Podcast: Ryan Altman and Jay Jones on Rivers memories, heading to Penn together

Ryan Altman (left) and Jay Jones, sitting next to him, celebrate their third consecutive NEPSAC Class B title at Rivers in 2024. (Rivers)

For Ryan Altman and Jay Jones, almost every step of their basketball journey has been spent together. And that’s not ending anytime soon.

The two Brookline, Mass., natives met in kindergarten, started playing basketball together in the first grade and created a special bond from there as they ultimately became two of the most decorated players in recent New England history. They played AAU together with the Middlesex Magic and they were core members of a dynasty at Rivers, where they won three consecutive NEPSAC Class B championships and two ISL titles. In the three years they spent at Rivers together, the duo amassed a 73-9 overall record, including a 47-1 Class B mark.

Altman, a 6-foot-6 wing, spent five years at Rivers and was a three-time All-NEPSAC and All-ISL selection as he won ISL MVP, ISL Defensive Player of the Year and became the first player in school history to win 100 career games in a single sport. Jones, a 6-foot-3 combo guard, won a UAA title with the Middlesex Magic in 2023 and was a two-time All-NEPSAC and All-ISL selection in three seasons at Rivers before spending the 2024-25 season as a postgraduate at Cushing, where he helped the Penguins win an NEBL championship and Class AA regular-season title.

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Q&A with Altman on choosing Penn | Jones blazing own path as son of Div. 1 coach

Now, the two lifelong friends are reunited – and hoping to take their winning pedigree to college together. Altman and Jones are soon headed to Penn to play for legendary head coach Fran McCaffery. Before they take off for Philadelphia, they stopped by and joined the HoopWise Podcast to talk about their journey together, their favorite high school memories, what they’re looking forward to at Penn and much more.

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Highlights

What games or memories will stick out to you the most about your time at Rivers?

Jones: “Specific games, I would say the Milton games just because there was a bunch of Magic kids, I feel like those games were always so much fun playing against my guys. What really sticks out is the practices at Rivers, like those practices were so much fun, just competing, great vibes with (assistant coach) Jacob Werrick and Coach Z (Keith Zalaski), it was just like great energy every day. I really miss those practices for sure.”

Altman: “A couple games that stick out to me, first, the TD Garden game last year. We played Tabor, we were the top two teams in the ISL, their whole school was there, our whole school was there and it was just awesome to play in the Garden. We snuck out that win at the end and it was an awesome feeling. And then we were also down double digits in this next game, the semifinal game last year against Brooks. We were down like 15 points at the half, down 30-15, everything’s going wrong. We go to the locker room, everyone’s calm though, Coach Z’s calm, we’re all calm because we all thought we were going to win the game the whole time. No one faltered or anything, and then obviously we come back, JJ hits a couple 3s to start us off, I hit one and then that last shot doesn’t go in, we run to the fan zone, it was crazy. That game was just insane.”

Jones: “That was probably the best moment of our careers.”

Have you set any goals for your time at Penn? What are you hoping to accomplish?

Altman: “Definitely March Madness.”

Jones: “I feel like that’s top of the list.”

Altman: “In our four years, win the Ivy League, go to March Madness, just keep that going. … And just giving everything I got each day and coming in with a good attitude and being a great teammate and then hopefully win a lot of games.”

Jones: “I know personally, being able to say I beat my uncle (Yale coach James Jones) more times than he beats me, most definitely.”

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