Chapel Hill, North Carolina – It was easy to look at various locations at Carmichael Arena on Thursday night as the Columbia Lions faced Washington Husky In the first four battles of the No. 11 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
I was drawn to the floor where Kitty Henderson wreaked havoc in the defense and handed out assists worthy of highlights. Others remained focused on the three-point line where Riley Weiss was swinging the long-range jumper comfortably. Some saw the scoreboard where Columbia eliminated a 13-point deficit in order to take a five-point lead mid-quarter.
And some people couldn't stop looking at the Colombian bench. There, Lions players and coaches took turns winding up cardboard signs in the air, slapping and waving to let players on the floor know about various things. The word “neon” was written on it. Another featured the green mushrooms from the Super Mario Bros video game. And the third showed that the Colombian player would bend.
There were other ones too. And while crowd fans, pressrow media members, and huskies on the bench on the other side may be confused, every member of the Columbia women's basketball team knows what everyone means.
“In this program, we're just about details. That's another way to communicate with your team,” Henderson said. “When we're all on the same page, that's a huge advantage and that's what it is. Why not make it very clear what we're doing?”
Throughout the season, these signs have brought Colombia's clarity and the enemy wrong. At Chapel Hill on Thursday, they played a small but important role in helping the Lions defeat the Husky 63-60 in a very important victory in so many ways.
Not only did Columbia win the NCAA Tournament for the first time, it also marked its first victory over the Big Ten team. And for Henderson, one of the best players to pass through the doors of the Ivy League program – those who were there at every stage that led to this history-making moment were their 100th victory in the Lions uniforms.
But we'll go back to those signs. Because they're a bit strange, stupid and unorthodox, right?
This kind of image is Very popular in college footballthe paranoid coach will do everything he can to prevent his opponent from knowing what he will do next. Turning through the Power 4 games in the fall, the quarterly men wearing hats of different colors create a signal in every play. Staff will be displayed Holds various signssome are covered in internet memes and stills from movie scenes.
But there's a reason why college football teams continue doing that. Because that works. Because players and coaches in the program know what those symbols mean and what no one else does. There's too much work to figure it out. It's much more complicated than staring at the catcher to steal a pitching signal.
Still, this kind of practice is very rare in college basketball.
Columbia head coach Megan Griffiths – The 39-year-old college alumni in the current ninth season leads the team. She likes the game because it's complicated. There are 22 players on the field. Each of them does a different job.
She noticed an assistant coach who didn't wear the colours of the team and held the signs in wild images.
“I think football games are really interesting because there's so much detail and that high level of communication coordination happen,” says Griffith. “There are people who have signs and hats that are abandoning other teams. I think we've learned a lot from it.”
The idea of using signs on the bench, as Griffiths said, came from assistant coach Ally Bassetti. One day she made a plan to Griffith, what if we did that? Griffith thought it was a great idea, especially since Columbia likes to switch defensive schemes frequently.
“If we're going to be this multiple press team and want them to have a higher awareness when we're about to get into the bonus, or when they're going to get into the bonus, why don't we look visually? I have a great believer in communication,” says Griffith. “I think the best teams, the best leaders communicate at the highest level. It's really hard to do it verbally, so bring it in visually. and Oral in everything we do and every way we communicate. ”
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When Columbia began creating dents in Washington's lead, various signs were caught in the air. The one-up mushroom was held up after one of Weiss' five three-pointers. The “neon” symbol was raised after Henderson handed out one of her seven assists. The buzzer rang, and the Lions made history for the program and then went up and up until it was celebrated on midcourt.
Aside from the fact that this is an Ivy League team, the fact that zero scholarship players had overturned the rich, powerful Big Ten team was what made Colombia's victory unlikely in some respects.
The Lion went down in double digits at halftime. The Husky led nearly 32 minutes. And in the first half, Washington's Dalaya Daniels absolutely owned them on the glass, grabbing 10 rebounds in 18 minutes of play in the first two frames.
Daniels played in almost 38 minutes. However, when Columbia was attacked in the second half, the 6-foot-4 fifth-year forward rebounded only one more time, finishing 11 in the game. The Lions actually won the battle with glass, 30-29.
The message at Columbia's halftime was easy. Stop making Daniels make mistakes. The lion was trapped and accomplished it.
Were there any signs of that?
“Yeah, that's a big stop sign,” Henderson said with a laugh. “It was a really physical game, so I think we just had to adapt to it and just go up and get the 50-50 ball. That's what you have to do to win.”
Next up after Columbia is his battle with West Virginia, the sixth seeded. The signs are again on the bench. Henderson plays, Weiss hits deep shots, and the Lions do whatever it takes to make another tally in the winning column.
