Tod Howard Hawks
Freshman
Posts: 64
Age: 79
Reg: 03-17-14
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01-07-19 03:50 AM - Post#271592
In response to HARVARDDADGRAD
HDG, your response to my post above seems scrambled in that you don't really address anew the issues I raise in it, so I find it disappointing and unsatisfying.
If, by chance, you've never read, let alone studied, all the books in Literature Humanities and Contemporary Civilization (just two of the required courses of the Core Curriculum that every Columbia College student is required to take, regardless of his/her major), you might consider doing so, if only to enhance the liberal art education you received at Harvard (I assume you were an undergraduate there, although you have not made it clear which school you attended, if any.)
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Chet Forte
Postdoc
Posts: 2972
Reg: 03-02-08
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 01-07-19 10:00 AM - Post#271603
In response to Tod Howard Hawks
Let’s limit this blog to basketball. PS, Hackensack High didn’t have a core curriculum. It put me at a huge advantage in my freshman year in trying to grapple with Plato’s allegory of the cave. All of the prep school guys had to give me a helping hand.
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AntiUngvar
Masters Student
Posts: 530
Age: 69
Loc: New York City
Reg: 07-23-18
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01-07-19 11:00 AM - Post#271607
In response to Chet Forte
Chet: If the Philly contingent can devote space to deflections and doinks, then we surely have some room for Alabama v. Clemson and imagining what would happen if Nick Saban ever tried scheduling Elmira!
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HARVARDDADGRAD
Postdoc
Posts: 2691
Loc: New Jersey
Reg: 01-21-14
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Why Elmira?
01-07-19 01:42 PM - Post#271659
In response to AntiUngvar
Actually AntiUngar, you nailed it! It is easy to imagine what it would be like for Alabama to schedule the equivalent of Elmira. 50 days ago, Alabama played The Citadel as its 10th scheduled opponent this season (Nov. 17th). So, one can posit that Nick Saban actually did schedule the equivalent of Elmira as Alabama vs The Citadel in football is very likely similar to Columbia vs Elmira in basketball. The Citadel has an FCS football program, not FBS, and has a record of 5-6, finishing 3rd to last in its own Southern Conference (out of 9 teams).
Nick Saban scheduled this game to immediately precede Alabama's rivalry game vs Auburn.
Edited by HARVARDDADGRAD on 01-07-19 01:43 PM. Reason for edit: No reason given.
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AntiUngvar
Masters Student
Posts: 530
Age: 69
Loc: New York City
Reg: 07-23-18
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01-07-19 01:58 PM - Post#271664
In response to HARVARDDADGRAD
Thank you! Really looking forward to the game later this evening.
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HARVARDDADGRAD
Postdoc
Posts: 2691
Loc: New Jersey
Reg: 01-21-14
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01-07-19 02:00 PM - Post#271665
In response to Tod Howard Hawks
Mr. Hanks, Sir, thanks for the suggested reading list. Yes, I did attend Harvard. As a government/economics concentrator, I did take the opportunity to take a wide array of humanities and literature courses and read extensively. I also received significant exposure to the classics having completed 5 years of Latin before I arrived in Cambridge. I do note that there appears to be a trend which I suspect you do not appreciate, as I likely exposed myself to more of the coursework you seem to be valuing during my years at Harvard than my son (Econ/Far Eastern Studies) recently did, but probably less so than my father did (History) when he went to Harvard.
I do recall perusing Columbia's Core Curriculum at various times, and certainly thought it intriguing. I'm sure you enjoyed it, as did my relations who attended Columbia.
Regardless, this is not about my studies, nor do I do not profess to be an expert in college basketball scheduling. However, there is a factor you are not taking into consideration, which is the analytic impact of scheduling Division 1 teams with weak RPI's. If that is foreign to you, I suggest you read some older posts from Mike James on this forum.
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HARVARDDADGRAD
Postdoc
Posts: 2691
Loc: New Jersey
Reg: 01-21-14
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01-07-19 02:07 PM - Post#271669
In response to AntiUngvar
Interestingly, Hero Sports ranks Columbia football (#16) well above the Citadel (#53)!
Columbia vs Alabama could have apparently been a much better game!
Oh, by the way, Alabama and The Citadel were tied at halftime.
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AntiUngvar
Masters Student
Posts: 530
Age: 69
Loc: New York City
Reg: 07-23-18
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01-07-19 02:40 PM - Post#271683
In response to HARVARDDADGRAD
Saban's a legend in our time.
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Chet Forte
Postdoc
Posts: 2972
Reg: 03-02-08
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 01-07-19 03:27 PM - Post#271698
In response to AntiUngvar
Columbia has a better kicking game. Seriously. And great special teams.
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Tod Howard Hawks
Freshman
Posts: 64
Age: 79
Reg: 03-17-14
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01-07-19 06:38 PM - Post#271723
In response to Chet Forte
:thumbup HDG, I'm glad you feel you got a good education at Harvard.
Chet, I don't see how you can talk about Columbia Basketball, or any other Columbia sport for that matter, unless you mention the Core Curriculum and NYC from time to time, as these two are what set Columbia College apart from the other Ivy colleges. As I mentioned before, every Columbia College student, regardless of his/her major, must take the two-year Core, which means they become learned for life. (2019, as you should know, is the 100th anniversary of this vaunted Curriculum.) Similarly, spending four years living in and exploring NYC makes every Columbia College student a citizen of the world, no matter where they may choose to spend the rest of his/her life.
I matriculated from Phillips Andover where I received arguably the best secondary school available in the world, but at an exorbitant social and emotional cost. I hated Andover, which is why I chose Columbia over Yale. Going to Yale would have been like attending Andover for four more years, anathema to me. I made the right choice.
By the way, HDG, my (real) last name is Hawks, not Hanks.
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HARVARDDADGRAD
Postdoc
Posts: 2691
Loc: New Jersey
Reg: 01-21-14
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01-07-19 06:47 PM - Post#271724
In response to Tod Howard Hawks
Sorry for the misnomer. My apology.
My father graduated from Andover in 1947. I don't think he cared for it, but I haven't had the good fortune to have him around to ask about it. Would you have been there then?
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Chet Forte
Postdoc
Posts: 2972
Reg: 03-02-08
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01-07-19 07:44 PM - Post#271726
In response to HARVARDDADGRAD
Tod, I loved Columbia and especially the Core but never understood Plato’s allegory of the cave.
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Tod Howard Hawks
Freshman
Posts: 64
Age: 79
Reg: 03-17-14
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Why Elmira?
01-07-19 08:43 PM - Post#271727
In response to HARVARDDADGRAD
HDG,
I hope your dad had a better time than I did. He was there at least a decade before I showed up, so I'm guessing Andover in the late 40s was socially and emotionally even more brutal then.
I told a friend of mine that Andover was my Normandy Beach. I survived it. Others did not.
No sweat about my last name. It's usually my first name that gets screwed up. [Tod, my mother's maiden name, is the Scottish word for "fox." My maternal great-grandparents came to America from Scotland in the 1880s. Most people spell the word with two ds, (e.g. Todd)].
Again, I hope Columbia basketball proves me wrong. We'll find out soon enough.
Thanks for your post above.
Edited by Tod Howard Hawks on 01-07-19 08:50 PM. Reason for edit: No reason given.
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Old Bear
Postdoc
Posts: 3995
Reg: 11-23-04
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01-07-19 08:53 PM - Post#271728
In response to Chet Forte
I love Brown's curriculum which sets Brown apart from most other undergraduate institutions. It appreciates that many students are mature enough to know what they are interested in but still encourages them to experiment. I wish it had been in effect when I was an undergrad. I took a number of required courses during my first two year that bored the hell out of me. I will acknowledge that it may not for every student.
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Tod Howard Hawks
Freshman
Posts: 64
Age: 79
Reg: 03-17-14
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01-07-19 08:54 PM - Post#271729
In response to Chet Forte
Chet,
If you thought Plato's cave allegory was tough, what did you think about Spinoza and Hegel?
Best, Tod.
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Old Bear
Postdoc
Posts: 3995
Reg: 11-23-04
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01-07-19 10:22 PM - Post#271735
In response to HARVARDDADGRAD
Hegel can’t go to his left.
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Tod Howard Hawks
Freshman
Posts: 64
Age: 79
Reg: 03-17-14
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01-08-19 03:36 AM - Post#271743
In response to Old Bear
Very funny, Old Bear.
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rbg
Postdoc
Posts: 3052
Reg: 10-20-14
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01-08-19 01:38 PM - Post#271771
In response to Tod Howard Hawks
Maybe this info from the Skidmore coach regarding tonight's game at Yale can offer clues about the January scheduling issue.
https://www.saratogian.com/sports/skidmore-men-s -b...
- It took some doing, but Skidmore College men’s basketball Coach Joe Burke was able to schedule just the third Division I contest for the Thoroughbreds – ever, a 7 p.m. match-up Tuesday at Yale University with the game being broadcast live on ESPN+.
“I've known James Jones at Yale for years and we had a conversation and mentioned that he needed a Division III game and he said 'I'm not playing you!',†Joe Burke said prior to making the trip to New Haven Monday afternoon. “I told him I would help him, but I really need a game. At the end of the day he couldn't find a good match-up and I said I really needed a game and this week worked.†-
- “It's been hard for me to get games because having done scheduling at that level, and with all due respect to a lot of the Division III schools, when you're a Division I school you are trying to play a program that is not so good if you are playing a Division III game,†Burke said. “You are almost trying to guarantee a win or 'buy yourself a game' as they say.
“We've been a good program so it has been hard for us to get Division I games.†-
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Billy Hoyle
Freshman
Posts: 82
Age: 50
Loc: Roar-ee's Lair
Reg: 12-17-14
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Re: Why Elmira?
01-14-19 02:30 PM - Post#272562
In response to Tod Howard Hawks
I ask, "Why Elmira?"
Why is Columbia taking on a Division III team one week before they start Ivy League play? Who sets up the schedule for upcoming seasons?
Even if Columbia scorches Elmira, it will mean nothing. I am personally embarrassed that Columbia scheduled this game. Maybe at the first of the season, but one week before Columbia plays Cornell in Ithaca? Really?
This incredibly dumb decision to play a Division III team at this juncture is just another in a long list of incompetent decisions made by those who control the destiny of Columbia Basketball. That list would include, of course, Coach Engles, who has made innumerable bad decisions in virtually all facets of Columbia Basketball.
As I have said before, "Columbia Basketball, prove me wrong." But sadly, I don't think that will ever happen under the aegis of Engles.
If one goes back over the schedules over the past seasons, the last year of the Jones era is the last one where CU did not play any non-D1 programs. Since the start of the Kyle Smith era, at least one non-D1 program was played each year, with 2 nearly every year of Kyle's tenure.
Since 10-11, Kyle's first season, Cu played a D3 school right before the start of the Ivy season every year but 11-12 (with nearly 2 weeks off before the first Cornell game) and 12-13, and that is because they had already met the Ivy League limit on non-D1 teams played (they played Wayland Baptist and LaSierra in tournaments in California in addition to a non-D1 at another point in November or December). CU played Central Pennsylvania as the last non-conference game in the 13-14, 14-15 and 15-16 sesaons (the contract was already signed for 15-16 and Engles honored it). Kyle played Union in 10-11 before the first Cornell game.
So, this isn't some Engles issue, it's common amongst the Ivy schools as the Ivy conference season starts later than any other conference, especially now that conference seasons are expanding to 18-20 games and are starting before Christmas. It doesn't take completion of the Core Curriculum to do a little bit of research to see this is the way it has always been for Ivy schools to get one more non-conference game in before the start of the conference season with options greatly limited.
Edited by Billy Hoyle on 01-14-19 02:30 PM. Reason for edit: No reason given.
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AntiUngvar
Masters Student
Posts: 530
Age: 69
Loc: New York City
Reg: 07-23-18
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Why Elmira?
01-14-19 02:56 PM - Post#272564
In response to Billy Hoyle
Under the prior coach, CU victory totals didn't require padding with cheap wins in a glorified exhibition match setting. Suddenly, CU's 6-0 versus D-3 opponents; and anything but that against all other comers. So to some, including the alumnus who authored this thread, this issue relates to the current CU coach and his overall body of work during the past thrree years. That's a valid point of view, I think- just as your take on the Core Curriculum is what it is for you.
Edited by AntiUngvar on 01-14-19 03:08 PM. Reason for edit: No reason given.
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