Yale faces off against Duke University on Saturday.
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Duke beat Yale 80-61 in Cameron Indoor Stadium on November 25th. The prestige is there. Fifth-seeded Baylor (22-12) was dealt a shocking postseason upset for the second year in a row, following last season’s loss as a No. 3 seed to No. 14 Georgia State. “It’s great right now. I don’t think it’s really hit us how big this is yet, but we’re going to take it in and get back to work tomorrow”.
Yale doesn’t suffer from a paucity of overachiever types, but don’t paint this team as overachieving.
The Bulldogs were able to out-rebound a much bigger Baylor team. What the 12th-seeded Bulldogs accomplished is historic, but Ivy Leaguers don’t consider it an upset. Meanwhile, Yale got 11 points from guard Jack Montague, the team’s captain, was expelled from the school in February.
“I can’t tell you how proud I am of this group”, said Jones. We’ve got good shooters. “It stinks that there is a controversy, but I just want to celebrate the players that are on the court”. Brandon Sherrod netted ten points while Sam Downey chipped in with eight points and seven boards. That doesn’t happen at Kentucky or Kansas.
Yale Bulldogs guard Makai Mason (11) drives against Baylor Bears forward Terry Maston (31) during the first half of a first round game during the 2016 NCAA Tournament at Dunkin Donuts Center.
Marshall Plumlee ditched the mask guarding his broken nose in the first half and responded by scoring a career-high 23 points to lead defending national champion Duke past UNC Wilmington 93-85 on Thursday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. “It was the difference in the game, and I thought it was a key stretch where Brandon and Justin both were in foul trouble, and we brought in a couple of guys off the bench, Sam Downey and Blake Reynolds, and they really gave us a boost and changed the game and gave us a chance to win”.
Yale came into the game ranked second in the nation in rebounding margin (plus-11.1).
Baylor’s Prince was called for an offensive foul on the Bears next possession, but Sears misfired on both of his free throws.
This was not below-the-rim stuff either. “How does Yale out-rebound Baylor?”. Instead, they instead had to battle to avoid one of the biggest collapses in NCAA tournament history. Eventually, they came back. Duke connected on four of its final five free-throws to close out the game.
Yale got the partisan crowd back in the game with an inspiring 15-0 second-half run that cut Duke’s lead to 54-47 into the second officials’ timeout. And while this may be true of many teams remaining in tournament play, those drives create openings within Duke’s defensive schemes, which account for the team’s 49.8 defensive two-point field goal percentage as well as why the team struggles to contain opponents on the defensive glass.
The actions of the basketball team inflamed tension on Yale’s New Haven, Connecticut, campus, and posters appeared telling the team to “stop supporting a rapist”, according to the Yale Daily News. On Monday, Montague’s attorney announced that Montague will sue Yale.
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“There have been a lot of naysayers that said we don’t have any depth”, Sherrod said. We apologize for the hurt we have caused and we look forward to learning and growing from these recent incidents.
