Columbia Lions' Resurgence: Best Start Since 1969
The Columbia Lions are 8-0 for the first time since 1969. Led by Geronimo Rubio De La Rosa, discover how this team is rewriting its basketball history.
Flashback to 1968, all eyes were on John Wooden and UCLA, but head coach Jack Rohan had the Columbia Lions rolling. The Lions were 23-5, they reached as high as 6th nationally and knocked off La Salle in the opening round of the tournament. They would fall to Davidson in the second round, but this would be the start of the best three-year run in the school’s history. The Lions would only make the tournament in 68’, but were ranked in both 69’ and 70’, finishing with at least 20 wins in each of the three years. Jim McMillian and Dave Newmark were the stars of the show as McMillian would be drafted in the 1970 NBA Draft by the Los Angeles Lakers with the 12th overall pick.
After this successful stint for Coach Rohan including a National Coach of the Year award in 1968, it all fell apart starting in the 1971-1972 season. The Lions finished 4-20 on the season. Rohan resigned following the 74’ season, finishing with a combined 16-58 in his final three seasons. Rohan would actually return as the head coach in 1990, but he had just one season with a record of .500 in his final five-year stint.
Following the 1971 season, the Columbia Lions wouldn’t finish with 20+ wins in a season until 2016. During that period of time, they’d finish with a .500 record just 11 times.
Now, the Columbia Lions are off to one of their best start in program history at 8-0. Jim Engles took over as head coach after Kyle Smith departed in 2016 following a 25-10 season where the Lions fell to Yale in the Ivy League tournament. The Lions would go on to win the CIT, defeating Norfolk State, Ball State, NJIT, and UC Irvine along the way. Smith left Columbia after winning 20+ games twice and finishing 101-82 over six seasons to head to San Francisco, then Washington State, and now Stanford.
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Jim Engles would take over the reigns after back-to-back 20+ win seasons at NJIT and it wasn’t easy. The Lions have yet to finish with a .500 record in his first seven seasons (excluding the 2020-2021 season that was cancelled due to COVID-19). The closest the Lions have gotten was last season when they finished 13-14, but now, the tides have turned. How have they gotten here?
Unlike many teams in the modern era of college basketball, the Columbia Lions’ top three scorers have played their entire careers with Engles. Geronimo Rubio De La Rosa is a blooming star, averaging 22.8 points, 3.8 rebounds, 3.1 assists, and 1.9 steals through their first eight games in his fourth season with the Lions. Kenny Noland is a junior that’s averaging 14.4 points, 4.3 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 1.3 steals. Avery Brown is also a junior averaging 10.4, 2.5 rebounds, 3.1 assists, and 1.3 steals.
There will be quite a few people say that their strength of schedule is the reason behind their success, in which per KenPom they rank 360th out of 364 teams. This won’t get any better either with upcoming games against UAlbany (230th in KenPom) and two non-division I schools in Merchant Marine Academy and Sarah Lawrence. If the Lions beat UAlbany on December 4th, the Lions will be 11-0 when they go up against Fairfield on December 28th. Their toughest game of the non-conference will come against Rutgers on December 30th, which if Columbia can pull that win off or at least be competitive, it’ll open people’s eyes.
However, ignoring the strength of schedule thus far, I believe that their success will continue even when they reach conference play. Why the faith? Let’s look at their offense. Here are where the Lions currently sit in some key statistics (as of 11/30/24):
Assists per game: 16th - 19 per game
Assists/Turnover Ratio: 20th - 1.69
Effective Field Goal Percentage: 29th - 57.4%
Field Goal Percentage: 40th - 49.4%
Scoring Offense: 79th - 81.5 per game
While the strength of schedule may not be there right now, they’ve played zero non-division I schools thus far, including a win over Villanova. This is a fundamentally sound offense that thrives off passing the ball. I’ve been enamored by their ability to pass, they rarely make mistakes on the offensive end. Five players are averaging two or more assists per game. In their last win over New Hampshire, Engles commented on the chemistry that the team has already developed thus far.
Where do the Lions rank defensively (as of 11/30/24)?
Field Goal Percentage: 189th - 42.7%
Defensive Rebounds: 189th - 25.5 per game
Rebounds per game: 206th - 36.2 per game
Opponent Scoring: 136th - 68.8 per game
Steals: 96th - 8.2 per game
Turnovers forced: 168th - 13.1 per game
The Lions defense is obviously the most questionable piece of the team. Right now, their defense is average at best against teams like Loyola Maryland, Lehigh, etc. While the stats aren’t great, I’ll shed some light on positive notes in their last two games. Against Stony Brook, the Lions allowed us 63 points (32.8% from the floor). Against New Hampshire, they allowed just 57 (43.6% from the floor).
The ultimate questions here are, can their offense keep up when they are playing tougher competition and can their defense stay reasonable enough? Offensively, I doubt that’ll be much of an issue. The core three of Rubio De La Rosa, Brown, and Noland is a stout group of weapons that Engles can utilize in a conference that was projected to be dominated by Princeton with Yale not far behind. Columbia was picked to finish 5th behind those two and Brown and Cornell.
Princeton is a tough team led by Xaivian Lee and Dalen Davis, while Yale has been a bit up and down to start the year. Yale lost to UIC and Delaware, while losing two close games to No. 13 Purdue and Minnesota. Brown has losses to Siena, Maine, and Holy Cross. Cornell has lost to La Salle and Robert Morris, but picked up a nice win over an excellent Samford team.
This means that there’s no clear second team behind Princeton at this point and time in the season. Columbia could slide in with their potent offense, as long as their defense can keep up against higher competition than their current schedule has offered.
Regardless, this has been a fun story to follow thus far and there should be a realistic expectation that the Lions finish with 20+ wins and earn a bid to a postseason tournament. Make sure to keep close eyes on Geronimo Rubio De La Rosa as well who could sneak his was into a professional career as well as the senior currently sits at 10th overall in the country in scoring. We need to see De La Rosa in a postseason tournament to give him some time in the spotlight.
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