Yale starting senior forward Matt Townsend will miss the next two games for a pretty good reason.
Townsend will interview for the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship as one of eight Yale students selected as finalists for the award. Townsend, the first Yale basketball player since 1999 to earn Academic All-America honors, has maintained a 4.0 GPA average through six semesters at Yale as a molecular, cellular and developmental biology major.
He’ll interview in New York this weekend and won’t play Friday against Illinois-Chicago or Saturday against Southern Illinois. According to the Associated Press, Townsend plans to rejoin the team for a Sunday game against Kent State.
Townsend averaged 4.9 points and 3.2 rebounds per game last season. He would be the fourth Yale basketball player to earn a Rhodes Scholarship.
In this era of academic cheating scandals throughout the NCAA, Townsend’s academic exploits are certainly refreshing.
Having already been awarded a Rhodes (and a Pulitzer) for outstanding hoops journalism (I declined both) , I wish Mr Townsend well. Even without the scholarship,what he has achieved in college is truly remarkable. Best of luck.
The AQ