The Ivy League always produces a fun upset pick, but there are lots of reasons to believe Yale basketball can make a long run in the 2025 NCAA Tournament.
General Information:
Team: Yale
Location: New Haven, CT
Record: 22-7 (13-1)
Head Coach: James Jones (26th season, all at Yale)
What to know about Yale basketball:
Yale is one of those teams that won’t sneak up on you – they took down Auburn in the 2024 NCAA Tournament and have a handful of returning players from that team. So you know what you’re getting against the Bulldogs.
But it might not matter. This is a Yale team that only lost one game in Ivy League play, swept Princeton (3-0), took down fellow 13-seed Akron, and only lost at Purdue by 8 points.
This team starts with John Poulakidas. The 6-foot-5 guard puts up 19.2 points per game and plays like a small forward. He’s extremely efficient from behind the arc and isn’t afraid to let it fly, taking nearly eight threes per game.
But it doesn’t end there. Forward Nick Townsend averages 15.4 points and 7.2 rebounds along with 3.6 assists, serving as the perfect dynamic player who can score, rebound, and keep the offense flowing. Bez Mbeng is the third option, and lives up to it strong, averaging 13.4 points, 5.6 assists, and 5.5 rebounds. After that trio, Yale basketball has another trio of secondary options, before it falls off to a few more depth pieces who play their roles but aren’t expected to come in and take over.
As a team, Yale has the eighth best three-point percentage in the country, 38.8%. They put up over 80 points per game and defend well for having a potent offense, keeping their opponents below 70 points on average. Rebounding is another strong suit. The Bulldogs are 26th in the country with 38.7 boards per game.
No matter who you are, you won’t scare this Yale team. They are crisp on offense, physical and alert on defense, and won’t back down from any team, even top-level power conference programs.
NCAA Tournament prediction for Yale basketball: Sweet 16 exit
Seed: 13
I’m big on Yale basketball if you couldn’t tell already. They will face off with Texas A&M in round one, an Aggies team that is horrendous at shooting the three and could fall victim to Yale’s defense. Even though the Aggies are the top rebounding team in the country, Yale is right up there too, so I wouldn’t expect that to be a reason why the Aggies can pull away – in fact it can help Yale as a 13-seed where most other similar teams might collapse.
If Yale gets past A&M, they’ll face the winner of Michigan and UCSD. Again, at the mid-major level, Yale’s been here before and beat a similar team in Akron by double-digits in the non-conference. If they face Michigan and former star Danny Wolf, the Wolverines are prone to turning the ball over, which can play right into what Yale wants to do defensively.
I think Yale could beat any of the four seeds, but they arguably got the perfect draw with Texas A&M and I like them to continue that success into the second weekend. Past that? A potential date with Auburn round two could get tricky this time around, but there’s no reason to believe why Yale would be scared of them or anybody else.