Tag: Jordan Bruner

Three Thoughts: Yale 81, Delaware 63

Alex Copeland officially played 4.2% of possible minutes last season as a freshman for Yale, and even that is generous, perhaps 99% of that came in blowouts or just as the final horn was about to sound in a game already decided (yes, that’s Copeland entering as James Jones emptied his bench in the Ivy League clinching win over Columbia in March).

This season, Copeland expected his role to be increased after four seniors graduated. But point guard Makai Mason still remained, as did Trey Phills and Anthony Dallier, the next two on the Yale depth chart when practice opened in October.

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Three Thoughts: Yale 66, Sacred Heart 52

James Jones knew, even if he did have a healthy Makai Mason playing for him, that he was going to have an extremely inexperienced team this season. But Jones forgot a little how painful the process of gaining that valuable commodity can be. Yale ranked 27th and 21st nationally in experience the last two seasons and played a big part in their 45 wins, two Ivy League titles, and last season’s NCAA Tournament victory.

This season: 280th. So you get stretches like the second half last week at Bryant where the Bulldogs blew a big second half lead and lost. And the first half Thursday at Sacred Heart, where Yale couldn’t execute a basic pick and roll and turned the ball over 11 times in 34 possessions.

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Three Thoughts: Bryant 79, Yale 70 – Ndugba Doesn’t Need Redemption

On the scatterplot of Division I head basketball coaches, Bryant’s Tim O’Shea slides toward the upper end of both the laid-back and positivity metrics, so it shouldn’t be that surprising that he was able to brush off Monday’s unfortunate mistake by freshman Ikenna Ndugba that contributes to a tough 91-90 loss at Brown Monday night.

It’s likely that a Google search of Ndugba’s name will turn up the incident for the rest of his college career at least, as it made the rounds to SportsCenter and local television around the country. But for O’Shea, the discussion about it afterward lasted about three seconds, and publicity is publicity, right?

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