In a World of What Ifs, Lions Are on Top

The heartbreaking question surrounding all sports is this: “What If?” What if Bill Buckner had not let the ball go through his legs in 1986? Or what if Dennis Eckersley hadn’t served up a game-winning home run to Kirk Gibson in the ’88 series?

This age old question relates perfectly to Columbia’s basketball team. What if they hadn’t played Cornell in the first two games? And what if they played Brown with Brett Loscalzo? But the question that I’ve been thinking about is this: what if the Lions played Ivy League leaders Big Red right now on a neutral court?

Since the Lions were crushed by Cornell at Levien Gymnasium on Jan. 26 by 18 points, they have played nearly flawless basketball. Their lone loss was to second place Brown—who is currently ranked comparably to Alabama and Georgia in the RPI—by five points on the road without the help of starting point guard Brett Loscalzo.

Besides that one blemish, the Lions have rolled off five wins, including four in a row for the first time since the 1997-98 season. While these losses may have been against the bottom four of the League—Penn, Princeton, Dartmouth, and Harvard—any wins against Penn and Princeton are solid.

Furthermore, the way the team has played is even more impressive. In those six games, the Lions have outscored their opponents by an average of nearly seven points per game, 66.3-58.5, which is comparable to Cornell’s average margin of victory.

The Lions’ offensive numbers have improved drastically, and the reason is twofold. The first is the emergence of a consistent offensive set, which attempts to put the Lions in position to score. They do this either by isolating John Baumann on the block against the interior defender or by setting multiple screens to free up their three-point shooters, like Niko Scott and K.J. Matsui.

The second reason is the consistency of second and third scorers to complement John Baumann. Since the Cornell games, Matsui, Scott (after the Yale game), Mack Montgomery, and Ben Nwachukwu have all developed a more consistent role in the offense. In the six games, Matsui, Scott, and Montgomery have all averaged approximately 25 points per game combined, which has helped lessen the load on Baumann.

Because these players have been able to shoot, the team’s field goal percentage has soared as well. In their two losses to Cornell, Columbia shot 41.3 percent from the field and 43.3 percent from three-point range. In the past six games, the Lions have increased the overall field goal percentage to 48 percent from the field, while shooting 39.4 percent from three-point range, but they’ve relied less on the three pointer.

The biggest difference has been the Lions’ defense. Against Cornell, they allowed the Big Red to shoot 48.9 percent from the field. This number, over the past six games, has fallen to 39.3 percent—a remarkable improvement. Further, only one team, Brown, has been able to shoot better than 41 percent from the field.

To put this six-game stretch in perspective, Columbia now ranks first in the League in fewest points per game with 61.6, is second in field-goal defense with .415, third in field goal offense, and first in most three-point shots made and prevented.

The two games against the Lions were probably Cornell’s most efficient games of the season. Of the past five games—played against the exact same opponents as the Lions—Cornell has won them all and has done equally as well as Columbia In Cornell’s last six games, they’ve out-scored their opponents by eleven, 74.2-63. Their overall statistics have been similar to the Lions’ as well. Cornell has shot 51.3 percent from the field and 41.9 percent from behind the line. Defensively, they’ve allowed opponents to shoot 39.8 percent from the field, almost the exact same number as the Lions.

Both Montgomery and Baumann asserted after Columbia’s latest win against Harvard that the team is finally gelling together, and everybody is beginning to contribute. It’s unfortunately too late to go back in the archives, but one will always wonder—what if the Lions hadn’t played Cornell in the first two games?