For the last several years, I've really tried to keep my whining and complaining about anti-Columbia biases in Ivy League sports to a minimum.
I get it, the Lions had losing season after losing season, and crying about a lack of respect from the rest of the league and the journalists covering it seems pathetic.
But four winning seasons in the last five years haven't brought much new respect.
And yesterday's news that Scott Valentas wasn't even named a finalist for the Bushnell Cup/Defensive Player of the Year really grinds my gears.
I have nothing bad to say about the two players who were chosen ahead of Valentas, but through no fault of their own they were simply not as crucial to their team defenses as #8 was for the Lions.
And so the incredible indignity continues for Columbia. Not ONE Lion has even been named a finalist for the Offensive or Defensive POY since they began naming finalists in 2010. That's an 0-48 mark right now.
You'd think that at least one player from Columbia's four winning teams over the last five seasons would at least be a finalist. Maybe QB Anders Hill? No. How about super WR Josh Wainwright? Uh uh. The list goes on and on.
This is no longer a "Columbia still hasn't won a championship, so it needs to take its lumps" conversation. That pain belongs to fans like me.
But for the players who have excelled in this program lately under completely tougher conditions than their Ivy peers, this is too much. Columbia players deserve better, if not the fans.
15 comments:
Valentas is a fantastic player. But highly doubt there is any bias against Columbia. Bagnoli is widely respected by all Ivy coaches. One could argue that Heimlicher from Penn deserved to be a Bushnell finalist. He is a finalist for the FCS defensive player of the year and Valentas is not
Valentas was a unanimous choice fro first team all-Ivy, was a multiple defensive POW, and did it all—tackles, sacks, interceptions, etc. I am frankly disgusted that he was not named as a finalist. Nobody can tell me that the Princeton LB was a better player than Valentas. Or that the Harvard DL was a more dominant defender. So yes, despite our having become a solid program I do think that there is a longstanding anti-Columbia bias in the league. And how wide-spread is it? Pretty widespread IMHO. And don’t get me started about how the officials have been guilty of the same bias in shafting us on calls at least as long as Al has been our HC. One more fn—all four finalists are H (2), Y (1) and Princeton (1).
It’s pretty clear there’s an anti-CU bias. Valentas was the actual DPOY (by a wide margin) and at the very least should have been named a finalist.
Here's the direct IL stat comparison:
Valentas Johnson
Total Tackles: #2 w 75 #3 w 69
Solo: #1 w 50 #3 w 33
Assisted: #7 w 25 #1 w 36
Tackles for Loss: #19 w 5 #8 w 6
Solo: 3 5
Assisted: 2 1
Sacks: Neither in Top 25
Passes Defended: #1 w 11 Not Top 25
Interceptions: #1 w 3 #14 w 1 (89 yd TD)
Fumbles Recovered: Not Top 25 #15 w 1 (92 yd TD)
Looks like the 2 TD's were the reason (Ranked #2 in FCS in Scoring Defense)....
Missed pass deflections where Valentes was top in the league as a LB
You can’t base best defensive players solely on stats. Defensive Players on teams in the bottom half of the standings always have better stats in terms of # of tackles. Because their defense is on the field a lot more than teams in the top half ie Princeton defense was not on the field nearly as much as Columbia’s, so Valentas had a lot more opportunities than Johnson. Didn’t Dartmouth have the top 2 leaders in tackles this year? Because their offense was poor and defense was in the field most of the game. Don’t get me wrong, Valentas is worthy as a Bushnell but so is Heimlicher from Penn
Agree on Heimlicher; he and Valentas were the most impactful defenders in the IL; would take either one of them over either of the two finalists; the game Valentas played on the road at Harvard was one of the finest performances by an Ivy LB in a long time.
Well said by all! HOWEVER it is now hoops season...Lions hoops?
Basketball will need our support.
Netmen came through in a good one.
Tell us more about the MBB win; missed the game but saw that we had a second half rally.
We finally closed out a game with good defense and (finally) good rebounding in the last two minutes albeit poor foul shooting until Del Rosa hit two with 2.6 seconds left. Contrary to rumors, Shockley-Okeke is with the team but hurt and was on the bench as was Robelado in his first game back from what had been season-long injury. The 6’7” junior forward from Staten Island was in a boot and his three-point shooting and that of S-O is sorely missed. And contrary to earlier rumors, Turner left the team for family reasons and the 6’9 Bryant transfer who started last year left to take a good job also for family reasons.
Glad the hoops team won, but I won’t be watching any games until Engles is gone. I wouldn’t be shocked if we had another 1-13 Ivy campaign. If we do, hopefully three such seasons will be enough for us to make a change.
WE have a superb women's basketball team .with an incredible group of talented women and a great great coach. ...I recommend you go to games...they have a great chance of being the first Ivy basketball champ since 1968
I went to our win against U Miami in Coral Gables...we had lots of fans and a superb outing for us ... and take a look at the scores against Marist and Lafayette...we rebound shoot threes and have lots of assists and play team ball ...with Megan Griffith a super coach..
Last year we went to the WNIT and did very well ...Go LIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Lion Ladies are on a big upward arc and deserve plenty of support.
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