Richard Kent

No. 13 Yale men’s basketball falls to No. 4 Texas A&M in NCAA Tournament

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All good things must come to an end.

So it went for No. 13 Yale men’s basketball in its 80-71 loss to No. 4 Texas A&M in the NCAA Tournament Round of 64 Thursday night in Denver.

Junior forward Pharrel Payne had a career-high 25 points and added 10 rebounds for the Aggies.

A 1:43 sequence at the end of the first half epitomized Yale’s night in its third NCAA Tournament berth in four years.

The Bulldogs were struggling offensively and had no points from the Ivy Player of the Year, senior guard Bez Mbeng, yet were down only 35-29.

Aggies junior forward Solomon Washington was whistled for a flagrant foul off of a rebound.

Mbeng missed both free throws. Yale (22-8) did not convert on the free possession and then turned the ball over.

“In terms of our team, I couldn’t be prouder of our effort today,” Yale coach James Jones said. “It wasn’t our best performance.”

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Handicapping the Columbia and Penn men’s basketball coaching changes

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The Penn and Columbia men’s basketball coaching jobs are both open. There has been much speculation and more rumors.

What we know is neither team is in the postseason, but some of the candidates are. Penn has hired Georgia-based Parker Executive Search, an executive search firm.

Columbia athletic director Peter Pilling is handling the Columbia search. Pilling made a great hire on the women’s side in Megan Griffith in 2016 and should know talent when he sees it. He was at Ivy Madness on Friday and Saturday and played all conversations close to the vest. Every candidate will want to know definitively if there will be some form of NIL available.

The candidates and the odds:

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Ivy Madness day two – Reporter’s notebook

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Lots of alumni, former players and others from the basketball world at the Pizzitola Sports Center for the second day of the Ivy League Tournament Saturday.

Seated in row one were Harvard’s Ivy Rookie of the Year Robert Hinton, his mother, and his father Robert, a former Princeton quarterback in the 1970s. The Hintons sat through both men’s games to cheer on Princeton and also Cornell, where the Harvard standout’s brother Adam is a strong contributor.

Hinton will definitely be back at Harvard next season in this age of NIL and player poaching.

Robert was the No. 97 recruit in the class of 2024 and verbally committed to Harvard in his sophomore year at Harvard-Westlake. His finalists were Harvard, Yale and Princeton.

Former Yale players Steve Leondis, Chris Dudley, Azar Swain, Matt Minoff and Mike Williams were in attendance to cheer on the Bulldogs, as was former Yale president Peter Salovey.

Bill Kingston, former Princeton guard on the 1965 Final Four team and Bill Bradley’s roommate, was seated in the second row.

For the second consecutive year, the Legends of Ivy Basketball remained on hiatus, with hopes that the ceremony will resume in 2026 at Cornell.

Many writers, Ivy officials and former players offered varied explanations of the 2.9 seconds which were “added” to the clock at the end of the Princeton-Yale game. The supervisor of officials said that the clock did not appropriately stop after John Poulakidas hit his trey to seal the victory. Others differed.

The coaching changes at Columbia and Penn were also a subject of much media and Ivy administrators. There was a consensus that Penn alum and NYU coach Dave Klatsky will be in play at both schools. Also, there were rumblings that Colgate coach and former Penn player Matt Langel might have interest in the Penn vacancy. Some Princeton and Yale assistants were also discussed as possible Columbia hires. Columbia athletic director Peter Pilling was mum on topic but did add, perhaps in jest, that he had his phone turned off during the Ivy tourney.

Some media grumbled about the Ivy clearing out the gym in between all games and opined that with a potential paucity of attendees at Cornell next year, the league should rethink that policy – one not in place at the Big East or the ACC tourneys.

Q&A with Yale men’s basketball senior forward Jack Molloy

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Yale senior forward Jack Molloy is averaging 2.5 points and 1.2 rebounds per game in 2024-25. (Yale Athletics)

Ivy Hoops Online recently caught up with Yale senior forward and Greenwich, Conn. native Jack Molloy:

Ivy Hoops Online: Growing-up in Greenwich, were you interested in Yale sports?

Jack Molloy: I didn’t start following Ivy sports until my freshman year in high school. I was really thinking about Wesleyan or Amherst. New Heights AAU took me and I went to Elite Camp at Yale and the coaches thought I could play here.

IHO: What was the camp like?

JM: So fun. Legitimate 12 hours of basketball. Constantly playing pickup. (Yale associate head) coach (Justin) Simon showed me around campus.

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Harvard men’s basketball hands Yale its first Ivy League loss

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It was Yale-Harvard, so ignore the records. The Crimson ended Yale’s 13-game winning streak, 74-69, before a crowd of 1,636 at Lavietes Pavilion Saturday, handing the visitors their first loss in Ivy League play.

“I thought they had a really good game plan,” coach James Jones said. “Hopefully we can take this as a learning tool going into our last game (at Brown) and the Ivy tournament.”

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Q&A with Yale senior guard John Poulakidas

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Yale senior guard John Poulakidas is averaging 19.5 points and 3.4 rebounds per game. (Yale Athletics)

Ivy Hoops Online recently caught up with Yale senior guard John Poulakidas, a Naperville, Ill. native and the Ivy League’s scoring leader at 19.5 points per game:

Ivy Hoops Online: What was your recruiting process like during COVID?

John Poulakidas: It was definitely difficult. Butler offered me. Princeton was in the mix. Not having an AAU year hindered my recruitment.

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Yale men’s basketball dumps Columbia to clinch Ivy League regular season title

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Letdown? One could have happened.

After all, Yale clinched an Ivy title last night in a scintillating tilt.

But letdowns aren’t a thing with James Jones-coached teams. The Bulldogs destroyed Columbia, 90-64, at John J. Lee Amphitheater on Senior Night Saturday.

“I keep being surprised, but in awe of this group,” said Jones. “We scored 90 points and gave up 64. I just think we could be perfect.”

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Q&A with Yale men’s basketball senior guard Bez Mbeng

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Bez Mbeng is a 6-foot-4 senior guard from Potomac, Md. and the two-time reigning Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year. IHO recently caught up with him before a Yale practice:

Ivy Hoops Online: You have been known as a great defensive player and your offense has caught-up with your defensive play. How did that happen?

Bez Mbeng: Testament to the work my whole life. You want to keep getting better. Credit to my coaches. We live in the gym. Lots of dedication to our craft.

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Yale men’s basketball bulldozes Princeton, 84-57

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It took 71 years to accomplish it, but Yale men’s basketball is 9-0 in Ivy League play for the first time in program history.

The Bulldogs made that history emphatically Saturday night with an 84-57 win over Princeton in snowy New Haven at John J. Lee Amphitheater.

“I mean it is another part of history,” Yale coach James Jones said. “There’s so many things these guys have done over a career.”

Yale (16-6, 9-0 Ivy) led by as many as 34 points, 73-39, on a wide-open Bez Mbeng corner trey.

Princeton (16-8, 5-4) started with more energy than its loss to Yale at Jadwin Gym two weeks ago or its defeat Friday evening at Brown. The Tigers went up 8-3 on a trey from senior guard Blake Peters, 90% of whose shots this season have been from long distance.

Yale went on an 8-0 run to take a 17-12 lead.

The Bulldogs led 32-20 at the half against a Tiger team averaging 75 points per game.

Princeton scored only eight points in the last 11 minutes of the half and shot 23% from the field.

“That was as good a defensive effort as we have all year,” Jones said.

Yale went on a 10-0 run in the second half to effectively end the game at 56-31.

The Bulldogs proved once again that they could be dominant even on an off night from the Ivy League’s leading scorer, senior John Poulakidas, who was held to 11 points on 4-for-15 shooting.

The home team was led in scoring by junior forward Nick Townsend, who tallied 20 points on 7-for-9 shooting. Senior guard Bez Mbeng added 17 points on 7-for-8 shooting.

Junior guard Xaivian Lee was the only bright light for the Tigers with 19 points.

Junior forward Caden Pierce, reigning Ivy Player of the Year, stayed in his funk with no field goals and two free throws.

Yale clinched a slot in Ivy Madness with the win.

The Bulldogs are playing at a higher level and more cohesively than a year ago, despite the losses of Danny Wolf (Michigan), Matt Knowling (USC) and August Mahoney (graduation).

Yale has won 13 out of the last 16 meetings against Princeton. The 27-point margin is the largest in Yale history over the Tigers.

Yale hosts Cornell while Princeton hosts Harvard at 7 p.m. Friday.