Ampim, Crimmins to Gain Experience Behind Veterans

With the expected return of all members of the 2006-07 basketball team, the incoming freshman class will see limited action. This year, however, that will affect only two players. The class of two is the smallest class of recruits brought in since head coach Joe Jones joined the Columbia staff.

These two athletes—Asenso Ampim and Zack Crimmins—should prove to play a large role for the team in the future, as they add height and depth to the Lions’ bench and front court. It is difficult to say that the pair will see a lot of time this season, as the starting lineup in the front court is set with seniors Ben Nwachukwu and John Baumann, who is an early favorite for Ivy League Player of the Year. The two freshmen have benefitted from the veteran lineup, and they look to both Nwachukwu and Baumann to help them develop into the players that Jones hopes will become the core of the program in years to come.

“Being a big man, they’ve told me their stories and how they managaed to get to where they are, and I believe this will help as the years go on,” Cimmins said.

These freshmen will comprise the beginning of Jones’s transitional class, as the team will graduate six seniors at the end of the season, including the majority of its starting five. In bringing Ampim and Crimmins in, Jones hopes to continue the recent trend of centering the team on post play.

Ampim, originally born in Ghana, attended the Groton School in Massachusetts and stands in at 6-feet-6-inches and 240 pounds. While at Groton, Ampim spent all four years as a varsity athlete in basketball, soccer, and track and field. In his senior season as the captain of the basketball team, he suffered a setback due to a back injury, but he returned for the final 10 games of the season to average 22 points and 13 rebounds per game—all this despite having played basketball only since eighth grade. Ampim, who boasts superb athleticism, compares well to Baumann with his ability to both shoot from the three-point range and compete as a post-up player.

Crimmins joins the Columbia squad out of the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference in Virginia—one of the premier high school leagues in the country. At Bishop O’Connell High School, Crimmins started playing varsity basketball in his junior year following a transfer from Trinity during his sophomore year. As a senior, he received All-WCAC honorable mention, putting up eight points and eight rebounds per game.

How much of an impact these two freshmen will have on the future of Columbia basketball should probably remain unknown this year, as the two will be hard-pressed to find much playing time as part of a veteran squad. But with the departure of Baumann and Nwachukwu after this season, the height and athleticism of Ampim and Crimmins will be a major factor in upcoming seasons for the Lions.

“We’ll have to see [about the freshmen]... but both guys are definitely guys that are going to have an impact on the program,” Jones said. “We’ll have see how much of it will be this year, or in the future, but they’re both very good players.”