Jimmy
newbie
Posts: 34
Loc: Winston-Salem, NC
Reg: 12-14-04
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11-19-05 03:19 AM - Post#10831
From what I could glean from the WKCR broadcast and a report from somebody at Levien, tonight's season opener was a sloppy, inconsistent game mitigated only by the solid play of Baumann and--of all people--Justin Armstrong. Columbia came out flatter than the world according to Tom Friedman, then went on a couple of runs and stayed pretty much in control of the game until late in the second half, when the Lions nearly gave it back to an obviously very poor New Hampshire team.
Armstrong, who got two minutes of garbage time all of last season, was the surprising player of the game, with 17 points, several of them key baskets down the stretch. Best of all, he seemed to be creating points by driving to the basket, not standing around shooting threes. Wouldn't it be something if he turned out to be a major contributor?
K.J. Matsui, coming off a profile in the Times and making his debut as the first Japanese player in Div-1, was probably nervous. He took five or six threes and missed them all.
I wish we'd won by 33 instead of by 3, but you had to expect that a young team like this would be a little frazzled in the season's first game. Hopefully we'll take care of business against Troy tomorrow and go to 2-0.
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Dr. V
PhD Student
Posts: 1539
Reg: 11-21-04
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Re: We're undefeated
11-19-05 04:23 AM - Post#10832
In response to Jimmy
I was in attendance. The above report got it right. We couldn't score a single point for the first 7 plus minutes, but managed to pull it out. The good news is that Baumann WILL average 16-20 points a game. He gets his points naturally, from the flow of the game because he has great hands, runs, shoots etc. He scored on a 3, on putbacks, in transition and in the paint. Armstrong plays like a player. He's strong and steady, hit free throws in crunch time and was not afraid to take it to the hole in pressure situations. Sweet was also a pleasant surprise. Handled th ball well and drove to the bucket effectively. The bad news is that we played decent to terrible defense, never great nor even good D. I hope that that mainly reflects youth and inexperience rather than insufficient emphasis by the coaches. Overall, given that we are missing one of our two best players (Montgomery was dressed but didn't play; Bova was in street clothes) and that it's highly unlikely that Matsuit will again miss all of his shots, the win was a win.
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internetter
Postdoc
Posts: 3400
Loc: Los Angeles
Reg: 11-21-04
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Re: We're undefeated
11-19-05 04:28 AM - Post#10833
In response to Jimmy
Being hopeful, I'm cheered by Friday's game. So many inexperienced people, some of whom chipped in. Jones may have to shuffle his deck many times as the season progresses but that's not necessarily bad.
They came back from the poor first several minutes without panicking and settled down. Good sign for such a young team.
It was cheering to have Cuff make some important FGs, too.
Matsui, of course, had to play under enormous pressure, with all of the publicity, the Japanese media around and starting right off. If he really makes some 50% of his threes, he'll pile up a bunch very soon.
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Jimmy
newbie
Posts: 34
Loc: Winston-Salem, NC
Reg: 12-14-04
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Re: We're undefeated
11-19-05 06:50 AM - Post#10834
In response to internetter
I like all of this optimism. I hope the Lions have a good start to the season so that the optimism will spread among their fans. Sort of like last year, until the team's nosedive during the Ivy season. How was the attendance and the energy at last night's game?
V, I sure hope you're right about Baumann.
As for defense: did Columbia play man-to-man pretty much the whole time? Sometimes I wish Jones would play more zone. But maybe I've just been watching too many Syracuse games. The Orangemen sure do play a good zone. Many kudos to Cornell for hanging close with them.
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Dr. V
PhD Student
Posts: 1539
Reg: 11-21-04
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Re: We're undefeated
11-19-05 11:36 AM - Post#10835
In response to Jimmy
Man to man the whole game. You can't play good zone unless you know how to play good man to man. Other very notable thing is that we only had 8 turnovers. That's about half to one third of what we averaged last year. We have much better hands this year. Attendance was OK. Entire football team came out and sat together. student section was about 3/5 full; adult side about half. Energy was good but not outstanding.
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light blue heavy
maximus
Posts: 164
Reg: 11-22-04
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Re: We're undefeated
11-19-05 06:34 PM - Post#10836
In response to Dr. V
As someone who was and is expecting Columbia to have a rough year, the most impressive thing was that the guys were really picking it up at the end and held on. I thought it was pretty apparent last year that with Preston gone, Montgomery was the go-to guy in clutch situations, making tough FTs all last year. If Baumann and Armstrong turn out to be money-time players as well, these guys will be much better than last year.
It's good that these guys might be able to survive a few games when the trey isn't falling. Last year that was huge weakness, I thought, since only Preston could score with any reliability inside. Now it looks like they have a few more options.
If this game is any indication, fouls are going to be a HUGE problem this year. Dragu, Ben, Armstrong, and Baumann combined for 15 fouls, and its not like the defense or rebounding was out of this world. Hopefully, this game is not an indication.
Overall, I'm optimistic. Now about getting some more fans there...
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