As Mrs. Smith and I walked away from Levien with the rest of a still reeling crowd, she asked for my thoughts on the calamity. ” How come,” she wondered? “Stay positive in your post,” she urged. Hard to figure that one out given the high dive of emotion the Lions had just put 2,500 of us through. I muttered searching for a rationale for the loss, especially since the boys defended hard and shot well. The Blue was outperformed at the foul line, but given the rest of their play, that shouldn’t have mattered. Then I saw the game’s outcome clearly. Despite the Lions’ second straight night of good three point shooting – led by Meiko Lyles and Chris Crockett in this regard, their tremendous interior defense (especially in the first half), and their continued strong work on the boards, the contest reeked of the same endgame sloppiness that characterized the loss to Princeton. True, Saturday night’s failure against the Elis featured a nauseating fall from the giddy heights of a 21 point lead whereas the Princeton snafu had been characterized by the Lions ( more typical) rally from half a dozen down to last minute equality before losing. The box scores of both games, however, share an identical statistic. Yale victimized the boys for the very same 10 steals the Tigers had managed. When considered alongside the 21 turnovers that defaced the score card, Columbia had clearly self-destructed. The single play that epitomized the Lions during those last five minutes against Yale was a late turnover off an inbound pass that ended with AlexRosenberg throwing the ball away along the uptown sideline. That mistake illustrated the Blue’s ongoing sloppiness with the ball near the end of tight games. And though I single out young Alex in this instance, his elders are hardly without sin. Indeed, team leaders Brian Barbour and Mark Cisco contributed 4 t.o.’s each to top this particular offensive category. This is a team that must learn truly to value the ball.
Learning that lesson before the weekend might well make the difference in the Lions second and final match ups with the Stripers at Jadwin and the Cheese Steakers at the hallowed Palestra. The Lions owe both those crews after tough home losses on the opening weekend of league play. A sweep on the southern swing through the Ivies is always tough – just ask the Tiger whipped and shell shocked Harvard squad – but would be a delicious cherry on the season’s sundae.
Peace out and D up,
paulie b