Last year we looked back on the season by examining a series of small moments. For 2011-12, how about something new?
THE FIRST-ANNUAL SITE AWARDS!
[fanfare of trumpets]
Nominees and recipients in a variety of categories both expected and unexpected after the jump. I hope you'll create your own awards and hand out (virtual) trophies to winners in the comments.
DUNK OF THE YEAR:
This one is easiest of them all. Cornell's Johnathan Gray, meet Mr. Ian Hummer.
However, there are two other commendable slams - one of which most everyone saw and one of which almost no one witnessed.
Ian Hummer vs. Florida State
Late at the end of the first overtime in Tallahassee, this happened...
"Inbounding under their own basket with 10 on the shot clock, Doug Davis passed to Hummer on the far baseline. On two occasions in regulation Hummer had handed the ball back to Davis curling behind this screen for three. This time Hummer faked the pass and spun 90 degrees to the basket. As Okaro White tried to stop Hummer by grabbing a handful of his jersey from behind Hummer kept moving forward and dunked the ball with both hands as the whistle sounded. Hummer added a free throw for a 53-51 Tiger lead."
The full game is archived on the ESPN3 site if you want to watch it again.
Go exactly two hours in for the dunk in question.
Brendan Connolly vs. Northeastern
A mammoth explosion from the Tiger big man...
"The Huskies extended their pressure into the backcourt and Ian Hummer was able to do work off the free throw line once the ball reached the friendlier side of the floor. His pass to Brendan Connolly cutting to the basket resulted in a gigantic two handed dunk as Alwayne Bigby fouled him, a loud finish to a 15-2 run. Connolly missed his free throw but the Princeton lead had returned to nine."
I kept hoping this play would show up on-line but it never did.
FACIAL EXPRESSIONS OF THE YEAR:
To no one's surprise, this award goes to Jimmy Sherburne.
EASIEST-TO-EXPLAIN LOSS OF THE YEAR:
15-29 free throw shooting as a team and Ian Hummer going 5-21 from the floor trumps 19 offensive rebounds in a one point home loss to Elon.
Princeton would sweep their final nine games at Jadwin Gym after this explainable disappointment.
DELAY OF THE YEAR:
Malfunctioning backboard stanchions!
Standing around!
Un-synchable shot clocks!
Georgie Buc holding a long pole!
Warmups without a basket to shoot at!
Temporary bright yellow water polo timers on card tables!
It is unlikely we'll see something like what happened before the Tigers' rout of Brown again.
MENTAL HEALTH BENEFIT OF THE YEAR:
Deciding not to make the indirect, pricy, extended trip to Tallahassee spanning New Year's Eve.
MENTAL HEALTH DETRIMENT OF THE YEAR:
Missing the Florida State and Florida A&M games, one of which would have been far more exciting to experience in person than the other. Those were the only two of Princeton's 32 contests this season I did not witness first-hand.
QUIP OF THE YEAR:
“We haven’t been home since the Packers were undefeated.”
Head coach Mitch Henderson on February 10, 2012 after his team's first DI game played in Jadwin Gym since just after Thanksgiving.
The Tigers would go 9-2 from this point through the season's close.
UNEXPECTED HERO OF THE YEAR:
“Obviously, I was kind of expecting Doug [Davis] to be the hero like always. I just stood still and let him rub off my screen and figured I’d let him do his thing,” Mack Darrow deadpanned. “I walked in to get a better look at his buzzer beater and it turns out I found one – a little bit crazy."
BEST STAT PAD AVOIDANCE OF THE YEAR:
Mitch Henderson played 11 different Tigers in the first half and used Princeton's annual Division III game versus The College Of New Jersey as an opportunity to experiment with different combinations, confidently unconcerned that his team would not emerge victorious.
Less than five minutes into the first half leading scorer Ian Hummer was already off the floor in favor of less experienced Princeton teammates.
By comparison, against DIII St. Joe's of Long Island, Yale's James Jones played Greg Mangano a team-best 32 minutes wherein he took 26 shots, scored 35 points and had 13 offensive rebounds.
POSTGAME INTERVIEW SUBJECT / PREGAME SPRINTER OF THE YEAR:
At the under-4:00 media time out of every contest, I put in my requests of players to join Mitch Henderson in the media room for interviews. While the honesty of an Ian Hummer is always appreciated and makes for good quotes to build a story around, I've got a soft spot for the dry, droll, self-deprecation of Mack Darrow.
He might think he's robotic, and his teammates may call him "The Mack-sheen," but Darrow can play a little bit too.
Darrow's Offensive Rating of 120.3 was 73rd-best in all of Division I.
The Darrow sprint to be the first Tiger on the floor prior to warmups is also worthy of commendation.
WEIRDEST MOMENTUM SHIFT(S) OF THE YEAR:
With Princeton up 17 with 7:58 left at Rutgers, the docile Scarlet Knights began flying all over the court and just over five minutes later the home team had their first lead of the night.
So of course Princeton - who had completely unraveled during this stretch - scored on their final three possessions and Ian Hummer over Austin Johnson won the game with :02.7 to go.
FAN OF THE YEAR:
A one man student section audible on both sides of Jadwin Gym, a welcome addition to this site and able to single-handedly start a "Let's Go Tigers!" chant during the long silence provided by a microphone's malfunction prior to the national anthem, this award could only go to one gentleman (pictured above in disguise).
You know who you are.
MOST IMPROVED INDIVIDUAL OF THE YEAR:
A tie! We have a tie!
I just couldn't pick between sophomore T.J. Bray and senior Robert Solomon.
At the beginning of the year both were untested role players replacing critical components of championship teams but by conference play each were much-improved and trusted by all during critical situations.
Only one of them had an Effective Field Goal Percentage of 59.8% though (53rd-best in the land).
MOST EFFICIENT OFFENSIVE STRETCH OF THE YEAR:
Princeton scored on every possession but one in the final 12:00 versus the Lions, including their final 12 times with the ball and had 1.69 points/possession in the second half.
The next evening they kept the offense rolling with five baskets from five different Tigers the first five times they had possession against Cornell and shot 69.2% from the floor prior to intermission.
TWITTER POST OF THE YEAR:
Brian Fabrizius played a team-low nine minutes across six games this season, so this post on Twitter after his first collegiate basket late in his freshman year (a three pointer during the waning moments at Dartmouth) was well-executed.
COMMENT OF THE YEAR:
From a post titled The Hook Shot.
I said this was the front-runner three weeks ago, so I have to stick with my initial assessment.
WORST GYM OF THE YEAR:
Matthews Arena - Boston, MA.
Northeastern's gym should be a hockey-only building that instead has a temporary basketball court thrown in the center as a complete afterthought.
Playing in front of just a few hundred people on a Sunday afternoon forced to sit well above protective glass with the cheerleaders all wearing New England Patriots gear, it was clear that basketball was at best the third most important sport that day to almost all in attendance.
A depressing mess.
SOCKS OF THE YEAR:
Worn by 75% of the freshman class for the regular season finale against Penn.
May or may not have blinded Zack Rosen into 8-24 shooting.
UNBRIDLED EXCITEMENT OF THE YEAR:
One of the more iconic images of 2011-12 was Ian Hummer's "Iansanity" cheer to the heavens following Princeton's defeat of then-nationally ranked Harvard.
However, the following alternate Associated Press shot might be even better!
Seconds later:
DEFENSIVE JEDI MIND TRICK OF THE YEAR:
With Princeton's lead against Yale down to two late in the game...
"T.J. Bray pulled the ball away from Reggie Willhite inside and raced the other way. In traffic around center court, Bray had the ball poked from behind and what was once a Princeton advantage was now a four-on-one for Yale in the other direction with only Patrick Saunders standing in the lane helplessly.
Years ago at a postseason basketball banquet, then-assistant coach Mike Brennan talked about Kyle Wente’s ability to use some sort of Jedi mind trick to convince an opposing player with the ball to come right at him and practically give the ball away.
The force was certainly strong with young Saunders as the outnumbered senior somehow got his hands on a Willhite layup try and knocked it free, able to snatch the loose ball away before any of eight Yale arms could."
I still can't figure out how he pulled it off.
HALFTIME SHOW OF THE YEAR:
The Bucks County Bungee Jumpers, a horde of pre-teens who performed an elaborate jump rope routine at the intermission of the Yale game. There was double dutch, pogo sticks, back flips and endless energy. Unmatched the rest of the year, earning a pair of well-deserved standing ovations.
Here they are doing their thing earlier in the season at Drexel:
MOST OVERLOOKED IMPROVEMENT THE YEAR:
I wrote about what I saw in Princeton through seven games and in that post I described Ian Hummer as "playing at a sustained high All-Ivy level with one fatal flaw."
At that point Hummer was 23-41 from the free throw line (56.1%).
To succeed, this number would need to rise considerably and Hummer finished the season 116-173 (a career best 67.1%).
In Ivy play Hummer shot 51-69 at the line (73.9%) and was 57-75 including his 6-6 line across the two CBI tilts (76.0%).
That also means Hummer was 93-132 from the stripe (70.5%) the final 25 games after his poor beginning.
GIRLS' GENERATION PARODY OF THE YEAR:
Our only award that involves a rewritten Korean pop song.
BEST FINISH TO A SENIOR YEAR OF THE YEAR:
Douglas Davis went out in style.
9-11 FG 5-6 3FG 8-8 FT for 31 points at Evansville.
7-12 FG 6-11 3FG 0-0 FT for 20 points at Pitt.
Second all-time in scoring at Princeton behind only Bill Bradley despite never earning First Team All-Ivy status.
WORST DRIVE OF THE YEAR:
In an upset, a solo mission to Evansville is trumped by a same day up/back to Northeastern. Getting there from central New Jersey was no bother but needing to be dropped off in Manhattan on the way home turned into a slow, endless trudge.
To add insult to injury, I was bumped from the radio show I was scheduled on at dawn the following morning due to the death of Kim Jong-il!
PREGAME MEALS OF THE YEAR:
Neomonde - Raleigh, NC
Cherry Alley Cafe - Lewisburg, PA
Maoz - New Brunswick, NJ
New World Bistro Bar - Albany, NY
East Side Pockets - Providence, RI
Caseus Fromagerie - New Haven, CT
The Farmer's Daughter -Princeton, IN
The Porch At Schenley - Pittsburgh, PA
"WHERE IS MY GENIUS GRANT?" MOVE OF THE YEAR:
Accidentally leaving my trusted laptop on my table at The Farmer's Daughter in Princeton, Indiana and only realizing this error when I hastily checked in to my Evansville hotel an hour later. Thankfully chef Sarah Wolfe had one of her employees wait at the restaurant after closing so I could drive back up the highway and retrieve it red-faced once the night's game was over. Not my proudest moment.
For some additional amusement, look back on a series of preseason predictions posted right before the season opener.
Before I go, thank you so much to everyone who supported the site this season and made it such an enjoyable year to cover. I have a great appreciation for the level of discourse you foster here and respect for the community that has been built.
Seeing friendly faces like yours at gyms around the nation really helped make the 2011-12 Princeton Tigers a pleasure to report on.
Please keep the observations, comments and conversations both off-board and in-person coming should you spot me at a game or notice me on-line. - Jon
