Untitled Document
Brown Columbia Cornell Dartmouth Harvard Penn Princeton Yale



Username Post: Yale III        (Topic#22910)
mobrien 
Senior
Posts: 390

Loc: New York
Reg: 04-18-17
03-16-19 09:44 PM - Post#281724    

In a lot of ways, Yale is a better matchup for us than Penn. Yale doesn't have anyone who can guard Bryce nearly as well as Dev Goodman can for Penn, and Bassey can typically do a better job slowing Oni down than we're able to do with Brodeur.

One of the big questions, then, is how healthy Bassey really is right now. I couldn't notice any difference when he was out on the court today, but if he was feeling completely healthy he presumably would have been starting. Catchings and Kirkwood did a pretty good job on Oni themselves the last time we played Yale, so at least we have options there. (It'd be nice if we could slide Kirkwood onto Copeland, though, and hide Bryce on Phils).

These are two good rebounding teams, so I'd expect turnovers and threes to play a big part in determining this one.

 
Chip Bayers 
Professor
Posts: 6997
Chip Bayers
Loc: New York
Reg: 11-21-04
03-17-19 02:29 PM - Post#281791    
    In response to mobrien

Oni draws his 4th foul with 14:13 left and has to leave the game, Aikens hits two FTs to put Harvard up 54-53 ... and Yale scores 44 points the rest of the way. That’s a pretty epic defensive collapse with their best player off the floor for 10 of those 14 minutes.


 
weinhauers_ghost 
Postdoc
Posts: 2125

Age: 64
Loc: New York City
Reg: 12-14-09
Yale III
03-17-19 05:23 PM - Post#281811    
    In response to Chip Bayers

Copeland had the game of his life, with assists from Reynolds, Swain and Bruner. He basically played the role Darnell Foreman played for Penn in last year's championship game.

As I told my buddy on the way home this afternoon, if I'd said Yale would have won the game with Oni picking up his fourth foul early in the second half and finishing as their second leading scorer, you'd have looked at me as if I had three heads.

Hell of a battle. Aiken got very little offensive support from anyone other than Kirkwood. Bassey looked a little more mobile than he did against Penn yesterday, but he was clearly not 100%.

Edited by weinhauers_ghost on 03-17-19 05:24 PM. Reason for edit: No reason given.

 
mobrien 
Senior
Posts: 390

Loc: New York
Reg: 04-18-17
Yale III
03-17-19 07:37 PM - Post#281832    
    In response to weinhauers_ghost

I generally love going small, but Amaker went too small. The Aiken-Juzang-Haskett lineup meant we had three guys 6'3'' and under. (I'd prefer to play more of our 6'6'' wings when we do it). We just couldn't get stops with those guys. Part of that was the Yale guys were just collectively playing out of their minds, part of it was that we missed a bunch of layups that led to easy run-outs for them, another part was that the refs went crazy giving them calls after Oni's fourth, but the rest was that they were able to just shoot over us.

What we needed to do was spread the court with shooting, but also have length on defense. I would have rather seen Catchings than Juzang, and, if he was healthy enough to go, Bassey instead of Haskett. The wild card, when we were getting really desperate, might have been giving ... Baker a chance. His length can be really disruptive on defense, and he's at least a threat from three. His turnovers and mental mistakes have put him at the very end of the bench the last month, but this was a game where we needed him.

Copeland played a hell of a game for them. Hats off to him. Swain's 15 points — including a banked three from the corner and a phantom foul on a three — were what we needed from Juzang or Haskett. I thought the refereeing was really one-sided in the last 8 minutes or so, which was unfortunate.

Final point: it's really dumb that, for the second year in a row, we've had to play the two seed on their court in the final. We should either get a neutral court or just have the one seed host it. The only issue there is that a very small difference — the best-win tiebreaker — might determine a big thing in who gets home-court advantage, but that's nowhere near as bad as the second seed getting it.

 
mobrien 
Senior
Posts: 390

Loc: New York
Reg: 04-18-17
03-17-19 07:40 PM - Post#281833    
    In response to Chip Bayers

Almost as epic as Penn's collapse today against ... oh that's right, you didn't play anyone.

 
Chip Bayers 
Professor
Posts: 6997
Chip Bayers
Loc: New York
Reg: 11-21-04
03-17-19 07:44 PM - Post#281835    
    In response to mobrien

Next up from mobrien: “I’m rubber, you’re glue!”





 
weinhauers_ghost 
Postdoc
Posts: 2125

Age: 64
Loc: New York City
Reg: 12-14-09
03-17-19 08:57 PM - Post#281849    
    In response to Chip Bayers

This is going to drive the analytics-focused guys nuts, but if you were to look at Copeland's shot chart, you would find that he took and missed just one three point shot. He carved up Harvard's defense through a surgical application of the much-derided mid-range game.

I hope Swain's injury isn't serious. Good that he was able to jog off under his own power, but he shouldn't have been out there with eight seconds left in the game.

 
digamma 
Masters Student
Posts: 466

Loc: Minneapolis
Reg: 11-27-11
03-18-19 07:09 AM - Post#281874    
    In response to weinhauers_ghost

Like others I thought the game was lost when we tried to spell Aiken just before the 11 minute time out. We got stuck in an extended no whistle series and instead of going to the break with a one point game it was suddenly six. Couldn’t figure out the sub patterns after that but agree we needed more length. Looking forward to Wednesday though I know it is a difficult ask for the team to get back up.

 
bradley 
PhD Student
Posts: 1842

Age: 74
Reg: 01-15-16
Re: Yale III
03-18-19 09:44 AM - Post#281888    
    In response to mobrien

  • mobrien Said:
Final point: it's really dumb that, for the second year in a row, we've had to play the two seed on their court in the final. We should either get a neutral court or just have the one seed host it. The only issue there is that a very small difference — the best-win tiebreaker — might determine a big thing in who gets home-court advantage, but that's nowhere near as bad as the second seed getting it.




Harvard, especially Aiken and Kirkwood, deserve congratulations as to their performance this weekend as well as their performance during the entire IL regular season. Aiken should have received IL POY.

It was fitting that the two best teams, 10-4 records, played in the finale. Without Towns, I do believe that Yale is the slightly better team and will do a good job in representing the IL.

It is indeed unfortunate that Harvard has played two road games over the past two years for the NCAA bid with one of the losses within the homecourt advantage of 3 points. The only good news for the Crimson is that they will have homecourt advantage next year.

The graduating seniors at Harvard will not have the opportunity to experience the NCAA Tournament. I have empathy for them although I have no empathy for Harvard's AD and Amaker as they advocated for IvyMadness as well as site selection. Same thought would have applied to Mitch Henderson if the Tigers lost on the road back in their undefeated season. As to the Harvard fans, if any, that supported IvyMadness sometimes, you reap what you sow. I realize that some proponents of IvyMadness have also advocated for a neutral site but once you open the trap door of IvyMadness, you may get unanticipated consequences. It is hard to believe that Yale would get homecourt this year and Harvard next year when on paper, these two teams would have a significant advantage with homecourt but IvyMadness continues on. At least the four most deserving teams played in the finals both last year and this year.

Harvard should be very good next year and hopefully, they will clinch a NCAA bid without the crapshoot of IvyMadness. It would be a shame if Aiken, Towns and Lewis do not have the opportunity to play at least one time at the Big Dance.


 
whitakk 
Masters Student
Posts: 523

Age: 32
Reg: 11-11-14
Re: Yale III
03-18-19 09:51 AM - Post#281890    
    In response to weinhauers_ghost

  • weinhauers_ghost Said:
As I told my buddy on the way home this afternoon, if I'd said Yale would have won the game with Oni picking up his fourth foul early in the second half and finishing as their second leading scorer, you'd have looked at me as if I had three heads.



Reminds me of their 2016 NCAA game against Baylor, when Sears and Sherrod both went out with foul trouble around that same point in the game and it seemed like Yale was in big trouble, but they reeled off like a 10-1 run with the backup Downey/Reynolds frontcourt.

 
HARVARDDADGRAD 
Postdoc
Posts: 2685

Loc: New Jersey
Reg: 01-21-14
03-18-19 11:39 AM - Post#281916    
    In response to whitakk

Tough loss for Crimson, great win for Eli's. Mixed feelings:

1. Yale will represent the league very well, possibly better than Harvard. Unless Towns and Aiken were healthy, Yale should have been the pre-season Ivy favorite. Athleticism, depth, experience and great guard play.
2. Harvard went from a 59-58 lead to down 73-59 in a 4 minute stretch midway through the second half. Yale got on a roll, led by Copeland, really pushing the ball. I think that stretch is where HCA mattered.
3. Pace dictated by Yale, as it was in previous game at Yale. Yale shot >60% this time, and >57% in 88-86 home loss to Harvard. At Lavietes, Harvard blew Yale out 65-49 by slowing pace and holding Yale to 30.5% shooting. Again, I think HCA and atmosphere dictated Yale's ability to push the pace. Harvard allows almost 15ppg less in Ivy play at Lavietes (in regulation) than at Ivy Opponents.
4. Amaker went small to try and stop that run and got crushed. Lewis was on the court for most of the run however.
5. Harvard was outrebounded, but likely because Yale only missed 29 shots. Yale made 93% on FTs - 28-30.
6. Harvard's player issues killed them. Bassey (6pts), Juzang (0) and Lewis (2) are obviously injured or something significant. Each were double digit scorers until injuries. Can't win a shootout without 3 of your top 5 scorers.
7. Aiken proved why he is POY. Had the game been close, Amaker would not have pulled him with 4 minutes left and he would easily have eclipsed 40pts, maybe even had a run at 50 with late foul shooting. He often challenged two to four defenders on drives and only had 3 TO's while garnering 4 assists and 3 rebound. 38 pts on 21 shots. Great and smart effort.
8. Speaking of HCA, fans were at least 70/30 Yale, probably more. As feared #1 seed at #2 seed two years in a row.
9. Why did it matter? After going 6-0 vs tournament participants by sweeping YPP and then beating Penn for a third time (7-0), the mere fact that Crimson had to win for an 8th time matters. Basketball is not a game where very good teams win every time against good/very good teams 8 times out of 8. This was a very competitive season. Mere fact that Harvard got to 7-0 under circumstances this season was, to me, remarkable.
10. Watching Yale yesterday makes Princeton's second half effort the day before more impressive.


Bottom Line: Congrats to Yale! They dictated the way the game was played and won. Hope Swain can go. His crazy 4-5 shooting on 3's included some bombs where he was not open. A bank from the corner - Wow did that hurt. Good luck vs LSU.

Wonder if Harvard gets up for Georgetown and who suits up or is limited.

 
Icon Legend Permissions Topic Options
Report Post

Quote Post

Quick Reply

Print Topic

Email Topic

1239 Views




Copyright © 2004-2012 Basketball U. Terms of Use for our Site and Privacy Policy are applicable to you. All rights reserved.
Basketball U. and its subsidiaries are not affiliated in any way with any NCAA athletic conference or member institution.
FusionBB™ Version 2.1 | ©2003-2007 InteractivePHP, Inc.
Execution time: 0.236 seconds.   Total Queries: 16   Zlib Compression is on.
All times are (GMT -0500) Eastern. Current time is 01:25 AM
Top