DENVER — Yale pulled off a big upset as a No. 13 seed in last year’s NCAA Tournament, and it has a chance to make it two in a row from the same position.Yale (22-7) beat Auburn in the first round of the 2024 tournament and faces another Southeastern Conference foe when it plays No. 4 Texas A&M in the South Region opener Thursday night. The Bulldogs are making their fifth appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 2016 and have advanced past the first round twice.The Bulldogs won both the Ivy League regular-season and conference tournament titles.”It’s just become an expectation of what you are and what you think you should do,” coach James Jones said. “I think we’ve gotten to the point where we’ve just reached that expectation that this is how good we think we should be, and we’re gonna work toward that.”Yale has lost just once since the calendar flipped to 2025, March 1 against Harvard, and it goes from facing Ivy League teams to one who plays in a conference that landed 14 teams in the NCAA Tournament.As 2024 showed, the Bulldogs aren’t intimidated by the big stage.”A goal?” senior Bez Mbeng said. “Advance. Win.”Yale has an opportunity to give the Ivy League a win in three straight NCAA Tournaments. Besides last year’s win over Auburn, Princeton beat Arizona as a No. 15 seed in the first round in 2023.The Bulldogs are led by John Poulakidas, who is averaging 19.2 points per game. Poulakidas fueled the upset of Auburn by hitting 6 of 9 from 3-point range and scoring 28 pointsJunior Nick Townsend is second on the team at 15.4 points and leads in rebounding (7.2), and Mbeng is pouring in 13.4 ppg.