I wrote a piece for the latest Princeton Alumni Weekly previewing Princeton's prospects this season. Enjoy! - JS
Basketball Seniors Shoot For Ivy Title By Jon Solomon
Last year was a good year - but not a great one - for the Princeton men's basketball team, according to head coach Sydney Johnson '97.
"We were pleased with the forward progress that we made, but we want to keep things in perspective," Johnson said. "To truly be considered great here on the basketball floor - I think that comes with a championship."
Expectations are raised for the Tigers, who return their top nine scorers from a team that went 8-6 in the Ivy League and finished tied for second behind Cornell.
Unseating the two-time defending champion Big Red will be a challenge, according to Johnson. "[Cornell] has talented players who have played several years, and then they have transfers that have been exposed to a bigger-game environment and can add a year or two of experience," he said.
When I spoke with Coach Sydney Johnson on Thursday afternoon, he told me that he wanted his Princeton team to be in the position to win the first game of the year coming out of the final media time out at Central Michigan.
The Tigers went into that stoppage with their nine point edge filed to two this afternoon at the Rose Center in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan and responded when the Chippewas took their first lead since the first half.
"We were trying to settle in emotionally and I think we did an excellent job," said Tiger head coach Sydney Johnson. "Last year we might not have responded the same way."
Douglas Davis scored an up-and-under banker with less than thirty seconds to play to put the Tigers back up one and then made two free throws after blocking the attempt to tie by Central Michigan’s Robbie Harman to help Princeton to a season-opening 71-68 victory.
"He showed a lot of guts," Johnson said about Davis' afternoon. "We want him to continue to be good offensively, but getting that block and making hustle plays, that's really forward progress for him."
Davis and junior Dan Mavraides each totaled 16 points for the Tigers and Zach Finley added 13.
Finley was Princeton’s starting center to open the year, with fellow senior Pawel Buczak sliding to forward. It was an unexpected personnel decision, but one that created some interior advantages for Princeton.
Harman had a game-best 22 points on 6-11 shooting from the perimeter to pace the Chippewas.
Today's Game:Princeton (0-0 / 0-0) vs. Central Michigan (0-0 / 0-0) Location: Rose Center - Mt. Pleasant, MI Time: 12:00 pm ET Radio: 103.3 fm WPRB TV: N/A Internet: goprincetontigers.com Series History: Central Michigan leads 1-0. Last meeting:Central Michigan 55 Princeton 53 - 11/14/08.
Princeton
CMU
0-0
Home Record
0-0
0-0
Away Record
0-0
254
RPI
189
276
Sagarin
233
15
Pomeroy
15
57.8
Points / Game
62.2
57.2
Points Allowed / Game
65.1
.429
FG%
.418
.753
FT%
.631
.373
3PT FG%
.336
30.4
Rebounds / Game
31.6
7.6
Off. Rebounds / Game
11.6
11.2
Assists / Game
9.9
13.1
Turnovers / Game
14.4
2.9
Blocks / Game
2.5
Davis: 12.3
Points
Kellerman: 14.4
Buczak, Finley: 4.1
Rebounds
Kellerman: 5.6
Schroeder: 3.0
Assists
Harman: 3.0
Mavraides: 1.1
Steals
Bitzer: 1.7
Saunders: 0.8
Blocks
Ford: 0.4
Buczak: .550
FG% (Min: 10 FGM)
Ford: .455
Maddox: .836
FT% (Min: 10 FTM)
Bitzer: .863
Schroeder: .512
3PT FG% (Min: 10 3PTM)
Bitzer: .349
Team stats are from last season.
Player stats include returning players only.
MCCC vs. Harford - 4:00 pm ET
Oregon State vs. South Dakota - 9:00 pm ET - Duel In The Desert
Cornell vs. Alabama - 2:00 pm ET
The only preview of today's game I could find was in the Morning Sun.
There's a preliminary report about the Tigers in this week's Princeton Packet.
Basketball-U's Ivy coverage has returned after a one year hiatus! Start with their 2009-10 Princeton summary.
Greg Monroe had 18 points and 11 rebounds to lead Georgetown (1-0) over Tulane, 74-58.
Northwestern (1-0) began their year on the right foot, beating Northern Illinois by 22. There is a chance Wildcat senior forward Kevin Coble may have surgery and redshirt this season.
Richmond (1-0) pulled away from Lehigh down the stretch for a 65-53 win.
Northern Iowa got past Denver (0-1) at Magness Arena, 71-65.
At the Duel In The Desert, Oregon State (0-1) ran into a sandstorm named Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The Beavers were 2-10 from the free throw line in the first half and committed 25 turnovers on the night as they fell in a 44-19 hole that was insurmountable.
Mercer (2-1) went on the road and defeated Chesapeake in double overtime, 77-69. Isiah Andrews and Quincy Hendryx each scored 15 for the Vikings.
Also returning this year is the Schuylkill 16, a weekly ranking of Delaware Valley teams that I vote in. Princeton placed 10th in the Opening Week edition.
Around the Ivy League: Harvard (1-0) began their campaign with an impressive victory at Holy Cross. Brown (1-0) also won on the road, 68-64 over St. Francis (NY). Alex Zampier scored 35, but Yale (0-1) came up short of the finish line, dropping a 92-86 track meet to Sacred Heart. Penn (0-1) was unable to stop Penn State junior guard Talor Battle, who scored 27 points and grabbed 10 boards. The Quakers lost 70-55. Boston College may have had three players suspended for their season opener, but they still had no problem with Dartmouth, 89-58.
Lehigh vs. Richmond - 7:00 pm ET
MCCC vs. Chesapeake - 7:00 pm ET
Northern Illinois vs. Northwestern - 8:00 pm ET - bigtennetwork.com
Tulane vs. Georgetown - 9:00 pm ET
Oregon State vs. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi - 9:00 pm ET - Duel In The Desert
Northern Iowa vs. Denver - 9:30 pm ET
Yale vs. Sacred Heart - 5:30 pm ET - Connecticut Six Classic
Brown vs. St. Francis (NY) - 7:00 pm ET
Dartmouth vs. Boston College - 7:00 pm ET
Harvard vs. Holy Cross - 7:00 pm ET
Penn vs. Penn State - 7:30 pm ET
College basketball really gets going today around the nation.
Tigers head coach Sydney Johnson and princetonbasketball.com editor Jon Solomon met at Jadwin Gym this afternoon to record a lengthy Q&A in advance of the Princeton season opener at Central Michigan.
This interview previews the Central Michigan game, updates listeners on how practice has been going, covers the overall health of the team, discusses the improvements made by two returning sophomores, includes Coach Johnson's first comments on the departures of Zane Ma and Max Huc, has a word on the "indefinite hiatus" taken by one Princeton freshman and includes many questions from subscribers. The interview is 16:00+ in length.
Bad news out of Evanston - Northwestern's leading returning scorer, senior forward Kevin Coble, suffered a foot injury at practice on Tuesday. The severity of this injury is not yet known, but preliminary reports have Coble out for a minimum of 4-6 weeks.
The Town Topics and the Trenton Times both preview Princeton in advance of Saturday's season opener at Central Michigan.
Princeton Alumni Weekly has a short blurb about the Tiger freshmen.
The early signing period began yesterday. Oregon State officially picked up a commitment from highly touted Chicago point guard Ahmad Starks and Denver retained the services of Dallas forward Chris Udofia.
The Washington Post looks at two keys for Georgetown this season.
Richmond hopes to make a run at the NCAA tournament.
Princeton has participated in two closed scrimmages this preseason, hosting one versus Siena and the other last weekend at Towson. Since the NCAA does not permit the public or the media from viewing these scrimmages, word out of each has been minimal, but the Twitter feed for I-95 Ballerz does have a teaser about Tiger freshman Ian Hummer (above). The SienaHoops message board has a thread wherein members try and piece together details from their trip to Jadwin.
Douglas Davis was named to the NYC Metro Preseason Fourth Team by College Hoops Net. The site also lists keys to Princeton's season.
The Hoya has published their comprehensive Georgetown season preview, with seven different articles about the team.
The Daily Northwestern has a cover story about the Wildcats' prospects this season. There are three additional articles about Northwestern basketball in today's issue as well.
Chris Young has been given a clean bill of health and will start throwing at Petco Park on Friday.
Central Michigan junior guard Jalin Thomas is adjusting to his new starting role for the Chippewas.
princetonbasketball.com was founded on April 28th, 1998 in an attempt to provide fans of the Princeton Tigers and Ivy League basketball with the best on-line source for up-to-date news and information. We have since expanded to launch a companion site, Georgetown Basketball News.
As these sites have continued to grow we have increased our coverage to include additional teams with Princeton connections - the Richmond Spiders, Denver Pioneers, Oregon State Beavers, Fairfield Stags and Mercer County Community College Vikings - plus former Tigers playing professional baseball and basketball all over the world. This site is not directly affiliated with the Friends of Princeton Basketball, Princeton University or the Princeton athletic department.
Sun. 11/10 vs. Florida A&M
Sat. 11/16 at Butler
Wed. 11/20 vs. Lafayette
Sat. 11/23 at Rice
Tue. 11/26 vs. George Mason
Sat. 11/30 at Bucknell
Sat. 12/7 vs. FDU
Wed. 12/11 at Rutgers
Sat. 12/14 at Penn State
Fri. 12/20 vs. Portland*
Sat. 12/21 vs. Pacific*
Tue. 12/31 vs. Kent State
Sat. 1/4 at Liberty
Sat. 1/11 at Penn
Sun. 1/26 vs. Kean
Fri. 1/31 at Harvard
Sat. 2/1 at Dartmouth
Fri. 2/7 vs. Columbia
Sat. 2/8 vs. Cornell
Fri. 2/14 at Brown
Sat. 2/15 at Yale
Fri. 2/21 vs. Dartmouth
Sat. 2/22 vs. Harvard
Fri. 2/28 vs. Yale
Sat. 3/1 vs. Brown
Fri. 3/7 at Cornell
Sat. 3/8 at Columbia
Tue. 3/11 vs. Penn
2,503 - B. Bradley, 1962-65
1,625 - I. Hummer, 2009-13
1,550 - D. Davis, 2008-12
1,546 - K. Mueller, 1987-91
1,451 - P. Campbell, 1959-62
1,441 - C. Robinson, 1979-83
1,428 - B. Earl, 1995-99
1,365 - B. Scrabis, 1985-89
1,321 - G. Petrie, 1967-70
1,292 - H. Haabestad, 1952-55
1,277 - G. Lewullis, 1995-99
1,239 - B. Taylor, 1970-72
1,207 - S. Goodrich 1994-98
1,133 - F. Sowinski, 1975-78
1,130 - R. Hielscher, 1991-95
1,122 - C. Thomforde, 1966-69
1,099 - T. Manakas, 1970-73
1,090 - J. Wallace, 2001-05
1,088 - C. Belz, 1956-59
1,079 - B. Hauptfuhrer, 1973-76
1,076 - B. Roma, 1976-79
1,071 - C. Mooney, 1990-94
1,064 - A. Hyland, Jr., 1960-63
1,062 - L. Brangan, 1957-60
1,057 - A. Hill, 1973-76
1,054 - D. Mavraides, 2007-11
1,044 - S. Johnson, 1993-1997
1,031 - J. Hummer, 1967-70
1,010 - W. Venable, 2001-05