Columbia pictures.
Photos from today’s game courtesy Robert Solomon (and his fancy new camera).
Princeton 77 Columbia 66.
Postgame audio - Coach Mitch Henderson, Douglas Davis & Mack Darrow:
While one of his teammates previously nicknamed him “The Mack-sheen” (which sounds better than it reads) it might be time to start calling Princeton’s junior forward Knack Darrow.
On Friday night versus Columbia, Darrow had the knack in his team’s 77-66 win.
The knack to make big plays, as he did at the end of the first half with a steal and a three point shot in the final 17 seconds to tie the game at 27.
The knack to convert big baskets, like the one he hit from the top of the arc with 12:22 left in the second half to place the Tigers in front for good.
The knack to grab offensive boards to keep possessions alive. Princeton scored a staggering 12 straight occasions with the ball to end the game and Darrow preserved the pill for the orange and black three times due to putbacks crashing the glass.
The knack to make important free throws. Darrow was a perfect 9-9 at the line as Princeton kept Columbia at a three possession length the final 8:55.
By the end Darrow had a career high 19 points and eight rebounds.
“Mack is our most efficient player by far,” said Princeton head coach Mitch Henderson, a self-professed ‘numbers guy.’ “He makes everybody better.”
Lost in this performance was Douglas Davis’ 20 tally output wherein he caught and passed assistant coach Brian Earl for fifth on Princeton’s scoring list.
Ian Hummer started slow but finished with 16 of his own at the close of the night.
Princeton’s defense took center Mark Cisco and guard Brian Barbour’s preferences away. While Barbour was scored 22 they weren’t an easy 22 (eight came during a desperate final three minutes) and Cisco was not a factor either scoring or rebounding.
Princeton J.V. 64 Mercer 63.
Postgame audio - Coach Howie Levy:
Freshman center Bobby Garbade's righty hook shot bounced in at the buzzer to give the Princeton J.V. a one point victory over Howie Levy's Mercer County Community College Vikings (4-21).
It was, depending on your point of view, either the Tigers' third chance to win the game or MCCC's third chance to lose the game in the final seconds.
After the Vikings scored seven straight to pull even in the waning moments, Clay Wilson's far baseline pull up broke a 60-60 tie until Armando Davis promptly placed his team up one with a three point shot on the right wing.
Wilson, who connected eight times from behind the arc on his way to a game best 37 points, could not answer with a long trey try of his own and Mercer was fouled grabbing a rebound.
The front end of a one and one by Filip Sekulic with :10.9 showing came up short and the Tigers first nearly threw an inbounds mid court pass away that Chris Clement ran down in the corner fighting off his man with :04.5 on the clock.
After the subsequent time out, a deflected inbounds from Daniel Edwards drew another second down and to finish off a painful season for Levy's team in appropriately agonizing fashion Clement's inbounds lob to Garbade resulted in the game-winner from the middle of the lane.
Garbade had eight points, Edwards nine, Clement and Brian Fabrizus five each. No other Tigers - including Tom Noonan off the bench - scored.
Video of the exhibition's final moments after the jump.
Know! Your! Foe! - Columbia & Cornell updates.
For the first time in site history, we ran the table in the opening half of Ivy League play, publishing seven different Know! Your! Foe! interviews with seven different experts on each Princeton opponent.
What to do for the back end of the conference schedule? Well, repeat Q&As would be overkill so instead each subject has been asked back to provide a refresher on how the team they initially talked about has been playing since we last conversed.
After the jump you'll find insight from John Templon of Big Apple Buckets and Brian Delaney from 1160 ESPN in Ithaca.
Both do a great job updating the play of this weekend's foes.
If you want to read their original takes on these teams, please check out these Columbia and Cornell K!Y!F! posts from January.
Additionally, if you cover a team the Tigers will face down the line, let us know. It would be great to talk with you.
Coach Mitch Henderson - 2/16/12.
This afternoon at Jadwin Gym, Tigers head coach Mitch Henderson and princetonbasketball.com editor Jon Solomon sat down to tape their weekly interview.
Henderson and Solomon reviewed Princeton's recent sweep of Dartmouth and Harvard in great detail and extensively previewed a second consecutive weekend at home against Columbia and Cornell.
Along the way the pair also talked about the approach to the second half of Ivy play, if ball screens are something Henderson would like to use more at Princeton, if the norovirus outbreak on campus has effected the team and (of course) Jeremy Lin.
This exclusive, longer than usual Q&A is 19:00+ in length.
If you have questions for future interviews, please feel free to send them here.
Updated Plus/Minus numbers.
With Princeton at the mid-point of Ivy play, the Tiger athletic department was kind enough to update this season's plus/minus numbers. I've generated my own Ivy-only and DI-only plus/minus numbers in Excel out of that document.
The first of four charts shows the number of minutes played across the first 23 games this season and the difference in points scored by Princeton while each player was on the floor versus points allowed by the Tigers during the same span.
The second chart shows the same information for non-conference games only, followed by non-conference versus DI opponents and Ivy-only data.
I've also broken down +/- per 40 minutes for all players who have seen at least 100 minutes of action and added Net/40 numbers ("Roland Rate") with inspiration from Hoya Prospectus. This data has been split into non-conference and Ivy-only as well.
Jeremy Lin vs. Princeton.
The recent, rapid ascent of Harvard alum Jeremy Lin from undrafted NBDL afterthought to trending topic, international phenomenon and nickname machine has been incredible to watch from afar.
When at Jadwin over the weekend I fielded a number of questions about Lin and how Princeton had contained him the eight occasions he faced the Tigers. The same thing happened each time I cleared my inbox after I got home.
After the jump, you'll find Lin's stat lines and complete recaps from these contests.
Lin was 2-6 versus Princeton as a member of the Crimson, 2-2 at home and like all other Harvard players the past 20 years, winless at Jadwin Gym.
NBA GMs trying to scout Lin who read this site: Why not sign Kareem Maddox, stat?
YouTube potpourri LIX.
Here's the latest collection of videos from various corners of the Princeton basketball family. Above, the true sign you've made a cultural impact in this modern world of ours: A reworking of a pop song about Princeton's victory over Harvard.
Five additional clips after the jump.
Mitch Henderson on Yahoo! Sports Radio.
Princeton head coach Mitch Henderson joined Tim Brando on Yahoo! Sports Radio this afternoon. Use the embedded player above to listen.
A second archive of classic Princeton photos.
David Zeft, whose photographs were first shared on the site at the start of the month, came up to me on Saturday night at Jadwin Gym carrying a yellow plastic bag filled with a stack of historic shots from the past 30 years of Princeton basketball.
I've scanned an initial octet of images this afternoon, the majority of which follow after the jump. Some serious treats here with more of equal quality to come down the line. I can't thank him enough.
Above, the overflow Selection Sunday crowd for the 1990-91 made-for-CBS regular season finale against Loyola Marymount. Shot taken by climbing a camera stanchion!
Top 25 teams at Jadwin the past 35 years.
Since Saturday night's victory over Harvard I've received multiple inquiries that were variations on the same question:
"Between beating Notre Dame in 1977 and last weekend, how many Top 25 teams did Princeton actually play at Jadwin Gym?"
While schools like BYU (81-82), Penn (93-94) and Xavier (00-01) were all ranked either before or after specific visits to Mercer County, these appear to be the only then-ranked teams that have played the Tigers on their home floor in the past 35 years.
The most common misconception when I was doing my research is that Loyola Marymount was highly regarded when they came across the country to close the 1990-91 season. In fact the Lions had a 16-14 overall record. Which reminds me, I need to scan some shots from that game next...
Full list after the jump. Add your memories from any and all in the comments!
