Coaches always preach the one-game-at-a-time mantra, but this weekend, it will be difficult for the Lions to avoid looking ahead. Tonight, Columbia hosts Dartmouth, a team it defeated by 21 in Hanover, and on Saturday, the Light Blue gets a chance at redemption with 7-1 Harvard coming to town.
The Lions are coming off a pair of games that made it hard to predict future performance—a 30-point loss to Princeton on Friday and a double-digit win over Penn on Saturday. With that split, they are 4-4 and sit at fourth in league play. With two wins this weekend, they would be positioned for a winning record, but coach Kyle Smith has his sights set just a bit higher: postseason play.
“We still can have a great finish in league,” Smith said. He then noted the team was technically not eliminated in the race for the Ivy crown before adding, “We can play postseason if we finish really strong like what Harvard and Princeton did last year, playing the CBI [College Basketball Invitational] or CPT [CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament]. Boy, that’d be a shot in the arm.”
For the Lions to get there, it starts with Dartmouth tonight, and though the Big Green is just 1-7 in Ivy play, it has scared its fair share of opponents. Dartmouth led at Harvard by double-digits only to lose and also played both Brown and Yale close to the end. There is also Columbia’s history to consider. Just three years ago, the 7-4 Lions looked set for their best Ivy finish in nearly two decades, but a 16-point home loss to the Big Green precipitated a three-game slide to end the season.
One surefire way of getting the weekend off to a good start is assertive play from Noruwa Agho. Though Agho is still fifth in the Ivy League in scoring, he went through a phase of passivity that his coach hopes ended this past weekend. Agho scored 16 points on Friday and added 21 on Saturday.
“I’ve stopped yelling ‘shoot’ because he’ll just pump fake and drive,” Smith said. “I’m like, ‘Just shoot. You’re allowed to shoot, so shoot more.’ I’d like him to shoot off the catch more. I’d like him to be hunting that.”
On the other side of the ball, the Big Green will force the Lions to play small ball—only this time, Smith’s squad will be without sophomore forward John Daniels. Daniels set a career-high for rebounding in the last outing and shut down Dartmouth’s David Rufful. Tonight, a healthy Asenso Ampim should get the assignment, but the real question is what happens when Ampim has to rest and Dartmouth has five perimeter players on the floor.
“With those guys [John and Asenso] together, we could switch things and it’d be like we had five perimeter defenders,” Smith said. “Now, we’ll always have Mark Cisco or Max Craig in the game. It’ll be more challenging, harder to defend them for sure.”
On Saturday night, the Lions face a different and more daunting challenge—containing the Harvard frontcourt. Keith Wright and Kyle Casey have been nothing short of spectacular this season, and no pair of teammates has been more efficient. Wright and Casey rank second and third respectively in field goal percentage.
In addition to efficiency, the Crimson duo has been especially productive in Ivy play. Outside of Yale’s Greg Mangano, Wright has been the most consistent big man in the conference, and it was Casey that killed the Lions last time, scoring 17 points and adding 13 boards.
Still, Smith hopes to counter by feeding his own big men, particularly Mark Cisco.
“We do have good post players,” Smith said. “I have to keep reminding myself and our team. We have to play inside and get it to those guys, even against the bigger teams. We can’t make it easy on them and try not to go in there.”
One reason Smith is intent on feeding the sophomore center is that he shoots at a high percentage despite a paucity of looks.
That stands in stark contrast to Ampim, who has attempted the most shots on the team over the past two weeks. While Smith would like to see fewer long jumpers, he seems to have an unspoken deal with Ampim—so long as he continues to play as aggressively on both sides of the ball, he is permitted a few ill-advised attempts.
To avoid the Jekyll and Hyde of last weekend, consistency—good and bad—may have to come first.
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