Coming of Age: Seniors Take One More Shot at Glory

For one fleeting weekend two Februarys ago, it finally looked like Columbia basketball was ready to take a crucial step forward.

Center Ben Nwachukwu, a sophomore at the time, improbably tipped the ball in with only a second remaining in regulation to beat the eventual league champions, Penn. The following night, Justin Armstrong hit a game-winning shot to give the Lions a one-point win over Princeton.
Levien erupted.

And as the crowd stormed the court, Columbia head coach Joe Jones, in his third year of rebuilding a program that had not seen success in nearly four decades, applauded the fans that had stuck with him through a season marred by disappointment and squander. With six blue-chip sophomores behind him in John Baumann, Mack Montgomery, Brett Loscalzo, Kashif Sweet. Armstrong, and Nwachukwu, Jones and the Lions, it seemed, were on the verge of turning things around. Jones had the core on which to build a program.

Columbia went on to lose three of its next four and finished the Ivy League season at 4-10.

“Sometimes when you’re playing with young guys, and they’re really not playing well, it seems to snowball on you,” Jones said. “Everybody talks about experience, why that’s important, so hopefully, these guys have learned these types of lessons that one bad play doesn’t have to lead to another.”

Now, the players from that team—Jones’ first recruiting class—are seniors. They’ve had a taste of success, going 7-7 in Ivy play last season. They have a returning All-Ivy player in Baumann, the most experienced starting lineup in the league, and one of its deepest rosters. The team’s talent is on par with any of its Ivy League opponents, and with the graduation of some of the league’s most dominant players, the team knows that every opponent is vulnerable.

“You’re talking about guys who have experienced the ups and downs of a season, so hopefully in the midst of a tight game, and maybe when they haven’t played well for stretches ... [they] can still come out and win a game,” Jones said.

Now, the team now has six seniors with the experience to carry it through the season. The senior captains are acutely aware of the expectations that surround them. Outwardly, they seem as focused as possible. The question is, can they make the leap?

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The team isn’t making any predictions. Jones is visibly more optimistic about this season than any before in his tenure. You can see it in his attitude when he talks about his team. He gets more excited, and his voice is clear and confident. His words, however, are cautious and careful.

“I’ve never put a number on success since I’ve been here, and I never will,” he said. “Each and every time we’ve stepped on the court since October 15 or so, we play with the idea of going to NCAA Tournament. I think that to be involved in college basketball, and not to think about that, wouldn’t be great.”

But the idea of a championship is being brought up more and more often.
“I think we’ve established ourselves as a winning program, and we’re not going to be happy with anything but championships,” Loscalzo said. “We’ve been here three years now, we’ve worked really hard to build up this program with the help of some guys that have already graduated, and if we can leave one legacy, we want to make sure Columbia is a winning program and a championship-caliber team.”

Jones hardly goes through an interview without referencing players who have graduated, like Matt Preston and Matt Land. That team, Jones’ first, went 6-8 in Ivy play and came into its senior season much like this one. It had a core of seniors, a building-block season, and was a dark horse contender for the league title. Expectations were high, but the team finished in last place at 3-11.

“As great as it is to say we’re bringing everyone back, everyone else is making strides as well in the league,” Baumann said. “I think that we look at that as a positive but also realize that we have to play consistently to do what we want to do.”

Perhaps it’s the memory of that team four years ago that leads Columbia to downplay everything. They give the standard line of “one game at a time”, and don’t talk like their college careers are winding down.

“I think at any time when you have six seniors, there’s going to be a feeling about this being the last chance that they can do this,” Jones said, “but we try to get them not to focus on that because it’s going to be what it’s going to be.

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Regardless of what happens this season, Columbia basketball and the support of the program have evolved over the past four years. Fans now fill the stands for Ivy League games, Midnight Mania attracts hordes of enthused students, and players are recognized on campus. In many ways, basketball is the marquee sport at Columbia, thanks to Jones and his current crop of players.

“Our attitude hasn’t changed,” Montgomery said. “The feeling on campus has changed—whether it’s been because we’ve gotten older, more experienced. We came into a program that wasn’t doing very well and we kind of turned it around.”

The most important characteristic of a sports team with a great fan base is its ability to be competitive within the conference. For fans, it’s not about winning—it’s about expecting to win. They want to know that their team has a chance.

That’s the difference for Columbia now: the program has promises to keep.
The team was picked fourth in the Ivy League media poll, but it also received a vote for first. With Penn’s losing Ivy Player of the Year Ibrahim Jaaber, the Ancient Eight is wide open. Penn was the only team Columbia couldn’t get close to last season, but graduation was not kind to the Quakers.

Cornell, the preseason championship pick, won two close games against the Lions and has lost Andrew Naeve, a disruptive frontcourt presence. Columbia is the only team to retain every starter—a talented group with the ability to mesmerize and infuriate.
Jones knows this, but he also remembers the heartbreak of losing to weaker teams. And it’s unclear whether the Lions can turn seniority into consistency.

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The easy excuses for Jones and his players are gone. For the relatively healthy team led by veterans with a preseason schedule set to challenge them, things look promising.
Columbia’s hopes ride on the seniors, no one denies that. Although there is a good bit of talent in the underclassmen, it is ultimately up to the players who have seen it all. As the first four-year team under Jones, the players have said and done all the right things up to this point.

“Their legacy is something that people will talk about and respect, and they’ve helped us really build a program,” Jones said. “I think that’s the most important thing they’ve done since they’ve been here. Obviously, this is their last season, so they want to go out on top, and we want to get it done for them. But they understand that we have to think about the here and now.”