the kentucky derby like charge from the gate that is college basketball in november has yielded to the more sedate pace of the exam period schedule. sparse crowds turn out in the underheated campus gymnasiums of small north east colleges offering minors in zone defense and the history of hoops to watch traditional non-league foes have at it. with one third of the schedule in the books and the new year racing at us, we pause to evaluate the lion performance so far and speculate on the near future.
dress it up how you will, columbia has been resolutely ordinary to date. they beat, soundly, their inferiors. they battle gamely against, before succumbing to, their equals. they can even hang tough with their betters thanks to a firm commitment to team defense. they stand at 6 – 5, which seems about right given the preceding characterizations. they absolutely should be 7 – 4. with a bit of luck, they might be 9 -2 and resembling possible ivy league title contenders. their inadequacies and inconsistencies, however, make us think that a final record of 15 – 16 looks likely. i make them 7 – 7 in ivy play, a significant step up from the last two seasons, but still outsiders gazing longingly at the league’s elite.
to date, neither the team as a whole nor any individual player has gotten on a roll. they have not put together more than two consecutive wins (nor yet suffered two straight losses, to be fair). similarly, leading scorer grant mullins has swung between excellence (23 points v manhattan) and absence (0 v michigan state). that grotesque pair of games can be bookended with the army (a personal and team season high 28 points) and bucknell (2) duet in early december. it might be more efficient to just cash 15 ppg. fortunately, when grant takes a powder the lions can turn to maodo lo or alex rosenberg for offense. but mullins is the team’s most reliable free throw shooter and for that reason alone, it is important that he have the ball late in tight games. the drama of the canadian’s now you see him, now you don’t performances is less worrisome than the lions failure so far to establish an identity in the front court. junior center cory osetkowski and first year forward luke petrasek both possess good hands, feet and heads. they pass well and they can both play with their backs to the basket which are significant upgrades to columbia’s offense from the tandem of mark cisco and john daniels. they lack, however, the ” get after itness” on the backboards of that previous duo. indeed, the lions are led in rebounding by two backcourters, the versatile isaac cohen and guard maodo lo. cory and luke, along with alex rosenberg and power forward sub zach en’wezoh, have got to play tougher by which i mean limiting opponents to one shot and creating additional opportunities for teammates off rebounds if columbia is going to close out tight games, particularly in the ivies.
whatever their shortcomings so far, we remain enthusiastic about this young squad and look forward to being proved wrong about their so-so performance. in this regard, we very much look forward to the next five games, perhaps the most fascinating stretch of the lions’ season. arriving at levien this saturday is fairleigh dickinson, the terrors from teaneck. two seasons ago, columbia ran out to a comfortable first half lead and then back and forthed it for the second period on their way to an easy 67 – 52 win over the knights. no one from that fdu squad remains, and though they have but three wins to date, two of those victories were over rutgers and seton hall – legitimate squads and certainly better than anyone columbia has whipped so far. i very much see this as a trap game for the lions if, anticipating their battle with st. john’s a week hence, they don’t bring their customary defensive intensity. job one – getting after and limiting sidney sanders, jr. who averages 18.7 ppg and 4 plus assists.
on the year’s last saturday, allgame travels to long island to watch our heroes’ highest profile game of the season as they battle the st. john red storm in the brooklyn hoops classic at the barclays center. the kids from queens have lost but three games to date and those failures were against two top ten teams – wisconsin and syracuse – and one big ten squad – penn state. they have size and athleticism down low and will significantly test all the lion bigs. i hope that all the lion front courters are ready to rebound and that they all use four of every five personals they have at their disposal. the johnnies toss bricks from the foul line and cannot hit a lake, much less a bucket, from the three point arc. the lions must cut off dribble drives and be very efficient on their defensive boards. the crowd will undoubtedly be heavily st. john’s friendly. i expect that the storm will be dismissive of the blue at the outset and if columbia can hit early – are you listening, grant mullins? – an upset will not be a huge surprise to this observer and you will have been tipped to it here.
the lions return to morningside heights just long enough to pack their bags for hamilton, new york where their busy holiday season will continue on monday the 30th versus the raiders of colgate. columbia whipped them last year at levien, 69 -60, but the kids from central new york might be a tougher out this time. murphy burnatowski ( is there a better moniker in college hoops?) who cashed 13 points and snagged 6 rebounds in that match returns, and he is only the raiders’ second leading scorer. colgate’s number one is red shirt sophomore austin tillotson, who wears no. 1 and is banking 15.1 ppg. that pair will be abetted by luke roh on the backboards and between the three of them, the raiders seem new and improved. they absolutely throttled cornell, a team that was columbia’s equal a year ago. columbia has not traveled all that well recently, so they will be challenged upstate.
returning to the pleasant confines of levien for the turn of the year, the lions will face the terriers of st. francis brooklyn on saturday the 4th. the boys from brooklyn heights played their best ball very early, downing miami in their opener and scaring the bejeezus out of syracuse in mid-november. they have since looked less efficient and fell by double digits to an army team that the lions dominated. on the other hand, not so long ago they edged a stony brook team that has some players. st. francis is led by 6′ 6″ junior jalen cannon who tallies 13.9 per game while grabbing 8 boards. he’ll be a handful for the lion bigs. we believe columbia will start 2014 on a successful note, but count no chickens. those same stony brook seawolves who succumbed to the terriers come into town on wednesday the 8th sporting a 7 – 4 record that includes a 104 -102 win over detroit and a 103 -99 loss to toledo. clearly they can get up and down the court and the game will probably be determined by which team dictates tempo. that will very much depend on who controls the boards. jameel warney is the seawolves star of the moment. the 6′ 8″ forward from plainfield, nj has a gaudy stat sheet. he averages 15.7 points on a stunning 64% field goal percentage while grabbing 9.7 rebounds per outing. he throws in a steal and just about 2 blocks per game in his spare time. he will be one of the most talented athletes to visit levien this season and i cannot wait to watch him play.
though columbia will suit up one more time before commencing ivy play in the traditional home and away saturdays against cornell, the contest against div iii central pennsylvania concerns me only in so far as it is an opportunity for injury. i trust coach smith will empty his bench early and let the usual d.n.p.ers fill their stat sheets. win or lose, the game is inconsequential. we hope all the lions embark upon league play, and the demanding two months of friday and saturday play it entails, tested but fit. last year’s team literally limped down the stretch with cisco, daniels and brian barbour all dinged up. close losses to brown and dartmouth as well as a miserable outing up in new haven against the eli can be attributed, at least in part, to those injuries. in another ten days we’ll consider the prospects for league play, but for now, we cross fingers and wait for the jump ball versus fdu tomorrow.
peace out and d up,
paulie b