One year after watching an NCAA Tournament bid slip through their fingers in the final two games of the season, the Yale Bulldogs captured the Ivy League title Saturday by beating Columbia 71-55 and will go dancing for the first time since John F. Kennedy was president.
Hey @Yale_Basketball, YOU READY TO DANCE? #OneIvy pic.twitter.com/J7lpH7NcGD
— IvyLeagueDigitalNet (@IvyLeagueNet) March 6, 2016
Yale hasn't been to the NCAA Tournament since 1962 and it wasn't going to be denied this season after losing at Dartmouth on the final day of the regular season last year and then losing a playoff to rival Harvard. Once the Bulldogs were safely in the NCAA field on Saturday, coach James Jones dedicated the achievement to the seniors on last year's team who came so close without quite achieving their dream of ending the drought.
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Sophomore guard Makai Mason led the Bulldogs with 22 points this time around and Brandon Sherrod added 13. The Bulldogs allowed Columbie to get within four points. Yale had the second longest NCAA Tournament drought of any team that had previously made the tournament, but the Bulldogs no longer have to concern themselves with that.*

Yale managed to get there this time by overcoming the still unexplained departure of team captain Jack Montague last month. Montague's father told the New Haven Register that his son had been expelled but didn't say why on advice from attorneys. The team has continued to support Montague.
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