Select "print" from your browser's "File" menu.

Back to Post
Username Post: columbia-cornell #2
cc66
Postdoc
Posts 2201
01-25-18 12:48 PM - Post#244646    

http://www.gocolumbialions.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB...

Game notes are out; the same starting lineup will reassure those worried about the effects of Smith's concussion.

It's away; we aren't going to shoot 57% of 3s again; Cornell will make adjustments; and Morgan and/or Gettings could get hot. Nevertheless, after beating Cornell by 26, we shouldn't lose. Hence my prediction:

Columbia in a closer game, by 6.
rbg
Postdoc
Posts 3044
01-25-18 01:35 PM - Post#244651    

Kenpom has it as a 1 point Columbia victory.

Cornell is going to need to step it up on defense. In 3 league games, they are letting teams shoot 55% from two and 44% from three. While they will bring those numbers down, how low, ultimately, is the big question.

The offense was fine during non-conference, but it has taken a nosedive over the first two weeks of play. They are averaging 73.8 points for the season, but only 59 in the first 3 conference games.

There are only two double-digits scorers (Morgan at 16.3 and Gettings with 11.3). After that it is McBride at 6.0, Julian at 5.0, Warren with 4.7 and Davis at 4.7.

To win, I think Morgan and Gettings are going to, both, have to put up a lot of points. The team is also going to have to get to the free throw line a bunch (and make them). They are also going to have to force Columbia to play inside the arc. If they can't do that, then they have to hope that the Lions just have a bad afternoon from three.

Not impossible, especially if the Big Red put last Saturday's horrible game and long bus trip back to Ithaca behind them.
cc66
Postdoc
Posts 2201
01-25-18 01:51 PM - Post#244652    

I know about the KenPom by 1, and I'd usually hold to their prediction. My hope is that last weekend, the team finally learned what it means to play hard for 40 minutes. Factoring this in against an away game and the probability of some Cornell improvement yields my perhaps too generous projection of a 6 point victory.
Chet Forte
Postdoc
Posts 2958
01-27-18 06:59 PM - Post#244790    

Terrible game by Smith, who had a chance to win the game on several crunch time shots. Missed two big consecutive FTs and a three. Stefanini had a great second half. Nobody else showed up. Defense disappeared. This is going to be a very long season.

cc66
Postdoc
Posts 2201
01-27-18 08:55 PM - Post#244837    

It would be okay to be wrong by 5. Wrong by 7, and it's going to be a long season.

4th seems very unlikely.
Columbia 37P6
Postdoc
Posts 2163
01-28-18 01:12 AM - Post#244935    

"4th seems very unlikely" as do 5th and even 6th.

3 and 14 record with ten Ivy League battles to go. Ouch!!!

We were leading by ten and then lost the lead quickly and then eventually lost the whole game. Been there, seen that many times this season.

Morgan with 29 points and Gettings with 25 points destroyed us -- Our small guards couldn't stop Morgan and our bigs were outplayed by Gettings,

On the positive side, Stefanini was amazing and surely earned a place in the starting line-up. Based upon what we witnessed today, it is obvious that the starting line-up for next weekend's games should be Meisner, Hanson, Castlin, Smith and Stefanini with Adlesh, Hickman and Tape et al coming off the bench. Stefanini and Hanson are very good players who add size, strength and skill to the line-up. However, we know by now that for whatever reason this coaching staff is unlikely to ever change the starting line-up.
cc66
Postdoc
Posts 2201
01-28-18 08:54 AM - Post#244946    

True. We could easily be headed for a 4-10 Il season, 6-21 overall.

Adlesh had one of his poorer games, but clearly Steffanini deserves more minutes. It is also noteworthy that Faulds has been benched after being so highly touted.
Chet Forte
Postdoc
Posts 2958
01-28-18 09:11 AM - Post#244948    

Faulds and Bibbs were our two most highly touted first years. Both have disappeared. Stefanini and Hansen both deserve to play, but something is missing with the chemistry on this group. And Smith is in a slump right now. Hickman is Hickman. Tape isn’t developing. The only big doing much is Meisner. And we haven’t seen what I had expected from Castlin.

mrjames
Professor
Posts 6062
01-28-18 09:47 AM - Post#244950    

This is exactly why I made such a big deal about everyone touting Faulds so highly. Can’t latch onto a ridiculous rating, build a kid up off of it and then complain when he’s having a fine freshman season in the rotation but isn’t an immediate starter and big contributor.
Chet Forte
Postdoc
Posts 2958
01-28-18 10:10 AM - Post#244955    

Tough to have a fine freshman season when you never get off the bench.

Columbia Alum
Junior
Posts 247
01-28-18 10:25 AM - Post#244957    

We should have won yesterday but threw in away with 5 minutes to go and fought really hard to lose by only 1 when it was too late. Cornell consistently stayed ahead in the last few minutes and we simply could not out think them to get the lead back. Smith also had a bad game.

On the plus side Harvard without Aiken and Yale without Mason are pretty bad this year. They were both lucky on 3ptFGs yesterday to beat brown and Dartmouth. Brown and Dartmouth are not significantly worse than us. So if we don't sleep on them and actually beat them away, we have a shot at top 4. If Mason and Aiken return soon and play like they did before we have no shot.
Columbia 37P6
Postdoc
Posts 2163
01-28-18 10:32 AM - Post#244960    

Respectfully, if he were "having a fine freshman season in the rotation", no one would be upset, but the problem is he didn't play last night and only played about a minute last week. Anyway, he's obviously not the reason this team has a 3-14 record overall including 1-3 in the Ivies. Columbia has plenty of talent, but continues to struggle playing consistent offense for forty minutes and defending against high quality big men as well as outside shooters like Brodeur, Morgan and Gettings. Of course it is easy to second guess coaching strategies of a losing team, but as Chet and cc66 have pointed out repeatedly, it makes no sense to play Hickman for twenty minutes or so each game when he give you only four points and not much else, while others such as Stefanini give you 19 points in 17 minutes. Yes, I know that is his season high, but the point is he not only deserves to start and play 34 minutes next Friday, but he needs to start and play 34 minutes next Friday. Will he start Friday night and play much? Based upon what we have seen this season from the coaching staff the answer has to be "probably not."
Sagatius
Freshman
Posts 27
01-28-18 11:00 AM - Post#244962    

There are many reasons Columbia is losing - for the most part, by a missed shot or two. But, a key one is that Columbia’s go to guy in the clutch is just not making his shots. Mike Smith’s 2 and 3 point shooting percentages are down from last year, and in the clutch, his misses have become glaring. Last night, he missed 2 free throws that would have tied the game at the end and which would have been the difference in the ultimate score. He is not playing like a 40 minute a game player, and maybe we need to see if others can step up. Stefanini would be a good candidate.


Chet Forte
Postdoc
Posts 2958
01-28-18 11:40 AM - Post#244966    

Smith is playing 40 minutes a night. See last night’s box score. Last weekend at home he played 25 and we blew out Cornell. I think he is logging too many minutes, which may be adversely affecting his shot. And Meisner, our second best player, doesn’t seem to want to take over games despite his obvious talent.

Chet Forte
Postdoc
Posts 2958
01-28-18 11:47 AM - Post#244970    

And as far as the rotation and the apparent stubbornness of this coaching staff, my guess is that we will see no change in the starting rotation next week. The last time there was criticism of our coaching it was met with a torrent of comments about how this was subverting morale, and that turning NJIT into a winner meant that we had the right staff for our program. So if criticism of the staff is off limits, then I will simply say that doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is a proposition with which I respectfully agree.

Columbia 37P6
Postdoc
Posts 2163
01-28-18 05:21 PM - Post#245016    

Did you mean "respectfully disagree?"
Chet Forte
Postdoc
Posts 2958
01-28-18 05:30 PM - Post#245020    

Oops. Yes, it is a proposition with which I respectfully disagree.

Columbia 37P6
Postdoc
Posts 2163
01-28-18 08:35 PM - Post#245034    

Here's my record on negative critical comments on our basketball coaching staff and others:

1. Jack: None

2. Armand: Some

3. Joe: Many

4. Kyle: None

5. Jim; Some

6. Norries. A few, but I loved the guy.

7. Pete. Many.

8. Al and his staff: None, of course.

9. My wife: Some.

I doubt any of my comments on sports topics were ever taken seriously by anyone including my wife, but what the heck it beats politics.




SomeGuy
Professor
Posts 6391
01-29-18 12:04 PM - Post#245072    

Matchups, matchups, matchups. Faulds hasn’t disappeared at all, and probably will be right back in the rotation against Harvard on Friday. He’s just a bad matchup against Gettings. When teams play guys who are more glued to the interior you’ll see more Faulds (which is why his best game was against Albany).


Filippo2014
Freshman
Posts 83
01-29-18 01:06 PM - Post#245076    

@ Cornell 2
A lot of missed shots down the stretch. Lots and lots. That is why Columbia lost this game.
Clutch time? Stefanini only guy who made shots.
Smith -- two missed free throws. Hanson, two missed open 3s. Castlin, missed layup. Hickman. Where do I start with Nate Hickman?
internetter
Postdoc
Posts 3399
01-29-18 01:58 PM - Post#245082    

Meisner took 8 shots in 37 minutes. He's tied for second of Lions' leading scorers.
west coast fan

Columbia 37P6
Postdoc
Posts 2163
01-29-18 05:21 PM - Post#245106    

Hanson does have 3-point shooting capability, but is somewhat inconsistent when shooting from the outside. On the other hand, he has already proven himself to be a strong rebounder and scorer on the offensive boards. He seems to me to be a smaller verision of Brandon Sherrod, Yale's very talented power forward of a few years ago. Sherrod flourished as a power forward who scored at will by hanging around the basket. James Jones built his offense around Javier Duren attacking the basket and either shooting the ball or passing off to Sherrod for easy layups. I wonder if Engles has considered trying that approach with Hanson.
Old Bear
Postdoc
Posts 3988
01-29-18 05:36 PM - Post#245108    

Ya, but can Hanson sing?
Chet Forte
Postdoc
Posts 2958
01-29-18 05:56 PM - Post#245109    

Good comparison to Sherrod. Both 6’6” but very strong. Not sure if Hansonnis also a baritone.

Columbia 37P6
Postdoc
Posts 2163
01-29-18 06:51 PM - Post#245111    

And neither do I, but maybe someone could show Hanson some film of Sherrod when he played at Yale so that Hanson could emulate what Sherrod did so successfully at Yale before his world tour.

Incidentally, I just noticed that Gabe Stefanini has just been named as the Ivy League Rookie of the Week. A well deserved honor. Yes, I am aware that some Columbia Fans believe that Coach Engles is certain to use the same starting line-up for the remainder of the season. However, my instincts tell me that he WILL make a change Friday night and start Gabe in order to fire up the team.
HARVARDDADGRAD
Postdoc
Posts 2685
01-29-18 07:32 PM - Post#245113    

For Hanson to be compared to Sherrod is a great thing for Columbia.

On the other hand, the apparent legend of Sherrod's offensive prowess seems exaggerated. As a junior, Sherrod brought his scoring average up to 6.8ppg (from 5.8 and 4.0). Not really the focus of Duren's passing or the Yale offense. When he returned after his year off, Mason and Sears were the scorers, with Sherrod scoring a healthy 12.8ppg. Never saw him score "at will." Instead, he was more of an option when defenses shifted onto Mason and Sears and an offensive rebounder.

Let Hanson aspire to that, as even Sherrod never scored at Will as Gladsen didn't play for Princeton then.
Chet Forte
Postdoc
Posts 2958
01-29-18 11:17 PM - Post#245124    

While I doubt it will happen, we should start Smith, Meisner,Tape, Stefanini and Hansen. Rotation should be Faulds for Tape, Castlin for Hansen, Adlesh for Stefanini. Hunter should also get some minutes. Hickman really has earned a permanent seat on the bench. I had great hope for Bibbs but he seems to have disappeared; silky smooth player whomshould,be doing better.

Columbia 37P6
Postdoc
Posts 2163
01-30-18 01:19 AM - Post#245126    

Agreed!!!!!!!
Columbia 37P6
Postdoc
Posts 2163
01-30-18 01:45 AM - Post#245127    

Obviously,"SMTSH" adds size, height, strength, skill and moxie to the Columbia starting line-up in both the frontcourt and backcourt. A couple of weeks ago the idea was to play Tape, Faulds and Meisner together with Smith and Adlesh. For whatever reason, Engles hasn't bought into that line-up either, staying instead with Hickman and Adlesh. Maybe he will feel differently about "SMTSH." It will be very interesting to see what line-up takes the floor Friday night.
Sagatius
Freshman
Posts 27
01-30-18 08:24 AM - Post#245130    

It is much more important who finishes than who starts and Columbia’s defensive deficiencies are certainly not the result of not enough height upfront.

Similarly, the fact that Columbia is able to get off to a double-digit lead in many of their games, only to lose it later and also lose the game, is not a result of a faulty starting lineup or lack of height upfront.

During the second Cornell game, Stefanini and Hanson played a lot during crunch time, and Hickman did not.

We need to find a way to sustain leads and finish games. We need to find a way to shut down the other team’s top scorers in crunch time.

One or two clutch shots at the end of games, or one or two stops in the last few minutes, would have made our overall record much different. Hopefully, as a team, we will yet figure it out.

Chet Forte
Postdoc
Posts 2958
01-30-18 11:29 AM - Post#245143    

I wonder if some of our recent struggles can be attributed to what also seems like a fall off in Smith’s play. His shooting has been way off and his assist total seems stuck at around 5 per game. Is he being coached to shoot less? Earlier in the year there were rumblings that he was shooting too much. Now it looks as if his shot has temporarily abandoned him.

Columbia 37P6
Postdoc
Posts 2163
01-30-18 11:59 AM - Post#245146    

Sagatius is making some good points, but if he doesn't feel that a line-up change is warranted to improve the team's performance, what is he suggesting? I don't believe that Columbia's record can be attributable merely to missing shots at the end of games. In my opinion, it is more likely that the losses are due to not having the right players on the floor.
SomeGuy
Professor
Posts 6391
01-30-18 04:30 PM - Post#245168    

Perhaps, but it does seem to me that the players running out to leads are often the starters, and they then are the guys you want to replace (at least some of them). And as Columbia gets into its depth and some of the guys you want to play more, the leads get lost.

To throw a little more complication into things (and undermine the argument I just made), the only Lions with a positive boxscore plus minus right now are Meisner, Hunter, Faulds , and Adlesh. So maybe those 4 and Smith are the most logical starting lineup.


Columbia 37P6
Postdoc
Posts 2163
01-31-18 01:20 AM - Post#245205    

We have lost so many early game leads that I frankly cannot remember who was on the court when we took the lead and who was on the court when we lost the lead. However, I doubt that Stefanini and Hanson were the culprits, and those are the two guys I would like to see in the starting line-up Friday night. It just seems to me that Columbia's best starting line-up now would be Smith, Meisner, Tape, Stefanini and Hansen.
SomeGuy
Professor
Posts 6391
01-31-18 07:46 AM - Post#245207    

Why don’t you think they are the culprits? Columbia has 5 players with ORATs below 100 — two of them are Stefanini and Hanson. So playing them together as starters makes for one of your least efficient possible offensive combinations. That would be fine if it gave you more on defense and they were paired with 3 very efficient guys. But the other numbers suggest they aren’t plus defenders. And again, negative things are happening for the team overall when they are on the floor. Might not be their fault, of course.
SomeGuy
Professor
Posts 6391
01-31-18 08:50 AM - Post#245209    

To put a little more meat on this, the issue with Stefanini for now is that he has the highest usage rate on the team after Smith, yet is one of the guys playing at below average efficiency. He scores at a higher rate than other options mainly because he uses more possessions. That can create the impression he is doing more than he is.

I don’t mean that to be overly critical— he’s obviously an aggressive player on both sides of the ball who will figure out how to maximize his impact. But if Columbia wants to win right now (and I don’t see any reason why the Ivy tournament would Be unattainable), I think you want him to continue developing in a similar role to his current one.
Columbia Alum
Junior
Posts 247
01-31-18 11:22 AM - Post#245226    

season long stats for a freshman are silly because they generally start out bad and improve as the year progresses. We are seeing some progress in Stefanini, so his below average efficiency is based on outdated stats.

We also need to be careful not to ready too much into a recent lucky game, but can't simply look at efficiency stats for the season.
cc66
Postdoc
Posts 2201
01-31-18 03:04 PM - Post#245250    

True. But while Stefanini did have a spectacular game at Cornell (ORAT 154), his ORAT in the three prior games was 30 at Princeton (ugh!), 93 at Penn, and 94 at home against Cornell. With an overall ORAT of 93, it isn't yet clear whether it was just Cornell's poor defense, or whether he has suddenly clicked into what is required for winning b'ball at the D1 level.

By contrast, Adlesh's ORAT for the season is 113. Although he did have a lousy game at Cornell while Stefanini won the ROW award, I am not yet in favor of starting Stefanini over Adlesh. Yes, Stefanini should get more minutes, but no, I wouldn't bench Adlesh--one of the top 3 pt shooters in the IL--on the basis of one poor game.
Chet Forte
Postdoc
Posts 2958
01-31-18 03:12 PM - Post#245251    

Starting lineup for the weekend has been posted. No changes. What a surprise.

Columbia 37P6
Postdoc
Posts 2163
01-31-18 05:52 PM - Post#245273    

This is a crucial weekend for the Columbia Men's Basketball Team which undoubtedly needs to win at least one of its two games against Harvard and Dartmouth to remain in contention for the post-season Ivy League Tournament. If the Lions lose both games their record would be 1-5 and they would have to go at least 5-3 to remain in the race for the fourth place in the Tournament. More than that, the time for making excuses has passed. Either we start playing consistent winning basketball, or admit that something has gone wrong with the team's pre-season plan and figure out what happened and why, Regardless who starts this weekend, all of the Columbia players need to step up this weekend and play winning basketball.
cc66
Postdoc
Posts 2201
01-31-18 06:09 PM - Post#245277    

KenPom has us beating Harvard by 1 and defeating Dartmouth by 8. The first projection is based on a lagging indicator--Harvard is playing well recently, and I don't believe we can beat them. But we should take Dartmouth at home; if we don't, the subsequent season will unfold in the fashion of a truly ghastly horror movie.
Chet Forte
Postdoc
Posts 2958
01-31-18 08:11 PM - Post#245290    

Harvard seems like it is less than the sum of its parts.

mrjames
Professor
Posts 6062
01-31-18 09:05 PM - Post#245305    

Hard to say... Harvard hasn't been at full strength for any significant stretch of time all season. It has to have Aiken, Towns, Bassey and Lewis healthy down the stretch if it wants to compete for an Ivy title. If Harvard has a healthy Aiken and run a somewhat decent offense, the ways to beat the Crimson are to get to the free throw line (especially knocking out Lewis who is an insane interior defender) and to shoot over the D effectively.

Columbia can definitely do the latter, but it'll need to convince Harvard it can get to the rim effectively to buy space for its shooters. The defense starts to unravel with Lewis out of the game (so does the inside-out offense), so I'd go after him first.
SomeGuy
Professor
Posts 6391
02-01-18 07:34 AM - Post#245341    

The third possibility for Stefanini is that it was neither Cornell’s defense nor things clicking in. It could simply be that players with high usage rates and lowish ORATs can have high scoring games on nights when they shoot well.
Columbia 37P6
Postdoc
Posts 2163
02-01-18 11:39 AM - Post#245365    

What happened in Cornell #2 is that Stefanini not only shot very well, but did some very smart things on both offense and defense, such as following up his shots, etc, etc. Stefanini and Hanson are both High Basketball IQ types who remind me of Issac Cohen, but frankly are much better shooters than he ever was. My feeling is that the Lions would benefit from using a line-up composed of Smith, Meisner, Tape or Faulds, Stefanini and Hanson. Believe me I like Adlesh and Hickman, but it seems apparent to me after watching all 17 Columbia games this season, that it is time to play Stefanini and Hanson in their place.
Chet Forte
Postdoc
Posts 2958
02-01-18 01:00 PM - Post#245378    

Agreed, except that I think Castlin should play ahead of Hickman, who has really regressed this year. Adlesh is better suited to come off the bench and when he is hot drain some quick three pointers.

cc66
Postdoc
Posts 2201
02-01-18 04:13 PM - Post#245409    

Perhaps. But that means you have to imbue it with entirely independent causality. One could just as easily argue that when Stefanini goes off against Cornell, the high scoring of a high usage player is quite likely a non-random event.
SomeGuy
Professor
Posts 6391
02-01-18 05:19 PM - Post#245418    

Agreed on basketball IQ on Stefanini, but my limited impression is that his defensive style is effective at producing steals, but not as effective actually covering his man. So it kind of looks flashy, but I don’t think he’s actually playing good defense (yet).

More importantly, I find it highly confusing that any Columbia fan would want to drop Adlesh from the starting lineup. Statistically he is fairly easily your best perimeter player (yes, that includes Smith), and to my eye he is your 2nd best perimeter player (after Smith) on offense, and probably 2nd to Hickman as a perimeter defender.
Columbia 37P6
Postdoc
Posts 2163
02-01-18 05:21 PM - Post#245419    

In my humble opinion, Smith, Meisner, Tape/Faulds, Hanson and Stefanini is the optimum line-up, but I certainly agree with Chet Forte that a line-up of Smith, Meisner, Tape/Faulds, CASTLIN and either Hanson or Stefanini would be substantially better than the line-up we have been using the last two months. That said, I do hope, of course, that whatever players the Lions use tomorrow and Saturday night, we win both games in which case I promise not to talk any more about line-up changes.
Chet Forte
Postdoc
Posts 2958
02-01-18 06:29 PM - Post#245433    

I like Adlesh a lot. I just think that he might be more effective coming off the bench. He should still get 20-25 minutes. This also needs to depend on matchups. Against teams with big guards Adlesh and Smith are a suboptimal combination.




Copyright © 2004-2012 Basketball U. Terms of Use for our Site and Privacy Policy are applicable to you. All rights reserved.
Basketball U. and its subsidiaries are not affiliated in any way with any NCAA athletic conference or member institution.
FusionBB™ Version 2.1 | ©2003-2007 InteractivePHP, Inc.
Execution time: 0.351 seconds.   Total Queries: 15   Zlib Compression is on.
All times are (GMT -0500) Eastern. Current time is 01:07 AM
Top