MCCC vs. Cecil C.C. - 3:00 pm ET
Denver vs. Oregon - 11:30 pm ET - BTI Invitational
Harvard vs. George Mason - 4:00 pm ET
Davidson vs. Penn - 7:00 pm ET
Dartmouth vs. Providence - 7:00 pm ET
Yale vs. Quinnipiac - 8:00 pm ET - Connecticut 6 Classic
Tied at 37, UC Santa Barbara pulled away from Denver (0-1) in the second half of their BTI Invitational pairing.
The Schuylkill 16 is back for a third season! Princeton is voted the region's sixth-best team in the first poll.
Around the Ivy League: Cornell (1-0) defeated Albany 65-61 in head coach Bill Courteny's first game. Columbia (0-1) played well but faded late at La Salle. Brown (1-0) opened their year with a 69-65 win at Fordham.
Postgame audio - Coach Sydney Johnson, Dan Mavraides & Ian Hummer:
If tonight's opener for the 2010-11 Princeton basketball season is a microcosm of what is to come over the next 29 games, it is going to be a wild ride.
There were so many ups and downs, questions raised and questions answered alongside near-simultaneous thrills and frustrations that the game between Rutgers and Princeton at Jadwin Gym needed five extra minutes after regulation concluded to try and fit them all in.
The Tigers raced to a 14 point first half lead, matched last season's point total against the Scarlet Knights by the break (44) but were eventually passed by Rutgers with less than seven minutes to go as the Scarlet Knights extended their defense on the wings before rallying to force overtime and holding on for the five point victory with 8-8 OT shooting at the free throw line.
It was as exhausting as the above run-on sentence implies.
"I thought that there was a lot of guts there," said Princeton head coach Sydney Johnson. "I was pleasantly surprised."
Drama and pathos aside, the end result was the Tigers' first victory over a "Big Six" school since 2004.
Led by a career high 26 points and seven rebounds from senior guard Dan Mavraides and 17 points on 8-10 shooting from Ian Hummer, the Tigers won their curtain raiser for the third time in four seasons under Sydney Johnson.
While Mavraides' six three pointers were appreciated by his coach, other elements stood out. "I think Dan brings a lot more than shooting to our team," remarked Johnson. "Obviously when he shoots and the ball goes in it makes things that much easier. My challenge to him is: "What if your shot is not going down? Can you lead us?' I felt like there were hustle plays there, there was leadership there that doesn't show up in the box score and I want to see that every night."
James Beatty had 15 for Rutgers, one of four Scarlet Knights in double digits.
Princeton's 78 points were the most by a Tiger team against Rutgers since a 79-70 decision in 1995.
I wrote a short piece for the latest Princeton Alumni Weekly previewing Princeton's prospects for this about-to-tip season. Enjoy! - JS
Men's basketball banks on experience By Jon Solomon
Princeton men's basketball is prepared to take aim at an Ivy League title, returning its five top scorers from a team that won 22 games and finished second in the league behind Cornell for the second straight year. With the Big Red graduating five starters from a team that advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16, a versatile Tiger squad could climb to the top of the Ivies for the first time since 2004.
Today's Game:Rutgers (0-0 / 0-0) vs. Princeton (0-0 / 0-0) Location: Jadwin Gym - Princeton, NJ Time: 7:00 pm ET Radio: 103.3 fm WPRB TV: N/A Internet: goprincetontigers.com Series History: Princeton leads 72-44. Last meeting:Rutgers 58 Princeton 44 - 12/3/09.
Rutgers
Princeton
0-0
Home Record
0-0
0-0
Away Record
0-0
0-0
Neutral Record
0-0
170
RPI
98
150
Sagarin
181
149
Pomeroy
138
67.5
Points / Game
60.4
71.7
Points Allowed / Game
53.3
.424
FG%
.441
.666
FT%
.718
.332
3PT FG%
.359
35.8
Rebounds / Game
30.6
11.9
Off. Rebounds / Game
8.9
-3.0
Rebounding Margin
+1.1
13.7
Assists / Game
11.7
14.6
Turnovers / Game
13.1
7.1
Blocks / Game
3.3
Mitchell: 11.8
Points
Davis: 12.7
Mitchell: 6.1
Rebounds
Mavriades: 4.3
Coburn: 3.3
Assists
Mavraides: 1.4
Miller: 1.0
Steals
Mavriades: 1.2
Miller: 1.1
Blocks
Maddox: 0.9
Johnson: .519
FG% (Min: 10 FGM)
Connolly: .571
Mitchell: .894
FT% (Min: 10 FTM)
Saunders: .947
Coburn: .367
3PT FG% (Min: 10 3PTM)
Davis: .428
Team stats are from last season.
Player stats include returning players only.
Georgetown vs. Old Dominion - 7:00 pm ET - Comcast SportsNet Plus
The Citadel vs. Richmond - 7:00 pm ET
Denver vs. UC Santa Barbara - 7:30 pm ET - BTI Invitational
Northwestern vs. Northern Illinois - 9:00 pm ET - bigtennetwork.com
Columbia vs. La Salle - 7:00 pm ET
Cornell vs. Albany - 7:30 pm ET
Brown vs. Fordham - 8:00 pm ET
I don't think any of these pieces have correctly guessed the Tigers' starting lineup.
The 14-Game Tournament has great analysis as to why Princeton will trump Harvard for this season's Ivy crown.
The Home News Tribune says this could be the last season for Rutgers/Princeton. Didn't they run the same article last year? There's also a game preview and three keys to victory as part of their coverage.
Former Princeton guard Pete Hegseth wrote an essay for Veteran's Day.
The Washington Post discusses how a guard-heavy Georgetown squad means the Hoyas are no longer "Big Man U."
One of the toughest non-conference schedules in Division I starts with a season-opening trip to Old Dominion for Georgetown.
Tigers head coach Sydney Johnson and princetonbasketball.com editor Jon Solomon sat down in the Princeton men's basketball Halftime Room at Jadwin Gym on Thursday morning for a wide-ranging conversation in advance of the season opener against Rutgers and this Sunday's trip to Duke.
A few of the topics discussed include: The progress Princeton has made since Media Day, filling the void left by the graduations of Zach Finley and Pawel Buczak, the decision to honor Marvin Bressler with a patch on the new uniforms, how the coaching staff plans to fill the "point guard" position on offense and if there's a player on this year's roster Johnson would have enjoyed playing with.
The unexpectedly lengthy interview includes many listener-submitted questions and is 28:00+ in length.
Interviews with Coach Johnson will appear on this site every week during the 2010-11 season.
The Town Topics has filed a story on Princeton's media day.
There's a profile of Tiger head coach Sydney Johnson in today's Daily Princetonian.
Northwestern's Bill Carmody is "thrilled" about the three recruits who signed their Letters of Intent yesterday.
Denver is preparing to start their season with three games in three days.
I'd imagine Joe Scott is quite pleased that the Pioneers will join the WAC beginning in 2012-13. The repeated road trips to the southeast from Colorado as a member of the Sun Belt had to be grueling.
Richmond tips off their season against The Citadel tomorrow night.
Today's Desmond Hubert update: Dick "Hoops" Weiss reports the New Egypt (NJ) center has narrowed his choices to Maryland, Wake Forest and the Tigers. He'll make a visit to the Princeton campus on November 20th.
I'll be speaking with Princeton head coach Sydney Johnson tomorrow morning in the first installment of our weekly interview series for the 2010-11 season. Donors are encouraged to send in questions you might want me to ask. Hopefully I'll be able to include some of your submissions.
Check the archive for three full seasons of weekly Q&As.
If you want to sign up for princetonbasketball.com's donor-only content to get access to these interviews and have the opportunity to ask Coach Johnson your questions this season, head here.
The 2011 KenPom projections are out. I love these sorts of numbers and can't wait to see how things look after there is some offensive and defensive data to input.
Bleacher Report ranks Princeton #23 in its Mid-Major Top 25.
Yes, I know there are also several pre-season "bracketology" links out there. I just can't bring myself to post NCAA tournament projections in early November.
Bill Carmody is confident he will sign a contract extension with the Wildcats.
Also confident? Oregon State heading into 2010-11.
Am I the last to discover that former Princeton players Nick Lake, Jason Briggs and Max Huc have a (heavy on the Auto-Tune) band? Download their free mixtape here.
Kyle Koncz was one of my favorite Tiger players of the 2000s. Exceptionally crafty but rarely flashy and constantly doing near-imperceptible things away from the basketball on both offense and defense that helped make his teammates better, it is not much of a surprise Koncz has transitioned into coaching since his 2008 graduation from Princeton.
Now an assistant coach at Lake Forest Academy located 35 miles north of downtown Chicago, Koncz - who is fifth all-time in made three pointers as a Tiger with 156 - had a lot more to say responding to my Q&A via email than he ever did in a postgame press conference after Princeton played.
My questions and his answers follow this introduction.
For the last two+ years you've been working at Lake Forest Academy. Tell me about your job and its responsibilities.
This is the start of my third year at LFA, and my responsibilities have changed every year since I have been here. My first year I started out as a teaching intern to gain some experience teaching in the classroom, and also coached three sports (Assistant Cross Country, Assistant Basketball, and JV Volleyball Head Coach).
In year two, I became a full time faculty member, which at a boarding school means you teach four classes, coach two seasons of sports, and have residential duty. I teach our Jr./Sr. elective Psychology course, which basically is an intro class to the study of psychology, and also teach the Freshman Seminar course, which acts as the health course and covers topics such as study skills, social skills, and health information.
This year, I was named the Co-Director of Student Activities which plans weekend activities around the Chicagoland area for our boarding and day students to take part in. I also am in charge of the House Cup which pits four different houses against each other in a variety of competition throughout the year. It's pretty much like Harry Potter I am told, but I never read the books so I wouldn't know for sure.
On top of that I also have residential duty during the week and weekends, were I act as a parent, or in my case a big brother, to many of the boarding students. I wear a lot of hats and it is a really busy schedule, but it keeps me busy so I can't complain.
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
