The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Good barometer on a stormy day
Bulldogs earn impressive win over talented Vermont
NEW HAVEN — As he sat there between Jordan Bruner and Paul Atkinson after his team’s decisive 13point victory over Vermont on Sunday, Yale’s James Jones looked left. And then he looked right. Jones repeated the question a reporter asked about Vermont’s Anthony Lamb.
“Did coach show you any video of last year?” Jones said.
“No,” Atkinson said.
“No,” Bruner said. “But I remember very vividly. The scout (report) was he’s shooting it a little better than he usually has …”
“That’s probably verbatim, actually,” Jones interjected.
“And we’re going to make him prove that he can continue to shoot well,” Bruner said. “He shot it well when I really could have just guarded him.”
Lamb shot it very well. Very, very well.
He hit six threepointers. He scored a then careerhigh 34 points. And when Lamb had finished with his 6for11 3point show and his teamhigh seven rebounds, Vermont had scored an uplifting 7970 November victory over Yale in Burlington. Both teams would advance to the NCAA Tournament as league champions.
Lamb, who had toyed with the possibility of entering the NBA draft, is back. His story coming out of Rochester, N.Y., has gained some attention. Vermont was unanimously picked by the league coaches for the
American East title and has been picking up votes in the Associated Press Top 25 poll. John Becker’s Catamounts have 15 more wins than any team in New England since the start of the 20162017 season.
This was a strong test for the Bulldogs.
With Atkinson hitting 9of11 shots inside and finishing with a gamehigh 23 points, and Bruner scoring 17 points and pulling in a gamehigh nine rebounds to go with a full workload on the defensive end of Payne Whitney Gymnasium, Yale passed that strong test, 6552.
“I just pressed up on
(Lamb), stayed in front,” Bruner said. “I got one (foul) early. I stayed aggressive. I got a second foul when we got into the second half, picked up my third. He got to the bucket a couple of times. I didn’t want to foul. After that it was a wrap.”
Lamb, who also had scored 18 and 22 points as a freshman and sophomore to lead Vermont over Yale, did have 18 on this snowy late afternoon.
He needed a whopping 22 shots. He was 2for11 on threes. Over and over, the 6foot6 Lamb would lift for a 3. There was the 69 Bruner right there, closing out, his long arm extended.
“Last year, we made him prove he could make the 3’s and he certainly proved it,” Jones said. “We wanted to make sure we limited that, but he’s so good at the basket that it was important for us to double team him down there. They didn’t really post him up much where I think he’s really effective.
“Jordan did a great job 1on1, limiting opportunities, making it tough on the shots he did get. He had 18 points and I don’t know how many he had when Jordan was in the game.”
I had it at 11 points during those 32 minutes when Bruner played Lamb.
“It wasn’t any different from any other guy,” Bruner said. “I just come out and I compete. Any time the person I’m guarding catches the ball, I’m not going to be the one who’s going to get scored on. We’ve got to be a defensive team this year. When my guy catches the ball it’s not just going to be.”
There was a point in the first half after running out to leads of 120 and 218 that Jones felt his team lapsed back into a stretch of individual ball, but overall he is pleased with the past four games. The Bulldogs lost the first one by two points at Penn State, but won by double digits over Western Michigan and Bucknell (both at Disney in Florida) before Sunday. Before that they’d have three overtime games, beating Stony Brook and Siena and losing to San Francisco. The other loss was at Oklahoma State, 6457.
“We were more of an upanddown team last year,” Jones said. “In doing so, there was more transition for the other team as well. Now, we’re a little more of a halfcourt team. My assistants are doing a great job with the scout and our guys are doing a great job of following it.
We’re in gaps. We help. Limit shots. Contesting shots. Our guys have done a great job of understanding our core principles.”
Evidence? Only San Francisco and Oklahoma State have hit 40 percent. Overall, opponents entered the game shooting only 34.4 percent.
Vermont, which finished 35.6, barely improved that number.
Gone, of course, are NBA draft pick Miye Oni, Alex Copeland and Trey Phils from last season’s Ivy titlists. The Bulldogs, 63, were picked third in the Ivy League this season, behind Harvard and Penn.
“We don’t push the ball as much because we don’t have the athleticism that we had last year,” Bruner said. “We’re still figuring it out. And we’re still figuring out how to get wins.”
Like this W, only the third game at home. The next one at home won’t be until Jan. 12. At Frisco, at Stillwater, at Disney, still it is less crazy than last season when Yale went to China, Duke, Memphis, etc.
“A game like this is an opportunity to prove where you are as a program,” Jones said. “We feel like we’re pretty good in our own building, so we felt coming in we had a great chance of winning today. It’s one thing beating teams in the bottom half of the country. It’s another to beat teams in the upper half of the country.
“It shows what we’re capable of doing. Playing on the road in different environments isn’t advantageous to a great record. We’ve found a way to be successful with it. Being on the road, hotels, bus rides and stuff, does build chemistry. You fend through everything together. When you go through adversity as individuals, it helps the group. Early morning flights, hotels that are less than subpar and to come out successful speaks to the togetherness and unity of this group.”
At North Carolina, among others, and the full Ivy League schedule lies ahead.
Yet for a snowy Sunday, this W will suffice. KenPom has Yale ranked 95th, Vermont 87th and UConn 53rd. RPI has Yale 40th, UConn 53rd and Vermont 66th. Only snapshots.
Yale’s story lies ahead. Rest assured, defense will be a significant part of that story.