The numbers: 14-11, 6-4 Ivy, 181st RPI, 230th Sagarin, 242nd Pomeroy
The recent results: lost 72-64 at Dartmouth (2/17), won 77-66 at Harvard (2/18)
The upcoming schedule: at Cornell (2/24), at Columbia (2/25)
Road losing skid snapped
How bad has Yale been on the road in recent years? The Bulldogs’ loss Friday at last-place Dartmouth was their eighth-straight Ivy loss away from home, and their 15th loss in their last 18 Ivy away games. This for a team that has gone 16-2 at home against league opponents in that span. Saturday’s win at Harvard ended that road losing streak, but Yale has its Empire State roadtrip looming this weekend.
Three-point shooting — not turnovers — key to wins
While turnovers have been the biggest impediment to offensive efficiency for Yale this season, they’ve actually not been a huge determining factor in wins and losses. The Bulldogs have a slightly lower turnover rate in wins (24.2 percent) than in losses (26.6 percent), but the real key to winning has been the outside shooting. Yale has shot 42.1 percent from three-point range in its 14 victories and just 28.2 percent in its 11 defeats. The good news for James Jones is that his team has improved its three-point shooting from 34.5 percent outside the league to 37.7 percent in Ivy play.
Martin’s passing improved, still needs work
Dominick Martin gets a lot of touches on the blocks, and he’s seeing a fair number of double-teams. Throughout his career, Martin has been faulted with playing like a black hole, where the ball goes inside, but never comes back out. With his teammates shooting the ball better from the perimeter this season, Martin’s assist total has gone up slightly from an abysmal 17 in 27 games last season to 27 in 18 games this year. But there’s still huge room for improvement, given the shooters playing alongside him. To his credit, Martin continues to commit very few turnovers — just 1.7 per contest this year.
Outside shot at NIT bid
At this point Yale is the only Ivy school with even a remote chance of a postseason NIT bid. Should the Bulldogs win out, they would have an 18-11 record (10-4 in the league), with an RPI ranking somewhere in the 140-150 range. Brown received an NIT bid back in 2002-03 with an RPI ranking of 146th, though Penn was snubbed the next season with a ranking of 124th. However, working in Yale’s favor is the NIT’s expansion to a 64-team field this season.
Youth is served
Yale stands out among the upper division teams in that it is the only team in the top half of the standings whose juniors and seniors are getting under 40 percent of the playing time. Martin and Josh Greenberg are the lone seniors and have played just 544 minutes combined this season. Juniors Sam Kaplan, Casey Hughes, and Jason Abromaitis have logged a combined 1,263 minutes. Yale’s juniors and seniors together have received just 35.4 percent of the minutes, which means the freshmen and sophomores are getting extensive playing time.
Statistical odds and ends
The Bulldogs have four members of the regular rotation shooting under 40 percent: Nick Holmes (39.5 percent), Casey Hughes (36.7 percent), Caleb Holmes (36.2 percent), and Chris Andrews (27.0 percent)… Yale ranks 40th in the nation in assist percentage, with 62.9 percent of its field goals coming off assists… Nick Holmes has 79 rebounds, but just six have come at the offensive end.
