Bruce Pearl

Q&A with Yale men’s basketball coach James Jones

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James Jones is about to coach his fifth NCAA Tournament game. (James Jones’s Twitter page)

Yale men’s basketball coach James Jones is preparing to coach his fifth NCAA Tournament game after his team won the Ivy League Tournament in dramatic fashion Monday.

Yale’s Big Dance foe this time around is Auburn, with Yale allotted a No. 13 seed in the East Region and playing in Spokane, Wash.

Jones sat down with Ivy Hoops Online Tuesday in advance of its last practice in New Haven before departing on an NCAA charter flight. The Bulldogs, like all NCAA Tournament teams, were allotted 350 tickets and expect to have many fans present from Los Angeles and the Pacific Northwest Yale Club. Yale played in Spokane in November at Gonzaga, losing 86-71.

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Reporter’s Notebook: Ivy Madness day four

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The final remnants of the 2024 Ivy Tournament being packed away for another year (Photo: Rob Browne)

The final day of the 2024 Ivy League Tournament was an incredibly chaotic one, which started hours before the noon tipoff of the thrilling men’s championship and ended with a near-midnight zoom celebratory conference call with Columbia women’s basketball coach Megan Griffith.

For the second day in a row, the tournament provided its fair share of emotional highs and lows. There may still be people who haven’t taken to the thought of Ivy Madness, after eight years and six events, but it is an amazing weekend to celebrate the talented players and coaches and showcase this shouldn’t-be-under-the-radar conference to the nation.

I’m still in a bit of a stupor from the last few days, but I’ll try my best to recount scenes from a lengthy final day:

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Yale men can’t dig out of early hole at No. 21 Auburn

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Yale fell behind No. 21 Auburn 11-0 on the road Saturday.

The game wasn’t even that close at the time, with the Tigers blocking six Yale shots during the run.

Bruce Pearl’s squad secured the win with relative ease, 86-64.

Yale coach James Jones adjusted his defense after the early Auburn surge. The Bulldogs (5-5) went on their own run and started to dictate the tempo of the game.

But the War Eagle relentless pressure and superior athleticism was too much for the smaller Elis, and Auburn (7-1) took a 47-30 lead into the half. It was the most first-half points notched by the Tigers this season.

The second half brought much of the same.

Sophomore guard K.D. Johnson led the Tigers with 19 points and freshman forward Jabari Smith posted 17 points and eight rebounds.

Junior guard Matt Cotton pitched in 14 points for Yale, while and junior forward EJ Jarvis had arguably his best game of the season, contributing nine points and eight boards in just 19 minutes in a reserve role.

The Elis are next in action Tuesday at 7 p.m. at John J. Lee Amphitheater against Albany, Jones’ alma mater.