Our brave defender this week is Daily Editor/Sports Guru James Downie, extolling the virtues of basketball games.

At Columbia, many students like to pretend they're too cool to root for sports teams. In academic speak, this would be "a surrender to the psychology of the mob" (even though Lord of the Flies clearly demonstrates the success of the mob approach; anyone who whines as much as Piggy deserves to be brained). In addition to this social barrier, many sports suffer from their distance from campus, their lack of notoriety as sports outside the Olympics (see: fencing, rowing, etc.), or, most importantly, the sheer awfulness of the teams (hello, 44 losses in a row!).

Basketball suffers from none of these. Now, I'll admit I played two years of junior varsity basketball in high school, mostly filling the "Vanilla Thunder" role reserved for gangly white guys coming off the bench. While I actually enjoyed those years (despite acne's best efforts to make me cry), that is not why I advocate going to some basketball games. Rather, basketball games offer, in addition to healthy doses of sleevelessness, one of the best ways to experience fun, drama, and even some good old school spirit.

The Columbia men's basketball team got its season off to a thrilling start, as they gutted out a 65-62 win over Fordham. Fordham led by as much as eight during the second half, but the Lions held them to 25% shooting to gain the victory. Columbia dominated on the boards in particular, with a 52-27 advantage over Fordham. Senior center Jason Miller posted a double-double, with 13 points and 15 rebounds, junior guard Patrick Foley added 18 points and 5 rebounds, and sophomore forward Asenso Ampim came off the bench to add 15 points and 14 rebounds. It was Columbia's first season-opening win in three years. The Lions play at Seton Hall in Newark, Sunday at 1 p.m. (game on WKCR).

In other winter sports news, the women's basketball team opened with a loss, 79-57 to Oakland (Mich.). The men's and women's swimming & diving teams both won their season (and conference) openers, with the women squeaking by Yale 155-145, and the men dominating Penn 170-128.

As we reported earlier, CCSC presidential candidate George Krebs challenged his opponent, Alidad Damooei, to a basketball showdown which was to be played this Friday in Dodge. As we also reported earlier, Krebs threatened that Damooei and Connect Columbia "be there or be square."

Neither there nor, arguably, square, Damooei has re-buffed Krebs' basketball throwdown with a counter-challenge: "If we are going to play a game, let it be for a good cause and a fair fight. Let us join together in the spirit of community service. On Saturday night between 6 and 9PM, the Blue Key Society is doing a spelling bee for charity. You have to raise $30 to sign up a team of 20. You bring a team and I bring a team. This way, we can promote this service project and have our competition serve a good cause."

Oh, shit. Counter-challenge: issued! What say you, Krebs? Or rather, what spell you? Damooei's full email after the jump.

Tuesday was super.

The Glass House rocked, didn't rock.

Elementary schoolers were adorable.

Religion and politics didn't mix.

A Columbia sports team actually won a game...

... even though Coach Joe Jones was splitting his time between the court and his on-the-side puppy transport business. This one is maybe not so obvious.

Like a phoenix, Columbia rises from the ashes of defeat. CML reports.

On Friday evening, thousands of faithful Columbia students poured into Levien gymnasium to watch the Lions take on conference powerhouse Penn. Despite losing the best player in recent Ivy League basketball history, Ibrahim Jaaber, to graduation, Penn came into the game with a 2-0 conference record, which recalled their three consecutive league titles, as well as the brief lead they held in the second half against Texas A&M in the tournament last year. A raucous rooting section, consisting of a squadron of cheerleaders, a smidgeon of a marching band, and a few regular Penn students were also in attendance. The Quakers had entered enemy territory.

For the first ten and the last thirty minutes, Columbia dominated the game. Penn's once-respected perimeter D proved to be about as effective as the Maginot Line as K.J. Matsui and Niko Scott jacked up three after three. Meanwhile, the Quaker offense was fittingly pacifistic, missing almost all of its long-ranged shots and meeting with little more success as it closed in towards the basket. The Lions led by as many as 15 in the first half, and by halftime, it was 38-29.

While Coach Jones of the Columbia men's basketball team may or may not be running a side puppy taxi business, the women's team is certainly seeing great success! Last night, the girls stunned UPenn 70-61. Currently at 3-2, another win will set Columbia to tie for first place in the Ivy League division.

Tonight the team faces off against Princeton at its home court. Take advantage of free NJ transit tickets and go show your school spirit! Face painting recommended but not required.

CORRECTED: Coach Jones is not the women's basketball coach. Apologies.

Bwog noticed a link to a Craigslist post in the comments of the Cooking with Bwog article. The link brought us to an advertisement for Five Star Puppy Transportation, a canine shipping business that will "TAKE YOUR DOG DOWN TO FLORIDA IN A VERY NICE, ROOMY, AND SAFE SUV."

Sounds tempting! But how credible is the Five Star Puppy Transportation service? "I NEVER TAKE MORE THAN TWO DOGS IN ONE TRIP, AND I HAVE A HELPER THAT WILL SIT IN THE BACK SEAT WITH YOUR PET. DONT LOCK YOUR DOG UP IN A CAGE AND LET THE AIRLINES BANG HIM AROUND."

Since when has Columbia been politically active anyway?

Kanye now collaborates with... stuffed dinosaurs?

Apparently Communism is one of the faiths espoused by Columbia students.

Now we finally know for sure: "every Muslim isn't a terrorist, or white person a racist, or black person with a hoodie a gangster."

Is it at all telling about our athletic conference that we are proud of a near victory in the NCAA tourney over 20 years ago?

Columbia men's basketball came into this evening's game against Cornell with high hopes—after all, some sports prognosticators and portents had picked the Lions in the preseason as league champions, and opening league play with a hard-fought six-point loss at Ithaca against Cornell, there seemed to be no reason that the senior-studded lineup couldn't better their performance at home in the veritable high-school gym that is Levien.

A win would mean a respectable 1-1 record with twelve ostensibly easier league games to go; a loss would consign Columbia to the cellar of the Ivy League, with a pitiful record of 0-2 and prospects for a league championship dim for not just one but probably several years. So how did the Lions respond to what may have been the biggest basketball game in years? In a word, poorly. Cornell came out of the gate strong by scoring ten unanswered; Columbia's clunky offense failed to score until more than six minutes had elapsed.

HOLY SHIT! Columbia is up 23-21 against The Ohio State University in basketball.

The game is on ESPN right now, so tune in if you want to see what is currently a miracle and will either stay that way or turn into a heartbreak.

Halftime UPDATE: Well, maybe we shouldn't have posted anything, because the ol' "Bwog Jinx" seems to have kicked in. Right after this post went up, OSU came up with 12 unanswered points to go up 33-23, although the Lions did retaliate with a 3-point buzzer beater to bring it to 33-26 at the half. For comparison, Duke led by 21 at halftime last year.

Final UPDATE: 68-54 Buckeyes. OSU coach Thad Matta finally figured out how to win a basketball game with a team of much bigger dudes. Meanwhile, Columbia coach Joe Jones figured out how to stay close with a team of much smaller dudes. So who's the real winner?

According to ESPN Gamecast, it's still Matta. But at least they have a nifty little chart where you can visually see OSU pull ahead in the second half. - DHI

Basketball season is upon us! Bwog general assignment reporter CML reports on the sensational season opener.

What with the unlikely regression of the football team from last year's record, hopes for the basketball team were high heading into last night's opener. Some expert analysts* even forecast the Lions as having a fighting chance to win the Ivy League this year. We returned everyone important. We run the kind of methodical and balanced offense that flusters teams better than us. We play inspired and tenacious D. So why not Columbia? That question fell to our crosstown archnemesis Fordham, whose football team already eviscerated ours earlier this year.

Fordham, which plays in the eminently respectable and oft-underrated Atlantic 10 conference, was favored by a large margin coming into the game. Blithely unaware of this, I arrived with companion Justin Vlasits a few minutes prior to tipoff, operating under the assumption that we had a decent chance of winning. Strolling past a diverse mixture of fans (Fig. 1) and situating ourselves in the middle of the student section, we were soon joined by a wayward and middle-aged Fordham fan who was evidently unable to locate the writhing mass of Rams advocates at the opposite end of Levien. Soon the game started, Light Blue against Communion Wine Crimson. For the first few minutes neither team did anything to disprove my assumption, but I soon began to see what an uphill struggle it was going to be for the Lions. Shots - particularly those attempted by F John Baumann - weren't falling, and Fordham's superior size allowed it to command the boards, score multiple times off second chances, and shut down a vital facet of Columbia's offense by dominating interior presence C Ben Nwachukwu. The Lions' usually strong perimeter defense was unable to neutralize the outside game, and the Rams rained destruction from behind the three-point arc.