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Username Post: Free-fall?        (Topic#756)
Lionized 
goober
Posts: 69

Reg: 11-23-04
02-20-05 07:49 PM - Post#4747    

It's still too early to despair for Columbia fans inured to disappointment beyond measure. Therefore next season should be an extremely interesting campaign for men's basketball. Will Baumann and Nwachukwu develop--possibly--into superior players? Will newcomers help? I can't see the team play so I can't comment realistically on personnel, I can only go by results, which are the bottom line anyway after all the palaver is finished.
Results are not good at the moment. Six straight losses--all Ivy games--for the men.
What happens after we lose Preston and Boswell--most of the offense this year? Besides Jews for Jones, will we need Jesus for Jones? Jihadists for Jones? Maybe Jaaber for Jones? Or a Jackson for Jones? (Any Jackson, from Phil to Randy of "American Idol.")
On the women's side, their coach is fired precisely when they're playing their best basketball of the season,
maybe of their history, and now their results have gone straight downward too, and still not a word to the fans
from the Administration about the bizarre situation.
We need to hear from Bollinger and Murphy, the big poo-bahs. Or are we just supposed to wait silently, as usual, through another eternity? I'm thinking of football too as well as men and women's soccer, softball, anything?
Just a slight indication of life, the faint sound of a shallow breath or two from our exalted leaders would be encouraging.

 
Lionized 
goober
Posts: 69

Reg: 11-23-04
Re: Free-fall?
02-20-05 07:51 PM - Post#4748    
    In response to Lionized

For some extremely strange reason, the board posting mechanism refused to accept "Jaaber" which is of course what I tried to write repeatedly above, and kept substituting "Jaaber." Wow.

 
Lionized 
goober
Posts: 69

Reg: 11-23-04
Re: Free-fall?
02-20-05 07:57 PM - Post#4749    
    In response to Lionized

See what I mean? I guess the former UCLA-NBA great formerly known as Lew Alcindor but predominantly as Kareem Abdul J-A-B-B-A-R has had his name changed by this board to conform with that of the current nice--but not Hall of Fame--Ivy player Jaaber.

 
Dr. V 
PhD Student
Posts: 1536

Reg: 11-21-04
Re: Free-fall?
02-20-05 08:58 PM - Post#4750    
    In response to Lionized

I've seen all of the home games and am at a complete loss to understand how a team that has looked quite good at times and that played NCState even for 3/4 of a game could lose the last 6 games. I also have no idea what to expect for next year. On the one hand, we lose Preston and Boswell, on the other hand the various frosh who have played have all shone in at least one or two games, which I don't ever remember having been the case (perhpas the Byrd/Free team would have been as good, but in those days frosh couldn't play varsity). Of the incoming frosh, 6'7" Joe Bova has had a great season both scoring, rebounding and leading one of the top-ranked teams among the biggest schools in NY; Niko Scott, a 6'2" SG is supposed to be good, plays for one of the top 25 teams nationally, but has been hurt a lot his senior season; Dan Trepanier, a 6'2' combo guard from Canada, has had a good season, is a 5th senior and is supposed to be the best player in Ontario outside of Toronto. But, it's Canada, so who knows. And re all the frosh, frosh in the Ivies almost never make a marked dif. So, again, who knows what we'll see next year.

 
Greenhorn 
Senior
Posts: 318

Reg: 11-24-04
Re: Free-fall?
02-20-05 09:37 PM - Post#4751    
    In response to Dr. V

The Byrd/Free/Mitchell frosh team regularly beat their opponents by thirty points. People would come to watch the freshmen and then leave before the varsity game (where invariably the score was reversed). This year's class, while undoubtedly a step up for the program, should not be mentioned in the same breath.

 
Administrator 
Junior
Posts: 241
Administrator
Reg: 11-08-04
Re: Free-fall?
02-20-05 09:44 PM - Post#4752    
    In response to Lionized

We tired of people misspelling Ibby Jaaber's name, so we added that to a list of oft-misspelled names. The downside is that when people want to discuss The Player Formerly Known as Lew Alcindor, it gets converted as well. A small price to pay for not having to look at every possible misspelling of "Jaaber."

 
Dr. V 
PhD Student
Posts: 1536

Reg: 11-21-04
Re: Byrd/Free
02-20-05 10:10 PM - Post#4753    
    In response to Greenhorn

There's no one on this team that compares to Byrd in terms of talent or impact. On the other hand, that frosh class had three players who played significant roles in later years, this one may have four. The Byrd classd had no height (the tallest, Mitchel, was 6'5"); this one has 2 6'8" players.

 
Greenhorn 
Senior
Posts: 318

Reg: 11-24-04
Re: Byrd/Free
02-20-05 11:16 PM - Post#4754    
    In response to Dr. V

Actually, there were four in that class too. Shane Cotner was in the same group -- very solid swingman. The funny this is that Free was the bluest chip of the group.

 
The Lion King 
Senior
Posts: 394

Reg: 11-21-04
the women's team is doing OK, considering
02-20-05 11:29 PM - Post#4755    
    In response to Lionized


The women's team is actually looking pretty good. They did lose both games this weekend, but it was against the top two teams in the league, and in both cases they were in the game until the final seconds, losing by 4 to Harvard and 3 to Dartmouth. I was at both games, and they may have been Columbia's best performances of the year, despite the outcome.

I like what Coach Verdi has done with the team, especially on defense. The Lions' main weakness is a lack of size, in both height and bulk. This makes it hard for them to defend against a big, talented opposing player, like Jennifer Fleischer of Penn, Reka Cserny of Harvard, or Elise Morrison of Dartmouth--especially with Edytte Key out with an injury on Friday and limping noticeably on Saturday, and Nicole Lesko gone after hurting herself seriously early in Friday's game. Cserny and Morrison both scored in the mid-20s, as I recall, but Columbia did a great job of shutting down the outside game both nights, and they got a surprising number of rebounds.

It was a team effort, of course, but the biggest factors were a return to manic form by Susan Altman after a shaky readjustment following her semester off, plus the sudden blossoming of Adia Revell, who made both big gals work for their points (this after being swatted aside like a fly by Fleischer the previous week) despite being way shorter, even when you include the three inches of hair piled on top of her head. Key was back on Saturday, and she, Revell, and Jaschick made a pretty good tag team against Morrison. Against Harvard the team came back from double-digit deficits at least twice. The Dartmouth game was closer, usually about 4 or 5 points, but I know they were down by at least 8 at one point, and they never stopped battling. So I expect good things from them the rest of the year.

 
Anonymous 

Re: Free-fall?
02-21-05 01:35 PM - Post#4756    
    In response to Administrator

Who else is on that list? I can tell you I get tired of reading "C-a-r-i-l-l" and "C-a-r-r-i-l-l." Hm let's see:

Carill

Carrill

Hm I guess Princeton's oft-misspellees haven't made it to this "list" yet.

 
Administrator 
Junior
Posts: 241
Administrator
Reg: 11-08-04
Re: Free-fall?
02-21-05 04:11 PM - Post#4757    
    In response to

I concentrated on current coaches/players, but that's a good suggestion, as Carril's name is constantly misspelled. I've added that as well.

Try sticking an extra "e" in Max Schafer's last name or dropping the last "a" in Edwin Draughan's name.

And you can bet Ben Nwachukwu is in there, too.

 
light blue heavy 
maximus
Posts: 164
light blue heavy
Reg: 11-22-04
Re: Free-fall?
02-21-05 07:33 PM - Post#4758    
    In response to

::sigh::

are we already talking about next year?

I missed both games this weekend (apparently the smart thing to do) and am going to miss the games next weekend too, so I guess this is as good a time as any to divorce myself from the season. But its a shame, and I'm still hoping the Lions can manage to pull off some upsets. Maybe 5-9?

From looking at the box-scores, it seems like Preston is just running out of gas. He really dominated Harvard last time, but he's fouling more and not putting up the same types of numbers that he did earlier this season.

A big part of that is his minutes. He played 26 at dartmouth, the least he's played in a league game since the middle of last year. I think part of this is that his motor has worn him out, and part of this is Jones giving the new guys a little bit of a run.

Its great to see the young'un run the game, and a starting lineup of Loscalzo, Montgomery/Cuff, Kravic, Baumann, and Nwachukwu would be fantastic to watch. But the aren't going to win many games if they pass like they did this weekend. Seriously, 14 assists in 2 games? something is not working with the offense, even when the outside shots are falling.

 
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