The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Yale’s traveling band finally settles at home
NEW HAVEN — Before they beat Albany on this Tuesday night at Payne Whitney Gym, they would deal with the prospect of 40 minutes without leading scorer Miye Oni. And now as they streamed from their locker room afterward, here were the Yale players dealing with their iPhones. “What’s the score?” “How much time left?” “They what?” “They won?”
Yes, Penn had stunned Villanova, 78-75, at the Palestra in one of those magical Big 5 nights that saw Penn students spill onto the court in giddy celebration.
Score one for the Ivy League. Score a big one.
On the way out of his post-game press conference, moments before the game in Philadelphia had ended, Yale coach James Jones was saying he wasn’t surprised.
The Ivy League returned its entire all-league 2018 first team, almost all its second team, and 12 of the 15 top scorers. Yale, Penn, Harvard, etc., there is some serious ball to be played this winter.
For Yale, there are expectations. For Yale, now 5-3, there have been great demands. Already, there have been the travels of Magellan, two impressive triumphs and one painfully close miss.
“We’ve logged a lot of miles,” Jones said after Paul Atkinson had tied a careerhigh 20 points in the 71-63 victory over Albany. “We got back late from Duke after a snowstorm. Flights were delayed. We didn’t get back until midnight Sunday night. We had practice on Monday in preparation for this game. Wasn’t a great practice. Practice kind of looked like most of the game today.”
For Yale, there are explanations and no excuses.
“Our effort tonight was mediocre,” said Jordan Bruner, Yale’s second-leading scorer, after he had amassed seven points, eight assists and 12 rebounds. “Our energy was mediocre. Our intensity was mediocre. We were just talented enough to get the game.”
Over 32 days, Yale has been halfway around the world and back. They’ve been to Shanghai to beat Cal. They’ve been to Memphis to fall in overtime. They’ve been to South Florida to beat Miami. After they finally played their first home game on Dec. 5, a win over Lehigh, then went to Duke. The Bulldogs were up 22-21 with eight minutes left in the first half, down only nine a halftime, but succumbed 91-58.
“If this was a court of law, I might be accused of child abuse in terms of what I’ve done to my guys and all the travel we’ve had,” Jones said. “Just so you understand, the last two weekends, on Friday
morning we left at 4 o’clock to play Miami and then we left at 3:45 on Friday morning to play Duke.
“The lack of sleep, the games themselves, mentally and physically draining, not to mention our guys are now in the middle of finals. I could sit here and say, ‘Hey, Jordan, I want you to be sharp as a tack.’ How realistic is that? I know he has that expectation upon himself, but it’s hard to do it.”
Jones looked at the Albany scoresheet.
“There’s no other statistic you need to look at other than the free-throw line,” he said. “We were 9-for-22 because we’re not focused and sharp enough to do it.
“And sometimes you do the least amount of work that’s necessary. I thought we did that early in the first and second half. You look up at the scoreboard, see what’s going on and you have to push it into gear. That’s scary to some extent. We haven’t seen that, but we’ve had some much going on with travel and lack of rest.”
Jones said he found out Tuesday morning that the 6-foot-7 Oni, who had 29 in the win over Miami and is averaging 17.9 points, was sick and couldn’t play. The Bulldogs were outscored 9-1 to start the first and second halves. They would recover both times. Without Oni, Jones said it was much less adjustment to any game plan than next man up with Jalen Gabbidon. Jones pointed to Bruner and Atkinson, sitting next to him.
“I know both feel like they can carry this team when it’s necessary,” Jones said. “Jordan is a tripledouble waiting to happen if he was just a little more selfish offensively.
“Paul did an outstanding job at getting to spots and our guys did a great job finding him. He was able to finish. He does a great job at moving to the basket in our offense and he is brilliant around the rim (9for-12). He definitely was a boost for us.”
So now the Bulldogs will settle into one place. And study.
These are examination days at Yale.
“Macroeconomics,” Atkinson answered when asked about his most challenging test.
“I got like three exams and six papers,” Bruner said.
The Bulldogs will return to play Dec. 20 at Monmouth. There is a game at
Cal State Northridge on Jan. 5, but after that the farthest trip over the next two months will be the 259-mile ride to Cornell. There will be an Ivy League rhythm.
In the meantime, let’s consult our almanac. Communist China, Elvis and Graceland, Miami Beach, Zion Williamson and the Cameron Crazies all in a month. If that’s not been exhausting education, what is? If that doesn’t steel a team for the winter, what will?
“I know our guys feel if we play our game we can play with anybody,” Jones said. “There was a period in the first half at Duke where we certainly weren’t playing well and were contending with one of the teams that will be ranked top five all year.
“The takeaway for me is if we sharpen our tacks a little bit, we’ll be able to play with anybody in the country. We’ve already been through that gauntlet. Wherever we go, it’s not going to be like (Cameron). I’ll tell you that much. That atmosphere is different than anywhere in the country.”
Or in Yale’s case, anywhere outside the country.