2018–19 Yale Bulldogs men's basketball team 2018–19 Yale Bulldogs men's basketball team The 2018–19 Yale Bulldogs men's basketball team represented Yale University during the 2018–19 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Bulldogs, led by 20th-year head coach James Jones, played their home games at John J. Lee Amphitheater of the Payne Whitney Gymnasium in New Haven, Connecticut as members of the Ivy League. The Bulldogs finished the 2017–18 season 16–15, 9–5 in Ivy League play to finish in third place. In the Ivy League Tournament, they lost to Penn in the semifinal round. !colspan=9 style=| Non-conference regular season !colspan=9 style=| Ivy League regular season </small>
Southern Ivy conference originated during the 1950s. Harvie Branscomb, then-chancellor at Vanderbilt University, originally attempted to establish a rivalry between Vanderbilt and traditional Ivy League schools to foster relationships with academically-oriented schools. The school followed through on this effort and played a game against Yale in October 1948. However, after the Vanderbilt Commodores shut out the Yale Bulldogs, 35-0, Yale said they no longer wanted to play Vanderbilt. This caused Branscomb to call a meeting with the presidents of other Southern private universities in the late 1950s—Southern Methodist University (SMU), Rice University, Duke University and Tulane University— where Branscomb suggested they try