SPOKANE, Wash. — The more Yale coach James Jones studied Auburn this week, the more convinced he was that the Tigers — the No. 7-ranked team in the AP poll — were under-seeded as a No. 4.
That’s why in the moments after Yale secured its second ever men’s NCAA tournament win, upsetting Auburn 78-76 at the Spokane Arena, he was quick to make a bold proclamation about its historical significance.
“I don’t know if that’s the best win in Yale basketball history,” Jones said, “but I will tell you that’s the best basketball team that we’ve beaten in Yale basketball history.
“As far as I’m concerned, Auburn is one of the better teams in the country. I couldn’t believe that they were a 4-seed in terms of what they’ve been able to do with their metrics.”
Most notably, Auburn was the No. 4-ranked team nationally in the well-respected KenPom.com ratings, which rely heavily on advanced statistics. The Tigers came into the game having just won the SEC tournament and having lost to only one team all season that wasn’t eventually among the field of 64.
Despite all that, Yale showed no signs it was intimidated, even after trailing by seven points at halftime and falling behind by 10 with 7 minutes, 35 seconds left in the game. Each time the Tigers looked like they might pull away, the Bulldogs responded, often with a tough shot from John Poulakidas, who finished with a career-high 28 points on 10-of-15 shooting.
“I was trying to find out a way and an avenue for us to be successful and I don’t know that we went down the avenue I was thinking about,” Jones said. “We didn’t make free throws [21 of 31] and we turned the ball over [11 times], but the guys had enough guts and enough sticking together and staying together to give us a great victory.”
It doubles as a historic loss for Auburn. The Tigers came into the game 11-0 all time in the round of 64, which stood as the most wins without a loss of any team since the field expanded in 1985, according to ESPN Stats & Information. It was the third-longest winning streak, behind Kansas’ 16 straight and Gonzaga’s 14.
“It’s tough to reflect on the season when you just go through one of the most disappointing losses in your career,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said. “I’ve been in the 12 spot. We’ve had these great wins. This is the biggest upset in the NCAA tournament that I think I’ve experienced.”
Yale’s win marks the second straight year that an Ivy League team has defeated a Power 5 conference champion in the first round of the tournament, following Princeton’s victory as a No. 15 seed over Arizona last year. The Tigers went on to beat Missouri to advance to the Sweet 16 — a run the rest of the Ivy League took pride in while watching from home.
“We have a very undervalued league,” Poulakidas said. “I know everybody saw what Princeton did last year, obviously, and even this year they had a tremendous season. Cornell almost went up to Ohio State and beat them. So, we have a really undervalued league and for us to come into this building today against a top-10 team in the country and perform how we did, I’m very proud of everybody in our locker room.”
Yale and the other Ivy League teams don’t get many opportunities to play Quad 1 competition in nonconference action, and when they do it’s usually on the road. That dynamic, Jones contends, skews the perception of the league’s quality.
“I’ve said this before, that two years ago we won the Ivy League championship and we played Purdue in the first round, but I think that Princeton was the best team in our conference and we were fortunate enough to win that championship,” Jones said. “Last year, I think we were the best team in the conference and Princeton beat us in the championship game and they went to the Sweet 16.
“So in my mind, we could have had two teams in the tournament good enough to win games. So very proud of our league and what we’ve done and hopefully it continues to move in the right direction.”
Yale finished in a second-place tie with Cornell in the regular season this year behind Princeton, which lost just three regular-season games and was a No. 2 seed in the National Invitational Tournament.
“Every basketball player grows up watching March Madness the day they’re old enough to know what it is,” said guard August Mahoney. “And you see Cinderella stories all throughout every year and you see the underdog win some big games. And it is a dream come true when you come to a school like Yale to not only make it, but to win that game.”
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