YALE at RHODE ISLAND
Sun., Nov. 26, 2023 – 4 p.m. EST
Kingston, R.I.
ESPN+ Video | Live Stats | Game Notes
 
NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Coming off a successful trip to Canada for the Atlantic Slam, the Yale men's basketball team is back in action on Sunday, traveling to the Ocean State to face the University of Rhode Island. Tip off at the Ryan Center is slated for 4 p.m. and ESPN+ has the stream.
 
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
 
• Yale (4-2) is coming off back-to-back overtime games at the Atlantic Slam in New Brunswick, a 75-65 loss to Weber State and a 71-70 win over Gardner-Webb. The Bulldogs opened the three-game tournament with a dominant 68-50 victory over three-time defending Patriot League champion Colgate.
 
• Sophomore Danny Wolf was named the most outstanding player of the Atlantic Slam after averaging 18.7 points and 9.3 rebounds. In the win over Gardner-Webb he scored 21 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to post the first double-double of his career. Against Weber State he had 20 points and added nine rebounds.
 
• Bez Mbeng also had a double-double in the tournament, scoring 18 points and grabbing a career-high 12 rebounds in the win over Gardner-Webb. Mbeng averaged 10.3 points and 8.7 rebounds and had a team-high nine assists in the three games.
 
• August Mahoney was named to the all-tournament team at the Atlantic Slam. He was 9-of-12 (.750) from three-point range in the three games, including hitting a trey at the buzzer that forced overtime against Weber State, and averaged 11.0 points.
 
• All five Yale starters are averaging double figures in scoring, led by Mbeng at 13.5 ppg.
 
• The Bulldogs are coming off a highly successful 2022-23 season that saw them win 21 games, share the Ivy League title with Princeton and advance to the postseason National Invitation Tournament.
 
• Yale is the Ivy League favorite. The Bulldogs were selected first in the league's official preseason media poll, released in October. Yale, which had 124 points, received 14 of the 16 first-place votes. The other two first-place votes went to Princeton, which had 110 points and is projected to finish second. Cornell (80 points) is third followed by Brown (77), Penn (68), Harvard (66), Dartmouth (28) and Columbia (23).
 
• The Bulldogs are in the midst of the most successful era in the long history of the program. Over the last eight seasons, Yale has posted an 84-28 (.750) Ivy League record, won five Ivy championships, two Ivy League Tournament titles and earned three NCAA Tournament berths, including notching the first NCAA victory in school history – over Baylor in 2016. Yale also was set to appear in the NCAA Tournament in 2020 but it was canceled due to the pandemic.
 
HISTORY LESSONS
 
In their last trip to the Ryan Center, the Bulldogs knocked off Rhode Island 68-65 in the 2011-12 season. Austin Morgan scored 19 points to pace Yale. The two teams played a home-and-home series between 2000-01 and 2003-04. URI won three of the four games. Overall, the Bulldogs lead the series 7-5. The first meeting was in 1925, a 26-13 Yale victory.
 
SCOUTING RHODE ISLAND
 
The Rams (4-2) are coming off a 97-59 victory over Johnson & Wales on Wednesday at the Ryan Center. URI's two losses came at the Hall of Fame Tipoff Classic at the Mohegan Sun Arena, 72-61 to Northwestern and 78-57 to Washington State. Yale is the third Connecticut school the Rams have hosted. They beat Central Connecticut 81-70 on Nov. 6 and Fairfield 93-80 on Nov. 9. Zek Montgomery (15.8 ppg.) and Jaden House (15.5 ppg.) both average double figures in scoring. The Rams have a +8.2 rebounding margin in four games. Archie Miller, formerly the head coach at Dayton and Indiana, is in his second season leading the URI program.