Yale at North Carolina
Monday, Dec. 30, 7 p.m.
Chapel Hill, N.C.
TV: ACC Network
WatchESPN Video ($) | Live Stats
Yale Game Notes
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Yale wraps up the 2019 calendar year with another trip south. The Bulldogs face the University of North Carolina on Monday night. Tip off at the Dean Smith Center is slated for 7 p.m. The ACC Network has the television broadcast, while the game can also be viewed on WatchESPN.
2019 has been a memorable year for Yale. In March, the Bulldogs earned their third Ivy League regular season championship in the last five years and then captured the Ivy Tournament, knocking off Harvard in the championship game in front of their home fans in the John J. Lee Amphitheater. A near upset of LSU in the NCAA Tournament followed. In June,
Miye Oni became the first Bulldog to be selected in the NBA Draft since Chris Dudley in 1987. Oni has appeared in three games for the Utah Jazz this season. The success has carried over to a new season as the Bulldogs have won seven straight games and sit at 10-3 overall. In all, Yale has posted a 25-8 record in 2019.
One of the more memorable wins came last Sunday as the Bulldogs knocked off Clemson 54-45 at Littlejohn Coliseum. Knocking off power conference opponents, though, has become almost commonplace for Yale. Over the last 5+ seasons, the Bulldogs have wins over Clemson, Miami, Baylor, Washington and California. During that span, Yale won 111 games, the most of any Ivy League school.
Defense spearheaded the win over Clemson and has been a key component of this year's success. The Bulldogs limited the Tigers to 31.9 percent shooting from the field, including just 20 percent from three-point range. The 45 points were a season-low for Clemson. Yale leads the Ivy League in scoring defense (62.1 ppg.) and field goal percentage defense (.366).
Nationally, the Bulldogs are second in defensive rebounds per game (30.77), 11
th in field goal percentage defense and 19
th in three-point field goal percentage defense (.270).
Sunday's victory at Clemson also helped earn Yale some national recognition. The Bulldogs received a vote in the latest Associated Press top-25 national poll.
The Bulldogs' three losses have come to San Francisco, Oklahoma State and Penn State. The combined record of those three teams is 29-8. The Nittany Lions are No. 20 in the AP poll. Yale dropped a 58-56 decision to PSU back on Nov. 23, despite having the lead for nearly 37 minutes in the game.
In the NCAA Net rankings, the Bulldogs are No. 53 through games of Dec. 27, and are the highest ranked New England school.
Yale has five true road victories, the most of any school in the nation.
In addition, the Bulldogs are ranked No. 6 in this week's CollegeInsider Mid-Major Top-25 poll.
Paul Atkinson, who leads the Bulldogs in scoring (17.2 ppg.), was named the Ivy League Player of the Week for the third time this season after scoring 20 points in the win over Clemson.
Jordan Bruner, who has posted two straight double-doubles, was selected to the Honor Roll.
HISTORY LESSONS
The Bulldogs are playing in the Dean Smith Center for the first time. The last meeting between the teams came in 1980, an 85-74 Tar Heel victory. North Carolina leads the all-time series 6-1. Yale won the first game, 32-30 in 1921. The next meeting came in the 1957 NCAA Tournament, a 90-74 Tar Heel victory. The teams met in New Haven in 1974, and despite limiting Mitch Kupchak to three points, the Bulldogs fell 70-53.
SCOUTING NORTH CAROLINA
North Carolina is 7-5 overall, 6-4 in non-conference action. The Yale game is the Tar Heels' final regular-season, non-conference game on the schedule this season. Carolina is playing for the first time in nine days, since defeating UCLA, 74-64, in Las Vegas in the CBS Sports Classic on Dec. 21. Roy Williams is fifth all-time in wins by a Division I coach with 878. Dean Smith, who led UNC from 1961-97, is fourth with 879. Williams spent 10 years as an assistant coach on Smith' staff at UNC from 1978-88. The win over UCLA ended a four-game losing streak, UNC's longest since 2009-10. Three of the four losses were against teams ranked in the top six in the country – No. 6 Ohio State, No. 5 Virginia and No. 2 Gonzaga. This is the final game in the calendar year 2019. The Tar Heels are 27-9 in 2019.
