Tigers head coach Sydney Johnson and princetonbasketball.com editor Jon Solomon met at Jadwin Gym this morning to record a 22:00+ one-on-one interview that looks back on the Tigers' CBI run.
Johnson and Solomon discuss Princeton's first postseason victory since 1999 against Duquesne, review the team's improbable double overtime comeback at IUPUI and break down the season-ending loss to Saint Louis.
To close the 15th episode of their weekly interview series for 2009-10, the pair touch on a few bigger picture questions about the program.
This framed image of the 1990-91 Princeton Tigers was sitting outside the men's basketball office when I went by Jadwin Gym this morning to interview Sydney Johnson.
I had to take a snapshot. Seeing it brought back a lot of fond memories.
Enjoy this photo while I edit some forthcoming audio. You can click to enlarge.
Georgetown's Greg Monroe was named Third Team Associated Press All-American.
Richmond is working on a raise and a contract extension for Chris Mooney. Boston College has shown interest in both Mooney and Cornell coach Steve Donahue for their open head coaching position.
Princeton recruit Chris Clement will play for Boys North in the 2010 Dennis Johnson Memorial High School All-Star Game.
Denver has improved by at least four games in each of the last three seasons.
I've been nothing short of thrilled with the work Stephen Goldsmith has done for this site over the past three years, but I think he outdid himself in 2009-10.
Stephen's images have helped enhance my game stories and analysis. His shots have given members unable to regularly attend Princeton contests a better understanding of specific situations involving this year's team and have often been the only pictures capturing many moments, both home and away.
As part of a series of posts reviewing this past season, I've hand-selected my favorite 15 photos Stephen took covering games for princetonbasketball.com.
It is a tribute to Stephen's talent that I hemmed and hawed all weekend trying to pair down over two dozen top choices to these selections.
It wasn't as uncomfortable as my awkward men's room interaction with Rick Majerus in 2005, but the Saint Louis head coach did have some strange comments during his postgame press conference on Wednesday night.
My favorite moment was when Majerus went on (and on and on) about how good Princeton's "number 23" was and how he could not believe he didn't recruit him.
He proceeded to state several times in a row that he was an extremely talented freshman who would most certainly be Ivy League Player of the Year by the time he was a junior and/or senior in his opinion.
I didn't have the heart to break it to him that Kareem Maddox's junior season had just ended.
Majerus then began to circuitously compare "number 23" to Scottie Pippen, changed his mind, reversed his field and returned to his original postulation in the same run on sentence.
He came back to his Ivy Player of the Year postulation at least one more time, but by this point I was called out of the room as the length of Majerus' comments had moved Princeton's interviews from the Chaifetz Arena's media room to outside the Tigers' locker room.
Princeton's athletic department sent me complete plus/minus sheets for the entire regular season and I've split out Ivy-only plus/minus numbers along with CBI-only plus/minus numbers in Excel out of those .pdfs.
These dandy columns below show the number of minutes played by each Tiger this season and the difference in points scored by the team while each player was on the floor versus points allowed by the Tigers during the same span.
A handful of videos I haven't had found the right moment to post that have been collected over the last week+, starting with highlights of Princeton recruit T.J. Bray (#20) and Catholic Memorial above.
Back in February, I looked at Marcus Schroeder's chances of finishing his career as Princeton's all-time steals leader.
While Schroeder did not reach that mark and came up just shy of 300 career assists, he did conclude 2009-10 as one of two Princeton players in the top five of both categories.
Schroeder's 90 assists and 52 steals this year were both his single-season highs.
Congratulations, Marcus on this impressive feat.
Assists:
413 William F. Ryan, 1981-84
381 Christopher J. “Kit” Mueller, 1987-91
358 John R. Thompson III, 1984-88
304 Mitchell G. Henderson, 1994-98 295 Marcus Schroeder, 2006-10
280 Sydney A. Johnson, 1993-97
270 Nathan W. Walton, 1996-2001
263 Brian W. Earl, 1995-99
260 Armond G. Hill, 1975-76
253 William D. Venable, 2001-05
Steals:
169 Sydney A. Johnson, 1993-97
167 William F. Ryan, 1981-84
167 George H. Leftwich, 1988-92
156 William D. Venable, 2001-05 156 Marcus Schroeder, 2006-10
144 Gabriel E. Lewullis, 1995-99
144 Joseph W. Scott, 1984-87
142 Mitchell G. Henderson, 1994-98
140 Brian W. Earl, 1995-99
136 Armond G. Hill, 1975-76
Postgame audio - Marcus Schroeder, Nick Lake, Zach Finley & Pawel Buczak:
Postgame audio - Coach Sydney Johnson:
The final buzzer sounded for the last time on Princeton’s class of 2010 and the Tigers lined up to shake hands with the victorious Saint Louis Billikens, 69-59 winners in the semifinals of the College Basketball Invitational.
As the two teams dispersed to opposite sides of Chaifetz Arena, one by one Princeton players walked off the floor.
Eventually just a lone Tiger remained on the court.
Senior co-captain Marcus Schroeder, shuffling his feet with his head down while he fought of tears.
As Schroeder reached the edge of the hardwood, hesitant to step into the shadows, his coach stopped him for a second to rub his head and tell him how proud he was.
An instant later both Schroeder and Sydney Johnson were gone, and with them the last memory of a 2009-10 season that both will someday look back on fondly.
“It is tough for all of us losing our last game,” Schroeder said a few minutes after this moment. “I think I speak for all of us seniors that we’ve very proud of what we’ve gone through here. To have a season like this with 22 wins is pretty remarkable.”
The Billikens’ Kwamain Mitchell kept Princeton from adding to their victory total, scoring 17 of his game high 21 points in the first half.
“We tried to stop him in as many ways as we could and it seemed like he found ways to score or if he wasn’t scoring he was dishing it off to someone and they were knocking down a three,” Schroeder said of Mitchell’s effort.
Big man Willie Reed added 20 and 10 rebounds for Saint Louis.
Kareem Maddox’s 16 off the bench paced the Tigers, with Douglas Davis adding 14 - six of those late as Princeton tried to extend the game with fouls.
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
