Princeton held its 2009 Media Day on Wednesday afternoon. Coach Sydney Johnson and select Tigers spoke to princetonbasketball.com about the upcoming season. These interviews are exclusive to our site. If you're interested in inside access like this all season long, please consider becoming a donor.
Photos from today by Stephen Goldsmith can be seen after the jump.
The Ivy League held its Men's Basketball Preseason Media Teleconference this morning, with all eight coaches answering questions from media.
The portion of today's Q&A with Princeton coach Sydney Johnson is available above. An mp3 of the full event should be available on the Ivy League web site later this afternoon.
A second teleconferences will take tentatively take place in mid-January.
I had a chance to speak with Princeton assistant coach Scott Greenman yesterday afternoon about his experiences as head coach of the Junior USA men's basketball team during the 18th Maccabiah Games earlier this month.
Greenman was happy to go into detail about his return to Israel and to discuss his team's loss at the buzzer versus Israel in the gold medal game. This Q&A is 15:00+ in length.
Bill Bradley (shown above in a vintage NBA public service announcement) will present the Commencement Address at Episcopal Collegiate School.
ESPN's Andy Katz reports that Robert Burke may be out as an assistant at Georgetown.
Chris Young was part of a group of San Diego Padres who visited the 14th annual Celebration of Champions' "Torch of Life" relay. The folks at Gaslamp Ball aren't crazy about some of Young's answers in a recent XX Sports Radio interview (.mp3).
C. Young (2-0) - 3.2 IP 9 H 7 ER 2 BB 2 K 4.86 ERA. 82 pitches, 51 strikes.
Chris Young allowed a career-high tying seven earned runs as San Diego fell in a 7-1 pit after three innings, but the Padres battled back, scoring three runs with two outs in the eighth and rallying for the 8-7 victory.
Young was in trouble most of the evening, struggling to find his rhythm. He gave up an immediate broken bat single to Jimmy Rollins to start the bottom of the first. Shave Victorino grounded one through the hole to right to put runners on the corners and Chase Ultey swatted a 1-0 Young offering off the front of the second deck in right field.
By the time the first inning concluded Young had allowed five earned runs and thrown 42 pitches.
But Young's teammates picked him up despite a six run deficit and World Series MVP Cole Hamels on the hill for the Phillies, as San Diego improved its record a surprising 8-3 on the season.
For in-game observations and commentary, check out our Twitter feed.
Postgame audio - Coach Sydney Johnson, Douglas Davis & Dan Mavraides:
Princeton head coach Sydney Johnson has cried at the Palestra.
He cried in the locker room his freshman year, his sophomore year and his junior year after his Tiger teams came up short against the Penn Quakers.
A decade later, in his second season as Princeton's head coach, and for the first time in five years, the Tigers went into the Palestra on Tuesday night and came away with a victory.
"I told the guys in the locker room, I cried like a baby when I lost here and I lost here three times. I shed a lot of tears," an emotional Johnson said after his first win over Penn as a coach. "To win in the Palestra, for a young man who wears orange and black, I can't put it into words. To be able to coach a team that's won here, with the way these guys gutted it out...If I try, I'll lose it."
Trailing by a point, sophomore guard Dan Mavraides made four free throws in the final 30 seconds as the Tigers squeaked past Penn by three. Mavraides finished with a game-high 17 and was a perfect 5-5 from the line.
Center Pawel Buczak matched his career high with 15 for Princeton, going 7-7 at the stripe.
Douglas Davis added 10, finishing third all-time behind Chris Young and Spencer Gloger in points scored by a Tiger freshman (333).
Princeton did not miss a free throw, 13-13 on the night.
Zack Rosen scored 13 for Penn, all in the second half.
Princeton ends the season 8-6 in Ivy play (13-14 overall), tied for second place with Yale.
Postgame audio - Douglas Davis & Patrick Saunders:
The difference between the effort Princeton put forth on Friday at Columbia and the effort exerted on Saturday at Cornell was like night and day. Unfortunately, the result was the same.
The Big Red completed an undefeated home schedule with a 60-51 win over the Tigers. Princeton was within six with under a minute to go, but Cornell held off the Tigers from the free throw line. The victory was the Big Red's 21st straight at Newman Arena.
Princeton freshmen Douglas Davis and Patrick Saunders scored 16 and 13 off the bench respectively. Saunders also grabbed a team-best seven boards.
Ryan Wittman had 12 on 4-12 shooting, one of four Cornell players in double figures.
While the Tigers were knocked out of contention for the 2009 Ivy League championship with their flat 14 point loss at Columbia, that did not dissuade Princeton from playing inspired basketball the next night against the Big Red.
"Tonight was a good effort. Not good enough, and we're not happy about that, but it was a completely different effort than last night," said Princeton head coach Sydney Johnson. "I'm scratching my head. We didn't get after it [on Friday], Columbia outplayed us and we lose. Tonight we got after it, Cornell made enough plays and we lose, but the type of effort we gave tonight will win ballgames."
When Princeton faced Columbia senior sharpshooter K.J. Matsui over the past four years, they held him in check.
Matsui is a great shooter (40.9% from three point range for his career), a poor ballhandler and a bad defender, so the Tigers understood that if Matsui couldn't get the ball in his hands, he couldn't hurt them. Faceguarding him and chasing him around multiple screens, the Tigers took this weapon out of Columbia's arsenal.
Matsui had cracked double figures just once in seven games against Princeton (16 in an overtime loss to the Tigers the first time he played them), and beyond that had never hit more than three three point shots in a game when up against the orange and black. The ball wasn't in his hands enough to make a significant impact.
On Friday night at Levien Gym, seeing the Tigers for a final time, Matsui helped extinguish Princeton's slim hopes of an Ivy League championship with 17 points, including five shots from outside the arc on eight attempts.
Columbia's 58-44 victory eliminated Princeton in the race for the Ivy title.
Two quick curls for early Matsui triples helped the Lions to a 10-2 lead out of the gate and back-to-back shots by Matsui with under seven minutes to go turned a five point lead into an 11 point cushion.
"We weren't focused [on Matsui]," said a dismayed Princeton coach Sydney Johnson. "It is just too bad, because I felt like he is a player that we can limit, and he has been held in check in the past, but we just weren't focused enough to do it."
Douglas Davis scored 10 for the Tigers, eight in the first half.
Postgame audio - Coach John Thompson III, Greg Monroe & Chris Wright:
A moribund St. John's team, who had gone over 13 minutes without a field goal to start the second half, had missed 14 straight shots and had fallen behind Georgetown by 14 points was somehow able to pull even with the Hoyas at the end of regulation and smash Georgetown's postseason chances in overtime.
It was the first overtime game in the 91 meetings between the two Big East rivals.
Two free throws by St. John's Rob Thomas with two seconds left sent the game to the extra frame.
Thomas' offensive rebound and two-handed dunk with one on the shot clock gave the Red Storm a three point lead with 15 seconds left in OT and DaJuan Summers' deep, open three point shot for Georgetown at the buzzer was long off the iron.
Greg Monroe scored a game-high 18 for the Hoyas, but chose to pass the ball on several occasions close to the rim where he should have been less selfish.
Thomas finished with a career-high 16 points and seven boards off the bench.
St. John's outrebounded Georgetown 46-25.
Starting forward Austin Freeman was unable to play the Hoyas. Freeman tried to go through warmups at Madison Square Garden despite an injured hip but could not get his body to respond.
Postgame audio - Coach Sydney Johnson, Jason Briggs & Michael Strittmatter:
Senior Night can make you sappy if you let it.
It is the abrupt close of a chapter that most do not want to shut. It is the culmination of four years of work, much of which is unseen by anyone beyond teammates and coaches. It is a chance for family, friends and fans to watch college seniors play at home for the last time.
But it wasn't perfunctory sappiness that inserted both Jason Briggs and Michael Strittmatter in Princeton's starting lineup for their final game at Jadwin Gym.
Briggs, who barely got off the bench his first two seasons and Strittmatter, who has battled injuries each of the last two years, are self-proclaimed "best friends" and for the first time in their careers, they came out for the opening tip together.
The two seniors earned their spots, and they validated their coach's decision.
The duo of Briggs and Strittmatter helped the Tigers race to an immediate 14-0 lead and Princeton held off repeated Yale rallies from that point forward for the wire-to-wire eight point win.
Dan Mavraides’ 16 led the Tigers, with Douglas Davis adding 12, all in the second half.
Unlike in New Haven, Yale was unable to pound the ball inside to their big men and crash the boards at will. Princeton ended up winning the overall rebounding battle 24-22.
Alex Zampier was high man for the Bulldogs with 19.
"I felt like the guys executed the gameplan to a "T," said Princeton coach Sydney Johnson after his team's sweep of the penultimate Ivy weekend. "Although it might not have looked pretty, it was exactly what we wanted."
Postgame audio - Coach John Thompson III, DaJuan Summers & Chris Wright:
Georgetown somehow overcame 25 turnovers and won their fifth straight over Villanova, 56-54.
DaJuan Summers, who committed eight of his team's turnovers, scored a game-high 16, one of three Hoyas in double figures.
Chris Wright hounded Villanova's Scottie Reynolds into 2-10 shooting and six gaffes while tallying 13 and ran out the clock with a burst down the sideline as Georgetown inbounded up a pair with three seconds remaining.
Nikita Mescheriakov added a career-best 11 in a much-needed win for the Hoyas.
Postgame audio - Coach Sydney Johnson, Marcus Schroeder & Douglas Davis:
Princeton made their first seven shots.
Princeton made their last two shots.
In between, the Tigers were a miserable 11-43 from the field (25.6%).
Yet Princeton was able to pull off a 56-48 win over Brown on Friday night at Jadwin Gym because of a solid team effort defensively and some tactical decisions that took away several of the Bears' strengths.
Douglas Davis scored 14 of his 16 in the second half and picked up 14 of the Tigers' last 20 points.
Davis, who came off the bench for the first time all season after starting the previous 22 games, was one of three Tigers in double figures. Dan Mavraides added 14, including four three pointers. Pawel Buczak tallied 11 despite not attempting a field goal after intermission.
Peter Sullivan's game-best 21 paced Brown. Chris Skrelja added seven and 16 rebounds.
"We're fighting and scrapping for everything that we can get," said Princeton head man Sydney Johnson. "[Brown] is a team that handled us at their place, and so for us to come away with a win and do it in a way where it wasn't pretty but we win, that's all that matters right now."
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
