All Game No Gossip

the columbia lions, seven weeks into their effort to climb out of the deepest despondency of their, let’s face it, less than brilliant history, visited lafayette last evening and grabbed the team’s first road victory of the season. the 57 – 45 win over an apparently lousy leopard squad is hardly mind altering but, now boasting a 5 – 9 record, the light blue have already exceeded last year’s total victories. truth be told, columbia should be no worse than 7 -7 and without too much imagination could be bragging about a gaudy (at least winning) 8 – 6 mark. we believe the next paragraph offers reasonable grounds for hope of a brighter future as our heroes pause for matters academic.

the day before thanksgiving, the lions led the suny-binghamton bearcats by eleven points with a little over 4 and half minutes remaining and by six with a mere 19 seconds to play. the central new yorkers refused to quit and managed to snatch an 81 – 79 win when their john mcgriff stole the ball and drained an off-balance three pointer with a mere four seconds remaining. a sloppy second half stretch in the december 9 battle versus the fairleigh dickinson knights allowed the visitors to rally from ten points down and build their own six point leave with eleven minutes remaining. from there on the teams exchanged body blows and short leads until avery brown got to the rim with 20 seconds to play and forced overtime. the extra period went badly for the light blue and the lucky visitors danced off the floor with a 79 – 76 win. another close one got away back on november 13 when the light blue fell at sacred heart 88 – 85. of course, the implication of these near misses can be flipped. good teams win the close ones. they close the deal. lesser squads fail at the decisive moments. those close battles were losses. just like the 75 – 35 fiasco at rutgers that opened the season for columbia or the nearly thirty point flop against umass lowell in the first home game of the campaign.

more indicative of the improvement of this squad over last season’s was the 73 – 66 loss to university maryland – baltimore county on december 6. this game was never deeply in doubt, but the young lions stayed in hailing distance of the retrievers. it is important to recall that this umbc five absolutely humiliated columbia last december, burying them by 38 points. by this one metric, the lions are much better than last year.

we submit a brief examination of personnel to deepen our argument of improvement at levien: last season, the only glaringly bright statistic for columbia was the 8.3 rebounds per game gathered by patrick harding. that number led the ivies. indeed, harding’s yeoman work on the defensive boards especially kept a number of the light blue’s ivy losses from being even worse. harding has moved on and one would think columbia’s rebounding would suffer. instead, the crew is averaging one rebound more per game (36.4 rpg v 35.3 in 2021-22). harding’s contribution to that team total has been made up, in part, by the three lions filling center in the rotation. the youngest member of this trio is lanky zine bedri, who pulls down a team leading 4.3 boards nightly. messr bedri is listed at 6′ 10″ and 225 lbs. though he looks a bit shorter and lighter, he clearly relishes the physical give and take among the wide bodies in the paint. this was most apparent in the 56 – 52 win over new hampshire on the first saturday of december at levien. messr bedri did not back down from the bully boy tactics of unh’s leading rebounder and scorer, clarence daniels. as the game clock wound down and both teams struggled for any advantage, bedri and daniels had to be separated by officials a couple of times as the big men battled for position in the paint before inbound plays. the “got you last” shenanigans may have been a bit high schoolish, but we loved bedri’s audacity in pushing the tit for tats to the last permissible moment. as he refines his footwork and better learns to take what a defense gives him, we expect the young algerian to be an important spoke of the lion offense. the second big man we would like to credit is jake tavroff, a 6’9,” 245 lb sophomore from oceanside, new york. tavroff is not the most graceful of athletes, but he works from beginning to end of any shift on the hardwood. he is grabbing 3.8 rebounds nightly. more importantly, he locates teammates with passes from down low and cagily moves out to the perimeter to set screens for them as well. these are two contributions to the attack that pat harding rarely, if ever, made. the final member of this front court committee is junior josh odunowo. at 6’6″ and 205 lbs he is the smallest of the three. he is also the most finished athlete at this point and hauls down four boards per game. as josh missed all of last season’s ivy schedule due to a severe, indeed life threatening, case of covid -19, we take his return to the court as an indication of columbia’s improving fortunes.

this burst of enthusiasm has prevented us from addressing the apparent limitations of this team – such as a dependable three point shooter, a tendency to neglect their defensive responsibilities on occasion and an almost criminal tendency to turn the ball over. all these issues will be examined via close attention to upcoming contests. first semester final exams have intruded upon the roundball schedule, and the lions will not play again until 4 p.m. on december 28 when maryland-eastern shore visits levien (our side bar schedule is incorrect about this game). on new year’s eve, columbia opens the ivy league campaign at home against defending league champions yale. the bulldogs have looked tough in the non-league campaign, but we remind readers that back in march 2019 coach engles brought an improving columbia squad to new haven and humbled the elis. allgame looks forward to another tightening of the bulldog leash as the cubs continue to improve.

d up, peace out

paulie b

having lifted allgame’s heart with their stout play versus princeton and penn, the lions squandered our good will in two sloppy saturday losses at levien, first to harvard and then to brown. they followed those half-hearted defenses of home court with a similarly shoddy loss to yale in new haven. the raveled sleeve of our patience becomes ever more difficult to conceal. this young team continues to manifest the less charming characteristics of youth. they are careless, undisciplined, uncommunicative and provocatively spendthrift of opportunity. in both those saturday encounters, the light blue literally threw the games away racking up first 16 turnovers versus harvard and then 22 give aways against brown. here are two thumbnails to nash one’s teeth over: against the cantabs, cameron shockley-okeke scored 19 points and grabbed 11 rebounds but turned the ball over five times, giving back half of his offensive contribution; ike nweke tallied 16 against brown while collecting 9 rebounds but committed six turnovers. talk about giving with one hand and taking away with the other!

as if that slovenliness is not enough to empower their foes, they simultaneously hurl bricks at the backboard from the free throw line. they have repeatedly left themselves with little room for tough losses much less close wins. the harvard game, a nine point loss, did not ultimately hinge on the blown free throws, but the nine point margin would have been smaller had columbia converted all their opportunities. those missing points affect every aspect of the closing minutes of a game, from player rotation to the plays the lion choose to run. the nineteen point whacking from brown should have been a single digit loss with the visitors sweating the result rather than playing a quintet of players who rarely feel the court beneath their sneakers. the lions chose to coddle their opponent via 13 unmade foul shots.

the defense, though true, that this is a young squad has lost its pertinacity for us. the lions are young, but they are not inexperienced at this point in the season. the game should be slowing down for them – they should be better anticipating the close of passing lanes, have a better sense of when to kick the ball out to the perimeter rather than attack the rim and, most appropriately regarding the failure in new haven, when to switch on defense. the loss to james jones’s crew was determined in the first seven minutes of play when yale sped off to a 20 – 2 lead. you read that right. much of that damage was inflicted by azar swain, the yale guard who has regularly tormented columbia during his career and hung 37 points on them this tuesday past. his 6 – 8 performance from the three point line should alert the light blue to the necessity of more rigorously defending their perimeter.

all the more necessary as dartmouth rolls into levien this saturday afternoon. the big green returned from the cancelled season with the ivy league’s most experienced squad. brendan barry, a historically good three point shooter who spent a year away playing for temple, leads the hanoverians with 14.6 points nightly and a still fine 40.6% from the three point line. the fifth year grad student is abetted by senior aaryn rai who tosses in 11.8 points while grabbing 7.3 rebounds per contest. seniors taurus samuels and garrison wade along with first year ryan cornish constitute the balance of the starting five contributing 9.5, 7.1 and 8.3 ppg, respectively. though they have managed but a single league win (over brown), the big green has battled princeton right to the buzzer and even had a three point attempt with under fifteen seconds to play that would have beaten the tigers had it fallen. that hard fought four point fail to the league’s leader is testament to dartmouth’s quality. similarly, they dropped a 60 – 59 heartbreaker to harvard. as the desperate must clutch at straws, columbia can perhaps take heart from the big green’s loss to penn – columbia’s only league victim to date. reaching spiritually further, hear us o divinities of roundball and hardwood! aid our heroes tomorrow! shall a group of new hampshire hillbillies humble a harlem adjacent five? it cannot be! let us pray that a half week of practice has clarified the lions’ recognition of their personal responsibilities as well as those they owe the rest of the pride.

peace out, d up

paulie b

at long last, allgame reports from the rectangular hardwood. readers have reached out, curious as to our whereabouts and the current state of the lions. the omicron variant has inflicted its perhaps most serious effects upon the ivy league basketball schedules. the final non-league games of late december were largely cancelled (including columbia’s contest against the hawks of university maryland, eastern shore on 12/28). more sadly, the first weekend of ancient eight play was at sixes and sevenses, as teams cited covid protocols for a series of postponements. the apparently unhygienic yale squad waved off the lions just as our heroes were about to embark for new haven. these facts having been stated, we admit that the struggles of this very young columbia crew had us somewhat disheartened. a win over a not very good maine team at levien and a close loss (60 – 59) to a not very good pack of great danes up at suny-albany, could not relieve our dismay at their apparently fixed habit of falling behind quickly and significantly in every contest. their 3 – 9 record at the new year was the worst non-league performance in the ivies and we achingly endured their inadequacies. in this regard, we have failed in perhaps our most sacred responsibility – the unflagging belief and announcement thereof, that the lions are ready to run and all lesser species best watch out.

that amends having been offered, we have buried our lede. columbia lost to the princeton tigers at jadwin gymnasium on january 7 by 84 – 69. on saturday, january 8, the lions outlasted the quakers of pennsylvania, 73 – 69, to record their first ivy league victory since january 2020. that fifty-fifty outcome reflected their best two game stretch of play this season and illuminates what sort of year likely awaits ivy league enthusiasts. at princeton, the light blue played well (exceptionally so, for the first half) against what seems to be the best of the league. at the palestra, coach engles’s crew held off steve donahue’s perhaps equally young franklins, leading from the tip off and enduring a frantically coached and played final three minutes before leaving philadelphia triumphant.

mitch henderson’s princeton team boasts an experienced, competent point guard in jaelin llewellyn (16.2 ppg and 42.1% from three point range) who is supported by three of the sharper three point shooters in the league – senior swing men drew friberg (7.9 ppg and 35.7% from three) and ethan wright (14.3 ppg, 40.7% from three) as well as junior guard ryan langborg (11 ppg and 40.9% from three). the abundance doesn’t end there as the stripers also feature perhaps the most efficient all round big man in the league – 6′ 8″ junior center tosan evbuomwan (14.6 ppg and 6 rebounds nightly). these individual stats should be enough to provide a sense of how daunting the lion task was last friday evening. consider, too, that princeton had comfortably dispatched marist, lafayette and university maryland, baltimore county – three teams which had dropped the lions by double digits. indeed, the last mentioned umbc five had buried the lions by thirty eight.

all of which was prologue to perhaps the lions’ best first half of the season. uncharacteristically, columbia jumped out to a 5 – 0 lead which they stretched to 22 -12 after xavier mclean completed a three point play with exactly 11:00 on the clock. when jeronimo rubio de la rosa threw in a running three pointer from just east of trenton at the first half buzzer, the lions led by 12 and allgame was remembering february 7, 2014 fondly. it was on that enhaloed night that columbia, behind the late heroics of isaac cohen and meiko lyles last won at jadwin, 53 – 52. this time, the light blue lead had been forged behind ike nweke’s 12 points and twenty minutes of attentive defense on the perimeter from whence the tigers failed to sink a single basket. additionally, lion center patrick harding – necessarily aided at moments by messr nweke and liam murphy – controlled the backboards and limited the effectiveness of the ferocious evbuomwan. the tigers are legit, however, and came out of the locker room resolved to defend their home court. three pointers from llewellyn and friberg preceded a pair of layups by evbuomwan and one each from langborg and wright. four minutes into the second period, the game was knotted at 47 – 47. though nweke continued to score (he would record 22 on the night), the lions defense started to falter a half step on the perimeter and the stripers sharpshooters began to zero in. those jump shots created opportunity for drives to the basket that resulted in a twelve point lead becoming a fifteen point deficit as play ended.

disappointed, but not disheartened, the lions soldiered on to the palestra, college basketball’s long standing temple. there, awaited the pennsylvania quakers having worn down cornell the night before, 79 – 65, and the brown bears, 77 – 73 on sunday january second. columbia picked up where they had ended the first half in princeton – controlling the backboards, defending the perimeter well and getting offensive production again from messr nweke and cameron shockley-okeke. the lions continued to shoot poorly from the free throw line, going 17 – 27. that still translated to a ten point edge at the charity stripe because the quakers only managed a 7 – 11 performance, another indicator of the lions’ newly discovered defensive cred. on the night, the lions additionally enjoyed a seventeen rebound advantage. how explain, then, the lions’ small, 73 – 69, margin of victory? part of the answer lies in the sixteen lion turnovers. note well, though, readers – those to’s were not merely the consequence of the light blue’s sloppiness. steve donahue’s crew plays solid, physical defense and alertly shuts off passing lanes, turning apparent assists for easy buckets into opportunities for scores at the other end of the floor. penn is not only alert, but resiliently persistent as well. when messr de la rosa completed a fast break with a lay up for an eight point columbia lead with 47 seconds remaining, the franklins quickly responded with a three point play by george smith and a clark slajchert jumper to close within three with 31 seconds to play. coach donahue didn’t take a break either, making twenty eight substitutions over the final 100 seconds of the game. it was the most thorough going exposition of rapid fire offensive for defensive changes that paulie b has ever seen. the never say die attitude was finally laid to rest by four free throws by liam murphy sandwiched round a pair by shockley-okeke.

thus, the lions await a visit from tommy amaker’s cantabs this saturday, sporting a 1 – 1 ivy record which puts them in a tie for third place with dartmouth, one game behind 2 – 0 princeton. columbia’s strength on the backboards, the emergence of nweke as an offensive force and the team’s improving defense all point to an opportunity to keep all season in a league that seems quite balanced. monday’s upcoming trip to cornell – always a draining one – will be an important test of the light blue’s emerging character as road warriors. the lions .500 beginning to the league campaign may very well be a bench mark to aim for this season as we expect most teams will have more than five defeats on their record. that being said, every win is precious and we trust coach engles has gotten a good week of practice out of our heroes. whatever the spread, we’re taking the lions.

d up, peace out,

paulie b

the columbia lions mens’ basketball team won its first two games of the season by furiously rallying against the binghamton bearcats and then coasting against div iii mt st vincent’s of the bronx in a glorified scrimmage. having established that they could win, they promptly went on a four game losing streak. they could not overcome lehigh at stabler arena; they battled manfully (especially in the first half) at chestnut hill against the bigger boston college eagles before succumbing; and then played their two worst games of this newly christened season. they lost by 23 at levien to the lafayette leopards before traveling to baltimore to be slaughtered by the talented retrievers of University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

being, at times, slaves to our misery, we will briefly recount those two waterloos. for the first nine minutes of the game against the pennsylvanian patriot leaguers, the lions stayed in the battle. with 10:58 on the first half clock, the light blue was tied with lafayette at 14. the next five minutes and six seconds provided the following entertainment: a missed jump shot by patrick harding followed by a turnover and foul by luke bolster. those follies were the opening acts for a missed lay up by geronimo rubio de la rosa, missed three points attempts by first liam murphy and then xavier mclean, a blown lay up by messr mclean that led to two missed de la rosa treys which sandwiched two botched lay ups by josh odonowu. lafayette, having remembered the object of the game, took the opportunity to open up a 32 – 14. the teams basically traded baskets down the final five minutes of the period which ended with the leopards up 42 – 22 and the game effectively over as the lions finished the night shooting a miserable 4 – 21 from the three point stripe and an only marginally better 13 – 39 from inside that line. these team stats reflected, of course, individual failures. de la rosa went 1 – 6 from the three point arc and 2 – 10 from elsewhere. liam murphy shot 1 – 4 from deep and 0 – 2 inside. xavier mclean was similarly bad going 1 – 7 on the perimeter and missing both his shots down low. the only satisfactory performances came from josh odonowu who went 5 – 10 on his way to 11 points and patrick harding who grabbed 12 rebounds.

the lions’ offense continued to misfire during their brief visit to maryland to take on the umbc retrievers. once again, the light blue chose to chase their opponent. they quickly trailed by ten points and did not stain the score board until the first five minutes of the game had passed. coach engles and his staff subsequently endured two more scoring draughts in excess of two and half minutes and a third of just under two minutes during the balance of first half play. that all adds up to about twelve and half minutes waiting for a stinking basket. geronimo de la rosa, the team’s leading scorer remained in a deep funk, going 0 – 4 from the three point line, 0 – 5 from everywhere else and, not wanting to spoil the perfection of his troubles, 0 – 2 from the foul line. we abuse, unfairly perhaps, the talented first year guard who sparks the lion attack. so thorough was umbc’s dismantlement of columbia, that even had de la rosa contributed his customary 15 ppg, our heroes would have lost by 25. which mathematical exercise allows us to remind readers that columbia fell 98 – 60.

the america east squad that slaughtered columbia on december’s first day is the descendant of the feisty crew that shocked the hoops universe four marches ago when they dropped the number one ranked virginia squad in the first round of the ncaa tourney – the first 16 seed to ever pull off that trick. under first year coach bob ferry, who has previously helmed the programs at liu, duquesne and penn state, the retrievers are tough, quick and deep. most entertainingly, they are led at the point by messr darnell rogers – all 5′ 2″ and 150 pounds of him. hoops fanatics will be forgiven grumbling recollections of all time little guys calvin murphy and nate archibald. rogers does not give an inch to any competitor on the hardwood and fearlessly matched up with the 19 inches taller pat harding on a couple of defensive switches. with an unobstructed view of harding’s nipples, rogers gamely battled for position until he could safely hand off his responsibility to a more appropriately sized teammate. when not required to play defense, rogers did his job on the other end of the floor, shooting 3 – 6 from three point range and 3 – 4 from the inside. his 17 points led his fellow retrievers en route to their rout.

having played as poorly as they have so far this campaign, both individually and ensemble, the lions limped home to face a similarly staggering team, the maine black bears who came into levien off a 32 point loss to bradley. columbia led from the opening tap – an approach to the game they had hitherto eschewed. by half time they led 39 – 25, thanks first to patrick harding’s stalwart play in the post where he scored eleven points and grabbed nine rebounds. harding’s yeomanry continued in the second half and he finished the game with fifteen points and seventeen rebounds – the transfer’s first double double as a lion and his best haul of boards this season. his game long labors were necessary, for though the light blue stretched their lead to 47 – 27 less than two minutes into the final period, they would suffer through another stretch of the ice colds to which they recently subjected their rooters. with 13:33 on the clock, maine had cut the lead to ten and three minutes later pulled within three at 49 – 46 on the second of consecutive back door cuts for lay ins. at the 9:20 mark, coach engles threw a wrinkle at bears’ coach, rich barron, by having the lions abandon their switching man to man for a two – three zone. the change upset the mainers’ comeback rhythm and though the lions only stayed in the zone for one possession, it cost the visitors two time outs and a wasted trip running a couple of plays better suited to attacking the quickly abandoned zone than the man to man to which the lions had already returned. that defensive stutter step by coach engles was enough to derail the charge by the boys from orono and though the game wasn’t locked up until the clock showed exactly two minutes remaining when eddie turner iii went the length of the court and finished with a pretty handoff to josh odonowu for a lay up that stretched the lion lead to nine, the spectators’ anxieties had been soothed.

we apologize for this perhaps overly lugubrious description of columbia’s second win this season against a div i opponent, especially as it is merely prologue to the following points: the young, still under experienced hoopsters like to play at an upbeat tempo and that has been both the most enjoyable aspect of their team character and a decided liability when they have suddenly become incapable of scoring. they have a habit of rushing from one poor shot after another rather than running their offense to find a better opportunity. the mad dash upcourt, when it does not yield a dazzling jump hook from messr turner or crazy good eurostep finish from young de la rosa or pull up j from the improving shockley-okeke, too often ignores the chance for harding to catch up and set up down low when he can operate efficiently or results in chaotic spacing and inefficient passing. festina lente, we urge our youthful heroes. they will need to avoid scoring droughts over their next two contests against a colgate team that is better than it has played so far and the great danes of suny albany who are off to an uncharacteristic 1 – 6 start. a couple of wins would be great for the lions, a couple of tough losses would be acceptable, if they play up to their talent.

peace out and d up,

paulie b

it took three games of its 2021 – 22 schedule for the lions to notch their first basketball victory in forever. the win came against the 318th ranked div I team in the nation, the suny binghamton bearcats, so allgame doesn’t intend to book any final four reservations yet. still, after the utter misery of their last campaign and the joylessness of a year without columbia hoops, we embrace the victory – yea, we revel in it. finally we have reason to revisit a contest which has not left us whipped and forlorn. and, helpfully, the game featured a ferocious six minute light blue rally from 16 points down thanks to a variety of athletic feats by a fine young cast, simultaneously emphasizing what still needs be done before the crew enters the crucible of league combat.

playing from behind, unfortunately, has been this young team’s modus operandi to date. they fell behind fordham by twenty two before buckling down and rallying to lose by ten. marist led by as many as nine in the first half of their game against columbia, but the lions rallied within a point just two minutes into the second half. thence the air departed their balloons and they drifted down by as many as twenty two before finally falling by fifteen. the fall behind was quicker and deeper against binghamton. by the 14:06 mark, they trailed 17 – 4. those of us who had witnessed this self-same act twice already might have not unintelligently called their bookmaker to hedge what seemed another lost position. how foolish, though, we would have been. for this was a game of streaks, and columbia began its own three point barrage that knotted the game at 18 – 18 within three minutes. the teams traded shots till half time which showed a tie at 38 apiece.

until 17:19 showed on the game clock, the second half was even. at that unhappy moment, the lions chose to go into one of their five minute doldrums which culminated in the unimaginably accurate tyler bertram’s seventh three pointer of the contest which put binghamton up by sixteen, 65 – 49. five minutes later, still, young hakon hjalmarsson swished two free throws to keep the visitors’ lead at sixteen with 6:19 remaining. and then, readers, there ensued the liveliest half dozen minutes in recent lion history. zavian mclean beat his defender for a layup. next time down the court, the lions got two made free throws from the melodiously named geronimo rubio de la rosa. twenty seconds after that, noah robledo turned in one of the niftiest end to end performances of the evening, stealing the ball in front of the bearcat bench, dribbling up court and then tossing in a jumper from the right side of the paint, to cut the deficit to ten with five minutes and change remaining. the lions meanwhile off binghamton for another two minutes before rubio de la rosa stole the ball and found josh odunowo streaking for the rim. the guard’s pass hit young josh in full stride and was slammed home in a theatrical dunk. thirty seconds later, the 6′ 6″ odunowo grabbed a rebound and went back up for another two, leaving columbia down 69 – 63. at the 1:53 mark, zavian mclean drove for a second layup, made the shot and then cashed the ensuing free throw to bring the lions within three. just fifteen seconds later, odunowo grabbed another of the ten rebounds he’d corral on the evening and hit messr r dela r with the outlet. geronimo drove from the downtown side line towards the bucket where he spotted an undefended mclean in the northwest corner of the court. was there any doubt? nothing but net and the lions had tied it at 69 all with a minute and a half to play.

that was a 16 – 0 run by the lions down the stretch. in overtime, they continued to pour it on. racing by the now clearly gassed bearcats, they opened up a ten point lead with a minute and change remaining. this eleven minute explosion revealed columbia’s hitherto hidden strengths. their quick athleticism shows up best in full court play when they can turn defensive pressure into offensive opportunity. they can hit the boards – indeed they seemed most formidable rebounding when their four nominal bigs – patrick harding, robbie stankard, jake tavroff and liam murphy were on the bench. josh odunowo, in particular, is quick to the glass and, though undersized, defensively agile and gritty when playing the post. he also defends intelligently in the paint, maintaining his verticality rather than trying to dupe the officials into charging calls. robledo, jaden cooper, mclean and rubio de la rosa all compete on the glass as well and we believe a team wide concentration on rebounding will serve the lions well as the season progresses. since defense begins with limiting an opponent’s scoring opportunities, neutralizing other squads on the glass will be crucial to columbia’s ultimate defensive statistics. we should pause here to mention the only silver back columbian to play a key role in the win. luke bolster, a fifth year grad student, had the strongest score card not only of all the lions but all players producing a plus 24 point performance. indeed, once bolster took over responsibility for shadowing the incandescently hot tyler bertram, that bearcat went cold. how much of the shutout bolster pitched was his defensive prowess and how much was bertram’s shooting reverting toward a mean, one cannot say. that the binghamton junior guard shot 70% from beyond the arc against the 15% he had averaged in his first two contests indicates that he was probably done exceeding the analytics (as coaches say) by the time bolster took him in hand. nevertheless, bolster was instrumental to the lions’ full court pressure as they rallied to tie the game and helped lock down the bearcats in overtime with his work in the lions quickly switching man to man. that he drilled two treys in the first half and made his only two free throws were less important that his work in the defensive trenches is another indicator of the lions improving fortunes. the lions look to have a number of scorers and will need a defensive specialist. bolster’s continuing efforts will let the kids get the glory.

that recapitulation of luke’s play appropriately introduces a quick review of what this young squad needs to do moving forward: 1) they must make foul shots. the crappy 50% they managed against fordham directly translated into their losing margin. while they shot marginally better against the red foxes and their defeat stemmed from marist’s control of the backboards, they might have stuck more closely to their foes through the second half if they had given themselves a better chance from the foul line. against binghamton they shot 16 – 18 and that was absolutely crucial as the bearcats went 15 – 19. 2) they must defend for forty minutes. in their six and a half minute sprint to tie the game up, the lions played baseline to baseline defense. they pressured ball handlers in the back court, cut off passing lanes, reconnected to cover shooters in the half court and then attacked the boards en masse. that pressing defense led to victory. it is our strong belief at this early moment, not only in the season but in the history of this particular group of lion athletes, that they should press more frequently. they are learning their work-a-day switching man to man and we trust will continue to improve its execution but, one of the unavoidable defects of this scheme is that a patient offense will find an opportunity to force the defenders into an unpalatable choice – they will have to defend a roll to the basket or they will have to race to cover an open shooter on the three point arc. early on the lions have dropped to defend the basket and have been caught racing out to face the danger waiting on the perimeter. too often, that late cover has permitted the offense to deliver a dagger trey. rather than waiting for a death defying race over the final 300 seconds of a game, we would encourage coach engles to unleash the press earlier in the game, if necessary. led by messr bolster, the team seems ready to trap ball handlers against the sideline, cut off passing lanes cross court and with the talented josh odunowo waiting back in the lane capable of withstanding the occasional break away. 3) they still need a point guard. young rubio de la rosa has been tasked with most of the ball handling responsibility so far. that seems to both inhibit his own ability to take defenders off the dribble or to comfortably take his jump shot. he is clearly a shooting guard playing out of position. the devoutly to be wished return of eddie turner iii should repair this deformation of the offense. we trust the half court offense will become more fluid, continuous and effective with a true point on the job.

the last time we saw a columbia five win was in early february 2020. for the next six and half weeks of that dantesque season, the lions (except for the impeccable mike smith) could not toss a stone in an ocean much less hit a jump shot. a new era just might be taking shape on morningside heights with a young crew facilitating one another’s play. allgame, just three contests into the season, thinks it will be fun to watch them start to accumulate some wins. we trust coach engles will have them ready to play on saturday against div iii st vincent’s and that when they travel to stabler arena next tuesday, lehigh’s mountain hawks best be ready for a fight.

peace out, d up

paulie b

not too mealy mouthed a p.s. we hope – allgamenogossip has, much like the lions, struggled coming out of the gate this season. readers should have received emails from both our dauntless administrator, joan o’connell agresta as well as the editor himself, hipping them to the posting of our preseason screed and the difficulties attached thereto. we trust this will reach you all more quickly. thanks for your continued attention. go lions!

as a ravening predator loosed on a zebra rich savannah, allgame returns hungrily to the prospect of a new season of columbia men’s basketball. our appetite inflamed further by sad remembrance of deep, persistent famine, we ask your indulgence as we quickly recollect the most recent history of the light blue five. the pandemic erased the 2019 – 2020 ivy league conference tournament. not that the lions would have had a place at that table. they had just concluded an unremittingly lousy league campaign. lord save them, our heroes fashioned a 6 – 24 overall record including a humiliatingly gruesome 1 – 13 mark in the ivies. worse than the record, despite that seeming impossibility, was the method of their misery. one need but recall the final disastrous six weeks. they lost to brown by six at levien on february 21 and by eight to harvard a week later at the same venue in the only two vaguely competitive outings during that gruesome bataan death march of ineptitude. their other four losses were by 18 to yale, 19 to (my god!) dartmouth, and then 23 to princeton and 20 to penn on the last, forlorn weekend. so awful were our heroes that they finished a full three games behind next worst cornell. paulie b could not rinse his palate of that putrid taste fast enough, but the league decided to cancel not only the impending tourney but the entire sports schedule for the 2020 – 2021 academic year. finally, on tuesday, november 9 – fully twenty months since last we gamboled – allgame, its readers and, more importantly, coach engles and the lions in his charge will have the opportunity to begin decontaminating all our minds of those disgusting failures.

our preoccupation with the ivies, if understandable, is premature. the lions begin their hunt for respectability with a 13 game non-conference foray. virtually every athlete engaged in this process is unknown to us as coach engles returns to the hardwood with two seasons worth of new ballers. although names like emmanuel onuama, asa shannon, eddie turner iii, and cameron shockley-okeke ring faint bells, what the quality, we ask, of a jaden cooper, a zavian maclean or a liam murphy? only ike nweke returns from the aforementioned nightmare season with any significant or productive time under his belt. maka ellis flashed hints of scoring talent before injury sidelined him after a mere six games. these two seniors will have to mix with a cast of first years blended with mostly untested sophomores and juniors. indeed, patrick harding, the 6′ 9″ junior transfer from bryant is the only new member of the roster with any collegiate statistical record. we witness the first scenes of a mystery this coming tuesday.

early that evening, the lions’ bus travels some ninety blocks north before making a right turn onto 207th street, heading east three or four blocks in manhattan where it will cross the harlem river and then bounce along fordham road for a couple of miles. that short route will land our heroes at the campus of fordham university wherein lies rose hill gymnasium. the nerdy sports historian in allgame looks forward to entering this venerable temple of fast breaks. the landmarked edifice was raised when the sainted james naismith still walked the earth in search of peach baskets. since 1925, it has been home to the fordham rams hoopsters and is at present the oldest on campus arena in our land. the current denizens hardly buff the patina of this historic site to a higher gloss. indeed in 2020-21, the rams were lion like in their futility, amassing a 2 – 12 record during a covid shortened season. the three most productive returnees from that ill-fated club are guards jalen cobb and josh navarro who provided 7.2 and 6.6 points per game respectively. their most competent returning big man is chuba chams who grabbed 6 rebounds while talling 6 points nightly. although they add a 6’10” first year center, rostyslav novitskyi from ukraine, they are not a particularly long squad. we expect the lions to outrebound their hosts as well as outpoint them in a low scoring game for their first win in forever.

we don’t think the light blue will have a long time to bask in that victorious glow. on friday, the twelfth, they play host to a competent marist team. the red foxes went 10 – 8 last season and return their top three scorers in ricardo wright (11.4 ppg), raheim sullivan (9.7 ppg) and jordan jones (9.4 ppg). another six players from that team return as well so that coach john dunne has fully 85% of his offense back on hand and a similarly heady 84% of his rebounding strength – 29 boards nightly – available. the red foxes, a successful veteran team looking to build on their previous season should be ready to stop the lions, and we expect columbia’s first home game of the new season will be a loss. they shouldn’t be downcast too long, though, as they entertain the visiting suny binghamton bearcats, 4 – 14 last season, on the following wednesday. take the lions regardless of the point spread in that one. on the third saturday of november, the light blue hosts the curiously nicknamed dolphins of mount saint vincent. the div iii squad from riverdale is undersized and though they can shoot the ball decently should be the third victory for columbia in 2021. allgame generally dismisses wins over div iii opponents as beneath the dignity of our beloved program. given that disastrous 2019 – 20 season, however, we’ll take what we can get. our heroes end their pre-thanksgiving labors in greater bethlehem, pennsylvania on the lehigh campus. paulie b looks forward to revisiting the mountain hawks’ stabler arena. although the patriot leaguers are coming off a 4 – 11 campaign, they do return their leading scorer, messr marques wilson who contributed 15.3 points nightly, their second best scorer nic lynch who averaged 12.1 ppg (and stands 6’11”) as well as 6’6″ junior guard evan taylor who added a third best 8.7 points to the attack and a team leading 7.3 rebounds per game. that combination should provide lehigh with the decisive edge in the battle.

our two paragraph survey delivers the lion five to their thanksgiving tables boasting a 3 – 2 record. that is gaudy stuff for a program so grievously challenged and brutally defeated when last seen. guided by the principle “leave ’em laughing” we shall finish our preseason guesstimation of the boys’ chances and remind our readers of our editorial pledge and goal – all game, no gossip. the mere speculations even of so august an editor as ourself remain anathema to our greater purpose. indeed, we consider ignorant forecast about sporting events diabolical in their nature and despicable in their consequence. that said, we look forward to our speedy return to this page with facts about the state of our beloved five and the results of their early contests.

peace out, d up

the editor

the columbia lions men’s basketball team has adorned this dreary, snowless mid-atlantic winter with a five game losing streak.  the ivy league season debuted promisingly enough with an efficient win over a poor cornell team at levien on january 18.  the thoroughness of the big red’s dismissal made a victorious reprise seem likely at cornell on the 25th.  instead, the light blue turned in a listless performance at both ends of the court in ithaca.  mike smith, so essential to columbia’s performance that we figure he drove the bus up to the finger lakes, seemed tired and impatient.  lacking elevation on his three point jump shot, he took to ineffective drives to the hoop early in the time clock.  his 15 points enough would not be enough to carry the lions to victory especially since  jack forrest, who contributed a break out effort (24 points) in the win at levien, foolishly picked up two fouls in the first two minutes of the rematch and spent the rest of the first half on the bench.  the six points he contributed in the second stanza did little to ignite his band of brothers.  the lions, who shot 40% from the field in the first period managed a measly 26% in the second and ineffectively played a slim halftime lead into a twelve point loss.  the shooting percentage from three point range was worse – 21% in the second period when cornell heated up to hit a full half of their treys.

having managed to lose to one of the ivy’s least, the light blue visited new haven the following friday.  yale’s coach james jones is the league’s bench dean and a slickly dressed murderer.  having lost an immense portion of last year’s offense as well as his two best players, jones has patiently relied on the development of center paul atkinson, forward jordan bruner’s continued bully work on the boards and the floor captainship from azar swain to remain at the top of the conference.  amplifying the work of that trio has been 6′ 5″ sophomore guard mathue cotton.  the voorhees, nj native is a three point specialist who roams the perimeter in search of a comfortable post to receive the pass he knows will come for an open look trey.  that procedure was well worn against the lions who neglected to confirm cotton’s whereabouts for much of the first half as the new jerseyan drained four of his six made three pointers.  that performance, alongside the brutish work of atkinson and bruner down low, left the lions overmatched.  randy brumant, who had snatched 11 rebounds against the big red in ithaca managed but 2 in new haven as the bulldogs outboarded the lions by a frightful 44 – 25 margin on their way to a 42 – 18 advantage in paint points.  that spread accounts for most of the difference in the 93 – 62 rout that qualifies as yale’s most thorough going beat down of the lions in the twenty first century and probably the lions biggest league loss since the turn of the millenium.  we are assuming here and offer a free dinner (not to exceed $25.00) to any reader who can gainsay our reportorial accuracy.

the lions moved on from that debacle to gamely battle brown in providence before falling 72 – 66.  that failure we happily attribute to the ineptitude of the officiating crew.  incompetence, rather than corruption, we suspect led to the discrepancy in free throws (20 -27 for the home team, 5 – 9 for our heroes).  that difference allowed the bruins to weather columbia’s ferocious second half come back from ten down to take a six point lead with about four minutes to play. after that, the lions couldn’t find the bottom of the bucket while brown scored 8 of their final 13 points from the free throw stripe.

punished on the road, the light blue returned to levien to face the league’s southern division.  penn was to visit on the 7th followed by princeton’s saturday appearance.  terrible weather in ithaca scuttled that arrangement and led to saturday-sunday matinee battles against the killer p’s.  the penn match up again demonstrated the lions’ vulnerabilities inside.  happily returned to morningside heights, the lions played with good energy in the opening period and, thanks to a jack forrest jump shot, enjoyed a 26 – 18 advantage with six and a half minutes to play in the half.  at that point, the quakers terrific senior center, a. j. brodeur, decided to get serious.  he grabbed a fast break starting rebound at the 5:30 mark;  he followed up a lay up at 3:50 with a  jumper in the lane at 2:46.  brodeur then blocked  a shot from ike nweke that started a battle around the south end basket that culminated at the north end basket in a  layup by eddie scott which brought the quakers within one at 27 – 28.  another brodeur assist to messr scott put the visitors up 29 – 28.  tai bibbs hit a three pointer (columbia’s only points in the last minutes of the stanza) to reestablish a 31 -29 lion advantage, but brodeur found the opportunity to hit devon goodman with a nifty pass to knot the score at intermission.

penn came out of the break ready to run and scored five points in the opening minute.  that advantage would never be wholly surrendered.  indeed, the quakers stretched their lead to as many as 10 points with eight minutes remaining in the game.  to their credit, the lions fought back to within one point (65-64) with 4:40 to play but the push had gassed the light blue.  they would be outscored 11 – 3 down the stretch with the magnificent brodeur contributing five free throws, an assist, one rebound and a block to vouchsafe the philadelphians’ 76 – 67 victory.

we’ll be briefest with the final loss of this unhappy stretch, an 81 – 74 fail against the princetons,  the stripers ran out to an eight point half time lead behind richmond aririguzoh’s yeoman work inside. the tiger center proved to quick for any of the trio (brumant, nweke, smoyer) of lion defenders as he shot a near perfect 8 – 9 from the floor for his 16 points.  he turned the scoring duties over to jaelin llewelllyn (19 points) and ryan schwieger (18 points) in the second period.  that trio was enough to overcome mike smith’s best game of the ivy season to date – 30 points, 4 rebounds, 4 steals and 3 assists.

tonight columbia makes the onerous trip to hanover, new hampshire.  the game against dartmouth looks to be the most winnable of their four remaining road contests.  more importantly, the lions have to quiet the big green if they hope to stay out of the ivy league cellar.  a season that had held so much promise prior to gabe stefannini’s injury and the even more damaging defection of rising senior center patrick tape threatens to spiral into an appalling crash and burn.  victory over the so far winless (in the ivies) hanoverians is perhaps the last bulwark against utter disaster.  saturday they play in cambridge against a fickle harvard squad that has bounced between very good (as in their win last weekend at yale) to ok (as in their tough victories over hapless dartmouth).  columbia has a shot if they defend well, but wouldn’t make the bet.

peace out and d up,

paulie b

the columbia men’s basketball team lost the tip off saturday evening last but little else as they dominated cornell for a 75 – 61 win.  that victory over a smaller, slower squad was the absolutely necessary beginning to their ivy league campaign.  first year jack forest led the offense with 23 points, a performance that earned him ivy league rookie of the week honors.  mike smith, the lions’ usual offensive catalyst tallied a substandard 15 points but handed out five assists and snatched 7 rebounds.  that duo was aided most by junior tai bibbs who shook off a season long offensive funk and contributed 12 points.  bibbs, who played all but two minutes of the contest, seemed much more comfortable attacking the rim than heretofore and also shot more effectively from outside (going 2 – 3 from beyond the arc).  perhaps the most athletic lion, bibbs needs to continue to look for his points as it will relieve some of the defensive pressure aimed at the incandescent smith. the aforementioned trio was abetted by ike nweke who scored nine points as well as jake killingworth and joe smoyer who each added seven. randy brumant recorded the two other points scored by the light blue but was a defensive force inside, recording three blocks, two of which ignited exuberant full court attacks by his teammates. brumant was joined by messrs bibbs and smoyer (two blocks each) in making life difficult for the visiting big red. most inconvenienced of all their guests was cornell’s leading scorer, jim boeheim, who found himself harassed all evening by attentive, switching man to man coverage on the perimeter and double or even triple teams down in the paint. that effort yielded its greatest return over the last six minutes of the first half when the lions outscored the big red 19 – 6 and moved out to a 48 – 29 halftime advantage. the game was over, though both squads played the required additional 20 minutes.

that easy win sets up columbia’s visit to ithaca this coming saturday. based on the eye test in the first game, the lions should move to 2 – 0 in league play. they are a bit bigger and more athletic than cornell. over the last few years, however, this has been the kind of game that the light blue has played rather loosely on occasion. coach engles has to keep his charges focused during their trip. quite frankly, participation in the league post-season tournament depends on sweeping cornell and, later, dartmouth.  we expect that engles has had this game circled on his calendar from the beginning of the season and hope he has adequately conveyed its urgency to the boys.

a win by the finger lakes will be especially helpful as the following weekend the lions make the perilous annual journey to southern new england.  on january 31, they take on defending league champ yale.  coach james jones bulldogs make a living on the backboards, a place where the lions need to do much better.  center paul atkinson scores 16 points nightly while grabbing seven and a half rebounds.  his front court partner, power forward jordan bruner, adds 13 points and nine and a half boards per game.  their labors contribute mightily to the new havens’ heady ranking as the 43rd best rebounding squad nationally.  point guard azar swain helps take some pressure off his taller teammates by tossing in 15 points each evening.  this threesome will be well primed by coach jones to revenge the whipping columbia laid on them last march 2.  the following night, our heroes head farther up the long island sound to battle brown.  mike martin’s always combative crew is spearheaded by their point guard out of don bosco high, brandon anderson, who averages 19 ppg.  anderson’s chief assistant is tamenang choh who currently averages 13 points and 8 rebounds nightly.  choh has made tormenting columbia a cornerstone of his basketball career (averaging just over 16 points and 8 rebounds per game against the light blue). randy brumant and ike nweke will have to account for him out all game long if the lions expect to prevail.

these three road games are prelude to the killer p’s february visit to levien.  penn arrives on friday the seventh.  having lost its two games to princeton, the philadelphians find themselves in early ivy trouble and desperately in need of victories over arguably lesser teams.  their best player, center a. j. brodeur is a matchup nightmare for the lions, capable of brutalizing them inside or stretching the defense with his jump shot.  brodeur is likely to cause foul problems for columbia, so we expect nweke, brumant and smoyer will all have turns trying to slow his progress to the basket.  don’t be surprised to see even seldom used first year forward emmanuel onuama thrown into the breach to battle the big quaker.  princeton follows penn’s appearance with a saturday visit.  the tigers struggled mightily during their non-conference schedule but mitch henderson’s crew righted itself for their two games against the quakers.  they depend on the trio of ryan schwieger, jaelyn llewelyn and ricardo ariguzoh for the bulk of their points.  princeton will test the lions on the perimeter more than any ivy team the lions have met over the first four weeks of league play.  columbia owes the stripers some pay back as the boys from the jersey cornfields dropped them twice last season.  a win devoutly to be wished.

that summarizes the lions first six league contests.  we trust they will be no worse than 3 – 3 and fantasize that they will perhaps stand at 4 – 2.  that giddy mark would leave them well prepared for the final month of a campaign that needs to end at the tournament in cambridge.

d up and peace out,

paulie b