| Zevi Samet, four-year starting guard for Yeshiva, is verging on 2,500 career points. Yeshiva athletics photo |
By Joe Sager
D3sports.com
The schedule hadn’t even reached December and Yeshiva’s men’s team found itself in a significant 0-5 hole.
However, the Maccabees gladly traded those November struggles for a shot at March success.
They get the chance for more success Friday when Yeshiva (20-8) meets Bates (18-8) at 1 p.m. at Montclair State University’s Panzer Athletic Center in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
“We’re very, very excited,” Yeshiva senior guard Zevi Samet said.
That excitement comes from the lessons learned in the team’s early struggles. Of course, it’s not like the Maccabees were playing easy non-conference opponents. They loaded up their schedule to take on Chapman, Randolph-Macon, Mary Washington, Trinity (Conn.) and Tufts, the latter four of which are in the national tournament as well.
They came close against No. 5 Mary Washington (90-89 2OT loss) and No. 12 Tufts (100-94 OT loss) before breaking through with an 88-83 triumph over New York University. They had two other losses against tournament teams (Illinois Wesleyan and Wesleyan) as well.
“We had a very hard schedule last year, too, and got blown out in more games. This year, we played a lot of those nationally ranked teams very tight,” Yeshiva senior point guard Max Zakheim said. “We expected and believe we should have won more of those games than we did.”
Still, though, starting the year off with five losses was not ideal for the squad. However, Samet and Zakheim helped keep things in perspective for the Maccabees.
“That’s purely the leadership of those two guys,” Yeshiva coach Elliot Steinmetz said. “In their own unique ways, they have been incredible leaders. They’ve kept this locker room and kept the confidence up. They’ll hold guys accountable when needed and give guys confidence when needed. It’s some of the best leadership we’ve had.
“Sure, it would have been nice to win a few of those games. But, we found different ways to lose early on. We were playing really good teams, but that was the point — to test ourselves,” he continued. “It’s a benefit to us, either way, if win those games; it shows we are mature early on and ready to be in the Top 25. We weren’t, though, so, what it did was it showed us what we needed to work on. It exposed our faults and weaknesses and what we needed to work on.”
That’s exactly what the team did in practice every morning from 6-8 a.m.
“I think the biggest thing for Max and me, we made it a point to tell the locker room that there are two ways to go about this — we could put our heads down, lose the room and keep falling from there or we keep our heads up and keep working because we are so much better than what our record shows,” Samet said. “I think we realized we really have to compete for a full 40 minutes. We’d have a good half and a good 10 minutes in the second half and fall away. Or, for the first 10 minutes, we would not play well, but we’d play well for the next next 30 and it wasn’t enough or, in the last couple of minutes not be as disciplined. We saw that, if we want to win games and pull away, we have to play hard basketball for 40 minutes.”
“With the group we had, we just stayed connected. Five of us came in as freshmen and four of us started. Now, we’re upperclassmen and we’ve been through a lot,” Zakheim added. “We were able to turn around it around. Defensively, we made immense strides. We wouldn’t have done that if we hadn’t played this schedule. We became more patient on offense, trading good shots for great shots. That’s why we’re able to be so successful.”
The lessons learned propelled the team through Skyline Conference play unbeaten and allowed it to defend its Skyline Conference tournament championship and secure a return trip to the national tournament.
“All of those struggles in the beginning helped us to compete in the conference and pull away for another championship,” Samet said. “Without our early failures I don’t know if we’d be able to get to where we are.”
Now, that the Maccabees are back in the NCAA Tournament, they want to stay for much longer than last year’s one-game showing. The program is seeking its first tournament win since 2020.
“We’ve been there and experienced it,” Zakheim said. “Last year, we were happy just to be there. Zevi was able to have a crazy game in our conference tournament championship game, which allowed us to win. This year, we’ve seen what it takes and seen a lot of teams in the tournament. We’re going in there expecting to win. We believe we have some winnable games ahead of us and believe we can make a run at this thing.”
“We really have our hopes up and are very excited for what’s to come,” Samet said.
Samet leads the team in scoring at 23.3 points per game. The four-year starting guard only needs 22 more points to reach 2,500 for his career. Zakheim, a senior guard dubbed the “Red Rocket” for his wavy red hair, averages 9.0 ppg and owns 1,276 career points. Junior guard Yoav Oselka is second on the team at 14.5 ppg. Freshman Yair Dovrat (8.8) and senior Roy Itcovichi (7.8) round out the starting lineup with senior Dothan Bardichev (6.0) the first off the bench.
“Last year, we were a good team, but we probably got lucky in that run. I don’t know if we were the best team out there, but we got hot when it mattered,” Steinmetz. “I felt like this year was the year to really test ourselves and give ourselves an opportunity to get better every day. I give them all the credit in the world for doing it.
“We definitely have a tough opponent. Bates can play ball and shoot it,” he continued. “We like to feel we can compete pretty well. We’ve put ourselves in a position where we’ve tested ourselves and now we have the ability to compete at the level required. It’s been awesome to be at practice the last couple of days because most of the teams in the country at our level are done. We just have to find another way to be practicing next week, too.”