Preseason NIT, Trip To Colorado Highlight 2009-10 Yale Men’s Basketball Schedule
Bulldogs Host 12 Games In Lee Amphitheater
2009-10 Yale Men's Basketball Schedule
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - An appearance in the Preseason NIT, a two-game trip to Colorado and 12 home games in the friendly confines of the John J. Lee Amphitheater highlight the 2009-10 Yale men's basketball schedule. The Bulldogs will play 31 games, the most since the 2001-02 season.
"Every year we put our schedule together with two main components in mind," said James Jones, The Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of Men's Basketball. "First we want to try and play in the home area of the players on our roster. This year we will travel to Albany for Alex Zampier and to Colorado for Garrett Fiddler. The second component of our scheduling is to make sure we play a challenging non-conference portion, one that will help prepare us for a championship run. These games will help expose some of our weaknesses that we can hopefully correct by the start of Ivy League play."
Schedule Notes
- The 2009-10 schedule features 31 regular season games, including 12 in the friendly confines of the John J. Lee Amphitheater. It will mark the most games Yale has played in a season since 2001-02 when the Bulldogs finished 21-11.
- The season opener against Sacred Heart at the Arena at Harbor Yard in Bridgeport is part of the Connecticut Six Classic, a tripleheader featuring Connecticut schools. Fairfield and Central Connecticut meet in game two followed by Hartford against Quinnipiac.
- The Bulldogs will be making their second appearance in the Preseason NIT. Yale fell to No. 1 ranked UConn in the tournament to open the 2003-04 season. The Bulldogs are guaranteed four games in this year's tournament. The pairings will be announced later this summer.
- The game with Quinnipiac on Nov. 21 will cap a busy day on the Yale campus. The 126th edition of the Yale-Harvard football game will be played at noon at Yale Bowl. Yale and Quinnipiac have met only once before, an 87-69 Bobcat win in 1999 in the Phoenix Classic at the Hartford Civic Center.
- The Colorado and Colorado State trip in late December will serve as a homecoming for junior Garrett Fiddler, who resides in Colorado Springs. Fiddler led the state in blocked shots as both a junior and senior at Doherty High School.
- Senior Alex Zampier gets his homecoming less than a week later when the Bulldogs visit Albany on Jan. 3. Zampier, an East Greenbush, N.Y., native, graduated as the second all-time leading scorer at Columbia High School with 1,381 points. Yale head coach James Jones is a 1996 Albany graduate. He played for and coached with the legendary Dr. Richard Sauers, one of only seven coaches to win more than 700 games.
- The Bulldogs play Lehigh for the first time since 1999 on Jan. 5, part of a stretch that sees Yale play four games in seven days.
- The Bulldogs open the 14-game Ivy League schedule at home against Brown on Jan. 15. Three of Yale's first four Ivy games will be at Lee Amphitheater.
- The final game of the season has the Bulldogs hosting two-time defending Ivy champion Cornell. Yale plays at the Big Red on Feb. 5.
Two starters and 11 letterwinners return from last year's team that finished 13-15 overall and 8-6 in Ivy League play.
Report filed by Tim Bennett, Yale Sports Publicity