5 Things to Know About Purdue's NCAA Tournament First-Round Opponent Yale
With the No. 3 seed in the East Regional of the NCAA Tournament, Purdue Basketball will tip off against No. 14-seeded Yale in the first round of March Madness. The game is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. ET on Friday, March 18, inside the Fiserv Forum arena in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The Bulldogs earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament after claiming an Ivy League Tournament title with a 66-64 victory over top-seeded Princeton. The team has now won the event in consecutive seasons but makes its first March Madness appearance since 2019.
The Ivy League Tournament was canceled in 2020, and the league didn't play games in 2021 due to COVID-19.
Ahead of Friday's matchup, here are five things you should know about the Boilermakers' first-round opponents in the NCAA Tournament: The Yale Bulldogs.
Yale Bulldogs men's basketball NCAA Tournament results:
This season, Yale earned its third trip to the NCAA Tournament in program history. The team made its first appearance back in 2016 as a No. 12 seed, knocking off No. 5 Baylor in the first round before losing to No. 4 seed Duke by just seven points.
The Bulldogs returned to the fray of March Madness in 2019 as a No. 14 seed, facing off against the No. 3-seed LSU Tigers. It was another closely-contested game, but they ultimately lost 79-74.
Yale was slated to make the tournament field in 2020, but it was canceled due to COVID-19.
The team played just two Power 6 opponents this season:
Yale fielded a strong nonconference schedule and ended with a 6-8 record outside of its conference before heading into the bulk of its Ivy League matchups. The team faced off against tournament teams Seton Hall and Auburn — its only Power 6 matchups of the season — alongside Saint Mary's.
The Bulldogs lost to the Pirates 80-44 in just their third contest of the season. The team later fell to the Tigers 86-64. Both of the games were on the road.
Yale started the Ivy League schedule 2-1 before a seven-game win streak propelled them to the final four games of the regular season. It posted an 11-3 record in the conference before taking down Penn and Princeton for the Ivy League Tournament championship.
Senior guard Azar Swain leads the way for the Bulldogs:
Yale's leading scorer is 6-foot-1 senior guard Azar Swain, who was second in the Ivy League at 19.2 points per game this season. He is 42% from the field, including 34.9% from the 3-point line.
Swain had 20 or more points in 15 contests for the Bulldogs, including a season-high 37 to lead the team to an 83-72 win over Columbia on Jan. 25. Heading into the NCAA Tournament, he's posted three straight games of more than 20 points, including 23 in the Ivy League Tournament title victory over Princeton.
In the 2020-21 season, he set a Yale single-season record by hitting on 93 shots from the 3-point line while finishing 10th in the nation in 3-point field goals made per game (3.21).
Defense is among Yale's biggest strengths:
The Bulldogs finished second in the Ivy League in total defense, allowing just 68.8 points per game while leading the conference in overall field goal percentage allowed (42.3%) and 3-point percentage allowed (30.4%).
Yale also forced 13.2 turnovers per game, which was more than 11 Big Ten Conference programs this season.
James Jones is one of the top coaches in Ivy League history:
After being named Yale's head coach on April 27, 1999, James Jones entered the 2021-22 season with 333 career wins, which ranked second in Ivy League men's basketball history.
Following a 19-11 season with the Bulldogs, he now has 352 career wins and 193 wins in conference play, which pushed him past former Penn coach Fran Dunphy for the second-most in Ivy League history.
Under Jones, Yale has won five Ivy League regular-season championships. He has been named Ivy League Coach of the Year three times.
“I know Coach Jones, and he’s an excellent coach,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said after the team's 75-66 loss to Iowa on Sunday in the Big Ten Tournament. “We were watching them — I was writing on the board before this game, and that game was on. So I was watching them that last three minutes of the game, and they have a good team. Everybody earns their way in this one.”
Stories Related to Purdue Basketball
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- TV, TIPOFF TIME FOR PURDUE VS. YALE: No. 3 Purdue will play No. 14 Yale beginning at 2 p.m. ET on Friday, March 18, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The matchup will be aired live on TBS. CLICK HERE
- PURDUE TO PLAY YALE IN EAST REGION ON FRIDAY: Purdue is heading to Milwaukee for the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament. The Boilermakers are the No. 3 seed in the East Regional and will play No. 14 seed Yale, the Ivy League champions, on Friday in the first round. CLICK HERE
- FULL NCAA TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE: Here are all the pairings for the 2022 NCAA Tournament. CLICK HERE
D.J. Fezler is a staff writer for BoilermakersCountry.com. Hailing from The Region, he is from Cedar Lake in Northwest Indiana and has spent the last two years covering Purdue football and basketball.