Kyle-Castlin

The 2010s was a breakthrough decade for Columbia track and field. The decade saw improvements initiated to the program in the 1990s finally come to fruition, as the men’s and women’s team finished consistently better in the Ivy League than ever before.

Over the past decade, the Columbia men’s basketball program has featured two head coaches, a number of high-impact players that helped redefine what individual success can look like at Levien Gymnasium, and a few high-intensity moments that will be talked about for decades. And yet, despite these undoubtedly positive developments, the defining takeaway from this decade is that the team has been unable to break out of the pattern of mediocrity that has long been its reputation.

In the middle of its best season in five years, the Columbia club ice hockey team had only ever drawn a handful of people to the rink for its games. But this time, as it suffered a disappointing loss to St. Thomas Aquinas College, the team skated to the sounds of cheers, trumpets, and the banging of a “wet floor” sign from dozens of fans and Columbia University Marching Band members in the arena.

Some nights, Bruce Baker is lucky to get to bed by 2 a.m. The Columbia men’s ice hockey coach does not set this bedtime by choice; rather, the Lions can only afford ice time from 10:30 to 11:45 p.m and most games end after midnight.

Everyone agrees: He is simply too athletic to keep off the field. Faster than the other quarterbacks, he moved to wide receiver. Tougher than his teammates, he was made captain. More versatile than any other offensive weapon in the Lions’ arsenal, he stepped up when injuries torched the depth chart and led the Lions to victory as receiver, running back, and quarterback—often all at once and often interchangeably.

Men’s basketball’s senior guard Kyle Castlin told Spectator that he has transferred to Xavier to play as a graduate transfer.

Ty Dolla $ign will be headlining this year’s Bacchanal spring concert, the Bacchanal Committee announced today via Instagram and at their pop-up in the Diana Center. Kamaiyah and R&B duo St. Beauty will open for them, along with student opener Soul for Youth.

Before arriving at Columbia in the fall of 2015, junior forward Josie Little was one of the most highly sought-after recruits in women’s basketball’s history. Standing at 6 feet 3 inches—the tallest player on the women’s roster—she dominated in the paint and demonstrated a knack for shooting.

Every Wednesday, I interview Columbia men's basketball head coach Kyle Smith to discuss the previous weekend's games and preview the upcoming slate for our pregame shows on WKCR. Usually, Coach Smith is pretty upbeat during these sessions, no matter what the weekend's results were. He is also more candid than any other coach I have had the chance to talk to at Columbia.

All of this made my last interview quite the downer. Smith blamed himself for tinkering too much with the lineup at Yale, leading to a 19-point blowout in New Haven. He ended our interview by saying that those two games had "broke us, mentally and spiritually" before meticulously peering over hustle statistics from the previous day's practice, trying to find an inefficiency against Princeton in an ultimately futile effort.

At 3-7 now, the Lions' last four contests will either lead to them salvaging the season by approaching the .500 mark in the Ivy League, or completely bottoming out, approaching last year's 4-10 mark. After Smith told me the team had their spirits broken, they were blown out by Princeton and then beat Penn by 17, despite failing to make a field goal in the final 15 minutes. On Saturday, the Lions put away the Quakers in a testament to the principles that Smith has been preaching all year: an offense based around generating open three-point looks and getting to the foul line, and a defense that smothers opponents in the paint and contests every movement on the perimeter. The Lions went 22-26 at the foul line against Penn, including 19-22 in the second half to crush any ideas of a Quaker comeback. After the loss to Princeton, and on the second night of a back-to-back homestand, it would have been reasonable to expect the team to fold. They were taking on a Penn team that had just upset Cornell 79-71 Friday evening and had a chance to improve to 5-4 in the Ivy League after winning only three games in nonconference play. Despite all of these factors, Smith helped the Lions right the ship.

This has been an extraordinarily trying season for the men's team. All of the preseason hype was centered around the expectation that Barbour and Cisco would lead the team, with the underclassmen rounding out on-court production when necessary. This was a team that was supposed to win by playing big while other teams in the Ivies (like 9-1 Harvard) were playing smaller lineups. The expectations only grew when the Lions beat Villanova on the road and later dominated Cornell in the second half to begin Ivy play 1-0. Since then, it has been a collection of heartbreaking losses due to poor late-game execution on the court and a string of debilitating illnesses off the court which have doomed this Lions team to its current standing in seventh place.

While the fact that the Lions won't compete for the Ivy title these next two weekends is immensely disappointing, there are positives to look forward to in the years to come. Freshmen Grant Mullins and Maodo Lo have grown into legitimate scoring threats and Lo is already an elite perimeter defender. Sophomores Alex Rosenberg and Cory Osetkowski have improved their games dramatically in year two, especially on the defensive end as they shut down opposing front courts on a regular basis. Steve Frankoski missed all of last year due to a foot injury but has proven himself capable to get open and rain three pointers without skipping a beat.

Going into 2013-14, the team will lack the preseason hype that this year's team brought to the table. It will also need to find its identity and some depth in a hurry due to the four graduating seniors. They will, in all likelihood, not compete for an Ivy title. What does need to happen next season is the continued growth of the current underclassmen. Kyle Smith has proven himself highly capable of improving guards: One just needs to look at Brian Barbour's progression over his three years under Smith and Mullins and Lo's improvements over the past five months for proof. It is far more likely that the 2014-15 team is the one making a run for the NCAA Tournament than next year's squad, but that is a long way away. All we know now is that, despite the broken spirits of the 2012-13 team, Smith has brought in talented underclassmen who could break the hearts of the other seven Ivy schools in years to come.

Sam Tydings is a senior in Columbia College majoring in history. He is a broadcaster for WKCR. Booth Review runs biweekly.