iogyhufi
Masters Student
Posts: 681
Age: 27
Reg: 10-10-17
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01-14-23 03:36 PM - Post#349518
In response to OldBig5
My guess is that it's a combination of factors. For one, Yale has exactly two players who play significant minutes that are at all shooters - Poulakidas and Mahoney - and one of them is still getting used to the collegiate pace of play. I think teams in the noncon didn't have enough tape or enough history with Yale to know this, so they played defense more or less straight up, and the two shooters were able to get hot with open shots. In league, Yale's opponents have started doubling Knowling aggressively the second he catches it in the post and leaving nonshooters like Mbeng and Jarvis and Kelly to do it. Yale isn't able to get offense easily, and nobody has really emerged as That Guy who can get a bucket when the team really needs it. Azar Swain was a historically good shotmaker, and that papered over a lot of Yale's issues from last year - remember how poor Yale looked in the noncon last year. Yale is shooting 23.5% from 3 in conference, and that's not a recipe for success no matter how talented you might be.
For another, this is a very inexperienced team. According to KenPom, Yale averages 0.9 years of D-1 experience, good for 338th in the country and 6th in league. Of course, this is a problem for the league as a whole due to the cancelled season, but Yale lost so so much of its offensive production in Gabbidon and Swain. I think they're struggling to figure out who should take over the scoring roles now that they're facing stiffer defense in-league.
It's also probably a momentum thing. Young teams can be exceptionally prone to ruts, and it wouldn't surprise me if having a single rusty game against Columbia sort of snowballed.
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