Elis look to salvage season with strong Ivy start

When this reporter called men's basketball coach James Jones at 11:30 p.m., he expected to get his voice mail. But the first-year coach was still in his office working, looking at videotape, and calling recruits. "Coach Jones is just a tremendously hard-working coach," Captain John Kirkowski, MC '00, said. "He's there every night of the week, and he's up early in the morning."

JULIA TIERNAN/YH Center Neil Yanke, MC '01, has been the focal point of the Eli offense.

Jones mixes business-like preparation with intensity and passion, and the players appreciate his meticulous preparation. "This year we're much more positive and confident," forward Ted Smith, CC '00, said. "And it pretty much starts with Coach Jones." One of Jones's motivational techniques, which he first used when coaching at SUNY-Albany is to distribute practice schedules that include a "word of the day." Jones discusses this word with his players and uses it as a focal point for the practice. "It gives me a chance to sit up on a soapbox and talk about something that I think the kids need," he said.

"Exam" was recently a word of the day, and, according to Jones, the players still haven't passed. They've lost five in a row and stand at 2-10 going into their league opener against Harvard at home on Fri., Jan. 14.

The Bulldogs' biggest problem thus far has been ball handling. They turn the ball over five times more than their opponents in an average game. Isaiah Cavaco, JE '01, who logged more than 1,000 minutes at the point in his first two seasons, has played only 46 injury-hampered minutes this year. He had surgery on both knees on Fri., Jan. 7, and the team is now unsure if he will return this season. "Isaiah is a stabilizing force for our team," Jones said. Without Cavaco, none of the starters has more assists than turnovers, and starting guards Onaje Woodbine, BK '02, and Chris Leanza, SY '03, average a combined 7.4 turnovers per game. While Jones praised Leanza's play, he added that at the beginning of the season, he didn't expect a freshman point guard to be playing 34 minutes a game. "That's a lot to ask," Jones said.

The Bulldogs have also been hurt by their shooting (39 percent). Among the starters, only Woodbine (12.1 ppg, 44 percent) is hitting more than 40 percent of his shots. Center Neil Yanke (10 ppg, 7.8 rebounds), MC '01, is the focal point of the offense. But having to face double and even triple teams has hurt him—he is shooting only 35 percent from the field. The double teams on Yanke have been opening up the outside shot, but without Cavaco, who led the team last year in three-pointers made, the Bulldogs have had trouble converting.

The team has been working on its weaknesses. Players have been working on shooting outside of practice, and Jones makes the players run sprints for every turnover they commit in scrimmages. Whether this has led to improvement will become clear in their first two league games this weekend.

The Bulldogs will face two very different teams. Harvard, their first opponent, has also lost a key player to injury. Forward Dan Clemente '01, who was leading the Crimson in scoring, will miss the rest of the season with a detached retina. Yet the team has managed a 7-7 record and beat Dartmouth twice to start the league season. "They're not a great team by any stretch," Dartmouth Coach Dave Faucher said. "But they play hard, good team basketball." Jones added, "Harvard is probably one of the best teams in the Ivy League that I've seen. They utilize their parts well." Center Tim Coleman '01 has stepped up in Clemente's absence, averaging 14.1 points and 7.9 rebounds.

Dartmouth, whom the Bulldogs will face on Sat., Jan. 15, finished third in the league last year and was picked in the preseason media poll to finish third again this year. But after the two losses to Harvard, the Big Green stands at 4-8 and is reeling. "We've struggled," Faucher said. "We're trying to put the pieces together." He pointed out that while the team expected to return all five starters, forward Charles Harris, who excelled last year as a freshman, did not return to the team this season due to academic problems. Jones sees a deeper problem with the Big Green—compared to Harvard, they "don't play as well together." Nonetheless, he recognizes that Shaun Gee '00, Dartmouth's leading scorer, and Greg Buth '01, who led Division I in three-point shooting last season, are dangerous.

Despite his players' talent, Faucher was pessimistic about their Ivy title chances after losing their first two games. "I don't think [the league race] is open to us," he said. "It's probably open to everybody but us." That includes Yale. The Bulldogs, picked by the media to finish seventh in the league, enter this weekend with no league losses and high hopes. To live up to their goal of a league title, they'll have to play better as a team. "I think our biggest problem so far is that we don't have a great understanding of what playing together is," Jones said. To change this, the coach with new ideas emphasized an old one. The word of the day in Tuesday's practice was "unity."

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