Cincy's Morin gets the call

Yale selected Ross Morin as its basketball captain for the upcoming season.
Morin, who led the Ivy League in field goal percentage (.642) in Ivy games this season, was perhaps the Bulldogs' most consistent performer over the past year.
“It's a great honor to be elected by my teammates, especially with all of my classmates being great players and teammates,” said Morin, who will be one of four seniors next year. “Leading this group is going to be a collective effort from all of us next year. I expect each senior to play an important role in this coming season's success.”
Morin, a second team All-Ivy selection, started 22 games this season, was second on the team in scoring (10.2 ppg.) and rebounding (5.4 rpg.) and shot 57 percent from the field. In Ivy play, he averaged 11.8 points and 5.7 rebounds and was named the Ivy League Player of the Week after scoring 24 points and grabbing seven rebounds in a home victory over Brown.
“I expect Ross to lead by example and utilize the other seniors to help build a strong team environment,” said coach James Jones
Morin, a Cincinnati, Ohio, native also was the recipient of the Dutch Arnold Award as Yale’s most valuable player on Wednesday. He takes over the captaincy from Eric Flato. “I've been lucky to have three great players and teammates as captain in my first three years,” Morin said. “Josh [Greenberg], Sam [Kaplan] and Eric were extremely hard workers and very confident players. As a young player, I learned just how hard I had to work in order to be successful. Hopefully the young guys now will be able to do the same.”

Awards
Five other players received awards at the banquet. The Stan Smith Senior Award and the Eggie Miles Award as the team’s top free throw shooter were presented to Caleb Holmes. Holmes shot 84.7 percent (50 of 59) from the foul line and his career percentage of .822 is the second best in school history.
Travis Pinick received the George McReynolds Award as Yale’s top defender. Pinick had 48 steals on the season, including 29 in Ivy games, which led the league. He averaged 8.9 rebounds in Ivy games, which also was tops in the league. In a 50-48 win at Dartmouth, Pinick pulled down a career-high 19 rebounds. Chris Andrews was the recipient of the Josh Hill Award for hard work and dedication. Andrews missed all of the 2006-07 season with a knee injury and then was limited to only two games this year after injuring his other knee.
One of the highlights of the season came against Dartmouth when Andrews made his first appearance on the court since his freshman year. He received a thunderous ovation from the John J. Lee Amphitheater crowd, assisted on a Raffi Mantilla basket and then scored his first points when Ari Greenberg passed up a breakaway layup to feed Andrews, who made the basket.
Greenberg received the Richard Derby Academic Award for the third straight year. He played in a career-high 17 games and had 12 assists and six steals. The John C. Cobb Award as Yale’s top freshmen was given to Porter Braswell, who appeared in 27 games.
In a home sweep of Harvard and Dartmouth, Braswell averaged 10.5 points and made 9 of 14 shots from the field. He also scored a team-high 13 points against eventual NCAA champion Kansas. In addition to the awards, Flato was presented with a ball to commemorate his scoring 1,000 career points. Flato finished his outstanding career with 1,193 career points, the 13th most in Yale history. The Bulldogs, who played two of the four teams in this year’s Final Four (Kansas and UCLA) finished with a 13-15 overall record and a 7-7 Ivy mark, their eighth straight year with a .500 or better record in league play.

Yale is scheduled to open the 2008-09 season in November against Stanford at the John J. Lee Amphitheater.