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Ivy League Basketball: In-depth look at Yale senior guard Azar Swain

By Bryan Mauro

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 20: Azar Swain #5 of the Yale Bulldogs is introduced before a college basketball game against the against the Howard Bison at Burr Gymnasium on January 20, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 20: Azar Swain #5 of the Yale Bulldogs is introduced before a college basketball game against the against the Howard Bison at Burr Gymnasium on January 20, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images) /
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PRINCETON, NJ – MARCH 09: Azar Swain #5 of the Yale Bulldogs (Photo by Corey Perrine/Getty Images)
PRINCETON, NJ – MARCH 09: Azar Swain #5 of the Yale Bulldogs (Photo by Corey Perrine/Getty Images) /

Why you should know Azar Swain

It should be noted that there are no athletic scholarships given out in the Ivy League. The league prides themselves on their very high academic standards and will not give athletic scholarships. That makes it even more impressive that many of these teams have a lot of talented players. The talent level in the league has been extremely high for a good handful of years. These teams are no longer a pushover and are capable of winning games against the Power schools.

Residents of Massachusetts and those who have followed Swain’s career for a long time would not be surprised that Swain is essentially picking up where he left off in High School. The former Massachusetts player of the year left the Rivers School as the all-time leading scorer. The guard compiled over 2,000 points in his high school career and came into college known for his scoring ability.

Yale knew they were getting a player who was going to win as well, especially when he was running with the EYBL team Mass Rivals. The Rivals went undefeated in 2016, Swain’s final year in AAU, and they were the best AAU team in the country. The guard has kept on scoring at a high level in the Ivy League.

Swain has already had a decorated career in the three seasons he has been in the backcourt for the Bulldogs. Swain is 28 three-pointers shy of the Yale record and he is going to get that this year. The guard is one of the best returning shooters in the country and the best shooter in the Ivy League. He has made 201 three-pointers in three years and made 93 of them last year, which is the Yale single-season record. Overall, he shot about 40% from deep.

The senior guard has something that many other guys don’t have. Yes, the guard is a good scorer and can take over a game on the offensive end at times. The one thing that the Bulldog guard has is his ability to come up huge in clutch moments. Last year it is hard to count on one hand the number of huge shots he made for Yale. His big shots always seem to come when the game is tied or in the waning moments with the Bulldogs down a bucket.

Just ask Siena, when Swain buried a deep three at the end of regulation to send the game to overtime. Three overtimes later Swain had 25 points and went off in the overtime periods. The guard’s most clutch performance came against the schools’ biggest rival, Harvard. In that game, which was Alumni Weekend for the Bulldogs, Swain went off for 33 points in that game. 27 of those points came in the second half. The guard was eight points shy of tying the Yale record for overall points in a game and the 27 points in the second half were six points shy of the team record for points in a half.