Yale 77, Brown 68: No Style Points In Conference Play

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Conference play brings a new level of intensity, but it’s doubly so in the Ivy League, where there (for now at least) is no postseason tournament.

So it shouldn’t have been surprising that a team like Brown, which had a relatively disappointing 5-9 non-conference campaign and hasn’t had a winning Ivy season since 2007-08, would take the reset and set out to make life as difficult as possible for Ivy League favorite Yale Saturday night, especially with essentially no one else to prepare for in the past two weeks (Brown did have a game last week, but like Yale it was against Division III Daniel Webster).

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Yale 83, NJIT 65: Bulldogs Continue To Thrash Opponents

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Jack Montague finished 1-14 from the field, Justin Sears was held to just 13 points, and Brandon Sherrod was limited to just 15 minutes due to foul trouble … and Yale scored 1.30 points per possession is dismantling NJIT 83-65 at Lee Amphitheater Wednesday night.

Be afraid, Ivy League?

Yale is only 8-5, which might even be a tick behind its lofty preseason expectations, but (as Kevin Whitaker pointed out as well), when the Bulldogs find a weakness in an opponent, they are cold-hearted in their exploitation and lack of compassion.

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Yale 72, Vermont 54: Bulldogs Shut It Down Again

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – We’ve reached the point in the season where we have enough useful data to attempt to make sense of your favorite team, but not quite a full profile of who they will be going forward.

One of the top methods we use – especially in mid-major land – to compare conference teams that will eventually meet up is the transitive property. If A beat B and then B topped C, then A will certainly win against C, right? In a vacuum, maybe. But early-season games are not a vacuum, you have injuries, coaches fiddling with rotations and sets to see what and who will work, and the equalizer that is home-court advantage.

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Three Thoughts: Yale 99, Sacred Heart 77

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Anthony Latina was a little frustrated his team couldn’t have done a little better Monday night, but he knew that going up against a frontcourt like Yale was going to be difficult for his undersized team anyway. And without the injured Tevin Falzon and Matej Buovac – two players expected to play major minutes for the Pioneers – it was always going to be an uphill battle.

You throw in the new freedom of movement rules, and Yale (2-0) had an offensive bonanza, posted 1.34 points per possession (unofficially, its highest since a win at Dartmouth in 2008) and posting its highest point total against a Division I opponent in 13 years (incidentally, Yale lost that game 114-102 at George Washington) at Lee Amphitheater.

All Latina could do was tip his proverbial cap.

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Three Thoughts: Yale 70, Sacred Heart 64

I’ve (pretty much unsuccessfully) tried to start the #RoadGamesAreHard hashtag this season, so I should have been less surprised than most to see Yale struggle to put away Sacred Heart Tuesday afternoon. They finally did 70-64 to go to 10-4 on the season, but it wasn’t pretty to watch, with 20 turnovers (in 64 possessions) and a spirited rally from an improved Pioneer team late.

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