Jack Molloy

Q&A with Yale men’s basketball senior forward Jack Molloy

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Yale senior forward Jack Molloy is averaging 2.5 points and 1.2 rebounds per game in 2024-25. (Yale Athletics)

Ivy Hoops Online recently caught up with Yale senior forward and Greenwich, Conn. native Jack Molloy:

Ivy Hoops Online: Growing-up in Greenwich, were you interested in Yale sports?

Jack Molloy: I didn’t start following Ivy sports until my freshman year in high school. I was really thinking about Wesleyan or Amherst. New Heights AAU took me and I went to Elite Camp at Yale and the coaches thought I could play here.

IHO: What was the camp like?

JM: So fun. Legitimate 12 hours of basketball. Constantly playing pickup. (Yale associate head) coach (Justin) Simon showed me around campus.

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Yale men’s basketball dumps Columbia to clinch Ivy League regular season title

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Letdown? One could have happened.

After all, Yale clinched an Ivy title last night in a scintillating tilt.

But letdowns aren’t a thing with James Jones-coached teams. The Bulldogs destroyed Columbia, 90-64, at John J. Lee Amphitheater on Senior Night Saturday.

“I keep being surprised, but in awe of this group,” said Jones. “We scored 90 points and gave up 64. I just think we could be perfect.”

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“We jumped on them quick”: Yale men’s basketball routs Harvard, 84-55

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Harvard and Yale tip off Saturday at John J. Lee Amphitheater, where the Bulldogs dominated in an 84-55 win. (Ray Curren | Ivy Hoops Online)

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale students were back at Lee Amphitheater, Harvard was starting three freshmen, John Poulakidas hit his first couple of shots, and all that meant the Crimson had no chance Saturday afternoon.

Harvard fought in fits and starts, but in the end, the result was a formality, an 84-55 Yale win that brought the Bulldogs to the top of the Ivy League after Princeton’s loss and setting up a showdown with the Tigers Friday night in New Jersey.

“We jumped on them quick,” Yale coach James Jones said. “We were really efficient, we didn’t have a turnover (in the first 19 minutes), we were poised and focused. We lost it a little at the end of the first half and fought to get it back, and we did in the middle of the second half. When we’re playing at a high level like we were, we’re pretty good and it’s fun to watch.”

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Yale men’s basketball vanquishes Vermont – without Yassine Gharram

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Yale and Vermont tip off for what became a 65-50 win for the former over the latter Saturday. (Ray Curren | Ivy Hoops Online}

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Yale broke a two-game losing streak with an impressive second half Saturday afternoon at Lee Amphitheater, allowing exactly half as many points as the last time we saw the Bulldogs at Mohegan Sun two weeks ago in a 65-50 win over Vermont, albeit a struggling and undermanned Catamounts team.

The big personnel news of the day was that Yale’s leading scorer (and 16th nationally) John Poulakidas was not in uniform. The Bulldogs’ offense struggled mightily without him in the first half, scoring just 22 points and turning the ball over 13 times. Sophomore Trevor Mullin got his first career start, but it was Bez Mbeng who had six of those turnovers.

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Yale men’s basketball falls at No. 13 Purdue, 92-84

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Yale men’s basketball owned the paint, but Purdue owned the perimeter, as the No. 13 Boilermakers defeated Yale 92-84 at a sold-out Mackey Arena Monday night.

Yale (1-2) outscored Purdue (3-0) 50-24 in the paint and 11-5 on offensive rebounds.

Bulldogs coach James Jones called his team’s showing a “tough gritty performance, a few costly possessions from a great road win.”

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Yale men’s basketball looks to defend Ivy Madness title

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Ivy men’s media day was held virtually Tuesday. Veteran Yale coach James Jones was last to speak and in attendance for the Bulldogs with him were seniors Bez Mbeng and John Poulakidas.

Yale is coming off of an Ivy Madness title and a first-round upset of heavily favored Auburn last March. The Bulldogs have been slated by the Ivy media to finish second in league behind Princeton.

Jones noted that his team is “excited” that the season will start in three weeks and is anxious to play against competition.

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Yale men’s basketball enters Jones’ 25th year at the helm loaded

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Junior guard Bez Mbeng, who coach James Jones has told Ivy Hoops Online is the best on-ball defender he’s ever coached, is among the many talented veterans on Yale men’s basketball’s 2023-24 roster. (Photo by Erica Denhoff)

Seems like you can never have too much money or happiness in life.

The same goes for depth in team sports.

We’ll find out about this last adage in March, as Yale men’s basketball may actually have too much depth. Sound impossible? Not really.

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Yale men fall at Vanderbilt in first round of NIT

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It was déjà vu all over again for Yale in the first round of the NIT as host Vanderbilt defeated the Bulldogs at Memorial Gymnasium, 71-62.

Vanderbilt jumped out to an 11-0 lead two days after Yale fell behind in a 12-0 role against Princeton in the Ivy League Tournament final. The deficit proved too much for Yale to overcome.

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Yale men lose Knowling and tight defensive battle at Penn, 66-64

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Yale lost Matt Knowling to injury in its 66-64 defeat versus Penn at the Palestra Friday. (Photo by Erica Denhoff)

A key injury spelled doom for Yale at the Palestra in a 66-64 loss to Penn Friday.

With 18 minutes left in the game and the score knotted at 33-33, Yale leading scorer Matt Knowling rolled his ankle. He would not return to the game and his status for tonight against Princeton is questionable.

Penn hung on in a defensive struggle featuring 14 lead changes in which Yale converted just three field goals in the final 5:26. The visitors’ fate was sealed when a fallaway shot landed off base after Yale got the ball back down two with 5.1 seconds left following a 1-for-2 trip to the foul line by Ivy League free-throw percentage leader Clark Slajchert.

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