resilient lion five ends new england visits with win at hanover

the columbia men’s basketball team rode a blazing second half effort from kenny noland to pull away from a half time tie (31 – 31) in hanover and down dartmouth 79 – 69. the game represented a bounce back for the lions who had dropped three straight to the other new england ivies. harvard whipped them at levien on january 10, 79 – 54. brown dropped the morningsiders at providence in overtime, 86 – 80, in a, literally, bruising contest. imperial yale put the boys away 91 – 74 on mlk day in a contest that showcased the elis’ patient, exploitative offense and tough d. those three fails certainly took some of the wind out of this fan’s sails about the squad’s long term hopes for a berth in the league tournament. the ivy league is nothing if not balanced this season with yale alone looking like a lock for the tourney. the visits this weekend from penn and princeton will be the occasions for columbia to either move into the second level of standings or sink into a slough of despond.

tonight, the quakers will rely on sharpshooting senior guard ethan roberts to continue his scoring (19.5). the illinois native shares back court duties with another hoopster from the land of lincoln, 6′ 5″ senior Michael Zanoni who contributes 11.8 ppg and six foot sophomore a. j. levine who tallies seven and a half points nightly. the penn front court features two 6′ 9″ juniors, t. j. power, who is the team’s second leading scorer at 14.6 ppg while grabbing 7.4 rebounds per contest and augie gearhart who snags an additional 6.2 boards per game. this crew, which stands tied with the lions at 2 – 3 in league play right now should test both the columbia interior length and stretch the defense on the three point line where the quakers drain 38.4 percent of their attempts. in ivy play, roberts is hitting at a 46% clip while power makes 45% of his treys. the lions did a good job closing out the big green on the perimeter in the second half of their win last saturday and need to continue to take of business in that regard. finally, the game will mark the return of coach fran mccaffrey to levien. mccaffrey played for the quakers for three seasons back in the eighties before going on to a distinguished coaching career. penn is the fifth team he has headed with his most recent posting being at iowa where he amassed a program record 297 wins. his hawkeye squads shot and defended well and hit the backboards diligently. coach hovde will have to be ready for a tough, seasoned opponent. mccaffrey will be unlikely to give the game away.

saturday evening, the princeton tigers return to levien. no ivy league coach had a more eventful off season than the tigers’ mitch henderson. arguably, he lost the best one – two punch in the league with the departure of point guard xaivian lee for florida (and a six million dollar nil deal) and the decision by forward caden pierce to forgo his senior year. pierce intends to transfer elsewhere and complete his college eligibility as a graduate student-athlete. those defections followed the departure of two key assistant coaches, brett macconnell and lawrence rowley. when princeton struggled through its non-conference schedule, it seemed that coach henderson was in deep trouble. he may be but for the moment he has his squad at 3 – 2 in ivy play (good for a second place tie at the moment). two of those wins came against yale (the elis’ only league loss), 76 – 60 and brown, 63 – 53. they have also edged penn while dropping a close one to dartmouth and falling to harvard by seven. that coach henderson did not have the services of leading scorer dalen davis for five weeks, it was not surprising that the tigers stumbled to a 4 – 12 non-league record. with davis (16.4 ppg) back and fellow guard, 6’5″ junior jackson hicke adding another 15 and a half points nightly on 43% shooting from beyond the arc, the ivy league version of the tigers resembles the squad we have learned to fear. messr hicke also snags 5.2 boards nightly while 6’7″ sophomore malik abdullah grabs another six rebounds per contest. columbia should be able to handle these tweeners on the boards, but they should not be taken lightly.

this weekend is full of promise for the lions. if they were healthy and not missing three starters – beddri, brown and franklin – the lions would be certain favorites in both games. as it stands, should they sweep the visitors, the light blue will be 4 – 3 in league play and no worse than tied for third. lose two and they’ll stand 2 – 5 and no better than tied for fifth. a split would leave them at 3 – 4 and looking from the outside at the tourney. undermanned they handled dartmouth. they need to defend levien with the same intensity they showed in hanover and down the killer p’s this weekend.

peace out and d up,

paulie b