Yale gets to host a game in the Not Invited Tournament, and they play UNCW out of the CAA. Will be fun to bring a postseason game to JLA.
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i was at the last one against Tenn Tech(?) at the old New Haven coliseum. place was packed!
but it didnt go very well.
As James mentioned in his postgame this was also after a loss to Penn (in a 3 team playoff with Princeton) where underdog yale almost pulled it off against Ugonna and archibong.
anyway, we got buried by TT but huge crowd when we got those back then bf phones and streaming.
Bit of a bummer that this comes over Spring Break. I can’t imagine there’ll be too many fans there, even though it’s a postseason game. Would love to be wrong!
Other interesting detail: the winner of this game plays the winner of #2 Dayton @ Bradley - Dayton has to travel because their arena hosts the First Four. If Bradley wins, Yale would host the next game. But three games in four days is a tough order, and UNCW’s last game was over a week ago. Hopefully, tired legs won’t be a huge factor.
Hard for me to pick myself off the canvas after the Ivy tournament heartbreak and get into this one. NIT is infinitely more prestigious than that CIT run from a decade ago though where half the team would’ve preferred to be on spring break. Hopefully we can end the season a high note.
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I was at that 2002 game in the old Coliseum, kind of a let down, as I recall. Yale in 2023 and Princeton in 2024 both looked let down to be playing in the NIT when they went into Ivy Madness as the first seeds. It would be nice if Yale could win this first game and make a run. Anyone know much about UNC Wilmington? I see the NCAA Net rankings has them #96 to Yale’s #68 but we know not to put too much weight on that!
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They are tall (by ivy standards) but otherwise no
Remind me CoC on paper which makes sense. Split with them in CAA play
It is a solid conf. They won it and got upset
That game in 2002 sucked though hard to believe over 9,000 ppl were there.
Those were the days when the townies came out and it was a big deal bc we had been in the wilderness for so long and had almost upset Penn after beating Princeton in the 3 team playoff.
Beat Rutgers in round 1 if I remember so was round 2.
I am sure it’s a mess for these guys. Imagine driving back from Ithaca after that game? So tough.
But nit game at home so hopefully a player or fan or three gets up for it?
Their statistical profile is interesting. Their starting center is listed at 7’ 250, and their defensive stats scream “rim protection.” Teams shoot just 29% from three against them, but they also shoot under 50% from two, and the twos tend to be middies more than layups. From that, I assume their perimeter defenders hug up on the guards and try and funnel them to the big guy waiting under the rim. They rebound well on both sides (of course), but they’re weirdly low-efficiency from two and are terrible from the line. They also don’t block many shots, which is interesting. Teams tend not to score much off ball movement against them (they surrender a very low A/FGM ratio), but it’s worth noting that they got swept by Brian Earl’s William and Mary team, who got a ton of assists. Should be an interesting matchup.
77-58 is an almost upset? NY Times article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/10/sports/college-basketball-penn-crushes-yale-and-its-ncaa-tourney-hopes.html?unlocked_article_code=1.T1A.AYHp.zK4llWAmy1VT&smid=url-share
well, since we are parsing words context matters a bit…yale was perhaps the worst team in the country in 1999
That year we tied Penn and Princeton went to a 3 team playoff beat Princeton and played penn at Lafayette? for the title
So yes almost. And made them sweat at least tho no “almost upset” was the more situation than the game per se
I was there and do remember that part​. We were severely out talented w ugonna and ime tho in the days you needed a 1400 to play center at Yale (but not at Penn)
And it bit when it mattered
Yea it is funny
I haven’t seen uncw play since the now former NC state coach was there-keats? And they made a run in the ncaas
Cldnt have had more different personnel or play style then than they have now
Brett blizzard was also a star there sometime back in the day. He transferred to fsu
Maybe the Penn troll will look it up while he is in the library and double check my notes
I actually followed UNCW at one point when Jerry Wainwright was their coach. This was because he got my town’s high school at one point to the state Sweet 16, so we followed his exploits on the college trail.
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Sorry Koko not ime archibong.
Ime played for us and is now Iike #5 at meta corporate​
Hell of a coach. Forgot about him! Wonder if that was the Brett blizzard era also
Uncw should be good. Much Like charleston is…Wilmington is a good town to recruit too
Well, only the best basketball player in history came from there.
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I’m going up to New Haven for the game tomorrow with two friends. Plenty of tickets available. Maybe some sports teams will be on campus during spring break and can provide some energy. Hope the team can rally for it. UNCW has a similar disappointment but longer to get over it.
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Vegas has us as 5.5 points favorites tonight. Really the whole regional we’re in is beatable but we’ll likely be dogs after tonight. Most of it should come down to motivation.
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Yeah, I was there too. Really disliked James Jones at the time for having his team play Rollerball once down big and breaking Schiffner’s nose with what I thought was a cheap shot. But as you see from my posts, I’ve mellowed quite a bit on Jones and can respect his trying to change the culture and mindset of the team at that time. By the way, Yale wasn’t the only bad team the prior year—Penn was 12-17.
Really sad way to end a fantastic career for Nick Townsend. Celiscar may have played himself into a monstrous payday with these last 3 games.
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Not great foul shooting.
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