no more anticipated walk for allgame than the climb to our perch in section c of levien prior to opening night for the columbia university men’s basketball team. mightn’t this be the season that the lions finally claim a spot in the ivy league post-season tourney? what pleasures to be anticipated, glories dreamed of. delightful simply to await the campaign’s initial opening tip off.
anxiety provoking, too. coach kevin hovde heads up a team that lost 80% percent of last season’s starting lineup and a concomitant amount of offensive production. those losses include his two tallest big men – zine beddri (to san jose state) and ryan soulis (to northwestern) via the portal. coach can take solace in the returns of ivy league rookie of the year connor igoe and rising junior center mason ritter up front. they will be central to any substantial success this team achieves. we’re not sure who will man the other forward slot but whoever fills the position will be taking over for lanky blair thompson, the lions best rebounder last season and a dependable three point shooter. the starting guards are likely to be hampton sanders and gerard o’keefe who both saw significant time off the bench last season. their combined contributions will have to offset the graduation of team leader and go to scorer, kenny noland. we hope that the injured miles franklin will soon return to the hardwood as he is the lions’ most physically dynamic talent and can further diminish the loss of messr noland. pre-tipoff we knew nothing important about any of the five newcomers to levien.
monday night’s opponent was the phoenix of elon university from the coastal athletic association. elon posted a 14 – 18 mark last season. the squad features three long athletes in the front court – 6’10” sophomore forward josh dalton, 6’9″ iker garmendia also a second year and 7’1″ senior center hunter harding. these bigs are joined in the starting five by sophomore shooting guard bryson cokley who stands 6’6″. the phoenix coach, billy taylor, can call on a couple more wide bodies as required including 6’10” first year forward caleb zhu. zhu is not yet a polished offensive player but showed no hesitation, and some delight, in exercising his 245 lb bulk banging bodies with columbia’s ritter down low.
these visitors wasted little time in getting after the lions, leading from the start and stretching their advantage to ten (21 – 11) at the 11:46 mark. with six minutes remaining in the first half, the phoenix still led by ten (28 – 18) off a cokley trey. the next couple minutes of play belonged to the lions who clawed back to with five (30 – 25) off a snaky drive to the bucket by hampton sanders. sadly, that would prove the highwater mark of the half and the game for our heroes. the last four minutes were owned by elon via two dalton layups, a harding jumper and a final jump shot by messr cokley with four seconds remaining. the teams left the court with the lions down 40 – 28.
the second half was drawn and elon boarded their bus for north carolina with the pleasure of an 84 – 71 win. that second half balance is by and large reflected in the box score. indeed, the box score describes a game that was dead even in most statistical categories: 31 rebounds for each team; 13 turnovers for each team; the squads blocked 7 shots apiece; columbia managed 6 steals while elon grabbed 7 and, finally the lions hit 15 -20 free throws while the phoenix were near perfect draining 11 – 12. the difference, finally, came down to shooting. elon sank 33 of 60 from the field or 55% of its shots including 7 – 12 (58%) from three point range. the lions managed 27 – 57 from the floor (47%) but only an abysmal 2 – 9 from trey territory. the 13 point difference in the game is essentially elon’s three pointers. clearly, the morningsiders need to take and make more triples.
the light blue has a quick opportunity to even up its record as they play div iii suny westbury thursday evening. it shouldn’t be close and everyone should have a chance to fill the stats sheet. we hope coach hovde finds a couple of three point shooters lurking on the bench. as the lions take on the tougher teams in their non-conference schedule, they will have to figure out how to compete in the paint against big squads. the small and power forwards who saw little or no time include 6’7″ senior richard nweke at 215lbs, 6’7″ junior nigel clarkson who weighs 195, leland coleman another 6’7″ junior who carries 190 lbs, sophomore doug langford who weighs 245 at 6’8″ and finally first year luke cruz, a 6’9″ 230 pounder. those dimensions might provide a bit too much room in the paint for columbia’s antagonists. you can’t teach size, as they say.
in any case, them dies are cast fans. allgame is ready.
d up and peace out,
paulie b