In December, they lined Amsterdam Avenue for two hours in the freezing cold, hoping to get into the modest Max Stern Sports Complex to watch New York’s most popular varsity basketball team.
Inside, the yeshiva’s men’s basketball team, coached by Ryan Turell, was preparing to take legal action.
Some 500 people were barred from the 1,000-seat gym that night, which fluctuated for three years as the Maccabees went 54-2, including 18-1 this year (11-0 in conference play). The turnout is similar for their next home game against Merchant Marine Academy on February 1, with Turell down 31 points to become Yeshiva’s career leading scorer. Knicks president Leon Rose sat up and looked up from his seat.
Others couldn’t get in, some of them looking out windows with fans inside, many of them wearing yarmulkes, the traditional Jewish headscarves and standing and chanting “MVP” for their heroes.
“I came to the yeshiva in London and I didn’t know anything about basketball,” said Michael Smolowitz, a sophomore and fan. “As soon as I got here, I was bombarded with it. It was a big problem.”
College basketball has suffered decades of decline in the New York area, a place that once fostered the spectacle and excitement of college games. But at a yeshiva, a Jewish college tucked away in Washington Heights, just a long triple in traffic on the Cross Bronx Expressway, the game is thriving.
The sixth-ranked Maccabees in the nation are led by a Division III superstar who turned down an offer from a Division I school to become a “Jewish hero” at Little Yeshiva, where the head coach is a lawyer from full time. The room weight is less than many high schools, and the practice benches pale in comparison to the student-athletes at Duke and Michigan.
But at the yeshiva, which has about 2,600 students, Turell fulfilled his mission and became a hero. It is famous there and all over the world. He could barely walk across campus without some fans cheering him on and wishing him luck. Head coach Elliot Steinmetz said he has received emails from around the world expressing support and admiration for the team, which has become a torch of pride for the Jewish movement.
“I got an email this morning from a guy in Australia who wanted to know where to get a YU jersey,” Steinmetz said. “He wanted to wear it on the streets of Sydney. I was contacted by Jews in Alaska, in England, in South America. Almost anywhere”.
Much of the yeshiva’s success is due to the team’s superstar, Turell. On a recent morning, a group of students spotted him walking down Amsterdam Avenue from an apartment near campus. As word spread, they came out of the local pizzeria, pointed their phone cameras at him, shook his hand and asked him questions about his game that night.
Tourell is a lithe 6-foot-6 figure with high professional and spiritual aspirations, averaging 28.1 points per game, the highest among male and female players in all three NCAA divisions. Turrell said he could lead the nation in scoring if he helped the team. But “it wouldn’t make sense” if the Maccabees didn’t win the championship, he said.
Terrell has scored at least 30 points six times this season and 40-plus twice, including 51 points against Manhattanville in November.
“I don’t care who the opponent is, if you throw someone 50 points, that’s saying something,” said Yeshiva assistant coach and former Knicks and Bulls NBA forward Michael Sweetney, “but best of all, we really needed it. . that night.”
Tourell, who turns 22 on Feb. 3, is a top contender for Division III Player of the Year as the season moves closer to the championship. Sure, it was a nice feeling, but Turrell shrugged. For a player some call Jew Larry Bird, the chance to make the playoffs is important.
“We never had a chance before,” Turrell said. “For many people, this is a story without an end.”
The third level has been canceled in the last two years due to the coronavirus pandemic. The 2020 run was particularly harrowing for Mac, as it ended after reaching the round of 16 and his long-awaited matchup with Randolph-Macon No. 3. Yeshiva has won 29 games in a row and wants to prove himself in one of the games. of the division. elite programs.
It happened again the following year, and all the Maccabees had to console was a 7-0 record and the newly created saying, “We chose a bad time to do good,” as Gabriel Lever put it. rock team, take it. This year’s race appears to be going according to plan, but the recent rise in coronavirus has left a tinge of uncertainty.
“At first you’re disappointed,” Leifer said, “but when you look at the number of hospitalizations and realize, it’s a good thing we didn’t send 1,000 people to the gym. But now, hopefully, Ryan and I are finally here to show what we’ve got. Time to have something.
Turell grew up in the Sherman Oaks neighborhood of Los Angeles, the son of former UC Santa Barbara security guard Brad Turell. Ryan played basketball at Valley Torah Jewish School and on the top team in the AAU, the Earl Watson Elite. He offered to play in the First Division and was tempted, but in the end he decided that it would be more correct to accept his beliefs. Besides, he knew the yeshiva, because his older brother Jack played there, and he believed in everything that Steinmetz and the coach promised.
“I’ve been in a Jewish school my whole life, I’ve been religious and kosher since childhood,” Turrell said. “I thought, ‘What are we doing here? I want to go to yeshiva. My parents were a bit shocked because I dreamed of playing in the first division. But I told them: “I want to be a Jewish hero. ‘»
Now Turell plays with a yarmulke in his shaggy golden mane, but not always. He didn’t wear it to AAU games, and he didn’t play college players, and sometimes the NBA, in some of LA’s intense summer games. He hated the attention, but now he regrets his choice and wears it all the time, emphasizing his pride in his Judaism.
“To show that Jews can hang out,” he laughs, “and we can still play basketball.”
Occasionally, in impromptu games, he hears light-hearted comments, such as when he scores against an opposing player and then hears a teammate comment, “He picks you up with a yarmulke.”
The ones that entertain you. But there can also be an ugly side. Terrell said he heard anti-Semitic slurs like “Jewish kid” on the field in high school and college, including at a game this season. He did not reveal the team or what was said when the Macabeos decided to settle accounts on the field.
During the timeout, Turrell told Steinmetz that the coach was willing to walk the Maccabees off the field in protest. But Turrell insisted the insults only fueled his desire to win and said it was better to beat the team, which the Maccabees did. Steinmetz said such incidents were rare and that he was proud of the entire team’s reaction. The school is also proud.
“They’re not just playing for college,” yeshiva president Ali Berman said on court after his latest victory. “They fight for the people.”
But as Yeshiva continues to win, some pundits wonder if their record is overblown by attending the Skyline Conference, which isn’t the most competitive in Division III. When the Maccabees faced highly ranked Illinois Wesleyan University in December, the game was seen as a touchstone of yeshiva position. Unprecedented hype swept the game of Division III basketball. Fans queued for hours to get in.
Illinois Wesleyan University ended Yeshiva’s 50-game winning streak 73-59. But Titans coach Ron Rose impressed Washington Heights.
“Terrell was at the top of all the scouting records and he was still getting his points,” Rose said. “Yeshiva is legal. I see all the talk about the intensity of your schedule. I do not believe in that. There is no doubt that they can compete at the highest level.”
For Turrell, the top tier can also mean a career. He hopes to play in the NBA and eventually in Israel. NBA teams sent scouts to watch Yeshiva play, and Turell has been hard at work on the NBA 3-point line to increase his chances: He shoots until he hits at least 300 times a day.
Terrell broke Yeshiva’s record for most points on Tuesday (currently at 1,906). After the game, Steinmetz sent a message to the young hero that he was proud of him. Turrell responded immediately.
“Everything you said we would do came true,” Turrell wrote. “Now we are going to win the national championship.”
