Nov. 22, 2007

Complete Release in PDF Format

at UCLA
Fri., Nov. 23, 2007 - 10:30 p.m. EST
Pauley Pavilion (12,800)
Los Angeles, Calif.
Radio: WYBC (1340 AM)

YALE TALE
For the third time in the nine-year tenure of head coach James Jones, the Bulldogs will test themselves against the No. 1 team in the land when they travel to historic Pauley Pavilion to meet UCLA. Yale's last game against a No. 1 team was a 99-72 loss to Wake Forest on Nov. 22, 2004. In 2003-04, the Bulldogs opened the season in the preseason NIT against No. 1 UConn. Yale led 31-28 at halftime before dropping a hard-fought 70-60 decision. The UCLA game is a homecoming for junior Travis Pinick, an Orange, Calif., native. The team practiced at Lutheran High School on Thanksgiving where Pinick was the league most valuable player as a senior. Travis's father, Gregg, is the principal at Lutheran. The Pinicks then hosted the team and their families for Thanksgiving dinner. Pinick expects to have close to 50 family and friends at the game. UCLA is the second consecutive Pac-10 opponent for the Bulldogs, who dropped a 72-61 decision at Stanford on Tuesday. Eric Flato paced Yale with 22 points. Flato, a unanimous first team All-Ivy selection last year, was named the Ivy League Preseason Player of the Year by both the Sporting News and Athlon. Matt Kyle, who averaged 21 points in Yale's first two games, was named the first Ivy League Player of the Week on Wednesday.

HISTORY LESSONS
Yale and UCLA are playing for the first time since Dec. 26, 1963, when Gail Goodrich scored 25 points to lead Bruins to 95-65 victory. That is the only meeting between the teams.

SCOUTING UCLA
The Bruins (5-0) are coming off a 68-63 victory over No. 10 Michigan State on Tuesday night in the championship game of the CBE Classic. Freshman Kevin Love was named the tournament MVP after scoring 21 points and grabbing 11 rebounds in the championship game. On the season, Love is averaging 20.2 points and 11.6 rebounds. Josh Shipp averages 16.2 points.

STANFORD 72, YALE 61
Eric Flato enjoyed a successful return to Northern California, but it wasn't quite enough to lead the Bulldogs to an upset of Stanford. Lawrence Hill scored 16 of his game-high 25 points in the second half as the Cardinal held off Yale at Maples Pavilion. Flato, who grew up in Piedmont, Calif., less than 40 miles from the Stanford campus, finished with 22 points. Trailing by 15 early in the second half, the Bulldogs staged a ferocious rally. Nick Holmes's three-pointer capped a 15-3 run and pulled Yale within 44-41 with 13:59 remaining. Stanford built the lead back to 10, but the Bulldogs had one more run left. Ross Morin's dunk off a nice feed from Matt Kyle cut the deficit back to five, 59-54 with 5:29 remaining. The Cardinal, though, scored the next five points to seal the victory. Both teams had 23 field goals in the game, but Stanford outscored Yale 21-6 from the foul line.

PRESEASON PREDICTIONS
The Bulldogs were picked to finish second in the 2007-08 Ivy League Preseason Media Poll. Yale received three first-place votes and had 104 points. Cornell is the choice from the 16 media members from the eight Ivy areas who voted. This is the first time since 1988-89 that neither Penn nor Princeton was selected to finish first.

2007-08 Ivy League Preseason Media Poll

1. Cornell, 119 points (10 first-place votes)
2. Yale, 104 (3)
3. Penn, 97 (1)
4. Columbia, 80 (1)
5. Brown, 70 (1)
6. Harvard, 43
7. Princeton, 40
8. Dartmouth, 23

JONES SERVES AS ASSISTANT COACH FOR TEAM USA
James Jones, the Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of Men's Basketball at Yale, served as an assistant coach for the 2007 USA Basketball Men's Pan American Games. Villanova's Jay Wright was the head coach and Jones was joined as an assistant coach by Alabama's Mark Gottfried. The team, which featured Georgetown's Roy Hibbert, Michigan State's Drew Neitzel and Indiana's D.J. White, finished fifth in the Games, held in Rio. The Americans had a 3-2 record, losing to Panama and bronze-medalist Uruguay, and posting victories over Argentina, the Virgin Islands and Panama. The 2007 Pan American Games assignment was Jones' second coaching experience with USA Basketball. He was previously selected by the USA Basketball Men's Collegiate Committee as a court coach for the 2006 USA Men's U18 National Team Trials.

CHALLENGING SCHEDULE ON TAP
Seven teams that reached the postseason last year, including Final Four participant UCLA, highlight the 2007-08 Yale schedule. The Bulldogs play the Bruins on Nov. 23 for only the second time and will be making their first appearance in Pauley Pavilion. A little over a month later, Yale visits another of college basketball's historic venues, Allen Fieldhouse, for a game against Kansas. The Jayhawks lost to UCLA in the Elite Eight last year. Other 2006-07 NCAA participants on the schedule include Stanford (Nov. 20), Holy Cross (Nov. 28) and defending Ivy League champion Penn (Feb. 16, Feb. 29). In addition, the Bulldogs play at UMass (Nov. 14) and host Vermont (Dec. 8), both of whom played in the NIT last year."Our 2007-08 schedule may be the most challenging that we've had in my tenure," said James Jones, The Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of Men's Basketball. "We have a great mix of high major programs along with a number of very strong mid-major programs."

CLASS OF 2011
Porter Braswell (Scotch Plains, NJ) was a 1,000-point scorer and earned first team All-MAPL honors as a senior at the Lawrenceville School. Garrett Fiddler (Colorado Springs, CO) led Colorado in blocked shots as both a junior and senior. Raffi Mantilla (Mundelein, IL) earned fourth team all-state recognition as a senior at Mundelein High School. Michael Sands (Franklin Square, NY) was the Nassau County Player of the Year and averaged 28 points and 15 rebounds as a senior at Carey High School.

BULLDOGS TO MAKE FOUR TV APPEARANCES
Yale is currently scheduled to make four television appearances this season, starting with the Nov. 20 game against Stanford, which will be broadcast on Fox Sports Net Bay Area. The Kansas matchup on Dec. 29 is on Jayhawk TV, which is available as part of the ESPN Full Court package. Both Yale-Penn contests will be televised. The game at the Palestra is on ESPN Classic and will mark Yale's second appearance on the ESPN family of networks (the 2003-04 season opener against UConn was on ESPN2). The John J. Lee Amphitheater will host the YES Network on Feb. 29 when the Quakers visit New Haven.

FREE VIDEO STREAMS ON YALEBULLDOGS.COM
A free live video stream will be available for 12 of Yale's 13 home games. Fans can access the games at yalebulldogs.com by clicking on the Yale All*Access logo in the top right corner of the front page. An e-mail address and password are required in order to subscribe to the service. WYBC (1340 AM), the flagship station for Yale Basketball, will provide audio.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Sophomores Caleb and Nick Holmes are the first set of twins in the history of Yale basketball... James Jones' younger brother Joe is the head coach at Columbia. The Jones brothers are one of only two active brother duos coaching at the Division I level. Seth and Brad Greenberg are the head coaches at Virginia Tech and Radford.

Report filed by Tim Bennett, Yale Sports Publicity