IVY HOOPSTERS BACK ON COURT, GLADLY
Ryan Langborg was being perfectly honest.
“Last year sucked. It was brutal,” Langborg said.
The former La Jolla Country Day basketball star, now a junior at Princeton, was forced to sit out the entire 2020-21 college basketball season as the Ivy League opted not to play during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Everyone else was playing, but not the Ivy League,” Langborg said. “I was home pretty much the entire school year. The worst part of not playing was watching everyone else play on TV.
“Basketball is big in my family (brother Jack played at Point Loma Nazarene), so it was hard to watch March Madness with my dad.”
Langborg was one of four local players who got caught in the Ivy League shutdown.
Taurus Samuels (Vista) is a senior at Dartmouth, Kimo Ferrari (Francis Parker) is a sophomore at Brown and Yassine Gharram (Foothills Christian) is a first-year player at Yale.
“Last year was tough because the whole country was playing,” Samuels said. “I know the league and the schools wanted us to be safe, but it was tough.
“I was a little different than most because I was already at school when we got shut down. I was living with some teammates and couldn’t bail on them.
“So I stayed here and tried to make the best of it.”
Ferrari and Gharram never got to their respective campuses and spent the year taking online classes.
All four locals are back on the floor this season. All will get an extra year of eligibility for the season that was lost.
Listed as a sophomore, Ferrari is averaging 4.1 points and 1.3 rebounds through Brown’s first 18 games. He has played 293 minutes, has 22 assists and is 25 of 61 on 3pointers — 41.0 percent. He had a career-high 12 points against Vermont.
Gharram has played in six of Yale’s 14 games and is averaging 0.8 points and 1.2 rebounds.
Through 13 games, Samuels is averaging 9.8 points and 2.8 rebounds with 23 assists. He scored 23 against Georgetown and 22 vs. Stanford.
“I’m focusing on this season, but I plan on being somewhere next season,” said Samuels, a psychology major. “The game has really slowed down since my freshman year. I’m more level-headed now. As a freshman, you’re just trying to get minutes, learn the offensive and defensive schemes.
“We’re in the Ivy League. We’re smart kids. We know a good shot from a bad one.
“Basketball has given me a chance to travel all over the country as well as overseas. I’m not ready to give it up quite yet.”
Langborg is listed as a junior, but has played only one year at Princeton. He’s having a breakout season, averaging 11.0 points and 3.5 rebounds for a Princeton team that is 12-3. He had a career-high 18 points against Fairleigh Dickinson, 17 vs. Drexel and 16 vs. Hofstra.
The Tigers beat Oregon State (81-80) with Langborg scoring eight points with six rebounds, beat South Carolina (66-62) with
Langborg scoring 13 points with four rebounds, and lost to Minnesota (87-80 in double overtime) with Langborg scoring 10 points with three rebounds.
“We like to challenge ourselves outside of the Ivy League,” said Langborg, who averaged 4.4 points and 1.8 rebounds as a freshman two years ago.
“My freshman year was tough. There were a lot of things to grasp, a lot of new concepts.
“Now I’m playing and not thinking about if I’ll come out if I make a bad pass.
“I’m playing as my own self. I’m much more comfortable. I’m shooting better and playing defense.
“Every player in college is better, smarter and stronger than what we faced in high school, but that’s what makes the game so much fun.”
Langborg said he was lucky during the shutdown. There was a park near him with a hoop and later he got into a Boys & Girls Club. He ran, did sit ups and push ups and later got a Peloton.
“I could do a lot of things, but I lost that hand-in-your-face aspect of shooting,” Langborg said. “Ivy League teams play smart, play under control. That’s why we’re hard to beat. Other colleges value Ivy League guys as transfers because
of that.”
Langborg has another season before he graduates, but he says playing somewhere else as a graduate transfer has crossed his mind.
“If I get the opportunity to play professionally overseas, I’d jump at the chance,” Langborg said. “If I get the chance to play at a top-level college and work on my master’s, that would be hard to turn down.
“Until then, I’ll keep working on my game.”
Men’s basketball
Sophomore Brandon Angel (Torrey Pines) is playing quality minutes for Stanford and is averaging 7.4 points and 2.8 rebounds through 13 games. He 12 of 26 on 3pointers, shooting 42.9 percent.
Boogie Ellis (Mission Bay), who transferred from Memphis, is averaging 12.1 points and 3.9 rebounds for No. 5-ranked USC (13-1). He had a season-high 20 against Cal State Northridge.
Warren Washington (Mission Hills) is averaging 11.3 points and 6.8 rebounds at Nevada (7-6). The 7-footer is shooting 57.5 percent from the field.
Justin Elder-Davis (Morse) has 1,220 career points at Cal State Bakersfield (5-5). A senior, he’s averaging 9.7 points and 5.6 rebounds.
Amari Green (Helix), a junior at Humboldt State (8-4), is averaging 7.1 points and 3.4 rebounds.
Women’s basketball
After a sensational freshman season at Oregon, Te-hina Paopao (La Jolla Country Day) injured a knee in the first game of the season and sat out two months. She returned in January and has played in three games vs. Carroll, Stanford and Cal, scoring 14 vs. Stanford and 21 vs. Cal.
Haley Dumiak (La Costa Canyon) is averaging 5.5 points and 3.1 rebounds for the University of Rochester (9-3) with a seasonhigh 19 points vs. Buffalo State.
Simone James (Christian) is averaging 7.5 points and 1.7 rebounds at Georgia Southern (10-5). She scored 18 vs. San Diego Christian and Gardner-Webb.
Angelina Roque (Cathedral Catholic) is averaging 14.7 points and 4.3 rebounds for Redlands (8-2). She has scored more than 20 points in three games, including 26 vs. Chapman.
Auren Isaacson (Mission Hills) is averaging 12.5 points and 3.3 rebounds at Cal State Dominguez Hills (4-7) with a season-high 24 vs. Biola.
Football
Rashid Shaheed (Mt. Carmel) was named FCS first-team AllAmerica after a sensational senior season at Weber State. He finished eighth in the nation in all-purpose yards with 1,503, leading the team with 39 receptions and four TDs. He also returned a pair of kickoffs for TDs, giving him seven for his career, an FCS record. Shaheed finished his career with 5,478 all-purpose yards and 18 receiving TDs.
Utah LB Devin Lloyd (Otay Ranch) was named the Pac-12 Conference’s Defensive Player of the Year. He had 110 tackles, 22 tackles for a loss, eight sacks, four interceptions and six pass breakups in 14 games.
UCLA WR Kyle Philips (San Marcos) was named first-team AllPac-12. He finished the season with 59 catches for 739 yards and 10 TDs. He was also a first-team specialist, returning nine punts for 203 yards and a TD, and has declared himself eligible for the NFL Draft.
PK Dean Janikowski (Cathedral Catholic) was the Pac-12’s Kicker of the Year. He connected on 14 of 17 field goals and 42 of 44 PATs at Washington State.
LB Jahad Woods (Helix) was an honorable mention All-Pac-12 selection at Washington State. He finished with 109 tackles, 71⁄2 tackles for a loss and an interception.