Miles Franklin

Columbia men’s basketball overcomes injuries to thump Fairfield

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Leo D. Mahoney Arena is pictured Nov. 26, 2015, the place and date of a 106-77 win for Columbia men’s basketball over Fairfield. (Ray Curren | Ivy Hoops Online)

FAIRFIELD, Conn. – After going 1-13 in Ivy League play last season, the Columbia men’s basketball team was picked dead last in the 2025-26 media poll, and it wasn’t particularly close.

The all-knowing computers disagreed a bit, taking into account Columbia’s solid nonconference campaign last season and the fact the Lions returned a decent amount of minutes in a year where many others did not.

The story of the 2025-26 Ivy League basketball season has barely begun, but it’s starting to look like the media projections are in big trouble.

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Columbia men’s basketball bests New Haven in Kevin Hovde’s debut at the helm

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The Jeffery P. Hazell Athletics Center in New Haven, Conn. is pictured prior to Columbia men’s basketball’s 71-53 win over New Haven there on Nov. 7, 2025. (Ray Curren | Ivy Hoops Online)

WEST HAVEN, Conn. – Contrary to popular belief, Friday’s Columbia season opener at Division I neophyte New Haven was not Kevin Hovde’s first shot at being a head coach.

No, back when he was a young assistant on the Upper West Side from 2011 to 2016 under Kyle Smith, there was an opportunity to schedule a handful of junior varsity games with Columbia’s big roster and Hovde drew the short straw to roam the sidelines as the man in charge.

“We had a three game schedule, we played the Army and Navy JV, and I want to say a prep school,” Hovde said. “But I went 2-1, so I had a winning record, even though I did lose one.”

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