#17
Lin Sighting
Basketball sensation Jeremy Lin was indeed in attendance last night at Levien Gym as the Lions fell to Harvard in Overtime, 77-70. Spike Lee was there too.
Diaz Joins Moglia
Renato Diaz, who was the Columbia RB coach when Johnathan Reese '02, has been hired as the new WR coach at Coastal Carolina.
Remember, Moglia is the Ivy assistant coach-turned banking CEO-turned coach again who is making an historic return to the game.
Nugai to Holy Cross
Former Columbia RB and special teams coach Chris Nugai, has landed the tight ends coaching job under Tom Gilmore at Holy Cross.
Elizondo up North
While I still prefer Jaime Elizondo's experience over the now departed Ben McDaniels, he was only able to slightly alter the Toronto Argos offensive problems during his two seasons as OC.
Despite getting their win total a bit up, Toronto still scored the fewest points in the CFL Eastern Division both of those seasons.
But during his one season as WR coach at Syracuse in 2009, Elizondo oversaw a high percentage passing game that still averaged a very healthy 6.9 yards per attempt.
To have an offense with a 66% completion percentage and just about hits the magic number of seven yards per attempt is impressive.
Columbia's low completion rate was a serious problem last season and Elizondo is the kind of person who can address that. Even in Toronto, his offensives completed passes at a much better than average rate.
Fordham Schedule Havoc
I'm not sure how or why, but Fordham has lost an opponent on its 2012 schedule and is now looking for a game at an FBS opponent or a few other options. This tells me the Patriot League's recent decision to allow athletic scholarships for football has not led to the Rams' reinstatement as a full member of the football conference.
Stay tuned on this, but the Lions still will play the Liberty Cup game against Fordham at Wien Stadium on Sept. 22nd.
Alex Gross' Blog
Former Columbia great Alex Gross has NOT been lazy about writing for his blog as he gets ready to play pro football in Austria.
Do yourselves a favor and get used to reading it as much as possible!
6 comments:
Our basketball team reminds me of the 1960 football team. Not a great record but you can see that all of the pieces are ready to fall in place. Next year, with Agho back for the Ivy season, and a healthy Frankoski hitting three point shots, we are basically just one player short of making a run at the title. And that one playe? We need a forward who can score inside and from mid range. But give the Lions credit for a great effort last night.
Agree with you and here we go with the possibilities: (1) Returning 6/7" senior, John Daniels, who is a great athlete and inside presence, but has no moves whatsoever more than five feet from the basket--if he wants a Championship Ring he needs to spend the offseason in the playgrounds of New York City or do something like that; (2) Returning 6'7" sophomore, Alex Rosenberg, a very talented all-around player who is close to becoming a star in the Ivy League--needs to expand his game and hit the weights; (3) Incoming 6'7" freshman, Jeff Coby, a very good prospect from Sagemont School in Florida; (4) Incoming freshman, Brad Gilson, a terrific scorer from the Washington, D.C. burbs, but he is only 6'5" so unclear if he can do the job inside; (5) Incoming 6'7" freshman,Zach En'Wezoh, high level athlete from Washington State program who is supposed to be an outstanding defensive player; (6) Chris Fitzgerald, a 6'8" 240, standout outside shooter, who didn't play this year, because he transferred from George Washington University; (7) Returning 6'6" sophomore, Darius Stevens; (8) Returning 6/7" sophomore Samer Ozier; and (9) Returning 6'9" 220 sophomore Skylar Scrivano who has missed his his entire freshman season due to injury. Plenty of possibilities. Take your pick. My money is on Rosenberg, Coby and Gilson. However, Daniels could be a superstar, if only he ..........
Jake, you made an excellent point last month when you said that the departure of highly-respected Assistant Coach Aaron Smith to Boston Coach was actually an "opportunity" for Coach Mangurian to raise the level of the coaching staff by bringing in another outstanding coach with NFL experience. Did you have some inside information on this or just sensed something because I am absolutely elated by the announcement that former NFL All-Star Wide Receiver, Wendell Davis, has joined the Columbia Football Staff. What a great pick-up by Mangurian/Columbia. You could write volumes on Davis' athletic achievements and he is a very smart coach. Here are some of his wide receiver tips on You Tube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAR3cvtuKt4
Agree about Daniels. No offensive moves and no mid range game, but maybe he willbe a Miller type and break out for his senior year.
I didn't have any inside info on the WR coaching choice, but it made sense from a lot of perspectives.
Re: basketball, this fan's two cents is that the team is very close. They played really well vs. Harvard. Add Agho and Frankowski to a returning nucleus of Barbour-Lyles-Rosenberg-Cisco-Daniels and you could compete for an Ivy title. My one quibble with the coach is he plays too many guys. Good college teams play eight-man rotations. Against Harvard, Smith played 11 guys, including some big minutes to players who seemed overmatched. There was a stretch in the second half where we went zone, presumably to protect Cisco, and got killed. The guys on the floor didn't seem to work together well. Totally agree with previous posts on John Daniels. A terrific athlete who needs a 12-foot jumper.
He could lead the league in rebounding if he could score enough to stay on the floor.
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