Yet Another Ivy graduate transfer
Following his recent graduation from Cornell, forward David Onuorah announced his decision to transfer to UConn as a graduate transfer. Onuorah was a starter for most of his Big Red career, including this season’s opener at Binghamton. Following that first game, he was out of action due to a reported illness for the next several contests. Despite being unable to play, Onuorah was seen defeating a Southwest Air gate agent in a push-up contest on the way to the team’s November 26 game at Houston. Afterwards, there was no mention of a reason for his continued absence. He was listed on the game notes roster as late as the February 12 matchup at Penn.
Like former Cornell star Shonn Miller, who played at UConn in 2015-16, Onuorah will take his talents to Stoors. With the Huskies’ loss of three forwards and a center, Onuorah hopes to use his defensive skills to earn major minutes and, eventually, break into the Huskies’ starting lineup.
Ivy (assistant) coaching carousel continues
Former Vermont player and LIU Brooklyn assistant coach Tobe Carberry has joined the Yale men’s basketball staff as an assistant coach. Carberry, who starred at New Haven’s Hillhouse High School, has experience coaching in the Nutmeg state with stints at the Central Connecticut, Southern Connecticut and the University of New Haven. He will be replacing Anthony Goins, who left to join the Quinnipiac staff.
Shelby Lyman, a 2014 Cornell graduate, will be returning to East Hill to become an assistant coach for Danya Smith. According to the athletic department’s announcement, she will handle on and off campus recruiting, player development, alumni development and day-to-day office tasks. For the last three seasons, she has been an assistant coach at Division III St. John Fisher College in Pittstown, New York. Lyman, who captained the 2013-14 Big Red, played for Smith and is third on the team’s career three-pointer list with 144.
Francesa ‘Chessie’ Jackson, who spent the last two seasons as an assistant coach for Princeton’s Courtney Banghart, has been named the head coach at The College of New Jersey. Jackson is the third assistant at Princeton to earn a head coaching position in the last two years. Last year, Megan Griffith moved up to lead Columbia and Brian Earl took over at Cornell.
The Tigers quickly moved to add Kaitlyn Cresencia to the coaching staff. Cresencia, a 2015 graduate of Connecticut College, spent the last two seasons as a graduate assistant at Mercer, coached the New Jersey Panthers AAU team and created “The Coaching Assist” blog to help aspiring women’s basketball coaches.
2018 commits
On Friday, Josh Gershon of Scouts.com announced that Spencer Freedman from Mater Dei in Santa Ana (CA), committed to Harvard for the fall of 2018. Freedman is a 6’1” 160-pound point guard listed as a 3.5-4.0 Star Top-100 recruit. He chose the Crimson over Yale, USC, Washington, UCSB, Rice, Portland, Northern Arizona and Cal State Northridge. Playing for California Supreme in the Nike EYBL, he averaged 11.9 points and 6.2 assists per game. He shot three pointers at 46 percent, including going 8-for-11 from downtown against Las Vegas Prospects in May.
In his interview with Gershon, Freedman mentioned his connection to Harvard coach Tommy Amaker as a major factor in his decision. “My reasons for choosing Harvard are first and first most how incredible it is an academic institution and Coach Amaker. My relationship with him has been incredible and we’ve really gotten to know each other well. He’s taken a big interest in me as a player and person. Something he’s stressed from beginning is how much he believes in me. He was a point guard at Duke and being able to learn from him is something that is really important to me.”
On May 1, Hannah Pratt of Boca Raton (FL) Community High School committed to Columbia for the fall of 2018. Last season, she averaged 8.3 points and 6.0 rebounds a game on her way to a second-team All-Area position and a Class 9A state basketball title. Her Bobcat teammate Rachel Levy will be playing at Harvard in this fall.
Ivy League alums to represent USA at FIBA 3×3 World Cup
Former Ivy League players Damon Huffman (Brown) and Dan Mavraides (Princeton) are members of the four-person team representing the USA at the FIBA 3×3 World Cup in Nantes, France from June 17-22. Huffman played for the Bears from 2004 to 2008 and ended his career with 1,306 points. He left as the program’s all-time three-point shooter, and is now third on that list. Mavraides played for the Tigers from 2007 to 2011, averaging 10.9 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 1.5 assists a game.
The two will be joined by Craig Moore, a 2009 Northwestern graduate, and Zahir Carrington, a 2010 graduate from Lehigh. The team is the overall No. 4 seed and will compete in Group D with the Netherlands, New Zealand, Indonesia and South Korea. The team will play against the Netherlands and Indonesia on June 17, followed by matches against New Zealand and South Korea on June 19. The top two teams will move onto the quarterfinals on June 21. Now that 3×3 basketball has been added to the Olympics, the squad will look to use this as a springboard to representing the USA in the 2020 Tokyo games.
Penn and Columbia women’s basketball teams traveling for Thanksgiving
The Penn women’s basketball team has announced that it will be participating in the 2017 Junkanoo Jam Tournament this Thanksgiving. The eight-team tournament has two divisions and each team will play two games. The Quakers will be playing against Georgia Tech in the first game, then face either Baylor or Missouri State in the second contest. The game dates and times will be announced later this summer. Penn will join Columbia, which is playing at the Women’s Cancun Challenge, on the road during the holiday weekend. The Lions will play Green Bay on November 23. On Friday the 24th, the team will go up against a Mississippi State team that ended UConn’s 111-game winning streak and finished the season as the national runner-up. On the 25th, they will finish the tournament against Arizona State.
P.S.
As 2017-18 schedules are being announced, our friends at NYC Buckets have a men’s basketball non-conference schedule tracker that is a great place to view up-to-date information.