Yale Athletics

After winning two consecutive Ivy League championships and earning bids to March Madness in back-to-back seasons, the Yale men’s basketball team will be looking for new players to step up this year. 

Last spring saw the departure of two core components from the Bulldogs’ roster, with stars John Poulakidas ’25 and Bez Mbeng ’25 graduating and going to the NBA. Now, head coach James Jones will be relying on players like Nick Townsend ’26 and Samson Aletan ’27 to carry on the success.

A season ago, Mbeng was named the Ivy League Player of the Year. Townsend, who, while averaging 15 points per game and seven rebounds per game while shooting nearly 50 percent from downtown, made a late run of his own to be in the conversation for winning player of the year. While he did not win the award, he was named First Team All-Ivy and is a preseason favorite to win player of the year this season. Additionally, Townsend has been named to several watchlists as one of the best mid-major players of the season. 

“Like a lot of the past years, there are a lot of new pieces after we lost some really good ones,” Townsend told CT Insider. “It’s been fun to try to figure out what our potential could be. I feel like this program has done a really good job of having someone ready to step up every year. There’s something really special about that.”

In addition to Townsend’s preseason spotlight, national media also picked Yale as the unanimous favorite to claim the Ivy League’s March Madness bid in the league’s preseason poll. Harvard and Cornell came in second and third, respectively. Preseason KenPom rankings also favor the Bulldogs. KenPom, short for Ken Pomeroy, is an independent NCAA men’s basketball database whose rankings are widely regarded as one of the more accurate predictions of seasonal performance. 

Many of the traditional Ivy basketball powerhouses are reeling following a messy offseason. Princeton’s superstar guard Xavian Lee earned $6 million in NIL and roster deals via a transfer to the reigning champion Florida Gators during the offseason, On3, a sports news site, reported. Cornell, last year’s Ivy runner-ups, graduated their leading scorer, Nazir Williams, and their leading rebounder, Guy Ragland Jr. Harvard, who returns unanimous Ivy Rookie of the Year Robert Hinton, also graduated two starters. 

Nonetheless, the Ivy conference-play season is notoriously unpredictable. Before then, however, Yale will face a challenging non-conference schedule. Highlighted by preseason AP No. 15 Alabama (1-0), the Bulldogs will have a chance to sharpen their teeth against multiple NCAA tournament-level opponents.

Another player that is expected to take a big leap in performance is 6’11 center Aletan. One of the first big plays of Aletan’s career came in the final seconds of Yale’s victory over Auburn in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, when he swatted two shots to clinch the win for the Bulldogs. Since then, he has emerged as one of the better defensive players in the Ivy League, making a name for himself on both defense and the offensive side with his rim-rattling dunks. 

“This summer I worked really hard in the weight room because I want to enhance my physicality around the rim on both ends of the floor,” Aletan wrote in a text message. “On the court, my coaches have been great working with me to build confidence handling the ball and improve my touch in the paint.”

With the increased physicality and refined skills on the court, Aletan could become a force for the Bulldogs as they aim to repeat their past success. 

“Having seen some of the past guys go through the program and have a lot of success, we’ve been given a great blueprint on how to succeed as a basketball team,” Trevor Mullin ’27 said. “Even though we have a lot of new faces on the court, I’m excited to see how we will work together to accomplish our goals.”

On Friday, the Yale men’s basketball team will open up its 2025-26 season against Navy at 8:30 p.m. in the Veterans Classic in Annapolis, Maryland. The game will be televised on CBS Sports Network.