The out-of-conference portion of the Yale men’s schedule ended today with an emphatic 93-65 win over visiting Howard.
Yale (7-6) was picked to finish second behind Princeton in the Ivy media preseason poll.
So what have we learned about Yale?
General
Columbia men’s basketball uses dominant second-half performance to down Fairfield, 85-72
After finding itself down nine at the half to Fairfield, the Columbia men’s basketball team found its offensive groove over the final 20 minutes, outscoring its opponents by 22 points to come away with a convincing 85-72 victory at Levien Gymnasium Saturday afternoon.
The win puts Jim Engles’ Lions at 11-1 on the season, including a perfect 8-0 record at home. Meanwhile, the Stags, which were undefeated when leading at the midway point this season, ended the day at 5-8.
Yale men’s basketball narrowly clipped by UTEP in Sun Bowl Invitational final
James Jones’ team is growing up quickly before his eyes – both out of skill and necessity.
With leading scorer and senior guard John Poulakidas still sidelined with a foot injury, senior guard Yassine Gharram off the team and junior forward Casey Simmons injured, the Bulldogs staged a ferocious second-half rally and fell narrowly to UTEP in the final of the Sun Bowl Invitational Saturday, 75-74.
Princeton men’s basketball’s clash with Rutgers was great drama on many levels
Rutgers went undefeated in the regular season in 1975-76. The following fall, I ran into then-Michigan coach Johnny Orr and asked him why his team thrashed Rutgers, a one-point favorite in the national semis. His response was to the effect that Michigan guard Rickey Green was faster than the Rutgers star who was known as fast Eddie Jordan. He was right.
Mitch Henderson entered the Rutgers game Saturday tired of having to talk Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper pregame.
“I wanted to talk (Xaivian) Lee and (Caden) Pierce,” Henderson said postgame.
Yale men’s basketball downs Akron, 74-58, in El Paso
The bad news is that Yale had 18 turnovers.
The good news is that Yale outrebounded the Akron Zips, 47-25, in the first round of the Sun Bowl Invitational en route to a convincing 74-58 win at the Don Haskins Center in El Paso, Texas Friday. Yale (6-5) will face the winner of the UTEP-Jackson State game Saturday night for the tournament championship.
“Great team rebounding effort tonight,” Yale coach James Jones said.
“Should be fun to watch”: Princeton men’s basketball set to face Rutgers
Princeton and Rutgers are separated by 17 miles on Route 1 in New Jersey. Rutgers is one of Princeton’s most familiar foes. The Tigers lead the overall series, 77-45, but Rutgers has won six out of the last 10 meetings.
The game has held major significance for Princeton and Rutgers players across the decades, a history sure to grow when the teams play Saturday at the Prudential Center in Newark at noon.
“It was for the establishment of New Jersey dominance,” former Princeton star and athletic director Gary Walters said.
Harvard men’s basketball nips New Hampshire amid growing pains
DURHAM, N.H. – As Tommy Amaker watched one of Harvard’s 13 first-half turnovers fly past his head Sunday afternoon, he resisted the urge to admonish the guilty party. Instead, he kept his gaze on the next play, not even acknowledging the mistake.
That’s not to say Amaker wasn’t angry about it. It was as tough for him to watch as anyone. But Amaker knows this might not be a team like the Harvard squads that went to four straight NCAA Tournaments (winning two games) or even one of his 10 teams in an 11-year span earlier in the century that posted double-digit wins in the Ivy League.
Amaker has a young team, a freshman point guard (and three freshman starters Sunday), and patience is key. He wasn’t able to work out all the flaws at halftime, as the Crimson finished with 19 turnovers, but they did enough down the stretch to gut out a 72-62 win over New Hampshire at Lundholm Gym. That’s a step forward for the Crimson after they lost seven of their last eight contests.
Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s 60-47 loss to Drexel
PHILADELPHIA — The tradition at the Big 5 Classic tripleheader at the Wells Fargo Center is that fans throw streamers onto the court after their team’s first made basket.
When Penn scored first against Drexel on Saturday afternoon, about a half-dozen or so red and blue streamers limped out of a half-empty student section behind the basket. When the Dragons responded, navy blue and yellow paper coated the baseline.
It was that kind of afternoon for the Red and Blue, who took a 60-47 loss thanks to another extended offensive outage.
After getting early buckets from senior big Nick Spinoso and junior wing Ethan Roberts to open up a 34-30 lead a minute into the second half, Penn (3-6, 0-3 Big 5) scored just two points for the next nine minutes and 21 seconds of game time. Drexel (6-4, 1-2) used that stagnant period to go on a 14-2 run.
Unless and until Penn fixes its persistent scoring issues, nothing will change. That’s a shame, because …
Yale men’s basketball vanquishes Vermont – without Yassine Gharram
NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Yale broke a two-game losing streak with an impressive second half Saturday afternoon at Lee Amphitheater, allowing exactly half as many points as the last time we saw the Bulldogs at Mohegan Sun two weeks ago in a 65-50 win over Vermont, albeit a struggling and undermanned Catamounts team.
The big personnel news of the day was that Yale’s leading scorer (and 16th nationally) John Poulakidas was not in uniform. The Bulldogs’ offense struggled mightily without him in the first half, scoring just 22 points and turning the ball over 13 times. Sophomore Trevor Mullin got his first career start, but it was Bez Mbeng who had six of those turnovers.
Freshmen shoot Penn women’s basketball past La Salle, 74-63
Penn and La Salle were playing a perfectly good women’s basketball Friday afternoon when the Quakers’ Sarah Miller turned it into a sharpshooting match, leading to a Penn win, 74-63.
The 5-foot-10 guard from Phoenix scored a bucket in the first quarter, but she really took off in the second with four straight threes, then added a fifth in the third quarter before her first miss of the day. All in all, she went 6-for-7 plus 4-for-4 on foul shots for a game-high 21 points. Fellow freshman Katie Collins also had a 6-for-7 day, though closer to the basket and in less spectacular fashion, finishing with 12 points and 11 rebounds.
The win was coach Mike McLaughlin’s 250th at Penn.