Seniors Lead The Way for CU Basketball

Since Cornell clinched the Ivy League championship last weekend, the seven other teams in the conference will spend their final weekend of Ivy play preparing for the upcoming season and trying to finish their current campaigns on positive notes. This is particularly true for Columbia.

This weekend will determine if this is the best Columbia team since 1992-93, which featured Ivy League player of the Year Buck Jennings and All-Ivy first-teamer Tom Casey. That Columbia team finished the Ivy season with a 10-4 record and second behind Penn, who went 14-0. Improving the Lions’ current 7-5 record at Penn and Princeton will be a daunting task, considering Columbia’s woes at these schools over the years.

As Penn and Princeton have combined for the past 20 Ivy League titles and have been considered the cream of the Ivy League crop in basketball, Columbia’s struggles at Jadwin Gymnasium and the Palestra are to be expected. However, the extent of the struggles on the road are nearly unparalleled.

Since the Ivy League formally became a basketball league during the 1955-56 season, Columbia has defeated Penn 24 times in 103 attempts. This futility is even more noticeable at the Palestra. During the 51 road games, Columbia has managed just seven victories, all of which—with the exception of the two times that Columbia swept Penn in 1958 and 1968—have been by fewer than 11 points.

While the historical analysis appears grim, this year’s senior class has defeated Penn twice in seven matchup. The Penn teams during the past four years have won the Ivy League title three times, so winning two games against them is rather impressive.
While Columbia’s performances at the Palestra have been pretty poor, the Lions’ record at Jadwin Gymnasium in Princeton, N.J. is even worse. Since the 1956 season, Columbia has beaten Princeton 20 times, but only six of those wins have been at Jadwin, and only two of them have occurred since 1971. This gives Columbia a .192 overall winning percentage, while it has only won 9.2 percent of its games on the road.

But these Lions aren’t your grandfather’s, father’s, or even older brother’s Lions. This senior class has the opportunity to accomplish a few impressive feats. If Columbia is able to sweep Penn and Princeton, it will mark the first time since the Ivy League’s formation that this has occurred. In order to do this, the Lions must play like they did in the opening games at home.

During the Lions’ 74-58 win over Penn, the Quakers were without arguably their second-best player, Tyler Bernadini. The freshman averages 12.4 points per game in just over 25 minutes. Despite that fact, Columbia was able to dominate all facets of the game, particularly three-point shooting—it shot 57.9-percent—and defensively, as Penn shot only 39.6 percent. In order to keep the second aspect (defense) at the same tier, the Lions must contain Bernadini. Against Princeton, Columbia utilized the same skills in defeating the Tigers by 5. So, for this upcoming weekend, the Lions must revert back to their perimeter prowess, while contesting their opponents’ jump shots.

Secondly, the senior class has the opportunity to move up in the ranks of Columbia’s greatest individual classes. By finishing the season with a sweep, the seniors will finish their careers with a record of 53-56, including a 21-33 record in the Ivy League. Further, by setting a precedent of success, it will allow Columbia and Joe Jones to continue to compete—and win—the recruiting wars with the likes of Princeton, Penn, and now Harvard (particularly with the recent development of a possible recruiting scandal involving Crimson head coach Tommy Amaker).

This senior class—as it has been said—has transcended Columbia basketball into respectability. The underclassmen are going to need to take the torch and continue it on into the coming years. Wins at Penn and Princeton—and sweeping the Killer P’s—will not only put an emphasis on a great year, but will provide the Lions with confidence in the future that will be necessary to maintain this current wave of success.