light blue heavy
maximus
Posts: 164
Reg: 11-22-04
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02-12-05 02:53 PM - Post#4003
Tough loss for the Lions last night: Not that there aren't any positives, but its still three losses in a row. We'll see if they can get over the hump against Princeton tonight. Should be a battle.
In terms of play-by-player, another fantastic game by Preston. You just saw the matchup of the two contenders for ivy first-team at the 4. Right now I would give it to Preston, though Danley dominated last night and could still change my (admittedly biased) mind. Stehle is currently running a close third, I think.
That actually brings up an interesting question: with Brown and Princeton scuffling, who is PoY? If Wallace's minutes are limited and Forte is routinely getting shut down for 20 minutes, is it... Begley? Preston? Eric Taylor?!? Venable had an evil 6-6-6 line last night with 4 turnovers. I say Begs (best player on the best team) but thats no lock.
Anyways, the good play of Boswell last night was not too surprising. He seems to be one who steps up in big games.
Turnovers were a huge problem with Loscalzo guilty for an uncharacteristic 6(!) of them. I think that's more a product of Ibby than Brett having a bad game. This is the second time that a quick ivy guard has really thrown him off (Dow was the first). Still, its a good experience for him. Note also that the pg spot has been ceeded to him: he played 38 minutes and Kashif DNP-CDed.
I guess Tito was in there for D. Still, every time he gets the ball, I tense up. I still can't believe he ran the point at times last year. In fairness to him, he played pretty well last night, with a 1.5 A/TO ratio and didn't take any dumb shots, while hassling Begley and Oz.
In terms of the other frosh, Mack just got shut down. He matched up with Begley much of the time, I think, and he'll be just as happy to see him graduate as the rest of the league. It was nice of Jones to give Ben some playing time: 7points in 7 minutes is great, 4 fouls in 7 minutes is not. Obviously, some work needs to be done on the defensive end, but I bet you see him playing a lot more in the second half of the ivy season.
Overall, the Lions played well, which makes this the more frustrating. They rebounded about even with the quakers if you normalize for the number of missed shots. That just makes the L more frustrating though.
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columbia92
goober
Posts: 73
Loc: NYC
Reg: 11-22-04
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Re: Tough loss
02-12-05 03:25 PM - Post#4004
In response to light blue heavy
Another game lost at the line. Granted we shot well from the arc, but we haven't been able to drive to the basket, draw contact and make the other teams work hard. Racking up fouls force teams to become less aggressive defensively and go to the bench more often.
At this point, it's imperative to play for the future. More minutes for Ben, Gerard, John B and Drew B. We need to get an inside presence if we are to eventually rise to the top. Nobody can win in any conference with only 8 FTA/game.
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Lionized
goober
Posts: 69
Reg: 11-23-04
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Re: Tough loss
02-12-05 06:51 PM - Post#4005
In response to columbia92
Can anyone remember another game where one team had 8 free throws (Lions) and the other had 47 (Penn)? Seems mighty strange.
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internetter
Postdoc
Posts: 3400
Loc: Los Angeles
Reg: 11-21-04
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Re: Tough loss
02-12-05 07:11 PM - Post#4006
In response to Lionized
Does anyone have an idea why Ben and Barrett only played a total of 13 minutes against the potent Penn frontcourt? It seemed their very presence and possible rebounding were needed. And, Ben appeared to be something of an offensive force.
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DCAJedi
Masters Student
Posts: 582
Age: 40
Loc: Somewhere.
Reg: 11-21-04
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Re: Tough loss
02-12-05 07:15 PM - Post#4007
In response to internetter
Ben had four fouls, which at least accounts for part of it, and neither actually recorded any rebounds.
| "Here will be an old abusing of God's patience, and the king's English." |
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internetter
Postdoc
Posts: 3400
Loc: Los Angeles
Reg: 11-21-04
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Re: Tough loss
02-12-05 07:41 PM - Post#4008
In response to DCAJedi
But, Ben was still eligible, the other forwards, except for Preston, didn't get a lot of rebounds, and both Ben and Gerard present some height and weight inside. The three Penn frontcourters had 16 RBs, meaning they dominated. Matt can't compete in that situation.
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internetter
Postdoc
Posts: 3400
Loc: Los Angeles
Reg: 11-21-04
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Re: Tough loss
02-13-05 07:07 AM - Post#4009
In response to internetter
Ben and Gerard played a total of 9 minutes vs. Princeton, with the Tigers' two big men out for a lot of the game due to fouls. Something doesn't add up.
And, Baumann didn't play at all.
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Redfish
Masters Student
Posts: 767
Loc: under a bridge in Phoenix...
Reg: 11-26-04
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Penn = Duke
02-13-05 01:31 PM - Post#4010
In response to Lionized
If your follow ACC basketball, this is a familiar line (except for last night's game agianst Maryland  )
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Warrior
newbie
Posts: 49
Loc: Philadelphia, PA
Reg: 11-22-04
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Re: Penn = Duke
02-13-05 03:00 PM - Post#4011
In response to Redfish
So everyone hates us?
For the record, I don't think Penn fans are anywhere near as smarmy as Duke fans. We're also actual fans of the team, not just hopelessly in love with ourselves.
How 'bout them Terps?
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The Lion King
Senior
Posts: 394
Reg: 11-21-04
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I don't wanna go down to the basement
02-15-05 02:37 PM - Post#4012
In response to columbia92
I agree that it would be a good idea to give the youngsters more playing time, but I think it's more important to go all-out for wins. A couple more and Columbia will have its first winning record in a dozen years. And the way the league is going, they could plausibly end up anywhere from second through eighth. Finishing in the top half would definitely be a boost, especially if they can beat one or both of the P's at Levien. Plus it would be a bummer mentally if they finished on a losing streak, maybe even in last place, after such a promising start. So I think Jones should try to win as many games as he can, because the positive effect on morale will outweigh the game experience the younger players would get.
As for next year, I think Nwachukwu has improved greatly from a lousy start. He won't contribute much this year, but if he spends the summer working on basketball, instead of something bogus like classes or an internship, I think he'll be a big help.
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The Lion King
Senior
Posts: 394
Reg: 11-21-04
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it's dark down here
02-23-05 01:15 PM - Post#4013
In response to The Lion King
And there are creepy things lurking in the shadows. Eww!
In his blog, our Administrator reminds us that the early optimism about Columbia was based on the Lions' performance against a bunch of lousy teams. I'll plead guilty to excess optimism (I predicted 8-6), but I do think that at this point, Columbia's performance can officially be called disappointing.
Since the 3-1 start, they have gone 0-6. As a bare minimum, I would have expected them to win one of the road games and one of the home games, which would have given them a respectable 5-5 record. As I said before the start of league games, the non-league teams the Lions played were not great, but they were on a par with the non-P Ivys. Even conceding Princeton its continuing mystique, the Lions should have won more than half their games against the others, which again would translate to at least 5-5 through the first 10.
They can still salvage the season by winning at least three of their last four. And it's not as unlikely as it seems. They took Princeton to OT last year, and this year's Tigers look much more beatable. They played Penn pretty close at the Palestra two weeks ago, so they could plausibly beat them at Levien. And Brown and Yale have not done all that much better than Columbia so far.
I'd be satisfied with two wins in their last four, for a winning overall record. Three wins would match last year's Ivy win total in a league with no awful teams instead of last year's two (though this is partly balanced by Princeton's decline). Still, I think that with anything short of a sweep of the last four, the season will be a disappointment, even taking into account Jake's reminder. The non-Penn teams are all basically equal this year, so 3-7 (well, 3-6 against those six teams) is underachieving any way you look at it.
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