A familiar face returned to join the Yale coaching staff in July of 2023. Brandon Sherrod ’15, who as a student-athlete at Yale helped the Bulldogs win the first NCAA Tournament game in school history, serves as an assistant coach.
In his second year on staff, Sherrod helped Yale to a historic season, finishing with a 22-8 overall record and a strong 13-1 mark in Ivy League play. The Bulldogs had the longest active winning streak in the nation at 13 games and finished the season undefeated at home. Yale also clinched its second consecutive appearance at the NCAA Tournament after a victory over Cornell in the Ivy League Tournament Championship game.
In his first season on staff, Sherrod helped the Bulldogs match the modern day school record with 23 overall victories, win the Ivy League Tournament title and upset Auburn in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Sherrod is the first person at Yale to win an NCAA Tournament game as both a player (2016) and coach (2024).
Sherrod enjoyed an outstanding career at Yale, playing 114 games, scoring 847 points and grabbing 515 rebounds. He graduated seventh in school history with 82 blocked shots. As a senior in 2015-16, he earned first team All-Ivy recognition and was named to the NABC District 13 second team. That year, he set an NCAA single season record by making 30 consecutive field goals. He went on to finish eighth in the Ivy League in rebounding (7.0 rpg.), third in field goal percentage (.568) and second in offensive rebounds (84) and was the recipient of the team’s Stan Smith Senior Award and Josh Hill Dedication Award.
Yale won 23 games that season, the most since 1906-07, captured a second straight Ivy League title with a 13-1 record, matching the 1961-62 team for the best in school history, and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 54 years where the Bulldogs upset Baylor to earn the first NCAA victory in Yale history.
In 2014-15, Sherrod, an accomplished singer, took a leave from school to perform with the Yale Whiffenpoofs, the world's oldest and best-known collegiate a cappella group. He spent the year travelling all across the country and the world singing with the Whiffs.
In his first year at Yale in 2011-12, Sherrod received the John C. Cobb Awards as the team’s rookie of the year. He appeared in all 33 games as a junior in 2013-14 and earned his first Josh Hill Dedication Award as a sophomore.
Following graduation, Sherrod enjoyed a successful professional career, playing in Italy, Finland and Israel. In 2017-18, he was named the Italian Serie A2 Eurobasket.com Center of The Year after averaging 15.6 points and 10.5 rebounds for Givova Scafati. In 2018, he was selected as the Paolo Borsellino Prize Winner for social impact.
Sherrod is from Bridgeport, Conn., and was the 2010 Connecticut Gatorade Player of the Year as a senior at Stratford High School. He then spent one year at Choate before moving on to Yale.
