Yale men’s basketball bulldozes Princeton, 84-57

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.

 

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.

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Danny Wolf to transfer from Yale men’s basketball to Michigan

Danny Wolf averaged 14.1 points and 9.7 rebounds as a sophomore forward in 2023-24 before entering the transfer portal. (Yale Athletics)

Danny Wolf is bound for Michigan.

The 7-foot sophomore entered the transfer portal on March 30 with a do-not-contact notation, six days after his breakout campaign ended in the NCAA Tournament Round of 32. Wolf visited the University of Michigan last weekend and had a visit to the University of North Carolina scheduled for Thursday. It was unknown as of Saturday afternoon if he actually made that visit.

Wolf was at Yale’s end-of-season banquet at BAR New Haven on Wednesday night and won the team MVP award. At the time, Wolf said that he was conflicted and had not made up his mind on a destination. The unanimous First Team All-Ivy selection also indicated that staying at Yale was still a possibility.

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Ivy hoops roundup – On the move

Our latest Ivy hoops roundup features the 2019-20 Academic All-Ivies and a whole lot of Ivy graduate transfers on the move:

Academic All-Ivies announced 

The Ivy League released its winter edition of the 2019-20 Academic All-Ivy list Thursday. The basketball honorees were:

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