James Jones Q&A

America’s Most Underappreciated Coach reflects on this past season and state of Yale Basketball

A little over a month ago, James Jones completed his 24th season at the helm of the Yale men’s basketball program following the Bulldogs’ 85-57 loss to San Diego State in the Round of 32. Instead of dwelling on how it ended, what should be remembered is how this Yale team constantly pushed the right buttons to win big games, none more than the 78-76 first-round upset over No. 4 Auburn in Spokane. Time and time again, Yale never wavered from being a remarkably well-connected and unselfish team in the days and months leading up to the takedown of the Tigers. Despite that, winning the Ivy League was quite a difficult task given how uber competitive it was with the consistency of Princeton and Cornell all season, and the late rise of Brown. Yale had to dig deep, really deep—including overcoming a six-point deficit with 27 seconds left in the title game vs. Brown—to eventually produce a game-winning floater from Knowling to beat the buzzer and secure the title for Yale at Columbia’s Levien Gymnasium. It was an all-time finish for the ages, sending the Bulldogs into the selection show with ecstasy and the Bears into the pits of another offseason without an NCAA Tournament appearance to show for.

Interestingly, a lot of change has unfolded since Yale’s March magic. Star big man Danny Wolf has since jumped ship to Michigan, where he will enjoy the spotlight of playing in front thousands of people every game in the Big 10. While the seven-footer Wolf deservedly won Team MVP this year—and projects as the best pro of any Yale player in recent memory—he wasn’t the main reason why the Bulldogs came one win away from the Sweet 16. Wolf was solid during the March run, but not the focal point offensively that he was for most of the season.

The bulk of the credit goes to veterans August Mahoney and John Poulakidas, the latter of whom lit up Auburn with 28 points on10-15 shooting from the feld and 6-9 from three. Perhaps Poulakidas gave fair warning of his forthcoming rampage by making huge shots against Brown in the Ivy League Championship, which he capped off with a tough three that cut the Yale deficit to one with 15 seconds left. 

Mahoney, for his part, was just as critical to Yale’s success. He scored 15 points on 3 of 4 shooting from three in the title game, and calmly chipped in 14 points on 9 of 11 shooting from the line against Auburn.

It is worth noting—and was proudly acknowledged by Jones in the transcript below—that the teamwork of Wolf, Bez Mbeng, and Knowling on the final sequence of the title game is a lasting memory from last season’s Yale team. One Ivy League assistant from last season told me it was the type of play that defined the Bulldogs, as Mbeng calmly located Knowling instead of trying to win the game himself.

Just the other day, I was fortunate to have a comprehensive conversation with Jones. Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports called Jones “America’s Most Underappreciated Coach” after Yale’s upset over Auburn. Rothstein may be on to something with that. 

PJ: Talk about the preparation that went into the Auburn game and how your team was able to execute. Did your team surpass your expectations on that stage?

JJ: I don’t know if they surpassed any expectations. In terms of preparation, it’s what we dealt with all year. We were fortunate to play a couple of high major teams in Gonzaga and Kansas and felt good about those games. Because of that we were ready to go up against this Auburn team and just execute how we play.

PJ: What specifically from the Gonzaga and Kansas games were you able to learn?

JJ: We were able to compete. In those atmospheres, it’s difficult to be successful against Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse. We took a lead at halftime and that took an act of congress just to have a lead at halftime. But we just knew if we got someone on a neutral court with neutral officials that we would have a chance to get somebody in the tournament.

PJ: Second tournament win under your belt now after you also beat Baylor in 2016. Did this run with this group feel different in any way? 

JJ: Yeah, everything feels different. Different players, different circumstances. That first time was really interesting, the glitz and the glamor of it. We’ve been to the tournament a bunch so you know what to expect, but this year was really special because of how we won the games. We got into the tournament by the hair of our chinny chin chin, beating Brown in the tournament final and then having to comeback against Auburn… the way we won just made it more exhilarating.

PJ: Are there any moments that stick out where you will look back and say “wow, that was pretty cool”?

JJ: Two things that occurred. One, the last play against Brown in which August Mahoney takes the ball out of bounds, he passes it to Danny Wolf, and Danny explores a little bit and gets it to Bez, and Bez has the ball with 2.6 seconds to go and he had the mindset and the reason to find an open Matt Knowling for a basket. Either one of those guys, Danny or Bez, could have tried to do it on their own, and no one would have blamed them. But we did it together and that was really special. 

Then, after the game, August Mahoney hugged his father. After we lost to Vermont in a game that you can’t lose and felt that was taken away from us by the officials, he had a couple of plays that went south in that game. He hugged his father for a full 20 minutes after that (Vermont) game and then to watch them embrace after beating Brown was so special. 

PJ: You talked about all year long how the Ivy League kind of has a chip on its shoulder. You felt like your team was good enough from a talent standpoint to be an at-large team. Going into that Auburn game, did you take things personally?

JJ: I don’t think we worry about what other people think or say. We just do what we do, and again we were fortunate to get to the tournament and we just had to play the games in front of us. I thought Auburn should have been higher than four. I thought they should have been two. Their metrics were so good – I thought they should have been better. I knew it would be a tough match-up, but we were ready for it and played our tails off.”

PJ: The University of Idaho band was there to support Yale because your band couldn’t make it out to Spokane. I also read an article that the support for Yale in Spokane was really good among random people that attended the game. Did you feel that support from the Idaho band playing as well as the fans in the stands? 

JJ: The band for sure because I heard about them before the game and I made sure to go over there to thank those kids before the second game started. To be honest with you, during the course of the game, I don’t really notice anything else besides what’s happening on the court. I know we had fans there, I know people were cheering for us, but I couldn’t tell you where they were. My mind is so fixated about what is happening on the court.

PJ: Describe the legacies of guys like Matt Knowling, August Mahoney, and Danny Wolf as each of them moves on.

JJ: August is the all-time winningest player in Yale Basketball history. He won 86 games and four championships in his four years here. The legacy that him, Danny, and Matt Knowling will leave you can’t really put words into it. Our guys will remember how hard they played and what they did for us. Now for the younger guys, it’s their turn to try and do something special like they did.

PJ: It’s pretty evident that with Wolf moving on that Samson Aletan is going to have a big chance to contribute next season. Being that he was the highest ranked recruit in program history out of the Class of 2023, how excited are you that he will have a real chance to contribute? 

JJ: We have always been a next man up program. Whoever is in line, it’s your turn. Now it’s going to be Samson’s turn to come and see what he can do. I’m really looking forward to watching him and helping him improve so that he can help us. 

PJ: One guy who I feel is very underappreciated especially here in the northeast among people who didn’t get a chance to see him up close is John Poulakidas. He was the hero in the game against Auburn. What was going through your mind when John was making those shots? 

JJ: John is just one of those guys who can get hot, that whenever they shoot it’s just gonna go in. He was in his bag and he had a lot of tricks. He spends a lot of time working on his game and improving and getting better and all of that came to fruition for us. We feel like if it wasn’t going to be John going off, somebody else would go off. He’s certainly more than capable of knocking down five or six threes in a row. He was just fantastic and he put us on his back to lead us to that win.

PJ: Next year, your squad will have six seniors. Teo Rice was picked as the captain. How much are you looking forward to having Teo be your captain?

JJ: Teo is one of the hardest working people that I’ve ever coached. He hasn't had a great opportunity to play yet, but he just comes to practice and makes everyone’s life a living hell in terms of what he does on the court playing hard. I’m really excited for him. At Yale, there is only one captain for each team, and you are chosen by your teammates so that speaks volumes about him that his teammates feel that way. To be honest with you, all of my seniors are leaders. He will be the head guy, but every one of my seniors are guys I expect to lead the team.

PJ: I saw an interesting tweet after Selection Sunday from Bob Walsh of St. John’s. He basically said let us know where the goal posts are so that we know where to aim in terms of building a resume. Given that the Ivy League across its history has never gotten an at-large bid, how much clarity do you think needs to be set forth to know exactly what you need to do to get to the NCAA Tournament as an at-large team?

JJ: There is no clarity for teams like ours. The metrics are such that we can never meet what they are looking for. It’s all about Quad 1 wins and we don’t get a chance to play Quad 1 games at home. We played two Quad 1 games on the road, but to go into Kansas and into Gonzaga and win those games is near impossible to do and those were the only chances we had. Princeton was rumored to have had a chance if they went undefeated in the Ivy League season but lost in the Ivy League Championship game. They didn’t play a Quad 1 game all season long, so it would have been interesting to see how that played out. To be honest with you, I don’t know. The way the metrics work, they are against us. Until the metrics change, it’s going to be very difficult for an Ivy League team to get an at-large bid.

PJ: Given Yale’s rigorous academic requirements, just how difficult has it been to recruit out of the transfer portal to Yale?

JJ: Beyond the academic side of it, you have to have the right position and the right player for your program. Someone who is going to be a good culture guy. And now beyond that, it’s the money. I saw one guy who picked Kentucky over other schools. Well, they don’t tell you they picked Kentucky over other schools because Kentucky paid them 400K more. It’s all about how much money you have, so it makes it near impossible for us to even swim in the pool because of what these young men and women are looking for these days.

PJ: Can you have ever imagined in your wildest dreams that college basketball would turn this transactional?

JJ: No, I wouldn’t have. We still want to be transformational. And this transaction that goes on is terrible. It takes away from “team-ism.” I just made up a word that I use all of the time. It takes away from team building. It takes away from people trying to win together. It takes away from building something together. It becomes all about the individual, and who when you get to that, who signs up for that? That’s not what any coach signed up for.

PJ: The big schools have the benefit of the big NIL collectives. You’re in a different landscape right now in the Ivy League without NIL. Do you believe the Ivy League will adjust by coming up with collectives at the schools?

JJ: I don’t know. I think if we are going to continue to have a chance to win in the NCAA Tournament we will need to do something because we lost two players from the league last year, we’ve already lost four this year, and Princeton has four guys in the portal right now. With that being said, now it’s how many guys are we going to lose next year? It’s not great for our league. 

PJ: I want to go back to 2014 when Yale beat UConn. I think that win is especially relevant again now that UConn is back on top of the sport. Where does that win stack up in your career? 

JJ: It’s hard to say. It’s not something I think about much. They won the national championship the year before so it was really special when it happened and it was a great group of guys who we had on that team and we played really well. 

PJ: What were your takeaways from watching UConn the last two years, especially this year’s team and the run they made again?

JJ: I am absolutely in awe and I’m a fan of what Danny has done. The way they play and the way they share the basketball. They epitomize what you want a team to be, and that’s why they were able to go out and win two national championships back to back. They play together, and it’s not about “me” it’s about “we.”

PJ: Do you want to play UConn again? 

JJ: I want to play a lot of teams who won’t play us, so the answer is yes. 

PJ: How about playing your brother Joe at Boston U? 

JJ: No, that’s not something we want to do. There’s too much at stake with brothers playing each other. We scrimmage each other every year, and we played against each other 14 times in the Ivy League. 

PJ: Riley Fox, Isaac Celiscar, Jordan Brathwaite make up the Class of 2024 recruits as of now. How excited are you about adding them?

JJ: I’m excited to get them here and start working with them. I think they all bring something unique to the table and there’s so much I still need to learn about each of them. 

Editor’s note: James Jones’ brother, Joe, has been the head coach at Boston University since 2011. He served as the head coach at Columbia University from 2003 to 2010.