Casey Simmons is a 6-foot-6 sophomore at Yale from Milton, Mass. averaging 3.7 points and 2.2 rebounds in 13.9 minutes per game. The forward transferred from Northwestern, where he played in 27 games and made seven starts in 2021-22. Simmons sat down with Ivy Hoops Online Monday:
Ivy Hoops Online: Yale recruited you out of Milton Academy, yet you chose Northwestern. How come?
Casey Simmons: I wanted to go far from home. I was outgrowing my household a bit.
IHO: Why did you leave Northwestern?
CS: I really like New England. I didn’t feel like myself. Needed a change of scenery.
IHO: If Yale was in the Big Ten this season, how would it fare?
CS: We would do really well, win a number of games.
IHO: What is it like playing back-to-backs?
CS: It’s definitely different. We got a little experience playing in Canada in November. We never had anything like it at Northwestern.
IHO: How would you compare the noise at John J. Lee Amphitheater with Big Ten arenas?
CS: The size does not matter. It is the density. It is an amphitheater. It collects noise. It get loud.
IHO: How would you compare James Jones with your coach at Northwestern, Chris Collins?
CS: Coach Jones is more stoic. He is able to weather things. He doesn’t get rattled. He’s been doing this longer than I have been alive.
IHO: What do you think of the Ivy this year?
CS: It’s a really good conference. High stress, high stakes. You can get burned. Good guards. Hard to guard.
IHO: Does it bother you that some on the outside call an Ivy player a good Ivy League player and not just a good overall player?
CS: A stigma comes with the academics. It’s assumed that we can’t have it all. Very similar to Northwestern, which is a very rigorous school.