All Game No Gossip

64 teams await the first jump ball at noon today and we feel the pressure to prognosticate a bit.  allgame has not appeared since the lions ran the crimson off the boards at levien almost six weeks ago.  that same underwhelming harvard team represents the ivies in the big  dance.  i expect little noise from the cantabs in the tourney but have some hopes for the pennsylvanian crew from bucknell.  last year’s patriot league representative, the lehigh mountain hawks  surprised pretty much everyone but themselves by dropping mighty duke in the first round.  it should be much less shocking when bucknell beats two better known mid majors on their way to d.c. for the sweet sixteen.

the bisons are led, as our attentive readers know, by 6′ 10″ mike muscala who scores 19 ppg while grabbing about 12 boards.  the long, tough center is quick on the blocks where he does most of his damage.  he moves his feet on defense too, so scoring down low against bucknell won’t be easy.  big mike is complemented in the regular rotation by seven teammates, the three most important of whom are cam ayers (12.5 ppg and 4 rebounds), bryson johnson (11.1 ppg) and joe willman (10.3 ppg and 6 boards).  i expect their efficient inside out offense and tough d should mean a sudden exit for brad stevens’  butler squad early this thursday afternoon.  the bisons should subsequently whip the big east’s  marquette on saturday and punch their tickets for the east regionals where the run should end against a miami team that has plenty of quickness at guard and the bodies down low to finally stop muscala.  i look forward, though, to seeing how bucknell’s big man defends fearless shane larkin on that diminutive cane’s forays to the rim.  if the center can stay out of foul trouble and bucknell can keep the game in the low to mid 60’s, it might be an exciting final five minutes a week from now.   regardless of the outcome in washington,  i expect kansas will win the whole thing ten days later.

be not dismayed by these less than urbane ramblings nor fear that we have abandoned our long standing romance with the (say it ain’t so!) ivy cellar dwelling blue.  post tourney we will review the much that went wrong in 2012 – 2013 and suggest how much more might go right next season.

peace out and d up, paulie b

winning on the road in the ivies is hard as heidegger.  just ask coach paul cormier, professor of roundball philosophy at dartmouth, whose big green had lost 24 straight league games away.  that is more than 3 years of wandering unhappily in the wilderness.  friday last, though, a blizzard blew into the northeast and created conditions the granite staters apparently relished for they withstood a late charge from columbia and downed the lions 60 -57 in front of 1,000 hardy fans at levien.  our heroes in blue trim once again dug a deep hole for themselves and trailed by 11 with some nine minutes to play.  but, as they had against cornell, penn and princeton in their three previous battles, they clawed their way back into the game and even took a 54 – 52 advantage with just under three minutes to go.  the blue managed this comeback despite shooting an unimaginably poor 3 – 20 from beyond the arc.  the futility was universal but especially disheartening were the numbers from maodo lo at 1 – 4, steve frankoski at 2 – 7 and, especially grant mullins’s 0 – 5 collar.  the blue were able to hang tough because of marc cisco’s yeoman labors down in the paint, where he scored 16 while grabbing 9 boards, and a stiflingly effective 2 – 3 zone that dartmouth could not solve through most of the final ten minutes of the game when columbia launched its desperate charge.  for reasons not clear to this correspondent, coach smith abandoned the zone as the game wound down which freed alex mittola to score the last six of his 17 on the night and tyler melville to get to the charity stripe and cash the last two of his 15.  having turned the ball over only six times all game, the lions literally tossed the game away when big john daniels threw an errant pass into hanoverian hands with 1:26 to play.  consequently, while the game hung in the balance, big green outscored the blue 8 – 3 with the lions only points coming on a pair of free throws from brian barbour and one from doc rosenberg.   when steve frankoski missed the last of his three point attempts, it fell into the arms, appropriately, of conor boehm who had led dartmouth with 20 points and 7 boards on the evening.  thus, as the day’s storm wound up to its shrillest keen, the lions headed to the locker room with a 9 – 10 record and on a four game ivy league losing streak.

the lions had not dropped a game to dartmouth’s crew since 2008, so kudos to big green on breaking two losing streaks.   that sporting remark aside, no way columbia should have lost,  to the admittedly improved  visitors.  the lions literally shot themselves out of this game.  indeed, as regularly reported here, they have not shot well from beyond the arc since visiting cornell to open the ivy season.  must have been something in the ithacan wells.  whatever the cause, for 4 straight ivy games they have found themselves down early, battling back gamely, but ultimately falling short.  they can play with anybody, but whom can they whip?

the always dapper tommy amaker, who brought his hitherto undefeated (in ivy play) and defending league champeen cantabs to levien for a storm delayed contest sunday afternoon, knows the answer.  the john harvards had struggled but prevailed in every league match this season.  indeed, dartmouth had taken them to double ot before falling at cambridge.  that is the kind of challenge the haughty new englanders have only rarely faced in the ivies over the last three seasons.  though columbia had not downed the visitors since ’09, it was a vulnerable, if vocal, crimson crew that huzzahed each other during their pre-game dunking drill.

columbia wasted little time in taking the lead on steve frankoski’s first three point attempt.  for the rest of the period, number 5 put on an offensive clinic, hitting for 20 points on a variety of three pointers and a couple of rousing, long armed layups.  buttressing his efforts was a tough interior defense, led by marc cisco and john daniels but ably supported by cory osetkowski and alex rosenberg.  the lions attacked the glass, drained their treys and grinned grandly at every time out as they huddled around coach smith.  their performance largely silenced the numerous harvard supporters in the crowd, one of whom asked me if this was the same lion team portrayed in the league standings.  the lions (clad in their road blue given the exigencies of two game ivy weekends) raced off the court with a 38 -34 halftime lead, leaving their delighted supporters wondering if the magic could continue for another twenty minutes.

out of the locker room, coach amaker adhered christian webster to frankoski’s jersey and that cantab’s exertions did indeed slow steve down.  frankoski only cashed another 7 points on the night.  but those points were augmented by maodo lo’s 12 and the lions not only held on to their lead, they steadily stretched it and ran away with the game winning 78 – 63.  the bonus of the refreshing 9 – 17 three point display was that it opened up the harvard interior to columbia’s ball screens.  lion pick and rolls were more effective than they had been all season.  delightful as the offensive revival was, your faithful scribe was even more impressed with the lions’ game long defensive work.  frankoski may have been productive on the arc, but he also alertly and consistently filled crimson passing lanes and was assisted in that task by all the columbia defenders.  first year harvard phenom, siyani chambers, found many of his would be assists altered, deflected or intercepted by blue defenders.  harvard sophomore wes saunders did put up 27 on the afternoon, to match frankoski for game honors, but 10 of those came at the free throw line.  and he undoubtedly paid for those trips with not a few black and blue marks.  cisco, osetkowski, daniels and rosenberg made sure that no crimson trip into the paint went unacknowledged.  the big boys banged worthily all afternoon.  on the arc,  few harvard looks were uncontested.  coach smith’s crew has, at least for the moment, learned the lesson taught in princeton and pursued out to the edge against three point shooters.  by my lights, the lions strength during the smith regime has been defense and sunday afternoon they flexed their muscles.

how explain though the sudden rediscovery of their perimeter shooting?  i have two suggestions.  first, they have been in a slump and were certain to emerge from it eventually.  more provocative, i hope, is the thought that the team benefited, in the short term at least, from misfortune.  sometime late in the second half  friday night, grant mullins went down with an ankle or foot injury.  the exact nature of the hurt is not mentioned on the lion web site nor in yahoo sports reports i’ve seen.  neither is the precise moment of the injury noted in the play by play on gocolumbialions.com.  in any case, he left the game sometime inside 9 minutes and was on the bench sunday afternoon.  consequently, the guard rotation was shortened a bit and frankoski got to play some 39 minutes.  he made the most of them as did all the guards who caught additional minutes to fill out mullins’s usual allotment.  coach smith works many combinations most games, frequently making offensive/defensive switches, or just looking for the kid with a hot hand on a given night.   having a bit less to work with worked very well against harvard and we hope coach finds more minutes for stevie as the league season continues.  that won’t be easy especially since van green returned to the bench this weekend.  last year i thought van the most athletic lion and once he gets game ready should provide some additional length on the blue’s perimeter defense and some explosiveness going to the glass.  depth is a nice problem to have and i trust coach will enjoy solving it.

next up for paulie b is a first time visit to venerable payne whitney gymnasium in new haven.  having lost six straight to the elis, coach smith looks for his first win over james jones of yale.  we’ll be on the hunt with him.

peace out, d up –

paulie b

the lions made their annual foray to the ivy league’s southern precincts where they lost games to penn and princeton.  both contests demonstrated the blue’s current three point shooting woes with the quaker game on friday a piece de resistance in this regard as the boys went 3 -17 from beyond the arc.  that kind of performance should spell utter disaster, but the hosts were almost equally dismal going 4 – 13.  factor in the lions ten rebound advantage and the close loss (58 – 62) to a mediocre team comes into focus.   saturday evening, they were only marginally better from three point range, but fought to the end of a highly entertaining game against an incredibly hot shooting, resurgent tiger crew that seems ready to challenge yet again for the league title.  we’ll take a look at that tangle here.

reviewing  the tiger roster on friday, i worried about their size advantage at every starting position.  maybe the lions should go big with cisco, osetkowski and daniels up front at the tip off?  throw in a bit of the 2 – 3 zone to minimize the size differential?  consider my surprise when coach smith starts 3 guards (barbour, lo and mullins) alongside alex (the doctor) rosenberg and big number 55, and plays a frenetically switching man to man.  my discomfort grew as the tigers worked steadily on offense and finished many a long possession, during which the blue had worked their defensive assignments rigorously, with a pass to an open shooter on the arc who drained a trey.  given a quarter second to catch and shoot, princeton made mock of the lions’ relentless but finally imperfect defensive efforts.  indeed, the stripers were criminally efficient out there in the first half, nailing all seven of their three point attempts.    this sad tale took on a different character when, trailing 14 -27 at the 9:00 minute mark of the first period, coach smith subbed out cisco and barbour for cory osetkowski and grant mullins who joined isaac cohen, stevie frankoski and doc rosenberg to form an all underclassmen five.  clearly, i should leave the personnel decisions to coach because there followed the most delightful six minutes of the young ivy season as smith’s cubs proceeded to run past and jump over the tigers.

cory osetkowski scored first, backing his defender down and spinning in for a layup at the 8:22 mark.  a minute later rosenberg scored on the blocks garnering a free throw as well that he promptly cashed in cutting the princeton lead to eight.  isaac cohen’s layup made it a six point game with six minutes remaining in the half.  here, t. j. bray, always a thorn in lion paws, dropped his third trey of the period on the visitors and temporarily halted the rally.  big cory o got the ball rolling again dropping another layup in past the tigers.  steve frankoski’s three pointer followed by two osetkowski free throws and a trey from grant mullins brought the blue within one at 31 – 32.   two minutes later, with 40 seconds to play in the half, maodo lo drained a trey and the lions had gotten all the way back and grabbed the lead at 36 -35.  they gave it back on two free throws from ian hummer, but the lions were roaring as they headed to the locker room.

the second half lacked the kind of prolonged rally that so leavened the first half’s interest for lion rooters.  princeton worked steadily to open a five point lead, whittled down by columbia at the 9:00 minute mark to a 50 – 50 knot.  the boys could not quite get over the hump, though, despite holding the tigers to 1 – 4 from beyond the arc for the period.  the hosts relied instead on senior leader ian hummer’s hard work in getting to and profiting from the foul line which is where the tigers ultimately sealed their triumph, 68 -61.

allgamers know paulie b’s especial unhappiness at any loss to princeton, but though he left south jersey disappointed he remained undismayed.  only now is he beginning to appreciate the depth coach smith has assembled at guard as brian barbour nears the end of his notable tenure at the lion helm.  in maodo lo, grant mullins and isaac cohen,  the blue has three quick, dauntless backcourters who are capable of draining the trey or driving the lane.  all three work tirelessly on defense – maodo’s end to end quickness in this regard is v impressive, while mullins’ quick hands let him specialize in tapping the ball away from a dribbler who thinks he has beaten his man.  messr cohen has seen less time to date than his first year class mates but is a deft passer in traffic – check out his 7 assists up in ithaca – and has some hops – as indicated by his 9 rebounds in philly on friday night.  coach smith was quoted pre-season about going  “big” with the latest rendition of his squad, but it is his cadre of guards that will be crucial to lion success for the rest of this season.  in a college basketball landscape that places ever greater emphasis on individual athleticism to create offensive opportunities, columbia is well situated to improve and succeed.  the only fly in the ointment – is there enough playing time to go around and keep the young studs interested.  we loss dyami starks to the bryant program because of  too few minutes.  let’s hope coach smith has brainstormed a rotation that will have everyone happy.

can’t quit without giving a shout out to pat forde’s minutes column on yahoo sports which says ivy league leaders harvard and princeton are unlikely to go undefeated in the conference because they have three games remaining with the lions.  word up to the internet hoops journalist for his outstanding knowledge of the ancient eight.

peace out, d up, beat harvard this saturday!

paulie b

on the 19th, columbia observed the presidential inaugural by traveling to ithaca.  starting slowly, they managed to craft a narrow half time margin before thoroughly dismantling ezra cornell’s rubes, 67 -58, behind big mark cisco’s 18 points and 9 boards.  brian barbour chipped in with 16 while steve frankoski shot 60% from beyond the arc.   saturday last the blue returned home  to welcome the aforementioned ag schoolers to the craggy heights of morningside.  the result?  in front of a packed levien gymnasium crowd, the boys returned the favor, falling 63 – 66.  granted, it is only two games into the league season, but i gotta tell ya, the game reeked of must win to me.  road w’s are so valuable and home losses so costly, especially in the ivies, that i’m left if not dismayed, deeply disappointed.  a measly two more made field goals and the team sits at  2 – 0, atop the league and surveying the hoi polloi beside haughty harvard.  alas, no happy recap.  let us consider the loss.

controlling the tipoff, the lions seemed much the better team for the first four minutes of play – quicker, more aggressive, simply livelier.  that zest yielded little, however, as they made only 2 of their first 9 shots.  at the 16:00 minute mark of the opening period, the blue led 4 – 0.  that was their largest lead of the evening and hence forth they would be chasing the big red.  the lions trailed by 12 at the half and fell behind as many as 15 in the second period before staging a frantically exciting but ultimately futile rally.  along the way the crowd was treated to a rim rattling slam by forward john daniels off a steal by and lead pass from maodo lo.  daniels  literally carried defender shonn miller skyward upon his shoulders as he completed the throw down.  his samson act was rewarded with a foul shot and daniels completed an old fashioned three point play.  we also enjoyed brian barbour’s death defying layup with 8 seconds to go and subsequent foul shot which got the boys to within a single point.  two final free throws by cornell, though, ended the unsuccessful comeback.

what had changed in the week?   perusal of the box score points to the most obvious difference.  though the refs seemed even handed in the distribution of fouls, whistling columbia for twenty two and the visitors for twenty, they did manage to hand more offensive opportunities to the cornells who did not waste their chances.  big red converted 23 of 25, with elan cancer going a cool 11 -12 on his way to a 19 point performance.  the lions only received 17 chances at the stripe and their six misses were enough to scuttle the ship.  ordinarily i would heartily chastise the zebras for their myopia, but the blue cooperated all to well in their demise.

credit where due, first.  cornell more vigorously contested the lanes that had been exploited up in ithaca (most niftily by isaac cohen) for passes into mark cisco who dominated down low.  whereas number 55 had fifteen shots on the road, at home saturday he took only six.  even when the ball was successfully entered to him, cisco faced very physical play from eitan cherminski as well as double teams from weak side defenders.  adding to this frustration down on the blocks, steve frankoski, who had dropped 13 on the big red up at cornell, never warmed up on the outside.  though messrs lo, mullins, rosenberg and barbour all chipped in from beyond the arc, the crew rarely seemed in rhythm when hoisting their treys and netted only 8 of those 26 attempts.  again, kudos to cornell for seldom allowing a lion to catch, set and shoot.  clearly, frankoski is an important part of coach smith’s rotation and counted on for instant offense when he enters.  when he struggles, other players try to fill the gap and neglect their own usual contributions, or rather, try to do too much.

this weekend, the lion pride takes its hunt south and visits the killer p’s.  let’s hope steve rediscovers the range, that mark plays big on the blocks and that the rest of the fellows do what they must.  need at least a split to stay in the chase early on and a sweep of the traditional league powers would be sweet.  i very much look forward to my first visit to jadwin and an opportunity to see the tigers humbled.

d up and peace out,

paulie b

back in mid-autumn, before the season tipped off, the lions were the consensus ivy league third place squad.  they were expected to trail princeton and defending champion harvard.   as the league prepares to tip off at last, that prognostication seems not unreasonable.  the non-league portion of their schedule has provided moments of great encouragement as well as sorry disappointments.  the victory over villanova no doubt marked the high point while losses to bucknell and elon defined the lows.  regardless of our elation or sorrow, the battles to date have been marked by the emergence of two important contributors among the first years – guards grant mullins and maodoh lo, the welcome return of three point ace steve frankoski, the encouraging growth of forward alex rosenberg and the solid play of senior leaders mark cisco and brian barbour.  as all these players are by now familiar to subscribers,  we’ll take a quick trip around the league,  in the very order the blue will, to familiarize ourselves with some of the fellows who’ll be making lion lives difficult over the next two months.

first battle will unfold  in lovely ithaca.  last year the big red and the lions were absolute equals, splitting their two games by a combined score of 121 -121.  based on comparable head to head contests so far, they look to  match up similarly this year, as both teams have downed colgate and american.  cornell’s  stars are forward shonn miller and guard jonathan gray who together provide 18 plus ppg.  they’re abetted by two other forwards (messrs errick peck and eitan chemerinski) and a pair of guards (nolan cressler and devin cherry) who contribute another 28 points.  they lack a stud at center, as they did last year when cisco scored 18 and grabbed a columbia record 20 boards against them at levien.  mr. c. recorded a second, if more modest, double double at cornell, but that slight drop off in production at the lion’s  five spot was enough for the big red to prevail at home, 65 – 60.  the lions need to take two from cornell this year, if they expect to step into the upper tier of the league.  the central new york tangle on january 19 could very well set the tone for the lions’ overall league performance.

after cornell visits levien on the 26th, columbia travels to take on the killer p’s.  the quakers are up first.  last year they dropped the lions twice, by two points in new york and by the same minuscule margin at the palestra.  those very narrow losses were among the season’s most bitter pills.  as penn has graduated its great guard tandem of tyler bernadini and zach rosen, they appear more vulnerable this year.  that conclusion is mirrored by their poor, 2-11  non-league record.   that record though came against a schedule a bit tougher than the lions’ and that included last year’s tourney bubble squad, drexel as well as patriot league champ lehigh, the big ten’s penn state and villanova’ s wild cats.  they rely on 6′ 8″ forward fran dougherty for 15 points and 8 boards a game while miles cartwright contributes an additional 14 ppg.  that makes for an inside-outside combination that will test the blue defense.   last year, the lions started slowly in both games before rallying furiously to  close losses.  the philadelphians must be beaten at least once this go round if the lions are to assume their rightful place in the league.

the first saturday in february will find the lions at jadwin gymnasium facing the imperial tigers of princeton.  though only 7-7 to date, their resume includes wins over elon and bucknell both of whom dropped the lions as well as a league opening triumph over penn.  they’re led by senior forward ian hummer who will be a strong ivy league player of the year candidate.  last season, the lions held him to only 11 points at levien.  despite 25 points from brian barbour and another cisco double-double, hummer’s teammates rallied in the second half behind 12 points and 6 steals from t.j. bray to record a 62 -58 win.  at home, the tigers easily handled the blue 77 -66.  they always play aggressive man to man and will undoubtedly move the ball more effectively as they mature.  columbia has to hold on to the ball much more carefully this season than last if they expect to split with the league’s other big cats.

dartmouth arrives at levien on friday, february eighth.  they have struggled to date and were dominated by both elon and colgate.  on comparative match ups, the blue is better so far and columbia won both their tangles last year, though the battle in hanover was very tight ending 64-62.  paul cormier’s crew is led by gabe maldunas and alex miller who cash 10 points apiece per game.  jvonte brooks, who averages 7 ppg, lit up the lions, however, to the tune of 17 in each contest last year.  the blue needs to keep number 33 in sight this season or they might split with the hanoverians when a sweep is devoutly to be wished.  i personally look forward to the visit of big green first year point guard malik gil who i scouted last year up at mount st. michael’s in the bronx.  as a high school senior, gil was a 5′ 9″ giant.  in division I play, he is learning just how steeply the competitive pyramid inclines.  i hope some smoggy new york city air brings out the best in the kid and that he plays great in a loss.

what might be the biggest game of the season on morningside heights tips off the next night as the cantabs, without jeremy lin and his crew this time, i expect, arrive at levien.  harvard lacks keith wright, their manchild in the middle, who has graduated,  as well as brandyn curry and keith casey who have succumbed to the kind of academic peccadillo that no doubt mars many a crimson transcript.  tommy amaker, however, is nothing if not a solid recruiter and his big catch of last year, forward wesley saunders, along with this year’s best, guard siyani chambers  have stepped up to lead the crimson to an 8 -5 mark to date.  the underclassmen are aided by the junior from quebec monsieur laurent rivard, who  provides veteran steadiness and accurate three point shooting.  they won 4 of their last 5 non-league games falling only to west coast power st. mary’s by a single point.  as they have an rpi of 84 and a strength of schedule ranking of 78, the john harvards look the ivy team to beat.  and yet, the lions should have a shot at splitting the series with the defending champeens.  last year they outplayed them up in cambridge and if the morally bankrupt refs had not handed the home team 24 more free throws than the visiting lions, the blue might well have prevailed.  messr rosenberg is going to have to do a job against saunders and the guards will have to contain chambers while also being aware of rivard’s whereabouts on the perimeter.  should the lions play well inside and out, the cantabs can be had, at least once.

our heroes travel to providence the following friday, to complete their first tour of the league.  brown plays perhaps the shortest bench in the league, with 50 plus points coming from their first five and only 13 from the subs.  first among the starting five, as far as the lions must be concerned, is guard sean mcgonagill.  messr mcgonagill torched the lions for 39 when he was a frosh and dropped 28 on the boys last year.  both of those explosions came up in rhode island.  he has labored less successfully at levien.  long story short, the squads split last year and though the lions’ greater depth points to a sweep this time around they have to shut down mcgonagill twice to make that happen.  of all the ancient eight, the browns match up most closely with the blue in rpi rankings, with the rhode islanders at 228 to the lions 233.  that reeks of a series split and the lions  really need both wins to move up.

any one off put by the lions 34 point beat down of div iii haverford back in november should check out the stats of yale’s two wins over smaller opponents.  early on, they dropped mighty albertus magnus by 35 and on january 8 positively beat the crap out of oberlin, downing the ohioans by 65.  frankly, i expected more gentlemanly behavior from a crew coached by the very tough but always stylish james jones whose charges have humbled the lions five straight times over the last three seasons.  last february the eli visited levien featuring the best big man in the league, greg mangano.  the lions were coming off their best league performance of the season,  having buried brown the night before with a barrage of treys.  the first half against the white clad visitors (one down side of the ivy league friday-saturday night schedules is the laundry problem for travelers) featured more of the same as the lions raced out to a big lead while shutting down mangano.  damn my eyes, but the second half was one big lion swoon, as the blue gave up a double digit lead in a sloppy display that featured 21 turnovers and ended with reggie wilhite’s last layup as time expired.  the killing 58-59 loss started a string of six straight failures for columbia that culminated in a 4 -10 league mark.  mangano and wilhite are now gone.  we trust that the lions still smart from that mid-winter disaster and will repay the haughty elis in full.

as a rule, league games are tightly fought.  last year columbia lost 4 contests by a total of 9 points.  one more made three point shot per game and the team would have been 8 -6 rather than 4 – 10.  that gives you some idea of how slight the difference between success and mediocrity in the ivies.  since two of those four might have been w’s were home court losses that featured the evaporation of sizable lion leads, clearly the blue must impeccably defend its home hardwood this season if they are to improve.  hope that coach smith has been looking at game tape.  the season begins saturday.  go lions!  a tourney berth is not beyond imagining.

peace out and d up, paulie b

sitting in bergen county, awaiting beloved guests, we conjure friends and places far flung.  veritably i see kentucky, arkansas, the dakotas, seattle and brooklyn – all possessed of america’s hardwood love and especially blessed this season.  for lo, we have been vouchedsafe a glorious victory.  indeed, the columbia lions, undaunted by their close loss to a resilient marist squad, traveled to the green rim of philadelphia and humbled the villanova wildcats 75 – 57.  true,  jay wright’s five has struggled the last two seasons to regain its accustomed ncaa tournament cred but they are not unreasonably considered a top 100 team, and i don’t think i mischaracterize the outcome of the contest when i say it was a generational win.  i can’t remember so significant a triumph since autumn ’76 when coach tom penders loosed alton byrd, ricky free and juan mitchell on a rutgers crew that had beaten the lions by 30 the previous year (while on its way to the final four) and ran the scarlet knights out of madison square garden. then, as on tuesday just past, we caught glimpse of a thrilling, bright future.  now, as the boys travel to san francisco for a holiday tournament, let us hope coach smith continues to refine their habits as they point toward the challenges of december and the not distant trials of the  ivy schedule.

prefatory jubilations aside, whence this elevated enthusiasm?  allgame’s attentive readers recollect that late last season i urged coach to consider going to the 2 – 3 zone as his primary defense.  (those who dozed may want to revisit “linsanity at levien” as well as “buzzer beater”).  so imagine my elation last saturday when the lion five came onto the floor at levien in precisely this configuration.  the loss to marist revealed the vulnerabilities of the scheme as well as what the boys still need to learn about it, but also convinced me of its fitness for this squad.  down along the baseline, the starting trio of sophomores alex rosenberg and cory osetkowski and senior center mark cisco is long and mobile.  these three fellows are spelled by tough senior john daniels and new comers zach en’wezoh, isaac cohen and maodoh lo.  later this autumn we hope they will be additionally reinforced by skylar scrivano.  regardless of the combinations,  they all need to improve their rebounding within the zone, but then again this is an issue for almost any team playing the 2 – 3.  only coach  jim boeheim has managed to consistently solve the problem.  we earnestly hope for hard work and improvement in this regard from the frontcourters.  denying opponents second shot opportunities will be crucial for the lions’ success.  up top, the lion guard rotation features senior brian barbour, the team’s sparkplug, rehabbed sophomore steve frankoski and first year grant mullins, a breath of canadian fresh air.  the backcourters are quick and aggressive with mullins and frankoski especially closing down passing lanes while helping the big boys to pressure the corners.  they have to work on getting back up top a step and a half more quickly, as they can be hurt by good outside shooters.  this was exactly the case against marist red foxes who rode a trio of scrappy, accurate snipers to a 67 – 62 win.

at the offensive end, the young lions will be very important.  so far this season, alex rosenberg’s performance has been critical.  when a.r. plays well, columbia is very tough.  when he struggles, the boys in blue do too.  mark cisco has been slow out of the blocks offensively so far.  against marist he could not score in the post and was inconsistent with his mid-range jumper when he bounced outside.  he barely appears in the villanova scorecard.  cory osetkowski has some range but must look for his shot more aggressively.  in the marist match, he had 5 points in the first three minutes and then did not score again until very late in the contest.  he must become a reliable step out four.  steve frankoski, on the other hand, has not seen a three point opportunity that he doesn’t like.  when he is on, columbia’s dribble drive scheme is tough.  when he’s off, they struggle for points.  finally, the ball is truly in brian barbour’s hands.  the point controls columbia’s destiny.  we know of a certainty that in close second halves he will be eager to drive the middle and move to the charity stripe where he is a better than 90% shooter.  the more often that happens, the more wins for the blue.

so please, as you ponder whether that last dollop of mashed potatoes requires a final spoonful of gravy, as you dab apple pie from your lips, remember what brings us together on this greatest of holidays.

peace out and d up,

paulie b