Nov. 13 | 11 a.m. | Levien Gymnasium
Kean
Columbia
THE STORYLINES
COLUMBIA'S STATUS
The Lions will begin the 115th season in program history this Friday, when they host Kean (NCAA Divison III) to open the 2015-16 campaign.
KEAN'S STATUS
The Cougars finished 2014-15 with a 6-19 overall record, including a 4-14 mark in the New Jersey Athletic Conference.
Kean returns its leading scorer, senior guard Tommy Soulias, who averaged 21.4 points last year en route to All-NJAC and All-Region honors.
SERIES HISTORY
This will be the first meeting between the two schools.
LET'S GET IT STARTED
Columbia is 76-38 all-time in season openers. Last year, Columbia fell to Stony Brook, 57-56, on the road.
HOME SWEET HOME
Columbia is 82-32 all-time in home openers and have won six of its last seven debuts in Levien Gymnasium after dispatching Wagner, 70-56, on Nov. 18, 2014.
MULLINS, ROSENBERG RETURN
After missing all of last season due to injury, Grant Mullins and Alex Rosenberg return for their senior seasons.
DYNAMIC DUO
With Maodo Lo and Alex Rosenberg, Columbia has a pair of 1,000-point scorers on the same team for the first time since 1998-99 when Gary Raimondo and Justin Namolik provided the 1-2 punch for the Lions offense. This is just the sixth time in program history Columbia has two members of team that have eclipsed 1,000 points.
LOOK WHO'S BACK
The Lions bring back a total of 12 players, including eight that have seen significant action as starters (Kyle Castlin, Jeff Coby, Isaac Cohen, Grant Mullins, Maodo Lo, Alex Rosenberg, Chris McComber, Luke Petrasek).
NEW CUBS IN THE PRIDE
Columbia's seven first-years on the roster are tied for the third most in NCAA Division I Basketball this season. Bradley has 10 newcomers while UTEP and Cornell have eight. The Lions are even with Applachian State, Georgia Southern, Nebraska, New Mexico State and Ohio State.
UP FOR A CHALLENGE
Columbia's 2015-16 slate features four squads that made the NCAA Tournament and eight that qualified for the postseason a year ago.
THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME
Even with a string of tough opponents, the Lions scheduled 18 contests in the friendly confines of Levien Gymnasium, the most home contests in program history.
A HISTORY OF SUCCESS
Head coach Kyle Smith has built his staff with a combined nine NCAA Tournament apperances, five Sweet 16's, two Final Four's and a national championship.
TO THE POINT
Dating back to his days as associate head coach at St. Mary's, Kyle Smith has turned point guards into all-conference players. Patty Mills, currently of the San Antonio Spurs, picked up WCC first team accolades in 2008 and 2009, Mickey McConnell was the WCC Player of the Year in 2011, and Matthew Dellavedova was also a WCC Player of the Year and is with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Upon Smith's time at Columbia, Brian Barbour was a two-time All-Ivy League selection in 2012 and 2013 and Maodo Lo has gained All-Ivy League status the past two seasons.
THE SMITH ERA
Over the last five seasons with Kyle Smith as the Lions' head coach, Columbia has won 76 games, the most in such a span since Columbia posted 82 wins from 1967-68 season to 1971-72. It is also the most for a Lions coach in his first five seasons at the helm since Lou Rossini notched 84 wins from 1950-54.
MR. INTERNATIONAL(S)
The Lions have six players with international playing experience on their roster.
• Maodo Lo spent his summer training with the German National Team, competing for the “B” team at the University Games, where he won silver and went on to play with the Senior National Team at the 2015 Eurobasket in Berlin with the likes of NBA players Dirk Nowitzki (Dallas Mavericks), Dennis Schroeder (Atlanta Hawks) and Tibor Pleiss (Utah Jazz). In the summer of 2014, Lo narrowly missed the cut for being on the squad that competed at the FIBA World Championships.
• Lukas Meisner has been a part of the Junior German National Team system since 2010 and trained against Lo the past two summers.
• Grant Mullins played with the Canadian Development Team at the Four Nations Tournament in China during the summer of 2013, helping his team go a perfect 9-0.
• Chris McComber was one of three Canadians selected to play at the Basketball Without Borders Camp, sponsored by the NBA, in Buenos Aires in 2013.
• Isaac Cohen and Conor Voss spent the summer of 2015 playing with East Coast USA against a team of French pro league All-Stars and the Chinese National Team
POLL POSITION
Columbia was picked second in the official preseason Ivy League poll. The Lions received six first place votes, but finished second to Yale, who tied for the Ivy League crown last season. Columbia's second-place ranking matches its other second-place showing in the 1991-92 preseason poll.
MUST SEE TV
Three Columbia games are set to be broadcast on TV this season, beginning with the Lions' Feb. 5 tilt at Yale slated to be featured on Fox Sports 1. The American Sports Network will produce Columbia's Feb. 19 game against Harvard and Feb. 26 game at Princeton. ESPN3 and the WatchESPN App will also air four contests (Nov. 16 at Kansas State, Nov. 20 at Northwestern, Nov. 24 vs. Wofford and Feb. 12 vs. Penn).
UP NEXT:
AT KANSAS STATE
CBE HALL OF FAME CLASSIC
MONDAY, NOV. 16 | 9 P.M.
MANHATTAN, KAN. | BRAMLAGE COLISEUM
