By JEREMY FUCHS
Last Friday, Matt Townsend scored eight points to help Yale stun defending NCAA champion UConn in Storrs, Conn.
Two weeks earlier, the 6-foot-7 Townsend was in New York City, where he became one of 32 American students to receive the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship.
Such is the life of a true scholar-athlete.
“[My] first emotion was shock,” Townsend told SNY.tv of winning the Rhodes. “Being with some really incredible people, a lot of whom were smarter than me, I really wasn’t expecting to win the scholarship. So when my name was called, I was in disbelief. My second emotion was just gratitude for everyone that’s been supporting me. It kind of felt like a basketball win, it was a team win, just my coaches, my teammates, all my professors and academic advisors. I really felt like we all won something together.”
Townsend, a senior forward for the Bulldogs, studies molecular, cellular and developmental biology at Yale. At Oxford, he will be getting two one-year Masters; one in medical anthropology and one in public policy. In addition to averaging 28 minutes per game on the court, Townsend has a perfect 4.0 GPA in the classroom.
“He’s a quiet leader,” coach James Jones told SNY.tv by phone. “It’s just a part of who he is. A great ability to focus. He’s just the best of the best.”
Basketball actually helps Townsend focus on his school work.
“In some ways it’s easier doing both” Townsend said. “It’s easier to manage your time, to try to be efficient with it, in the hours you have. It’s a little bit easier to plan to get things done.”
The UConn win was a signature moment for Townsend and Yale.
“It really means a lot for all of us,” Townsend said. “It proved in our minds that we can beat a great team if we play together and move the ball. We played great team basketball. It’s probably our best defensive game to date. We held UConn, a high-major team, to 44 points. Everyone stepped up at different times. We have a lot of weapons on our team.”
Last season, Yale won 19 games and reached the championship of the CollegeInsider.com postseason tournament, where they lost to Murray State.
Despite a loss Monday night to Florida, Townsend thinks that this Yale team can contend in the Ivy League.
“Getting that tournament bid, our first since the 1960s, it’s definitely something that’s on all the guys mind,” Townsend said. I came in as a freshman, we finished in fourth place, our sophomore year we finished third, last year we finished second in our league. The expectation is there, that this year we want to finish in first.”
Jones agrees. “We feel that we are as good as anybody [in the Ivy League].”
Townsend is averaging 8.0 points this season, along with 3.5 rebounds and 2.9 assists, which is second on the team.
He was also the valedictorian of his high school—Horace Greeley in Chappaqua, N.Y.—and he is the school’s leading scorer and rebounder.
For Townsend, life as a Division I athlete is not just about basketball. He’s shown that he can handle defenders in the paint, and the tough coursework that comes with being a student at Yale.
“Basketball and academics are not necessarily mutually exclusive,” Townsend said. “I think at Yale I’ve tried to prove that being smart doesn’t preclude success on the basketball court. Going to class after morning practice in a basketball sweatsuit doesn’t mean you can’t handle organic chemistry.”
