Moment #4: The First Letdown
Even some of the more cynical Lion fans expecting some kind of a letdown after the impressive 31-20 week one win over Lafayette were not expecting that letdown to come in week two at Georgetown. After all, the Hoyas were looking weak after their loss at home to Brown the week before, and Columbia seemed more likely to have a problem with Princeton the following game.
Any thoughts of a bad step in week 2 seemed even more rare after the Lions jumped out to a 14-0 lead midway through the 2nd quarter.
But as good as a backup that QB Cole Freeman was at times playing in place of the injured starter Chase Goodwin, the Georgetown game would prove to be one where his minuses outweighed his plusses.
Freeman's three interceptions that day, paired with the defense's uncharacteristic performance where it gave up three TD drives of 70+ yards, proved to be Columbia's undoing in a 20-17 loss.
Perhaps the biggest moment in the game for the long run of the season came when Head Coach Jon Poppe and his staff elected to go for a field goal on a 4th and 2 at the Georgetown 5. At the moment of that decision, the Lions led 14-13. The field goal by Hugo Merry was good, but the Hoyas drove 73 yards for a TD after the ensuing kickoff to win the game. As a result, Poppe was much more aggressive for the rest of the season and went for TD's in most of the similar situations that arose later.
But the entire week two loss clearly served as a learning exercise for the Lions who rarely made any of the same mistakes again. While it remained the most disappointing loss of the year for CU, it proved its worth in learning experiences alone.
241 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 241 of 241How the heck did we not have a plan for Poulakidas? He torches us twice a year, EVERY SINGLE YEAR. What was this, the SEVENTH time? Engles is atrocious — what a joke.
Good coaches win close games. Mitch Henderson’s Tigers have had four one-point games. How many has Princeton won? Try all four. What on God’s green earth was Engles doing milking the clock when we were down three with 30 seconds left? You try to extend the game by getting a quick score (an open shot—can be a two or three). Instead we get a contested three after running it down to five seconds! This off a timeout!!! Incredibly bad coaching.
Our Boyz almost pulled off an upset today so lets cut Jim some slack.
Good win by Columbia WBB in New Haven. I noticed the girl from Miss State via Serbia (not Estonia this time) was out. Any word from Coach G or is it the usual radio silence?
Our boyz almost pulled off a big upset today so lets cut Jim some slack.
Good win by Columbia WBB in New Haven. I noticed our girl who has recently been in the starting lineup from Miss State via Serbia (not Estonia this time) was out the entire game. Any word from Coach G or the usual radio silence?
People cut you slack when you’ve earned it or done something to deserve it. Neither is the case with Engles, who should not coach another game for us. Prediction: we are going to get annihilated on Monday at the Jadwin (in MBB). I won’t be shocked if we lose by 30 and Lee torches us for 40.
Lucky Jim, is that you? Let me guess: you lost today because of some “bad breaks.”
Jake speaks…
https://www.stadiumjourney.com/stadiums/lionheart-q-a-with-jake-novak-columbia-football-s-biggest-fan
Engles screwed up badly again big time in last night's contest with Yale.
Stan, very accurate post. All other things being equal, I think the Engles disadvantage is about 6 points at home. That is, if we play a team in Levien that we’re about equal to (in terms of talent), I’d say we lose by about six points on average.
The Engles vs. James Jones disadvantage is even more pronounced: I’d say it’s about a ten-point disadvantage for us to trot out Engles against Joe Jones (when we play at home). Going into the game yesterday, I’d predicted we’d lose by 10-15 for this very reason. That is, I thought the two teams were pretty close in terms of talent but Yale’s coaching was vastly superior. When we got down 10 late, I thought my prediction was dead on. I was surprised we made it close late (Yale did miss a lot of free throws), but I knew Engles would find a way to blow it.
The problem now becomes one of morale. I feel bad for the players, and I think it will be hard for them to be very motivated and play with a lot of energy as the losses start to pile up. I see us getting crushed by Princeton, and I expect we’ll lose by 15-25 in the return matchup against Yale in New Haven. Sadly, we won’t be able to make any progress as long as Engles remains.
EARTH TO PILLING, COME IN PILLING, EARTH TO PILLING, "No answer, Scottie, is he asleep? " Can't ride the Poppe hire forever OR CAN YOU?
Call him.
Engles sucks so bad.
And now we’re alone in last place. So much for all the “win the Ivy League this year” bs we’d been hearing. Guy can’t win a conference game to save his life. But for some reason no one understands he remains our coach.
What about that troll who predicted we’d beat both Yale and Harvard this weekend? Better ask the chief program strategist to figure out what went wrong.
Lucky Jim Engles record in Ivy League Games as Columbia's Men's Basketball Coach just dropped to an astonishing bad 23 wins and 79 losses after the Lions just fell to Princeton by a 71-67 score after leading by more than 15 points most of the game. As we all know by now, it is a well-kept secret why our Board of Trustees doesn't care about our. Men's Basketball Team
It's hard to win when you don't play them
It was a pretty impressive showing. Maybe our best 1st half ever against Princeton. Bodes well for the rest of the season and making the Ivy tournament. THE GLASS IS HALF FULL!!!
uh, this is supposed to be a world class university....don't think the board should care about any of the sports teams.
Now even 4-10 seems like a pipe dream. No choice but to fire Engles mid-season. No way this team is ever making the ILT with him at the helm.
Nice deflection, troll. Yale and Princeton, obviously. Glad to know you’re able to see the big picture, which is that we’re 0-3, underachieving yet again under Engles, and may well finish last in the Ivies. Thanks for playing!
Agree. With Brown beating Cornell and Penn handling Harvard, I now see us having more trouble in our remaining games and finishing 3-11.
I intended to watch the MBB today but fell asleep and just checked the score. How in the hell do you lose a game like this and recover? You are up by 20 points on the road against Ptown in the second half and you still find a way to lose!!!? I am so glad I fell asleep and didn't watch this. I planned on heading to New Haven to watch them play but I will save myself the trip... Another lost/loss season with this coach...
We will make the ILT this year. We have too much talent not to.
Someone commented on tue "troll" who said we would beat Y and P. He wasn't that far off. We came pretty close to winning both games. We actually pulled defeat from the jaws of victory.
Let’s make sure we add that as an asterisk on Wikipedia
Except that we won’t make the ILT.
MBB can learn from the women who know how to close out games. Big win against P-town to improve 4-0.
Amazing game by our girls tonite. One of the best wins in program history. We were down 30-20 to Princeton at the half and looked completely outmatched. We then came out in the 2nd half and dominated. I don't think the P WBB knew what hit them. The gym was packed on both sides. Coach G played a limited lineup of 8. Susie had her best game as a Lion. Perri and Cece are all-time players. Kitty was her usual self. Riley couldn't hit a shot until she had some big hits to seal it down the stretch. Princeton seems much bigger than the rest of the league, but we wore them down till they were dejected. Extremely gratifying win.
Since Princeton and Harvard are both very strong this year, it would be of paramount importance to win the ivy regular season title as there will be a steep drop off to the #4 seed in the women's tournament whereas the 2/3 game in Providence will be brutal.
Enough hoops. Townsend is returning.
Great news!!
Captains announced: Chapman, Goodwin, Smiechowski and Townsend
!!!!!!!
Great news about Townsend and great captain choices. Four guys to build a terrific team around.
On the broadcast, if you had watched, they mentioned that she was out with an illness. Obviously, she was back against Princeton.
Outstanding football news on Townsend and great captains. Great victory by WBB before packed house. Heartbreaker for MBB in Princeton --- really quite a horrific meltdown. And to the clown above who mentioned that we are a "world class" university and the board shouldn't care about athletics. What an absolutely stupid comment --- and you know that. You just wanted to bait, and you did! Tell that to all the other Ivies especially those who have dominated football and basketball over the years. (By the way, great to see our interim Prez at the game last night as she did football.)
She was there in the front row but she wasn't watching. She was on her cell phone the entire game.
https://www.columbiaspectator.com/sports/2025/01/21/spectator-breaks-down-eight-years-of-mens-basketball-under-head-coach-jim-engles/
Nearly a decade of utter futility.
I continue to be perplexed that Engles remains employed.
Our MBB on its way to losing by 20 to a team that is 5-11!! Pull the plug on this disaster already... I think Jake should give a page to non-Football sports...
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