No. 14 Yale vs. No. 3 Purdue
NCAA Tournament First Round
Friday, Mar. 18 – 2 p.m. EDT
Milwaukee, Wis.
TV: TBS
NCAA Video | Live Stats | Tickets | Game Notes
 
NEW HAVEN, Conn. – NCAA Tournament bids are becoming old hat for the Yale men's basketball team. The Bulldogs are the Ivy League's automatic qualifier for the third straight season and will face ninth-ranked Purdue in an East Region first round game on Friday at 2 p.m. in Milwaukee at the Fiserv Forum. The game will be televised nationally on TBS.
 
The winner of Friday's game advances to the round of 32, where it will face the winner of No. 6 seed Texas and No. 11 seed Virginia Tech.
 
Yale, which won the Ivy League Tournament on Sunday, defeating Princeton 66-64 in the championship game, drew a No. 14 seed and earned its fourth NCAA bid in its last six seasons. Overall, it is the seventh NCAA bid in school history.
 
The Bulldogs are in the midst of the most successful era in the history of the program, which dates back to 1895-96. Over the last seven seasons, the Bulldogs have posted a 74-24 (.755) Ivy record. During that stretch, they have won four league championships, two Ivy League Tournament titles and earned four NCAA Tournament berths, including notching the first NCAA victory in school history – over Baylor in 2016.
 
Under the direction of James Jones, The Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of the Bulldogs and architect of that success, Yale has finished fourth or better in the Ivy League in a remarkable 21 straight seasons. The Bulldogs have finished third or better in each of the last eight seasons, have posted at least 10 wins in five of the last seven seasons and have had a winning Ivy mark in 10 straight seasons. A victory over Purdue would give Yale its third straight season with at least 20 overall wins.
 
Throughout his tenure as head coach, Jones has held true to three core principles – defend, rebound and share the basketball.
 
Defense has certainly been one of the keys to this year's success. Yale leads the Ivy League in field goal percentage defense (.423) and three-point field goal percentage defense (.304). That was on full display in the Ivy League Tournament championship game when the Bulldogs limited Princeton, the Ivy's top shooting team, to 41 percent from the field and held the Tigers 16 points below their season average.
 
YOUNG AND OLD
 
This year's team combines a mix of veterans and youngsters. Two starters – Azar Swain, a unanimous first team All-Ivy selection, and Jalen Gabbidon, a second team All-Ivy pick – are seniors, but there are also two rookies in the starting five – Bez Mbeng and Matt Knowling.
 
Swain is the team's leading scorer at 19.2 ppg., which is second in the Ivy League. He was named the most valuable player of the Ivy League Tournament after scoring 25 points in the semifinal victory over Penn and 23 in title clinching victory over Princeton.
 
HISTORY LESSONS
 
Yale and Purdue have played only once, a 76-66 Boilermaker victory on Dec. 27, 1962. That Yale team went on to earn a share of the Ivy League championship but lost to Princeton in a one-game playoff to determine the Ivy League's automatic qualifier to the NCAA Tournament. Yale and Purdue were scheduled to play in 2020-21, but Yale's season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Yale's last victory over a Big Ten team came against Penn State, 84-68 in the 2002-03 season. The Bulldogs' last game against a Big Ten foe was also against the Nittany Lions, a 58-56 loss in a game Yale led most of the way early in the 2019-20 season. The Bulldogs also had a close loss, 69-65, to Illinois in the 2015-16. Yale's last trip to the state of Wisconsin came in 2017 when the Bulldogs played at the University of Wisconsin.
 
NCAA TOURNAMENT HISTORY

The Bulldogs' most recent bid to the NCAA Tournament came in 2020, but the tournament was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Yale's last tourney game came in 2019, a hard-fought 79-74 loss to third-seeded LSU. The only current Bulldog to appear in that game was Azar Swain, who scored 12 points in 27 minutes. In 2016, Cinderella struck as Yale, seeded 12th, knocked off fifth-seeded Baylor 79-75 in front of a predominantly pro Yale crowd at the Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence. It was the first NCAA Tournament victory in school history. The Bulldogs were making their first appearance in the tournament since 1962 when they dropped a 92-82 heartbreaker to Wake Forest at the Palestra. That Demon Deacons squad featured future long-time college basketball analyst Billy Packer and went on to advance to the Final Four. In 1957, Yale lost 90-74 at Madison Square Garden to a North Carolina team that went on to win the national championship. The Bulldogs were led that year by John Lee, a two-time first team All-Ivy selection who appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated that year. In the 1949 NCAA Tournament, Yale played two games, losing to Illinois 71-67 and then falling to Villanova 78-67. The legendary Tony Lavelli, a two-time consensus All-American who also was known for playing for the accordion, was the star of the Bulldogs.
 
SCOUTING PURDUE
 
The Boilermakers finished third in the Big Ten Conference with a 14-6 mark and sit at 27-7 overall after falling to Iowa in the Big Ten Tournament title game on Sunday. Purdue is led by sophomore All-American Jaden Ivey, who averages 17.4 points, 4.9 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game. Zach Edey averages 14.6 points and 7.8 rebounds per game and Trevion Williams contributes 11.7 points, 7.4 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game. The Boilermakers are second in the nation in rebounding margin (+9.5), sixth in field goal percentage (.492) and 13^th in scoring offense (79.8 ppg.). Purdue is making its seventh straight NCAA Tournament appearance and has been a top-four seed in each of the last five tournaments.
 
JONES COACHED TWO BOILERMAKERS
 
Yale head coach James Jones is familiar with two Boilermakers - Caleb Furst and Jaden Ivey. The two played for the USA Basketball Men's U19 Team that Jones served as an assistant coach for last summer. The trio helped Team USA capture the gold medal at the FIBA U19 World Cup in Riga, Latvia. In addition, Purdue's Zach Edey played for the Canadian team in that same tournament.
 
Jones and Yale also caught a glimpse of the Boilermakers earlier this season when Purdue beat North Carolina State 82-78 in the Basketball Hall of Fame Invitational at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn in December. The Bulldogs met Iona in the game that followed.