable to get their star, geronimo rubio de la rosa, rolling until after the games were out of reach. true, against fairfield, de la rosa was scoreless in the first half of the victory over the stags. he did, however, erupt for 27 in a scorching second half performance but the stags were a less talented team than rutgers or albany.

that quick precis of the lions’ last trio of battles brings us to the opening of the ivy league campaign today. and now, this struggling crew faces the toughest three game introduction to the conference wars in allgame’s memory. saturday afternoon will feature the 8 – 5 cornell big red’s visit to levien. one of columbia’s strengths this season has been the return of every consequential player. this edge in experience will be less apparent against the ithacans. consider, first year head coach jon jaques has been part of cornell’s program for eleven plus years growing from a graduate assistant into an assistant coach into the now departed (for william and mary) brian earle’s consigliere. it has been a seamless transition for the program which still features an up tempo, shoot it if you’re open, offense. indeed, this edition of the boy’s from the finger lakes is scoring 86.4 points nightly as opposed to last year’s which only managed 81.4 ppg on its way to the league tournament back in march. the starting five all average in double figures and features two seniors (nazir williams – 14.5 ppg and guy ragland jr – 10.5 ppg), two juniors (cooper noard – 12.6 ppg and ak okereke 12.0 ppg) and one precocious sophmore (jake fiegen – 11.5 ppg with a 41.8% from three point range). they are hardly inexperienced. the lions average 81.8 per contest and will have to be sharp to hang with the visitors. there is some hope that the columbians three headed center combo of zine beddri, jake tavroff and impressive first year mason ritter will outplay their counterparts and by controlling the backboards limit the big red’s scoring opportunities. a difficult bus drive down from ithaca wouldn’t hurt either.

one week from today, the light blue plays host to coach james jones’s bulldogs. speaking of experience, coach jones is the dean of ivy helmsmen and soon to be the league’s career leader in wins (overtaking the late, incredibly great pete carill). jones’s experience, confidence and grit have helped his program weather the departure of its two best big men – 7′ 1″ danny wolf who left for michigan where he leads the maize and blue in most offensive categories as well as matt knowling who headed to another big ten program, usc, where he is not dominating the stats but getting regular minutes. jones has seen 6′ 7″ junior nick townsend step into this large front court emptiness and grab seven rebounds a night while producing 13.4 ppg. townsend is the sort of mildly talented, unremittingly hard worker who drives opponents crazy with important plays at big moments. the bulldog’s only true matinee idol is senior forward john poulakidas who leads the team with 20.7 ppg many of which are scored from well beyond the arc. he shoots treys at a 44.4 percent clip. he is the best three point shooter in the league – full stop. poulakidas’s sharpshooting accuracy is emulated by the rest of a squad which is the 13th best three point shooting unit in div. 1 basketball. the bulldogs’ third scoring option for coach jones is junior bez mbeng who chips in eleven points per game. more importantly, he is the ivy league’s two time reigning defensive player of the year and will likely dog messr de la rosa all saturday afternoon. that trio aside, the 7 – 6 elis are light on offensive options and should be had by the lions.

win or lose, the lions will have a physical battle with the elis as jones’s teams neither ask nor give any quarter. two days later, weary and banged up or not, the morningsiders will head down i95 on mlk monday to visit the 11 – 4 princeton tigers. upset in last march’s ivy tourney by an inspired brown squad, mitch henderson’s team boasts two candidates for ivy player of the year – junior point guard xaivian lee (15.6 ppg, 5.8 rebounds and 5.7 assists) and his classmate 6’7″ forward caden pierce (11.4 ppg, 6.9 rebounds and 2.6 assists). on a four game winning streak, the tigers look the best team in the ivies right now. the stripers have already won three one point games (over iona, akron and rutgers as well as winning by three over northeastern). they do not flinch when the game hangs in the balance. sophomore dalen davis chips in 11 points nightly as the two guard and is the team’s best free throw shooter at 91.3%. allgame plans to travel to south central jersey and we hope a nice crowd wanders over to jadwin gymnasium for the holiday matinee even though we doubt they’ll witness a lion upset.

columbia’s habit has been to come out slowly before reeling in its opponents. falling behind this afternoon, against cornell, or over the next week and a half against the bulldogs and tigers will likely prove fatal. let us send up prayers and offerings that they may conquer. ivy league basketball is upon us and in the rapidly evolving world of college athletics, this may be our last chance to admire scholar sportsmen at their tasks in a setting that can yield an ncaa big dance berth.

peace out and d up,

paulie b

ten days from now, we’ll have a very clear picture of how columbia matches up against three of the ivy’s best over the last few years. our early enthusiasm for this veteran squad, a win over villanova, and even those votes for a place in the ap top 25 are meaningless now. only wins over ivy teams matter.

peace out and d up,

paulie b