Today.
Right on time.
Wednesday News:
UW-Milwaukee vs. Fairfield - 7:00 pm ET
Oregon State vs. Portland State - 10:30 pm ET - Comcast SportsNet NW
Dartmouth vs. Vermont - 7:00 pm ET
Fairfield hosts Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Oregon State travels to Portland State.
We already covered the Mercer victory over Princeton's J.V. last night. Filip Sekulic had 24 and Mustafa El-Amin 18 for the Vikings.
Around the Ivy League: A jumper by Siyani Chambers with four seconds left gave Harvard (5-4) a 65-64 victory over Boston University.
Mercer 60 Princeton J.V. 56.
Howie Levy jokingly called it "getting the monkey off his back," but for the first time in five meetings over the past five years the Mercer County Community College finally defeated Princeton' J.V.
Leading 33-32 in the second half, the Vikings (6-3) went on a 12-0 run sparked by the play of sophomore center Filip Sekulic, who recently accepted a full scholarship at Chestnut Hill College.
Sekulic had eight straight during this stretch, including a soft baseline jumper, a two-handed slam and a wild finish after bumping off of Princeton's Bobby Garbade in mid-air.
While some late three point shooting from the Tigers' Ameer Elbuluk helped his team close the deficit in the final minutes, MCCC held on at the free throw line.
Princeton's best chance came on a contested three from Mike Washington, Jr. at the top of the arc with the score favoring Mercer 49-46 with less than 2:45 remaining.
Postgame audio from Howie Levy, a scoring breakdown for the Tigers, some additional notes and even a video montage can all be found after the jump.
Going halfsies with Ian Hummer.
As soon as the final buzzer sounded on Princeton's loss to Drexel, I knew that for my next statistical analysis I wanted to examine Ian Hummer's splits between first half and second half numbers through eight games.
Read on for details on how Hummer's opening frames in 2012-13 compare with what follows after intermission.
I'll use this space to also relay that Hummer shares the latest Ivy League Player of the Week honors with Wesley Saunders from Harvard.
Reminder: Discounted tickets to see Princeton in Brooklyn.
princetonbasketball.com is happy to be able to offer discounted tickets to attend the Brooklyn Hoops Winter Festival on Saturday at the Barclays Center.
The event is a tripleheader, with Princeton's game against Fordham the opening match of a day that tips at 2:30 pm ET. St. John's will then play St. Francis before Michigan faces West Virginia.
Please use this link to save anywhere between $5-$15 on tickets. Make sure to use the offer code provided exclusively to site visitors.
Monday News:
Longwood vs. Georgetown - 7:00 pm ET - ESPN+
The Daily Princetonian and the Full-Court Press contribute additional perspective on Drexel's defeat of the Tigers.
There's a Mid-Majority piece built around Princeton's trip to Wagner as well.
As already discussed on the site, Fairfield (5-5) defeated Rider yesterday, 65-52. The Trenton Times and the Trentonian offer more.
Kareem Maddox dropped 24 and 11 in Newcastle's victory over the Plymouth Raiders.
Tonight Georgetown hosts Longwood.
Around the Ivy League: Brian Barbour reached 1,000 points for his career as Columbia (5-4) won 54-42 at American.
Sunday News:
Fairfield vs. Rider - 2:00 pm ET
Columbia vs. American - 2:00 pm ET
In addition to our recap, read about Princeton's home loss to Drexel on goprincetontigers.com, in the Trentonian, in the Philadelphia Inquirer, on City Of Basketball Love, on Comcast SportsNet, on Drexel Dragons Basketball and on drexeldragons.com.
Rush The Court checks in on the Ivy League.
It was a second straight less than attractive game for Georgetown (7-1) at home, but the Hoyas held Towson scoreless the final 4:37 to record a 46-40 victory.
Oregon State (5-2) made 15 of 21 threes on their way to an 85-54 win over Grambling State.
It is the second-best start to a season for Richmond (8-2) over the past 78 years. The Spiders escaped James Madison 83-82 in overtime.
In a physical contest Northwestern (7-3) fell 74-65 at home against Butler.
Sydney Johnson returns to Mercer County as Fairfield visits Rider this afternoon.
Around the Ivy League: It was a winless day for the conference as Yale (3-7) lost at New Hampshire by eight, Dartmouth (2-5) fell 67-56 at Holy Cross, Brown (3-5) dropped an 84-57 decision in South Bend to Notre Dame and Penn (2-7) never completely recovered from an opening 14-2 deficit against Villanova.
Drexel pictures.
Photos from today's game courtesy Robert Solomon. Apparently no vacation rust for my dad, as I had a difficult time picking my favorite 20 images out of his shots.
Drexel 64 Princeton 57.
It is a football cliché, but it is still applicable in Princeton’s 64-57 loss to Drexel on Saturday afternoon at Jadwin Gym.
When Drexel was on offense during the second half, the Tigers’ defense could not get off the field.
A paucity of stops, a lack of defensive rebounding, a series of turnovers before moving the ball over half court and some possession-continuing fouls all led to Princeton’s fifth defeat in eight games.
It was a contest that the Tigers held the lead for the center 32 minutes of, but Drexel head coach Bruiser Flint implemented what he admitted was a rarely-used pressing, trapping defense to turn a 13 point first half deficit into his squad's third victory of the season.
Drexel scored the day’s final seven points, which broke the game’s second tie.
After pulling even on a pair of Will Barrett free throws with 2:32 to go, the Tigers would not score again.
Damion Lee - who paced the Dragons with a game-high 21 points - took advantage of a defensive lapse to convert a three point shot from the top of the arc and send his team in front on the visitors' next possession.
“We lost our way once again at the end of the game,” head coach Mitch Henderson said.
Ian Hummer had 14 of his 19 in the first 20 minutes. Clay Wilson added 12 off the bench and Will Barrett totaled 10.
The Dragons shot 12-19 after intermission (63.2%) and grabbed offensive rebounds on five of their seven misses. This led to a remarkable 19-4 differential on the glass.
A full recap and postgame audio from Henderson and Hummer can be found after the jump.
Saturday News:
Today's Game: Drexel (2-6 / 0-0) vs. Princeton (3-4 / 0-0)
Location: Jadwin Gym - Princeton, NJ
Time: 2:00 pm ET
Radio: 103.3 fm WPRB
TV: N/A
Internet: goprincetontigers.com
Series History: Princeton leads 8-2.
Last meeting: Drexel 64 Princeton 60 - 12/10/12.
| Drexel | Princeton | |
| 0-2 | Home Record | 0-2 |
| 1-2 | Away Record | 3-2 |
| 1-2 | Neutral Record | 0-0 |
| 261 | RPI | 156 |
| 131 | Sagarin | 97 |
| 110 | Pomeroy | 87 |
| 65.4 | Points / Game | 57.7 |
| 69.2 | Points Allowed / Game | 57.4 |
| .434 | FG% | .424 |
| .755 | FT% | .673 |
| .356 | 3PT FG% | .346 |
| 33.4 | Rebounds / Game | 30.9 |
| 10.9 | Off. Rebounds / Game | 8.9 |
| +3.0 | Rebounding Margin | -0.8 |
| 12.0 | Assists / Game | 14.4 |
| 14.8 | Turnovers / Game | 15.3 |
| 1.6 | Blocks / Game | 2.4 |
| Lee: 17.5 | Points | Hummer: 14.4 |
| McCoy: 7.8 | Rebounds | Hummer: 6.0 |
| Massenat: 5.0 | Assists | Hummer: 4.9 |
| Ruffin: 0.9 | Steals | Bray: 2.6 |
| Ruffin: 0.9 | Blocks | Hummer: 1.0 |
| Ruffin: .519 | FG% (Min: 10 FGA) | Connolly: .500 |
| Allen: .938 | FT% (Min: 10 FTA) | Koon: .900 |
| Allen: .529 | 3PT FG% (Min: 10 3PTA) | Barrett: .500 |
Towson vs. Georgetown - 12:00 pm ET
Grambling State vs. Oregon State - 4:00 pm ET - Pac-12 Network
James Madison vs. Richmond - 7:00 pm ET
Butler vs. Northwestern - 8:00 pm ET - Big Ten Network
Yale vs. New Hampshire - 1:00 pm ET
Dartmouth vs. Holy Cross - 4:00 pm ET
Brown vs. Notre Dame - 7:00 pm ET - ESPN3
Villanova vs. Penn - 8:00 pm ET - NBCSN
Talk about the Tigers' return to Jadwin in the forum.
The Trentonian previews today's game and the Full-Court Press adds additional quotes from the same conversation with Mitch Henderson.
I ran an article welcoming Dan Mavraides to his new team through Google Translate.
Fairfield (4-5) fell in their conference opener to Canisius, 67-55.
Howie Levy's Mercer (5-3) team went into the Palestra and shut down the Penn J.V., 56-41. Mustafa el Amin had 18 for the victorious Vikings.
Georgetown hosts Towson, Oregon State welcomes Grambling State, Richmond visits James Madison and then to cap the day Butler meets Northwestern in Evanston.
Around the Ivy League: It was UConn by eight over Harvard (4-4).
Know! Your! Foe! - Drexel.
Princeton returns to Jadwin Gym tomorrow afternoon and Know! Your! Foe! returns one day prior to preview the Drexel Dragons.
Joining the site to answer my questions is a familiar name for regular readers, philly.com's Jonathan Tannenwald (commemorated via statue above). While Jonathan isn't on the basketball beat as much as he had been in years gone by, he's still a superb point person when you want details on any of Philadelphia's "City Six" teams.
My questions and JT's answers follow after the jump.
If you cover a team the Tigers will face down the line, let us know. I'd love to talk with you.
Friday News:
Canisius vs. Fairfield - 7:00 pm ET
MCCC vs. Penn J.V. - 8:00 pm ET
Harvard vs. UConn - 7:00 pm ET - SNY/ESPN3
Brian Earl has penned his first College Chalktalk essay of the season. Below you'll find the YouTube video Earl references in his piece.
Mercer (4-3) dropped a two point decision to high-powered Essex.
The official Fairfield press release and Big Apple Buckets have quotes from Sydney Johnson about his contract extension.
The Stags play their first home contest of the season tonight.
There's a preview of tomorrow's game in the Daily Princetonian.
I enjoyed listening to this interview with Pong aficionado Craig Robinson.
Congratulations to Sean Gregory, who wrote the cover story of this week's Time Magazine.
