All Game No Gossip

having lost three straight  div i contests by a total of four points, the columbia lions proceeded to lose their offensive leader mike smith to an injury in their blowout win over bryant.  the smithless light blue followed that victory up with a nice 74 -71 defeat of iona at madison square garden.  tonight they travel to chestnut hill in greater boston to take on the jesuitical eagles of boston college.  some may remember last season’s visit to b c when the lions fell by 15 points in a game that saw our heroes shoot 2 (two1) free throws while their hosts were awarded 23.  patrick tape undoubtedly remembers it.  columbia’s big man played all of eight minutes before fouling out.  we trust this game’s zebra trio will more justly administer the contest.

the 6 -2 eagles are led by their own version of mike smith, the 6′ 1″ ky bowman who tallies 19 points nightly while dishing 4 assists.  unsatisfied with that work, bowman also grabs a heady 7 rebounds per game.  his stat line last year against the lions gives a sense of the thorough damage he can inflict – 13 points, 6 assists, 2 blocks and, my god, 12 rebounds.  with messr smith’s continuing absence, the columbia back court committee of gabe stefanini, quinton adlesh, jake killingsworth, maka ellis and c. j. davis will have to constrain bowman’s efforts.  that will not be easy as his back court partners wynston tabbs and jordan chatman score 15 and 14 points respectively per game.  this trio of guards is supported in its efforts primarily by forward steffon mitchell who grabs better than 9 boards nightly while dishing 2 assists and smacking 2 blocks per game.  randy brumant, ike nweke and the aforementioned mr. tape will all have to get a body on that muscular eagle.

the team that will be looking for revenge up in chestnut hill is starting to play well.  the improvement starts on the defensive end where they are working through an opponent’s entire possession and contesting shots.  that effort resulted in holding Iona to 27.8% from the three point line.  boston college’s three best scorers only average about 32% from the perimeter of an evening.  get after them on the edge!  of course, one reason the eagles don’t depend on the three is that they make a very nice living in the paint.  as they did against the gaels, all the lions have to hit the backboards.  jake killingsworth was particularly active in that regard, grabbing 7 rebounds to go with his team leading 14 points.  patrick tape was right with him statistically, scoring 13 while snatching a team leading 8 boards.  first year make ellis had his coming out party at the garden shooting 50% from the field on the way to 13 points.  although only credited with 2 rebounds, ellis was a pest down low all afternoon and battled on the boards with the Iona bigs, causing turnovers and, delightfully, coming up with 4 steals.  the nevadan was named to a couple of all ivy first year squads coming into the season and we look forward to his continued growth.  with smith sidelined, gabe stefanini and quinton adlesh ran the point for most of the game with each guard handing out five assists while scoring 11 and 10 points respectively.  c.j. davis also saw some minutes at the point running the offense competently and playing solid defense.  slim, 6’7″ randy brumant actually started at the post and was aggressive looking for his shot early on when the lions raced out to a lead.

another quick start and contributions from all will keep the lions in the game against what is probably the strongest team they have faced to date.  the acc foe is the first of three straight major conference opponents.  ten days from now the boys travel down the garden state parkway to take on the big ten crew at rutgers and then they end their busy month out in Evanston against another big ten opponent at northwestern.  this is a stretch of battles that should quickly season the lions for the commencement of ivy play in late january.  ten days ago we were dubious about their chances in the ancient eight.  ten days from now we hope to be more sanguine about league play.  coach engles wants his team to “play fast.”  with maka ellis joining the other shooters on the team and patrick tape getting help in the paint from brumant and nweke, the lions can start to fulfill the coach’s plans.

d up and peace out,

paulie b

three weeks into the 2018 – 19 men’s basketball schedule, the columbia lions have yet to win a div 1 game. their fifth fail against such a competitor came this past Sunday when a decent but hardly terrific blue hen team visited from Delaware. the now 6 – 2 hens held off the lions in two overtimes, 87 – 86. it marked Columbia’s second straight one point loss to a div 1 opponent. although the frustrating last minute fail at Fordham may be attributed to coaching or player misfires, the Delaware defeat, stemmed from the inescapable character of this squad.  the exuberant thrills of the battle as well as the ultimate frustration of the loss provide a convenient thumbnail of the team’s gritty virtues and, perhaps, inescapable deficiencies.

of course, the finest pleasures of watching the current edition of the lions comes from the exertions of messr. mike smith.  the diminutive point guard keeps it in fourth gear pretty much from the jump.  he has virtually trademarked his attacks of the hoop against taller opponents and seems most comfortable in the offensive turbulence down low.  his outside shot has improved, however, and he now comfortably shoots and makes the trey when the situation demands.  currently, he seems to be developing a sweet little teardrop floater that he launches about six feet from the bucket.  it remains a work in progress, leaving this spectator holding his breath as the shot gently rises from mike’s fingertips, hangs at the apex of its parabola and then drops elegantly toward the hoop.  once smith masters this bit of weaponry, it will be one of the great delights of the small man’s game in college ball.  when not scoring, smith is effectively distributing the ball to his running mates.  his 4.5 assists per game average would be a bit gaudier if some of his more spectacular dishes were cleanly handled by their intended receivers.  we think particularly of a no look bullet from the top of the key against Marist that whistled past first year forward ike nweke’s nose before sailing out of bounds. that is the kind of pass one should not waste and the kind that smith can deliver on the regular if his posse is alert.  nor does smith shirk his defensive tasks.  he moves his feet relentlessly while guarding opponents.  this discipline would be well imitated by his running mates who too often commit lazy, reachy fouls.

indeed, one could argue that the lions lost the game because of a spate of touch fouls early on.  these are the kinds of calls that drive fans nuts, but the ncaa has made it clear that you cannot hand check – particularly on the perimeter. so it was deeply hurtful when columbia committed 5 fouls in under four minutes at the outset. rodney hunter and gabe stefanini picked up a pair ten seconds apart two minutes in; ike nweke and quinton adlesh another pair – 5 seconds apart, this time, a minute later and patrick tape completed the quintet at the 16:25 mark.  that outbreak of the handsies would put the blue hens in the bonus situation for much of the period.  it makes playing the kind of switching man to man coach engles’ is using this season, that much harder to execute.  every foul the lions give has to have weight.  they are vulnerable on the perimeter, where they were last in defense in the ivies in 2017-18,  and down low where they can be pushed around.

and here we arrive at the source of all their troubles.  they are small.  indeed, they are the shortest team in the ivies.  once league play begins messrs tape and nweke will find themselves fiercely challenged. lukas meisner’s unanticipated decampment for the german professional leagues opened a huge hole in the lions’ rebounding stats.  fortunately, early on, randy brumant has stepped up and, by grabbing almost 8 boards per game, essentially replaced the deutschlander’s contribution.  brumant’s heroics have to be matched by their only true big man – the 6′ 10″ pat tape.  his length, however, is undercut by his lack of bulk.  he can be outmuscled in a way recent columbia centers cory osetkowski  and mark cisco could not.  given the damage wrought by Delaware’s eric carter, we grow nauseous anticipating the ravages likely from Harvard’s terrific seth towns or Yale’s rapidly improving paul atkinson.  messr tape must at least double his current contribution of 3 boards per game if the lions are to have any hope in league.  but even if he does, jake killingsworth, rodney hunter, gabe stefanini, tai bibbs and pete barba will all have to dedicate significant energy to getting the ball off the glass.  the key to competitiveness, much less victory, will not only be how effectively the undersized lion front court rebounds but how much the  guards contribute to this part of each night’s battle.  they will have to make sure they box out their opposite numbers when the boards are being crashed.  rebounds cannot be going to opponents’ smaller players.

having groused about the crew’s, literal, shortcomings, we should consider their merits.  or rather, a particular merit.  the kids don’t quit.  having fallen behind by ten in the second half to a slightly better, slightly bigger, team, the lion squad dug in.  gabe stefanini sandwiched a layup and a jumper in the paint around a lay up by eric carter while mike smith bracketed a three pointer by matt veretto (who tormented the light blue all night) with a lay up and three pointer of his own.  a triple by quinton adlesh with ten minutes remaining brought columbia within three. two minutes later,  pete barba hit a trey from the corner to cut the lead to just one.  carter and his mates were not about to be passed, however, and stretched the lead back to six with five and a half minutes left.  neither side could buy a bucket till messr adlesh drained a trey with 2:38 to play.  that made it a two point game again.  when the irrepressible mr. carter dropped two free throws with just a minute left, it seemed the air had finally left the lions’ balloon.  not so!  the heroic mike smith drove the court for a layup and when stefanini forced a turnover that resulted in a (you guessed it) mike smith trey with 20 seconds left, the squads were headed to ot at 70 all.

the backs and forths of the two overtime periods need not be described here except to say that jake killingsworth, gabe stefanini (twice) and mike smith all hit absolutely necessary shots along the way.  as sport constantly teaches us, however, the other guy is trying too.  eric carter was not to be denied and kept his team in it until darian bryant answered mike smith’s final lay up with a heart breaking three pointer that gave the visitors the 87 -86 victory.

a few hours from now, engles’s crew will hit the hardwood again with regular patriot league opponent, colgate.  the boys from hamilton, ny usually brawl well so the hosts need to come correct.  a div 1 win still awaits.

d up and peace out,

paulie b

in memoriam – allgame begins its current season without longtime reader and close friend, Jonathan Schwarz who passed away late last winter.  he was an enthusiast for these columns as he was for most things in life.  he was a wonderful friend to me, doing services I could not hope to repay even had he lived on many years.

also leaving the scene last fall was beverly rosenstein.  not a reader of allgame, she was unquestionably a greater fan of columbia sports (particularly football) than paulie b.  she was there in the wooden stands of baker field for the epochal win over army back in 1950; she was there for the Ivy League championship run of 1961; she was there throughout the endless losing years of the ’80s and there again for the recent resurrection of the program under al bagnoli.  true lion blue, Bev was, and she’ll be missed not only by her sons but by all who know the words to “roar lion roar.”

having slaughtered cornell at levien on the 2oth of january, the lions journeyed to ithaca on the 27th and forgot what they had just done.  matt morgan and stone gettings controlled the game, mostly throughout, and the big red hung on for an 82 – 81 victory.  thus it was a chastened columbia crew that returned home to take on tommy amaker’s cantabs friday last.  harvard was 5 – 0 coming into the contest and shared first place in the ivies with pennsylvania.  many of those 2,000 in attendance must have been reconsidering their choice of entertainment when the crimson savaged the light blue’s sluggish 2 – 3 zone.  the crimson passed around the perimeter for open treys or drove the middle of the zone before kicking to the corners for more open look treys.   chief among the offenders was seth towns, who is a 6′ 7″ match up nightmare in any event and who scored outside and in.  it was 25 – 10 before the crowd’s jackets were all off and coach engle decided enough was enough.  following a kyle castlin three pointer at the ten minute mark, the lions starting picking up full court and moving efficiently in their half court man to man defense.  with mike smith coming off the bench without a sulk for the first time in his 44 game career and probing the harvard interior, the lions’ advantage at guard began to assert itself.  quinton adlesh, when he wasn’t laying out to grab any loose ball in the house, began raining treys on cantab heads.  messr castlin also scored from the outside when not taking a defender to the rim for a deuce.  patrick tape, increasingly active in this his second season, was joined by lukas meisner and first year jaron faulds in shutting down the baseline and paint to the crimson and battling them to a draw on the boards.  by intermission, the resurgent light blue was within six at 41 – 35.

allgame was sanguine about the ultimate outcome.  the lions simply looked better over the last ten minutes of the first stanza.  but the nervous alum surrounding us in section c were fully aware that columbia had yet to win a game this season when trailing at the half.  the fatally flat second half had frequently undone this young outfit.  not to worry.  the light blue came out flying and took the lead four and half minutes into the period on an adlesh triple.  from there on they controlled play.  though harvard did not stop fighting, no one save messr town (31 points) was dangerous.  five columbians scored in double figures – adlesh (20), smith (16), castlin (16), tape (10) and lukas meisner (16).  meisner also grabbed 11 rebounds in recording his third double double of the campaign. decisively, the lions were assassins at the foul line, draining 18 – 20 free throws, and never looked back on their way to an 83 – 76 win that put the first blemish on the harvards’  ivy league record.

dave mclaughlin’s second year helming the big green has been difficult.  back in the autumn, his best returning player, junior forward evan boudreaux, announced that he would graduate in three years and preserve his last two seasons of basketball eligibility elsewhere as a graduate transfer student.  the ivy campaign this season has been even more aggravating.  at 0 – 5 coming into last saturday’s game, dartmouth had lost by five points against harvard, by two on the road at brown and by a single point at ithaca.  they were flat at tip off against the lions who continued to play the up tempo, flowing offense they had found against harvard.  quinton adlesh remained hot  from outside and the big men worked efficiently down low, winning the battle of the boards 36 – 31.  though down by 13 at the half, the big green remained dogged throughout the second period.  adrease jackson, a first year forward out of california, kept popping out behind double screens to score on the outside and battled down low on his way to a 24 point, 14 rebound game.  with jackson leading the way, the hanovers kept slicing away at the columbia lead until with four minutes remaining, ian sistare drained a trey for his only points on the night and a 67 – 66 lead for the visitors.  at this critical juncture, kyle castlin took over for the light blue scoring eight of their last eleven points down the stretch.  his last two free throws put the lions up 77 – 74 with but four seconds remaining.  mclaughlin’s kids weren’t quite through.  they got the ball over half court with little more than two seconds remaining.  columbia took a time out so that coach engle could impress on all and sundry to foul immediately anyone who got the inbound pass.  coach mclaughlin, meanwhile diagrammed yet another double screen play to get the ball in jackson’s very hot paws.  jackson did indeed receive the inbounds and columbia did indeed immediately foul him.  to the immense delight of the columbia faithful, jackson’s first free throw attempt bricked.  the first year then intentionally missed his second attempt about as brilliantly as possible since it caromed into the waiting hands of guard brendan barry.  the rumson, new jersey first year had time to get a shot off but messr castlin was johnny on the spot with a smothering block of the effort.

the lions now embark on their southern new england trip.  friday night they visit the new haven bulldogs.  yale has dropped the lions four straight times, and even though this does not appear to be one of coach james jones’s better squads, the elis are always physically tough.  the lion big men will have to be actively alert and deny their hosts second chances.  the battle of the boards will be key.  swingman miye oni, now a junior, ripped the lions at levien last year and we devoutly wish that messr castlin will be able to slow him down this go round.  saturday, the lions move on to providence where mike martin’s surprising bruins await.  brown had been picked to finish near the bottom of the league, but behind brandon anderson (18 ppg) and first year desmond cambridge (17 nightly), they lead the league in scoring at 79 points per game.  at jadwin last saturday they trailed princeton by four with under a minute to go and managed to force overtime where cambridge’s trey with three seconds remaining gave them a 102 – 100 win.  brown now sits at 3 -3 tied for fourth in league with columbia and princeton.  this will be a steep hill for the lions.  the lions like to push the ball and seem most offensively comfortable in transition.  brown loves the same pace.  we hope coach engle can keep the score under 70 – that should translate to a lion road win.

as the ivy league heads into its fourth full week, the season begins rapidly winding down.  pennsylvania has been best through the first three weekends, going 5 – 0 at the palestra and ripping princeton at jadwin.   they continue play on the road this week with games at harvard and dartmouth.  i expect they will lose at least one of those tangles.  a bloodied tiger crew plays the same pair over the weekend and coach mitch henderson will have to find a way to bring his boys back from two straight league losses.  fun fact – when did princeton last lose two straight in the ivies?  2015, of course, when they fell to harvard on february 21 and then yale on the 27th.  the fiercer than usual competitiveness of this year’s ivy campaign makes road wins crucial.  columbia has got to grab one this weekend.

peace out and d up,

paulie b

before i go.  we sadly announce the loss of a member of the allgame community.  jonathan schwarz passed away on friday february 2.  he was an enthusiastic reader and generous critic of this space.  more importantly, he was a spectacularly kind friend who made it possible for me to see many of my sons’ high school basketball games in philadelphia.  those memories comprise some of my greatest moments in sport.  ever in your debt, jon.

columbia men’s basketball team stands at 1 – 9 with one game remaining before the holiday break.  according to kenpom.com they are the best one win team in the nation and have played the ninth toughest schedule.  so lion fans have those stats to meditate on in these very short, very dark days.   allgame urges all its readers to keep a firm grip on the ledge realizing that the schedule has not been kind to our heroes.  seven straight road contests would test any crew and columbia’s team is very young.  the season began at an apex of difficulty against top ranked villanova.  the wildcats and penn state’s nittany lions were the strongest of those early opponents and they both dropped the light blue by better than a dozen.  since then, though, the lions have been in every game.  a good shooting army team whipped the boys by ten at west point in what should have been, at worst, a closer loss.  colgate shot lights out in the first half up in hamilton but had to hold on for dear life to stymie a couple of columbia rallies.  in perhaps the most frustrating fail of the non-league schedule, the uconn huskies came from fifteen points back early in the second half to humble the lions in overtime 77 – 73.   the most entertaining dust up in this losing streak came against albany where the great dane’s david nichols went bucket for bucket with columbia’s mike smith in a wild second half and led the home team to an 86 – 82 win.  an even closer run thing played out two night later when quinnipiac’s bobcats shutout the lions over the game’s final three minutes and rallied behind the shooting of joe kelly to hand columbia its first home court defeat of the season 89 – 87.  three nights later, stony brook rode a standout performance (30 points, 8 rebounds) from yeboah akwasi to a ten point win.  the arc of failure concluded with a five point loss to navy on sunday the 10th in a game that featured mike smith’s career high 28 point outburst.  that exhilarating 11 – 15 shooting display could not offset the midshipmen’s efficiency down low, where center evan wieck who was a perfect 7 – 7 from the field while helping to hold the lion big men to just six total points as navy rallied from 15 points down to win, 73 – 68.

an immensely patient coach engles has pointed out that a basket here or there in any of these games might have altered the outcomes.  we understand his glass half full point of view.  nevertheless, we see a few issues that the team needs to address if their campaign is to be righted and the ivy league tourney made a realistic goal.  first, the team needs to shoot free throws better.  the loss to navy translates directly to the five foul shot difference in the scorecard.  no one has seemed truly solid at the charity stripe save messr smith.  this deficiency is extremely difficult to correct in season as jim boeheim’s experience at syracuse has long proven.  the orange has managed to win despite the historical incompetence of some of its best teams at the free throw line.  columbia does not have the compensating offensive efficiency to give away free points.  their inadequacy has been costly enough already, but it will be fatal in the ivy league.  at the moment, only penn shoots foul shots more poorly among the ancient eighters.  secondly, the lions are losing the battle of the backboards pretty much nightly by an average of almost seven rebounds.  in the recent losses to stony brook and navy, the margin was ten.  this has been happening at a time that the offense is beginning to play at a pace that coach engles prefers.  a few more boards per game should translate into more shots and points as well as further limiting opponents opportunities.  rebounding is an important aspect of defense.  lukas meisner is being diligent about his work on the backboards, averaging just about seven per game.  we’d like to see improvement in this area from sophomore big man patrick tape and first year power forward jaron faulds.  tape is grabbing five boards per night while faulds is only gathering in three.  another two rebounds per athlete would amplify their value especially since both these guys have been solid defensively.  faulds, in fact,  leads the lions with fifteen blocks to date.

finally, the team has yet to put together two halves of solid play.  they dominated uconn in the first half up at storrs only to bleed away a big lead in the second half.  a similar melt down doomed them versus navy.  nor could they chase down colgate or army which both built early leads against the lions and then beat back repeated charges against their advantages.  this phenomeon has been reflected, somewhat, at the individual level.  mike smith has been outstanding over  the first six weeks of the season, averaging 19 point per game, 5 assists and 2 steals.  and he has picked it up lately, scoring at a 23 ppg clip during december.  but smith seems to score in streaks, lighting it up in one half but stalling in the other.  the stony brook and quinnipiac games highlighted this tendency vividly.  he scored 15 in the opening stanza against the bobcats but only 5 in the second period.  similarly he dropped 15 in the first against stony brook’s sea wolves while managing only 3 in the second.  those fall offs corresponded to the evaporation of ten point half time leads in both contests.  the rest of the squad has to pick mike up when he struggles or mike has to play even better than he is already.  an additional back court concern for coach engles is the play of nate hickman.  the senior started last year ablaze.  but since his 30 point explosion against army in november of 2016, he has been inconsistent.  his athleticism gets him to the rim but he has struggled to complete many of those drives.  his three point shot frequently disappears.  these shortcomings have resulted in a 3 point year to year drop off in his scoring average.  he has also been sloppy with the ball, at times, most glaringly in a six turnover performance against stony brook.  his length is important defensively, so coach engles must be very conflicted about sitting him down especially with his classmate kyle castlin still unavailable.  nonetheless, coach might have to think about playing his first year trio of myles hanson, gabe steffanini and tai bibbs a bit more to strengthen the team’s  back court play.

things won’t be any easier tonight when the lions tip off in chestnut hill against a boston college squad that must be soaring right now.  the eagles humbled imperial duke this sunday past.  let’s hope the giddiness of that win has not worn off and that they come out flat against the light blue.  after tonight, the boys shut it down until the last saturday of 2017 when maine’s brown bears come to levien.  a win or two for the yule tide would hit the spot.

peace out and d up

paulie b

levien gymnasium has probably never looked warmer than it does right now to the dinged up, road weary, one win columbia hoopsters.  they have just completed a bataan death march through the middle atlantic losing six of seven contests.  they have lost to a terrific villanova squad,  a solid penn state five and then good teams in army, colgate, uconn and finally albany.  they battled heroically against the wildcats in philly, losing by fifteen to the nation’s fourth ranked team.  the boys trailed throughout before falling to a big nittany lion crew by fourteen.  a ten point loss to army preceded a closer fail at colgate where the lions fell behind by 22 in the first half before rallying furiously and closing to within three.  that was as good as it would get against the red raiders who prevailed 77-71.  the loss at uconn especially stung as the lions reversed their early season habit of playing from behind and managed to build a seventeen point edge at gampel pavillion before melting down and succumbing in ot 77 -73 to the huskies.  saturday evening they battled the great danes of albany in a highly entertaining dust up in the capitol district.  the first half featured two baskets covered with lids.  neither side could hit anything from outside.  fortunately the zebras were of a mind to let the boys play and few fouls were called when karate chops greeted an athlete brave enough to attack the rim.  lukas meisner, the most consistent columbian during these difficult first seven games, did a terrific job limiting the danes in the paint – defending vigorously and clearing the boards( he grabbed 11 rebounds on the night).  he punctuated his first half performance with a buzzer beating trey that brought the lions with three, 26 – 29, at the half.

that low scoring opening stanza was followed by an exuberant second half in which the hosts outscored the lions 57 – 56 to nail down their 86 – 82 win.  the lions managed to build a 10 point advantage by the twelve minute mark, but as had happened in storrs, could not hold on.  the albany gang tied it up with just under nine minutes remaining and the last eight and a half minutes were a back and forth affair.  the lions were led by mike smith, who hadn’t been able to buy a basket against uconn and went 1 – 7 in the first half saturday night.  the diminutive chicagoan went 7 – 11 (including 5 – 7 from belong the arc) in the high scoring second period to finish with a career best 27 points.  alas, he was  matched bucket for bucket by albany’s david nicholls  who also finished with 27 to lead his crew to victory.  with an albany defender draped over him, smith drained a trey with 48 seconds remaining and tied it at 79.  nicholls almost immediately answered with a three pointer of his own and though the lions closed within two with eleven seconds left on a jaron faulds tally,  the great danes closed it out at the foul line (where they enjoyed a 29 -18 edge in attempts for the evening).

so after playing from behind in their first four losses, the lions have lost from the front in their last two.  perhaps their long awaited return to morningside heights will yield a second win.  they are starting to realize the quality of some of their first years.  the aforementioned jaron faulds looks like a solid low post offensive player, moving easily and economically into position for his shots.  he also seems to be moving more efficiently on defense and should see increasing minutes as the season moves along.  along side the dependable meisner and sophomore patrick tape, faulds gives the lions a big, tough front court.  i would love to see all three kids on the floor at once, but coach engles has yet to go with this entire group.  additionally, gabe stefanini from bologna, italy by way of bergen catholic high, had his best game to date against albany, grabbing seven rebounds while scoring eleven points.  coach engles credited the lions’ second half offensive execution to stefanini’s work.  one shouldn’t overlook tai bibbs.   though he  is currently playing with a face mask, bibbs averages just about five ppg and has been filling in some of the scoring gap left by jake killingworth’s early season absence.

the quinnipiac bobcats have won only twice so far, but one of those wins was over dartmouth.  conversely, they fell to brown.  they are led by 6’9″ forward chaise daniels who averages 15 ppg and hauls in 5 rebounds nightly.  daniels is abetted by 6’6″ guard cameron young who chips in with 14 points and 6 rebounds per game.  the bobcat bench seems short with only nine ballers moving through coach baker dunleavy’s rotation.   were the lions at full strength, i don’t think the issue would be in doubt.  but kyle castlin has been sidelined since the season opener against villanova.  after spending his junior season rehabbing a broken foot, kc dinged an elbow against the wildcats and has been sitting since.  jake killingworth has also been hobbled and available in only two games.  their absence has cost the light blue some important options in their four close run losses.  completely healthy or not, next man up must  be the lions’ creed as they look to break the miserable schnied they find themselves on at the jump of the 2017 – 18 campaign.  quite frankly, a win over the bobcats won’t mean a heck of a lot, but another loss, this time on the heights, might point to some deeper issues for the light blue than just a lack of home cooking.

peace out and d up,

paulie b