The Yale Bulldogs men's basketball team represents

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is List ...

, competing in the

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...

. The team plays home games in the John J. Lee Amphitheater of the

Payne Whitney Gymnasium The Payne Whitney Gymnasium is the gymnasium of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. One of the largest athletic facilities ever built, its twelve acres of interior space include a nine-story tower containing a third-floor swimming pool, fe ...

. The team has reached the

NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as March Madness, or The Big Dance, is a single-elimination tournament played in the United States to determine the men's college basketball national champion of the NCAA Division I, Di ...

eight times, in

1949 Events January * January 1 – A United Nations-sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which still continues as of 2025 * January 2 – Luis ...

1957 Events January * January 1 – The Saarland joins West Germany. * January 3 – Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch. * January 5 – South African player Russell Endean becomes the first batsman to be Dismissal (cricke ...

1962 The year saw the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is often considered the closest the world came to a Nuclear warfare, nuclear confrontation during the Cold War. Events January * January 1 – Samoa, Western Samoa becomes independent from Ne ...

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

, and

2025 So far, the year has seen the continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudanese civil war, and the Gaza war. Internal crises in Bangladesh post-resignation v ...

. The current head coach is James Jones.

History

Yale has been named national champion on six occasions – in 1896, 1897, 1899, and 1900 by the

Premo-Porretta Power Poll The Premo-Porretta Power Poll is a retroactive end-of-year ranking for American college basketball teams competing in the 1895–96 through the 1947–48 seasons. The Premo-Porretta Polls are intended to serve collectively as a source of informa ...

, which started to retroactive selections with the 1895–96 season; and in 1901 and 1903 by the

Helms Athletic Foundation The Helms Athletic Foundation, founded in 1936, was a Los Angeles-based organization dedicated to the promotion of athletics and sportsmanship. Paul H. Helms was the organization's founder and benefactor, funding the foundation via his owner ...

, which began retroactive selections with the 1900–01 season. Penn and Yale played in the first college basketball game with five men on a team in 1897. In 1969—against the wishes of the NCAA—Yale Jewish center

Jack Langer Jack Langer is an American former basketball player. During his basketball career, he played college basketball at Yale University, and won a silver medal with Team USA in the 1969 Maccabiah Games in Israel. The National Collegiate Athletic Ass ...

played for Team United States at the

1969 Maccabiah Games At the 8th Maccabiah Games from July 29 to August 7, 1969, 1,450 athletes from 27 countries competed in 22 sports in Israel. The final gold medal count was the United States in first place (64), Israel second (48; though it won the greatest numb ...

in Israel. He did so with the approval of Yale President

Kingman Brewster Kingman Brewster Jr. (June 17, 1919 – November 8, 1988) was an American educator, academic and diplomat. He served as the 17th president of Yale University and as United States ambassador to the United Kingdom. Early life Brewster was born i ...

. The university said it would not stop him from "what we feel is a matter of religious freedom," and all Ivy League presidents fully endorsed Yale's stand. After that, Yale played Langer in basketball games the following season. A special assistant to the President of Yale, Henry Chauncey, Jr., said: "There is no question that Jack Langer will continue to play basketball. We don't care what they do - Jack Langer will play when the coach wants to use him." On January 15, 1970, the NCAA Council placed Yale University on two‐year "full athletic

probation Probation in criminal law is a period of supervision over an offence (law), offender, ordered by the court often in lieu of incarceration. In some jurisdictions, the term ''probation'' applies only to community sentences (alternatives to incar ...

" in all sports. It thereby restricted Yale teams and athletes (not just basketball players) for two years from competing in NCAA tournaments, championships and other postseason competitions and from receiving any monies for televised events.President's Commission on Olympic Sports (1977)
''The Final Report of the President's Commission on Olympic Sports''
U.S. Government Printing Office. The decision impacted 300 Yale students, every Yale student on its sports teams, over the next two years.“Rationale for the Student-Athletes Bill of Rights”
June 25, 2002. The Presidents of the other seven Ivy League schools issued a statement condemning the NCAA's actions regarding the "Langer Case." ''The Harvard Crimson'' called the probation "unjust but intolerable," and urged the Ivy League to withdraw from the NCAA. Harvard track and field captain Ed Nosal and two other Harvard athletes, sympathetic to Langer and Yale and disdainful of the absurdity of the NCAA rule, protested at the

1970 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships The 1970 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships were contested March 13−14, 1970 at Cobo Arena in Detroit, Michigan at the sixth annual NCAA-sanctioned track meet to determine the individual and team national champions of men's collegiate i ...

by standing on the awards stand wearing blue Yale jerseys. In February 1970, Representative Robert N. Giaimo (D-Connecticut) said in the

U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a bicameral legislature, including a lower body, the U.S. House of Representatives, and an upper body, the U.S. Senate. They both ...

The Yale case, involving basketball player Jack Langer, is tragic. It shows that the NCAA is willing to use any weapon in its continuing power struggle with the Amateur Athletic Union. It shows that the NCAA does not care if it hurts member institutions or individual athletes in the process. It shows once again that the NCAA is ... under the control of a stubborn, dictatorial hierarchy that does not hesitate to use athletes and schools alike as mere pawns in a game of power politics.

Yale has won seven Ivy League championships – 1957, 1962, 1963, 2002, 2016, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2024, and 2025. It also won the

Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball League The Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball League was an athletic conference for men's college basketball, beginning with the 1901–02 season and ending with the 1954–55 season. Its membership ranged from four to eight members; all of these te ...

, the forerunner to the Ivy League, eight times – 1902, 1903, 1907, 1915, 1917, 1923, 1933 and 1949. The Bulldogs captured the first official Ivy League title in 1957, finishing 12–2 and losing to eventual national champion

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

, 90–74, in the NCAA East Regional. The 1962 club finished 13–1 in Ivy play but lost overtime to Wake Forest, 92–82, in the East Regional. The 1963 team tied

Princeton Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the Unit ...

for the Ivy title with an 11–3 record but fell to the Tigers in a playoff, 65–53. In 2002, the Bulldogs were part of the first three-way tie in Ivy history. Yale beat Princeton 76–60 in the first Ivy playoff game but fell to Penn 77–58 to determine the NCAA berth. In 2015, Yale tied

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

for the Ivy title with an 11–3 record, with a playoff between the two to determine the NCAA automatic bid. Harvard won that playoff game at the

Palestra The Palestra, often called the Cathedral of College Basketball, is a historic arena and the home gym of the Penn Quakers men's and women's basketball teams, volleyball teams, wrestling team, and Philadelphia Big 5 basketball. Located at 235 So ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

on March 14, 2015, with a score of 53–51, thus preventing Yale from reaching the NCAA tournament in which the Bulldogs had not appeared in 53 years. The Bulldogs won the Ivy League championship outright in 2016 with a 13–1 conference record to advance to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 54 years. The team has appeared in eight NCAA Tournaments overall (in 1949, 1957, 1962, 2016, 2019, 2022, 2024, and 2025). On March 17, 2016, Yale defeated the

Baylor Bears The Baylor Bears are the athletic teams that represent Baylor University. The teams participate in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as one of only three private school members of the Big 12 Conference. Prior t ...

79–75 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament for the school's first Tournament victory. In 2019 Yale beat Harvard, 97–85 to win its first Ivy League Men's Basketball Tournament. Yale won its second Ivy League Men's Basketball Tournament in 2022 when, on March 12, the #2 seed Yale outlasted the #3 seed University of Pennsylvania, with a score of 66–64. On March 22, 2024, Yale took down the 4th seeded Auburn as a 13.5 point underdog to once again pull the shocker.

Postseason history

NCAA tournament results

Yale has appeared in the NCAA tournament eight times. The Bulldogs' combined record is 2–9.

NIT results

Yale has been to the

National Invitation Tournament The National Invitation Tournament (NIT) is an annual men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Since 2023, all rounds of the tournament are played at various sites across the country whi ...

(NIT) twice. Their record is 1–2.

CIT results

Yale has been to the CollegeInsider.com Tournament (CIT) twice. Their combined record is 4–2.

Notable players

* Paul Atkinson (born 1999) *

Albie Booth Albert James "Albie" Booth (February 1, 1908 – March 1, 1959) was an American football player. He was a star at Yale University from 1929 to 1931, and was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1966. Booth, at only tall and , was kn ...

(1908–1959) *

Chris Dudley Christen Guilford Dudley (born February 22, 1965) is an American former professional basketball player and politician. He played 886 games across 16 seasons in the NBA for the Cleveland Cavaliers, New Jersey Nets, Portland Trail Blazers, New Yo ...

(born 1965) * Earl G. Graves Jr. (born 1962) *

Gilmore Kinney Gilmore Kinney (June 9, 1886 – December 15, 1916) was an American college basketball standout at Yale University in the 1900s. He was a two-time Helms Athletic Foundation All-American (1905, 1907) and was named their national player of the year ...

(1886–1916) * Orson Kinney (1894–1966) *

(born 1948/1949) *

Tony Lavelli Anthony Lavelli Jr. (July 11, 1926 – January 8, 1998) was an American professional basketball player and musician. He averaged 6.9 points per game during his two-year National Basketball Association (NBA) career (1949–1951) while also provid ...

(1926–1998) *

Paul Maley Paul Maley (born July 28, 1966) is an American and Australian former basketball player. He played college basketball for Yale where he was the Ivy League Player of the Year in 1988. Following his college career, he played professionally in Irelan ...

(born 1966) *

Greg Mangano Greg Mangano (born October 28, 1989) is an American basketball player for KTP Basket of Korisliiga. He played college basketball for the Yale Bulldogs. He is known for versatility as a frontcourt player and his polished face up game offensively. ...

(born 1989) *

Bez Mbeng Bez Mbeng is an American college basketball player for the Yale Bulldogs of the Ivy League. High school career Mbeng played at Our Lady of Good Counsel High School and was coached by GJ Kissal. He was named to the first team All-Washington Ca ...

Miye Oni Olumiye Dimolu "Miye" Oni (born August 4, 1997) is an American-Nigerian professional basketball player for Criollos de Caguas of thBSN in Puerto Rico He played college basketball for the Yale Bulldogs. He plays the shooting guard position. Oni w ...

(born 1997) *

John Poulakidas John Poulakidas is an American basketball player. He played college basketball for the Yale Bulldogs. High school career Poulakidas attended Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville, Illinois. As a junior, he averaged 17.5 points and 4.6 rebound ...

(born 2003) *

Justin Sears Justin Sears (born January 3, 1994) is a retired American/British basketball player for s.Oliver Würzburg of the Basketball Bundesliga. He played college basketball for the Yale Bulldogs. He was named Ivy League Player of the Year twice, in 2015 ...

(born 1994) *

Danny Wolf Daniel Abraham Wolf (born May 5, 2004) is an American-Israeli basketball player. He played college basketball for the Yale Bulldogs and Michigan Wolverines. At Yale, he earned 2024 first-team All-Ivy League honors, the 2024 Ivy League tournament ...

(born 2004)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Yale Bulldogs Men's Basketball Basketball teams established in 1896 1896 establishments in Connecticut