If you have a problem with some of Joe Lunardi’s bracketology during this season, fret not — you’re not alone.
As it turns out, ESPN’s resident bracketologist always hears it from college head coaches. When he’s not telling Big East ‘media shills’ to get over themselves or nearly losing his bracket group to the family dog, Lunardi is trading texts with head coaches who think he’s wrong.
Of course, these coaches are also his friends — but that doesn’t stop the jabs. Yale head coach James Jone made sure to throw a playful dig at Lunardi after his Bulldogs clinched the Ivy League title in a 90-84 win over Cornell.
As soon as the celebration settled down, Jones seized the moment to remind Lunardi of an early-season oversight.
“Joe Lunardi’s a friend, and like early on this season, he didn’t have us picked in the conference tournament in his bracketology early on,” Jones explained postgame. “And I sent him a nice note, telling him how he screwed that up two and a half months ago. And he sent me one back and told me I was right.”
After saying he texted @ESPNLunardi earlier this season telling him he was wrong predicting @YaleMBasketball would miss #MarchMadness, he made it clear how confident he is in his team as a lower seed:
“…I’m bringing two suits on the trip…” 👀
“…If we go out and do what we’re… pic.twitter.com/ceOMA0Hj8z
— Tom Carroll (@yaboiTCfresh) March 16, 2025
That exchange came after a question about what seed Yale might land in this year’s NCAA Tournament. Jones, ever the realist, acknowledged his team’s likely placement — somewhere in the No. 12 or No. 13 range — and used the moment to point out that his Bulldogs don’t always get the credit they deserve for what they’ve accomplished.
“And that’s fine,” Jones admitted. “You know, we’re going to go, and we’re going to play hard. We, hopefully, will have the opportunity to go out and win the game in the last five minutes. And that’s what you want to get to because other teams are going to get tight. They’re playing Yale. They’re a higher seed. They’re supposed to win the game. And if we go out and do what we’re capable of, hopefully, we can have a little bit more fun.”
Jones is bringing two suits on the trip, though.
One’s for business, and the other is for when Yale inevitably makes things interesting.
And in that case, Jones will make sure to let Lunardi know he was wrong — once again.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.