Shortly after the news broke last night that legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden had passed away at the age of 99, I received a note from a reader asking if Princeton had ever played against a Wooden-coached team.
The Tigers faced UCLA twice during Wooden's incredible run, the initial meeting in 1968 when Princeton's first undefeated Ivy League champs fell 83-67 to the 29-1 eventual national champions in the first round of Saint John's annual Holiday Festival tournament at Madison Square Garden.
Lew Alcindor scored 40 points matched up against Chris Thomforde in UCLA's 23rd straight win. The next day Princeton was crushed by previously unbeaten North Carolina, 103-76 in the tournament's consolation game.
One year later, on December 28. 1969, the Tigers traveled to Pauley Pavilion for the Bruin Basketball Classic and a game that was nearly the program's biggest victory.
Mason Rocca and Armani Jeans Milano swept to the Lega A semifinals with an 81-75 win over Sigma Coatings Montegranaro. Rocca recorded nine points and eight rebounds in the victory.
Judson Wallace and Benetton Treviso saw their season end with a three point loss to Montepaschi Siena.
Grant Wahl of SI writes about USMNT head coach Bob Bradley and his relationship with Pete Carril.
Will Venable is still leading off for the Padres, but may be replaced at the top of the lineup by Luis Durango.
Princeton recruit Daniel Edwards has reconfirmed his commitment to the Tigers on HS Game Time.
You can watch future Tiger Tom Noonan play this summer for The Greeks in the Narberth Boys Summer Basketball League.
A worthwhile read about Ryan Dougherty, one of Georgetown's three captains in 2010-11.
Craig Robinson will be signing copies of his book on Thursday at Union Bank in Portland.
While this anecdote has drawn repeated attention on talk shows, in print interviews and is the focus of many reviews, this moment is just a small part of Robinson's worthwhile biography, which begins in 1960s Chicago and concludes in contemporary Corvallis, Oregon.
It would have been easy for Robinson to capitalize on his unexpected fame and write primarily about his brother in law but "A Game of Character" is a book that instead tells the complete story of Robinson's life long before he became "Michelle Obama's big brother."
The tales of growing up under the watchful eye of Marian and Fraser Robinson have a distinct charm, but it is the time spent at Princeton playing for Pete Carril that should be especially worthwhile to visitors of this site. The two time Ivy League Player of the Year is the first former Tiger I can recall who has written in detail about what it was like to play for Carril, and the highs and lows of that experience shape Robinson as he first sets into the financial world and then returns to basketball as an assistant coach at Northwestern.
This morning I had a chance to speak with Coach Robinson about his story, his time at Princeton and his life since the release of this book. Robinson joined me by phone for over 32 minutes and I think you will find this wide-spanning discussion a worthwhile one that bypasses the questions Robinson has already answered ad nauseum.
Mason Rocca and Armani Jeans Milano moved one step closer to the Lega A semifinals with a two point victory over Sigma Coatings Montegranaro. Rocca recorded 13 points and seven rebounds in the win.
Judson Wallace had four points and six boards, but Benetton Treviso could not upset Montepaschi Siena in overtime.
Two recruiting updates off of Twitter: 7'1" Lawrenceville School center Mat Piotrowski has decided on a school and a local guard who Princeton had been interested in will head to the Patriot League to play soccer.
CBS and Turner have won the bidding war for the NCAA Tournament, which will expand to 68 teams next season. No word on if the presumed four play-in games will include the eight lowest seeds or eight teams on the bubble.
I pride myself on many things, one of which is my status as "king of the $0.99 eBay purchase." Here's the latest find, a program from Princeton's game against Penn at Jadwin Gym in the 1981-82 season.
Highlights from this 46 page booklet are scanned after the jump. Click on any image to enlarge.
Sunday, March 14th
(3) Richmond vs. (1) Temple - 1:00 pm ET - CBS Atlantic 10 Tournament
A week after falling in double overtime to Xavier, Richmond (26-7) returned the favor, getting past the Musketeers 89-85 in OT. The backcourt of Kevin Anderson and David Gonzalvez combined for 53 points. The Spiders will play in the A-10 Conference championship game this afternoon.
Georgetown (23-10) fell in the final seconds of the Big East Tournament championship to Da'Sean Butler and West Virginia.
Princeton recruit T.J. Bray had 16 points as Catholic Memorial beat Whitefish Bay in the Division 2 sectional finals to advance to Wisconsin's state tournament.
Former Arkansas standout Corliss Williamson has been hired as the new head coach of Central Arkansas. Williamson says one of his mentors is Pete Carril.
Here's an article on Uros Kovacevic and the Mercer men's basketball team. The Vikings are aiming for a JUCO title at the National Junior College Athletic Association Division II Championships starting Tuesday in Danville, IL.
Two Padres videos, one a season forecast for Will Venable and the other highlights of three shutout spring training innings by Chris Young.
Oregon State travels to UCLA. Talking about the postseason, Beavers coach Craig Robinson says Pete Carril turned down multiple NIT bids when he was at Princeton. Anyone know how true this is?
Princeton assistant Tony Newsom was in Tennessee to watch a senior post player who was subsequently named a finalist for the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association's Division II-A Mr. Basketball.
Taken with 50,435,333,253,672,119,000,000 grains of salt: Blogging The Bracket projects Princeton will participate in this year's CollegeInsider.com Tournament.
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
