Ivy Hoops Online caught up with Yale women’s coach Dalila Eshe, who is entering her second season at the helm in New Haven. The Bulldogs went 13-14 overall and 7-7 in Ivy League play in 2022-23, a fifth-place finish that wasn’t enough to qualify for the conference tournament. Yale was picked to again finish fifth in the conference in the Ivy League Women’s Basketball Preseason Media Poll released Oct. 12.
Ivy Hoops Online: What are your goals for the upcoming season?
Dalila Eshe: It comes from the team. Their goal is to win an Ivy championship. Goal is in layers. Need to make the Ivy tourney first. Our intentions must align with our goal.
IHO: What will it take?
DE: To be incredibly disciplined. Committed to defense. Gritty. Positive body language. Don’t complain. A willingness to sacrifice.
IHO: Your team is very veteran.
DE: We only have one frosh [guard Lucy Lynn]. We were working on a couple of foreign kids. Lost our mark on that. We have a great 2024 class coming in.
IHO: Do you look at the [transfer] portal?
DE: Yes, we look at it. It would take a kid at a Cal or Vanderbilt who we might have recruited but chose to go elsewhere and we stayed in touch. At the end of the day, we can’t hang our hat on the portal.
IHO: Talk a little about last season.
DE: As a result of it, we look at ourselves as a little of an underdog. Puts a chip on our shoulders. Feel like we underachieved last season.
IHO: Talk a little about Nyla McGill [a junior coming off an Ivy co-Defensive Player of the Year award last season].
DE: Sometimes we need to dial her back a little. [I feel] lucky to be her coach. She is an incredible teammate.
IHO: How about a look at the league this season?
DE: The Ivy League is ultra-competitive. If we aren’t recruiting power-five talent, we aren’t recruiting to win in this league.
IHO: Talk a little about your staff.
DE: We have two new assistant coaches [Helen Tau, a Princeton assistant from 2019 to 2022 before a one-year stint at Colgate, and Hannah Early Vaughn, who had been a Connecticut College assistant the past three seasons]. Our staff has enhanced, gotten better. Our players can attest to that.