I’ve just registered at this site. Like others, I’ve tried over several years to register at the http://boards.basketball
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-u.com site, without success. I’m hoping the two lonely Yale posters from that site - James and Iogyhufi - will start posting here so that they can share their knowledge and correspond with others. Meanwhile, a substantive point: this appears to be the best Yale team over the past decade (which likely means ever). That’s particularly noteworthy given the loss of Knowling and Mahoney to graduation and Wolf to a transfer to Michigan. It seems to me you could make a reasonable case to Poulakidas, Townsend and Mbeng being first team All-Ivy. Looking forward to the second half of the Ivy schedule.
You know, I was just discussing this point with some friends. I don’t know if I’m willing to go quite that far. There are two teams I could see being better than this one - 2015-16 (the team that finally got Yale off the schneid; Mason-Dallier-Victor-Sears-Sherrod) and 2019-20 (the COVID year; Monroe-Swain-Gabbidon-Bruner-Atkinson).
I know too many of these guys, so I’m going to leave the comparisons to others, but those teams were pretty special. I think this team could be pretty special too, but I don’t think I can crown them anything until we see how the season ends.
Just as an amusing side note, it’s kind of crazy to me to see how the composition of the league has changed. This team has benefitted quite strongly from the fact that very few teams in the IL play two bigs, and further that nobody has a dominant center. Contrast to 19-20, where most of the teams had a center who could be dominant - Paul Atkinson and AJ Brodeur were co-PoY, but Chris Knight, Chris Lewis, and Richmond Aririguzoh were also all-League caliber players.
Yale’s size is definitely a huge plus for them.
Even the guards are big. Reminds me in
some ways of the Allocco/Langbnorg
Princeton team. Everbody rebounds
and there are match-up problems
across the Board.
I’d say the 2016 team has the 2020 team beat based on Kenpom/Bart and overall resume. (13-1 in Ivy vs. 11-3 in Ivy). 50th on Barttorvik vs mid 70s for the 2020 team. Win over Baylor means something even if 2020 didn’t get the chance.
However, I do think this 2025 team has a chance to be as on par with the 2016 team if they keep this level of play up. Many of their losses they weren’t full strength (Poulakidas missed a month) or their construction was different (Gharram hadn’t left the team, opening up Simmons to start/Fox hadn’t broken out).
The Ivy League was better in 2016 (Princeton finished in the 60s in the country) and Montague missed the last quarter of the year but it’s certainly a conversation point. Gun to head I’d take the 2016 team but I do have biases as well.
Yup, I totally agree on that point. The League is just not very strong this year relative to past years, which makes it harder to tell how good this team really is.
N.B. Yale’s best win, a 16-point neutral-court drubbing of KP 91 Akron, came without John. The next game, a two-point loss at KP 146 UTEP, came without John and Casey. The depth of production on this team is especially impressive.
For my money and many who are friends and keen Yale observers, 2019-20 was the best and would have done damage if a Dance had happened. Atkinson and Bruner were a very tough match-up ask. 2015-16 was a close second, as Sears is probably the best Eli in the Jones era, but it was overly reliant on Makai. I would say that last season and this are very equivalent. You put Wolf on this team and they are Elite 8 quality. The only other 2 teams in contention are the 1958 team and the 1962 teams, led by the 2 best Elis, Johnny Lee and Rick Kaminsky, respectively.
Not a bad problem to have for us Yale fans - several defendable answers for best Yale team, all capable of winning a game in a tournament, considering where we were a decade ago. Hopefully this team can be the best one yet.
This team is currently a 12. It was a 14 and I went on a bracketologist “tirade” and Lunardi and DeCourcy listened. Can it get to 11, where 2 NCAA wins are more possible? Perhaps. Right now it is the no. 3 12 seed. That could change on Sunday. Wins over Princeton and Cornell are absolute necessities in order to get there.
I won’t object to people giving this Yale team a 12 seed, but I gotta say this Yale team’s resume is really not particularly impressive as far as these things go. A real stinker of a loss to Delaware and no particular marquee wins (somewhere between 2 and 3 Quad 2 wins are fine, but we know the committee cares about the size of the name more than they should). I would guess a 13 is more likely, unless Yale runs the table or gets some help from upsets in other 1 bid leagues.
My two favorite teams were: 17-18 preseason bf the injury news on makai and bruner–they ran Rutgers in a scrimmage but alas was not to be be; and 99-00.
Bruner bf his 4th acl tear + a healthy makai+young oni. and then peak Atkinson +bruner inform my choices
It’s early to call this one in a down IL.
And we are but 50% done.
This preseason was blah.
Yes +wolf this wouldve been no discussion. All time what if
This team will need to survive a poor shooting performance from poula.
It’s inevitable.
Need Simmons and aletan to step up when it matters.
If they are to win the league and hit the dance (big if’s to mitigate this as a jinx thread) those two are the swing factors against positional size from the pro teams.
The good news is they are both elite athletes. Bad news is we are thin in the middle outside of them if you leave the IL bubble
Sounds like you’re describing the Brown game. Poulakidas scored nine points (one for five on three point attempts) while Simmons and Townsend each had 18 and Aletan had 12. And doesn’t Celiscar provide some depth inside?