The chips, it seemed, had fallen just right for Columbia last season.
The Lions, who hadn't broken .500 in the Ivy League season since 1993, had a team loaded with experience and a pair of formidable big men - a rarity in the Ancient Eight.
But 2008 saw the streak continue. Columbia went 7-7 and fell just short of living up to its reputation as a preseason sleeper pick. It was a solid campaign in the context of decades of futility, but the Lions could be in for a tougher 2009.
Gone are their twin towers, John Baumann and Ben Nwachukwu, who combined for 37 percent of Columbia's scoring output, about one-third of its rebounding and just about all of its intimidation down low.
With former guard and captain Mack Montgomery gone as well, coach Joe Jones' squad has scraped by with a thinned-out rotation, with eight players averaging between 19.7 and 28.8 minutes per game.
Columbia has limped to a 5-11 record against mediocre opposition and dropped the first two games of its Ivy season to Cornell over the last two weekends.
Junior guard Patrick Foley, who just returned after missing seven games due to a foot injury, has been the focal point of the Columbia offense, leading the team with 12.1 points per game. In his absence, however, the Lions relied on role players to contribute. And the results have been mixed at best.
Junior Niko Scott has been his typically reliable self at swingman (9.3 points per contest), and Japanese guard K.J. Matsui has provided decent perimeter shooting (1.6 three-pointers made per game) but little else.
Forwards Jason Miller and Asenso Ampim have tried to fill the void left by Baumann and Nwachukwu, averaging 6.7 and 6.6 rebounds per game, respectively, but haven't proven themselves as competent options on the offensive end.
The silver lining of Columbia's season thus far, however, has been its freshmen. Guard Noruwa Agho scored a career-high 24 points against Cornell on Saturday, while bringing home his second Ivy Rookie of the Week Award in under a month.
And fellow guard Steven Egee - the younger brother of Penn senior captain Kevin - has contributed solid minutes in his rookie campaign.
At this point in the season, it seems that Columbia is the proud purveyor of New York's least star-studded show. So if it wants to pull off a miracle and put together a winning conference record, its ensemble cast will need to take it up a notch.
