PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Yale has hand an up-and-down non-league run thus far. As the Bulldogs start a five-game road swing that will take them into 2010, there are some positives for this team, some of which were evident when they started off that stretch by giving Providence all they could handle.
The Bulldogs have yet to win consecutive games this season. That’s not a big surprise considering three starters had been reserves prior to this season and are all playing more minutes. The three starters they lost from last season represented their top three rebounders and three of their top four scorers, so they already needed the holdovers to make a sizeable improvement. Add in a series of injuries, and the growth of the team has taken some hits along the way.
While the win-loss record isn’t pleasant at 4-7, players like Michael Sands, Jordan Gibson and Paul Nelson are generally functioning well as new starters. Reggie Willhite and Greg Mangano have become nice contributors as sophomores, though the latter missed the first six games of the season due to an off-season foot injury. Sands and Gibson have led the team in scoring at least once this season. Mangano had 14 points off the bench against Providence and was one of the Bulldogs who basically had their way inside with the Friars.
“They’re coming along as best as possible,” head coach James Jones said of the new regulars. “We’ve been hurt, so we haven’t had everybody in the lineup. Now we’re starting to get to where we have a bunch of guys in the lineup at the same time.”
With four more games on the road in this stretch, it’s a good time to have a healthier team. Although the Bulldogs were without backup point guard Mike Grace, who Jones said might have helped since the game was played at a fast pace, they largely had their whole team for that game. For much of the game, they took good care of the ball, a positive sign because some recent Yale teams have been dogged by turnovers, and they exposed some weaknesses in the Friars’ defense, especially inside.
Yale led for a good deal of the game, and in the first half they scored almost easily at times when they got the ball inside. It didn’t matter if it was a drive by the likes of Porter Braswell or Gibson, or an entry pass into someone like Nelson or Mangano – if the ball got in or near the paint, it was going in the basket. The Bulldogs controlled the pace, breaking the Friars’ press when Providence was able to press off a made basket, and made it their game.
The Bulldogs naturally lean on senior Alex Zampier at the offensive end. While his shooting numbers could be better, they’re not much different from last season. He took advantage of the inside play, as he scored 25 points on 10-19 shooting on Monday night. He doesn’t just give them scoring, as he’s averaging well over two steals per game as well.
Gibson appears to have made the biggest jump of all the new starters. Playing just under twice as many minutes per game as last season, he’s more than doubled his scoring and rebounding numbers and already has more assists than he had all of last season. If there’s an X-factor on this team, it’s probably the senior forward, who didn’t have his best numbers game on Monday but was very active and had a nose for the ball.
“If you were to put his minutes out from last year, he’s doing what he does,” Jones said of Gibson.
Jones was satisfied with 14 turnovers in the game, especially since the Friars press often. He was also satisfied that they didn’t lose the game, as the Friars had 19 points off the turnovers but didn’t win the game on that. The biggest thing the press ultimately did was keep the Bulldogs from getting into the halfcourt set they had in the first half, which allowed them to get the inside baskets. Several Bulldogs had good first half numbers but did little for most of the second half, mainly due to a lack of touches.
Once the Bulldogs come back from Christmas, they head to Colorado for games against Colorado and Colorado State. After this five-game stretch, they get two home games before the Ivy League begins. Three of the first four Ivy games are home and the only road game is at rebuilding Brown, so they could get off to a good start before the difficult Cornell-Columbia road weekend.
“It’s going to be a tough stretch for us,” Jones said of the road stretch. “Five games on the road is never easy. We’ve got these five games, and we’ve got to try to make some noise.”
