Penn Poised to Take Ivy League Again
by Jay Pearlman
It was a great day of college basketball in New York City, my kinda day, any fan’s kind of day, I think. The two most talented Ivy teams visited two Big East also-rans: Penn (now 6-5) at Seton Hall (now 7-2) in the afternoon, and Columbia (now 7-4) at St. John’s (now 8-3) at night. Two terrific games to watch, both won (barely) by the host Big East school, in each case requiring a super effort by one player to secure the win.
First in the afternoon, the fans in the Meadowlands were treated to the coming-out party for Seton Hall’s super freshman from Queens (NY) Christ the King, Larry Davis. Davis shattered his previous high of eleven points, scoring 27 in 30 minutes on some excellent shooting: 5-5 in two’s, 3-5 in threes, and 8-9 from the line. Davis grabbed 10 rebounds, made 2 steals (one spectacular), and blocked 3 shots. I don’t know how Coach Bobby Gonzalez is going to keep the Big East’s new Quincy Douby off the floor very much going forward. And the Pirates needed every one of those points, rebounds, steals and blocks to win 94-85 over a good and gritty Penn team, the best team I watched all day.
Of course, Penn has a new head coach in Glen Miller, who came over from Brown when Fran Dunphy moved to Temple. And while it’s not yet clear whether Miller can recruit the way Dunphy did (or whether the Penn name does that for any coach), Miller is more than capable enough to win with the senior-laden team Dunphy left behind. In that senior class, Miller has the league’s most talented player (and returning player of the year) in Ibrahim Jabber, the league’s toughest kid and best rebounder (and its current leading scorer) in 6-8 Mark Zoller, and experienced center Steve Danley, who scores in double figures without shooting much. They can play fast or slow (they didn’t play just slowly against Seton Hall), half-court or full court. For the first time, Jabber is a pass-first point guard, generally waiting for the second half to score. Zoller runs the floor, hits open 3’s, picks and rolls to the goal, and rebounds at both ends. He doesn’t look special at any one part of the game, but because he is utterly unafraid, he gets the absolute most out of his body. And because he’s tougher than anyone else in the conference, other teams (and their announcers) sometimes don’t like Zoller very much, even calling him dirty. From a neutral perspective, that’s not true; he simply plays a physical brand of basketball rare in the league, and if the man he’s guarding can’t or won’t match it, that man has no chance.
Columbia headed to St. John’s in Queens for the nightcap. It took a monster game from the Johnnie’s big man, Lamont Hamilton (36 points on 11-13 shooting and 14-16 from the line), just to stay in the game. Columbia led the entire first half, and went to the locker room tied at 29. And while Hamilton pushed Ben Nwachukwu around, causing him to foul and limiting him to 8 minutes, John Baumann played Hamilton better by matching his five rebounds. And even when things got away in the second half, Columbia fought back. A 7-14 showing on three-pointers in that half bringing Columbia within 4 in the final minute.
Now, I’ve only seen half the conference so far. And we now know that Princeton has found a new Pete Carril in Joe Scott, who will get more out of less at his alma mater for as long as he stays there. But this group that Joe Jones has at Columbia is really good and getting better. Freshman guard Patrick Foley was the best player in the game other than Hamilton. He doesn’t start, but shot Columbia to its first half lead, and in 29 minutes scored 12 points on 5-6 shooting, including 2-3 three-pointers, and dished out three assists. Baumann had 13 points to go with his five rebounds. And while outclassed and pushed around by Hamilton, “Big Ben” should be absolutely dominant in the post and on the boards in conference play.
So circle Friday Jan 12 on your calendar (Princeton at Columbia), and for that matter Penn at Columbia the next night as well, after the Quakers bus down from Cornell the night before (the second half of America’s most brutal travel weekend). Regrettably, this writer has radio assignments in Boston Friday night and Saturday afternoon, but if the latter broadcast ends by 3:30, that leaves three and a half hours to get to Penn-Columbia – it just might be worth the drive. To see the Ivy League’s second-most talented team (Columbia) play the most talented at home, under the toughest conditions possible. Yes, that just might be worth the drive.
