The Yale Bulldogs were not even supposed to be here. The team had not made the NCAA Tournament in 54 years and had never won a game in the big dance in the history of its men's basketball program.
Yale did not even win a conference tournament to earn a bid, like most of the rest of the non-Power 5 participants did. So how on Earth did such an underdog manage to grab more rebounds than a bigger, faster and more proven team like Baylor?
One reporter posed that question to Baylor forward Taurean Prince, though not in that exact fashion, but his bewilderment was obvious, as if he tried to italicize the two school's names with his voice to drive the point home.
"How does Yale outrebound Baylor?"
Prince responded in terms as plain as he could muster.
"You go up and grab the ball off the rim when it comes off, and then you grab it with two hands and you come down with it and that's considered a rebound," he deadpanned. "So they got more of those than we did."
Prince just rocketed to the top of Greg Popovich's draft board. The Baylor forward may well just be the revolutionary Popovich needs to fight the mundaneness of the NBA's sideline interviews and postgame press conferences. Imagine the San Antonio Spurs after a crushing loss with Kwahi Leonard and Tim Duncan saying next to nothing while Pop and Prince deadpan sarcastic remarks to questions about how their opponents managed to topple the mighty Spurs.
As the saying goes with the NCAA Tournament, "anything can happen," and in March, box scores do not take conferences into consideration. And this box score showed an advantage by Yale in multiple categories, including the tempo.
"I thought Yale did a great job in the second half, making things tough for us to score," Baylor coach Scott Drew said after the game. "We only shot 38 percent. But I thought [Makai] Mason really controlled the game. We had a difficult time matching him."
Yale (22-29, 75 percent) attempted and made more free throws than Baylor (9-15, 60 percent). Yale (53 percent) had a better field goal percentage than Baylor (44 percent).
"I kind of just felt in the zone, I guess," Mason said. "I guess I thought if I missed it, I'm sure our coach would have screamed at me... Luckily, I was able to knock it down."
