Q&A with Yale men’s basketball coach James Jones

by
Yale men’s basketball coach James Jones is pictured in this undated photo. (James Jones’ X page)

Ivy Hoops Online recently caught up with veteran Yale men’s basketball coach James Jones to discuss summer developments and the upcoming season.

Ivy Hoops Online: You obviously planned to have Isaac Celiscar and Samson Aletan on your team in ’26-27 when you recruited them a few years back. What is it like without them? (Editor’s note: Celiscar, a rising junior, signed with Baylor after a Second Team All-Ivy selection in 2025-26. Aletan signed with Providence after three years at Yale and leading the Bulldogs in blocks and field-goal percentage in 2025-26.) 

James Jones: You can’t compensate for juniors and seniors. The transfer rules are different for us (Ivies). Hard to replace a junior and a senior.

IHO: Do you look at the [transfer] portal now more than previously?

JJ: Not really, because I never think that any of our guys will be leaving. It is also so hard to get a player into our school and to get one who is willing to pay to win a championship.

Read more

Off the Bench: Miles Franklin of Columbia men’s basketball

by

 

The Franklin family, at the Colosseum, in Rome, Italy, on a 2016 vacation (left to right: Miles’ mother Marina, brother Elliot, sister Amelia, brother Tristan, Miles and Miles’ father Dereck. (photo courtesy of Franklin family)

Ivy League hoopsters are Division I athletes on the court and exceptionally accomplished and eclectic humans off it. Ivy Hoops Online presents the latest edition of our Off the Bench series that takes fans inside the stories that you might not otherwise know from the stands or through your screen.

For Miles Franklin ’29, a political science major from Vienna, Va., and rising sophomore guard for the Columbia men’s basketball team, a disciplined approach to nutrition, sleep and mental health began in childhood. Now the boy who brought homemade pickles to the party is getting the last laugh, powering his basketball career, making music and taking care of business wherever he goes.

Read more

Eric Reveno picked to become Brown men’s basketball head coach

by
Stanford Associate Head Coach Eric Reveno will move east to become the 32nd head coach of Brown men’s basketball (Stanford Athletics)


Brown Athletic Director M. Grace Calhoun has filled the vacant head men’s basketball coach by naming Eric Reveno the program’s 32nd head coach.

Reveno has spent the last two seasons at Stanford on the staff of former Columbia head coach Kyle Smith.  He was named associate head coach in April 2024 and just over a year later had the title of general manager added to his portfolio.

Read more

Off The Bench: Cate MacDonald of Dartmouth women’s basketball

by

Ivy League hoopsters are Division I athletes on the court and exceptionally accomplished and eclectic humans off it. Ivy Hoops Online presents the latest edition of our Off the Bench series that takes fans inside the stories that you might not otherwise know from the stands or through your screen.

Cate MacDonald  ‘27, a rising senior on the Dartmouth women’s basketball team from Lynnfield, Mass.,  shares a particularly inspiring journey to the Ivy League. A learning difference made school a challenge for her early on. Basketball was a comfort and a constant. With persistence and clarity about what she needs to thrive, there seems to be no stopping her.

Read more

Off the Bench: Mateen Rafiq of Cornell men’s basketball

by

Ivy League hoopsters are Division I athletes on the court and exceptionally accomplished and eclectic humans off it. Ivy Hoops Online presents the latest edition of our Off the Bench series that takes fans inside the stories that you might not otherwise know from the stands or through your screen. 

Mateen Rafiq ‘28, a rising junior on the Cornell men’s basketball team, is our next featured player. Rafiq’s humility, discipline and ambitions are outsized (no matter that he is a 6-foot-0 guard), and there’s no doubt he is building toward something bigger.

Read more

Brown men’s basketball head coach Mike Martin departs for assistant coaching post at Michigan

by

Mike Martin, Brown’s all-time winningest head coach, leaves his alma mater to join the Michigan coaching staff. (Photo: Brown Athletics)

Ivy League head coaching departures typically don’t happen in mid-July, but Monday brought an exception with the surprise announcement of longtime Brown men’s basketball coach Mike Martin stepping down to take an assistant coaching role at Michigan.

“Brown has changed my life,” Martin told Brown Athletics. “The relationships we’ve built here — with our players, staff, alumni, and the broader community — are so meaningful to my family. As a proud Brown alumnus, I’m deeply grateful for the opportunity to have led this program for the past 14 years and to have worked alongside so many remarkable young men. Brown will always hold a special place in my heart.” 

Martin joins the staff of newly minted head coach Mike Boynton, Jr., who shed the interim tag and was given a two-year contract three weeks after the Dallas Mavericks hired Dusty May away from the defending national champions.

“Mike is someone I’ve admired for a long time,” Boynton said in a statement. “He’s an outstanding coach, an exceptional teacher and one of the best recruiters in the game, but more than anything, he’s a great person who truly invests in his players. At Brown, he’s built consistently competitive teams through player development and a winning culture, and those values align perfectly with what we’re building here in Ann Arbor. We’re excited to welcome Mike, Kristin and their daughters to the Michigan family.”

Read more

Off the Bench: Izzy Wesley of Brown women’s basketball

by

Ivy League hoopsters are Division I athletes on the court and exceptionally accomplished and eclectic humans off it. Ivy Hoops Online presents the latest edition of our Off the Bench series that takes fans inside the stories that you might not otherwise know from the stands or through your screen. 

Izzy Wesley ‘29, a rising sophomore on the Brown women’s basketball team, is the second twin we have featured in this series. An innate teammate and ultimate family person, she brings “gioia di vivere” to the Bears, and she is channeling it in all the ways that make a team better:

Read more

Off the Bench: Lucas Lueth of Penn men’s basketball

by

Ivy League hoopsters are Division I athletes on the court and exceptionally accomplished and eclectic humans off it. Ivy Hoops Online presents the latest edition of our Off the Bench series that takes fans inside the stories that you might not otherwise know from the stands or through your screen. 

This time we are introduced to Lucas Lueth ’27, a rising senior on the Penn men’s basketball team from Ames, Iowa. While he aspires to take on a leadership role in healthcare down the road, he has his eyes on a pro basketball career, and a lot more, along the way. For this multi-talented Penn player, basketball is art, and art informs the way he sees the court as well as the world:

Read more

Off the Bench: Sarah Lessig of Princeton women’s basketball

by
Ivy League hoopsters are Division I athletes on the court and exceptionally accomplished and eclectic humans off it. Ivy Hoops Online presents the latest edition of our Off the Bench series that takes fans inside the stories that you might not otherwise know from the stands or through your screen. 

Next, we get to know Sarah Lessig ’29, a rising Princeton women’s basketball sophomore from Seattle. A probable anthropology major and also a member of the Tigers softball team, Lessig is a study in fluidity — flowing seamlessly across sports, music, film — and West Coast to East Coast:

Read more

Off the Bench: Mataya Gayle of Penn women’s basketball

by

Ivy League hoopsters are Division I athletes on the court and exceptionally accomplished and multi-dimensional humans off it. Ivy Hoops Online presents a new series, Off the Bench, that takes fans inside the stories that you might not otherwise know from the stands or via your screen. 

Next up is Mataya Gayle ’27, a rising senior on the Penn women’s basketball team, and a psychology major from Woodstock, Ga. While our previous installment highlighted the relationship of two brothers attending Princeton together, here we delve into the experience of a sibling with nine brothers and sisters at home! Through her eyes we see how her birth order and family system have prepared her for the key role she has played, and will play one more season, in the Palestra and beyond:

Read more