Can Coach Smith show us the excellence?
It was yet another nice win for Columbia basketball Saturday as the
Lions torched St. Francis (NY) by 20 points.
But here’s something I don’t get: even after that whipping, Columbia is still 21 slots BEHIND St. Francis in the RPI rankings.
I know the RPI is a computer-generated ranking, but the
human programmers must have some kind of bias against the Lions in their
coding.
The RPI does list Columbia as the top Ivy basketball team
not named Harvard or Princeton, so that’s something for a team that the
sportswriters picked for last in the league. But Harvard is ranked all the way
up at #28 and Princeton is #56. Columbia is now #135.
Whenever a Columbia basketball or football team starts a season
well, there’s a typical lack of media or expert interest or even recognition of
it. But there’s also a corresponding irrational exuberance from Columbia fans. So
I’m keeping the powder dry on these guys until we get into the Ivy schedule.
But let’s not ignore the big fact that a very strong season
for men’s basketball would be a huge boost for Dianne Murphy and the Athletic Department defenders. That won’t
stop me from pulling very hard for the Lions to win every game. But it should
be said that any serious basketball success this season should NOT excuse
Murphy, and certainly not the football staff, from the disaster they are
perpetuating in Columbia’s most important and cost-heavy athletic program.
And since we have so much trouble defining success in
football – apparently going 0-10 is acceptable to all too many inside the
department – let’s talk about what would constitute a successful basketball
season in 2014:
1)
A winning Ivy record. We haven’t had one in men’s
basketball since 1993, which is a longer drought than even football has
suffered.
2)
A step up from that level would be a 3rd
place finish in a league that everyone expects Harvard and Princeton to
dominate anyway.
3)
A step up from that would be to record two wins in the four games against the
Crimson and the Tigers.
4)
10 Ivy wins would be another step up.
5)
Actually contending for the title in the final
two weeks of the year would be ideal.
Call the above my “Five Rings of Excellence” for the season.
Remember that this is a young team, but it’s also Kyle Smith’s fourth year at CU and it’s time he registered a
winning Ivy record.
Two things I’ve seen so far in non-Ivy play give me some
confidence that CU can at least get one or two of the above goals accomplished.
The first is that in the win over Colgate the Lions finished very strong and
wiped out a seven point deficit with under two minutes to go to win in double
OT.
The second was in the win over St. Francis, the Lions never
let up after taking a huge lead early. Many fans remember the Yale loss from a
couple of years ago when the Lions blew a 20-plus point lead and there have
been a number of other games like that in the Smith era.
The next game for the Lions is this Wednesday night at home
against Stony Brook. The Seawolves are ranked 45 slots BELOW CU in the RPI, so
this is a game the Lions need to win to prove they’re on the rise. After that
game, there’s basically an exhibition game against Central Pennsylvania, (Cent.
PA is not even an NCAA team), before the Ivy season opener at home against a
Cornell team that is currently 0-13 and ranked almost at the very bottom of the
RPI.
Let’s cheer for some wins and see if the Lions can make it
into those rings of excellence.
7 comments:
Thanks, Jake, for your continuing fine reporting and analysis of all CU sports, not only the football fiasco. Men's BB is promising as you point out. Decent team this season and without a single senior on the squad, and playing with a bit of flair which we haven't seen recently. Posters on the Ivy board say there are talented reinforcements in Smith's next batch of recruits.
Curious if you have any info on Women's BB. Now at 3-11 going into Ivy season, unlikely to improve on Nixon's final 5-23 even with an experienced coach like Glance. But with more time to recruit this year, they need to get better next season.
Finally, since you ended anonymous posting seems as if previously we had two fans here plus 2,000 AD trolls here, not 2,000 fans and two trolls as you claimed, LOL. Seriously, I'm shocked at the near disappearance
of comments since you changed policy, holiday lull or not. Especially since you're not actually requiring real names, just screen names or nicknames.
The number of readers hasn't really gone down, so I'm not really worried. Anyone who feels they really need to comment and stay 100% anonymous can email me and I will try to be a medium.
OK, whatever works, but if you're a medium, please look into your crystal ball when you can and tell us if we are going to have any outstanding teams in the 2014 and 2014-15 seasons.
I think a lot of our comments were provoked from comments made by PM's shill(s).
A poster on voy.com caught this OL/DT commit: Markham Paukune, 6'4" 280lbs, All Saints' Episcopal School (Ft. Worth, Texas). Looks like a good get.
Hey, Jake
The take-home message from your latest, for me, is that while the football fiasco was blatant, we can't let any of our coaches off the hook for delivering appropriate results. Please note that I do not say "Championships", just appropriate results. BB is a case in point, and I believe you summed it up nicely here. We do not expect to win the league, but we do expect progress and competitiveness. In the meantime, congratulations to the team and coach for current results.
While we have done fairly well so far, it is critical that this momentum be continued, and that complacency not be tolerated. What we need with ALL our teams and coaches is a sense of urgency. The players get that from the staff.
Should BB turn out as we all hope, that will not remove any pressure on DM. She carries the entire panoply of CU performance as her record. Should there be an unforeseen turnaround this year across the board, that may buy some time to determine if it is organic or temporary.
I'm not making excuses, but we're paying 31 games this year, a bit more than Columbia usually does. But two appearances to date on national TV can only help recruiting.
It's a good team and I expect at least a winning Ivy record. Getting a good start with four wins in a row vs. Cornell twice and then Yale and Brown on the road will help, too.
But there was, I believe, at least one senior "left" on the team in the early part of the season, Van Green. I saw him get in one home game. Anyone kinow why he's off the team since then?
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