By Joe Budzelek (@stf_ncaa)
Over the last decade, few programs in college basketball have sustained the level of success that James Jones and his staff have cultivated at Yale: five Ivy League regular season championships, four NCAA Tournament appearances, two of which resulted in upset wins – versus Baylor in 2019 and Auburn last year – all of which sum up to the Bulldogs winning exactly two-thirds of their games throughout that span.
That being said, despite the graduation of former captain August Mahoney and starting power forward Matt Knowling, and also considering the transferring of Danny Wolf to Michigan, Yale has recent experience sustaining excellence after facing large-scale roster turnover.
Flash back to the 2018-19 season with Yale making the NCAA tournament as an 14-seed anchored by three senior starters and the dynamic talent of Miye Oni who was drafted later that summer forgoing his final season at Yale. The next season, Yale returned only one starter, Jordan Bruner, but the breakouts of Paul Atkinson, Azar Swain and Eric Monroe fueled Yale’s 23-win season.
With that quick pivot success in recent memory, Yale is primed to continue to compete as one of the favorites in the Ivy League.
“I got three guys in the starting lineup that we’ve got to replace,” says Yale head coach James Jones, “And right now, I can’t tell you who those guys are going to be, but that’s a good thing because now you have a chance to work some things out, try some things and see what sticks.”
While the foundation of the 2019-20 team was built by the frontcourt duo of Atkinson and Bruner, this year’s veteran leadership will come from starting guards Bez Mbeng and John Poulakidas, who were both last year Second Team All-Ivy selections with Mbeng also earning the honor as the conference’s Defensive Player of the Year. Poulakidas added to his accolades by competing last weekend in Jayson Tatum’s Elite Camp as the 6’6 sharpshooter is on the shortlist to lead Yale in scoring next year.
Outside of these two, opportunities are boundless for the remaining players on the roster. “Everybody on our roster has an opportunity to help us,” says Jones, “We’re going to play an eight- or nine-man rotation but I wouldn’t be surprised if anyone on our roster steps up and gives us a boost next year.”
With two open spots in the frontcourt, junior Nick Townsend is Yale’s most experienced returning forward after starting eight games last season and averaging nearly eighteen minutes-per-game. Listed at 6’7 250, the physical forward played an industrious glue guy game backing up both Danny Wolf at the 5 and Matt Knowling at the 4.
Coach Jones sees Townsend hitting a new gear this upcoming season. “Nick led us in scoring in our trip to Greece last summer, so he’s somebody I thought could have given us more last year,” says Jones. “He was a reluctant shooter, but if you’re a guy who comes off the bench and you’ve got guys like Danny [Wolf], John [Poulakidas], Bez [Mbeng] and August [Mahoney], you don’t feel comfortable at times expanding your game. I suspect with the loss of those guys he is seeing more of an opportunity and more of a voice.”
When asked about potential changes in gameplay, Jones cited the fact that just 36% of the team’s field goal attempts were from the three-point line, which was the lowest ratio in the Ivy League. A big part of that stemmed from starting power forward Matt Knowling attempting just eighteen three-point attempts across three seasons. A career 30% three-point shooter, Jones expects Townsend to expand his perimeter game in tandem with the team growing as a three-point shooting team. “We’re going to put him in a situation where he can take more threes for us this year.”
#42 Nick Townsend and #10 Samson Aletan headline Yale's next wave of frontcourt talent. (Photo by Rodney Price)
Last season, senior guard Yassine Gharram and junior wing Casey Simmons were key reserves off the bench and both combined to attempt only 33 three-point attempts. If Jones wants to incorporate more of a perimeter game on offense, Gharram and Simmons need to grow more comfortable with that assignment.
Should more shooting be needed from the backcourt, junior Devon Arlington, sophomore Trevor Mullin and freshman Riley Fox have a shot in the rotation. Both Arlington and Mullin were highly recruited out of high school, each earning more than ten offers during their recruitment.
The 6'3 Arlington possesses intriguing length at the point guard position and finished his high school career at San Marcos [CA] as the school's all-time leading scorer finishing with 2,035 career points.
At St. Sebastian's [MA], Mullin also finished his high school career as the program's all-time leading scorer. Similar to Poulakidas and Mahoney, Mullin has incredible range and profiles as an undersized off-ball guard akin to all-time Yale great Azar Swain.
With a similar build to Poulakidas, 6’6 Connecticut native Riley Fox was offered by Fairfield and Central Connecticut State after averaging 27.2 points-per-game on 50 percent shooting, including 40.5 percent on 3s, and 84.5 percent from the free-throw line at Conrad High School in West Hartford.
Receiving over a dozen offers throughout their recruitment, incoming freshmen Isaac Celiscar and Jordan Brathwaite will also compete for playing time in the backcourt.
Quite literally, the biggest void on Yale’s roster is left behind by seven-footer Danny Wolf after he transferred to Michigan following his breakout sophomore campaign, but sophomore center Samson Aletan is ready to step up for his own sophomore breakout.
In his senior season at Lake Highlands [TX], the Dallas native was selected as his district’s Defensive Player of the Year and prior to committing to Yale, Aletan received nearly twenty Division 1 offers, including offers from Big 12 programs Houston, Texas, TCU, Kansas State, Texas Tech and Texas A&M.
“Samson is the only true center we have in the program right now,” says Jones, “That being said, there’s opportunity abound for him. He’s going to have time to figure himself out and get comfortable. He’s never been a huge scorer, but he’s someone who’s going to block shots, get rebounds, score under the basket, shoot from fifteen feet and in and he’s actually expanding his game right now by shooting threes [in practice]. I expect a lot out of Samson. He’s going to contribute to the team mightily.” Similar to Danny Wolf’s freshman season, the 6’10 Aletan averaged about seven minutes-per-game in his freshman season, so a jump in a similar fashion is seismic but comes with precedent.
The only other Bulldog taller than Nick Townsend is 6’8 senior forward Jack Molloy, who averaged just six minutes-per-game last season after doubling that amount in his sophomore season. However, shooting over half of his career field-goal attempts from three, Molloy is more of a stretch forward than a true center, so expect Yale to open up the floor and utilize more spacing if ever Townsend and Molloy share the floor together.
Last year, Yale ran out the same starting lineup for 26 of the team’s 33 games, with an injury to Matt Knowling and a senior night start for Yussif Basa-Ama causing the team’s only shifts. However, this season’s roster configurations will likely shadow how the 2021-22 season underwent with the Bulldogs’ starting lineup unsolidified until the start of January conference play.
That being said, Coach Jones and his staff are embracing the uncertainty and maintaining their standard of excellence since competition often brings out the best in teams.
Comments
Post a Comment