It’s an unusual weekend for Columbia men’s basketball. The team has faltered early, starting conference play off 1-3. They face undefeated Penn and Princeton squads at home. Yet for the first time in years, oddsmakers have them as an eight-point favorite against the Quakers, and Princeton has struggled for most of the season.

Penn opened their Ivy League season with two close wins against Harvard and Dartmouth last weekend, but losses of player of the years Ibrahim Jaaber and Mark Zoller makes it unlikely that they will defend their league title. Senior guard Brian Grandieri and freshman forward Tyler Bernardini lead a rotation that avoids relying too much on any few players. No Penn player averages over 30 minutes per game, and 11 average over 10 minutes.

“They’re really throwing the ball inside to different guys, doing different things posting up their guards, their big guys.” Columbia head coach Joe Jones said. “They’re not really playing outside, shooting a lot of threes.”

Though the Quakers lack their best players from last season, the last time the two teams faced each other it was Grandieri who took over, shooting a perfect 8-8 from the field. His size and strength will pose challenges for both Niko Scott and KJ Matsui.

After facing the more open, up-tempo offense of Penn, Columbia will take on a Princeton team that plays at the nations fourth slowest pace. Unfortunately for the Tigers, their trademark offense has been crippled this season by a lack of strong outside shooting. Senior forward Kyle Koncz leads the team in three-point attempts, but has made less than a third of his shots, contributing to their overall 32% mark.
Penn and Princeton “play really different, so we have to be ready to play two different styles,” Jones said. “Princeton, obviously, we have to be able to play the shot clock and maintain our focus—something we couldn’t do at Brown. I think our guys have had experience playing against the Princeton style before.”

A 2-0 start for the Tigers surprised many after they lost 12 consecutive non-conference games on their way to a 3-15 record.

Columbia is coming off a split again Yale and Brown last weekend. The team played perhaps their best game of the season against the Bulldogs, displaying a level of offensive efficiency that was absent for much of the season. The following night, the lack of starting point guard Brett Loscalzo and a 10-minute stretch of poor play in the second half led to a close loss at Brown.

Most Columbia fans have yet to see this quality of play, however, as the Lions were blown out in their Ivy home opener against Cornell. Jones is optimistic after seeing his team rebound from that loss last weekend.

“We had one really bad game. So I look at it like that, but I also take a look at the fact that we are 1-3 and we have to get the job done,” Jones said.

“Playing well for 70 out of 80 minutes is not good enough. There’s a lot more good than bad, but we have to continue to improve. And I think as long as we understand that, we’re ok.”