Greg Mangano (born October 28, 1989) is an American basketball player for

KTP Basket Kotkan Työväen Palloilijat Basket, shortly KTP Basket, is the largely independent basketball team of Kotkan Työväen Palloilijat, a Finnish sports club based in Kotka, and has played in the Korisliiga since 1957. The club has won the Finnish c ...

Korisliiga The Korisliiga is the top-tier professional basketball league in Finland, comprising the top 12 teams of the country. In its current format, each team plays all other teams two times in the regular season, once at home and once away, for a total o ...

. He played college basketball for the

Yale Bulldogs The Yale Bulldogs are the college sports teams that represent Yale University, located in New Haven, Connecticut. The school sponsors 35 varsity sports. The school has won two National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA national championships ...

. He is known for versatility as a frontcourt player and his polished face up game offensively.

High school

Mangano attended Notre-Dame West Haven, where he was a two-time all-state player and a two-time all-league selection. His senior year was his best year, as he averaged 26 points, 15 rebounds, and 6 blocks per game. These numbers were good enough to get him MVP honors and a nomination for the

McDonald's All-American Game The McDonald's All-American Game is an American all-star basketball game played each year for boys' and girls' high school basketball graduates. Consisting of the top players, each team plays a single exhibition game after the conclusion of the hi ...

. Rivals.com ranked Mahimgnano as a 2-star prospect.

College

Freshman year

Mangano received the John C. Cobb Award for the best freshman player on the Yale team as the Bulldogs went 13–15. He received little playing time, averaging just 6.5 minutes per game, although he did manage to score 2.1 points per game.

Sophomore year

Mangano was given a bigger role in his sophomore year. He hit the weight room hard over the summer following his freshman year. His playing time tripled, and he led the Ivy League in blocks with 2 per game. He also added 7.5 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. Despite his success, Yale struggled, going 12–19.

Junior year

Mangano had a breakout season his junior year, averaging a double-double for the Bulldogs with 16.3 points per game and 10 rebounds per game, along with 3 blocks per game. His 85 blocks were a Yale record, and the third-highest total in Ivy League history. As well as finishing second in scoring, Mangano led the Ivy League in blocks and rebounding; his totals were good for 9th and 24th in the nation respectively. His play was good enough to warrant selection to the All-Ivy first team and the

National Association of Basketball Coaches The National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, is an American organization of men's college basketball coaches. It was founded in 1927 by Phog Allen, the men's basketball head coach for the Univ ...

All-district first team. Mangano declared for the 2011 NBA draft, but withdrew his name before the deadline. Yale had some success, finishing the year with a 15–13 record.

Senior year

Mangano came into his senior year considered a strong contender for

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...

Player of the Year. The Bulldogs had early success and impressed in many of their games against stronger opposition. Mangano was particularly impressive against the then-10th ranked

Florida Gators The Florida Gators are the College sports in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Florida, located in Gainesville, Florida, Gainesville. The University of Florida, its athletic program, its alumni an ...

, scoring 26 points, grabbing 12 rebounds, blocking two shots, and making 4 of the 6 three-pointers that he attempted. The Bulldogs had an outside chance to claim the Ivy League title entering their final 3 games, but losses to

Princeton Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the Unit ...

and Penn prevented the Bulldogs from claiming the title. The loss to the Penn Quakers was likely due to Mangano being the target of heckling by the Penn Band. Mangano's statistical numbers were very similar to those in his junior year. He led the Ivy League in rebounds and blocks, averaging 9.7 and 2.2 per game respectively. He was also sixth in the Ivy League in scoring with 18.2 points per game. He was named to the All-Ivy First Team. In terms of team success, Mangano's senior year was his best at Yale, as the Bulldogs went 19-10 and qualified for the CollegeInsider.com Tournament, where the team lost in the first round to the Rakim Sanders-led

Fairfield Stags The Fairfield Stags are the athletic programs representing Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut. Most of the programs are members of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) and classified as Division I (non-football) in the Nat ...

68–56. Mangano had 17 points and 8 rebounds. Mangano helped bring Yale back to relevance in the Ivy League after years at the bottom of the league. He finished his career with 213 blocks, which is most in Yale history- more than former NBA player

Chris Dudley Christen Guilford Dudley (born February 22, 1965) is an American former professional basketball player and politician. He played 886 games across 16 seasons in the NBA for the Cleveland Cavaliers, New Jersey Nets, Portland Trail Blazers, New Yo ...

- and the third most in Ivy League history. Mangano was also sixth in school history in rebounds and 13th in points.

Professional career

Mangano was honored as one of the nation's best seniors when he was selected to participate in the prestigious

Portsmouth Invitational Tournament The Portsmouth Invitational Tournament, (PIT), is the only postseason camp restricted to college basketball seniors. The Portsmouth Invitational is the first of two NBA pre-Draft (sports), draft camps, the other being the Orlando pre-Draft (sport ...

. His best game was his second; he scored 13 points on 5–11 shooting, including 3 of 5 from three, and grabbed 9 boards. he started and played 26 minutes. Mangano averaged 10.7 points, 6 rebounds, and 1 block per game while shooting 46.2 percent from three-point range, which was the sixth best percentage in the tournament. Despite working out with many teams, Mangano went undrafted in the

2012 NBA draft The 2012 NBA draft was held on June 28, 2012, at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. The draft started at 7:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time (2300 UTC), and was broadcast in the United States on ESPN. In this draft, National Basketball A ...

, although according to his agent Mangano would have been picked if he had been European. Mangano said that this shows that, "the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

still doesn't respect the level of play in the

." After going undrafted, Mangano signed with Antalya BB in the

Turkish Basketball League Turkish may refer to: * Something related to Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities in the former Ottoman Empire * The ...

On 29 December 2012, he left Turkey to join Força Lleida in the

LEB Oro The Primera FEB, formerly known as LEB or LEB Oro, is the second basketball division of the Spanish basketball league system after the Liga ACB. It is run by the Spanish Basketball Federation, FEB. The FEB leagues are divided into three categorie ...

, Spain's second division. In 2013, Mangano signed with

ratiopharm Ulm Ratiopharm Ulm, officially stylized as ratiopharm ulm, is a professional basketball club based in Ulm, Germany. The club has two teams, one professional team, which plays in the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL), the major German professional league an ...

in Germany. On August 12, 2018, Mangano signed with the Ukrainian team Kyiv-Basket. He chose the jersey number 44. He spent the 2019-20 season with

Bambitious Nara The are a Japanese professional basketball team based in Nara (city), Nara, Japan. They compete in the Western Conference of the Second Division of the B.League. The team's name is a combination of the phrase "be ambitious" and the name of the cha ...

B.League The B.League is a men's professional basketball league in Japan. The league is operated by the Japan Professional Basketball League and was formed as a result of a merger between the National Basketball League that was operated by the FIBA-affi ...

, averaging 21.6 points and 15.1 rebounds per game. On August 29, 2020, Mangano signed with

USA Basketball

Mangano's play led him to try out for the USA

World University Games The FISU World University Games, formerly the Universiade, is an international multi-sport event, organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The former name is a portmanteau of the words "Universi ...

Team in 2008. He made the team, and appeared in 6 of the team's 8 games. He averaged 3.2 points and 3.2 rebounds per game, while averaging 11.3 minutes per game. He was second on the team with 5 blocks. The US went 7–1, good for 5th place.

References

External links