YALE at QUINNIPIAC
Mon., Dec. 11 – 7 p.m.
Hamden, Conn.
ESPN+ Video | Live Stats | Game Notes
 
NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale men's basketball team is set for its shortest trip of the season. The Bulldogs travel just 10 miles up Whitney Avenue to face Quinnipiac on Monday night at M&T Bank Arena. Tip off is slated for 7 p.m. and ESPN+ has the broadcast.
 
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
 
• Despite the close proximately, Yale and Quinnipiac are playing for the first time since the opening game of the 2014-15 season.
 
• The Bobcats are the second in-state opponent for the Bulldogs. Yale fell to Fairfield 75-71 last Wednesday at the John J. Lee Amphitheater, a loss that snapped the Bulldogs' 14-game winning streak against Connecticut schools.
 
• Yale is playing its third game in six days. Following Wednesday's game with the Stags, the Bulldogs cruised to a 95-36 win over Colby-Sawyer on Friday. Thirteen different players scored, including three in double figures.
 
• Three of Yale's five losses have come by four points or less and a fourth was in overtime, 75-65, to Weber State at the Atlantic Slam in Canada.
 
• Danny Wolf, who is second on the team in scoring (12.6 ppg.), has scored in double figures in eight straight games. He also has a pair of double-doubles in the stretch, including a 15-point, 16-rebound effort against Vermont. Wolf is second in the Ivy League in rebounding (8.7 rpg.).
 
• Matt Knowling, a unanimous first team All-Ivy selection last year, is averaging 13.0 points and shooting 76.2 percent (16-of-21) from the field since returning to the lineup after missing two games with an injury.
 
• Bez Mbeng, last year's Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year, shares the league lead with 20 steals. Mbeng has contributed a number of ways this season. He is in the top 15 in the league in scoring (11th, 14.3 ppg.), rebounding (15th, 4.8 rpg.), field goal percentage (8th, .463), assists (7th, 3.2 per game), assist/turnover ratio (5th, 1.7) and minutes played (12th, 30.9 per game).
 
• 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
 
The last meeting between the Bulldogs and Bobcats was a double-overtime thriller, an 88-85 Quinnipiac victory in the Connecticut 6 Classic at M&T Bank Arena in 2014. The teams had met in the post season in the previous season, a 69-68 Yale victory at Lee Amphitheater in the College Insider Tournament. Justin Sears' last-second three-pointer was the winning basket. The first meeting between the teams was in 1999-20, James Jones' first season as Yale's head coach, in the Phoenix Classic at the Hartford Civic Center, an 87-69 Bobcat victory. Quinnipiac leads the all-time series 5-1.
 
SCOUTING QUINNIPIAC
 
The Bobcats (7-2) are coming off a 71-68 home win over Navy. Matt Balanc, a preseason first team All-MAAC selection, led QU with 18 points and six rebounds. He was one of four Bobcats to score in double figures. Balanc (17.1 ppg.) leads the team in scoring. Amarri Tice (10.9 ppg.) and Paul Otieno (10.7 ppg.) also average double figures. Quinnipiac has played five of its seven games at home and is unbeaten at M&T Bank Arena. Tom Pecora is in his first season as the head coach of the Bobcats. He previously served as the head coach at Hofstra for nine years (2001-2010) and at Fordham for five seasons (2010-15). Pecora and Joe Jones, James Jones' brother who is now the head coach at Boston University, were together for three seasons as assistant coaches at Hofstra under Jay Wright.