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Yale made history just by showing up. Then the Bulldogs made a whole lot more.
In Yale’s first NCAA Tournament game since 1962, the Bulldogs won their first contest in the tourney ever, besting the Bears, 79-75, after leading most of the way in front of a Yale partisan crowd at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence.
Columbia 86, Norfolk State 54
The host Lions doubled up the Spartans in the first half, 42-21, and never looked back. Luke Petrasek shook off a late-season scoring slump to lead all scorers with 18 points in just 24 minutes, with Petrasek and Maodo Lo each hitting four treys to give the Lions an easy first-round CIT win. The Spartans got outscored 48-6 from three-point range, and that was pretty much the ballgame. Here’s Columbia Athletics’ explanation of what happens next in the crazy CIT process:
The panel looks ahead to Yale’s NCAA Tournament first-round showdown with Baylor, Princeton’s NIT matchup with Virginia Tech and Columbia’s CIT square-off with Norfolk State. Peter Andrews and Mike Tony are joined by IHO writer Robert Crawford and Dallas Morning News contributor/Baylor expert Shehan Jeyarajah for this episode:
Here we are.
Yale makes its first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 1962 Thursday at 2:45 p.m., a virtual home game for the No. 12 Bulldogs against the No. 5 Baylor Bears. The Bears will be attempting to gain revenge from a first-round upset at the hands of upstart Georgia Southern last year. The Bears have enjoyed success in the Big Dance under 13-year coach Scott Drew, going to the Elite Eight in 2010 and 2012. But then-No. 3 Baylor got upset by No. 14 Georgia State in Athens, Ga. in the Bears’ first NCAA contest last season, an eerily similar virtual road matchup with an underdog foe to the threat posed by Yale in Providence at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center this season.
The game should be low-scoring, which will favor the Elis. Both teams turn the ball over too much (Yale ranks 296th in the country in turnover percentage, Baylor ranks 228th), but Yale has shot the ball better, especially from two-point range against high-major competition.
#2bidivy got in just under the wire.
For the first time ever, the Ivy League got two NCAA Tournament bids, league champion Penn and at-large Princeton, in the final season without a conference tournament to determine the league’s NCAA Tournament representative.
Penn received the automatic bid after defeating Princeton at Jadwin Gym, 62-60, completing a season sweep of the Tigers. The Quakers were rewarded with their highest seed in school history, a No. 10 seed pitting them against No. 7 Washington. The Quakers (24-4) and Huskies (22-10) will square off on Saturday at 4 p.m. at the Xfinity Center in College Park, Md. A first-round Penn win would set the Quakers up with No. 2 Maryland on the Terrapins’ home court. Then-No. 1 Maryland ousted Princeton from the tournament in the second round of last season’s tournament, ending the Tigers’ undefeated season.
Cornell fired head coach Bill Courtney after six seasons Monday, ESPN reported, opting not to renew his contract.
Courtney finished with an overall record of 60-113 (.311), including a 27-57 (.321) record in conference play. The Big Red finished last in the conference for the second time in three years this season, going 3-11 in Ivy play after having gone 2-26 overall in 2013-14. Cornell was the only Ivy not to make a postseason tournament during Courtney’s tenure.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Cal men’s basketball assistant coach Yann Hufnagel was fired Monday following an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment.
Hufnagel served as an assistant coach at Harvard under Tommy Amaker from 2009-10 through 2012-13, and graduated from Cornell in 2006 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial and Labor Relations.
University investigators concluded after a months-long probe that Hufnagel had reportedly violated UC Berkeley’s anti-sexual harassment policy, the Chronicle said, noting a release that stated, ““effective immediately, Hufnagel has been relieved of his duties pending the outcome of the termination process and will not be traveling with the team during its NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament run.”
A lawyer for former Yale team captain Jack Montague disputed claims that Montague sexually assaulted another student in a statement Monday morning.
Princeton (22-6, 12-2 Ivy) was projected by Big Apple Buckets analyst John Templon to get a No. 4 seed in the National Invitational Tournament, but the Tigers got a No. 6 seed instead, setting them up to travel to No. 3 Virginia Tech (19-14, 10-8 ACC) for a matchup with the Hokies Wednesday at 8 p.m. on ESPNU.
Princeton enters as the road team despite having a RPI of 39 and Virginia Tech having a RPI of 90, and both teams having virtually identical KenPom rankings (66 for Princeton, 63 for Virginia Tech).
The Tigers turned down a CBI bid after finishing 16-14 last season, and the women Tigers got a No. 9 seed in the NCAA Tournament after going undefeated in the regular season a year ago.
No. 12 Yale (22-6, 13-1 Ivy) will play No. 5 Baylor (22-11, 10-8 Big 12) Thursday at 2:45 p.m. in the West Region in Providence in the Bulldogs’ first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1962. The game will be televised on CBS.
The site of the game is most favorable to Yale, which has only a 100-mile distance to Providence, where the Elis trounced Brown in January, 90-66.
If Yale were to upset Baylor, it would likely face No. 4 Duke in the second round four months after the Blue Devils defeated Yale at Cameron Indoor Stadium, 80-61, even after the Bulldogs grabbed an early 9-0 lead and impressed Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski enough for him to say that Justin Sears would start for his team.