a valedictory

the 2015 ivy league basketball season ended  at levien gymnasium on the first saturday of march. a championship banner was raised, but it was decidedly too dark a blue. the yale five claimed their first ncaa tournament berth since 1962 and will carry the hopes of all elite eight hoops fans into the arena in providence prior to humbling the big 12’s baylor bears.  no summary of the thrashing the bulldogs dealt the lions is necessary here especially as it was a recapitulation of the whipping administered up in new haven exactly one month before.  the eli bigs (justin sears, brandon sherrod and nick victor) flattened the light blue front courters.  though lion fans might bemoan the opportunity lost on february 13 when columbia’s five let slip the hated tigers from a not quite fatal grip, they cannot think their heroes any better than second best in the ivies this season.

that disappointment admitted and the falsity of allgame’s november claim that the road to houston started on broadway demonstrated, it is still necessary and appropriate to describe how much the graduating quartet of senior lion hoopsters meant to paulie b.  indeed, this platform was launched to permit our rhapsodizing about messrs rosenberg, mullins, cohen and lo as well as their fellow travelers.  we were first entranced by their refusal to yield.  robert e. lee would have been gratified by their courage in the face of the enemy.  we think fondly of their win over colgate back in january of 2014 when they rallied to drop the red raiders in double overtime but no less fondly of their failures on the road against overwhelming odds to deeply talented teams at michigan state and kentucky.  though sometimes too casual in locking away wins – that princeton game and a november 2013 fail against manhattan being the two strongest pieces of evidence in this regard – they generally played to the very last moment of a contest – this season’s wins at manhattan and harvard being epitomes of that characteristic.  maodo lo was, certainly, the best shooter of the quartet.  he finishes his career as the all time columbia leader in made three pointers and fourteenth in this regard in the ivies.  his better than half court heave at the half time buzzer against harvard this year will likely be the emblem of this talent, but it was his game against princeton in march 2014 that most fully revealed his quality.  on that amazing night, maodo hit a certifiably insane 11 – 15 from beyond the arc and singlehandedly kept the lions in the game until its bitter end.  this season he rolled out an un-guardable, ankle breaking crossover.  the move was displayed at its vivid best in the recent loss to yale when lo literally brought yale’s makai mason to his knees.  lo was joined in his inside/out offensive high jinks by back court mate grant mullins.  the blonde canadian balanced his three pointers with slashing attacks to the rim.  foul him and he was pretty much a lock at the free throw line.   that efficiency, though, was diminished somewhat this season – perhaps as a consequence of a serious concussion suffered at princeton back in the winter of 2014.  these guards were complemented by the hard nosed play of short hills bred small forward alex rosenberg.  his greatest single effort probably came against harvard back in 2014 when only a questionable charging call prevented his 33 point effort from leading the lions to an overtime victory against the cantabs.  the karmic wheel turned this january, however, when rosenberg hit a gorgeous running jumper against the crimson to seal the lions’ first win at lavietes pavilion since 2008.  a broken foot, suffered the week before the tip off of the 2014 -15 season cost rosenberg the dominating senior season toward which he had been heading and even a year of rehab couldn’t get alex back to where he had been.   the diminished stature of his game could be seen in slightly less elevation when going to the rim and a somewhat less dangerous three pointer, but as with mullins’s concussion, it seemed to have reverberations at the foul line where alex once went 17 -17 in a game – still an ncaa record, i think.   this year, his inconsistency on free throws cost the lions in a couple of close ones.  isaac cohen, the fourth senior, was offensively reticent.  his refusal to shoot frequently elicited moans from fans watching him pass up a layup for a pass to an open teammate on the arc.  this tendency was especially frustrating since he could  score as his 19 point performance at princeton on february 27 this year demonstrated.  cohen simply preferred to do his job which he saw as playing defense – he was generally considered by the coaching staff to be their best on ball defender – and distributing the ball.  his no look bullets to back door cutters and bounce passes to attackers in the paint remain epitomes of the art of the assist to allgame and take their place along side the work of the incomparable alton byrd in the lion bureau of hoops standards.

besides their individual talents, these athletes won paulie b’s heart by their fighting spirit.  early on in their careers they specialized in late game rallies and frequently turned what had shaped up as losses into wins.  they displayed similar heart in winning late at manhattan and cambridge during this campaign.  the tendency could be balanced, its true, by a failure to lock down victories that seemed well in hand.  the epic fail against princeton this season was presaged by the november ’13 loss to manhattan.  narrow win or close loss, they always seemed to battle with a grace and grit that would gladden any fan of the game at its finest.  fortunately, their character was rewarded by many victories.  indeed, allgame’s makes their 54 wins over the last three seasons the most in a three year span since the 55 registered by the jim mcmillian led 1967 – 70 squad.

fans show their love by cheering.  teams return that love by winning championships.  even if our love has been unrequited, finally, allgame shall remain ever grateful to the light blue’s senior class of 2016.  they were the making of allgame.

good luck in the c.i.t.

paulie b