T.J. Bray footage.
A couple highlights of this Princeton recruit (#20) from the Division 2 semis.
Postseason chances, Saturday edition.
Building off of yesterday's post and some additional information that has since come to light, here's a table looking at potential College Basketball Invitational and College Insider Tournament teams.
NIT-ology and The NIT Bracket Project have not been updated for Saturday, March 13th, so some of the teams listed may be bumped up to the National Invitational Tournament's 32 school field.
Saturday News:
Saturday, March 13th
(3) Richmond vs. (2) Xavier - 3:30 pm ET - CBS College Sports
Atlantic 10 Tournament
(8) Georgetown vs. (3) West Virginia - 9:00 pm ET - ESPN
Big East Tournament
Georgetown (23-9) raced to the Big East Tournament championship game, using a 30-8 second half run to dispatch Marquette, 80-57.
At the Big 10 Tournament, Northwestern (20-13) pulled within one of Purdue in the final 45 seconds, but the Boilermakers held on for the 69-61 win.
Richmond (25-7) moved into the Atlantic 10 semis with a 77-72 win over UMass.
Here's a very well-crafted story on Douglas Davis from the Princeton Athletic Department.
Several Denver players earned Sun Belt Conference Academic Awards.
Tiger recruit T.J. Bray lost his grandfather on Friday, then proceeded to go out and score 30 points as Catholic Memorial beat top-ranked Wisconsin Lutheran in a Division 2 sectional semifinal. Bray was also profiled on Preps on the Net as part of a series highlighting five candidates for Wisconsin's Mr. Basketball award.
Another future Princeton player, Tom Noonan, was named Penn Charter Team MVP.
Postseason chances, Friday edition.
The web site NIT-ology has, as their name might suspect, been projecting the National Invitational Tournament field since the 2004-05 season.
They had 97% of the teams correct last year, 93.8% correct in 2007-08.
Below their projected seeds table, which takes into account the NIT's automatic bids for regular season conference champions that lost in their conference tournament, are a list in red of 33 teams they see as on the NIT bubble - likely candidates for the either the College Basketball Invitational or College Insider Tournament.
While Princeton is not on this list (which includes both Harvard and Northwestern), the picture I see developing favors the Tigers for a postseason bid.
Yale/Princeton highlights.
If you don't like open three point shots and easy layups, this is not the footage for you. Princeton hit 13 times behind the arc at Jadwin Gym and dissected Yale on ESPNU, 82-58.
Friday News:
Friday, March 12th
(7) Northwestern vs. (2) Purdue - 6:30 pm ET - ESPN2
Big 10 Tournament
(8) Georgetown vs. (5) Marquette - 7:00 pm ET - ESPN
Big East Tournament
(11) UMass vs. (3) Richmond - 9:00 pm ET - CBS College Sports
Atlantic 10 Tournament
Georgetown (22-9) advanced to the Big East Tournament semifinals by surprising Syracuse, 91-84.
Northwestern (20-12) surged past Indiana 73-58 to hit 20 wins for the first time in program history. The Wildcats forced 13 turnovers in the second half and Michael Thompson made three straight three point shots to rally his team.
A 12 point lead with 16 minutes to play wasn't a large enough lead for Oregon State (14-7), as Washington went on a 23-4 run to secure the 59-52 win in the Pac-10 Tournament.
Richmond opens their A-10 Tournament run against UMass. The Spiders are in an unfamiliar position as they head to Boardwalk Hall.
Princeton recruit Ben Hazel was named First Team All-WCAC.
Future Tiger Chris Clement is Co-District 16-5A MVP.
The Princeton Packet writes about the Tigers' push for the postseason.
Will Venable is swinging the bat well in spring training. Here's video of Venable discussing the art of the stolen base.
Regular season Plus/Minus, with Ivy splits!
Princeton's athletic department was good enough to send me plus/minus sheets for the entire regular season, and I've generated my own Ivy-only plus/minus numbers in Excel out of that .pdf.
These dandy columns 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.
Ivy and non-conference splits are also provided.
Player Minutes Ivy only +/- Ivy NC Schroeder 891:03 412:32 +184 +125 +59 Mavraides 855:32 441:03 +176 +98 +78 Hummer 509:44 252:38 +81 +19 +62 Maddox 445:40 353:34 +123 +86 +37 Davis 852:42 427:06 +145 +109 +36 Saunders 489:14 242:40 +140 +113 +27 Buczak 608:26 244:30 +84 +71 +13 Barrett 206:09 53:52 +24 +6 +18 Finley 424:50 270:22 +42 +48 -6 Connolly 73:56 31:39 +20 +2 +18 Foley 21:10 9:17 +13 +2 +11 Comfort 18:51 9:52 +11 +3 +8 Darrow 15:21 10:23 +6 +0 +6 Lake 100:17 13:58 +15 +12 +3 Sherburne 37:08 10:15 -18 -1 -17
Individual single game highs and lows went unchanged in this latest pass. Douglas Davis was +39 against Goucher and Pawel Buczak was -23 at Cal.
Ivy highs and lows were as follows: Patrick Saunders +25 at Columbia and versus Dartmouth. Kareem Maddox scored -11 versus Cornell.
The most successful lineup combination was the one that has played the most minutes together this season. Marcus Schroeder, Dan Mavraides, Pawel Buczak, Douglas Davis and Patrick Saunders were +44 in 197:17 of court time.
The least successful five? The starting lineup for the season opener and the season finale. Lake, Schroeder, Zach Finley, Mavraides and Buczak, combining to go -22 in 24:25 of play.
Compare these numbers to past +/- tables here.
Thursday News:
Thursday, March 11th
(8) Georgetown vs. (1) Syracuse - 12:00 pm ET - ESPN
Big East Tournament
(10) Indiana vs. (7) Northwestern - 5:00 pm ET - ESPN2
Big 10 Tournament
(6) Oregon State vs. (3) Washington - 11:40 pm ET - FSN
Pac-10 Tournament
Friday, March 12th
(11) UMass vs. (3) Richmond - 9:00 pm ET
Atlantic 10 Tournament
Georgetown (21-9) won a ragged game over South Florida to advance into the Big East Tournament quarterfinals.
A good piece by Brendan Prunty in the Star Ledger about how overwhelmed by support Austin Freeman has been since it was discovered he has diabetes.
Northwestern meets Indiana yet again on the first day of the Big 10 Tournament.
Wildcat sophomore John Shurna was named the nation's Most Improved Player by the Sporting News.
Bill Carmody conducted an interesting on-line Q&A with ESPNChicago.com.
Oregon State plays late tonight against Washington as the Pac-10 Tournament gets underway.
Sydney Johnson and John Thompson III are both finalists for the Ben Jobe National Coach of the Year Award.
Dick Jerardi had a piece about Tuesday's Penn/Princeton game in the Philadelphia Daily News.
Bob Slaughter is profiled as part of the Rockford Register Star's series on college stars from the Rock River Valley.
Here's the Princeton Athletic Department's press release about the Tigers' All-Ivy award winners.
Richmond has developed considerable depth as the season has gone on.
Will Venable hit a three run home run in yesterday's spring training action.
2009-10 All-Ivy Men's Basketball.
The Ivy League announced its 2009-10 All-Ivy team moments ago. Princeton's Dan Mavraides (above) and Douglas Davis were named to the second team.
Ryan Wittman of Cornell is the unanimous Player of the Year. Harvard's Kyle Casey is Rookie of the Year and Big Red center Jeff Foote repeats as Ivy Defensive Player of the Year. You can read the full press release from the league office here.
2009-10 All-Ivy Men's Basketball
First Team
Louis Dale, Cornell (Sr., G, Birmingham, Ala.)
*Jeff Foote, Cornell (Sr., C, Lockwood, N.Y.)
*Ryan Wittman, Cornell (Sr., G/F, Eden Prairie, Minn.)
*Jeremy Lin, Harvard (Sr., G, Palo Alto, Calif.)
*Zack Rosen, Penn (So., G, Colonia, N.J.)
* unanimous selection
Second Team
Matt Mullery, Brown (Sr., F, Millstone, N.J.)
Noruwa Agho, Columbia (So., G, New City, N.Y.)
Jack Eggleston, Penn (Jr., F, Noblesville, Ind.)
Douglas Davis, Princeton (So., G, Philadelphia, Pa.)
Dan Mavraides, Princeton (Jr., G, San Mateo, Calif.)
Alex Zampier, Yale (Sr., G, East Greenbush, N.Y.)
Honorable Mention
Chris Wroblewski, Cornell (So., G, Highland Park, Ill.)
Kyle Casey, Harvard (Fr., F, Medway, Mass.)
Michael Sands, Yale (Jr., F, Franklin Square, N.Y.)
Player of the Year
*Ryan Wittman, Cornell
Rookie of the Year
Kyle Casey, Harvard
Defensive Player of the Year
Jeff Foote, Cornell
Wednesday News:
Wednesday, March 10th
(9) South Florida vs. (8) Georgetown - 12:00 pm ET - ESPN
Big East Tournament
Thursday, March 11th
(10) Indiana vs. (7) Northwestern - 5:00 pm ET - ESPN2
Big 10 Tournament
(6) Oregon State vs. (3) Washington - 11:40 pm ET - FSN
Pac-10 Tournament
Friday, March 12th
(6) (11) UMass vs. (3) Richmond - 9:00 pm ET
Atlantic 10 Tournament
In addition to our recap, read about Princeton's regular season finale on goprincetontigers.com, in the Trentonian, in the Daily Princetonian, in the Philadelphia Inquirer, in the Daily Pennsylvanian and on pennathletics.com.
The Mid Majority has Princeton on a short list of eight teams for this year's "Who's Next?"
Georgetown looks for a consistent effort against South Florida this afternoon.
A 6'6" shooting guard has committed to the Hoyas.
Brian Taylor visited his alma mater, Perth Amboy High School, on Monday.
A well-constructed article about Richmond coach Chris Mooney can be found in today's Bucks County Courier Times.
Chris Young pitched three strong innings and Will Venable had two extra base hits as San Diego fell to the Angels, 6-5.
Princeton 68 Penn 56.
Postgame audio - Coach Sydney Johnson:
Postgame audio - Zach Finley, Marcus Schroeder, Nick Lake & Pawel Buczak:
Princeton Coach Sydney Johnson had to pause and compose himself.
Asked about his senior class after the conclusion of the Tigers' final regular season game, a 68-56 win versus Penn in which his team built a large enough halftime lead that they were able to cushion a considerable Quaker comeback for the program's 100th victory over their rival, Johnson's voice broke momentarily.
"These four seniors, they've gone through a lot. They've gone though a lot," an emotional Johnson said of Zach Finley, Marcus Schroeder, Nick Lake and Pawel Buczak. "I don't know if you ever win enough games to fill your heart up. I don't know if it is 20 wins, 21 wins...it's seeing them succeed in the face of adversity. It makes me happy. It makes me really happy."
The first half gave Johnson cause for elation. Scoring 23 straight eight minutes in, the orange and black opened up a 35-8 lead and held a 40-14 advantage at the break.
The second half was another story. Penn ran off nine in a row after intermission and kept shaving the Princeton lead down point by point, eventually drawing to 58-51 on a Jack Eggleston breakaway dunk with 2:16 to play.
As the Quakers pulled closer and closer still, with Princeton recording just five second half field goals, Johnson refused to call a time out.
On a night when the school honored four seniors playing their final regular season game, there wasn't much he could tell them that they hadn't already learned.
"They know the guys in our league. They know the other teams. Nothing's being thrown at them that is a surprise," Johnson said. I'm not going to call time out to give them a pep talk. That's just not how we coach and they understand that. It showed a lot of guts on their part and that's what we expect for them to try and figure it out."
Making 10-12 at the line in the waning moments, Princeton could exhale with their 20th win of the season and send the senior class off the floor with one last home win, sweeping Penn for the first time since 2001.
Sophomore guard Douglas Davis, who was held without a point for the first time in his collegiate career the other time these two teams met this season, scored 16 of his game high 21 in the first half.
