DENVER — Yale pulled off a giant upset as a No. 13 seed in final 12 months’s NCAA Match, and it has an opportunity to make it two in a row from the identical place.
Yale (22-7) beat Auburn within the first spherical of the 2024 match and faces one other Southeastern Convention foe when it performs No. 4 Texas A&M within the South Area opener Thursday evening. The Bulldogs are making their fifth look within the NCAA Match since 2016 and have superior previous the primary spherical twice.
The Bulldogs gained each the Ivy League regular-season and convention match titles.
“It is simply develop into an expectation of what you’re and what you suppose it’s best to do,” coach James Jones mentioned. “I feel we have gotten to the purpose the place we have simply reached that expectation that that is how good we predict we must be, and we’re gonna work towards that.”
Yale has misplaced simply as soon as for the reason that calendar flipped to 2025, March 1 in opposition to Harvard, and it goes from dealing with Ivy League groups to at least one who performs in a convention that landed 14 groups within the NCAA Match.
As 2024 confirmed, the Bulldogs aren’t intimidated by the large stage.
“A aim?” senior Bez Mbeng mentioned. “Advance. Win.”
Yale has a chance to provide the Ivy League a win in three straight NCAA Tournaments. Apart from final 12 months’s win over Auburn, Princeton beat Arizona as a No. 15 seed within the first spherical in 2023.
The Bulldogs are led by John Poulakidas, who’s averaging 19.2 factors per recreation. Poulakidas fueled the upset of Auburn by hitting 6 of 9 from 3-point vary and scoring 28 factors
Junior Nick Townsend is second on the crew at 15.4 factors and leads in rebounding (7.2), and Mbeng is pouring in 13.4 ppg.
Whereas Yale has been rolling, the Aggies (22-10) have struggled down the stretch. They dropped 4 in a row after a five-game profitable streak, snapped that skid by beating Auburn on March 4 when the Tigers have been ranked No. 1, however later fell to Texas in double extra time within the SEC match quarterfinals.
Texas A&M, which completed 11-7 within the convention, is aware of the Bulldogs aren’t a crew to take evenly after seeing them beat Auburn final 12 months.
“We’ll look again and research movie and do the fitting issues in apply,” senior Henry Coleman III mentioned. “We’ll play exhausting and play Texas A&M basketball. They nonetheless have to protect us, too.”
Neither crew is lengthy — just one rotation participant, 6-foot-10 Yale heart Samson Aletan, is taller than 6-foot-9 — in order that they match up effectively.
The Aggies are led by guards Wade Taylor IV (15.7 ppg) and Zhuric Phelps (14.1). They common 74.3 factors per recreation and permit 67.9, they usually excel on the glass the place they common 41.2 rebounds per recreation, fifth within the nation, regardless of not having a participant flattening greater than Andersson Garcia’s 6.2.
Texas A&M is just not prolific behind the arc, making simply 31.1 p.c of its 3-point makes an attempt. Nonetheless, the Aggies make up for that weak point by main Division I in offensive rebounds with 16.2 per recreation.
–Michael Kelly, Area Stage Media