A Weekend of Missed Opportunities

PRINCETON, N.J.—The players won’t think of it this way—and they can’t. The coaches won’t think of it this way—and they can’t—but the Lions’ 63-53 loss to the Princeton Tigers was, simply put, a missed opportunity.

Year after year, the Ivy race travels through its perennial power. Jadwin Gymnasium is surrounded by the aura of a winning culture making it one of the league's most intimidating venues. For Columbia, this was finally an chance to demistify a team and location where they haven't won for thirteen consecutive years.

The Tigers were an underachieving team with a 1-5 conference record. The Lions were a young program with a freshman-heavy lineup trying to take the next step as a team. Saturday night, though, the wrong team stopped its bleeding.

Princeton, who snapped their four-game losing streak with the win, used stifling defense to throw off freshman point guard Brett Loscalzo, took away Columbia’s biggest threat—the three point attempt—and never let Columbia take a lead, or, for that matter even match the score (the only tie was in the opening seconds).

The Lions (12-9, 3-5 Ivy) have now lost four straight, but with six Ivy games left, they have an opportunity to finish what many fans hoped would be a breakout season for this team on a high note.

A lot of hype surrounded this program after Jones finished recruiting his freshman class. Fans eager to see the tides turn in Levien hoped they would have an impact in their first season. Jones, though, has always reminded the media that this season is part of a building process and that it is difficult to expect freshmen to play like seniors.

There are, though, certain steps in a rebuilding process that show a team is headed in the right direction. A road win against the reeling Tigers could have been one of those.

When asked after the game if the Lions felt they had an opportunity to pick up a rare win at Jadwin Gymnasium, senior co-captain Matt Land said, “We just took it as another game. There are 14 games in this season.”

Princeton is suffering a meltdown this year under first-year head coach Joe Scott. Many expected the Tigers to coast to an Ivy title this year given the team’s roster of four starting seniors.

Instead of fueling Princeton’s miseries and giving the school another reason to start FireJoeScott.com, the Lions never took a lead.

“They’ve been a good team,” Jones said. “They’re going to win some games in this league.”

While we can look back and see four close losses, the team is (and has been) looking forward, not back. They have been in this position before, having lost four straight on the road to Penn, Princeton, Yale and Brown last year, before finishing with a 6-8 conference record. In order to finish in a similar position, the team has to split its remaining six games—a tough task with four of them on the road and the home games against Penn and Princeton.

Friday night at the Palestra with just under 10 minutes remaining, Jones called his team into a huddle and, after explaining some strategy, tried to energize his players. “It’s not enough to come close,” the coach barked. “We have to win this game.”

The Lions, to a certain extent, are a team on the ropes—not because there were realistic expectations of a conference title this year, but because they will have to go on the road for four games to improve on last year’s record.

Last year, Columbia got its six wins by sweeping Harvard and Dartmouth and winning the famous Yale-Brown weekend in the final days of the season. This time, Harvard and Dartmouth are improved squads and winning at New Haven and Providence won’t be easy. The team, too, will not catch a break with its home games.

It is clear that Joe Jones and his players are laying a solid foundation for a successful future, but those foundations ultimately mean nothing without several wins to spark the program. (Last year, it was Yale)

The Princeton game Saturday night was precisely that opportunity, given the Tigers’ desperate circumstances. Maybe, though, the Lions were saving the win for the home crowd.