the columbia lions men’s basketball team has adorned this dreary, snowless mid-atlantic winter with a five game losing streak. the ivy league season debuted promisingly enough with an efficient win over a poor cornell team at levien on january 18. the thoroughness of the big red’s dismissal made a victorious reprise seem likely at cornell on the 25th. instead, the light blue turned in a listless performance at both ends of the court in ithaca. mike smith, so essential to columbia’s performance that we figure he drove the bus up to the finger lakes, seemed tired and impatient. lacking elevation on his three point jump shot, he took to ineffective drives to the hoop early in the time clock. his 15 points enough would not be enough to carry the lions to victory especially since jack forrest, who contributed a break out effort (24 points) in the win at levien, foolishly picked up two fouls in the first two minutes of the rematch and spent the rest of the first half on the bench. the six points he contributed in the second stanza did little to ignite his band of brothers. the lions, who shot 40% from the field in the first period managed a measly 26% in the second and ineffectively played a slim halftime lead into a twelve point loss. the shooting percentage from three point range was worse – 21% in the second period when cornell heated up to hit a full half of their treys.
having managed to lose to one of the ivy’s least, the light blue visited new haven the following friday. yale’s coach james jones is the league’s bench dean and a slickly dressed murderer. having lost an immense portion of last year’s offense as well as his two best players, jones has patiently relied on the development of center paul atkinson, forward jordan bruner’s continued bully work on the boards and the floor captainship from azar swain to remain at the top of the conference. amplifying the work of that trio has been 6′ 5″ sophomore guard mathue cotton. the voorhees, nj native is a three point specialist who roams the perimeter in search of a comfortable post to receive the pass he knows will come for an open look trey. that procedure was well worn against the lions who neglected to confirm cotton’s whereabouts for much of the first half as the new jerseyan drained four of his six made three pointers. that performance, alongside the brutish work of atkinson and bruner down low, left the lions overmatched. randy brumant, who had snatched 11 rebounds against the big red in ithaca managed but 2 in new haven as the bulldogs outboarded the lions by a frightful 44 – 25 margin on their way to a 42 – 18 advantage in paint points. that spread accounts for most of the difference in the 93 – 62 rout that qualifies as yale’s most thorough going beat down of the lions in the twenty first century and probably the lions biggest league loss since the turn of the millenium. we are assuming here and offer a free dinner (not to exceed $25.00) to any reader who can gainsay our reportorial accuracy.
the lions moved on from that debacle to gamely battle brown in providence before falling 72 – 66. that failure we happily attribute to the ineptitude of the officiating crew. incompetence, rather than corruption, we suspect led to the discrepancy in free throws (20 -27 for the home team, 5 – 9 for our heroes). that difference allowed the bruins to weather columbia’s ferocious second half come back from ten down to take a six point lead with about four minutes to play. after that, the lions couldn’t find the bottom of the bucket while brown scored 8 of their final 13 points from the free throw stripe.
punished on the road, the light blue returned to levien to face the league’s southern division. penn was to visit on the 7th followed by princeton’s saturday appearance. terrible weather in ithaca scuttled that arrangement and led to saturday-sunday matinee battles against the killer p’s. the penn match up again demonstrated the lions’ vulnerabilities inside. happily returned to morningside heights, the lions played with good energy in the opening period and, thanks to a jack forrest jump shot, enjoyed a 26 – 18 advantage with six and a half minutes to play in the half. at that point, the quakers terrific senior center, a. j. brodeur, decided to get serious. he grabbed a fast break starting rebound at the 5:30 mark; he followed up a lay up at 3:50 with a jumper in the lane at 2:46. brodeur then blocked a shot from ike nweke that started a battle around the south end basket that culminated at the north end basket in a layup by eddie scott which brought the quakers within one at 27 – 28. another brodeur assist to messr scott put the visitors up 29 – 28. tai bibbs hit a three pointer (columbia’s only points in the last minutes of the stanza) to reestablish a 31 -29 lion advantage, but brodeur found the opportunity to hit devon goodman with a nifty pass to knot the score at intermission.
penn came out of the break ready to run and scored five points in the opening minute. that advantage would never be wholly surrendered. indeed, the quakers stretched their lead to as many as 10 points with eight minutes remaining in the game. to their credit, the lions fought back to within one point (65-64) with 4:40 to play but the push had gassed the light blue. they would be outscored 11 – 3 down the stretch with the magnificent brodeur contributing five free throws, an assist, one rebound and a block to vouchsafe the philadelphians’ 76 – 67 victory.
we’ll be briefest with the final loss of this unhappy stretch, an 81 – 74 fail against the princetons, the stripers ran out to an eight point half time lead behind richmond aririguzoh’s yeoman work inside. the tiger center proved to quick for any of the trio (brumant, nweke, smoyer) of lion defenders as he shot a near perfect 8 – 9 from the floor for his 16 points. he turned the scoring duties over to jaelin llewelllyn (19 points) and ryan schwieger (18 points) in the second period. that trio was enough to overcome mike smith’s best game of the ivy season to date – 30 points, 4 rebounds, 4 steals and 3 assists.
tonight columbia makes the onerous trip to hanover, new hampshire. the game against dartmouth looks to be the most winnable of their four remaining road contests. more importantly, the lions have to quiet the big green if they hope to stay out of the ivy league cellar. a season that had held so much promise prior to gabe stefannini’s injury and the even more damaging defection of rising senior center patrick tape threatens to spiral into an appalling crash and burn. victory over the so far winless (in the ivies) hanoverians is perhaps the last bulwark against utter disaster. saturday they play in cambridge against a fickle harvard squad that has bounced between very good (as in their win last weekend at yale) to ok (as in their tough victories over hapless dartmouth). columbia has a shot if they defend well, but wouldn’t make the bet.
peace out and d up,
paulie b