Sunday News:

March 6, 2011 at 9:02 am
Filed under Baseball, Basketball, Chris Young, Denver, Georgetown, Mike Brennan, Oregon State, Princeton, Recruiting, Richmond, Today's News, Will Venable

In addition to our recap, read about Princeton's defeat at the hands of Harvard on goprincetontigers.com, in the Trentonian, in the Star Ledger, in the Daily Princetonian, in the New York Times, in the Boston Globe, in the Crimson, on ESPN Boston and on gocrimson.com.

Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe also has a column on the game.

Former Tiger Mike Brennan is listed as among those "throwing their names into the mix" for the open Monmouth position.

Sophomore Ian Hummer is profiled by Vienna Patch.

Andy Rimol is quoted in a long Bergen Record piece on New Jersey high school basketball legend Les Cason.

Princeton recruit Denton Koon and Liberty fell in the Missouri Class 5 quarterfinals.

Will Venable is benefitting from ramped-up workouts.

Unlike when he pitched last September, Chris Young feels completely healthy.

Richmond (24-7) earned a first round bye in the Atlantic 10 Tournament with a 68-56 win over Duquesne.

Can Georgetown (21-9) win without Chris Wright? The Hoyas trailed by four at Cincinnati with 8:42 to go, but were outscored 26-8 the rest of the way.

Denver (13-17) saw their season end with a 53-49 loss to FIU in the first round of the Sun Belt Tournament.

With all but six players suspended for a violation of team rules, Oregon State (10-19) was dropped 80-66 at Arizona State.

Around the Ivy League: Rallying from down 13 at the half, Penn (13-14 / 7-6) came back on Dartmouth (5-23 / 1-13) in Hanover, 70-58. Cornell (10-18 / 6-8) finished the season with a 68-55 victory over Yale (15-13 / 8-6). Noruwa Agho had a career high 31 as Columbia (15-13 / 6-8) closed their campaign by besting Brown (11-17 / 4-10) to the tune of 91-74.

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Harvard pictures.

March 6, 2011 at 12:32 am
Filed under Basketball, Photos, Princeton, Sean Gregory, Stephen Goldsmith

Photos from today's game courtesy Stephen Goldsmith.

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Harvard 79 Princeton 67.

March 5, 2011 at 9:44 pm
Filed under 10-11, Audio, Basketball, Princeton

Box Score : HD Box Score

Postgame audio - Coach Sydney Johnson, Kareem Maddox & Dan Mavraides:

Security moved the fancy black chairs with red school crests on the back away from in front of the Harvard student section in the final minute on Saturday night, then at the horn the Crimson fans raced to center court leaping up and down.

400 strong, hopping and jumping and cheering following the home team's 79-67 victory over Princeton.

The Tigers shook hands with their counterparts from Harvard, frustrated they were unable to clinch the 2010-11 Ivy League title outright and fully aware that to advance to the NCAA Tournament they would now have to win on Tuesday at the Palestra versus Penn and again on a neutral site in a third match with the Crimson.

Instead of walking away with their backs to the jubilation up the narrow staircase leading to the visiting locker room, Tiger head coach Sydney Johnson had his team remain on the bench as spectators filed out of Lavietes Pavilion past them.

There they sat in silence.

Watching Harvard. Watching their fans.

Nearly five minutes passed.

"I think it is important to understand what's at stake," Johnson said. "I think it is important to see other people celebrate. You want to be that team."

Eventually the Princeton players and staff stood as one and traipsed away from the festivities they had hoped to be a part of.

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Saturday News:

March 5, 2011 at 9:08 am
Filed under Basketball, Chris Young, Denver, Georgetown, Oregon State, Princeton, Recruiting, Richmond, Today's News

Today's Game: Princeton (23-5 / 11-1) vs. Harvard (22-5 / 11-2)
Location: Lavietes Pavilion - Cambridge, MA
Time: 7:00 pm ET
Radio: 103.3 fm WPRB
TV: N/A
Internet: ESPN3.com
Series History: Princeton leads 126-38.
Last meeting: Princeton 65 Harvard 61 - 2/4/11.

Duquesne vs. Richmond - 12:00 pm ET - CBS College Sports
Georgetown vs. Cincinnati - 2:00 pm ET - ESPN+
FIU vs. Denver - 9:45 pm ET - Sun Belt Tournament
Oregon State vs. Arizona State - 4:00 pm ET

Penn vs. Dartmouth - 7:00 pm ET
Brown vs. Columbia - 7:00 pm ET
Yale vs. Cornell - 7:00 pm ET

In addition to our recap, read about Princeton's victory at Dartmouth on goprincetontigers.com, courtesy of the Associated Press and on dartmouthsports.com.

While 15 of a possible 20 title scenarios were crossed off after Princeton beat the Big Green and Harvard topped Penn on Friday, the overall percentages remain the same - but there is now a 42% chance of a playoff.

Ivy League executive director Robin Harris tells the USA Today that "the team that doesn't win the league deserves [NCAA Tournament] consideration."

The Princeton Packet previews the Tigers' weekend.

Princeton recruit Denton Koon, who the Kansas City Star calls "a revelation this season," had a huge stat line as Liberty defeated Grandview in the Patterson Division tournament final.

Future Tiger Bobby Garbade and Seton CC won the Section 4 Class B championship over Oneonta.

A Southern California center says Princeton is one of the schools keeping an eye on him as he heads abroad for a year.

The Princeton Alumni Weekly writes about the first Harvard game.

Chris Young had a second straight solid outing in Grapefruit League action.

Richmond looks for win number 24 at home against Duquesne.

After a week off to refocus, Georgetown closes their regular season at Cincinnati.

Denver and Florida International do battle at the Sun Belt Tournament.

Arizona state hosts Oregon State.

Around the Ivy League: Harvard (22-5 / 11-2) opened up a big lead early and defeated Penn (12-14 / 6-6) by 15. Yale (15-12 / 8-5) never trailed, yet had to survive Columbia (14-13 / 5-8) in double overtime, 87-81. Cornell (9-18 / 5-8) scored the final 13 points of a 75-66 win over Brown (11-16 / 4-9).

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Dartmouth pictures.

March 5, 2011 at 12:18 am
Filed under Basketball, Photos, Princeton, Stephen Goldsmith

Photos from today's game courtesy Stephen Goldsmith.

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Princeton 77 Dartmouth 55.

March 4, 2011 at 9:04 pm
Filed under 10-11, Audio, Basketball, Princeton

Box Score : HD Box Score

Postgame audio - Coach Sydney Johnson, Kareem Maddox & Douglas Davis:

Finally, we can talk about Saturday.

With Harvard out to a comfortable 22 point lead over Penn and Princeton trailing by one in Hanover, a 16-0 run sparked by the play of Will Barrett and T.J. Bray off the bench turned that Dartmouth lead midway through the first half into a 33-18 Princeton advantage and the Tigers held a double digit buffer the rest of the night.

Douglas Davis was one of four Princeton players in double figures, nine of his 14 coming in the first half. Ian Hummer and Kareem Maddox each contributed 12 and Patrick Saunders hit three times from behind the arc in the second half despite a broken left thumb on his way to 11.

A three point play from Brendan Connolly and a lefty Hummer jump hook made it a 40-20 game to open the second stanza. The margin extended to as wide as 25 and the Big Green would get no closer than 14.

Princeton, which shot 50.8% from the floor versus Dartmouth, heads to Harvard tomorrow. A win would advance the Tigers to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2004. A loss presents a far more difficult path. Princeton would need to beat Penn on Tuesday and then defeat Harvard on a neutral floor later that week to decide the Ivy League's NCAA bid.

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Friday News:

March 4, 2011 at 8:58 am
Filed under Basketball, MCCC, Oregon State, Princeton, Will Venable

Today's Game: Princeton (22-5 / 10-1) vs. Dartmouth (5-21 / 1-11)
Location: Leede Arena - Hanover, NH
Time: 7:00 pm ET
Radio: 103.3 fm WPRB
TV: N/A
Internet: goprincetontigers.com
Series History: Princeton leads 139-61.
Last meeting: Princeton 68 Dartmouth 53 - 2/5/11.

Brown vs. Cornell - 7:00 pm ET
Yale vs. Columbia - 7:00 pm ET
Penn vs. Harvard - 7:00 pm ET

For weekend previews, check in with the Daily Princetonian and the Trenton Times.

The New York Times and NESN get the Saturday night hype machine in motion.

The Mercer County Community College web site has a piece on the Vikings' run to the Region XIX tournament finals.

Will Venable is setting his swing like former teammate Adrian Gonzalez does.

Arizona defeated Oregon State (10-18) by a 70-59 final.

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Repost: My first Ivy road trip.

March 3, 2011 at 10:25 pm
Filed under Basketball, Bob Scrabis, Kit Mueller, Princeton

With Princeton heading out on their final Ivy road trip of the season, the time seemed appropriate to re-share a piece I wrote in April of last year about the Tigers' 1989 visit to Dartmouth and Harvard. Princeton clinched the Ivy crown on the Crimson's floor, the orange and black's first championship in five years - a scenario many reading would very much like to see duplicated this weekend. If you enjoy the following, I'd also recommend a subsequent story entitled Crewcuts. - JS

I don't remember how I talked them into it, but on the first Saturday of March in 1989, I somehow convinced my parents (and extremely skeptical younger sister) that we should load up the car and go to the Princeton/Harvard game outside Boston as a family.

We didn't head all the way up to Dartmouth the previous night, where the Big Green had been victorious 53-43 over the Tigers. Now the losers of two straight, Princeton needed to win their final conference game to claim the program's first Ivy League championship in five years.

A loss to the Crimson (who beat the Tigers by six at Jadwin Gym a month previous) combined with a Dartmouth win over Penn and the two teams would end the season tied at 10-4 for the 1988-89 Ivy crown.

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Coach Sydney Johnson - 3/3/11.

March 3, 2011 at 12:01 pm
Filed under Basketball, Coach Johnson Interview, Princeton

With Princeton preparing to depart for Hanover this morning, Tigers head coach Sydney Johnson and princetonbasketball.com editor Jon Solomon sat down at Jadwin Gym to tape their weekly interview. The pair reviewed Princeton's sweep of Cornell and Columbia to finish the home slate a perfect 12-0, then looked ahead to the final three regular season road games at Dartmouth, Harvard and Penn.

This Q&A is 17:00+ in length.

Interviews with Coach Johnson will appear on this site every week during the 2010-11 season.

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Thursday News:

March 3, 2011 at 9:08 am
Filed under Baseball, Basketball, Northwestern, Oregon State, Princeton, Richmond, Today's News, Will Venable

Oregon State vs. Arizona - 9:00 pm ET - FSN

Northwestern (17-12) ran nothing but "JV" for the final eight minutes as they rallied past Minnesota, 68-57. In a Senior Night script familiar to site readers this week, Michael "Juice Thompson" scored 12 of his 18 points in the last 3:39 - including a pair of three point shots.

Kevin Anderson totalled 22 as Richmond (22-7) pulled away from St. Joe's in the second half, 69-54.

The Acorn profiles Princeton senior forward Kareem Maddox.

The Town Topics has published their article on the Tigers' Senior Night victory over Columbia.

A preview of Saturday night's Princeton/Harvard matchup can be found in the Crimson.

Future Tiger Denton Koon tallied 21 in Liberty's Missouri Class 5 sectional victory over Park Hill South - a game with a 13-9 halftime score.

Will Venable hit a three run home run in Cactus League action.

Arizona hosts Oregon State.

The latest Schuylkill 16 includes Princeton in fifth place.

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Wednesday News:

March 2, 2011 at 9:18 am
Filed under Basketball, Denver, Mason Rocca, Northwestern, Princeton, Recruiting, Richmond, Today's News

Richmond vs. St. Joe's - 7:00 pm ET
Minnesota vs. Northwestern - 8:30 pm ET - Big Ten Network

Princeton recruit Bobby Garbade recorded a double/double as Seton CC advanced to Friday's Section 4 Class B final.

The Princeton Packet has an article on the Tigers' win over Columbia.

Princeton Alumni Weekly digs into the archives and comes out with cover images and full articles on memorable Tiger tournament teams of the past 50 years.

The Yahoo! Sports team report for Princeton has been updated.

13 points for Mason Rocca as Armani Jeans Milano topped Dinamo Sassari.

It is the final regular season home game for Michael "Juice" Thompson and three other seniors as Northwestern hosts Minnesota.

Richmond needs a victory at St. Joseph's to clinch a bye in the Atlantic 10 Tournament.

Here's an excerpt from the weekly press conference of Joe Scott.

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Lavietes Pavilion: Where anything could happen, will happen and probably already has happened.

March 1, 2011 at 10:28 am
Filed under Basketball, Ed Persia, Judson Wallace, Luke Owings, Princeton, Scott Greenman, Video, Will Venable

Over the past decade, Princeton's annual trips to Harvard have resulted in some of the wackiest basketball games you could design. Buzzer beaters. Titanic shifts in momentum. Improbable comebacks where each and every lead is painfully insecure until time runs out.

The stands on both sides of Lavietes Pavilion - thanks very much in part to the work of Bob Ruxin '76 and PANE - are almost always a crowded, spirited combination of Crimson and Tiger supporters. It doesn't matter how successful or how struggling either program is - This little gym is heavy on atmosphere and high on drama.

Saturday's game between Harvard and Princeton, regardless of how the former does versus Penn at home or how the latter performs against Dartmouth in Hanover on Friday night, will occur with the Ivy League's NCAA tournament participant yet to be decided.

I've been planning a chronological game-by-game review of the Tigers' last 10 trips to Allston since the fall and after the jump you'll find detailed write-ups on each (seven of which have not been published previously on the site) plus exclusive video of a pair of Princeton game-winners.

If you enjoy this 11,000+ word behemoth, you're bound to appreciate similar retrospectives on Princeton's last 11 season openers, a decade of dismay against Rutgers and the team's past four meetings with Duke.

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