Men’s basketball Assistant Coach Jake Rachbach, NYU Athletics’ newest hire, plans to focus on players’ mental performance to improve on-court play. With a master’s from Temple University in kinesiology, Rauchbach’s main objectives with the team will involve “removing performance blocks” through “integrated mental techniques.”

“Mostly, I want to help and add value for the players and the staff, and build on last year,” Rauchbach said.

Rauchbach brings coaching experience on the college, professional and international levels. Most recently, he served as head coach for Maccabi Team USA Men’s Open, leading them to the gold medal at the 2019 Maccabi Games in Budapest. He was also an assistant coach and director of player development for the Ironi-Ness Ziona Basketball Club in the Israeli SuperLeague. At the college level, Rauchbach served as player performance specialist, consultant and graduate assistant for the men’s basketball team at Temple University from 2004 to 2018.

“Jake and I have known each other for over a decade,” Violets head coach Dagan Nelson said. “Jake actually coached with me when I was a high school coach in North Carolina, so our relationship goes back a long time.”

Rauchbach’s unique skill set makes him a special coach, allows him to connect with players who might be in difficult situations.

“He is an energy, psychology guru,” Nelson said.

One of Rauchbach’s key traits, according to Nelson, is his ability to “harness and help student athletes remove mental blocks that they may have had since early childhood.”

With these interpersonal skills, coupled with basketball acumen, Rauchbach says he hopes to produce tangible results for the team.

“I’ve seen him improve shooting percentages, I’ve seen him improve free throw percentages, I’ve seen him improve [the team’s] points per game [and] per student athlete,” Nelson said.

Forward and SPS senior Jimmy Martinelli looks forward to working with the new coach and hopes his guidance will give the team an upper hand.

“I know that as a Division III program, we have to be one of the only schools that has an actual mental performance coach for our basketball team,” Martinelli said. “So that’ll definitely give us an edge in competition.”

Rauchbach says that a part of measuring his success depends on “the overall wellbeing of the player and the player’s ability to rate his own progression.”

Despite this, he remains focused on the endgame: winning and player development. He pointed out that, ultimately, working with student-athletes on the mental aspects of their game is “all about optimizing player performance.”

Catch the men’s basketball team in action in its season opener on Nov. 9 against Oberlin College.

A version of this article appears in the Monday, Sept. 30, print edition. Email Griffin Vrabeck at [email protected].