Christina Lee

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Yale will play Texas A&M in the first round of March Madness in Denver on Thursday. 

The No. 13 seeded Bulldogs will head to Denver to face the No. 4 seeded Aggies in the NCAA Tournament’s round of 64. Yale booked their spot with a 90–84 victory over Cornell in the Ivy League Championship game.

“I’m bringing two suits to the game this year,” head coach James Jones told the News after the win. “No team is looking at the tournament and looking forward to playing Yale.”

This will be Yale’s eighth ever appearance in March Madness and fifth appearance since 2016. Last season, the Bulldogs made the tournament’s second round for the second time in program history after upsetting No. 4 seeded Auburn in Spokane.

Texas A&M made the tournament as a nine seed last season, falling to Houston in the round of 32 in overtime. The Aggies were the 5 seed in the SEC Tournament this season but lost to Texas in the second round in double overtime. Their biggest win of the regular season came on March 4th, when they upset then No. 2 in the nation Auburn.

The Aggies are led by senior guard Wade Taylor IV, a 6-foot guard who averages 15.7 points and 4.3 assists per game. Taylor holds the Aggies’ all-time scoring record with 2,028 points. Complimenting Taylor IV are big men Pharrel Payne and Henry Coleman who both stand at 6 foot 9 and 250 pounds. The Aggies do not have a player above 6 foot 9 in their rotation, making Yale sophomore Samson Aletan ’27 likely to be the tallest player on the court at 6 foot 10. 

Texas A&M’s defense is one of the strongest in the country, ranked 7th according to kenpom.com. They excel at slowing teams down offensively and also grab the highest percentage of offensive rebounds in the country at 42%. 

The Aggies are a more modest 44th in the nation in adjusted offensive efficiency, and aren’t efficient from the three-point line, shooting 31.1 percent as a team compared to Yale’s 38.5 percent. 

The winner of Thursday’s game will play the winner of No. 5 Michigan vs No. 12 UC San Diego in the tournament’s round of 32. Against Michigan, Yale would be up against a familiar face in Danny Wolf, who played for Yale the last two seasons and was a first-team all-Ivy player. Wolf transferred to Michigan at the end of last season and is a projected first round pick in this year’s NBA Draft.