Yale

Not just nitpicking over NET-picking

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NCAA Senior Vice President of Basketball Dan Gavitt (MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference)

Editor’s note: Dan Gavitt is NCAA senior vice president of basketball.

Hey Dan, I’m back. It’s been a few weeks since my last note to you on the repugnant new NIT policy eliminating the automatic bid for mid-major conference champions who do not win their conference tournaments.

I have another request. It’s about that NET thing. Time to scrap it, or at least modify it. It only favors the big boys. You know that. We know that. Everyone knows that.

The biggest problem is the TVI (team value index), which is meant to reward teams for beating quality opponents. How does it work with teams who can’t get quadrant-one and even quadrant-two-type games out of conference, even on the road?

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Yale men’s basketball’s rotation unsettled after OT-game-splitting Canada trip

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MONCTON, New Brunswick – This ain’t James Jones’ first rodeo.

It’s also not the first time around for the majority of the players in his regular 2023-24 rotation, which is why Yale was picked nearly unanimously to win the Ivy League this season, despite Princeton going to the Sweet 16 last March.

The Bulldogs reached as high as No. 55 in KenPom after destroying Colgate Friday night at Avenir Arena north of the border. But Yale followed it up with a couple of lackluster performances, having a late comeback come up short in an overtime loss to Weber State Saturday, and then blowing an 18-point lead against Gardner-Webb Sunday, although they pulled out the game out 71-70 in overtime.

Although still 4-2 (with one of those losses at Gonzaga), Yale has dropped to No. 76 in KenPom, five lower than where they started the campaign, and nine spots behind Princeton, which has started impressively.

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Yale men’s basketball bows to Gonzaga in battle of the Bulldogs, 86-71

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Yale junior guard Bez Mbeng played a team-high 34 minutes in his team’s loss at Gonzaga Friday, notching 10 points on 4-for-10 shooting, three assists and three steals. (Photo by Erica Denhoff)

Statistics don’t lie, and two of them stand out in Gonzaga’s 86-71 home win over Yale Friday night.

The Zags outrebounded Yale 42-28, and they outscored them 44-20 in the paint.
Yale punched the other Bulldogs in the mouth at the start, building a 16-6 lead. But the Zags clawed back to gain a 47-42 halftime advantage before a raucous McCarthey Athletic Center crowd of 6,000.

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Q&A with Yale men’s senior forward Matt Knowling

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 Yale men’s senior forward Matt Knowling led the Ivy League in field-goal percentage last season. (Photo by Erica Denhoff)

Matt Knowling is a Yale senior from Ellington, Conn. who was a unanimous All-Ivy first-team selection last season. Ivy Hoops Online sat down with him to discuss the upcoming season and other issues:                   

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Inside Ivy Hoops – Oct. 24, 2023

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Welcome to the 2023-24 Ivy League basketball season preview edition of Inside Ivy Hoops. Ivy Hoops Online editor Mike Tony is joined by IHO writer Rob Browne for a wide-ranging discussion that takes stock of the Ivy men’s and women’s basketball preseason media polls and what to expect from all 16 teams, while also reflecting on off-the-court developments, including NIL (name, image and likeness), labor unionization momentum and more:

Q&A with Yale women’s coach Dalila Eshe

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Ivy Hoops Online caught up with Yale women’s coach Dalila Eshe, who is entering her second season at the helm in New Haven. The Bulldogs went 13-14 overall and 7-7 in Ivy League play in 2022-23, a fifth-place finish that wasn’t enough to qualify for the conference tournament. Yale was picked to again finish fifth in the conference in the Ivy League Women’s Basketball Preseason Media Poll released Oct. 12.   

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Yale men’s basketball enters Jones’ 25th year at the helm loaded

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Junior guard Bez Mbeng, who coach James Jones has told Ivy Hoops Online is the best on-ball defender he’s ever coached, is among the many talented veterans on Yale men’s basketball’s 2023-24 roster. (Photo by Erica Denhoff)

Seems like you can never have too much money or happiness in life.

The same goes for depth in team sports.

We’ll find out about this last adage in March, as Yale men’s basketball may actually have too much depth. Sound impossible? Not really.

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Q&A with Yale men’s coach James Jones post-Greece trip

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Yale men’s basketball coach James Jones led his squad a 3-0 showing in Greece this month. (Photo by Erica Denhoff)

Yale men’s basketball went 3-0 on its summer three-game, 10-day trip to Greece it wrapped Monday, led by a surprise leading scorer, sophomore forward Nick Townsend. The Bulldogs opened play by besting the Thessaloniki All-Stars, 91-75, before 89-79 and 100-94 wins over the University of Calgary, wrapping . We caught up with coach James Jones, who is entering his 25th year at Yale’s helm, upon his return:

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