Yale senior Edwin Draughan does a little bit of everything.
He leads his team in scoring and assists and also ritually covers the opponent's top player.
Unfortunately, his personal efforts during the Elis non-conference schedule have not been enough to render a winning record. Yale is 4-9 as they prepare to take on their first Ivy League competition of the year in New Haven, Conn.
Beginning its season with a one-point loss to Radford, Yale was immediately faced with a huge disappointment.
In a game that was marked by multiple lead changes, the Elis were able to overcome an eight-point deficit in the second half to tie the game with just under two minutes left to play.
The game came down to a last-second shot, on which Yale sophomore Sam Kaplan was unable to connect. The Elis had a solid shot to win the game but simply could not convert when the game was on the line.
They bounced back in the next game of the William and Mary Classic against Hartford, but were unable to sustain a winning streak because their next opponent was powerhouse Wake Forest.
Although the No. 3 team in the country seemed mortal Wednesday night when it was upset by unranked Florida State, Wake's face-off with Yale ended in a 99-72 blowout in favor of the Demon Deacons. However, the Elis did show some guts in coming close to upsetting a currently-ranked team when it took on unbeaten Boston College on Dec. 19.
The Elis took the game into double overtime before falling by two points, 82-80.
Coach James Jones was both pleased and disappointed about his team's play, which he believes was Yale's best in three years.
"We felt we had that game won a couple times," Jones said. "Thinking about what that victory could have meant for us, it was certainly one of the season's low points."
Coming at a time when its record was a measly 2-5, an unlikely victory against a red-hot Boston College team would have certainly boosted Yale's confidence just as they were taking a break from action over the holiday.
Yale soon got another chance, as it travelled to Santa Clara to face a team that had beaten No. 6 North Carolina and defeated a respectable Stanford team by 10.
The Elis fared much better in this matchup, converting on two consecutive three pointers in overtime to take a commanding six point lead at the beginning of the extra session.
In a rare occurrence this season, Yale actually held onto their lead and defeated the Broncos by the same six-point margin.
"Winning out at Santa Clara was very key," Jones said. "We came back and made some buckets down the stretch."
An important statistic in the matchup was that six Elis scored in double figures. Draughan led the team with 17 points and was supported by freshman Eric Flato's career high 16.
Although Jones believes that Draughan has been his team's MVP thus far, the Santa Clara matchup made it clear that the Elis could only prevail with a complete team effort.
That is not to say that Draughan was lacking his teammates' support throughout the season. Dominick Martin has just about the same number of points as Draughan, and is part of a group of five Yale players who are averaging nine or more points per game.
The other three in this collective are Kaplan, senior Alex Gamboa, and sophomore Casey Hughes.
Gamboa also leads the team in a statistical category in which his team has faltered, free throw percentage.
His .848 percentage well exceeds the Elis' collective .659 mark.
Jones, however, is not too concerned with his team's apparent inability to shoot free-throws -- he is more focused on just winning basketball games.
"I think that's one of those statistics that you can look at and say 'it is what it is,'" Jones said. "The good thing is that we're taking a lot more [free throws] than our opponents."
Jones may have found a positive side of this particular shortcoming, but he surely cannot make any excuses for his team's disappointing losses to weak opponents.
A 36-point blowout loss to Niagara, a recent faltering against lowly Saint Peter's and a heartbreaking overtime loss to Bucknell -- after the Elis had led by six with just under a minute left in regulation -- make up a good portion of the Elis' nine losses.
Nevertheless, Jones has remained optimistic and still believes that his team is still well on its way to success, regardless of its record.
When Yale's conference play begins this Saturday against Brown, the Elis will have to start coming out on top in the close games and beating weak teams if they want to make a mark in the Ivy League.
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