Here is my recap of Yale's Ivy League men's basketball season-opening loss at Brown.
The two teams play again this Saturday at New Haven.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — After struggling offensively at the beginning of the season, the Yale men’s basketball team seemed to have things straightened out heading into Saturday’s Ivy League opener.
Not so fast.
Sean McGonagill led four Brown players in double figures with 20 points and the Bears cruised to a 65-51 win at the Pizzitola Center. The Bulldogs, who scored just 35 points in their second game of the season and only 47 in a game a week later, looked like they were back to square one. Greg Kelley led Yale (6-12) with 11 points and no one else scored in double figures for the Bulldogs, who shot just 33 percent for the game.
“(The offense) was stale and stagnant. Not enough energy,” Yale coach James Jones said. “We didn’t do a good job of moving. When you don’t move and you don’t set good screens you don’t run a good offense. We had tough shots all night and it’s hard to make tough shots.
Yale entered the game averaging 77 points over its last seven contests and twice topped 100 in the stretch. But nothing worked on Saturday.
“I’m extremely disappointed with our offense,” Jones said. “Brown packs it in on defense, so it wasn’t like they were denying us. We just failed to have enough energy to play the way we should.”
The most telling stat of all in Saturday’s debacle was that Yale didn’t record an assist for the game’s first 28 minutes, finishing with just four.
“It’s always tough to win a game when you don’t have an assist,” Yale senior guard Austin Morgan said. “We have to work on spreading the court and trying to look for each other. Ivy League basketball is different. You have to execute at a much higher level when the league starts.

“We were ready, but this is not what we envisioned.”
Yale’s offensive woes were so bad in the beginning of the second half that Jones could barely watch. He strolled to the end of the bench, then stood off the court with his arms folded in disbelief.
“I thought our guys came out a little tight,” Jones said. “One of the things about playing so many games on the road, you’d figure that our guys would have experienced it.”
Brown got 13 points from Matt Sullivan and 11 from Stephen Albrecht in beating Yale for the first time in the last six meetings.
“This is big for us,” McGonagill said. “It’s always huge to start the Ivy League with a win and we haven’t done that, so that made this game very important.”
Yale led only in the game’s opening minutes. Then Jones went to his second unit and they were outscored 11-4 as the Bears took a 17-13 lead. Brown never trailed again.
The Bears took a 33-24 lead into the half and then opened up a 21-point lead with 14:25 left to play. That’s the only time the Bulldogs showed some life. Kelley scored seven straight points in a 14-0 Yale run to cut the deficit to 49-42 with 9:50 to play.
But Yale couldn’t get the ball inbounds on its next possession and McGonagill ended the comeback bid with a difficult, fade-away 3-pointer in front of the Brown bench.
“You’re not going to hold them scoreless forever,” Jones said. “You want to make sure you can weather the storm and we didn’t do that.”
“That was a turning point in the game,” Morgan said. “He’s a great shooter and that was the biggest play of the game.”
Said Brown coach Mike Martin: “I expect that from Sean. He’s one of, if not the best guard in the league. I have all the faith in the world in McGonagill.”
Yale never got closer than eight the rest of the way and Albrecht put the game out of reach with back-to-back 3-pointers soon after. Brown hit 8 of 20 from beyond the arc while Yale finished 4-for-22.
The two teams meet again next week at the Lee Amphitheater. Brown, which has finished near the bottom of the league for the past several years, seems poised for a better finish. The Bears (7-8) have won three straight and beat Providence earlier in the season.

MEN'S BASKETBALL GAMEDAYS


QUINNIPIAC AT ROBERT MORRIS

Where: Sewall Center, Moon Township, Pa.

When: Today, 7 p.m.

Records: Quinnipiac (6-11, 2-3 Northeast Conference); Robert Morris (11-7, 3-2)

Radio: WQUN-1220 AM

Internet: www.QuinnipiacBobcats.com

Video: NEC Front Row

What to look for

Scouting Quinnipiac: The Bobcats' snapped a three-game slide with an overtime win at St. Francis (Pa.) on Thursday. Despite needing the extra session to knock off the Red Flash, who entered the game just 1-15, the win was desperately needed. Ike Azotam led all scorers with 22 points as the Bobcats played without starters Dave Johnson and Garvey Young. Saint Francis forced the overtime period with a 6-0 run in the final two minutes of regulation; but Quinnipiac was quick to answer in overtime. Zaid Hearst collected the first two points and the Bobcats went on a 14-4 run over the next four minutes of play. Quinnipiac's defense was terrific, holding SFU to just one field goal (1-6) in the added five minutes.

Scouting Robert Morris: The Colonials defeated Sacred Heart 66-62 on Thursday despite playing without two of its top scorers Velton Jones and Karvel Anderson due to injury. One of the conference's preseason favorites, RMU has won three straight after opening the NEC campaign with losses at Central Connecticut and Bryant. Jones suffered a head injury on a flagrant foul in last week's game at Monmouth and is questionable. Mike McFadden and Lucky Jones both scored 15 in Thursday's win.

YALE AT BROWN

Where: Pizzitola Center, Providence, R.I.

When: Today, 7 p.m.

Records: Yale 6-11, Brown 4-9

Video: brownbears.com

What to look for

Scouting Brown: The Bears (6-8) are playing well under the direction of fi rst-year head coach Mike Martin. Brown has won two straight and three of its last five, including wins over Providence and Niagara. The Bears feature the Ivy League's top two rebounders in Rafael Maia (8.4 rpg.) and Cedric Kuakumensah (8.1 rpg.) and two of the top four scorers - Matthew Sullivan (3rd, 15.0 ppg.) and Sean McGonagill (4th, 14.6 ppg.). Brown is second in the league in field goal percentage defense (.420).

Scouting Yale: The Bulldogs open the Ivy League schedule winners of two of their last three games. The Bulldogs have finished fourth or better in the Ivy League in each of the last 12 years. That didn't earn Yale much respect in the preseason Ivy League media poll, which projected a sixth-place finish for the Bulldogs. Yale, though, has a history of proving the prognosticators wrong. In five of the last seven years, the Bulldogs have finished higher than projected.

-- Bill Cloutier

By Bill Cloutier
Assistant Sports Editor
bcloutier@nhregister.com
NEW HAVEN -- Contrary to popular belief the Ivy League trophy will not be awarded to the winner of Friday night’s Yale-Harvard men’s basketball game.
The teams were picked one-two in the league’s preseason poll and have not disappointed.
Harvard (16-2) gained national recognition after winning an early-season tournament loaded with national powers in the Bahamas and leaping into both national Top 25 polls. The Crimson are currently ranked 23rd in the nation in the ESPN/USA Today coaches’ poll and dropped out of the AP poll after a recent loss at Fordham. Harvard finished in a tie for the Ivy League title last year but lost the league’s title game against Princeton 63-62 in a game also played at the Lee Amphitheater.
Yale (12-4) has won four straight and is 6-0 at home on the season. The Bulldogs racked up 10 wins before the league schedule, the most since the 1991-92 season.
They’re both 2-0 in the league play tied with Penn atop the standings.
Those are the resumes. You already know about the rivalry.
The Bulldogs host the Crimson at the Lee Amphitheater at 7 p.m. The game is a sell-out and has been the talk of the campus for weeks.
“Sure it’s early but it’s Harvard-Yale and that makes it a big game,” said Yale guard Austin Morgan. “The fact that we were both picked to do well in the Ivy League makes it even bigger. It’s always good to have the New Haven community excited about the game.
“I don’t know how many times it’s been a sell-out but we’re excited to be a part of it.”
While the Bulldogs are anxious to play in front of a packed house, Yale coach James Jones isn’t concerned with counting tickets.
“Every Tom, Dick and Harry has called me for a ticket for the game,” he said. "We’ve been sold out for three weeks and I expect the atmosphere to be as good as gets. But I don’t care if we play in front of four people, I’d rather come out with a ‘W’”
Jones has a masters in coach-speak. It’s one-game-at-a-time and a win here doesn’t mean anything if you lose the next night. In the Ivy League that’s the rule, because win or lose, Yale hosts Dartmouth on Saturday and then has to get ready for Penn and Princeton the next night.
But it also can make Friday’s game all the more important. If the Bulldogs can’t beat Harvard at home it will be awfully hard to do so in Cambridge, Mass., in a few of weeks. And there’s always that two-game trip to Princeton and Penn at the end of the season to worry about. Very few teams ever sweep that series. All the games are the same," Jones said. "If we win on Friday and then lose on Saturday we’re in the same place. You want to win all 14 of them and this one is only different because it’s a home game. You want to be in control of your destiny.”
Yale split the season series with Harvard last season with both teams winning nail-biters on their home courts. For the most part the cast of characters is the same. Jones said Harvard is a little deeper than it was last year.
"They don’t have any bad players and by that I mean they don’t play anyone just because you need to spell a guy,” Jones said. “Everybody that they play this year is capable, very good basketball players. At that same time you look at a guy like Christian Webster, who I think is tremendous and Kyle Casey, who is tremendous, and they’re all playing less minutes than they did last year because they have a good group of freshmen.”
Said Morgan: “We have to play as a team. Harvard is good all-around. If we can get the ball inside out, the strength of our team is inside, we’ll be successful.”
While Harvard certainly has a ton of talent Yale will counter with its “Big Three” of Morgan, who is second in the nation in free throw shooting (93.7 percent), defensive wizard Reggie Willhite, and Orange's Greg Mangano, the top post player in the league.
Mangano leads the Ivy in scoring (19.4 ppg), rebounding (10.3 rpg) and blocks (40). After playing with Team USA over the summer in the World University Games in China, he has continued to progress toward the elite big men in the nation.
And what will make Friday night even more special is that Mangano needs just three points to become the 24th player in program history to reach 1,000 for his career.
His presence, along with smooth sophomore Jeremiah Kreisberg is where Jones starts his game-planning.
“Our advantages, like every game, are that we’re better inside than most every team that we play,” Jones said. “Harvard is pretty good inside, too. What I’ve come to understand is that there are players in this country that if you give them the ball on the blocks and expect them to score and you happen to have five or six of them in this game.
“It should be thrilling and fun to watch.”
Said Morgan: “They’re a good team and they’re getting respected because of it. We’re trying to get respect, too. That’s why they play the games, to see who’s better.”
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