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An interview with Pawel Buczak.

You may not remember five years down the line, but Pawel Buczak's addition to the Princeton basketball team was close to an afterthought.

The seventh and final member of Joe Scott's 2006 recruiting class - which included the more heralded Zach Finley, Lincoln Gunn, "preferred walk on" Nick Lake, Chris Petrie, Marcus Schroeder and fellow South Jersey resident Blake Wilson - Buczak put in the time and the hard work to rise the depth chart from seeing the floor briefly in only five games his freshman year to an Honorable Mention All-Ivy player come his junior year.

As a senior he started all 31 contests for a 22 win Tiger squad.

While employed as a Investment Risk Analyst since graduation, Buczak never stopped working on basketball. Like it did his junior year, his hard work had a payoff. A week ago the Krakow-born Buczak joined up with Polish second division team Slask Wroclaw for the 2011-12 season.

Buczak and I exchanged emails yesterday as the former Princeton center scrambled to tie up several loose ends before starting his new career as a basketball player. I sent a list of questions over and he answered a handful in return. Our conversation folows after the jump.

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Monday News:

Will Venable stayed hot with the bat and on the base path, 3-5 with a pair of stolen bases on Sunday (video), as San Diego finished a series sweep of Pittsburgh. Venable is hitting .355 in his last 10 games and is 6-11 at the plate (.545) in the previous three contests since missing time due to back spasms.

It appears Venable's Princeton teammate Judson Wallace may be signing with FC Barcelona. Somehow this involves an Albanian passport?

Summer league details aren't as easy to come by as everyone would like but here's a touch more on Ian Hummer and his final game at the Kenner League.

Will Barrett foul trouble and a depleted roster were factors that did in Stomp Off in the DelCo Pro-Am playoffs.

Trying to piece together how action finished up for T.J. Bray and Jimmy Sherburne at the Milwaukee Pro-Am, here's a box score for their penultimate game before the league's playoffs began. Bray and Sherburne didn't see the floor in RYCO's final "regular season" contest.

A Minnesota forward who had shown interest in Princeton verbally committed to Northwestern.

A more challenging schedule awaits Oregon State in 2011-12.



Friday News:

The Princeton Athletic Department has posted interviews with Brendan Connolly (.mp3) and Will Barrett (.mp3). Both juniors update what they've been working on to improve over the summer.

Another member of the class of 2013, Ian Hummer, was involved in a triple overtime game during the Kenner League quarterfinals. Hummer's Hoop Magic team eventually lost 78-71.

ESPN revealed that Fairfield will kick off Old Spice Classic play versus Arizona State on November 24th. There's video of Sydney Johnson talking with Andy Katz about the tournament.

Earlier that same week Georgetown meets Kansas in the first round of the 2011 Maui Invitational. The Hoyas will also host Memphis on December 22nd.



Thursday News:

Sutor Basket Montegranaro of Italy's Lega A is rumored to have interest in Dan Mavraides. The team's GM Gianmaria Vacirca visited Princeton in 2009 and wrote about his time with the Tiger coaching staff for Sutor Magazine.

Former Princeton player Chris Long was appointed to the Kansas Public Employees Retirement Board of Trustees by Governor Sam Brownback.

Details about individual game tickets on the Harvard web site make it easy to add dates for four more of this season's Ivy contests. Princeton will play the Crimson twice in 13 days, first at Jadwin Gym.

As one of four "featured teams," Oregon State shall open the TicketCity Legends Classic at the Izod Center in East Rutherford on November 19th against Texas. The other semifinal pits Vanderbilt and NC State.

On November 17th Northwestern now knows they'll begin the eight team, three game Charleston Classic against LSU.

Yale's Greg Mangano made USA Basketball's final roster for the World University Games.



Pawel Buczak to play in Poland.

Since graduating Princeton in 2010, Pawel Buczak has been regularly donning a dress shirt and a tie as an Investment Risk Analyst in the New York City area.

That lifestyle will soon change drastically as Buczak recently signed to return to the hardwood with Polish second division team Slask Wroclaw for the 2011-12 season.

Slask Wroclaw was once a premiere Polish squad with 17 PLK championships, but fell on hard financial times in 2008. They finished 12th out of 16 teams in Poland's Tauron Basket Liga a season ago, sporting an 11-19 record.

By returning to the country where he was born, Buczak becomes the fifth Tiger employed as a professional basketball player in Europe - with the inevitable destination of recent alum Dan Mavraides still up in the air.



Wednesday News:

Almost a year to the day after initially committing to Princeton, there's a new profile of incoming Tiger freshman Denton Koon.

The 14-Game Tournament has a stellar, well-calculated piece on the past 15 years in the Ivy League and what those numbers mean for the future.

Cornell released their 2011-12 schedule, which confirms that Princeton shall open conference play with four straight road games.

A commercial photographer from Seattle attended Princeton's graduation to see his nephew Kareem Maddox. The pictures he took beautifully capture the experience.

Northwestern is asking fans for feedback on four different new basketball court designs. My vote goes to anything but the all-purple court.

Sydney Johnson is trying to work out an early visit from former Fairfield coach Ed Cooley. A proposed matchup between the Stags and Providence would come on November 14.

Douglas Davis, Will Barrett and Stomp Off won their final game at the DelCo Pro-Am to sew up the sixth seed in a playoff tournament that begins tonight. GoodAfterNoonan did not make the cut, but in one of their last contests Tom Noonan scored 21 points.

Over the weekend Stomp Off lost to former New York Knick and Los Angeles Clipper Mardy Collins' T.Y.G.T.A.L team. It sounds like Davis was well-defended by Collins throughout.



Monday News:

Ian Hummer talks about the upcoming season and what he's been working on this summer.

Three more box scores from T.J. Bray and Jimmy Sherburne's efforts at the Milwaukee Summer Pro-Am. After a slow start RYCO has won four out of five heading into the league playoffs this weekend.

76-73 W : 91-87 W : 82-75 L

A pair of events for your Mitch Henderson social calendar - He'll guest at the Princeton Regional Chamber of Commerce's Slam-Dunking To Success breakfast on August 17, and going off of this picture will be part of a panel discussion with Andy Katz on ESPNU.

Former Tiger Ed Persia is one of those quoted in Sports Illustrated's piece about David Salinas.

A Northfield Mount Hermon big man mentions he may take a possible trip to Princeton.



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