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AROUND THE QUADS COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY
Coach Kyle Smith, in his
second season at Columbia,
had planned to take men’s
basketball back to basics.
Prior to the start of the
2011–12 campaign, he declared, “When
in doubt, we’ll go back to our ABCs —
that’s Agho, Barbour and Cisco.”
Smith’s plan took a huge hit in the
second game of the season, the home
opener against Furman on November
14, when defending Ivy League scoring
champion Noruwa Agho ’12 suffered
an injured left knee. He is expected to
miss much, if not all, of the remainder
of the season. “We’re planning on not
having him anytime in the near future,
or the late future,” Smith told Spectator.
Agho had been expected to team with
fellow guard Brian Barbour ’13, the team’s
top two in scoring, assists and steals last
season, and center Mark Cisco ’13, who
showed flashes of talent while battling a
string of injuries and illness last year, to
form the core of this year’s Lions. Without
Agho, it will be up to Barbour and Cisco
to provide the nucleus if Columbia is to
improve on the 15–13 record it posted in
Smith’s debut season, including an impressive
10–4 at home. Columbia was 6–8 in Ivy
play and tied for fifth place in the league.
While some teams look for easy opponents
for the non-conference portion of
their schedule, Columbia went the other
way, opening its season by traveling to
Storrs, Conn., to face defending national
champion Connecticut on November
11. “It’s always good to play against the
best,” said Smith. “For the players, it’s
an awesome atmosphere. For the head
coach, it’s terrifying.”
The Lions fell behind early, trailed
25–10 midway through the first half and
never really caught up, although they cut
the deficit to single digits before bowing
70–57. “We competed,” Smith said after
the game. “There were a lot of positives for
us. This should be a confidence builder.”
Three nights later, Columbia led most
of the way against Furman before Agho
suffered his injury with 6:19 to play. The
visitors rallied to beat the Lions 62–58, but
the bigger loss was Agho, an All-Ivy First
Team selection last year after averaging
R o a R , L i o n , R o a R
Injury to Agho Clouds Men’s Basketball Picture
B y a l e x sachare ’71
Columbia’s basketball fortunes could hinge on the progress
of center Mark Cisco ’13, seen here boxing out for
a rebound against Connecticut in the season opener.
PHOTO: GEOFFREY BOLTE
16.8 points per game. “There’s an emotional
shot that your team takes,” Smith
said of losing his star player. “We just have
to bear down on the fundamentals — the
little things — because that’s really what
you can control.”
The Lions, whose 70.8 ppg last season
were the most for a Columbia team in 18
years, will begin the Ivy League portion
of their schedule on Friday, January 13, by
hosting Penn.
Barbour emerged as a starter last season
and averaged 13.3 points and 3.2 assists
per game. But with the departure of last
season’s leading rebounder, Asenso Ampim
’11, and 7-footers Max Craig ’11 and
Zack Crimmins ’11, a key to Columbia’s
success could be the play of Cisco, a 6-foot-
9, 245-pounder who was hampered last
season by appendicitis, a knee injury and
a concussion. Despite being limited to 17.1
minutes per game, he averaged 6.8 ppg
and 4.6 rebounds per game.
As for the Ivies, Smith downplayed the
preseason media poll in which the Lions
were picked to finish seventh, saying,
“You could throw a blanket over teams 2
through 7, they’re really that close.” The
team everyone will be chasing is expected
to be Harvard, last year’s co-champion,
which received 16 of 17 first-place votes
from the media panel.
n FALL ROUNDUP: Football coach Norries
Wilson was relieved of his duties after
the Lions completed a 1–9 season, one
in which the Lions came close to winning
WINTER 2011–12
16
several times before finally beating
Brown in double overtime 35–28 in the
season finale. In six seasons, Wilson’s
teams compiled a 17–43 record.
Highlighting the fall season, Columbia’s
men’s soccer team finished just
one point away from the Ivy championship.
After Brown and Dartmouth had
battled to a scoreless draw on the final
day of the season, Columbia needed a
win over Cornell to leapfrog both and
capture the crown, but could only manage
a 1–1 tie at Ithaca on November 12.
Columbia finished 8–7–2 overall and
4–2–1 in Ivy play, its best league record
since 2002, but one point behind Brown
and Dartmouth, who were 4–1–2.
Volleyball and field hockey both
enjoyed winning seasons. Volleyball was
15–10 overall and 9–5 in the league, while
field hockey finished 9–8 overall and 5–2
in Ivy play, missing the league title by just
one game. Women’s soccer did not fare as
well, going 6–10–1 overall and 3–3–1 in
the league.
The men’s and women’s cross country
teams fared well, both finishing second in
the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships
and placing third and fourth, respectively,
at the NCAA Northeast Regionals.
For the latest news on Columbia Athletics,
visit gocolumbialions.com.
n COACH JONES: Joe Jones, who
coached Columbia’s men’s basketball
team from 2003–10 and spent last year
as the associate head coach at Boston
College, is now the head coach at Boston
University. Jones inherited a Columbia
team that went 2–25 and was winless in
Ivy play in 2002–03 and built it to respectability,
compiling an 86–108 record in
seven seasons as the Lions’ head coach.
n RUGBY @ 50: The men’s rugby club held
a reunion to celebrate the 50th anniversary
of its founding as well as the women’s
rugby club’s 20th. A three-day event, it
commenced with a reception on April 15
at the Dodge Fitness Center where club
president Thomas Timberlake ’12, captain
Derek Lipscomb ’11 and women’s captainpresident
Juliette Conte ’12 introduced their