Getty Yale Bulldogs guard Matthue Cotton.
Looking to return to the NCAA tournament after last season was canceled, the Yale Bulldogs open up their 2021-22 college basketball regular season with a home game against the Vassar Brewers on Tuesday night.
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The game (7 p.m. ET start time) isn’t on TV, but anyone in the US can watch Vassar vs Yale live on ESPN+:
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Once signed up for ESPN+, you can watch Vassar vs Yale live on the ESPN app on your Roku, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV or Firestick, Apple TV, Chromecast, PlayStation 4 or 5, Xbox One or Series X/S, any device with Android TV (such as a Sony TV or Nvidia Shield), Samsung Smart TV, Oculus Go, iPhone, Android phone, iPad or Android tablet.
You can also watch on your computer via ESPN.com.
Vassar vs Yale Preview
Neither program has competed since early 2020, a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Bulldogs went 23-7 overall and 10-4 in Ivy League action in 2019-20, claiming their fourth conference title in six seasons and the top seed in a conference tournament that never took place.
“It made me hungrier to do what I do,” Yale head coach James Jones said of the lack of competition, according to the Yale Daily News. “Absence makes the heart grow fonder, so to speak. I missed being around the gym, I missed the smell of the basketball, I missed talking to my guys and seeing them face to face and the relationships that you have and being able to work with my assistant coaches and get into a room with a group of people to try to fight for a common goal.”
Jones will have a pair of starters from the 2019-20 campaign at his disposal this time around, both senior guards: Azar Swain, a 2019-20 All-Ivy first-team selection who led the Bulldogs in 3-pointers per contest (3.2) and ranked second in scoring (16 per game), and Jalen Gabbidon, who led the team with 1.3 steals per contest en route to sharing the conference’s defensive player of the year award with the Brown Bears’ Jaylan Gainey.
“[The] guys were in their own respective places during COVID and the break,” Swain said, per the Yale Daily News. “Personally, [when] I’m home training, I don’t really play against people when I’m home, so the competition is something I’ve missed out on.”
The Brewers went 11-15 in 2019-20, including 7-11 in the Liberty League, ultimately succumbing to the Union Dutchmen in the first round of the conference tournament.
Though that squad’s leading scorer and rebounder, Zach Bromfeld, has since graduated, head coach Ryan Mee will have his second- and third-leading scorers back in the fold: junior forward Zach Johnson (11.4 points per game), who also ranked second in boards (7.9 per game), and junior guard Avni Mustafaj, whose 2 assists per contest led the team.
Before taking the reins at Vassar in 2018, Mee was an assistant under the Davidson Wildcats’ Bob McKillop for six years.
“The identity that we’ll have — I’ve shared it from Coach McKillop, with Lou Holtz — but [it’s about] this trust, commitment and care,” Mee told The Miscellany News shortly after taking the top job at Vassar. “You’ll see a lot of this ‘TCC’ around our locker room, our jersey, our program, and our guys will be living this code.”