Ivy League Basketball: Ranking of 25 best players from last decade (2013-23)

1. Justin Sears

Sears is a 6’8 center from Plainfield, New Jersey who had himself quite a run while at Yale. He joined the Bulldogs back in 2012 and had decent numbers as a freshman, but really found his footing later in his career, developing into one of the league’s most solid frontcourt players.

Sears averaged 16.9 points and 6.9 rebounds in a great sophomore season, a year that included a 31-point effort at Providence and a CIT championship for the Bulldogs. Yale was even more successful during his junior year, including a career-high 2.4 blocks a game. During his senior season, he’d average 15.7 points and 7.5 rebounds but it was all about the ending. After leading the Bulldogs to the Ivy League title, he scored 18 points in a first-round upset of Baylor in the 2016 NCAA Tournament, putting quite a finishing touch on his career.

He was actually named Ivy League Player of the Year for both of his final seasons, establishing himself as one of the top scorers, rebounders, and shot blockers in the conference. He played a major role for a Yale program that won a ton of games in the tail end of his career and is the only repeat winner of Player of the Year in the last fifteen years. Sears deserved the honors, as his role on the back end was major and necessary for this program’s success in the Ivy League.