Yale at UMass
Wednesday, Dec. 11, 7 p.m.
Amherst, Mass.
TV: NESN
ESPN+ Video | Live Stats
Yale Game Notes
 
NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The third of five straight road games has the Yale men's basketball team traveling to Amherst, Mass., to face UMass on Wednesday. Tipoff at the Mullins Center is slated for 7 p.m. The game will be televised on NESN and streamed on ESPN+. The Bulldogs will then take a 10-day break for exams before playing at Clemson on Dec. 22.
 
It's been a very strong start to the season for Yale, which lost four starters and its top three scorers from last year's Ivy League championship team. James Jones, The Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of the Bulldogs, has built a program where there is talent waiting in the wings, and the Bulldogs haven't missed a beat. They are 8-3 overall, have won five straight games, are ranked No. 11 in this week's CollegeInsider Mid-Major poll and sit at No. 86 in the latest KenPom rankings. Their three losses have all come on the road to San Francisco (in overtime), Oklahoma State and Penn State (58-56 in a game Yale led for nearly 38 minutes) by a combined 14 points. Those three teams currently have a combined record of 22-6.
 
The Bulldogs have used the same starting lineup in all 11 games thus far, and all five have made significant contributions. Paul Atkinson, who has earned Ivy League Player of the Week honors in each of the last two weeks, leads the Ivy League in field goal percentage (.652), is sixth in scoring (17.1 ppg.) and fifth in rebounding (7.3 rpg.). Jordan Bruner has a league-best 27 blocks and is third in rebounding (8.7 rpg.). Point guard Eric Monroe, coming off a game where he dished out a career-high nine assists, leads the league in assist/turnover ratio (2.8) by a wide margin. Azar Swain, a Brockton, Mass., native, is second on the team in scoring (14.9 ppg.) and third in three-point field goals made (2.7 per game). Jalen Gabbidon is the team's defensive stopper and also leads the league in three-point field goal percentage (.571, 12 of 21).
 
There have been significant contributions from the bench as well. Junior Jameel Alausa, sophomores Mathue Cotton and Eze Dike, first year August Mahoney and senior Austin Williams have all been regulars in the rotation.
 
Yale has been among the nation's top defensive teams throughout the season. The Bulldogs are eighth in field goal percentage defense (.358), fifth in defensive rebounds per game (31.36) and eighth in three-point field goal percentage defense (.258).
 
Offensively, Yale is ninth in total assists (173) and leads the Ivy League in field goal percentage (.461) and three-point field goal percentage (.371).

HISTORY LESSONS
 
Yale and UMass are playing for the first time since 2007, an 89-80 Minutemen victory. UMass leads the all-time series 4-3 and has won four straight. Yale's last victory over the Minutemen came at the 1986 Hurricane Classic in Miami, 62-59. Chris Dudley scored 20 points and grabbed 20 rebounds to lead the Bulldogs. The first meeting came in 1993 when UMass was named Massachusetts State College.
 
SCOUTING UMASS
 
The Minutemen (5-5) opened the season with five straight victories but has lost its last five, including at Harvard on Saturday. UMass has nine newcomers to its roster this season and has had three first years in its starting lineup. T.J. Weeks (14.7 ppg.) leads the team in scoring and is among the nation's leaders in three-point field goal percentage (.485). Tre Mitchell (12.3 ppg.) and Carl Pierre (11.8 ppg.) also average double figures in scoring. Matt McCall is in his third season as the head coach of the Minutemen.