After turning in possibly its best performance in Joe Jones’ tenure against Ohio State, the Columbia men’s basketball team (1-2) travels to the capital of New York to take on the University of Albany (1-1) on Saturday.

The Great Danes are coming off one of their most successful campaigns in recent memory, going 23-10, and 13-3 in the America East, winning the conference tournament before bowing out to the University of Virginia in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

Albany returns three starters from that squad, but has lost two-time America East player of the Year, Jamar Wilson. The Great Danes still return seven of their top nine scorers, but so far this season, replacing Wilson offensively has been a bit of a problem.

In their first game at Bucknell, the Great Danes were only able to muster 52 points, while shooting 35.7 percent for the game. Further, the Bison were able to coerce 14 Albany turnovers, in defeating the Great Danes, 55-52. Albany still struggled offensively against Central Connecticut State, only scoring 63 points, including overtime, while shooting a solid 46.4 percent. Turnovers were a problem again, as Albany had 20 turnovers.

Albany will be led by a duo of guards, seniors Jon Iati and Brian Lillis. Both started the opener against Bucknell, while Lillis started against Central Connecticut State. Despite only playing in one game, Iati ranks second on the team in minutes played (32), and points (13). Lillis leads the Great Danes in scoring with 14 per contest, while averaging three assists per game.

In order to defeat the Great Danes at Albany, the Lions must shoot better than they have thus far. So far, Columbia has shot a measly 35.7 percent from the field, while allowing its opponents to shoot 46.8 percent. The Lions only have three players shooting over 40 percent: John Baumann, Joe Bova, and Brett Loscalzo.

Another must for Columbia is forcing turnovers on the defensive end, which will lead to easy baskets. Against the Buckeyes, the Lions played a tenacious 2-3 zone, which confused Ohio State. Much of the same will probably be employed up at Albany, as it will try to confuse the Great Danes.

Also, Albany tends to go to a small lineup, starting only one player taller than 6-foot 5-inches. The Lions can combat this in two ways. The first is by establishing Baumann and Ben Nwachukwu down low to take advantage of their height. Or, the Lions could go small, replacing Nwachukwu or Baumann with Bova, something that has been effective this season.