Junior center Brendan Connolly scored a career high 16 points and grabbed nine rebounds as Princeton dusted off their home uniforms for the first time since just after Thanksgiving and bested The College Of New Jersey by 11.
Substituting liberally – 11 players saw action in the first half and all 15 Tigers in uniform played – while experimenting with different combinations (leading scorer Ian Hummer was on the floor for just 15 minutes) Princeton led by seven at halftime before opening the back frame on a 13-2 run. Their advantage stayed above 15 until the final five minutes.
The lead eventually extended to a game-high 22 on a John Comfort free throw but TCNJ closed on a 10-2 run against the far end of the Princeton bench.
Around the Ivy League: Harvard (13-2 / 1-0) led Dartmouth (3-12 / 0-1) by one at halftime and trailed midway through the back frame, but the Crimson controlled the final 10 minutes on their way to a 63-47 victory. Cornell (5-9) defeated Division III Albright, 78-60.
Georgetown vs. West Virginia - 12:00 pm ET - ESPN3
MCCC vs. CCRI - 2:00 pm ET
Denver vs. South Alabama - 4:30 pm ET - ESPN3
Richmond vs. Rhode Island - 7:00 pm ET - CBS Sports Network
Stanford vs. Oregon State - 10:00 pm ET - Root Sports
Albright vs. Cornell - 2:00 pm ET
Dartmouth vs. Harvard - 2:00 pm ET
After Harvard's loss to Fordham, Big Apple Buckets re-ran 10,000 simulations of the race for the 2011-12 Ivy League title.
Rush The Court checks in on the eight Ivy teams, two of which open conference play today.
Still looking for more on Princeton recruit Edo Lawrence, I came across this Flickr series from a recent Canterbury game against Kent. Lawrence is wearing #33 in these pictures.
Siena surprised Fairfield (8-7) in Albany, 73-60. “I don’t know if they can play better given the situation they’re in," said Stags head coach Sydney Johnson of the Saints' performance.
Top-ranked Monroe beat Mercer (3-13) by an 81-47 final. Brandin Youngblood was one of three Vikings in double figures.
With the women's team practicing on the center court and the men prepping to do the same, Tigers head coach Mitch Henderson and princetonbasketball.com editor Jon Solomon met at Jadwin Gym this afternoon to tape their first conversation of 2012.
Henderson and Solomon reviewed Princeton's holiday season trips to Siena, Florida State and Florida A&M in detail and then previewed a brief return home against The College Of New Jersey to conclude non-conference play. Henderson also updated Will Barrett's status and assessed where his team stands at the halfway point of 2011-12.
This exclusive Q&A is 13:00+ in length.
If you have questions for future interviews, please feel free to send them here.
MCCC vs. Monroe - 5:00 pm ET
Fairfield vs. Siena - 7:00 pm ET - SNY
Mets GM Sandy Alderson spoke with Chris Young over the holidays. Young could re-sign with New York under the right circumstances.
Grantland has a long piece on Georgetown up. It's got nothing on this transcript of an interview with former Hoya Roy Hibbert, though.
There have been plenty of updates on 2012 Princeton recruits Hans Brase and Michael Washington, Jr. but little on 7'2" center Edo Lawrence. I did some digging yesterday and the best I could find was this report on a game from mid-December.
Big Apple Buckets' first power poll of 2012 is out. Princeton moves up one spot in the rankings. For the record, I had Wagner in first and the Tigers sixth overall.
Denver vs. Arkansas State - 8:00 pm ET
Cal vs. Oregon State - 10:00 pm ET
Down by 17 with 13:13 left to play, Georgetown (13-1) staged an improbable rally that was capped off by a Hollis Thompson three pointer in the final 30 seconds. Hoya Hoops has the postgame audio and Hoya Prospectus crunches the numbers from a 73-70 victory.
Drew Crawford's potential game-winning layup was blocked at the buzzer as Northwestern (11-4) fell at home to Illinois, 57-56.
Richmond (9-7) lost their conference opener by five to Charlotte.
A book on the children of immigrants includes the story of Pete Carril. You can order a copy here.
Princeton recruit Mike Washington, Jr. scored 19 in Oak Harbor's win over Meadowdale.
Playing in front of several of his future teammates, Hans Brase and The Hill School faced the Princeton JV at Jadwin Gym. Anyone go? It sounds like Clay Wilson had a big game for the Tigers.
Marquette vs. Georgetown - 7:00 pm ET - ESPNU
Illinois vs. Northwestern - 7:00 pm ET - Big Ten Network
Richmond vs. Charlotte - 7:30 pm ET
Columbia vs. Colgate - 7:00 pm ET
Penn vs. Lafayette - 7:00 pm ET - LSN
Mercer (3-12) returned from an extended holiday break with a 79-65 win over Manor. The Vikings were led by Andre Wilburn and Brandin Youngblood, who each scored 25 points.
Pete Carril attended the Starters Moravian Winter Classic with Chris Thomforde.
Around the Ivy League: Yale (9-4) controlled the interior in an 82-67 win over Holy Cross. Harvard (12-2) was surprised on the road at Fordham, 60-54. Bucknell remained undefeated versus the Ancient Eight, defeating Dartmouth (3-12) by a 67-59 count. Cornell (4-9) fell on the road to Maryland by eight.
Around the Ivy League: Brown (5-10) lost 70-61 to American in Providence. Behind a career high 24 from Meiko Lyles, Columbia (9-5) built as large as a 24 point lead in their 67-52 win over Fairleigh Dickinson.
Coming off a pair of very nice performances down in Tallahassee, Denton Koon has been named Ivy League Rookie of the Week. Koon's stat lines from Princeton's two most recent games:
Min Pts FG FT 3FG Rebs A S B TO PF
30 7 3-7 1-3 0-0 3-7-10 0 0 0 1 2 75-73 W (3OT) FSU
24 13 5-7 3-4 0-0 1-3-4 2 0 1 0 1 76-61 W FAMU
Koon was a remarkable +45 in the Sunshine State while his team was +17 overall for the trip. His 10 rebounds against Florida State set a career high and his 13 points at Florida A&M matched a career best from earlier in the season against Lafayette.
For the season Koon is shooting 62.3% from the floor.
Ian Hummer also made the latest Honor Roll, with Yale's Greg Mangano the Player of the Week.
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
