Call of the wild
‘Weirdly unbelievable’ Wolf adds new dimension to Yale’s basketball aspirations
NEW HAVEN — The addition of a 7-foot player is usually highly anticipated, but even after Danny Wolf got all his citizenship papers in order and reported to Team Israel last June, many of his new teammates still hadn’t even heard of him.
“When I got there, there was a huge language barrier,” Wolf said. “The guys all spoke English, but they didn’t feel the need to speak English because I wasn’t really an integral part of their team at that point. Not many people knew who I was and Israelis are tough, and though they welcomed me with open arms, it was still, ‘You have to earn your stripes here.’ ”
It didn’t take long for Wolf,
7-0, 255 pounds with exceptional shooting, passing and ballhandling skills for that size, to break down the walls. He averaged 17.7 points and 12 rebounds as Israel took the silver medal, narrowly missing the gold at the FIBA under-20 European championship in Greece, and was named to the all-tournament team.
… Or as his coach at Yale, James Jones, succinctly put it: “They’ve heard of him now.”
Israel Basketball invited Wolf,19, to play for the senior national team, but he chose to rejoin Yale for its trip to Greece in August. and its officials have been in New Haven to work on securing him for next summer.
The Ivy League has heard of Danny Wolf now, too. The national men’s college basketball scene and, sooner or later, the NBA will be aware of him. Though Wolf played off the bench as a freshman, he has been a force for the Bulldogs since coming back from his international experience. After
his 25-point, 10-rebound performance in a highstakes win over Cornell last week, Yale, 16-6, is in the lvy driver's seat at 7-0, with road games this weekend at Penn Friday and Princeton on Saturday.
The Bulldogs were 5-5 after a loss to Fairfield Dec. 6, but after a players meeting it was decided attitudes and agendas had to change and, playing with more cohesion, they have won 11 of 12, hitting their stride in conference play. Yale will have to win the four-team conference tournament at Columbia in mid-march to get back to the NCAA Tournament after missing out last season.
“That's more fuel than making it,” Wolf said. “Because I want to get that taste so bad.”
If Yale can get to March Madness, Wolf, thanks to his performance in Europe, will take experience as a big-stage performer. He began playing basketball with his older brothers back in Glencoe, Ill., then came east to prep at Northfield Mount Hermon in Massachusetts.
That's where Jones and his staff spotted him.
“He's 7 feet tall and he's banging three after three after three,” Jones said. “And he's making passes, scoring at the rim, blocking shots, putting the ball on the floor and handling it. I remember telling him, at some point, there are going to be these high major schools, who were not recruiting him at the time, and they're going to wonder, ‘how the hell did Yale get this kid?'”
As with Team Israel, Wolf saw a unique opportunity at Yale, where he began in economics, but is now majoring in history.
“I decided to wait until the end of my senior year to decide,” Wolf said, “and throughout the process, Coach Jones the whole staff were great communicators. They really emphasized how much they were invested in me and my success I just built an amazing relationship. Coach Jones is going to tell you how it is, he's not a Bser compared to other coaches. We're at one of the best colleges in the world, and with that comes such a selective, yet diverse group of students, professors and faculty. I've met people who may go on to be world leaders, may go on to play prominent roles in the world and I think it's just super cool because you have likeminded individuals who are all so passionate about what they're doing, really bright, collective minds.”
With a veteran team,
Yale did not need Wolf be a towering figure right away. He played behind Isaiah Kelly and EJ Jarvis, averaging 7.3 minutes, 2.6 points, 2.2 rebounds, but started to play more later in the season and gradually gained confidence.
It was enough for Israel Basketball to ramp up their pursuit of him, and Wolf saw more than just an opportunity to improve his game.
“Playing for a country doesn't compare to any other team I've ever played for,” he said. “The guys on the team want to win so bad, because it means so much. Growing up, I always wanted to play for a country, I thought it would be cool, and then when the opportunity to represent Israel, something I held near and dear to my heart, it wasn't just me trying to find a platform to go and play basketball. A lot of people presented that opportunity to jump at it because it puts you on the international stage in front of a bunch of scouts, but I did it for other reasons and maybe that is what elevated our team's play.”
When he returned to campus in the fall, with Kelly and Jarvis graduated, but most of the rest of the team back, Wolf was ready to step up to a bigger role. He scored 15 against Colgate in the fourth game of the season, and has been in double digits in all but one game since, including 22 at Quinnipiac, 25 at Santa Clara and 11 points, six rebounds and four blocks in the 75-60 loss at Kansas Dec. 22. He's averaging 30.3 minutes, 15.4 points, 9.8 rebounds, shooting 41.1 percent on threes (23 for 56). In the seven
Ivy League games, Wolf has averaged 18 points, 11.3 rebounds.
“I thought I was going to have an opportunity to play significant minutes, but I didn't know what my role would be. Having the confidence instilled in me by my teammates and coaches has really helped me.”
Wolf has shown himself to be a basketball “savant,” Jones said, able to rattle off names and numbers of legendary basketball players at Yale, and beyond.
“He's a big 4-year-old, and I mean that in the most endearing way possible,” Jones said. “The joy of basketball and what it's about, I see it on his face more than a lot of other guys.”
Yale has sent a handful of players to the NBA, most recently Miye Oni, who played with Utah from 2019-22, and most notably Chris Dudley, 6-11, who played 16 seasons, from 1987-2003. Does Wolf 's “Three and D” game translate to the NBA?
“One hundred percent,” Jones said. “There's no doubt in my mind he can play at that level. Whether it be a first round pick, lottery pick, second round pick, two-way-contract, he's going to have an opportunity. I can't imagine
NBA people not wanting to explore this. Danny, it's weirdly unbelievably, what he's capable of doing.”