Posters at Yale: ‘Stop supporting a rapist’

Yale is in the hunt for its first men’s NCAA basketball tournament since 1962, potentially making the Bulldogs one of the feel-good stories of the season.

But all of that is buckling under the weight of damaging posters that appeared on campus this week that call on the Yale team to “stop supporting a rapist.”

This comes after senior captain Jack Montague withdrew from the university for undisclosed reasons Feb. 10 and after his teammates wore his No. 4 and his nickname — “Gucci” — on their warm-ups before last Friday’s game against Harvard.

Protest signs against this show of support began appearing on campus Monday and more went up Wednesday, according to a report in the Yale Daily News that included a photo of a blackboard with the words: “Rape culture is standing by your teammate and silencing Yale’s victims of sexual assault.”

Officer David Hartman, media liaison for the New Haven (Conn.) Police Department, told USA TODAY Sports, “There is no case, no investigation and no charges (involving Montague). Not with our department.”

Neither the school nor team said why Montague left abruptly during a successful season.

Tom Conroy, university press secretary, said by email that Yale has no comment on the posters or why any student leaves school.

The Yale Women’s Center posted a statement on its Facebook page that apparently refers to Montague:

“We recognize that FERPA and Yale policy prohibit Yale from commenting on the exact nature of the incident. Though the silence is deeply frustrating to us and surely to many of you, Yale’s actions speak much louder than its words. It appears that Yale has expelled a high-profile member of a sports team in the midst of a pivotal moment in the season on the basis of sexual violence.”

The post offers no substantiating evidence of violence.

Vicki Beizer, public relations coordinator for the Yale Women’s Center, said by email: “We have no direct knowledge about the accuracy or inaccuracy of campus speculation. We seek only to move conversations that are already happening on campus in a more productive direction.”

Montague was averaging 9.7 points a game. The Bulldogs are 20-6 and 11-1 in the Ivy League, a half-game ahead of Princeton.

The Ivy League has no conference tournament and the NCAA bid goes to the regular-season champ, though Yale and Princeton could meet in a one-game playoff if they end the season tied.