the atmosphere in the lisa landau carnoy lounge* in levien gymnasium was positively fizzy saturday afternoon. former players, the parents of several of this season team’s starters, various important supporters of both the columbia men’s and women’s team, as well as allgame and smith gathered to jubilate about the cumb men’s team victory on monday past over cornell. the exhilaration of that win inflated us all with dreams of ivy glory. the 2025 – 26 light blue five was the deepest team in the ivies, the longest, the most motivated, we all happily agreed. the next victims on a triumphal march to the league tourney were to be the haughty cantabs of harvard, that very afternoon.
we left the lounge ready to rumble. four and one half minutes into play and the lions trailed 11 – 2. it would not get significantly better over the next thirty five minutes and our much lauded heroes fell with a thud, 79 -54. let us review in hope of re-calibrating our expectations. the lions are currently ranked 23rd nationally in rebounds per game grabbing 37.8 boards nightly. against a shorter harvard crew, columbia were outrebounded 32 – 30. significantly, they allowed the crimson to snag 10 offensive rebounds. those precious boards led to second and third chance scoring opportunities that did the lions in whenever they attempted to whittle down the harvard lead. the cantabs achieved their rebounding edge by the strenuous efforts of 6′ 5″ guard chandler pigge who grabbed seven boards. 6′ 10″ lion forward, ryan soulis, managed six on the afternoon. in general, the visitors rebounded by committee with everyone assisting the effort to limit the lions in this vital statistic and perceived advantage.
that pugnacious behavior was mirrored by the crimson physical defense all over the court. the pressure they applied to columbia’s ball handlers resulted in 10 first half turnovers and those forced and unforced errors were the engine of harvard’s scoring in the opening stanza. have to add here that allgame, while the battle was raging, thought the zebras were dismissive of the harvards’ physicality – especially when the lions attacked the rim. coach hovde seemed similarly frustrated and for the first time this season engaged in game long complaint to the officials about their laissez faire attitude. in retrospect, we were both wrong. the cantabs were assessed 13 personal fouls while the lions picked up ten. both squads shot 11 free throws, with harvard hitting them all and the lions missing but one.
tommy amaker’s crew, we must admit, did an outstanding job defending the three point line. the lion five went a miserable 2 – 16 from deep while the visitors sank 10 – 22. that accounts for most of the point differential in the game. the harvard defense was anchored by the yeoman work of guard ben eisendrath. the 6’2″ sophomore bedeviled columbia’s leading scorer, kenny noland, all game and held the lion star to 10 points, about seven below his average, and harassed noland into 4 turnovers. eisendrath, meanwhile, tallied 13 or eight more than his ppg average and didn’t turn the ball over once. robert hinton, last season’s ivy rookie of the year, similarly tormented the lions. the quick californian blew past lion defenders throughout the game on his way to 17 points. hinton was abetted by forward thomas batties who led all scorers with 24. quick take away from that scoring summary – limit noland and the lions are vulnerable. in three of their four losses ( against uconn, california and now harvard ), noland has been held to 10 or fewer points. additionally, it seems, the lions can be beaten off the dribble by a quick opponent. finally, the game revealed that first year coach hovde has to endure the rigorous gamut of the ivy league’s very solid coaches. he seemed to have cornell’s number up in ithaca but tommy amaker is a defensive guru and he knew how to take away the engine of the light blue’s offense. hovde’s education will continue this weekend when the team battles brown on saturday and yale on monday. the bruins are 0 – 2 in league play right now and coach mike martin faces the task of rebuilding a crew that has been very tough the last two seasons. still, hovde better be watching what tape he can because the brown squad always reflects martin’s hard nosed, combative personality. nothing need be said about monday’s battle with the dean of ivy coaches, james jones. the ever dapper and unflappable jones will soon be the winningest roundball coach in ivy history, surpassing the immortal pete carril. the yalies were a consensus pick to take the league title and their surprising loss at princeton last saturday has done little to change that notion.
columbia needs to re-set for this weekend’s challenges. two seasons ago, brown was within half a second of upending yale in the ivy tourney and going to the big dance. last year they did not make the tourney field. this campaign, coach mike martin is struggling to find a way to manufacture some points and replace kino lilly, jr., his leading scorer, as well as aaron cooley and alex lesburt. those three players provided virtually all of bruno’s three point fire power. martin is also looking for help on the glass where he has traditionally had a number of bully boys grabbing rebounds. so far, this season, he has depended almost exclusively on n’famara dabo, a 6′ 8″ junior forward, who is snatching 7.1 boards per game. that outdoes any single lion but won’t be enough against the lengthy four man rotation that coach kevin hovde can roll out down low for columbia. the lions’ advantage from the perimeter and on the glass should hold up in providence for a victory. on martin luther king day, the light blue takes on the yale bulldogs in new haven. the elis will be looking to bounce back from a whipping they took in princeton last saturday. leading their search for victory will be senior nick townsend. the 6’7″ senior is coach james jones’s factotum providing 16.3 ppg while dishing out four assists per game and grabbing 7.5 rebounds. just as slowing columbia depends upon limiting kenny noland, so victory over yale requires slowing townsend down. the bulldogs’ strength up front is amplified by 6′ 6″ sophomore forwards isaac celiscar and riley fox, who tally 12.9 and 12.7 points per game respectively. one can’t forget senior forward casey simmons. the slim 6′ 7″ guard grabs 4 boards nightly. last january, the omnipresent simmons was in the thick of yale’s comeback win over the lions at levien. this quartet will test the lion front court as thoroughly as harvard’s rebounders did and victory will depend on besting them.
peace out, d up
paulie b
*the lounge formerly bore lou gehrig’s name. ms carnoy is a successful banking executive who ran track for the lions, has been awarded the john jay award and currently co-chairs the columbia board of visitors. lou gehrig played baseball and football for columbia for two seasons before departing for the ny yankees. he did not matriculate.