Home of the Roundball Poets
The golden era of Yale men’s basketball has taken place over the last decade under the tutelage of longtime head coach James Jones.
Playing no small part in such excellence has been associate head coach Justin Simon, who was named the head coach at Division III Carnegie Mellon University Wednesday.
“I am really fortunate to have been surrounded by so many extraordinary people during my tenure at Yale,” Simon said.
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.”
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Faced with a 16-point deficit early in the second half against the conference’s best team, Cornell staged a furious rally to get within a single possession on several occasions. But Yale always found a way to hold on and came away with a hard-fought 90-84 win to claim the 2025 men’s Ivy League Tournament championship.
“You know, it’s a hard game between us and Cornell, what you might expect playing the team a third time,” Jones told the media after the award ceremony. “I thought our guys battled and played really tough.”
Celebrating on the floor of Brown’s Pizzitola Sports Center, the Bulldogs (22-7) hoisted their second straight Ivy League Tournament trophy and fourth overall. James Jones’ squad, the first to win the conference tournament as the top seed since Princeton did it in 2017, will wait a few hours to hear its name called for next week’s NCAA Tournament.
“A tough game, obviously, Yale is really hard to beat, as someone in the tournament is going to find out in a week, Cornell coach Jon Jaques told the media immediately after the game. “You know, I thought we gave him a really good punch.”
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – They say it’s hard to beat a team three times in one season, but it’s more likely when you have as talented and poised a team as Yale.
The top-seeded Bulldogs (21-7) relied on clutch plays from their three First-Team All-Ivy stars, senior guard Bez Mbeng, senior guard John Poulakidas and junior forward Nick Townsend to overcome a furious second-half Princeton rally to take Saturday’s opening Ivy League Tournament semifinal at the Pizzitola Sports Center, 59-57.
“I thought our kids were gutty and played hard, and we had controlled the game for 30-some-odd minutes until the end, when Princeton took over,” coach James Jones said after the hard-fought contest. “What was great about my guys, there was no hesitation, there was no nervousness. They stayed with the game plan and were able to make some great pays and pull it out.”
The Tigers (19-11), blown out in both regular-season losses to the Bulldogs, battled back from a sluggish start to have a chance to win the game at the buzzer, but a right-elbow three from the Orange and Black’s First-Team All-Ivy guard, junior Xaivian Lee, clanked off the back of the net and fell to the court.
Jones’ squad, which looks to be the first No. 1 seed to win Ivy Madness since Princeton in 2017, lives another day to take on No. 2 Cornell, which defeated No. 3 Dartmouth, 87-71, in the day’s second game.
PROVIDENCE, R.I.- Day two at Ivy Madness started in the mid-morning with the four participants on the men’s side of the ledger.
In a very nice gesture, the Ivy League memorialized a seat for Washington Post sportswriter John Feinstein, who unexpectedly passed away at 68 Thursday. Despite attending Duke, John was a big fan of Ivy League sports, attending several Ivy League tournaments and writing about the conference’s gridiron in this past November’s “The Ancient Eight: College Football’s Ivy League and the Game They Play Today.”
Yale arrives as the regular season champion and heavy favorite to the be the first No. 1 seed to win the conference tournament since Princeton did it in 2017.
While this is the fifth time at Ivy Madness for No. 2 Cornell, it is the first time the Big Red enter as a semifinal favorite and are being led by former player and longtime assistant Jon Jaques.
Speaking of first timers, Dave McLaughlin and Dartmouth are making their inaugural appearance at the Ivy League’s Big Dance. The Big Green are looking to emulate Brown, which upset higher-seeded Princeton last year in its debut tournament last year.
Dartmouth was picked eighth in the preseason media poll and ended up third. On the other hand, the Tigers were picked to repeat as regular-season champions but ended up fourth. They clinched their seventh top-four finish in the tournament era on the final day of the season.
As the top seed, Yale opted to hang out for an extra hour and gave the opening slot to Princeton. After the Bulldogs’ press conference, Cornell and Dartmouth followed in the traditional No. 2 and No. 3-seed slots.
Below are highlights from the four media sessions:
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.”
HANOVER, N.H. – Troubles with the Wi-Fi are not new at Leede Arena. It is a notoriously dreadful place to get a signal, even when the crowd can be counted in dozens.
But the line to the restroom that wrapped far outside the door at halftime? That was definitely something that hasn’t been seen in a long, long time.
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.”
NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Embarrassing and humiliating were words thrown around by Cornell last week after a brutal thrashing at the hands of Dartmouth, a loss so bad it dropped the Big Red 35 slots in KenPom. More importantly, the defeat put the Big Red in Ivy League Tournament peril because it was their third straight loss and a trip to unbeaten Yale happened to be next.
Another word was prevalent at practice in Ithaca: pride. The Big Red showed plenty of it Friday night at Lee Amphitheater, pushing the Bulldogs around and leading by double digits for most of the first half.
But Yale has plenty of pride as well, of course, and in the end gutted out a 92-88 victory that clinched it a share of its sixth Ivy League title in 10 years in a tremendous showcase of Ivy League basketball.