Since the calendar moved forward, Princeton senior co-captain Marcus Schroeder has put together a stellar six game stretch.
It isn't Schroeder's job to score - his season high is eight points at George Washington, but few players steady their team and put their teammates in position to succeed like he does.
In addition to our recap, read about Princeton's win at Yale on goprincetontigers.com, in the New Haven Register and on yalebulldogs.com.
Georgetown (16-4) shot 71.7% from the floor for the game and was 15-18 from inside the arc in the second half, beating Duke, 89-77. Hoya Hoops has the postgame audio.
John Shurna's career high 31 were not enough as Northwestern (14-7) fell by nine at Michigan State.
Richmond (16-6) shut down Saint Louis, 62-36.
Mercer (12-11) beat Salem yesterday. Uros Kovacevic scored 16 as the Vikings won their second straight.
Denver (13-9) dropped its eighth in a row on the road, 73-62 at Arkansas State.
Oregon State (9-12) fell 62-52 to UCLA.
Princeton recruit Tom Noonan went for 20 in Penn Charter's loss to Episcopal Academy.
Future Tiger Chris Clement had 22 as Stony Point fell to Cedar Park. There's a video package of highlights available at this link.
Around the Ivy League: Cornell (18-3 / 4-0) sent a message by thoroughly dominating their showdown with Harvard (14-4 / 3-1) by 36. Columbia (7-11 / 1-3) topped Dartmouth (3-14 / 0-4) for their first conference win of the season. Penn (2-14 / 1-1) won at the buzzer in controversial fashion as Dan Monckton's layup appears to have come well after time expired, giving the Quakers a 55-54 win over Brown (7-14 / 1-3).
John Thompson III's 200th career victory took place in front of the President of the United States, who joined Verne Lundquist and Clark Kellogg on the Duke/Georgetown broadcast during the second half.
They referenced a game Kellogg played against Craig Robinson at Madison Square Garden, a 59-55 triumph for the Buckeyes in the 1981-82 season.
Postgame audio - Coach Sydney Johnson, Marcus Schroeder & Kareem Maddox:
Yale cut a 10 point Princeton lead in half midway through the second half and was looking to crawl closer when Tiger coach Sydney Johnson made a personnel move he had not tried all night.
Johnson sent the senior center tandem of Pawel Buczak and Zach Finley on the floor together and Princeton was able to ride their shoulders on a 19-4 run that closed out the game after the Bulldogs had pulled even.
"Tough road game. Conference play. Just to have some experience out there helped us," said Johnson after Princeton's second straight Ivy win. "At the least we just kind of settled in. Things weren't so new to us and so surprising because those guys have played a lot of time. It was effective this time around."
Buczak's high arcing jumper from just inside the three point line sailed through the net as the shot clock expired to give the Tigers a 43-40 advantage and Marcus Schroeder - who finished the night with six assists and no turnovers - found Douglas Davis for three on the right wing after Buczak cleared out two Bulldog defenders on a wide downscreen. Buczak's hesitation hook over Greg Mangano took the lead up to eight with 6:41 remaining.
Davis finished with a team best 13, but it was Princeton's ability to post Buczak, Finley, Kareem Maddox and Ian Hummer that provided the Tigers with 22 points in the paint. Maddox had a solid game, scoring nine points off the bench on 4-5 shooting and all but icing the result when he sized up a baseline jumper off a Schroeder drive to make it a 52-43 game.
Princeton was 6-6 at the free throw line in the game's final 1:13.
Alex Zampier, the Ivy League's leading scorer entering Saturday was 4-11 off the the bench and did not make a three point shot. Zampier did not start the game because he "broke a team rule" according to Yale coach James Jones. He finished with 13 points and six turnovers.
Photos from last night's game courtesy of Robert Solomon. He's no Stephen Goldsmith, but what are you gonna do?
Today's Game: Princeton (10-5 / 1-0) vs. Yale (8-12 / 2-1)
Location: John J. Lee Amphitheater - New Haven, CT
Time: 6:00 pm ET
Radio: 103.3 fm WPRB
TV: N/A
Internet: goprincetontigers.com
Series History: Princeton leads 139-81.
Last meeting: Princeton 62 Yale 54 - 2/28/09.
| Princeton | Yale | |
| 5-1 | Home Record | 4-3 |
| 5-4 | Away Record | 2-6 |
| 0-0 | Neutral Record | 2-3 |
| 140 | RPI | 295 |
| 148 | Sagarin | 283 |
| 140 | Pomeroy | 263 |
| 60.3 | Points / Game | 66.0 |
| 54.5 | Points Allowed / Game | 62.0 |
| .424 | FG% | .427 |
| .728 | FT% | .722 |
| .355 | 3PT FG% | .300 |
| 29.7 | Rebounds / Game | 35.4 |
| 8.8 | Off. Rebounds / Game | 12.3 |
| -1.6 | Rebounding Margin | +0.5 |
| 12.1 | Assists / Game | 13.5 |
| 13.9 | Turnovers / Game | 14.8 |
| 3.3 | Blocks / Game | 4.7 |
| Davis: 14.1 | Points | Zampier: 18.1 |
| Mavraides: 4.9 | Rebounds | Sands: 6.0 |
| Schroeder: 3.3 | Assists | Braswell: 2.6 |
| Schroeder: 2.2 | Steals | Zampier: 2.7 |
| Buczak: 0.9 | Blocks | Mangano: 2.1 |
| Finley: .581 | FG% (Min: 10 FGM) | Davis: .514 |
| Schroeder: .857 | FT% (Min: 10 FTM) | Zampier: .861 |
| Saunders: .486 | 3PT FG% (Min: 10 3PTM) | Morgan: .385 |
Duke vs. Georgetown - 1:00 pm ET - CBS
St. Louis vs. Richmond - 2:00 pm ET - The Comcast Network
Salem vs. Mercer - 3:00 pm ET
Northwestern vs. Michigan State - 6:00 pm ET - Big Ten Network
UCLA vs. Oregon State - 7:30 pm ET
Denver vs. Arkansas State - 9:00 pm ET
Penn vs. Brown - 7:00 pm ET
Dartmouth vs. Columbia - 7:00 pm ET
Harvard vs. Cornell - 7:00 pm ET
In addition to our recap, read about Princeton's Ivy opener on goprincetontigers.com, in the Providence Journal and on brownbears.com.
Watch highlights of Princeton's win over Goucher on WZBN.
A busy Saturday kicks off with Greg Monroe and Georgetown hosting #7 Duke. The Washington Post has more on this marquee matchup.
Richmond welcomes St. Louis to the Robins Center.
Northwestern visits #5 Michigan State.
UCLA travels to Oregon State.
Denver looks to stop a recent slide at Arkansas State.
Princeton recruit Ben Hazel scored 21 as Good Counsel upended O'Connell, 63-59.
Future Tiger Tom Noonan had eight for Penn Charter, who defeated Haverford School by 10.
Around the Ivy League: Cornell (17-3 / 3-0) shut down Dartmouth (4-13 / 0-3) to a 71-37 count. Harvard (14-3 / 3-0) kept pace, pushing aside Columbia (6-11 / 0-3) by 29. Yale (8-12 / 2-1) scored the first 11 points of a 61-48 win over Penn (1-14 / 0-1).
Andy Katz talks with Georgetown's coach the night before the Hoyas face Duke.
Postgame audio - Coach Sydney Johnson:
Postgame audio - Douglas Davis & Ian Hummer:
When your starting center and his backup both pick up two personal fouls in the first 3:27 of the game, a one-sided blowout isn’t a surprise.
What was a surprise is that the team hampered by foul trouble were the ones that dominated play.
With bigs Pawel Buczak and Zach Finley on the bench, Princeton used an unselfish offensive attack and a pressure defense that bothered Brown’s guards before they could get into their sets - opening the game on an 18-7 run and building a 40-18 halftime advantage - cruising to the 63-46 final.
The score of the Ivy opener wasn’t even that close. The Bears did not get within 17 points in the second half until the game’s final basket.
"That's what we do when we're at out best," said Princeton head coach Sydney Johnson after opening his third consecutive Ivy campaign with a victory. "We're trying to learn from some of our mistakes and I think that showed a little bit tonight."
Douglas Davis scored all of his game-best 16 in the first 20 minutes, set up four times behind the arc by his teammates. Ian Hummer bullied for 10 down low, eight after intermission.
Matt Mullery, the interior presence for Brown who came into Friday’s game with a lofty stat line went 2-8 from the floor and finished with 10.
"2-8 - I didn't know that," a surprised Johnson remarked afterwards. "He causes a lot of problems for people. I didn't know that we were able to do that. He's really good, so I guess we caught him on an off night, because he's really, really good."
Today's Game: Princeton (9-5 / 0-0) vs. Brown (7-12 / 1-1)
Location: Pizzitola Center - Providence, RI
Time: 7:00 pm ET
Radio: 103.3 fm WPRB
TV: N/A
Internet: goprincetontigers.com
Series History: Princeton leads 91-24.
Last meeting: Princeton 56 Brown 48 - 2/27/09.
| Princeton | Brown | |
| 5-1 | Home Record | 3-4 |
| 4-4 | Away Record | 3-7 |
| 0-0 | Neutral Record | 1-1 |
| 141 | RPI | 244 |
| 160 | Sagarin | 289 |
| 157 | Pomeroy | 267 |
| 60.1 | Points / Game | 68.5 |
| 55.5 | Points Allowed / Game | 73.6 |
| .423 | FG% | .442 |
| .737 | FT% | .690 |
| .351 | 3PT FG% | .357 |
| 29.5 | Rebounds / Game | 33.5 |
| 8.6 | Off. Rebounds / Game | 8.5 |
| -1.9 | Rebounding Margin | -6.0 |
| 12.1 | Assists / Game | 14.8 |
| 14.2 | Turnovers / Game | 13.8 |
| 3.4 | Blocks / Game | 3.6 |
| Davis: 14.0 | Points | Mullery: 15.3 |
| Mavraides: 4.6 | Rebounds | Mullery: 5.8 |
| Schroeder: 3.4 | Assists | Mullery: 3.1 |
| Schroeder: 2.4 | Steals | Halpern: 0.9 |
| Buczak: 0.9 | Blocks | Mullery: 1.7 |
| Saunders: .574 | FG% (Min: 10 FGM) | Mullery: .565 |
| Schroeder: .917 | FT% (Min: 10 FTM) | M. Sullivan: .840 |
| Saunders: .485 | 3PT FG% (Min: 10 3PTM) | Leffelman: .441 |
Harvard vs. Columbia - 7:00 pm ET
Penn vs. Yale - 7:00 pm ET
Dartmouth vs. Cornell - 7:00 pm ET
It has been 23 days since Princeton played a Division I opponent. In those three+ weeks, the Tigers' rankings in the three primary rating systems heading into these games have changed, some more significantly than others. On the left, before Marist. On the right, before Brown.
Then Now
RPI 138 141
Sagarin 173 160
Pomeroy 184 157
The Providence Journal has a capsule preview of tonight's game. The Brown Daily Herald also discusses this weekend's match-ups.
Yale Bulldogs Examiner and the Yale Daily News talk about this weekend's visit by Penn and Princeton.
The New York Post ranks Princeton's chances of making the NCAA Tournament compared to other area teams.
If you're in Wisconsin and listening to the radio on Saturday morning, Princeton recruit T.J. Bray and Central Catholic coach Dean Bellanti will be on 1250 WSSP.
Yesterday's victory by Oregon State (9-11) over USC felt a lot like the Beavers of a season ago. Calvin Haynes scored 25 points in a 51-45 comeback win.
A bad loss on the road for Denver (13-8), falling 69-57 at UALR after starting the night with a 14-1 lead. The Pioneers, who were second in the nation in team field goal percentage, shot a season low 32.8%.
Mercer (11-11) beat Lackawanna for the first time in nine years, 63-60. Quentin Lofton had a career high 17 points and Uros Kovacevic's twisting layup with two seconds left gave the Vikings their final lead.
Kyle Whelliston from the Mid-Majority slept in The Palestra. That's certainly worth a link.
For the third installment of the popular Know! Your! Foe! series, I exchanged emails with David "Bruno" Wise (pictured above), the biggest only Brown basketball fan I know. May his answers bring you insight about the Tigers' first Ivy foe of the season. This year's Bears have a 7-12 record, recently splitting their home-and-home series with Yale.
How did the Bears' non-conference performance exceeded your expectations from October? What do you wish had gone differently?
Brown played very well in my home of New York City. After a season-opening win at St. Francis (NY), they played a very good St. John's team tight for 40 minutes, and missed a game-tying three at the buzzer. The play of three freshmen had been the positive surprise of the pre-season, with Matt Sullivan, Tucker Halpern and Andrew McCarthy all stepping up and making significant contributions to each of Brown's six non-conference wins. On the flip side, the play from Adrian Williams has also been a surprise. He's a unique player for these Bears because he's one of the few players that can shoot from the outside as well as penetrate and draw defenders, but his shooting struggles have taken them out of a few games they should have had. Brown will not get on a roll if Williams isn't clicking on most, if not all, cylinders.
Senior forward Matt Mullery puts up big numbers (15.3 ppg / 5.8 rpg / 3.1 apg - shooting 56.5% from the floor) that are overshadowed this season by the likes of Jeremy Lin and Ryan Wittman. Tell me about the problems he presents opponents.
I think Matt is the most talented big man in the Ivies, and that statement is intended to include [Cornell center] Jeff Foote. It's his offensive and defensive versatility that tends to catch opponents off-guard. He had led the Bears in either scoring, rebounding, assists, steals or blocks in several games this season. He can shoot the three, post you up, drive by you, and feed it to a back-door cutter. He has better big man fundamentals than anyone in the Ivies has had in a long time; wonderful back to the basket moves, strong and crisp drop-steps, a right and left hand jump hook - the works. The offense runs through him; he touches the ball on most possessions, and a lot of times that's at the top of the key. On the defensive end, he's deceptive; while he's not particularly quick, strong or a great jumper, he is very quick off the floor and his timing and positioning on blocking shots is exceptional.
Three of Brown's top five scorers are freshmen. What can you share about the trio of Tucker Halpern, Andrew McCarthy and Matt Sullivan?
I like all three of these kids a lot. Halpern is a real favorite of mine because he actually wants the ball in crunch time - rare in a freshman. In several of Brown's close games, he's taken (and made) big shots down the stretch. He does a little of everything from shooting the three, to getting inside to pull-ups to getting steals and blocked shots to passing beautifully. He may have the most raw talent of any player on the team. But lately, he's taking too many threes, and he can't limit his game in that way if he's going to be consistently effective.
McCarthy is a hard-nosed player who isn't afraid of contact. He's got nice skills and touch down low, and has had some terrific performances against both strong and weak competition. He stepped in nicely for Mullery when he went down, and doesn't seem to get rattled very easily. A future All-Ivy big man.
Sullivan has by far the toughest job of any of the freshmen - to not only transition from high school to college basketball, but to a new position at point guard. Matt's handled it well, and has contributed both points and assists. He'll only get better at handling the ball and running the offense; he's not there yet, and he'll probably never be a natural point guard, but you can see how smart a player he is just by watching how he maintains composure and handles himself on the court.
I was surprised to see how poorly the Bears have rebounded. Does this surprise you as well?
This has surprised me a little bit. Brown has never been a strong rebounding team, but they run a pretty big lineup for the Ivies, with guys like Mullery and Peter Sullivan, and three freshmen who are all good-sized for their positions. What we don't have is a bruiser, a guy that can clear space in the middle. We also don't box out particularly well; we give up a lot of offensive rebounds to opponents, and a disproportionate number of those seem to come from opposing guards.
Princeton has lost their last four trips to Providence. What do the Bears need to do to make it five in a row?
I don't know Princeton well enough this season, but I know they're much better than they've been in recent years. But for Brown to beat any potential top-half Ivy, three things need to happen: Mullery needs to get the ball in some space, Brown needs to be crisp offensively, and has to shoot reasonably well from three. Brown plays an inside-out game, with some side-to-side, but it all starts with Mullery and being crisp with passes, cuts and picks that lead to open shots. Brown also needs Peter Sullivan back healthy from his ankle injury in the first Yale game. Princeton isn't a team that will kill Brown on the boards, but they're a tight defensive group, and Brown will have to really execute.
What has to happen for the Tigers to trump the Bears?
The Bears don't win when Mullery doesn't play (shoot, distribute) well. That's why he's the focus of so many opposing defenses. Brown doesn't gamble much on defense - they force very few turnovers - which means they stay at home on defense a lot and are less susceptible to some of the strengths of the Princeton offense. One way to offset that is with second chance points, and Princeton should uncharacteristically look to crash the offensive boards.
As someone who grew up in the Princeton area, two closing questions...
Any good Princeton basketball anecdotes you've always wanted to share with the Internet?
You mean like in my first televised game in high school (on CN8), playing for Princeton Day School when I dropped 16 and 7 on Princeton High in our annual cross-town matchup, and one of the announcers said I had a "good stroke"? Or like when I hit the game winner against defending champion Rutgers Prep (and future Brown star Brian Lloyd), and the headline in the Trenton Times was "PDS Gets Wise in Overtime"? You mean anecdotes like that?
In 9th grade (1989), I got to be a ball boy for a New York Knicks fantasy basketball camp in Atlantic City, and for whatever reason, Bob Scrabis and Kit Mueller were invited to participate, fresh off their near upset of Georgetown in the first round of the NCAAs. - I teamed with them for a 3-on-3 game and did not touch the ball once. Just went to show that once out of the confines of the Princeton offense, Princeton players aren't any different than the rest of us.
What's your favorite option at Hoagie Haven?
I'm a little unusual in this, but every time I go, I get the same thing: half of a tuna (the best tuna I've ever had), fries with saltpepperketchup, and butterscotch krumpets. One of my favorite meals whenever I'm home.
Thanks for your time, David! Hope to see you at Jadwin when the Bears visit in a couple weeks.
If you cover a team the Tigers will face down the line, let us know. We'd love to talk with you.
