The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Sherrod returning to Italian team Roseto
The Italian lifestyle suits Brandon Sherrod just fine. So he’s planning to stay a little longer.
Sherrod, the Bridgeport native who led Yale to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament in 2016, signed a one-year contract with Roseto of Italy’s Serie A2 league for next season.
It will mark his third straight season in the league. He spent 2016-17 with Roseto before switching to Givova Scafati last year. A 6-foot-6 power forward, he averaged 14.6 points and was the league’s second-leading rebounder at 10.5. Those numbers were an improvement on the 12.8 points and 8.2 rebounds he posted as a rookie with Roseto.
Italy also allows Sherrod, a classically-trained singer, to expand upon his musical career. While in Roseto two years ago he produced an album: Brandon Sherrod and the Sharks, Italian Journey, which sold over 1,000 copies with most of the proceeds donated to various charities.
He’s also sung with a local choir and performed in Christmas concerts in Italy. Sherrod famously took a year off while playing at Yale to tour the world with the Whiffenpoofs.
“I love the culture there,” Sherrod told Hearst Connecticut Media last summer. “The food is great, the language is really cool and I picked up a lot of it. Part of my desire to go back was to solidify the Italian I’ve already learned and see more people and become even more immersed in the experience I had already.
“From a basketball standpoint, I know what to expect. From a cultural and basketball standpoint, the place I really wanted to be was Italy.”
At Stratford High in 2010, Sherrod was the Connecticut Gatorade state player of the year, leading the Red Devils to an undefeated season and the CIAC Class L championship.
Following a postgraduate season at Choate, he was Yale basketball’s rookie of the year as a freshman, and a first-team All-Ivy League selection as a senior, when the Bulldogs reached the NCAA tournament for the first time in 54 years and upset Baylor in the opening round.
He also set an NCAA record by making 30 consecutive shots from the floor without a miss.
“We are thrilled to have Brandon back in Roseto,” said Germano D’Arcangeli, Roseto’s coach, in a press release. “Brandon has been a dominant player in our league for the previous two years and we will count on his experience and leadership to guide our club next season.”
EXTENSION FOR HAYDEN
Greenwich’s John Hayden, Yale men’s hockey captain in 2016-17, signed a two-year contract extension with the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the deal is worth $750,000 annually.
Hayden, who went straight to the NHL from Yale in 2017, played in 47 games for the Blackhawks last season, scoring four goals with nine assists, before being sent to Rockford on the AHL.