Lions start path to promising basketball year

Those of us who carefully follow sports trends around campus are starting to pay attention to the men’s basketball team.

It now holds a 10-5 overall record, and fans are starting to get excited. The Lions have won seven out of their last eight games. They are 7-1 at home. On Saturday, they knocked off Cornell, last year’s Ivy champion, by a four-point margin after a finish that was way too close. And star junior guard Noruwa Agho is leading the Ancient Eight with 17 points per game and has a legitimate shot to win Ivy League Player of the Year. But it’s too early to get our hopes up.

There are a lot of positive signs. This year’s freshman class is very talented and has already worked its way into the starting lineup. Steve Frankoski, a first-year guard, has emerged as the team’s three-point specialist. The sharpshooter from New Jersey is shooting over 40 percent from behind the arc and 93.3 percent from the free-throw line. When he heats up, the game plan seems to be to get him the ball, clear some space, and get out of the way. Classmate Dyami Starks, another guard, has also made his mark as a rookie. Starks is averaging 15 minutes on the floor and has shown that he can hit the big three, too.

Columbia’s most important freshman, though, wears a suit and tie to the game. His name is Kyle Smith, and this past May, he was named Columbia’s 22nd men’s basketball head coach. And let me tell you, he is the real deal. After a nine-year stint as associate head coach at St. Mary’s in California, Smith has already shown what he can do with a group of capable basketball players at Columbia. He has immediately transformed the Lions’ offense into a faster-moving unit, and his set rotation has helped the players gel with each other on the court.

But there is more to Smith than his skillful diagramming and lineup plans. I was lucky enough to sit in on the press conference after the first home game this year, a 108-74 runaway victory over Maryland Eastern Shore, and that’s when I learned that Smith isn’t a typical Ivy League head coach. For one thing, he was positively giddy over the outcome. He literally could not hide his glee or contain his grin. And instead of offering stoic, formulaic answers to some of the tougher questions, he was brutally honest with himself, admitting freely some mistakes he had made with match-ups in the season opener, a road loss to La Salle. I even heard that Smith has used some very rough language in at least one interview this season.

I like that. If the head coach is going to hold himself to a high standard, if he is going to question his own decisions and admit that he can always improve, then surely he expects the same of his players. His emotions are transparent, meaning that whatever praise or criticism he may have will shine through clearly. Watching the body language across the bench, it’s clear that Smith has had no trouble gaining his team’s trust.

And then there is Agho. He leads the league in scoring and he’s fourth in assists, 10th in steals, and seventh in minutes played. Columbia’s entire offense revolves around him, and he is the only player on the team who can really create something out of nothing. For the next season and a half, we will always know who’s going to get the ball when the game is on the line.

Throw in key contributors who have made strides since last year—point guard Brian Barbour (12.2 PPG), forward Asenso Ampim (6.3 RPG), and center Mark Cisco (.644 shooting percentage)­­—and the Lions seem to have found a recipe for success.

But there are reasons for pessimism, too—or, at least, reasons to suspend our high hopes until the next few weeks play out. This team has to learn how to win in unfriendly territory. The Lions are just 3-4 away from Levien Gymnasium, and while an occasional road loss to a strong team is acceptable, an Ivy frontrunner must dispatch mediocre teams with relative ease, no matter the location.

Furthermore, the team has an annoying habit of taking sure blowout wins and transforming them into nail-biting, down-to-the-wire affairs. (Fun fact: Columbia’s last 10 games have all been decided by six points or fewer. The Lions are 8-2 over that stretch.) Smith and his players need to summon the killer instinct to put away opponents when the opportunity presents itself.

Columbia plays Cornell again tomorrow, this time in Ithaca. This game will be a huge bellwether. Cornell is not the same team that reached the Sweet 16 last year, but the Big Red will have a strong home crowd. Chris Wroblewski, Cornell’s dynamic junior guard, probably won’t turn in a second straight disastrous performance. And the Big Red will be out for revenge.

But if Columbia can pull one out—if the Lions can sweep the Big Red, if they can win a big one on the road—then maybe, just maybe, we can start to get our hopes up.

Jacob Levenfeld is a List College senior majoring in history and Talmud. sports@columbiaspectator.com