What Went Right: Yale
Beyond the simple recruiting win of getting Rory Gilmore
Far be it from me to be hyper-complimentary of an Ivy, but we should probably get a little better at giving the Yale Bulldogs their fair shake. From 2014-15 onward, no Ivy has won more games (164; next-highest Princeton at 150) or made more NCAA Tournaments (3 of a possible 7). In six of the last nine seasons, they’ve been the Ivy’s best team, per KenPom, even if it didn’t necessarily result in a regular season title or conference championship victory.
And yet, of the main Ivies, I would wager they may not even be the third most-respected or appreciated program in the league. It’s not my duty to tell you to like an Ivy League school, but both Penn and Princeton have more history, and one could argue that Harvard’s status is superior simply because they’ve had greater March success (2 NCAAT wins vs. 1). But there they are, a consistent threat at the top of the league every single year, simply doing their thing on loop. Yale hasn’t achieved an AP Poll ranking since 1949 and has three Tournament bids in the last 60 years, but at the same time, 20+ wins six times in eight seasons speaks for itself.
Still, even Ivy lifers didn’t peg a ton from Yale this past season. They came in third in the preseason media poll, while KenPom’s preseason projections had them 158th, which would’ve been their lowest finish since 2017-18. While it’s a team that ended up returning 64% of minutes and 54% of scoring from a 14 seed, it was also a Yale roster that ranked 337th in college basketball experience this past season. Thanks to the Ivies opting out of the COVID season, juniors on an Ivy team this year were entering just their second year of basketball for the school.
Plus, Yale lost the team’s two best players - Azar Swain and Jalen Gabbidon - from that 14 seed team. Having them behind Penn and Princeton was at least reasonable in some aspect. And then the season started.
Yale is different from other teams I’ve done breakdowns on because, unlike Southern Miss or Northwestern State, the Bulldogs didn’t really pick up any signature wins. Their regular schedule provided just two Quadrant 1 opportunities, a pair of competitive road losses to Colorado and Kentucky. They went 2-4 against Quadrant 2 opponents. Their best non-conference win was one of Eastern Washington (neutral), Hawaii (away), or Vermont (home). They copped a pair of Quadrant 4 losses to go with it.
Still, this was one of the best under-the-radar stories of the season to follow. A coach entering his 24th year at his school, one year after losing his two best players and two after a full season off from basketball, produces a top-70 team that would’ve been a 12 seed if they’d won their conference title game. How’d they do it? Bulldog mentality. Or something.