Three years after Yale men’s basketball pulled off a 12-5 upset over Baylor for the university’s first win ever in the NCAA Tournament, the Bulldogs are back in the Big Dance after defeating Harvard in the Ivy League Tournament Championship game in New Haven.
For Yale Junior Miye Oni, the Ivy League Player of the Year, seeing Yale revealed on the bracket during Selection Sunday is a moment he’ll never forget.
“I’ve never been more excited about something team oriented in my life,” Oni told NBC Connecticut before practice Monday. “It was great, apart from my little cousins being born and couple other moments, that was one of the best moments of my life.”
Video shared by the team on Twitter showed the joy and jubilation from all the Bulldogs as they learned their draw against the LSU Tigers in the first round of the 2019 NCAA Tournament.
“It was really surreal to see Yale in the March Madness bracket again,” Yale senior Blake Reynolds said.
Reynolds is one of the players that got to taste March Madness on the 2016 team with Coach James Jones.
“It’s kind of what you dream about as a coach,” Jones said. “They saw what it was like as a freshmen. As freshmen, they didn’t get to participate much in it and they wanted to be able to revel in their moment.”
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The Ivy League Champs are the 14-seed in the East Region. Their game against 3-seed LSU is being played in Yale Junior Austin Williams’ hometown of Jacksonville.
“We’re hoping our discipline and focus on us, our offense, our defense and staying disciplined hopefully we can get a win,” Williams said.
The Yale coaching staff, that has limited time to prepare for a team from the SEC, is very familiar with one of LSU’s star players.
“Fortunately, Tremont Waters is a kid we recruited so as a fan I’ve watched LSU play about 3 or 4 times on ESPN, I’ve gotten a good look at them and their team,” Coach Jones said of the former Connecticut Gatorade High School Player of the Year.
Waters initially committed to play college hoops at Georgetown, but ended up taking his talents to LSU.
Now a sophomore, Waters is the Tigers’ top scorer heading into this March Madness match-up with his hometown’s team. It will also be his debut in the Big Dance.
“In a lot of ways Connecticut is a smaller version of Indiana,” Notre Dame-West Haven boys basketball coach Jason She said, “this is our sport, basketball is really our sport.”
Shea, who is also the athletic director, coached New Haven’s Waters during his final year of high school basketball.
“Even watching his highlight videos didn’t do it justice,” he said, “to see him on the court his basketball IQ is so superior to most players, I see that even on the college level.”
Waters is only 5”11, but he has become one of college basketball’s best players, leading LSU to an SEC regular season championship.
“I think he chose right, he’s put LSU on the map,” Shea said.
“He’s a very special player,” said Tobe Carberry, a Yale assistant coach Tobe Carberry, “but I feel confident that our guys will be ready I mean we have some explosive guard as well.”
Carberry, who starred at Hillhouse High School, said he saw something special in Waters working with him at youth basketball camps when he was 8-12 years old in New Haven.
“He’s very savvy,” Carberry said. “He’s a true point guard and just so thrilled and proud of his career how he’s been able to play well.”
Before leaving for his freshman year, NBC Connecticut caught up with Waters when he helped promote the 2017 3-on-3 youth “Hoop It Up” tournament in the Elm City.
“He certainly wants to give back to his community and I think that New Haven basketball has great tradition,” Shea said.
Oni, who is considered a potential NBA second-round pick if he leaves Yale after the season, said he hopes his team will be able to create another unforgeable moment Thursday afternoon in Florida.
“I remember in high school watching the tournament, those early games are a lot of when most of the upsets happen,” Oni said, “so I hope we can follow suit get the job done.”
Yale and LSU’s game begins at 12:40 p.m. It will be broadcast on TruTV.
