Not many Ivy League teams can say they have a true point guard on their roster.
But no Ivy team can say it has a true point guard who has been starting for the last four years.
Except for Yale.
When the Elis open their 2005 Ivy League season at the Palestra tonight, they will attempt to make a final run at the Ivy title with their trio of seniors Dominick Martin, Edwin Draughan and Alex Gamboa.
And while Martin and Draughan frequently light up the box scores in points per game, it is Gamboa who is at the helm of Yale's offensive artillery.
"As a point guard, you're always going to have a great impact on your team and your teammates," Yale coach James Jones said. "Your job is to distribute the basketball and make other guys better. That's what Alex has done for us."
But Gamboa has done much more for the Elis than just feed passes to his teammates.
And the most amazing thing is that Gamboa has been successful from day one.
During the 2001-02 season, he led the Elis to an Ivy League championship -- albeit shared with Penn and Princeton -- while leading the team in three-pointers, free throws and assists.
"It was a blessing," Gamboa said about starting so early in his career. "You come into college, everyone wants to play right away ... I got that opportunity, and I'm really thankful for that."
His season culminated with honorable mention All-Ivy honors, and Gamboa became only the fifth Yale player to be named Ivy League Rookie of the Year.
However, Gamboa never made it to the NCAA tournament. The Elis fell to the Quakers in the championship game of a three-team playoff.
Over the next two years, Gamboa continued his impressive play. He now ranks ninth all-time in school history with 112 three-pointers.
However, the same success cannot be attributed to his team. With a talented core of starters, Yale underachieved the last two seasons, finishing fourth in the league both years.
Now, Gamboa must respond to the pressure of having one final chance to restore his team to the glory it experienced his freshman year.
"It's my last shot at winning an Ivy League championship and going to the NCAA tournament," Gamboa said. "It's the most important thing in my life right now."
Gamboa might have had a greater chance to play in the NCAA tournament had he chosen to attend one of the West Coast schools that recruited him, such as Santa Clara or Portland.
But according to the Reno, Nev., native, the decision to showcase his talents at a school almost 3,000 miles from his home was a "no-brainer."
"I had a great bond with some of the players, especially the guys who all graduated last year," Gamboa said. "It was just a really easy decision for me."
This season, Gamboa is already off to a hot start. He leads the team in steals and free-throw percentage, missing only five shots from the charity stripe all season.
Yet Gamboa still maintains that his role as a point guard centers around making assists.
"I think being a point guard, that's my first responsibility," Gamboa said. "It's not a secret that Dominick and Edwin are the first two options offensively."
When asked about his personal game, Gamboa remained modest even though he is off to his best start yet on the scoreboard, averaging 11.6 points per game.
"I'm a perfectionist ... I'm never fully happy with how I'm playing," he said.
Yet Gamboa was still able to set basketball aside during the summer of 2003, when he studied in Spain and went to the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona.
"I really like to travel. I've been to the Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain," Gamboa said. "I plan on doing that after I graduate, too."
But even though Gamboa has traveled across Europe, he has still yet to make his most important trip, which is marked down in March for the final time in his career.
