Team #101 - Yale

As part of the First Round of the NCAA Tournament I saw my 101st Division One College Basketball teams. On this occasion, I saw the Yale Bulldogs take on the Purdue Boilermakers. Yale is the 1st team that I have seen out of the Ivy League. Yale comes into this matchup with a 19-11 record. They beat Princeton in the Ivy League Tournament Champion to get the at large birth. Azar Swain has been the leading scorer for Yale averaging 19.2 PPG.  Purdue comes into this matchup with a 27-7 record on the year. The lost in the Big 10 Championship to Iowa. It was a surprise to many to not see Purdue in Indianapolis. Truthfully, I would have much rather seen Tennessee as it would have been a new team for me. Jaden Ivey has been the leading scorer for Purdue, averaging 17.4 PPG. Ivey is expected to be a lottery pick in the 2022 NBA Draft. I expect Yale to struggle with the size of Purdue. 

Going to be brutal honest, this game was the worst of the day. Yale hung around for maybe 7-8 minutes of this game. Azar Swain tried his best to be Jimmer Fredette. He was a perfect 5-5 in the first half and had 11 points. Purdue was just too big for Yale. Jaden Ivey was simply the best player on the court by a mile. Nobody could stop him on Yale. Zach Edey was too big. I mean for crying out loud he had a solid 6" on the tallest guy for Yale. The strategy was hack an Edey early on. That didn't work. Yale was down big the whole game. At the half Purdue led 46-33. Ivey had 18 points and Edey had 13 points. The second half was all Purdue. The led by 20 for most of the 2nd half. A ten minute scoring draught for Yale did not help their case at all. Yale had some very smart players don't get me wrong but Purdue was literally the worst matchup they could have got. Purdue dominated the 2nd half and won by a score of 78-56. Azar Swain at 18 for Yale. Edey has 16 points and Ivey had 22 points for Purdue. Purdue advanced to play the winner of Virginia Tech and Texas.