It’s just about my favorite time of year, and I’m not referring to Christmas. I am of course talking about Ivy League basketball and my Ivy League fantasy basketball league. This isn’t some run-of-the mill fantasy league. The winner gets enough beer to last him/her the semester, which is why I’ve already started thinking about which players I’m going to draft. Since Spectator won’t be publishing when the Lions play their first Ivy game against Cornell on Jan. 15, I’ll provide some insider fantasy information on the Columbia men’s basketball players in this column.
As any fantasy owner will tell you, the first picks in the draft are reserved for the superstars of the league (the Kobes and the LeBrons). These players put up impressive statistics across the board, which is why they get the honor of hearing their names called first. The player most likely to represent Columbia in the first round is junior guard Noruwa Agho. Agho excels at all ranges, as he can score both by attacking the basket and by stepping out and knocking down jumpers. Agho is leading the team in points per game, 16.3, and assists, 35. Combine that with five rebounds per game and you’ve got yourself some solid fantasy production.
With a guard like Agho going in the first round, the second round would be a great opportunity to draft a big man who gets a lot of rebounds. Columbia’s two possible second-round selections are senior forwards Asenso Ampim and Brian Grimes. As expected of big men, both Grimes and Ampim excel in the painted area. Grimes gives you decent scoring, 6.3 points per game, and great rebounding with a team-high 7.3 boards per game. Ampim has the edge in points, 8.1 per game, while giving up in rebounds at 6.1 rebounds per game.
Two rounds in and you’ve got the beginnings of a good fantasy team. Nowadays, every good team has a good point guard, so that’ll be the position to fill in round three. Taking the place of Patrick Foley, sophomore Brian Barbour is Columbia’s starting point guard and a respectable third-round draft pick. Barbour, despite being a sophomore, gives you exactly what you would expect from a veteran point guard. Each night, he will contribute 10.3 points and just under four assists while doing it all with impressive efficiency. Barbour is making over 40 percent of his shots from the field and nearly all his freebies at the line with a team-leading .912 free throw percentage. In leagues where shooting percentages matter, those last two statistics are especially important.
With your point guard safely secured, round four is where you can get creative and begin to address specific needs that your team may have. I’m going to go with a guy that can hit from beyond the arc, namely freshman guard Steve Frankoski. Frankoski is the Lions’ three-point specialist, leading the team in three-point percentage at .431, and second leading scorer at 11 points per game. An added bonus, Frankoski leads the team in steals with 10. The season is still young, and there is always some risk in taking a freshman, but Frankoski has handled the transition to the college level quite well. He’s coming off his best game of the season, leading Columbia to a win over Stony Brook, scoring 21 points on seven three-pointers. It will be interesting to see how he progresses by the time the Lions face their first Ivy rival in the Big Red.
The middle rounds often become a free-for-all since most owners don’t plan out who they are going to select after the first four rounds. Depending on your team’s makeup, you could draft a variety of players, from defensive specialists who force a lot of turnovers to more big men to pad rebounding. However, the late rounds, like the early rounds, are the perfect time to select a very specific type of player, namely the sleeper. What is the sleeper? A sleeper pick is a player that flies in under the radar going into the season but explodes on the scene as a solid fantasy selection. Owners love sleepers because when chosen correctly, sleepers can put a team over the top (not to mention make the owner look like a genius). My Columbia sleeper pick for the year is freshman guard Dyami Starks. Playing just under 17 minutes per game, Starks is averaging 8.8 points per game on impressive shooting from both the three-point line and free throw line—his percentages are .514 and .467, respectively. He’ still young, but from what I’ve seen, he has the potential to be a potent scorer. Unfortunately, he doesn’t give you much else, as his rebounding and defensive statistics aren’t good.
Columbia is just one team in the Ivies, and there are plenty of others players in the league that have high fantasy value, but I’m not going to give away all my secrets just yet. After all, I have a fantasy championship to win.
Bart Lopez is a Columbia College senior majoring in economics-mathematics.
sports@columbiaspectator.com
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