I didn't think so.
I will say, as I have many times, that the structure would be even better if the head-in-the-sand "leaders" in Inwood would relax the many zoning rules against commercial development in the area. Kudos for the NY Times for kind of saying the same thing in its article on the building earlier this week.
But honestly, the building's look matters little to me in the grand scheme of things. The football and other Baker Complex-centered sports teams needed the space and the facillity upgrade and thank goodness it's open for business.
Athletes and Non-Athletes
The tried and true discussion of what it's like to be an athlete in the Columbia community is presented in the latest edition of the Columbia Spectator Magazine.
I've made a million comments about this issue over the years, and I won't change any of my positions now. But I will boil it down to this: respect on the field and the classroom won't come until the sports teams start to win. That's the bottom line.
Kudos to the Captains
Tuesday night, the team announced the names of the captains by class:
Seniors
Hamilton Garner
Marcorus Garrett
Zach Olinger
Juniors
Augie Braddock
Connor Nelligan
Chad Washington
Sophomores
Kevin McCarthy
Trevor McDonagh
Niko Padilla
Travis Reim
Some of the names jumped out at me. First off, Hamilton Garner. I thought the enormously talented Tight End, who earned All Ivy honors as a sophomore, had somehow fallen out of favor with the new coaching regime. His receptions TD receptions plummeted last season. But now I am hearing reports that Garner did battle with some injuries and his choice as a co-captain seems like good proof that he's still got a great chance to match his 2011 numbers this fall.
Second, I liked seeing Trevor McDonagh's name too. McDonagh was the heir apparent starting QB before the Brett Nottingham news broke. I hope McDonagh is not too discouraged by this new challenge and is ready to lead his fellow sophs.
50 comments:
Jakey, Hamilton Garner's receptions did NOT plummet last season. He actually had MORE receptions in 2012 then he did in 2011. He even improved his longest by 5 yds and his total yardage between his Sophomore and Junior years only varied by 3.
Jake, let's face it, you're too conservative to appreciate the revolutionary design of the Campbell Center -- have you toured it yet? As you may know, the architect is world famous.
In my opinion, the Campbell Center is a wonderful addition to our Baker Field facilities. However, until a new world-class gymnasium is finally constructed on or near the Morningside Heights/Manhattanville Campus Columbia's will continue to have difficulty recruiting the best student-athletes in all sports. A new gymnasium has been needed for 70 years. It's time already for the Columbia Administration to make it happen. Nothing else is as important as constructing a new world-class gymnasium. I find it difficult to believe that President Bollinger and Dr. Murphy seem willing to accept the status quo. Certainly they understand the importance of constructing a new world-class gymnasium. If a new gym is not constructed during their tenure, then I see them as failures.
A gym IS part of the Manhattanville master plan. Note this graphic from the Manhattanville site: http://neighbors.columbia.edu/pages/manplanning/images/slides/Below-Grade-Plan_20080116.jpg
The area marked Physical Education is to be a gym and graduate student housing. Granted this graphic shows the below grade plan but the gym would extend above ground for several floors as well.
I think the administration certainly understands that a new gym must be constructed. They needed to get the Manhattanville campus area locked away first (which is now a done deal) and must now find some wealthy alumni to write the checks. It will happen.
What would be the price tag for acquiring the proper site contiguous to the main campus, that is, somewhere between 114th and 120th streets, and Morningside and Riverside and building a state of the art gymnasium? And can such a site be assembled?
Campbell came out pretty fantastic and will grace many architectural coffee books for years to come. It's the most fashionable Ivy League sports facility since Yale's ice rink, so relax and enjoy the pats on the back from people who would otherwise never set foot anywhere near Baker.
As to the planning and zoning, the blame lies not with Inwood locals but at the highest levels of the New York City Planning Dept. The city has an old zoning designation called C8, which requires auto-related uses. This made sense in the 1960s when there was some logic in keeping auto businesses on Manhattan island, but it's stupid in an age where all car services are in places like NJ or the Bronx or other low-cost areas easily accessible by highway. All C8 zoning does today is ensure a bunch of crappy auto body shops and gas stations. So C8 districts were removed from most of Manhattan and there are moves afoot to take them out of a few remaining spots in Washington Heights. But no one cares about Inwood and there has been no push from the top to rewrite the local zoning. It will probably happen in about 20 years, but not today. So we have to live with it.
ungvar, what do you expect to happen to Uris Hall when the Columbia Business School relocates to Manhattanville? Uris Hall is immediately adjacent to Levien Gymnasium and it seems to me that a great architect like Steven Hull could design a vertical gymnasium like Payne Whitney.
Interesting comment about Hamilton Garner. I thought Garner made some terrific catches last year and was an obvious team leader. Obviously, tight end should be a team strength this season with Garner leading the group.
Unfortunately, I don't see Uris being converted to a gym. You really need higher ceilings to accommodate squash courts, etc. The location is certainly right but Columbia really doesn't have the money to raze viable structures that could be turned over to space-starved social science departments. I know the engineering school expressed interest but I think they're now focused on new buildings up in Manhattanville.
I could be wrong, though. They ripped down Ferris Booth to create the new student center and Uris does occupy such prime real estate on campus. Again, find the right donor and Uris could come down.
Interesting to see Chad Washington named as a cocaptain. I think he is ready to have a break out year at DE and hopefully to take up where Josh Martin left off. If Adebayo is back and healthy we will have two bookend DEs. On the interior DL Padilla showed promise as a rookie.
My question to ungvar, is why would you have to raze Uris Hall to construct a new world-class gymnasium facility at that location? Surely a great architect like Steven Hull could design a multi-use facility combining a new world-class gymnasium for the Columbia student body and the existing office building. Yes, I agree that you need a donor, but the location is very attractive.
I would love to see basketball played in a vertical gym! Now that is something people would come out to see! At least once, anyway.
Interestingly, Harvard is planning a new basketball facility, and it will have exactly the same number of seats as Levien. That would support Al Paul's judgment on the number of seats an Ivy school needs. If CU wants a bigger gym, here's a suggestion. With the north lobby now open, knock down the south wall, and replace half the south lobby and the Gehrig Lounge with new baseline stands. What else would a "state of the art" gym have - a nifty ceiling-hanging scoreboard and fancier bathrooms? Not sure it's worth the cost.
Because it's too difficult to convert a standard office building into a gym. You can't just knock holes in ceilings and cut through supporting members. Trust me that it's much easier to start for a bare slab.
The captains table is elected the players, each class votes for its representatives. Being in the " coaches favor" has nothing to do with it. Honestly jake, you can add a negative spin to everything, but I guess that's the point.
Garner did somewhat fall out of favor, due to his drops, but wasn't much depth behind him to replace him
How do you know what the coaches think, did they tell you?
Last time I checked , Mangurian doesn't talk about the players with anyone, and I doubt his staff would talk to you. Your inside source in the development office probably isn't privy to that kind of information.
Uris is evocative of the worst of Stalinist architecture of the 1950s and is probably the ugliest building on campus. Few tears would be shed if the university were to raze it and replace it with a great multipurpose piece of architecture which would include a state of the art gymnasium. One final note on the 1968 fiasco. The gym was ready to,go in 1963 and could have been built in the park as planned with no turmoil whatsoever. But the shortsightedness of the trustees did us in, since they insisted on raising the money first, all of three million dollars, as I recall.
I agree with the oldlion that no tears would be shed if Uris Hall were razed and replaced by a new great multipurpose piece of architecture that would include a new world class gymnasium/recreational facility. My only question is whether there is sufficient space in that location to constuct the gymnasium. Assuming there is, then I believe it makes sense to build that type of facility at that location.
Columbia Baseball Team just bounced back from a 4-1 deficit to defeat the University of Arizona 8-4. When was the last time any Columbia team defeated the defending national champion in any sport? Congratulations to Our Lions!
Last night we lost an unprecedented eighth Ivy MBB by six points or less. That means the following: over the last two years this group, and this coach, has lost literally every close league game. I don't buy the "facilities" argument. We win in swimming and wrestling. We win in baseball. We will win in football. When a team loses the way we lose in basketball what does it tell us? How can it even be possible that this team has never in two years won a single close league game? Smith is a nice guy but is apparently incapable of having a system in place in which he can coax wins out of winnable games. Doesn't Murphy as painful as this is, just have to,replace him?
Have to disagree with you about Smith. He is an excellent game coach, but there isn't much he can do when the players do not execute properly. Last year's team excelled in non-conference play despite the loss of the Ivy League's scoring leader in the second game of the season. However, it only had one backcourt player capable of handling the ball (Barbour). Its only two decent frontcourt players missed key Ivy League games due to injury. This year's team handled the ball much better in the backcourt thanks to the newcomers, but was stunned by injuries, illness and defections that were all beyond Smith's control. Our frontcourt did not perform anywhere near expections. It turned out that our players were slow and ineffective on both sides of the ball. We were unable to defend against any athletic player over 6'4." Two players who were expected to boost the frontcourt were not on the roster. Yes, Smith has not won yet in the Ivy League, but he did not inherit much talent from Jones and has not been allowed to recruit like Ammaker. If Smith had Princeton's Hummer, Harvard's talented line-up or even Cedric K of Brown or Maldonus of Dartmouth, Columbia would have won many more games this year. Let's push the Administraton to help him recruit the players he needs to win in the Ivy League.
Mike Martin showed what a good vigorous and self confident coach who started with next to nothing can do. His Brown team believed in his schemes and his preparation. Smith has had three years and has failed to recruit a dependable front court player. We have five shooting guards and basically nothing else. Whose fault is that? Joe Jones?
The team will be better next year with front court players Coby, McComber, and Voss. Smith will be exonerated, patience required.
Yes, I agree with you. The oldlion is overlooking some important facts. First, while the oldlion may be correct that Smith has been at Columbia for three seasons he was not appointed as the head coach until May 2, 2010 which was after recruiting ended. Therefore, Smith has only had two recruiting seasons to rebuild the program. In his first recruiting year he broght in two frontcourt players from Peddie who I presume were originally recruited by Jones. One of them, Rosenberg, was a tweener who seems have developed into a very good forward under Smith. The other Scrivano, missed his first year and half of basketball at Columbia due to injury. Despite missing all that time, he played well down the stretch and is poised to help us next year. Smith also successfully recruited Osetkowski, a player with huge potential, but admittingly with very little experience. Osetkowksi was shifted to power forward this year in order to get him on the floor with the senior center, Cisco. Next year Cisco will be back at center a position that he better suited to play than forward. This year, Smith recruited a talented incoming class that includes Mullins, Lo, En'wezoh and another very good forward who will be at Columbia in September after playing a fifth year post-grad. I assume the original expectation was that he would be part of the current class. He looks like a very good prospect. Also, the incoming class is not complete. There will probably be some good additions. Finally, let's not forget the progress some of our players have made under Smith. Barbour, Ampim, Crimmins, Johnson, Frankoski, Mullins, Rosenberg and Lo have all progressed significantly under Smith's supervision. Others too, but injuries have hurt. Apart from recruiting, there is no question that Smith is a smart game coach, who rarely makes an error. He substitutes smartly, and when we lose it is not because we have been outcoached, but rather because we have been outplayed.
oops, meant to say that Osetkowski and not Cisco will be back at center next year.
I wanted Smith to succeed but the simple glaring fact is that we lost all eight one or two possession league games this year, and last year we also failed to close out a stunning percentage of league games. So can all of that be blamed on the players? Look at all of the games in which we had a half time lead and the othe treat came out with adjustments while we didn't. Was it all because our front court was awful?
I was at the Harvard game.We outplayed them the entire game until turning it over twice in the last minute and one very questionable no goal tending call on a Barbour layup.In my mind we were one minute away from sweeping the Ivy champs. Mullin was the best all around player on the floor as a freshman. We are one-two legitimate big men away from contending. It's not an effort thing as they played hard in a hostile gym. I know "stay patient" seems like a 20 year mantra but I was encouraged by what I saw friday night.
In all due respect, the answer to both your questions has to be "Yes." Even Roy Williams couldn't do any better than Smith with the frontcourt players he had this season. Our frontcourt was overmatched athletically by nearly all the teams we played this season. There was nothing that Smith could do about it. For whatever reason our centers refused to play their position and instead floated around the perimeter taking jump shots. On defense, they tried hard but were unable to stop any decent athletic big man. One forward, Rosenberg, improved and played well, if a bit inconsistent, but the other forward, the very athletic John Daniels, just doesn't have any outside game. All this was obvious to everyone we played and I do not believe our opponents made any significant adjustments as they knew what they had to do to defeat us before the game started.
Our Columbia Lion Baseball Team almost won the rubber game of their three game series against the University of Arizona, who just happen to be the defending National Champions. We were tied 5-5 in the seventh, but Arizona pushed over two runs and then brought in one of the best relief pitchers in the country to finally put us away. This was a hotly-contested 3-game series and our guys did themselves proud, winning one of three and losing the other two by a total of only three runs.
Yes, I agree that Grant Mullins is an outstanding player and together with Maodo, Steve and others will give the Lions an outstanding backcourt for the next several years. I also will miss Brian Barbour, who, in my opinion, was one of the best players ever to don the Light Blue.
Nice photo of the Columbia D-line at Madison Square Garden:
https://twitter.com/NikoPadilla93/status/310486896872673280/photo/1
We came in last in a weak year for the league and we graduate our best player. We have lost all of our close league games for two years, not just this year. We scored two points in the final six minutes vs. Harvard, which sadly was not an anomaly. We played poorly at home, and especially when we had a big crowd. The apologists decry our lack of talent, but we were picked for 3rd preseason. I don't remember anybody posting in November that we were hugely overrated. In all, a very discouraging season.
Re D-line photo, who is on the far right?
-Dr.V
Looks to me like Nick Melka.
Is that (left to right) Adebayo, Padilla, Washington, and Melka?
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Yup, I think you got the names right.
Re: this year's BB season, I think that some of you have been drinking the Cool-ade. Ivy website says CU was
last in scoring, FG%, three pt%, blocked shorts, steals, defensive rebounds,and tied for last in assists.
You could look it up!
We lead the league in only three point loses. Where do you guys see hope for improvement? Read the coach's comments in Spectator.
Mdm2111@columbia.edu. She has the last word on our basketball program, unless Lee decides he has had enough and orders a change from on high.
Cool-aid? When was the last time a CU team beat a perennial big east powerhouse by 20 and the ivy champs by the same margin in the same year? Yes, we lost a ton of close games and that is a bad pattern that needs to be remedied. But to deny this team doesnt have talent and hope for the future with such a young roster is just ignorant.
Back to football. Is Notingham on campus? And has Adebayo definitely decided to come back next year? Any other transfer or redshirt news? I for one am too upset over basketball to continue this line.
1.) Why are homeless poepl trying to board the #1 and #9 trains at the Cambell Center? They too think that it is a transit station.
2.) To ALL of you basketball pundits who told me over and over ahain athat we would at :LEAST be in the Top three of the ivy league... Please see the attached... http://www.ivyleaguesports.com/sports/mbkb/2012-13/standings LAST PLACE!!!
I never said the captains were chosen by the coaches. Please read the copy carefully. But I do know that if Garner had somehow been taken out of the central mix at any time last season, it's that much more impressive that his teammates would vote him to a captain's role. I am extremely positive and happy about seeing his name on the list and that was the message I was very clearly conveying. I think the accusation that I'm being negative was a classic case of projecting on your part.
The sad thing is that this athletic administration and the last three coaching staffs seem to be proud of how much they're not talking to the public or an independent media. I'm sorry, but as much as I appreciate the videos and audios posted by the dept., these "interviews" are all softball questions and answers as they SHOULD be when a program interviews itself. The issue is no one really asks any serious questions or challenging questions except for postgame press conferences and that's where we get coaches' tantrums and erratic behavior. (Norries after the Penn game in 2006 and Mangurian after the Dartmouth game last season). Maybe if we actually prepared these guys for real questions, they'd be better able to handle it. I guarantee you that no question I'd ask would be too out of bounds or inappropriate, but the dept. is basically wimping out. An in case you haven't noticed, our sports programs need MORE promotion, not less. And by more promotion, I don't mean pre-packaged happy talk press releases that say nothing.
BRAVO Jake! The difference here is that the Athletic Administration (Diane and Cronies) will go on to say that "we are more than about wins and losses". This couldn't be more evident with the basketball team and the football team (yes, I understand that Coach M got a pass last year), but quite frankly I (we) expected more. Coaching was supposed to be our strength, NOT a liability (like we saw last year). Maybe Diane's pseudo-psychologist on staff (with a degree in Kinesiology) should be speaking to the coaches and not the kids. And where is the “Four Year Plan”? What happens if he doesn’t hit those benchmarks? Does he pull an “Obama” and say that he needs four additional years to fix things because they were so broken. Hopefully, the Hot Dog Committee and Diane don’t fall for it.
i find it funny that jake is getting critiqued for his reporting. this isnt his full time job and i dont see anybody else stepping up to start their own blog.
Also, why so many captains? having played football for over 20 years i have never seen so many captains for one year...i am not even sure in 20 years if i saw that many captains in total. it gives the appearance of diffusing any voice the team may have and certainly reduces leadership as it does not increase leadership.
also, to finish in last place, mens basketball, and say the coach was an excellent game time coach and deserves a pass, is a bit tough to swallow. if after 3 years i didnt produce in my job it would be hit the bricks willie loman!
Lost in all this is the outstanding performance of the wrestling team this past weekend at the Eastern (EIWA) championships. Three lion grapplers reached the finals, the most since 1912 when the EIWA consisted of just four teams, and the last time the Lions had as many as two was 1935. Senior Steve Santos won at 149 and is currently ranked 5th nationally. Juniors Matt Bystol and Josh Holdsworth took second at 133 and 167, respectively. Senior Jake O'Hara took 4th at 157 and sophomore Penn Gottfried took 8th at 126. Head Coach Carl Fronhofer just took the Lion grappling program to a new level. With four former NCAA All-Americans on the coaching staff and a banner recruiting year in what is now the second toughest conference in the country, along with tremendous alumni support (two coaching positions are endowed and a third is well along the way), the program is well positioned for years to come.
I was proud to witness the Lions' performance at Easterns with five of my teammates, many other wrestling alums, numerous parents and siblings of the current squad members (which has virtually no attrition), and the other 20+ Lion grapplers cheering their 10 teammates on the mat on.
Lew Fischbein 72C
Lew- Please get these Lion Grapplers to try out for the football team. We need winners!
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