Player Profiles: Greg Mangano - Yale
This season, College Chalktalk will be highlighting players from around the nation in both BCS and non-BCS conferences who are under the national radar and deserving of ink. As we continue with the series we travel to the northeast corridor and take a look at an Ivy League star.
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Doug Potter
Though an Ivy League basketball player may be more likely to win a Nobel Peace Prize than be named National Player of the Year, that doesn’t mean there isn’t solid talent on the court within the “ancient eight.” Harvard forward, Keith Wright, is the unanimous selection for POY in the conference, but who else will make a splash this 2011-2012 season? One big fella, Greg Mangano, a 6-foot-10, 240 pound, Orange, Connecticut native should be front and center on your radar.
The senior was a first-team all-Ivy leaguer last season averaging 16.3 points and 10 rebounds per contest. As a junior, Mangano became the first Ivy League player to average a double-double in a season since Harvard’s Kyle Snowden (15.1 PPG, 11.1 RPG) in 1995-1996. As most coaches will tell you, it is a luxury to have a big man who can extend the defense. Mangano has that covered too, as he shot 48% from long range last year. On defense, Mangano makes his presence felt. He had a Yale school record 85 blocks (3.0 BPG) in 2010-11, 51 of those swats coming in league play (Ivy league record).
Ivy League basketball, however, is not the only competitive forum where Mangano has laced up the sneakers. The unanimous 2011-2012 preseason Ivy League first-teamer became just the sixth conference player ever to be selected to a USA Basketball team last summer. Mangano earned a spot on the USA team in the 2011 World University Games in Shenzhen, China, beating out the likes of Khris Middleton (Texas A&M), John Shurna (Northwestern), and Yancy Gates (Cincinnati) during the selection process. He averaged 3.2 points and 3.2 boards in six games.
In an interview with Yahoo! College Basketball blogger, Jeff Eisenberg, Mangano explained the significance of playing for a U.S. national team. "For me individually, it's been a great experience to play against this caliber of talent. It's going to be a huge help when I go back to Yale. If I can play at the level I'm playing at now, it just puts me in position to have the type of season I want for myself. It puts me in a position to dominate."
The Bulldogs are picked to finish second in the Ivy League media preseason poll (tied with Princeton). Although Yale returns four starters to its 15-13 team from a year ago, there are 10 underclassmen on the roster. Mangano will be counted on heavily to produce on both ends of the court. In his first contest of the year, he scored 23 and grabbed 13 boards in a win over Central Connecticut State University.
With most of the Ivy League gunning for Harvard and Keith Wright in the conference standings, Greg will have his sights set on Wright on a personal level. The coveted conference POY is up for grabs –and Mangano is up for the challenge.
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