Yale men’s basketball captain Jack Montague ’16, who has missed the team’s past four games, will not return to the team, Yale Assistant Director of Sports Publicity Tim Bennett said in a press release Wednesday afternoon.
The announcement from Yale athletics follows more than two weeks of speculation regarding the possibility of Montague’s return. Still, no specifics concerning Montague’s departure from the team were made public in the release, which noted that the University will not provide further comment.
Montague’s academic record indicates his status was changed to “withdrawn” on Feb. 10, according to Jean Cherniavsky, the undergraduate registrar of Montague’s declared major, American Studies. A representative from the Yale Registrar’s Office told the News on Tuesday that Montague is withdrawn from Yale College. Michael Denning, the director of undergraduate studies for American Studies, could not be reached on Wednesday for further clarification of Montague’s status.
Montague’s name was removed from the online Yale men’s basketball roster Wednesday afternoon. No plans for an interim captain have thus far been announced, and members of the team declined to comment on Wednesday afternoon.
After Montague started the first 20 games of Yale’s season and missed the past four, the team will not have him for the final four games of the regular season. His last game with the team was a Feb. 6 contest against Cornell. In his absence, the team has gone 3–1, with the lone loss coming against Princeton.
The news comes during a stretch of Ivy League play that will determine whether Yale can earn a berth to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1962. With a 9–1 Ivy League record, the team is a half-game ahead of 8–1 Princeton and one game ahead of 8–2 Columbia in the conference standings. An outright Ivy League championship, or a share of the title paired with a victory in a tie-breaking playoff, would give Yale a bid to the tournament.
The Registrar’s Office did not specify the nature of Montague’s withdrawal, and on Tuesday night University spokesman Tom Conroy wrote in an email to the News that the University’s Office of Public Affairs and Communications had no information to provide about Montague. Conroy did not respond to request for comment.
Montague, who did not respond to multiple requests for comment Wednesday, said in a statement to the News on Feb. 17 that he was taking a “personal leave” and intended to return to the team “as soon as possible.”
This weekend, Yale hosts Harvard and Dartmouth in its final two home games of the 2015–16 season.