Yale Athletics announced an intriguing 2019-2020 schedule for the defending Ivy League regular season co-champion and Ivy Tournament title winning Bulldogs Friday.
The 16 game nonconference schedule, which features 14 Division I matchups, includes contests against power conference foes North Carolina, Penn State, Oklahoma State and Clemson.
The Elis will open the season on the road at Stony Brook on November 5, a homecoming for the team’s Long Island born-and-raised coach. On November 8, they will raise the Ivy banners at the Lee Amphitheater against Division III Oberlin, which is coached by former Yale player Isaiah Cavaco.
Yale will be taking part in the NIT Season Tip-Off, with the first two games at Oklahoma State on November 17 and Penn State on the 23rd. During Thanksgiving week, Yale will head down to ESPN’s Wide World of Sports Complex to take part in the Orlando Subdivision. On the 25th, they will battle Western Michigan and then take on either Seattle or Bucknell the next day.
After finals, the Bulldogs will head down to the Carolinas to face Clemson on December 22, followed by a game against preseason top 10 North Carolina on the 30th. The game against the Tigers will be a homecoming for Columbia, S.C. native Jordan Bruner, who was recruited heavily by Clemson.
Jones’ squad will start to defend its Ivy title on January 17 with a home game against travel partner Brown. The Bulldogs will have five of their first six games played at home, with the last being a return match against last year’s regular season co-champion Harvard on February 8.
Yale will hit the road for six of its last eight games, beginning with visits to Princeton on February 14 and Penn on the 15th. Following a senior weekend against the Ps on the 28th and 29th, the Bulldogs will finish the regular season with return games against Dartmouth and the Crimson on March 7-8.
The Elis will look to return to Lavietes Pavilion one week later to take part in the fourth Ivy League Tournament.
Last year’s team went 22-8 overall and earned the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament on the strength of victories over Princeton and Harvard at the Ivy Tournament. The No. 14 Bulldogs struggled early in its first-round NCAA Tournament game against No. 3 LSU, falling behind by 16 points at the half. The team battled back in the second, cutting the deficit to three with 12 seconds left, but the Bayou Bengals held on for the 79-74 victory.
Yale certainly had an eventful offseason. In May, Jones was a finalist for the open St. John’s head coaching position but ended up staying at Yale and signing a contract extension through the 2025-26 campaign. A few weeks later, junior guard Miye Oni, who declared for the NBA Draft in late March, opted to remain in the draft and was selected by Golden State (for Utah) with the 58th pick on June 21.
In addition to losing the reigning Ivy Player of the Year, Yale will be without graduating seniors Alex Copeland (first team All-Ivy), Trey Phills and captain Blake Reynolds. They will return seniors Bruner and captain Eric Monroe, as well as juniors Paul Atkinson and Azar Swain. In addition, the Elis recently announced the arrival of two first-years, E.J. Jarvis and August Mahoney.
In an unlikely place for a Jones-coached team, which has been in the Ivy League’s top four in each of the last 19 seasons, Bart Torvik presently has the Bulldogs picked seventh, ranked No. 203 in the country.
2019-20 Yale Men’s Basketball Schedule
11/5 Tue. at Stony Brook (Torvik rank #211)
11/8 Fri. OBERLIN (not ranked)
11/11 Mon. at San Francisco (#101)
11/17 Sun. at Oklahoma State (#55) – NIT Season Tip-Off
11/20 Wed. SIENA (#251)
11/23 Sat. at Penn State (#20) – NIT Season Tip-Off
11/25 Mon. vs Western Michigan (#242) at Orlando – NIT Season Tip-Off
11/26 Tue. vs Seattle (#141) or Bucknell (#202) at Orlando – NIT Season Tip-Off
12/1 Sun. VERMONT (#91)
12/4 Wed. at Albany (#174)
12/7 Sat. at Lehigh (#260)
12/11 Wed. at UMass (#281)
12/22 Sun. at Clemson (#128)
12/30 Mon. at North Carolina (#6)
1/12 Sun. JOHNSON & WALES (not ranked)
1/17 Fri. vs BROWN (#143)
1/20 Mon. at Howard (#340)
1/24 Fri. at Brown
1/31 Fri. COLUMBIA (#125)
2/1 Sat. CORNELL (#304)
2/7 Fri. HARVARD (#19)
2/8 Sat. DARTMOUTH (#149)
2/14 Fri. at Princeton (#100)
2/15 Sat. at Penn (#48)
2/21 Fri. at Cornell
2/22 Sat. at Columbia
2/28 Fri. PENN
2/29 Sat. PRINCETON
3/6 Fri. at Dartmouth
3/7 Sat. at Harvard