busload of faith

a stunningly beautiful tri-state autumn has softened the hideous brutalities of columbia’s gridiron season and the even tougher blow of lou reed’s departure.  november lifts our hearts with the promise of festal celebrations and the happy return of hardwood hopes to the land.  the lions start their 2013-2014 run on saturday night and allgame welcomes the approach of refs’  whistles with a quick trip through the schedule, speculation about the possibilities within that as yet undiscovered country and then early considerations of the athletes who will undertake the expedition.

the season opener, next saturday, brings the maryland-eastern shore hawks up to levien.  the chesapeakers are as poorly rated a squad as the lions face all year.  i saw them with an rpi rank of 346 (out of 347) in one preseason poll.  from here the challenges rise quickly and steeply.  local neighbor manhattan takes the irt number 1 down broadway to levien on tuesday the twelfth.  the jaspers arrive with lofty expectations for the season having been designated probable maac champions and ncaa tourney participants by a number of scribes.  the lions have handled the bronxites for the last two years, but steve masiello’s boys were missing george beamon, their scoring leader, in both those games.  i anticipate an entertaining early season brawl for supremacy in the northern reaches of the nation’s preeminent basketball metropolis.  shortly after that encounter, the lions will have to start packing their bags for a flight to lansing, michigan and a november 15 meeting with a.p. second ranked michigan state.  tom izzo, the spartans’ wonderful, hard fighting coach,  has enthused about the off season work ethic of his squad.  their size, quickness and depth of talent will provide challenges seldom,  if ever,  seen in the ivies.  we hope that their battle, three days prior to the lions visit, against the highly touted kentucky five will soften the michiganders up a bit for coach smith’s charges.  for those of you with significant sports tv access, the rumble will be carried on the big ten network.  columbia follows up that midwest trip with a swing out to portland, oregon and a tourney pitting them against north texas, portland and then idaho.  that trio of contests is followed by a pre-thanksgiving battle at levien v. american on the 26th.  december offers early brawls on the road against a pair of lion tamers from 2012.  first,  in north carolina at elon and then in eastern pennsylvania against bucknell, ncaa tourney participant last season and again highly regarded.  army’s well conditioned cadets march into levien on december 4 looking to reverse last season’s loss at west point to the lions.  the cadets are always fit for  battles and the blue will have to be ready for a game long physical struggle.  the christmas – new year weekend features the blue’s highest profile metro nyc tangle of the  blue’s schedule.  they will be running in the inaugural  brooklyn hoops winter festival at the barclays center against  st. john’s redmen.  steve lavin’s tribe has been voicing their ncaa tourney ambitions all preseason and we look forward to their humbling on saturday the 28th.  racing into the new year, when the lions face st. francis in early january, columbia will have the opportunity to complete a sweep of three of the outer boroughs and stake their rightful claim to city basketball supremacy.  the ivy schedule, which coach smith has yet to get the best of, is constructed in such a way that columbia should have a better time of it than last year.  from mid-february on, the boys play 6 of their last 8 at home and finish the year with the traditional visit of the killer p’s.  we shall certainly be in the stands both those nights yelling for the destruction of penn and princeton.  we will take a deeper look at the intricacies of the league schedule come january once the lesser academies have been taken dispatched.

the departure of last year’s core three – guard brian barbour, center mark cisco and power forward john daniels – will require a number of adjustments by coach smith and his staff.  fortunately, the necessary personnel appears available.  at season’s tip off this saturday, we expect the starting guard spots will be filled by sophomores maodo lo and grant mullins.  depending on defensive matchups, one or the other might be the “point” on a given possession.  both fellows can handle the ball and score though neither seemed a brilliant passer last year.  happily, the lions carry a first year from california who can break a trap by himself, find a teammate in a crowd and score if called upon.  messr kendall jackson might be the quickest guard in the league and has made himself part of smith’s core contingent as the season starts up. the eminent alton byrd, columbia’s greatest point guard ever, sees something of himself in young jackson.  may he be right in this!   isaac cohen, another soph,  will open the year at the small forward.  he is the tallest (by a bit) of the six interchangeable talents the lions possess at the two and three spots, and, to my eyes, the best rebounder and a deft passer.  though not a terrific scorer, he can take advantage of situations down low and should present match up problems all year.  after cohen, the lions will utilize the explosive meiko lyles, back from a year away, and, once he recovers from a wrist injury, steve frankoski.  the small forward spot is perhaps the team’s deepest.  though alex rosenberg seemed the likely power forward after helping the u.s. men’s team to win gold at this past summer’s macabiah games  (averaging 10.5 points in that effort), he has been dinged up in the pre-season and has been overtaken at the position by first year luke petrasek.  we have heard exciting things about this wiry 6’10” long islander.  he can score and bound and represents a very big gain over the departed daniels who played his heart out but was offensively incompetent.  once doc rosenberg returns to full strength, the 4 will be a solid position in the lion offense.  the final piece to the puzzle will be junior center cory osetkowski.  highly intelligent and mobile, the book on osetkowski is “good head” and “good feet.”  he finds open teammates from down low and should he become more assertive about getting off his own shot will make the blue formidable up front.  cory will be spelled first by 6’8″ sophomore zach en’wezoh, the athletic washingtonian who now seems comfortable in the big city.  zach saw time early last season but a back injury slowed him down from january on.  healthy again he will be counted on for important minutes.  additional time at center will go to the bunyanesque minnesotan first year conor voss.  should he improve his stamina and perfect his grasp of his role in the offense, great things might happen for this young man and his team.

perhaps even more daunting for smith and his staff than constructing a new offense will be getting the boys used to the new restrictions of defenders.  in the name of creating more free flowing offenses, hand checking has been virtually eliminated – particularly out on the perimeter.  down low, once a ball has been entered, big men will be kept from bodying their opponents.  similar adjustments to the block/charge rule are expected to result in rhythm disrupting parades to the foul lines.  in an exhibition contest against quinnipiac, the lions went to the line 29 times while the visitors from connecticut were awarded 40 tosses at the charity stripe.  like it or not,  defense will have to played with the feet first.  this will be a challenging learning curve for pretty much everyone – players, coaches, and officials.  early on we expect some choppy games.  tonight, versus maryland – eastern shore we shall be fascinated to see how strictly the zebras enforce the new rules and what sort of  rhythm results.

assuming the ncaa goal of increased offensive flow results, the lions should benefit given their improved front court profile.  additionally, some coaches forecast greater use of zone defenses to protect foul saddled athletes.  in that event, too, columbia should come out all right.  allgame as been a staunch advocate of the two – three zone for the lions for well over a year, seeing it as a natural fit for some of columbia’s defensive length.  coach smith periodically rolled it out last season and the crew should be comfortable settling into it regularly.  we eagerly await its appearance.

the lions are fortunate in their youth,  the first years seem coach smith’s best recruiting class to date.  no seniors sit on the bench.  the nucleus created this season will play together for at least two years.  that kind of continuity and experience should make for a successful, by which i mean winning, team.  lion fans will soon see if their faith is about to be vindicated.

“this is the time for action.  the future is at hand,” said the incomparable lou 25 years ago.

peace out and d up,

paulie b