The New York teams come to town this weekend. Fun fact: since 2015-16, every Ivy League team has at least one win in JLA except Cornell. Plus, Cornell really needs to turn the ship around this weekend — getting swept would put their ILT hopes in jeopardy.
Has anyone heard anything about GRdlR for Columbia? I suppose at this point, he probably won’t come back this season, which is sad. Without him, Columbia has found it hard to get wins, but no league game is easy.
Beyond Yale’s strong Ivy season to date, the rest of the league are enigmas, including the two teams coming to JLA this weekend. Columbia had such a strong non-conference performance but has fallen flat in league play. Cornell looked like it was a continuation of last year’s strong team, even beating Princeton at Jadwin, but then was demolished by Dartmouth. I don’t know what to expect this weekend but Yale’s two closest Ivy games this season have been against Penn (a one-point win) and Columbia (a four-point win), the two teams at the bottom of the standings, illustrating that you can’t take anything for granted.
At risk of overlooking Cornell/Columbia (KP has Yale -16 and Yale -24), I’m interested in what happens after this season. Jones has had comments in the media over the past year that more or less insinuate he wants a bigger job, with more national potential (plus a semblance of NIL help). The past 9 years have been an unbelievable run but his resume is interesting. How does a bigger job such as Villanova/A-10/Whatever look at a 25 year stint at one school where he seems to have figured it out halfway through?
I need to enjoy the success while we’re in it but I do hope he gets the opportunity to try himself after a Sweet 16 run this season
it is hard for the young to conceptualize how bad off we were during latter part of kuchens tenure
penn and princeton dominated and each had been ranked in national polls as recently as princeton being top 10 in 98. i think that was the final ap poll or close.
i am sure james will get little street cred or hasnt from the bigger guys for some reasons you cite and who knows how he translates now. but i lived the sink or some if it before it really bottomed out
JJ was building out of the depths. It happened fairly quickly and sustainably even if he has only been in the IL elite for say 11 years.
still not sure he has ever been outside the top 4? easy to check but that’s insane. basically he wldve qualified every year for the tourney should it have existed. think he’s won 64% of his games in league over his tenure but that number is mid 70s since 14
nothing was equal in the 90s between the killer p’s and us from admission policies for hoops recruits all the way down.
we were bankrupt. swenson hadnt worked his magic yet…the school and facilities were falling apart so was telhe city. the list goes on
going forward we have big challenges for all the reasons. and as a league in an age of competitive disruption who knows (see d III post)
he knows this. but he is 60 and lives on campus with a lifetime-like contract so i think he also is fond of the place.
the staff is also something to worry about. they are great. and have been largely in tact since the move into the elite.
as for ncaa glory? dare to dream. but let’s get there. ha
also it’s crazy to think that the yale job after kuchen was let go came down to two former assts, james jones and steve pikiel.
both have had solid careers subsequently. but i think yale made the right choice and was surprised by it at the time.
He was 6th his first year, 5th his second, T-1st his third, and then I think he was never out of the top half thereafter. It’s very impressive.
I don’t know anything special, but I figure he’d leave if the money was right. He’s mentioned that he hoped in the past for the generational-wealth type contract, and (let’s be honest) who among us wouldn’t take a guaranteed mid-seven-figures payday? I wouldn’t think he’d leave for anything incremental though (like Brian Earl going to W&M).
Unbelievable (necessary) addition of a 3-point shot for Simmons. Does it look pretty? No. But high 30% for and 3 made tonight so far vs Cornell is a massive additional thing for the defense to have to consider. Could argue that outside of Townsend’s rise, Bez and Simmons improving their 3 point shooting is the reason Yale has outpaced expectations so considerably.
Fun to cheer for a team that can be down 15 in the 1st half, and down 7 with 7 minutes left and still have full confidence they’ll win. Simmons was unbelievable and the block to dunk transition was the play of the game.
Nice that they have a chance to clinch the outright title at home tomorrow on senior day. I think it would be the first outright clinch at home? 2016/2020 were both on the road if I recall correctly. Maybe even when they have shared in the past few years it’s been ok the road too?
gutsy win.
need to fix the o glass. simmons is reverting to his earlier form. top 100 talent athletically speaking in hs
putting them in the bonus so early was an issue. had us on skates as the cornell kid played out of his mind.
surviving poula being off for now…watch brown. they are on
Winning when your stars are off is the mark of a great team. Agreed that they have to figure out the rebounding quickly. I’m really impressed with the grit this team has showed when things get tough.
Akron lost today so Yale currently has the longest active win streak in NCAA, and is also the last remaining team that is unbeaten in conference play
Plus, with this win, Yale seals up a perfect season in JLA for the first time since 2015-16.