Auburn to open NCAA Tournament against Yale

Auburn will begin its 13th NCAA Tournament over 2,000 miles from home as the No. 4 seed Tigers face the 13th-seeded Yale Bulldogs in Spokane, Washington in the first round.

“We have to win two games to get to the Sweet 16. We can't do that until we win the first one,” said head coach Bruce Pearl. “So, oftentimes, the toughest game in this tournament to win is the first one.”

The Tigers look to continue their success in first-round games. Auburn has an 11-1 record in first-round NCAA Tournament games, winning their last 11 after losing their first. The games, however, have typically been close. Of Auburn’s 12 previous first-round games, 10 were decided by 10 points or less, with 1999 and 2022 being the only outliers.

It is a matchup of teams that won their conference tournaments as Auburn earned an 86-67 win over Florida in the SEC title game and Yale used a buzzer-beater to get a 62-61 win over Brown in the Ivy League title game.

“To be honest, it hasn't really felt like we had any days off since, like, the post-season started,” said forward Jaylin Williams. “Having a day off the day of Selection Sunday was basically like our travel back to Auburn and getting our feel back and then we're back to practicing again. So we always are prepared at the best of our abilities.”

The Tigers and Bulldogs have one common opponent this season – Penn. Auburn defeated the Quakers by 20 points at Neville Arena on Jan. 2. The Bulldogs went 2-0 against Penn this season, winning by 16 at home and 14 on the road.

In its matchup with Yale, Auburn will face a strong defensive unit. The Bulldogs give up just 66.6 points per game, 39th in the country. The Bulldogs’ defense is slightly more vulnerable behind the arc, as Yale ranks 148th nationally, giving up 3-pointers at a 33.2% clip. Yale is 43rd nationally in rebounding margin.

“We have great respect for them, we have great respect for their league, great respect for this team, and their players and their coaching staff. They do a terrific job,” Pearl said. “They're really, really hard to cover… Probably the area that Yale would be the most underrated is their defense and their rebounding.”

The Yale offense’s biggest strength is its ball security. The Bulldogs only turn the ball over 9.5 times per game, 11th in the country. Auburn, meanwhile, is in the nation’s top 100 in forcing turnovers, forcing 12.88 per game.

The Bulldogs’ offense is 16th nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio, largely due to its lack of turnovers. Auburn, meanwhile, is eighth nationally in that stat, mainly because of its 18 assists per game.

Unlike Auburn, which relies heavily on its bench, the Yale bench is not utilized very much. The Bulldogs’ bench averages just 15.35 points per game, 279th in the country – a far cry from Auburn’s fourth-ranked bench that averages 34.06 points per contest.

Danny Wolf leads the Bulldogs in both points, with 14.3 points per game, and rebounds, with 9.8 boards per game. 

“Danny's a tough cover,” Pearl said. “He is really big, he's got great skills, he can put the ball on the floor, he can pass it with either hand, he can score it over either shoulder, he's got a real good feel for the game.”

The Tigers and Bulldogs have only met once on record, with the Tigers taking an 86-64 home win on Dec. 4, 2021. Four of Auburn’s rotation players participated in that game, scoring a combined 41 points. 

K.D. Johnson led all scorers in that matchup with 19 points, Dylan Cardwell scored 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting, Jaylin Williams scored seven and Chris Moore scored five.

Auburn is 6-1 against Ivy League opponents in its history, with the lone loss coming to Harvard in the Diamond Head Classic on Dec. 23, 2015.

Tipoff of the first-round matchup between the Tigers and the Bulldogs is set for 3:15 p.m. CT for a national broadcast on TNT.