How Elite is Yale's offense?

Over the past 25 seasons only two Ivy league teams have consistently been top 20 in KenPom offense. One of those teams was Cornell who made it to the Sweet 16 in 2010 losing to Kentucky that had five players whom made it to the NBA shortly after including all stars John Wall and Demarcus Cousins. That team made it past a 4 and 5 seed and finished the year with the 9th ranked KenPom offense in the country, the highest Ivy league finish in the KenPom era which started during the 2002-2003 season. Fast forward sixteen years later and there could be another Ivy league team approaching that level of elite offense. This new team has made back to back March Madness appearances and has seven returning players that played in at least one of those runs. Yale currently holds the 18th ranked offense and currently sits 2nd in team three point percentage in all the land.

Rewind to two seasons ago, the team's current leading scorer, rebounder and assist man Nick Townsend was coming off the bench in Yale’s upset win over Auburn in the first round of the NCAA tournament after winning the Ivy league tournament. Also coming off the bench in that game were key pieces to their offense today Samson Aletan and Casey Simmons. They went on to lose in the Round of 32 to San Diego State and finished the season with a KenPom offense ranked 91st and defense ranked 93rd.

The following year, Yale won the Ivy league regular season and tournament to find themselves in a first round NCAA tournament matchup against Texas A&M. They ended up losing and finished the season with the 59th ranked offense and 115th ranked defense. Yale now had back to back seasons with an NCAA tournament berth and now seven returning players with such experience heading into their current seasons.

They’re 11-1 to begin the 2025-2026 season with Townsend shooting a team high 54.1% from three. Yale is 12th in the country in regards to turnovers per game and 13th in effective field goal percentage showing how efficient this offense really is. They’re also 6th in free throw percentage making almost 80% as a team. The only other offense that was better in Ivy league history in the KenPom era was that 2010 Cornell team, a team that went on a true March Madness run as a 12 seed. According to Joe Lundari’s current Bracketology, Yale would be an 11 going into their third straight NCAA Tournament where they previously held 13 seeds. Could this be the year they break into the second weekend of the tournament for the first time in the modern era?