Bryan
Junior
Posts: 255
Loc: Philadelphia
Reg: 11-21-04
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09-16-24 12:46 PM - Post#371949
Short interview with James Jones is shown below.
https://ivyhoopsonline.com/2024/09/14/qa-with-ya le...
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SomeGuy
Professor
Posts: 6494
Reg: 11-22-04
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Re: MBB 24-25 Outlook
09-16-24 04:27 PM - Post#371952
In response to Bryan
Is Coach Jones saying that Minnesota didn’t want to play Yale until Wolf left?
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iogyhufi
Masters Student
Posts: 702
Age: 28
Reg: 10-10-17
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Re: MBB 24-25 Outlook
10-08-24 01:08 PM - Post#372770
In response to SomeGuy
This year ought to be an interesting one for Yale. I could easily see John Poulakidas having an Azar-Swain-like senior year, where he takes the leap to becoming a lead guard who can score at all three levels. He certainly showed that he has the ability to do so. Floor spacing is still a concern - John Poulakidas and Nick Townsend are the only returners who shot over 30% from 3 last year.
Obviously, Yale lost some major talent from last year. But the flipside of that roster turnover is that you'd expect the starting lineup to be much scarier on defense. (Not that any of the departing players were bad on defense, mind.) You can imagine a starting lineup of Bez/John/Casey/Nick/Samso n, which has a lot of length 1-5 and some tough-nosed individual defenders.
I think a return to old-school lunch-pail Yale basketball will make the Princeton match-up particularly interesting. Princeton had a very traditional Princeton offense lineup last year (shooters at all five spots, the bigs were more like big wings than true post players). A major weakness of a lineup built like that is that you're often likely to be outsized underneath, but there weren't too many post-oriented big men in the Ivy League last year. I'm very intrigued to see whether Yale can create an advantage in the post this year.
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james
Masters Student
Posts: 854
Age: 49
Reg: 03-18-19
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10-09-24 08:30 AM - Post#372820
In response to iogyhufi
yes, like most teams, yale's fate will be determined by their collective ability to make outside shots and open driving lanes.
rim protection should improve given you are trading Samson for Wolf. there is little size beyond Samson tho which reinforces the former point.
i like the risk vs reward. i expect mullen to play a lot and to break out.
i am hopeful on last years returning stalwarts improving their range and makes.
molloy has a good body. he isnt afraid. but like the others he needs to make shots should he get his chance.
2 intriguing upside ideas: samson if he stays on the floor should be an elite finisher/defender at the rim--this opportunity grows should they floor space better; wolf ate the ball too much in the back half of last year...upside from spacing and driving if if they can shoot it.
the freshman are balling out based on practices so far. will james find some pt for them?
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james
Masters Student
Posts: 854
Age: 49
Reg: 03-18-19
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10-09-24 07:03 PM - Post#372860
In response to james
"hope" can be dangerous of course. hard to change a tigers stripes
mbeng, pouli, mullen, gharram etc- as you noted need pouli to show out of course but he can be doubled on ball screens without some improvements from his cast
mbeng is a call option on offense but hopefully we hit the strike. he has shown signs and guys just bait him to pull from 3. any growth here would be a game changer for the offensive flow.
mullen- small guard but has lighning in the bottle capabilities
gharram- hope for some mean reversion here after a tough shooting year but who knows
other- just dont know who else will get a chance on the roster
molloy- need the kentucky game version from a few years ago to emerge. he has the brawn to help in the paint on defense
townsend-like to see him pull it more like he did at times towards the end of the year. he has a nice shot but needs to trust it as undersized if effective when in the paint
simmons- an enigma on offense. also disappeared at the end of the year maybe due to injury. he oozes potential but the time needs to be now to make some shots which opens up hsi dribble drive game.
aletan- his game is under the rim but his effectiveness would be helped with more open driving lanes allowing him to be a lob catcher/ clean up guy
wolf noted recently teams sagged off and played the drive which made the offense stall out bc didnt have shooting breadth.
"i know the guys are working on improving that"
aletan for wolf puts more pressure on it all else equal. i do like the defensive trade though. post depth against ooc slate is a problem as we are now quite small but thats a secondary consideration
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james
Masters Student
Posts: 854
Age: 49
Reg: 03-18-19
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11-03-24 05:45 PM - Post#373538
In response to james
Spoke to a buddy who has seen practice a few times...he was a great shooter in our day. he predicts mullen, simmons and aletan to be the swing factors.
"Samson is a old school power 5big. Has such a strong base now. His lower body is like johni Broome actually. Massive. His length and desire are uncommon for us and he likes to put in on your head. I don't think in the NIL era we will get another specimen like him again.
It will take time for him to assert offensively. He is too unselfish. They are prodding him to go to the rim. But he has never been offensively focused even in high school. But he is capable on the block"
Mullen "I love this kid. Huge upside. great form on shot and has a great first step. He is small tho so not a typical 2 and this matters on the defensive end."
Simmons "I think he cares more. His shot form is fine. But not his strength. Boy is he a fluid athlete and a good defender. If he can find his shot. Does fine with it in practice but not the same so who knows. But he has worked at it"
Said the freshmen or whatever u call them now look v good
"You were right on celiscar. He is a grown butt man"
lastly not sold on expanded shooting breadth..."I don't know if you can create shooters out of air man. hard to tell on just practice. I mean you. i am not sold.
this team has to win on d and scrappiness and poulikidas and maybe mullen have to shoot well."
Me: go bulldogs! quinnipiac will be tough matchup to start so we'll see
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james
Masters Student
Posts: 854
Age: 49
Reg: 03-18-19
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11-04-24 08:44 AM - Post#373540
In response to james
great article on James in ctinsider.com
Very sad outlook he gave on yale's place in the new landscape. One of the most optimistic ppl I have ever known...
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rbg
Postdoc
Posts: 3090
Reg: 10-20-14
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11-04-24 09:22 AM - Post#373544
In response to james
https://www.ctpost.com/sports/article/yale-b asketb...
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1LotteryPick1969
Postdoc
Posts: 2323
Age: 74
Loc: Sandy, Utah
Reg: 11-21-04
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11-04-24 05:52 PM - Post#373564
In response to james
great article on James in ctinsider.com
Very nice article indeed. Sounds like at some point he expected to be recruited for a more lucrative/prestigious position, but has either given up that dream, or is happy to stay where he is.
He has a talented but young team; I expect they will be competitive with anyone by the ILT.
btw, James, please join us at the new site!
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SRP
Postdoc
Posts: 4951
Reg: 02-04-06
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11-05-24 01:08 AM - Post#373626
In response to 1LotteryPick1969
It's interesting how he describes his evolution as a coach.
I saw that some Yale fans on here thought the team wasn't quite as strong on the intangibles last year as in the past, but it looked like a pretty similar level of grit and confidence to me. And that's something I've seen year after year with Jones's program--they look like they expect to win and know what to do to win and are willing to do it.
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james
Masters Student
Posts: 854
Age: 49
Reg: 03-18-19
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11-05-24 09:19 AM - Post#373640
In response to SRP
yes. he changed.
but he was young and it is hard to comprehend what utter dog sh**t the program had been. kuchen was awful.
bob gibbons rated my class #1 in IL and we never finished higher than #4. the gap bt penn/princeton and the rest of the league was more like comparing uconn to say the maac.
of course one of p/p were usually in the polls/votes at least some point seasonally during the 90s.
besides john j lee and chris dudley yale had no basketball history pre-james.
this article was so spot on...it was brick by brick and such a grind to arrive at the last 10 yr plateau.
i loved james but couldnt believe they didnt hire Steve Pikiel in 1999 now of rutgers. both former yale assistants under Kuchen.
i suppose when thats your top 2 in your 1999 coaching search then you did something right.
well done AD Beckett!
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