On Saturday night Princeton wraps up their first weekend of Ivy play at Columbia. As part of our Know! Your! Foe! series please welcome John Templon from Big Apple Buckets to the princetonbasketball.com.

I was confused to discover I haven't actually had John stop by for a K!Y!F! previously, but I was a big fan of his Chicago College Basketball site and I'm greatly enjoying his well-considered coverage of teams in New York City and the surrounding environs. He's the right man to go to for insight on the Lions.

Our email exchange can be found after the jump.

If you haven't read the Cornell preview that was published here yesterday, please do so.

Additionally, if you cover a team the Tigers will face down the line, let us know. It would be great to talk with you.

Take me back to November 14th. All-Ivy senior Noruwa Agho goes down late against Furman with what turns out to be a season-ending knee injury. What happens from that point forward for the Lions?

Well, the first thing that happened was shock. The Lions looked absolutely stunned to be without Agho and ended up losing that game. They'd also lose the next one against American, but Kyle Smith has done a good job of adjusting to his personnel. The team also committed to defense and rattled off a seven-game winning streak (and 11 of their last 12).

Agho was a player who took a lot of shots and often when the ball found his hands it wasn't coming out of them. How much has his loss helped balance Columbia by necessity?

Agho certainly did use a high volume of possessions. A lot of those possessions have been absorbed by the development of Brian Barbour (up to 25.1% from 18.2%), Mark Cisco (21.7% from 19.7%) and Meiko Lyles (18.5% from 13.4%). That really has balanced the offense as given the situation the Lions are able to tailor the offensive game plan to the personnel of the opposing team.

I don't want to put too much focus on players who won't be in uniform on Saturday night. Tell me a bit about Brian Barbour and his importance to the Lions.

Barbour is Columbia's offensive rock since Agho went down. He tried to do a bit too much right after the injury, but he's found a way to use his play-making talents and shooting skills in a strong combination. He takes a lot of awkward runners in the lane (39.3% on twos), but he's a very good three-point and free throw shooter. It's tough when the other team knows you're the guy, but he's really embraced that burden. He routinely plays 35+ minutes and only doesn't score when one of his teammates does. Odd fact: When Barbour scores fewer than 10 points Columbia is 4-0 this season, though that includes two non-Division I teams.

How improved is guard Meiko Lyles as his sophomore year has progressed?

Well, first Lyles had to get healthy. He played just one minute, at the very end, in that fateful Furman game. He's been playing more and more minutes and over the past five games he's played more than 30 minutes in each. Lately his scoring totals have gone up as he's found some range from long distance (10-21 in his last four games). More impressively, he's also getting it done inside the arc. Lyles is quickly becoming an integral part of the Columbia offense. He's much improved this season and it's helped the Lions improve as a team.

I'm a bit surprised with how well the Lions appear to have defended inside the three point line. Usually the Lions have a series of tall, slow big men protecting the lane. How different is this year's post play from years past?

Yup, Columbia is allowing opponents to shoot 43.0% on two-point attempts. Much of the credit goes to the starting big men Mark Cisco and John Daniels. Daniels is a classic glue guy. Cisco and freshman Corey Osetkowski have both stood their ground in the middle. I think the credit goes to Smith. Another player that is making an impact there is freshman Alex Rosenberg. At 6'7" he's Columbia starting small forward, but he's able to make plays all over the court and guard players both out on the perimeter and inside the paint.

Has second year head coach Kyle Smith put his stamp on his team 1.5 seasons in? If not, how close do you think he is?

Smith is certainly starting to make an impact with this team. The interior play of Cisco has been impressive. Also, the freshman class is contributing right now with Rosenberg, Osetkowski and guard Noah Springwater all making the rotation. It's particularly interesting that Smith, a coach known for his offensive prowess, was also able to change the culture of this team in midseason and convince them to play the type of defense that can make Columbia an outside contender in the Ivy League this season. I think people are convinced that he's moving this program in the right direction.

Columbia gets an early leg up in/on the Ivy League if...

The Lions keep Princeton below 65 points and knock down their threes on offense at home.

Princeton takes away some of the Lions' momentum heading into their 16 day exam break if...

Douglas Davis is able to shut down Brian Barbour and the Tigers are able to get Cisco in foul trouble on the offensive end.

You've answered the traditional "tell people who you are and what you do" question on this site before (haven't you?), so this time why not let people know how Big Apple Buckets has developed since the start of the 2011-12 season? You do great work

I've hopped over the learning curve now and the site is starting to take a more analytical and opinion format. I'm trying to dive more into the "why" of what's happening. I'm also trying to use my programming skills to bring unique things to the site like my work with assists and the season sims. Team similarity scores are coming soon!

I'd suggest you bookmark Big Apple Buckets and follow John on Twitter too.