Yale Coach James Jones On WFAN: NCAA Tournament Victory 'Really Special'

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- After Yale upset Baylor in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday, Bulldogs coach James Jones' cellphone got quite a workout.

"I think everybody in my phone has sent me a message," he told WFAN's Mike Francesa on Friday. "I had 450 text messages and about 250 emails and phone calls. It's great because this win kind of binds people, the ripple effect of it."

Twelfth-seeded Yale beat fifth-seeded Baylor 79-75 for the Ivy League school's first ever NCAA Tournament victory.

"It's obviously great, right?" Jones said. "Our kids played so hard. You had a couple of years in a row where we played pretty well. We had 19 wins two years, we had 22 wins last year, and didn't make it to the postseason, came up short. And to get over the hump and win our conference, as we did, 13-1, and ... no one gave us any chance (against Baylor), and to win it was just really special."

Bulldogs guard Makai Mason held his national coming-out party, scoring 31 points in the victory.

"He's been doing this for us all year," Jones said. "Now, he doesn't score 31 points every game, but he's made big play after big play, and he's a tremendous kid, has a great heart, and he's got a killer instinct. He's the kind of guy (that) you want to have the ball in his hands at the end of the game."

In the second round, Yale faces fourth-seeded Duke, a team the Bulldogs lost to earlier this season, 80-61. In that game, Yale led with less than a minute remaining in the first half but faded after a couple of players got into foul trouble.

"It's a great opportunity for us, and we look forward to it," Jones said of facing the Blue Devils again. "We feel that we have an opportunity that we can be successful, and we can't wait to get on the court (Saturday)."

Tipoff is at 2:40 p.m. on CBS.