Columbia men’s basketball will conclude its non-conference schedule by hosting Penn State Abington on Wednesday at Schiller Court in Levien Gymnasium. The game is scheduled for a 2 p.m. tip-off and can be followed via live stats or watched on ESPN+, with Lance Medow and Doug Feinberg providing commentary.
The Lions, currently holding a 10-3 record, will face the Nittany Lions (1-11) for the first time. Columbia aims to remain undefeated at home in non-conference play for the second consecutive season.
Head coach Kevin Hovde has led Columbia to ten wins in his first thirteen games, marking the best start by a debut head coach since Lou Rossini began 20-0 during the 1950–51 season. “Kenny Noland (Player of the Week) and Miles Franklin (Rookie of the Week) swept the Ivy League weekly awards on Monday,” according to team sources.
In their most recent outing, Columbia secured a 90-82 win over North Florida. Kenny Noland matched his career-high with 27 points, while Miles Franklin achieved a personal best with 19 points and tied his career-high of seven rebounds. Blair Thompson and Ryan Soulis also scored in double figures.
Columbia’s offense has been productive this season. On November 26, they scored 106 points against Fairfield—their first time reaching triple digits against a Division I opponent since November 2010 and their first such road performance since December 2009. Over four games from November 21 to November 29, Columbia averaged nearly 94 points per game, something not seen since the late 1970s.
The team’s rebounding has also stood out nationally; Columbia ranks sixth in rebounding margin and leads all Ivy League teams in total rebounds per game, defensive rebounds per game, and offensive rebounds per game. The Lions have out-rebounded opponents by more than twenty boards four times this season.
Blair Thompson is approaching a milestone as he is just twenty-two rebounds away from becoming the program’s first player to reach five hundred career rebounds since Mark Cisco did so during the 2012–13 season.
Senior guard Kenny Noland continues to lead offensively with an average of seventeen-and-a-half points per game. He also tops team statistics in assists, field goals made, three-point field goals made, and minutes played. Noland’s free throw percentage ranks second nationally among qualified players at over ninety-seven percent accuracy from the line. He has received back-to-back Ivy League Player of the Week honors and was added to the Lou Henson Award Early Season Watch List on December 18.
First-year guard Miles Franklin has earned Ivy League Rookie of the Week recognition three times this season after strong performances including double-digit scoring efforts in seven out of thirteen games played so far.
Both Noland (972 career points) and Avery Brown (862 career points) are nearing one thousand career points—a mark last reached by Geronimo Rubio De La Rosa in February of this year.
After facing Penn State Abington for their final non-conference matchup, Columbia will begin Ivy League play at Cornell next Monday.
