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Just a couple more thoughts occurred to me.

Columbia does not offer athletic scholarships. I should think that all of Valpo's rotation are on athletic scholarships. Just to make that clear, none of Columbia's players are on scholarship. You are not likely to see a lot of tattoos on these players, either. But it also makes for a pretty long bench because you are not restricted as to how many guys on the team. They are essentially all invited walk-ons. 

As a matter of fact, when Coach Kyle Smith took over the job four years ago, he thought the Ivy League was just an exalted Division III league. Smith is known for his preparation. He was top assistant to Randy Bennett out at St. Mary's for 8 years. St. Mary's was nipping at Gonzaga's heels all that time, and was the one team that gave Gonzaga fits.

The best place to read about Columbia's men's basketball team is Columbia's newspaper, the Columbia Spectator. I am not allowed to post external links here on your forum site, but if you put Columbia and Spectator all as one word and add the dot com into your browser, you should arrive in the right place and you will see some pretty good articles there about the Columbia.

If you want to read more about Alex Rosenberg, Google the New Jersey Star Ledger Alex Rosenberg basketball, and it will take you to a pretty nice article about Columbia's junior forward.

To listen to some interviews with Coach Kyle Smith, try Columbia's radio station, WKCR dot org and look under archives.

The Ivy League Digital network has games in their entirety but to view anything but highlights, you would need a $16 subscription.

The Ivy League does not have a post season league tournament. They consider their 14-game season as a 14-game tournament.

[Steve Frankoski]

I follow Columbia very closely. Know their whole team. They are a 3 pt shooting team that runs a motion offense, with plenty of back doors, like the old Princeton offense. They have a couple guys who might emerge in this game, ultimately though, despite a higher RPI and Ken Pom rating, they lose this game on the road to Valpo.

Though one commentator said that a former Iona team was much stronger than this Columbia team, well, comparisons are shaky but Columbia played Manhattan -- recent tournament conquerors of Iona -- played them at home early this year. The game, in fact was all but won, but if you look at the box score, Columbia was up by 3 with 5 seconds remaining and didn't box out well on Jasper free throws, so Manhattan ended up scoring 4 pts in 3 seconds.  Still, Freshman Petrasek just barely missed a game winning tip in at the buzzer.

Also look at RPI, BPI and Ken Pom ratings for Columbia and Valpo. Columbia's is significantly better in all three ratings.  But, I admit, that may not mean much, especially on the road.

To reiterate, Columbia is not very good on the road, which is why I am pretty certain Valpo takes this game by about 10 points.

Also significant is that Columbia's best player, PG Sophomore Grant Mullins missed the last half of the season with a serious concussion. He may or may not play against Valpo, and has not played since February 15th.  In retrospect, he came back too soon and it apparently prolonged his recovery. He may be gone until next season.

That said, someone mentioned the Lions' Alex Rosenberg. "Don't foul 'em" somebody said. It ain't that easy. Rosenberg is like the second coming of NBA legend Dolph Schayes and if you don't know who that is, google the name. Rosenberg is 6-7 and drives to the basket kamikaze like. I don't know who else to compare him to. But you cannot help fouling him. He always lands on the floor. If the shot doesn't go in for an and-one, he goes to the line again and again shooting 2.  Princeton stopped him in his most recent game by denying him any room to get started. They focused on taking him out of the game.  Oh, yeah. Rosenberg can hit the 3. He is over 40% accurate, but not so good on the road.

First Harvard game, Columbia  by most observers won that game. The ref took the winning shot by Rosenberg away with a questionable charging call at  the end of 1st Overtime. You all saw the Jim Boeheim going ballistic on a block/charge call that went against T. J. Fair. This was a little worse and the defender was still moving with his leg up in the air. It should have been basket good with Rosenberg going to the line to make 37 points and a 3 point win. But officially it wasn't.

But on the road, against Harvard a couple weeks later, the Lions did not compete. That is what I fear, despite the strong showing against Michigan State earlier, will happen against Valpo's powerful front line.

Columbia is relatively weak defending the post. Valpo can punish them in the paint. But Columbia will take a good 3 pt shooter out of the game. Conversely, if Columbia gets it going from 3, Valpo will be in trouble. It will be a close game at best, if Columbia achieves its 50% proficiency from 3, which they have done a few times this year, most notably against Yale.

Columbia has a lot of different guys Coach Kyle Smith can insert, who can do things well depending on where Valpo's strength lies. Look out for guys like captain Steve Frankoski, an occasionally maniacal scorer from 3 pt. land. A feast or famine guy, but mostly famine. Another guy, freshman Jeff Coby, a 6-8 leaper who played very well against Michigan State, then got a stress fracture on his foot. He is working his way back, but is very raw. Makes free throws.  6-11 Cory Osetkowski has some nice, but very slowly developing low post moves, and on a good day, will hit a couple 3s.  The guy that will catch Valpo napping is Maodo Lo, from Berlin, Germany. Makes the 3, except on the road, but will drive into the paint to get his scores.  Isaac Cohen, don't let the name fool you, he is a hell of a defender, 6-4 re-bounder and glue guy, who almost always passes up shots.

I know Bryce Drew is a heck of coach. But Kyle Smith is the best Div I coach you never heard of. Trust me. The players love him.

It's all really hard to say, but with Valpo being the home team and having been in the post season recently, I just think Valpo wins. Sorry Lions.