6 Things to know about the Yale Bulldogs
Tomorrow at 1 p.m., your No. 16 Kentucky Wildcats host the Yale Bulldogs at Rupp Arena, a game you can see on the SEC Network. We’ll have an in-depth scouting report a little closer to tip-off, but to get our coverage started, here are six quick things you need to know.
1. The basics
The Bulldogs are 8-2 this season, their only losses coming at Colorado (65-62) and at Butler (71-61) on Tuesday night. Yale was only down one to Colorado with nine seconds left before the Buffaloes sealed the win at the free-throw line. Even with the loss, Yale is off to its best start since the 1945-46 season. Last year, the Bulldogs won the Ivy League Tournament to earn their third straight NCAA Tournament bid; they lost to No. 3 seed Purdue in the first round 78-56. James Jones is in his 24th season as Yale’s head coach and is the winningest coach in program history and the longest-tenured coach in the Ivy League.
How do the Bulldogs compare to the teams the Cats have faced so far? Yale is No. 89 in the KenPom rankings, making them the fourth-toughest team Kentucky (No. 6) has played this season behind Gonzaga (No. 9), Michigan State (No. 37), and Michigan (No. 45). The Bulldogs average 78.3 points per game on 49.0% shooting and take 8.9 threes per game on 24.9 attempts (34.5%). They also average an impressive 40.5 rebounds per game, which isn’t far from Kentucky’s average of 42.6. The Bulldogs have outrebounded almost every team they’ve played so far, including Colorado and Butler.
2. This is only the second meeting between the two schools
The only other time Kentucky and Yale have played on the hardwood is December 27, 1961, when the Wildcats beat the Bulldogs 79-58 at Memorial Coliseum. Larry Pursiful led the Cats in scoring that day with 25 points, followed by Cotton Nash and Carroll Burchett with 16 points each. That Kentucky team went on to lose to Ohio State in the NCAA Mideast Regional Finals, while Yale lost to Wake Forest in overtime in the first round.
3. Matt Knowling is the star
Junior forward Matt Knowling is the Bulldogs’ best player, averaging a team-best 16.2 points and 4.7 rebounds. The 6’6″ 205 lbs. wing is shooting 64.6% from the floor, which ranks 17th in the country. Knowling was named Ivy League Player of the Week on Nov. 14 after putting up 20+ points in each of Yale’s first three games. He’s scored in double figures in eight of Yale’s ten games.
Top 10
- 1
A Twisted Mess
Big 12 Championship scenarios
- 2Trending
Saban chirped
Big 12 comes after GOAT
- 3Hot
Underranked SEC
Lane Kiffin protests CFP rankings
- 4
UConn star hospitalized
Alex Karaban hospitalized at Maui Invitational
- 5
DJ Lagway
Fan flashes Florida QB to Pope
4. John Poulakidas is the shooter
Yale lost two All-Ivy League players from last year’s team, Jalen Gabbidon and Azar Swain. So far, sophomore guard John Poulakidas is filling the void on the perimeter, making 45.3% of his threes, an average of 2.4 per game. He had six threes in the loss to Colorado, so if you’re looking for a candidate for “Random kid to light Rupp up,” it’s him.
5. John Calipari compared them to Bellarmine
We saw Kentucky struggle against Bellarmine’s unique offense before wearing the Knights out en route to a 19-point win. While Yale doesn’t milk the shot clock quite to the extent Bellarmine does, John Calipari is expecting a similar test of his team’s discipline.
“They’re athletic,” Calipari said of Yale on his call-in show Wednesday night. “It’s not like Bellarmine where they’re going to hold the ball until five seconds, but there is movement, there are back cuts, there are dribble hand-offs left and right into a ball screen, so again, it’ll test our discipline defensively. You’ve got to stay in a stance for the entire clock. You’ve got to be bouncing. And then the other thing is, you’ve got to get off on the weak side. Stuff that we’ve been working on. It’ll be a challenging game. This will be a hard one for us to win.”
Here’s a good example of some of that passing:
6. They beat Howard by 46 points
Kentucky and Yale have one common opponent thus far: Howard. The Cats opened the season vs. the Bison, winning 95-63. On Nov. 30, Yale beat Howard 86-40. If you go by transative property, that means Yale will beat Kentucky by 14 points. If you got by logic, you know that’s probably not going to happen. KenPom predicts a 74-59 Kentucky victory, giving the Cats a 92% chance of winning. ESPN’s Matchup Predictor is slightly lower at 87.5% Kentucky. Sagarin likes Kentucky by about 10.5 points. We should know the actual spread a little later tonight.
Discuss This Article
Comments have moved.
Join the conversation and talk about this article and all things Kentucky Sports in the new KSR Message Board.
KSBoard