There’s a lot of energy in the gym on the Washington Heights campus of Yeshiva University, as members of the Maccabees basketball team run up and down the court, preparing for arguably one of the most important games in program history.

Despite it being 6:15 a.m., when the team regularly practices, the energy is present.

What You Need To Know

The Yeshiva University Maccabees basketball team has reached the NCAA Division III Tournament

The team plays Emory University in the third round on Friday, March 13

The Macs are back-to-back Skyline Conference champions 

“The more successful teams are the ones that are able to bring energy like that early in the morning and these guys have been able to bring it all year,” said Elliot Steinmetz, the 12th year head coach of the Macs.

Steinmetz is also a real estate lawyer who heads to work every day after practice. He’s at the helm for another special season.

It’s a year when the Maccabees won a second straight Skyline Conference title. They went undefeated in the conference with a record of 16-0. They made it to a second straight NCAA Division III Tournament, winning rounds one and two against Bates and Maine-Farmington.

Now, they are eyeing a game Friday in Atlanta with Emory University for the third round — the Sweet Sixteen.

“We went to this tournament expecting to win games, and so now that we won two, it’s not really a shocker to us. And going into the Sweet Sixteen, it’s another opportunity — we are super excited to compete on this stage and compete against a team like Emory, and we are going in there to win so we are super excited for that,” said senior guard and co-captain Max Zackheim from Bergen County, New Jersey.

Another standout for the Macs is back-to-back conference player of the year and co-captain Zevi Samet from Rockland County. He recently exceeded 2,500 career points and says his team plays well together because they are together off the court too.

“We are with each other so much and we all get along. We are all friends, best friends. We all love each other. We all hang out with each other. There’s no beef, there’s no bickering, so it’s something that I love and we want to do it as long as we can,” Samet said. 

As does Coach Elliot Steinmetz, a former player at the predominantly Jewish university, who this season reached 200 career victories with the Macs. He attributes the success to his staff and team leaders, and says the school means a lot to him.

“It’s an important beacon of light, I think. It’s a dark world and the job of the Jewish people is to, obviously as we say in Hebrew, ‘Ohr LaGoyim,’ and to be a light unto the nation I think. And I think Yeshiva University represents that in a huge way,” said Steinmetz, who led the Macs to a historic 50-game unbeaten streak between November 2019 and December 2021. 

Steinmetz has reached many heights with the program, but says the goal always is a national championship for the Maccabees.