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As the new season inches closer, Yale basketball players and coaches shared their thoughts on the recently released regular season schedule.
Jack He
Contributing Reporter
muscosportsphotos.com
As the inspiring scenes of last year’s men’s Ivy League championship linger in the minds of fans, the Yale men’s and women’s basketball teams are gearing up for the new season.
Last week, the Ivy League was officially released Men’s hoops season schedulewith Women’s schedule To follow soon. Although the first game of both teams is more than a month away, this year’s schedule still follows an adjusted travel format. Excited about the new season, the coaches and players shared their thoughts on the highly anticipated matches and pre-match conference.
“The history of this is that Princeton’s final tournament schedule prevented us from playing in early January,” men’s head coach James Jones said. “After that, they changed their finals schedule which added a lot of versatility to what we can do as a league. In doing so, some coaches in our league felt that traveling and playing back-to-back games was too difficult for student-athletes.
The Ivy League has discontinued the traditional travel partner program since last season. In the past, the teams would take weekend road trips to play back-to-back games against rival teams in the area. But now the games against two schools in the same area are separated.
Forward Isaiah Kelly ’23 said he appreciates having time to fill the time between games and lock in on the team’s next opponent. Kelly explained the difficulty of the long road trips during the season, saying women’s guard Jenna Clark, 24, made it difficult to scan the second team’s back-to-back schedule in the traditional system.
The benefit of the traditional travel-partner program, Clark pointed out, is that it’s convenient for parents to see two games in a short amount of time. Jones and women’s captain Camilla Mbaugh ’23 both cited the strength of the traditional program as another straw, which Mbaugh said was “definitely more aggressive.”
“I’m excited to find a way to build the team through him and how to prepare the team for league play.” Jones said.
Regardless of this new schedule, Jones pointed out that it is a work in progress.
“What we did last year and what we’re going to do this year is not going to happen,” Jones said. “The coaches feel there are ways to do better, so we’re looking at ways to do better.”
On the men’s side, the Bulldogs will travel to Lexington to play the Wildcats on Dec. 10, marking the first time the two teams have met at Rupp Arena since 1961. A late November trip to Denver will meet a former team captain. Jalen Gabbidon ’22, a graduate transfer at Colorado.
Kelly said the Diamond Head Classic in Hawaii this December is his most anticipated set of games.
“Hawaii is a big deal. [really] We look forward to it,” Kelly wrote to the News. “my family [is] You will be there, my family [too]. It’s just there to have a family [is] Such a good feeling… it will be a great opportunity for us.
For the women’s team, the Bulldogs hope to avenge last season’s nail-biting losses to St. Joseph’s University and the University of Maine.
“Those were games we could have won … it was great for us to get those rematches,” guard Clark said. “Our goal in every game is to play hard and win, and I think about every game. [this year] We have an opportunity to do this.
Clark and Esbo expressed their excitement for the team’s test against Big Five school Syracuse.
Despite differing opinions on the new schedule, coaches and players are united in their optimism for the new season.
“I’m an optimist, and I’m normally pretty optimistic, so I feel good about what lies ahead,” Jones said.
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