2008-2009 Record: 12-16 (7-7, T-4th Ivy)
2008-2009 Review: The season looked very promising for Columbia after a 65-62 win at Fordham, until it dawned on everyone that Fordham was terrible. A blowout at home to UMBC was a bad sign and out of conference there weren’t many good signs as the team finished 5-9.
Starting off the Ivies with two games against Cornell put Columbia in a hole but they beat Yale and Brown at home and Penn on the road to go to 3-2. Then came an inexplicable 63-35 shellacking at Princeton. Home wins against Dartmouth and Harvard and a road win at Brown got the Lions to 6-3, but this is Columbia so you knew they had to find some way to get to 7-7. They lost three straight on the road to Yale, Harvard and Dartmouth then beat Princeton at home by 14 (a rare 42 point turnaround from the first game) then Penn’s Kevin Egee, with some help from the 7-7 gods threw in a 30-foot at the buzzer to beat Columbia by 1 and finish them off at 12-16 (7-7).
Key Losses: SR Jason Miller, SR K.J. Matsui
Columbia loses two of its top three point producers with the departures of their best inside player, Miller, and their top gunner, Matsui. Miller was also the team’s top rebounder – by a lot. Someone up front will have to step up big-time to replace Miller’s production and the guards are going to have to shoot a lot better (Sr. Patrick Foley, SR. Kevin Bulger and SO Steve Egee shot a pitiful 12-68 from three) to replace Matsui’s firepower.
Key Returnees: SR Patrick Foley, JR Asenso Ampim
The oft-injured guard and forward need to be healthy if Columbia is going to make some noise. The Lions have lots of guards but Foley seems to be the only one who defends and scores and makes his teammates better. Ampim is 240 pounds of frustrating potential. He looks like he’s chiseled out of rock and he can have periods in which he dominates inside and on the glass, but he’s never shown much range, good hands or an ability pass or handle. And he’s been foul-prone. But Ivy bigs tend to blossom late so hope springs eternal.
Key Arrivals: SO transfer Max Craig, JR transfer Brian Grimes, FR John Daniels, FR Brian Barbour
The Lions have beefed up their frontcourt with the addition of Craig, a 7-footer from Loyola Marymount and Grimes, a 6-6 combo-forward from La Salle. Craig didn’t play much at Loyola and Grimes missed all last season with an injury so there may be some kinks working both into the rotation. But add them to freshman forwards Daniels and Mark Cisco and returning forwards Ampim and JR Zack Crimmins and the Lions will at least have a lot of big bodies to throw out on the court hoping to find two consistent gamers. Guard play has been sketchy for Columbia so Barbour has a shot to contribute.
Top Non-Conference Games: If Columbia is going to better their typical 7-7 Ivy season, the games to circle on the calendar are the home contests against Bucknell (Nov. 24), Lehigh (Dec. 3) and American (Jan 4). Wins against those teams and no bad slip-ups on the road should give fans reason to hope the Lions will be in the hunt for a high Ivy finish.
By The Numbers: Columbia’s defense might have actually been better than the league-best 100.1 rating that it posted last season. Opponents shot 72.3 percent from the line against the Lions, roughly 3.5 percentage points better than the league average. Given that Columbia’s only defensive flaw was sending the opposition to the line far too often (24 percent of other team’s points came from the line – 37th nationally) that anomalous shooting percentage could have cost the Lions a full point or more on their defensive rating.
Offensively, Columbia has almost nothing upon which to build. Of the “Four Factors†– efficient field goal percentage, turnover rate, offensive rebounding percentage and free throw attempts per field goal attempt – the Lions ranked in the top 200 in none of them, including a woeful 306th shooting the ball. Last year’s top two players in terms of efficient field goal percentage were Miller and Matsui – both lost to graduation. Things could get downright ugly at times for Columbia on the offensive end this season.
Strengths: Columbia has a lot of depth and over the past few years the team has played hard. Foley, Bulger and SR guard Niko Scott are going to have to bring it every night for the Lions to compete. Columbia has two of the more athletic forwards in the League in Ampim and Grimes but Ampim has been plagued by fouls, inconsistency and injuries and Grimes is a question mark after an ACL injury.
Weaknesses: Columbia has a lot of depth but no stars. Scott is the closest thing they have to an all-around player and the team’s injuries have made it difficult to find a go-to guy in crunch time. Plus if you go 7-7 for three straight seasons you haven’t demonstrated a way to rise above mediocrity.
Season Outlook: Almost every season the Lions look like they have a lot of potential and almost every season something goes wrong. You don’t finish at .500 in your League three straight years by accident. And if you stand on the corner as long as Coach Joe Jones has, eventually you have to turn it or start again. If this is the year all the pieces fall into place, if this is the year Ampim’s talent matches his body and if SO guard Noruwa Agho can have his hoped-for breakout season, Columbia has the size and depth to beat anyone in the League and make a run at Cornell. But it’s also possible that all this projected talent just isn’t that good and another up-and-down season is at hand.
One thing working in Columbia’s favor is the Ivy schedule: After opening at Cornell on Jan. 16, Columbia plays its next five League games at home. 5-1 or 4-2 should give them the confidence to finish strong, but if the Lions are 3-3 or worse after the first 6, it’s going to be another long season in Morningside Heights. The out-of-conference schedule has two majors: Syracuse and a resurgent Depaul, but Columbia only has a few cupcakes among the rest. More than 15 wins would be a good accomplishment.
