All Game No Gossip

columbia’s basketball team has won 20 games for the second time in the last three years and will almost certainly be playing after the end of the ivy league season. unless an incalculably unlikely series of events transpire, however, they will not be playing in the big dance, the ncaa tournament.  what a bitter draught for the four graduating seniors on this talented, resilient, successful squad to swallow.  a five point loss at jadwin gymnasium on february 25 effectively cooked their ivy league goose. the 88 – 83 loss came in a game utterly different from the defeat at levien two weeks ago that yielded an identical final score.

coaches generally game plan against the last result just as generals usually fight the last war. on the 13th of the month, the lions essentially shut out princeton’s scoring leader, henry caruso but fell to the baseline work of center pete miller and the late game heroics of first year guard devin cannady who recorded 20 and 23 points respectively. that duo was held to a total of thirteen points this go round but the 30 point improvement was offset by the outstanding shooting of a trio princeton gunners –  spencer weisz, the aforementioned messr caruso and steven cook. they led an assault that torched the light blue at a better than 63% rate from the field overall and an unconscious 62% from three point range.  that onslaught was enough to offset lion dominance on the boards and in the paint and threw into shadow the best scoring performance of isaac cohen’s career (19 points).

the game was a tight back and forth affair for the first sixteen and a half minutes, at which point the squads were tied at 32.  the tigers, particularly weisz, were drilling every trey they launched while the lions, led by cohen, were probing the interior and scoring via lay ups.  at that point, however, princeton went on a quick run to finish the half up 42 -33.  columbia came out of the locker room with good energy and cut the deficit to just five within a minute and a half.   the tigers sprinted off again on a 13 – 2 spurt over the next three minutes that put them up by sixteen with 15:40 left to play.  the teams essentially traded buckets for the next six minutes and it was during this stretch that sophomore kyle castlin endured three identically unsuccessful trips to the free throw line, missing the front end of two one and ones and the free throw consequent to a made layup.   castlin’s form was the same on all three tosses as were the trajectories and all three shots hit the front end of rim before dropped into the hands of an eager princetonian.   with 8:20 still to go in the game and down 16, columbia launched one of the thrillingly frantic comeback runs that had characterized this senior core over their first two seasons.  behind cohen, lo, mullins and rosenberg the lions raced to within four points with a full 2:40 on the clock.  you see now how hurtful castlin’s  missed free throws were.  but not so hurtful, finally,  as princeton’s next possession.  against the lions’ continued hard defensive work, the tigers found themselves at the limit of the thirty second clock when steven cook drained a three pointer from deep in the corner with 2:08 to play.  that dagger was followed on the next princeton foray by a trey from the hitherto quiet cannady.  the margin was back to 10 and the lions’ season was smoldering.

weisz’s 16 points were outdone by caruso’s 21 and cook’s 23 for the tigers.  that trio’s work, however was actually outdone by the lions’ senior quartet – rosenberg tallied 12 to go along with mullins’s 14 and lo’s team leading 20 which just outdid cohen’s aforementioned 19.  the difference came from whence allgame said it most likely would  – the bench.  as he had been at levien on the 13th, but even more so, myles stephens was a lion killer.  his 15 points equalled the production of eight lion supporting cast members and proved fatal.  warning against stephens’s potential impact (you could look it up.  vide “middle of the journey”) but anticipating a different outcome  we had surmised that columbia first years davis and meisner along with upper class men messrs mccomber, castlin and nate hickman would be the difference makers in a must win game.  we were wrong.

the saturday romp at the palestra finally gave the soon to be departed lion seniors their first ever victory in philadelphia.  the game was never close as rosenberg raced out to quickly score 11 points on his way to a game leading 26.  quaker center darien nelson-henry battled manfully in the paint for a while, but no other penn player had much to contribute to stop a 93 – 65 rout.  columbia had their second 20 win season in three years as a consolation prize for the elusive ivy title.  they must now await a second tier post season tourney bid and content themselves with the role of spoilers to yale’s title hopes.  a win over the bulldogs on saturday will be payback for the loss in new haven on february 5 and will almost certainly guarantee princeton the championship.  it will be cold comfort for a squad that began the season with the highest aspirations but that could not quite summit.

peace out and d up,

paulie b

one should forgive the preoccupation of the some 2,500 fans filing into levien last friday. though the evening’s assignment was “beat the crimson,” most of us were gathered in hasty grief counseling sessions, trying to wrap our heads around the sudden, stunning overtime loss to princeton the saturday prior.  that game had seemed so well in hand, so often and so late in the contest, that the defeat felt like the ghastliest of nightmares – inexplicable in its terror, incomprehensible in it course. though we were shaken, coach smith had assured the media that the lion five “would be fine.”  having struggled through the ivy schedule, harvard had nonetheless led the light blue by 16 points at halftime back on january 30 in the first contest between this pair.   the lions, however, had dominated the second half and caught the cantabs at the wire on alex rosenberg’s driving jumper.  that one point victory was columbia’s first at lavietes pavilion since 2008 and coincided with the lions last season sweep of harvard.  a similar outcome was required on the 19th if columbia wanted to keep alive their only assured path to the post season.

part of the lions’ struggle in the first meeting against the crimson was rebounding.  more specifically,  zena edosomwan had dominated in the paint, grabbing nine boards before leaving the game late with an injury.  overall harvard had owned the glass, 43 – 29.  this go round columbia edged the cantabs off the backboards 23 – 22 and that difference in rebounding seemed to translate into several other advantages for the lions.  messr rosenberg found himself with a bit more room on the perimeter, from whence he punished harvard with one of his more confident performances of the season from the three point line.  when the crimson bigs tried to close on him outside, the short hills native put the ball on the floor and drove to the rim.  his 23 points on the evening led the light blue.  maodo lo chipped in with 22 points, three of which came on a gorgeous bank shot from the back court five second line.  lo’s form on the three pointer was impeccable and he eyeballed it all the way through the twines as the backboard blazed red.  the shot, deservedly,  showed up on espn’s saturday morning top ten.

the second half was perhaps the most complete period the lions have played in the ivies this season.  the offense was quickly alert, frequently making the extra pass that found a wide open shooter on the perimeter or a cutter going to the rim.  certainly for the last ten minutes of the contest, the defense was equally fine and harvard seldom had a clean look, inside or out, as the lions steadily built on lo’s buzzer beater and dropped the visitors 90 – 76.

the dartmouth team that columbia had whipped 77 – 60 back on january 29 in new hampshire broke from the gates saturday night as though intent on, and capable of, revenge.  indeed, paul cormier’s crew led 24 -15 with eight and half minutes remaining in the first half and a restive crowd wondered if the lions would fall flat.  foolish fear as columbia outscored the hanoverians 58 – 30 from there on.  evan boudreaux, the dartmouth first year standout tallied 16 but was an inefficient 5 – 18 from the field and his 7 rebounds were outbalanced by 7 from lo and jeff coby and half dozen each from luke petrasek and lukas meisner.  the lions cruised, 73 – 54.

this sets up another absolutely necessary weekend of victories which must be gained on the historically toughest of ivy league hoops trips, the visit south to jadwin gymnasium and the palestra.  the friday night dust up in princeton provides the lions with a quick opportunity to even the score from that horrific loss at levien on the 13th.  we trust the light blue will get a fairer deal than they received from the zebras on morningside where the tigers scored fully one third of their points at the foul line.  assuming even handed officiating, the light blue will still have to contain princeton center pete miller who savaged them for 20 points down low in the last contest.  they will have to prevent miller from pitching camp too comfortably deep in the paint and deny him the entry passes that led to easy layups.  i figure luke petrasek will help in occasionally fronting miller while jeff coby will have to establish position behind the big tiger and force him away from the hoop a bit.  on the perimeter, the lions basically shut out princeton’s leading scorer, henry caruso, last go round but first year devin cannady (23 points) killed them.  it will be difficult to lock down all the tiger shooters – spencer weisz, amir bell and steve cook can fill it up as well – but they’ll have to limit them all to only average performances.  grant mullins has been playing terrific defense of late and will have to be quick all evening.  maodo lo has been swiping the ball throughout the season and we hope his hands are especially sticky versus princeton.  the coaching staff considers isaac cohen their best all round defender and we trust he will be charged with slowing down, if not shutting out, one of the tiger scorers.  none of this will be a one man job and we expect the alert helping defense that the lions have demonstrated through much of the campaign to be on display.  on the offensive side, the lion trio of senior scoring leaders – lo, rosenberg and mullins – will have to bring their inside/outside games.  and i’d prefer that they attack the hoop first.  drives to the glass will draw some fouls from princeton and might additionally loosen them up on the perimeter a bit.  and though all three of the seniors pride themselves on their first step and their handles, i hope they will be looking for open teammates when they go to the hoop.  all in all, however, i expect the opposing stars to offset one another and the game should come down to the performance of the respective benches.  myles stephens had an efficient and hurtful outing for the tigers on the 13th when alex brennan chipped in, too.  the lions have a longer line of reserves and i count on kyle castlin, nate hickman, c.j. davis and chris mccomber to be the critical difference makers in a columbia victory.

assuming the best on friday, the lions cannot be dismissive of their upcoming saturday night opponents.  they dropped the quakers by ten points two weeks ago and would have won by more than twenty had they hit their free throws.  by the same token,  none of the sterling lion seniors have ever won in philadelphia where one can expect a trio of palestra loving zebras refereeing.  player for player, columbia is better, but the light blue has to be prepared to leave nothing to chance and no doubt about their ivy league championship bona fides.  beating penn will leave columbia two tip offs away from a fantastic finish and wonderful post season challenges.  be ready, allgamers.

d up and peace out,

paulie b

as paulie b fled levien gymnasium last saturday, struck half blind and nauseous by the magnitude of the just befallen disaster, he more resembled, as did so many lion rooters heading for the exits, a concussed resident of herculaneum fleeing  his pumice buried city than a disappointed sports fan leaving an arena.  speech was impossible, thought barely so.  the  88 – 83 overtime loss to princeton was the most crushing home court defeat i had witnessed since the manhattan jaspers rallied from four points down with nineteen seconds left to play to snatch a 71 – 70 victory from the not tightly enough clamped jaws of defeat.  that loss, though, came early in the ’13 – ’14 season and in a non-league battle.  this game was literally at the turn for home in an ivy league race and at the hands of the utterly loathsome princeton tigers.   time is running out in the chase for ncaa tourney glory and no opponent draws the bile of light blue fanatics more than the orange and black clad jersey hillbillies.

though no rational inquiry could be launched  or coherent conclusion reached in the immediate aftermath of the catastrophe, the blessed passage of a week has lifted some of the suffocating fog from your scribe’s senses and permitted a renewed hope for our heroes’ eventual vindication.  disgusting as it may prove, however, we must begin with rehashing two brief but horrifying stretches of play during last saturday’s brawl.

despite enduring a horrible night’s officiating from a trio of zebras obviously in the employ of the princeton alumni network – the lions were whistled up for 9 more personals than the visitors who outscored the home team by a full fifteen points from the charity stripe – columbia led throughout the contest. so when with 30.1 seconds remaining in the second period grant mullins drained two free throws and the home team’s lead grew to 73 – 68, lion supporters were appropriately pondering what choice vintage would be popped in celebration.  a mere five seconds later, however, tiger first year devin cannady drove the ball to the rim, dropping a lovely teardrop through the twines and the visitors trailed by three with 25.5 ticks on the clock.  alex rosenberg was fouled on the ensuing possession and cashed a free throw that gave the lions a 74 – 70 edge.  young cannady was not finished, however, and drained a trey from the broadway corner of the downtown hoop.  make that 74 – 73, lions.  the tigers fell asleep on the ensuing in bounds play and maodo lo chased down a lead pass for a break away deuce with a mere eight seconds to play that put columbia up, triumphantly it seemed,  76 – 73.   the gods treat us as flies, though, and five seconds later, the unflappable and probably unconscious cannady threw in a trey from 40 feet out, literally.  76 all and they’re going to overtime, folks!

if the lions were staggered by those thirty seconds of play, they did not show it as overtime commenced.  indeed, behind grant mullins aggressive attacks to the rim, they crafted an 83 – 76 lead with 2:13 remaining in ot.  once again, messr cannady stepped forward.  the first year darted through the paint to drop in a layup and get a foul call.  the free throw narrowed the princeton deficit to four with 2:07 on the clock.  thirty seconds later steve cook repeated the performance, driving the rim to score and  receive a free throw.  83 – 82, a minute and half remaining.  a fail on the offensive end for the lions and cannady floated to the hoop and dropped through the deuce that for the first time since the game’s opening minute put the tigers ahead, 84 – 83.  fifty seconds remained in the contest, but the lions were finally done.  a couple of good look three point shots by maodo lo and c.j. davis missed, and four free throws, the epitome of how the boys from jersey’s cornfields had managed to keep up all night, finished the night’s scoring.  the tigers boarded the bus home with an 88 – 83 win.

re-read those last two paragraphs if the action seems a bit confusing.  unquestionably, the last thirty seconds of regulation and the final two and half minutes of overtime represented the most frantically horrifying three minutes of lions’ hoops allgame has ever witnessed.  and, faithful readers, we are not alone in our dismay.  check out coach smith’s post game interview with jerry recco on the gocolumbialions.com website or on the ivy league digital network for a professional statement of incomprehension.

though the skipper was our equal in disbelief  at what had just transpired, he insisted that the squad would be fine in the wake of a stunning fail.  and that is the basket into which lion fans must carefully place their eggs over the last three weeks of this rapidly disappearing campaign.  at 6 – 2, columbia’s sole option is to win out.  a sweep of the last six games is the best they can manage.  at 12 – 2, they would ordinarily be a solid bet for the league title.  but yale’s five remains impeccable.  at 8 – 0, the bulldogs head to the ivy league south this weekend to play princeton and penn.  the tigers gave the elis their closest run battle of the ivy season, falling at new haven, 79 – 75.  let us pray that the orange and black, trailing yale with a 6 – 1 league mark, battle with the same fire they did at levien and end the bulldogs twelve game winning streak.  a lion win over harvard on friday would then leave the lions a single game behind the bulldogs and a half game behind the tigers.  assuming the pack leading trio win their other games, a payback win at princeton’s jadwin gym and a season ending triumph over yale at levien could create a three way tie for the league lead and result in a two game playoff for only the second time in league history for the ivy title and its automatic ncaa berth.  the greatest teams are those most greatly tested.  glorious destiny still beckons the lions!   BEAT HARVARD!!

d up and peace out,

paulie b

the columbia lions men’s basketball team returns to levien gymnasium this weekend in second place in the ivy league.  a 5 – 1 record, fashioned over three weeks on the road would ordinarily be reason for immense self-congratulation, but, we expect, this crew rues that sole blemish on the report card more than the handful of gold stars.  they know the 86 -72 whipping they suffered at yale was a far closer run thing than the final score indicated.  that 14 point gap reflected the final six and half minutes of the battle when the new havenites pulled away at the foul line, cashing fourteen of the sixteen free throws the zebras awarded generously awarded them over that span.  of course, that advantage at the charity stripe was not simply the consequence of official myopic malfeasance.  yale’s slick ball handling big men, brandon sherrod and justin sears, brutalized the lions all evening down low while scoring twenty five and twenty seven points, respectively.  their front court partner, nick victor, only tallied six but was extremely active on the back boards grabbing 9 rebounds.  that busyness down low drew the refs attention and was rewarded with 17 more free throws than the visitors.  on the lion side, luke petrasek and lukas meisner both suffered through their worst league outings of the season while chris mccomber was pretty much invisible.  alex rosenberg battled all evening but was average at best on a night he needed to be terrific.  center jeff coby supplied some much needed energy off the bench, but not enough to stem the tide on the base line.  meanwhile, the light blue could not generate its accustomed three point attack.  none of the forwards contributed their usual outside points and although maodo lo scored 21 while grabbing six rebounds and snatching seven steals, nothing else of real significance came from the other guards.  the positive spin would be that despite being outplayed up front and lacking their usual efficiency from the outside, the lions were within two with under seven minutes to go and should prove tougher against the elis on the last saturday of the season.  payback will be even sweeter if the game is consequential and columbia’s student body turns out.  the yale student section was rowdily vocal throughout last week’s contest, entertainingly partisan and while providing substantial spiritual support for their heroes.

the lions shook off the sting of their first league loss quickly, but not easily, the next evening when they traveled to providence to battle mike martin’s brown squad.  columbia got off quickly and led 37 – 31 at halftime primarily on the strength of grant mullins’ highest scoring period of the year.  he dropped 16 on his way to 25 for the night.  we love brown coach mike martin’s fiery, no quit demeanor and the way he imbues that character in his teams.  the bruins fell behind by eleven in the second period but refused to go away and behind steven spieth’s 21 points and some sharp shooting by kyle haber, fought back to lead 60 – 59 with just over six minutes remaining.  the teams traded buckets and fouls down the stretch until with 1:43 left, chris mccomber hit his most consequential shot to date, draining a trey from just to the right of the top of the circle that put columbia up 70 – 68.  the light blue, a solid 15 – 19 from the foul line, steadied to nail down the 77 – 73 win.

the successful, though imperfect, road warriors return to levien this weekend for the annual homestand against the (erstwhile) killer p’s.  the quakers and tigers usually sell out levien, though over the last few seasons they have not been contending for the league title.  princeton, at least, is in the thick of things this year and saturday should prove a test with post-season ramifications.   penn will provide a friday evening appetizer for the dust up with the tigers, but the lions ought not take them lightly.  jerome allen has left the quaker bench which is now skippered by steve donahue who has enjoyed terrific success in the ancient eight, particularly between 2005 -08 when he led three straight cornell squads to the ncaa tournament.  that crew, featuring louis dale, ryan wittmann and center jeff foote – arguably the best trio in the conference – was unquestionably the finest ivy league team of the twenty first century, posting 72 wins overall, culminating with 29 in ’09 – ’10 and managing to advance to the ncaa sweet sixteen via wins over temple and wisconsin.  donahue has not had time to show his recruiting prowess for the quakers just yet, but you have to figure philly will prove an easier sell than ithaca.  penn will certainly be in the conference title mix again, soon.  for now, they depend on 6′ 10″ darien nelson-henry to anchor their attack contributing 12.3 ppg while snagging an impressive 8 boards nightly.  he is aided by 6′ 4″ junior matt howard who tallies 11.8 per outing and gathers five and a half rebounds.  antonio woods, a 6′ 1″ sophomore, adds just about eleven points per game while dishing out 3.3 assists.  sam jones completes the bulk of the quaker attack.  the lions have split home and home with the pennsylvanians the last two seasons and should successfully defend levien once more against the 2 – 3 quakers.  we’ll worry about the criminal officiating at the palestra when we get there at the end of february.

on saturday, the loathsome princeton tigers return to levien where they have dropped the lions six straight times.  presently, the visitors trail the lions by a half game in league play at 4 – 1.  though they still favor the “princeton offense” that creates scoring opportunities off motion and back door cuts, they rely far more heavily now on the three point portion of that attack.  indeed, only the lions lead the orange and black five in made treys per game (10.3 v 9.7)  in the ivies. the tiges rank fourth in overall three point accuracy, at .371%, in league play where they stand right behind columbia’s .375% efficiency.  they are led in this effort by henry caruso, a 6′ 4″ junior guard, who tosses in 16.7 points nightly while firing treys at a gaudy 57.2% clip.  devin canady, his first year teammate, is effective 48% of the time from beyond the arc and contributes eleven points per game.  third years spener weisz and steven cook both add better than ten and a half ppg while east brunswick, nj sophomore amir bell tallies nine per battle.  all the lion marksmen need to be accurate from deep to match up against this quintet of shooters.  the corollary of this is that the team which most efficiently moves the ball to an open gunner will prevail.  jeff coby, lukas meisner, isaac cohen and the rest of the lion front court will have to make sure that tiger big, 6′ 11″ pete miller, is neutralized on the boards.  last march maodo lo put on a stephen curryesque display at jadwin, dropping 37 points on the tigers while shooting 11 – 15  from three point land.  that singular outburst was almost good enough to win, but every one will have to contribute this saturday if the lions are to stay on course for a league title.  the dangerous road schedule that opened the lions league season has been traveled, now it’s time to own home court advantage.

peace out and d up,

paulie b

five weeks ago, the columbia men’s basketball team traveled to long island and battled the america east conference power stony brook seawolves.  the light blue led by as many as seventeen points on their way to a nine point loss.  it was a game that left many of us shaking our heads at a talented, senior laden squad that had yet to notch a marquee win.  startingly, and delightfully, as the first friday in february approaches, the lions are a dangerous team preparing for their most significant conference game in almost half a century.  not since tom penders’ crew took the floor at levien for the final game of the ’77 ’78 season, with a tie for first place in the ivies on the line, has a more necessary victory loomed.  the upcoming battle in new haven has lion followers thrillingly awaiting a win against the detestable bulldogs which will give the lions sole possession of the league lead.

that loss to stony brook was  only the second suffered by the light blue since the beginning of december.  the dismal funk produced by two narrow post-thanksgiving defeats at the hands of fairfield and longwood has been replaced by the giddy contemplation of twelve wins in fourteen contests.  a december 2 failure against st. joseph’s was the only other to have marred the lions run around the new year.  it should be noted that those two defeats came at the hands of 18 -3 and 17 -4 squads.  as both games were not only winnable, but should have been won, the lions are on one of the notable hot streaks in program history.  the victories against dartmouth and harvard this past weekend, two games that set up the game, demonstrated the quality of that heat.

no team gave last season’s injury hampered lion crew more trouble than paul cormier’s boys in hanover.  the dartmouth five dropped columbia twice by a dozen points each go round.  that big green squad whipped the light blue from the perimeter behind the back court shooting of alex mitola, john golden, and malik gill.  two of those guards are gone and dartmouth is spearheaded now by frosh phenom evan boudreaux, a 6′ 8″ forward out of illinois, who has already garnered six ivy league rookie of the week citations.  he anchors the hanoverians baseline bullies alongside 6′ 7″ senior conor boehm who has bedeviled the lions throughout his career.  gill has returned to provide sixth man juice for cormier via his court vision, opportunistic shot selection and fearless defensive work.  it is this last aspect of gill’s  portfolio  that has been most notable to allgame since we began following him when columbia was recruiting the mt. saint michael’s prep star.  listed at  5′ 10″ (a generous number, we think), gill is fearless about matching up against opponents a foot longer than he, relying on his quickly powerful lower body to get and maintain position.  simultaneously, he regularly swipes the ball from those bigger fellows.  this trio of dartmouth players looked capable of slowing the lions, especially as the manhattanites would have to shake off  the trial of a six hour schlep to new hampshire.

columbia, however, arrived ready to run.  they sped out to a 10 – 0 lead and stretched that to 32 – 9 with about six minutes remaining in the first period.  maodo lo (on his way to 16 points, 6 rebounds and 5 steals) and grant mullins (headed to an identical point total) led the energetic light  blue who controlled their defensive backboards while consistently limiting the poor shooting home team to one and done offensive sets.  boudreaux, though he recorded a season average 15 points on the night, was well contained by a rotating cast of defenders; boehm was ineffective; and gill provided none of his usual off the bench lift.   alex rosenberg contributed 14 points and luke petrasek added ten as columbia’s core four dominated throughout.  though the hosts would eventually rally, and even closed the gap to within six points a minute into the second half, the hole they had dug was far too deep and they never generated the three point attack necessary to come all the way back.  the lions steadied;  the counterattack fizzled; and the lions led wire to wire in posting an easier than expected 77 – 60 win.

no ivy coach has given kyle smith more heartache over the years than tommy amaker, the cantabs dapper commander who  boasted a gaudy 9 – 1 mark against the lions’ skipper prior to saturday.  smith’s tenure on the heights has coincided with amaker’s greatest successes, a five year string of league titles.  this year’s crimson squad, however, is decidedly down.  wesley saunders, the unit’s anchor for four championship seasons has moved on and siyani chambers, the team’s point guard and leader has withdrawn from school to rehab an acl injury and preserve one more year of hoops eligibility.  without those stars, harvard had struggled to a 9 – 10 mark overall and had already dropped two ivy league games (to dartmouth and cornell) when the lions arrived at lavietes gymnasium on the thirtieth.   the defending champs found themselves in the unusual position of playing a must win game only three weeks into the league schedule.  a wounded beast is dangerous and the cantabrigians would be just that at tip off.

as the lions had routed dartmouth from the get go, so the crimson raced away from columbia.  four minutes in and the home team was up 14 – 0.  john harvard’s boys bullied the light blue on the baseline offensively and forced them a half step deeper on defense.  the customary columbia assault from beyond the three point arc was absent.  led by their foremost big man, zena edosomwan and first year guard tommy mccarthy, the cantabs held on to their early lead right through the half time buzzer, leaving the floor ahead 33 – 17 after messr edosomwan muscled home an offensive rebound and cashed the ensuing free throw.  the greatest damage had been done down low where harvard owned a prodigious 24 – 10 rebounding edge.

if coach smith has had a more effective halftime, let me know.  the lions came out with an altered starting five.  smith inserted chris mccomber, a 6′ 8″ canadian who started most of last season in place of alex rosenberg and messr rosenberg, himself, who has been coming off the bench since his return from an early december foot injury.  they joined maodo lo, grant mullins and luke petrasek.  petrasek opened the lions’ charge back.  thirty seconds in, he made a pretty, looping drive to the backboard for a layup and less than a minute later drained a trey.  a rosenberg drive brought the deficit to nine at the 18:05 mark.  and fifteen seconds later, alex cut the harvard lead to just seven when grant mullins hit him in full stride with a three quarter court length chest pass.  it was the prettiest, if not the most thrilling, lion play of the game.  while the light blue was showcasing the kind of free flowing, quick offense, they most like to play, they were lock down good on defense and much more efficient on the backboards.  the crimson did not score for the first four and a half minutes of the second stanza and columbia was limiting them to one shot trips.  though amaker’s crew would build the lead back to ten at the 14:40 mark, the air was out of the home team’s balloon and it was sinking inevitably earthward.  the lions finally grabbed a 42 – 41 edge with seven minutes remaining when mullins assisted rosenberg on another drive.  the evening’s entertainment was nowhere near complete, however, as harvard first year weisner perez came off the bench to give his mates some much needed offense from outside with a couple of three pointers.  so it was  with just under four and half minutes remaining and the light blue down 49 – 46, that three of our heroes staged their slickest display of the game.  maodo lo stole the ball along the far sideline between the harvard free throw line and midcourt.  he fired it upcourt to rosenberg on the same side.  the forward spotted mullins, who had struggled all evening to find his shot, cross court and unguarded on the arc in front of the lion bench.  this time rosenberg got the assist as ontario’s own drained the trey.  49 all!

columbia trailed again, 54 -53, after a crimson free throw, when they went on the attack with thirty five seconds remaining.  maodo lo got a clean look at a long but makeable three pointer from the right side of the top of the key.  it rattled out and fell in the hands of harvard’s miller who was fouled with seven seconds left and headed to the charity stripe for only the fourth time this season.  he bricked the free throw and jeff coby launched himself over and across the lane to grab the rebound.  he fed maodo lo who started up court with under five seconds to play and hit rosenberg at the top right elbow of the key.  the short hills native drove to the left of foul line, squared, lifted and drifting left, swished a twelve footer as the buzzer sounded. the lions had won at harvard for the first time since 2008,  55 – 54.  columbia fans roared as rosenberg sprinted to the opposite end of the court, pounding his chest while hotly pursued by his exultant teammates.

now yale awaits in the venerable, if somewhat dingy john j, lee amphitheater.   two years ago, a game there between these two squads pretty much ended in a brawl.  and though they have split the regular season over the last two years, coach james jones owns a 7 – 3 record against coach smith.  if the lions are to vindicate their skipper they are going to have apply themselves on the defensive boards.  justin sears, yale’s 6′ 8″ center from plainfield, nj who is arguably the league’s best all around player grabs four offensive rebounds a night.  harvard battered the lions with second chance shots in the opening stanza in cambridge.  the bulldogs have shooters in sophomore makai mason and returning senior brandon sherrod ( back from a season singing with the whiffenpoofs) who will demand a far higher toll for laxity on the boards.  the elis also bring along jack montague who delivered a dagger trey against columbia at levien last season.  we trust that coach smith will make use of his depth in the front court and defend sears by committee.  i count 20 fouls available for judicious distribution, though sears is far more efficient at the foul line than harvard’s edosomwan.  rather than counting on bricks from the foul line, we hope that a series of fresh legs will eventually wear down the tenacious, whipcord tough, sears and provide the difference in the game.  we like the lions’ depth in this match up and believe they believe that  they are road warriors who, unlike coach penders late seventies squad, deserve sole possession of first place in the ivy league.

d up and peace out,

paulie b

columbia started its journey to the ivy league title and a place in the ncaa tournament as well as possible, edging the cornell big red at levien, 74 -70, on the 16th and then whipping the ithacans at newman arena, 79 – 68.  two weeks into league play and the lions are tied for first with yale.  the two victories against bill courtney’s crew revealed an increasingly comfortable and confident light blue. with floor leader isaac cohen still recovering from a pcl injury, the remaining 75% senior core of the team – maodo lo, alex rosenberg and grant mullins – are sharing the ball efficiently among themselves and their underclassmen running mates while making sure coach smith’s edicts are enacted.  junior luke petrasek is showing the three point shooting efficiency and rebounding ferocity of a legitimate stretch four.  his classmate, jeff coby has run off a couple of double doubles and appears ever more comfortable in the offensive flow.  meanwhile, c.j. davis, the queens bred point guard who appears the likely floor leader of the squad next season, had his best game to date at cornell.  kyle castlin, the leading first year scorer in the ivies last season, has stepped into cohen’s slot in the starting rotation and given the lions an increased offensive athleticism.  lukas meisner and chris mccomber (who replaced rosenberg in the rotation last year) bring additional size and defensive rebounding to the mix.  the light blue is deep as league play heats up.

cornell came to levien on the sixteenth with robert hatcher, its 19 point a game scoring leader, featuring a walking cast on his injured right ankle.  first year phenom, and two time ivy rookie of the week, matt morgan stepped into the breach and dropped 29 points on the lions. he was joined in tormenting columbia by the big red’s full court defensive pressure which forced the lions into 15 turnovers on the night.  in this regard, however, the visitors were somewhat undone by their own work.  though they frequently turned the light blue over, cornell’s pressure also resulted in numerous foul calls and the lions made the best of their free throw opportunities, cashing 23 – 29 on the night and thereby overcoming a subpar 30% effort from beyond the three point arc.  the 17 point edge the lions enjoyed at the charity stripe reflected a deeper difference between the squads than home court loving zebras. the cornell backcourt starters outscored columbia’s by 40 – 24 but the lions owned the front court with coby, petrasek and rosenberg overmatching david onoruah, jordan abdur-ra’oof and stone gettings, 34 – 9. columbia was bigger at virtually every spot on the court and that size told.

the lions headed up to ithaca on the 23rd, ahead of the blizzard arriving on  morningside heights.  thirty seconds into the rematch, when matt morgan faked to the three point line and then blazed past grant mullins to lay in a toss to the rim, one might have been forgiven thinking it would be a long afternoon for the blue.  similarly, when troy whiteside turned over luke petrasek and raced downcourt to forge a 6 point lead for the big red at the 3:19 mark of the period, a lion rooter might wonder if home court was going to belong to the home team.  false indicators, both moments, it would prove as mullins focused and dug in to hold morgan to a measly eight points for the half.  though the first year phenom would score 26 on the night, he was never the pestiferous thorn he had been at levien.  likewise, whitesides’s theft and bucket marked the very brief high water mark of cornell’s late afternoon as the lions went on a period spanning run that lifted them from six down with three and a half minutes left in the opening period  to an eleven point lead two and a half into the second.  though bill courtney’s crew never entirely quit, the game was over.  a couple of cornell pushes were promptly countered by the lions and they would head back home with a 79 –  68 win, a series sweep and a share of first place in the ancient eight.

once again, the light blue front court dominated with luke petrasek tallying 16 while grabbing eight boards and jeff coby snagging seven rebounds.  dave onoruah managed 10 points and eight rebounds, but he was overmatched.  additionally, the lion three point attack, which had been missing at levien on the 16th, was on full display as they drained thirteen treys at a 54% clip.  maodo lo led the attack from the backcourt with 18 points while first year c. j. davis added another 11. the light blue moved the ball crisply on the perimeter for open looks as well as working the orb efficiently high – low and back again.  the backcourt further complicated the lives of the cornell big’s by snagging 13 rebounds.

the victory sets the lions up for two weeks on the road, culminating with a battle in new haven against justin sears. brandon sherrod and the rest of the eli band of criminals.  first up though, coach paul cormier’s big green who just dropped harvard in hanover for the first time in a half dozen years.  dartmouth whipped our heroes twice last season and coach smith will surely drive this point home to his charges.  columbia is playing its best ball of the season and they can’t let up right now.  BEAT DARTMOUTH!  should be its sole emphasis until the final horn blows in new hampshire on the 29th.

peace out and d up,

paulie b