Home of the Roundball Poets
Jim Morgan, Yale basketball ’71: After last year’s thrilling battle for the conference title and the heartbreaking loss to Harvard in the playoff, I’m both excited and apprehensive about Yale’s chances this year.
Yale’s selection as the preseason favorite to win the Ivy title has many Yale fans hopeful that we might finally see Yale in the NCAA tournament again in our lifetimes. However, several critical questions must be answered for Yale to fulfill this promise.
Always the bridesmaid
Never the bride, man they must
Be sick of that vibe
———————————–
Duren gone, offensive
Balance remains to be seen
Till Mason settles
———————————–
Justin Sears, athlete
Who matters because he is
Still a person first
Yes, Justin Sears remembers how Yale’s season ended last year.
According to an insightful new article from Slam Magazine, Sears found a box of t-shirts in the locker room with “2014-15 Ivy League Champs” emblazoned on them, including the message, “We’re in.”
This message would be great if it weren’t for the fact that Harvard beat Yale in the Ivy League playoff last season, thus swiping a NCAA Tournament berth away from the Bulldogs in dramatic fashion.
But Sears took one of the shirts and put it in his room as a reminder of what he has to work toward as a senior. Motivation indeed.
And oh yeah, did I mention Sears is reigning Ivy Player of the Year? Because Sears, casino online players in college hoops for 2014-15″ href=”http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/eye-on-college-basketball/24773610/cbssportscoms-top-100-players-in-college-hoops-for-2014-15″ target=”_blank”>for the second year in a row, was left completely off the CBS Sports list of the top 100 basketball players.
Yale (No. 80) was also placed behind Columbia (No. 72) in CBS Sports’ ranking of all 351 teams in college basketball, despite Sears’ return.
If sports is about redemption, Yale is your team to root for this season.
Yale Athletics announced Tuesday that the school’s all-time winningest coach James Jones and 1949 National Player of the Year Tony Lavelli will be inducted into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame on Aug. 8 at the DCU Center in Worcester, Mass.
Jones has helmed the Bulldogs since 1999, and Yale has finished in the top half of the league for each of the past 15 years, winning a share of the Ivy crown in 2002 and 2015.
Lavelli led the Elis to a NCAA Tournament appearance in 1949, his senior season, before being selected by the Boston Celtics in the first round of the NBA Draft that year. He played the next two seasons in the NBA with the Celtics and New York Knicks.
Lavelli was also an outstanding accordian player, even providing halftime entertainment with accordian appearances, and released two records as an accordionist. He died in 1998.
Eurobasket.com reported Saturday that 2015 Yale graduate and All-Ivy first-teamer Javier Duren has signed a contract with Holland’s Aris Leeuwarden in the Eredivisie League.
Duren averaged 10.2 points per game for his career, as well as 14.0 points, 5.5 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.3 steals per contest in 2014-15 as he led the Bulldogs to a share of the Ivy League championship.
We’re counting down the top 10 moments in each Ivy school’s history as part of our Ivy League at 60 retrospective. We did Yale next by request of Justin Sears:
Hey @IvyHoopsOnline , would it be too much to ask if Yale could go next? We need some good vibes in New Haven right now. #WorthAShotToAsk
— Justin Sears (@Jussears5) July 10, 2015
We all know the 2014-15 Yale men”s basketball season didn”t have a storybook ending. Just four months ago, Harvard edged out Yale at the Palestra, 53-51, in an already legendarily back-and-forth Ivy playoff game after the Bulldogs let a last-second lead literally slip away at Dartmouth that would have clinched the Elis” first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1962. Then the NIT online casino inexplicably slipped away too.
We’re counting down the top 10 moments in each Ivy school’s history as part of our Ivy League at 60 retrospective. Yale is next by request of Ivy Player of the Year Justin Sears.
Yale”s run through the CollegeInsider.com Tournament (CIT) first round in 2014 was quite the roller coaster. First, a three-pointer banked in by Justin Sears with 0.07 seconds left gave Yale a 69-68 squeaker over Quinnipiac. Then in the second round, Yale prevailed at Holy Cross, 71-66, overcoming a 66-65 deficit with 1:43 remaining to make James Jones online casino the winningest coach in Yale basketball history (surpassing Joe Vancisin). Yale”s next win came by a 72-69 at Ivy rival Columbia, which had beaten the Bulldogs 62-46 on the same Levien Gym floor.
We’re counting down the top 10 moments in each Ivy school’s history as part of our Ivy League at 60 retrospective. Yale is next by request of Ivy Player of the Year Justin Sears.
Yale won its first ever postseason game on March 14, 2002. It took a while, but the payoff was sweet.
Yale earned a NIT appearance three years removed from a 4-22 campaign in 1998-99 by virtue of its share of the Ivy title (part of our No. 9 moment). The Elis drew a road matchup with favored Rutgers at the Louis Brown Athletic Center (better known as the RAC), a notoriously difficult place for visitors to play where the Scarlet Knights were 15-1 prior to facing Yale.
We’re counting down the top 10 moments in each Ivy school’s history as part of our Ivy League at 60 retrospective. Yale is next by request of Ivy Player of the Year Justin Sears.
Yale made some history at the 1969 Rainbow Classic in Hawaii by defeating LSU in the championship game, 97-94.
LSU was anything but a pushover that year, led by senior Pete Maravich, who averaged 44.5 (!) points per game, still the highest scoring total in NCAA history. But Yale’s Jim Morgan (who turned in 21.3 points per contest that year himself) outscored Maravich head-to-head 35-34 on Dec. 30, 1969, giving the Elis the edge they needed. LSU went on to finish second in the SEC that season, making Yale’s victory even more impressive. Yale finished 11-13 (7-7 Ivy, good for fourth in the conference), but beating Pete Maravich (and having a player outscore him) validates any season.
We’re counting down the top 10 moments in each Ivy school’s history as part of our Ivy League at 60 retrospective. Yale is next by request of Ivy Player of the Year Justin Sears.
The 1961-62 Yale Bulldogs are undoubtedly one of the greatest teams in school history, finishing 13-1 in Ivy play and 18-6 overall while securing the Ivy League championship, the program’s second in a six-year span.