columbia dropped visiting penn state – abington by fifty points on new year’s eve, wrapping up their non-conference schedule at 11 – 3. most of their wins were against lesser squads and they lost decisively to the two power conference teams (uconn and california) that they faced. now commences their real mission: to erase the humiliation of last season’s 1 – 13 ivy league record and claim one of the four spots in the league tournament this march.
that tourney will be held in ithaca this year and that makes monday’s league opener against cornell an at least geographically appropriate starting point. the lions carry a bouquet of nine straight losses to the big red. not since january 18, 2020 have they outscored the upstaters. last year’s ivy campaign began and ended with beat downs administered by the ithacans. in the first of those contests, big red raced out to a 51 – 31 halftime lead at levien, shooting 7 – 13 from the three point line. columbia managed to go 1 – 10 from the perimeter. although the lions shot better in the second half and only lost by 11, it was game over early. on march 8 last year, the light blue was more thoroughly dressed down at newman arena, falling 100 – 81. the big red shot less well, but more often and overwhelmed the boys from morningside.
for columbia to reverse the sorry history of the last five years, the lions will have to harass the big red on the three point line. the ithacans stand fourth in the nation in three point percentage making 42% of their treys. their returning back court leader, 6’2″ senior cooper noard sinks 39.4% of his deep takes. his back court and classmate, 6’4″ jake fiegens tops that at a 39.6% clip. they seem pikers compared to adam hinton, 46.9% from the perimeter, and ian imegwu, who hits at 55.6% rate. not to mention gioacchino panzini, a 6′ 5″ forward, who connects at an ungodly 72.7%. the lions feature a much improved perimeter defense compared to the last several seasons. that improvement must be manifest monday afternoon. on the other hand, the light blue should be better inside than cornell which has lost the 6’7″ bruiser, ak okereke, to the vanderbilt commodores. the burly okereke has gone from ivy league walk on to potential nba draftee. in any case, he brutalized the lions inside over the last couple of years. we would feel more certain of the lions interior superiority if center zine eddine beddri were recovered from his ankle injury and available, but the five man rotation of ryan soulis, mason ritter, blair thompson, connor igoe and richard nweke that coach kevin hovde has assembled is big enough and tough enough to lead a lion squad that stands 13th nationally in rebounds per game over the cornell boys who rank 141st in that statistical category. defend the edge and dominate the paint should be a winning formula for the light blue five.
the lions have done well in non-conference play over the last few years before stinking it up in the ivies. january offers seven opportunities to alter that narrative and reclaim some status in league. in that regard, monday january 5 will be an afternoon to remember, we think.
d up, peace out
paulie b