6-5, 290-pound OL Sean Kimani from Duluth HS, in Duluth, Georgia has committed to Columbia.
Kimani will be the third Duluth HS grad to come to Columbia, and the first since DL Cam Carter '21.
So our unofficial commit list is up to 23 names:
1) Qwincy Amos DB 5"11 170 lbs. Warren HS San Antonio, TX
2) Terell Battle WR/DB 6"3 190 lbs. Mountain View HS, Lawrenceville, GA
3) Jalen Campbell DL/OL 6"4 295 lbs. Jackson-Reed HS Washington, DC
4) Jaylen Carter WR/DB 6"0 180 lbs. Taft School Watertown, CT
5) Christian Carti WR 6"1 190 lbs. Bergen Catholic HS Oradell, NJ
6) Braden Dougherty TE/DE 6"5 230 lbs. Dublin Coffman HS Dublin, OH
7) AJ George LB/RB 6"2 190 lbs. Ottawa Hills HS Toledo, OH
8) Chase Goodwin QB 6"2 200 lbs. Memorial HS Houston, TX
9) Quinn Herlihy DL/LB 6"3 238 lbs. Cheshire Academy/Shrewsbury HS Worchester, MA
10) Jaden Hinton OL/DL 6"3 300 lbs. Ames HS South Easton, MA
11) Griffin Johnson RB 5"11 190 lbs. Marysville HS Marysville, OH
12) Sean Kimani OL 6"5 290 lbs. Duluth HS Duluth, GA
13) Baily Kornegay-Douhadji DE 6"3 230 lbs. East Caweta HS Sharpsburg, GA
14) Keelan Kornegay DE 6"3 230 lbs. East Caweta HS Shapsburg, GA
15) Braeden Marceau-Olayinka DL/OL 6"3 262 lbs. Melrose HS Melrose, MA
16) Malachi Mercer LB 6"1 225 lbs. Bergen Catholic Oradell, NJ
17) Hugo Merry P/K 6"3 210 lbs. Frederick HS Frederick, MD
18) Mikey Nabbout DE/TE 6"3 245 lbs. St. John's Prep Danvers, MA
19) Chase Newton WR/DB 6"3 195 lbs. Walter Payton Prep Chicago, IL
20) Ahmari Owens 6"5 305 lbs. Springfield Central HS Springfield, MA
21) Levi Robins DB 5"11 175 lbs. Saguaro HS Scottsdale, AZ
22) Will Rubalcava DB 6"0 170 lbs. Rick Reedy HS Frisco, TX
23) Nik Winzer OL/DL 6"6 285 lbs. Matawan Regional HS Matawan, NJ
35 comments:
Kimani is a great pickup. He was all county in Gwinnett County, which many would say is the top county for high school football teams in the US.
I can’t tell if he had other offers.
I don’t guessif he had other offers.
CU Men 62 Yale 60!!! Defending Ivy League Tournament Champion and KenPom rank 82 - Columbia going in was 332 - had been averaging 80 pts per game as Brown and De La Rosa led the way as did tough CU D. Women crushing Yale after Harvard stopped Princeton Women’s 44 game ivy winning streak.
On one hand, Coach Megan Griffith is for real and her team is a legitimate Top Thirty Team in the Inited States. On the other hand, Coach Jim Engles is still learning how to coach and while I am thrilled that the Lions defeated Yale yesterday afternoon I am wary of striking a congratulatory tone over a single win until there is more proof that things have really changed for the better.
I was at the game and saw a different EWngles—actively coaching, encouraging his guys, using a deep rotation, and animatedly going head to head with the refs to the point of risking a T.
Pardon the typos—also using his time outs in crunch time and making substitutions defensively and then offensively.
But he and his staff need to ditch those bowling shirts
Glad we held on. When I saw that we were up by 14 at the half, I assumed we’d find a way to lose. I’m happy we beat Yale, but I’m not ready to alter my verdict on Engles. He’ll need to have a few winning seasons and some top-four finishes in the conference before I’ll consider it. On a brighter note, it was wonderful to see Murphy back on the court.
Any updates on who is coming back for a fifth year? I saw a tweet which seemed to suggest that Caden Bell is coming back. Does that mean we will have a wealth of riches at QB with Bell and a presumably healthy Green?
I assumed there was a deadline—like Jan. 1– for eligibles like Caden Bell to accept or decline a fifth year.. Would like to have
him finish here, suspect he’s primed for
a grand finale, or maybe a deadly duo with
Gree throwing to the Canty Corps.
So Coach Griffith and her extraordinary team beat Princeton and was edged by Penn this week end......but Yale upset Harvard...we beat Yale by 50...or so..so we remain clearly in a superb place to be Ivy Champs ..the first in basketball since 1968. I am flying up from Miami for the Penn Princeton Week end ...and hope you all can go to some games...the team is very very very talented and the coach is too ...Go LIONs!
Went to the Penn MBB game and saw the Princeton MBB game on ESPN. We regressed quite badly and it wasn’t for lack of trying. They play hard but there is clearly a sigficant talent deficit—terrible shooting from 3 point range (many air balls by Murphy), unforced turnovers, no strength except for for Tavroff in the paint, etc.
Glad the women are playing well. The men looked atrocious this weekend. They seem unable to score for long stretches, and nobody can shoot. I think at best we’ll win three games in conference, though more likely only two. Engles has completely undone anything we achieved under Smith. He should have been fired three years ago, but here’s to hoping Pilling finally sees the light.
Schiller was at court side on Saturday evening watching Penn toy with us. I think the problem in a nutshell is as follows: we lack talent. Our guys try hard and I’m sure Engles knows his Xs and Os. But our roster is composed of a bunch of pretty decent shooting guards who would be OK as complimentary parts or role players on other Ivy teams. We just don’t have anybody who is a true go to guy. Engles’ big recruit, Murphy, threw up 4 air balls from 3 point range against Penn. We had a number of totally unforced turnovers. Nobody seemed to want to take over for us. we missed several front ends of 1 and 1s. So I’m sure Engles is a decent guy who knows the game and his players are doing their best. But that’s not the issue—NYC is a basketball Mecca. Yet every Ivy team has local NYC area ball players who are really good who we can’t recruit. Our one NYC first year is a front court player who obviously is not ready to play at this level at this time. Our first year PG has potential but is a year away. Yet Pilling/Schiller seem content to let this 7th yea of Engles go into an 8th year on the ground that this is a young team.
Jonathan Schiller, Esq, has a brilliant legal mind and is the co-founder of one of the most prestigious law firms in the United States. He also played basketball for the late, great Jack Rohan who was one of the best coaches in Ivy League history. I cannot imagine any scenario where a highly skilled attorney like Schiller would continue to employ at his law firm in Manhattan a litigator whose record in court was anywhere near as bad as Coach Engles record has been at Columbia the past six or seven years. That record is difficult to find now anywhere on the Columbia Athletics website, but my understanding is that it is presently something like 45 wins and 110 losses. Of course, the criteria for coaching success at court side is not exactly the same as in a court of law, but I do believe the analogy is reasonable and Schiller would not allow anyone to persuade him otherwise. For that reason amongst others, I seriously doubt that Schiller is the person responsible for the demise of the Columbia Men's Basketball Program under Engles the past year. Given Schiller's credentials it has to be someone else who is less knowledgable about basketball than Schiller, presumably Pilling or Bollinger. Whoever is calling the shote on Engles continued employment, needs to realize that a change of leadership is required immediately to change the direction of the program which seems headed towards a 1-13 Ivy League record, or slightly better.
I’ll take the bait on the analogy. The smartest guys in law school or at law firms are not always the best lawyers. And I do not doubt that Engles knows basketball. I imagine that if he had a better roster he would have a better record. But he cannot recruit top flight talent because it seems apparent that he just does not have the personality to be an effective recruiter. Just watch him in post game interviews. And note the lack of outreach to alumni. He just doesn’t have that in him. Compare him to Kyle Smith—clearly a dynamic and engaging personality.
And I’m just not buying the “If only he had some talent on his roster, then Engles would win” argument. In his time at CU, there has been quite a bit of talent (even if that’s not the case with this year’s team). One (among many) of Engles’ problems is that his talented players quit the team or transfer. The common thread here is Engles. He has done nothing at CU to suggest he’s a winner. Can you imagine if we’d hired Earl instead? I think we can be pretty sure we wouldn’t be losing by 40 to Penn. And we certainly wouldn’t have to read some blather from the coach about how his players were like little kids touching hot stoves. Let’s make sure our next coach is a winner.
Why is Pilling allowing the Engles Problem to fester rather than take the safe course of action which would be to replace Engles immediately with Tobe Carberry, the Columbia Assistant Coach with a very strong basketball background and familiarity with all the current players and recruits. That seems like a "win-win" situation for everyone including Pilling. I
I gave up on Engles years ago.
TOD HOWARD HAWKS
Understood, but neither of us holds the title of Columbia Athletic Director so we are not responsible for supervising twenty or more head coaches. I would assume that every one of Columbia's Head Coaches is wondering why and how Engles is still serving as the Head Men's Basketball Coach. I wonder what their feelings are in this situation and what would happen should one of them be terminated in the future.
Schiller has to be the guy protecting Engles.
I don’t think our issue is recruiting. Our first year class includes two players who were rated top 200 in the country. One of them was top 100 on some ratings.
The issue seems to be that we have not jelled as a team yet. The issue is that we seem to get very few easy shots, or even open shots. Too often, our players are just throwing the ball towards the rim over defenses.
Looking at Penn, many of their outside shots were behind very simple screens which we couldn't get around. Their shots were reflexive, and ones that they had taken thousands of times. Too many of our shots looked like adventures and prayers. Very few look practiced and repetitive.
Penn seemed to get lots of open looks at 3 point shots; I agree that they made it look easy. We didn’t get too many open looks and when we did had some terrible air balls (Murphy had at least three, but perhaps he needs to be cut some slack because he was rusty).
We have a talent deficit to the rest of the league, and also an in-game execution deficit. His record in close games is brutal, with multiple losses due to failure to inbound the ball on a last possession. He lost when he had Mike Smith, the best player in the league. He lost with Petrasek, who has had a solid pro career in Europe. Heck, he lost with both of them in 2017. Too many transfers out, too many recruits who should've played NESCAC.
Very happy they beat Yale and very much hope they win a few games. It sucks to practice hard every day and lose every weekend. But this coach is not going to turn it around. They shoot below 40% for the season, poor assist to turnover ratio. They rebound pretty well, defend hard, but they lack skill. Joe Jones got fired for consistently going 5-9 in league. We'd throw a parade if Engles went 5-9.
Amen, Roar. For a long time, I’ve been of the opinion that Mr. Temper Tantrum (Armond Hill) was the worst coach in the history of Columbia men’s basketball. His 2-25 mark in his last year was certainly our single-worst season, but he was actually a lot closer to .500 (both overall and in conference) several other times than Engles has been or ever will be. Multiple 1-13 campaigns is an impressive level of failure, as is a 45-111 record, along with 18-55 in conference. So when it comes to circling the drain, Engles now gets the nod over Hill. A third straight 1-13 season would put this matter wholly beyond debate.
Only a constant series of emails and calls to Pilling might move the needle. Engles seems like a good man, and maybe something will click over the next few weekends, but I doubt it. He has some experienced assistants including a former Brown HC so maybe they can put together a few Ws but if this is another 1 win Ivy season he has to go n
By every reasonable measurement, Mr. Engles should have been terminated as Columbia's Head Coach a long time ago. Shame on whomever is responsible for allowing him to mess up the Columbia Men's Basketball Program.
I just don’t get it; this isn’t working yet Pilling has been immovable up to this point in time. Apparently Engles was renewed and we are unwilling to eat the remainder of his contract. I was at both theYale and Penn games—at the Yale game I thought we had turned a corner, but my bubble was burst at the Penn game. We were just awful in every aspect of the game. So here is the question: how many of our players actually had firm offer from other Ivy programs but chose us? Or do we have a roster of players who wanted to go Ivy but we were the only school to offer? I assume that Brown had other offers. Anybody else?
NJ Lion continues to nail it, not only in football, but also in hoops... EMG and soon... (Engles Must Go)
Jim, It's over! RESIGN
EMG (Engles must go)!
Odd that Engles is still the coach. Nothing against him as a person but it is almost as if the University does not even care about the program. We finally have a decent football program thanks to Al and staff a d great women’s bball. Engles took over a winning program from Kyle smith and the results have not been there. You could have made the case to make a change in 2019 aftet three years. 2020 for sure i thought they would make a change but then i figure covid gave him a pass not the time to worry about changing basketball coach as is shutting down. But then i thought 2022 for sure so now i dont know what to think. I was hoping they kept him becausr they were ready to turn the cornet but i dont see that. Nine games left hoping i am wrong and the team will start winning but inam not optimistic
Maybe Pilling should go for not making Engles go?
New commit—Titus Evans
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