Yeshiva Basketball Poised for Postseason Play

The feats accomplished by the Yeshiva men’s basketball team earlier this decade continue to be glorified.

Yeshiva’s historic 50-game win streak that ended in 2021 will be featured in an upcoming film (“The Maccabees”), courtesy of Mayim Bialik, the Jewish actress from “The Big Bang Theory” and one-time “Jeopardy!” host. Ryan Turell, the standout guard from those great Yeshiva teams who went on to play two years with the Motor City Cruise, emerging as the first Orthodox Jew to play in the NBA’s G League, was showcased in an Amazon Prime documentary last year. Meanwhile, Turell’s legacy still radiates across the Yeshiva community — and Division III college basketball — as evidenced by the recent establishment of the Ryan Turell Character & Inspiration Award that will annually recognize a men’s basketball player at the small college level who has overcome considerable adversity and hardship.

But as for the current iteration of the Maccabees men’s basketball program, there has not exactly been a precipitous drop-off from the halcyon days of the early 2020s. After last year’s loss to Farmingdale State College in the Skyline Conference Championship, Yeshiva, powered by sharpshooting junior guard Zevi Samet, a product of Torah Academy of Bergen County, bounced back by capturing this year’s Skyline Conference Championship with a 81-78 win over Farmingdale State before dropping its first-round NCAA tournament matchup to Tufts University, 83-66, last week.

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“They want to leave their own mark for sure, absolutely,” emphasized Greg Fox, Yeshiva’s Athletic Director, when interviewed by the AJT last week. “I think part of the reason that many of our guys came to YU is because of what was going on during that run. It really brought our program into not just national prominence but if you’ve walked around Tel Aviv or Jerusalem with a YU logo or even in Jewish communities in South America and Europe, we’re a household name there, too.”

Going into this season, Yeshiva was tabbed as the top-ranked team in the Skyline Preseason Poll. For the most part, Samet and his Maccabee teammates have lived up to those lofty standards. Earlier this winter, there was a month-long stretch, from Jan. 12 to Feb. 11, in which Yeshiva went on a 9-1 tear that was highlighted by resounding wins over The College at Old Westbury and United States Merchant Marine Academy.

Samet, a one-time Skyline Rookie of the Year who became the fastest player to score 1,000 points in Maccabee history, has been the offensive catalyst. In his second straight winter averaging over 20 points per game to pace Yeshiva in scoring, Samet has fashioned a well-rounded game, proving to be rock-steady from behind the arc while converting nearly 90 percent of his free throws. Yeshiva sports a particularly deep backcourt, as in addition to Samet, its next two leading scorers are Max Zakheim, a senior guard from Bergenfield, N.J., who actually played for NCAA Division I Bryant University as a first-year student in 2021-22, and Or Sundjyvsky, a junior swingman from Fairlawn, N.J.

“We’re a super, super connected team,” Fox emphatically stated. “Everybody just wants to win, and they want to win for each other. It’s not about statistics. It’s not about who gets the ball in this situation. All the guys care about is winning a conference championship. I don’t think guys would last in this program if they were all about personal achievements.”

However, even with their at times indomitable conference play, Yeshiva has suffered convincing losses to imposing non-conference Division III opponents such as Trinity College and New York University, the likes of which they could face in a potential NCAA tournament matchup.

“I think there’s a little uncertainty,” acknowledged Fox. “I think we’ve come out sluggish in a lot of games, and if we fall behind, we turn it on. And once we turn it on, we are very, very tough.”

Indeed, largely because of Samet who has an intriguing backstory beyond the box scores. The nephew of Rabbi Zvi Sobolofsky, who serves as YU’s rosh yeshiva, Samet spent a year studying at the Yeshivat Reishit in Israel during his gap year, balancing hours of morning basketball drills with a healthy dose of Jewish prayers and rituals on top of his studies, before coming over to Yeshiva to hold down the school’s backcourt.

“Zevi Samet is indescribable,” raved Fox. “I have never in my life met a student-athlete like Zevi. Zevi is the spiritual leader of this program. He is a great basketball player. More importantly than being a great basketball player, he is an ambassador for the Jewish people like I have never seen. He spends his days working on his game and spends the other part of his day learning Torah. That is his life. He is one of the most selfless, incredible human beings I have ever met at his age. I have never met a young man like Zevi. He devotes his life to bettering the world.”

As has been the case since 2014, Elliott Steinmetz, attorney by day, basketball coach by night, serves as bench boss for the Macs. Steinmetz, whose son, Jacob, was selected in the third round of the 2021 Major League Baseball draft by the Arizona Diamondbacks, is a 2002 grad of YU’s Sy Syms School of Business who lettered on YU’s basketball team for three seasons from 1999-02.

“Elliott is one of the smartest and most passionate human beings I’ve ever met in my life,” shared Fox. “He brings that passion into the job as basketball coach. He’s also one of the hardest-working human beings I’ve ever met. Elliott has taken this part-time responsibility [Division III college basketball coaching] and he does it full-time with another full-time job. His energy level is astounding to me.”

Though the Maccabees may not be in the national limelight like they so often were throughout the COVID years, this year’s team clearly possesses depth, poise, and grit and continues filling up the Max Stern Center night in and night out.

“There’s always buzz with men’s basketball at YU,” added Fox. “Everybody is excited about men’s basketball on this campus. It has brought so much to us. Not just the media, not just the notoriety. It has really helped us as far as recruiting, as far as retention, as far as fundraising. It has helped us in so many ways.”