GAME NOTES: Yale will start its 120th season of men's basketball on Friday when the Bulldogs take on Quinnipiac.

It will be the middle contest of a triple-header of the Connecticut 6 Classic at the TD Bank Center in Hamden, and will mark a rematch from the 2014 postseason.

After finishing the 2013-14 season in second place in the Ivy League with a mark of 9-5, the Bulldogs were invited to the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament for the second time in three years. They put together a great run in the event last spring, winning four games prior to suffering a 65-57 loss to Murray State in the championship game to finish the campaign at 19-14.

The Bulldogs beat Quinnipiac, 69-68, in the first round of the CollegeInsiders.com Tournament at the John J. Lee Amphitheater on March 19. Justin Sears drilled a 3-pointer with 0.7 seconds left to give Yale the victory.

Yale has been selected to finish second, behind Harvard, in most of the Ivy League's preseason polls. Yale has positioned itself for improvement in 2014-15, as it returns seven players with starting experience, including one of the Ivy's best. As a sophomore, Sears scored 16.9 ppg on nearly 52 percent shooting from the field while adding 6.9 rpg and 1.9 blocks per contest. Javier Duren (13.6 ppg, 3.1 apg) and Armani Cotton (8.5 ppg, 5.4 rpg) are valuable assets, although neither shot greater than 38 percent from the field last season for a team that netted a modest 66.9 ppg.

Quinnipiac is coming off its first season as a member of the MAAC. The Bobcats went 20-12 overall, including 14-6 in conference play. The Bobcats were the nation's top rebounding team last season and are led on the glass by Ousmane Drame, who averaged 13.7 points and a MAAC-best 10.5 rebounds per game for the Bobcats in 2013-14. Drame also had 2.1 blocks per game, second in the MAAC, but he suffered a meniscus tear at the end of the 2013-14 season. He had surgery in May.

A dominant team at home with a record of 10-3, but just 8-8 in true road dates, Quinnipiac made most foes think twice when they tried to compete with the squad in the paint. Ike Azotam (10.2 rpg) helped the group to beat opponents by an average of almost 12 rebounds per contest, but he is no longer on the team. Also a senior this season, guard Zaid Hearst (15.5 ppg) stands as one of the better 3-point shooters for the program after hitting 41.0 percent of his tries a season ago. However, as a unit, the Bobcats were only 35.7 percent accurate out on the perimeter as they generated 78.8 ppg.

The Bobcats will no doubt be out for revenge here, but the Bulldogs have a big advantage in experience. They return 83 percent of the points scored last season and 73 percent of the rebounds yanked down. Expect Sears and Duren to lead Yale to a season-opening victory.