AntiUngvar
Masters Student
Posts: 530
Age: 69
Loc: New York City
Reg: 07-23-18
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01-09-19 11:55 AM - Post#271838
I look forward to hearing from the regular, less regular and irregular contributors on the following:
I, for one, am sold on the Brown Bears men's bball team- they'll win 7 to a dozen Ivy games, and finish in the top four of the league standings. That posted, my fundamental concern is as follows- does Columbia have even a remote shot of joining them there; or are the Lions, to use the words of one of our UPenn affiliates, simply a dead horse?
We know the IL is strong; but no team is perfect, and no team will 14 league games. So, to finish fourth, a .500 finish would appear to be a minimal requirement. Can Columbia win one-half of their team's leagues? YES; but it won't come about as a result of SEVEN wins at Levien Gym; and there's the rub: to entertain any notion of extending the season, past March 9, Columbia MUST win, at minimum, one league road game. So, do the Lions have it in them to win once away during the next 60 days, a place where they've lost 13 straight IL games dating back to January, 2017? Would it be reasonable to imagine that Jim Engles has learned anything from the 28 road losses he's endured during his brief time at Columbia?????.... From any of the second half meltdowns- this season: at Fordham, at Rutgers, and at Binghamton; or from the past season: at UConn, at Albany, at CORNELL, or at YALE? As Tod Hawks has written, "I've seen this movie before"- Columbia leads through twenty minutes of play; opponents make adjustments; Engles is caught flat footed; resultant narrow Columbia defeat ensues; or, in the rarest instance, an ESPN Play of the Day from Stefanini salvages the situation. So while I do look forward to the league season, there is an unmistakable sense of dread for me to deal with, too. More importantly, how do YOU see it?
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