dww2001
June 8th, 2007, 02:59 PM
The New York Times
Sports
Columbia Basketball hires Coach
by Paul Maccer
A new chapter has started in the usually futile history of Columbia University as they have announced the hiring of D.J. Walker. Coach Walker comes to the Lions after having spent the last two seasons working as an assistant at Georgia Tech under Paul Hewitt. His playing career started off as a star forward for Germantown Academy outside of Philadelphia were as a lightly recruited senior he walked on at Georgia Tech and contributed valuable minutes for multiple NCAA tournament teams. Having been born down the street from from Levien Gymnasium at Saint Luke's Hospital and strong family ties to the Upper West Side/Harlem area of Manhattan, Walker said it was no a brainer to step down from the assistant's job at an ACC contender and make his first attempt at head coaching.
"This is the perfect opportunity" Coach Walker said. "I can't thank the university enough for giving me the chance to turn Columbia basketball around."
Coach Walker's first priority he said was "letting the nation know that Columbia basketball is for real and we're not going to back down from anyone. We have to instill a sense of pride in our players and in our fans, to change the culture of losing that been around for so long. Even though we are any Ivy League school, this is no different to me than a football school like Oklahoma or Florida getting to the Final Four. If we work hard, we might shock the world."
The occasionally flamboyant Coach Walker's ambition is backed up by their schedule, which includes road games at Duke and Conneticutt this year. He is in contact with Elijah Douby, a 6 foot 10 center from Senegal who is rated as a 4 star recruit by USA Today.
Season results
Game 1
Columbia 49
NJIT 31
The Walker era at Columbia began with a win as the Lions won their home opener against the lowly highlanders of the New Jersey Institute of Technology. While victorious, Coach Walker was visibly upset during the post game news conference.
"Yeah, we did a few things right tonight", he said, "Our defense was solid tonight, no doubt about it. We were able to play our 1-3-1 zone extremely effectively and mixed in some full court press to disrupt their rhythm. Their best player went scoreless. And our ballhandlers were able to break the press and we held onto the ball pretty well all game long."
"BUT", he sighed "Our perimeter shooting is dreadful. We couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. What were we, 3-16 from three or something like that? We scored almost a third of our points on the break this game, and we can't count on being able to run against teams with strong transition D. Its not like it got much better when we threw the ball down low. (Eric) McKinney, bless his heart he's working hard out there, missed 6 point blank layups on one possession before finally converting! SIX!!! Sure he had 12 boards, but half of them came on one play when he couldn't hit a freaking layup!!! I'm going to have him doing layup drills until his legs fall off in practice this week."
McKinney, the junior center from Montgomery Alabama, let the way wit 10 points on 5-14 shooting. PF Adonis Guerreo chipped in with 9 points and 3 blocks
Sports
Columbia Basketball hires Coach
by Paul Maccer
A new chapter has started in the usually futile history of Columbia University as they have announced the hiring of D.J. Walker. Coach Walker comes to the Lions after having spent the last two seasons working as an assistant at Georgia Tech under Paul Hewitt. His playing career started off as a star forward for Germantown Academy outside of Philadelphia were as a lightly recruited senior he walked on at Georgia Tech and contributed valuable minutes for multiple NCAA tournament teams. Having been born down the street from from Levien Gymnasium at Saint Luke's Hospital and strong family ties to the Upper West Side/Harlem area of Manhattan, Walker said it was no a brainer to step down from the assistant's job at an ACC contender and make his first attempt at head coaching.
"This is the perfect opportunity" Coach Walker said. "I can't thank the university enough for giving me the chance to turn Columbia basketball around."
Coach Walker's first priority he said was "letting the nation know that Columbia basketball is for real and we're not going to back down from anyone. We have to instill a sense of pride in our players and in our fans, to change the culture of losing that been around for so long. Even though we are any Ivy League school, this is no different to me than a football school like Oklahoma or Florida getting to the Final Four. If we work hard, we might shock the world."
The occasionally flamboyant Coach Walker's ambition is backed up by their schedule, which includes road games at Duke and Conneticutt this year. He is in contact with Elijah Douby, a 6 foot 10 center from Senegal who is rated as a 4 star recruit by USA Today.
Season results
Game 1
Columbia 49
NJIT 31
The Walker era at Columbia began with a win as the Lions won their home opener against the lowly highlanders of the New Jersey Institute of Technology. While victorious, Coach Walker was visibly upset during the post game news conference.
"Yeah, we did a few things right tonight", he said, "Our defense was solid tonight, no doubt about it. We were able to play our 1-3-1 zone extremely effectively and mixed in some full court press to disrupt their rhythm. Their best player went scoreless. And our ballhandlers were able to break the press and we held onto the ball pretty well all game long."
"BUT", he sighed "Our perimeter shooting is dreadful. We couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. What were we, 3-16 from three or something like that? We scored almost a third of our points on the break this game, and we can't count on being able to run against teams with strong transition D. Its not like it got much better when we threw the ball down low. (Eric) McKinney, bless his heart he's working hard out there, missed 6 point blank layups on one possession before finally converting! SIX!!! Sure he had 12 boards, but half of them came on one play when he couldn't hit a freaking layup!!! I'm going to have him doing layup drills until his legs fall off in practice this week."
McKinney, the junior center from Montgomery Alabama, let the way wit 10 points on 5-14 shooting. PF Adonis Guerreo chipped in with 9 points and 3 blocks