He's done the work. [Coaches] put a lot of pressure on him to be a certain type of player and early in his career it just wasn't there. He's done the work in terms of weight room, on the court and in terms of focus. He's put himself in a position where now we're relying on him. - Sydney Johnson on Kareem Maddox
It took Princeton 20 minutes to deoxidize their rust offensively and defensively following 17 days away from the basketball court, but a dominant second half on both sides of the floor carried the Tigers to a 73-40 victory versus The College of New Jersey.
"We were clearly out of sync. That's natural. There's no shame in that," said Princeton head coach Sydney Johnson after the Tigers' 12th win of the season.
"We were not sharp to begin the game, that was clear. [TCNJ] came out ready to play and that's good," Johnson continued. "We were a little bit slow to get going and then we got back to what we normally do, which is try to defend as much as possible."
The Lions, playing their second game in two days, has no answer for senior forward Kareem Maddox inside. Maddox scored 21 points on 9-10 shooting in 22 minutes and put back his only miss of the day.
Leading 34-25 at the break, the Tigers opened the second half on a 29-8 extended run and never looked back.
After rallying from down 17 to take the lead, Oregon State (8-10) didn't have enough left to withstand a final Oregon push. Tied at 48 the Ducks went on an 11-4 run.
Mercer (8-13) won their second straight, 70-54 over Devry. Rodney Walters' 22 led the way for the Vikings.
On the road, Denver (10-10) fell to Middle Tennessee. The Pioneers had 20 turnovers in the 59-49 defeat.
In a matchup between teams from Wisconsin and Chicagoland that's drawing a touch less attention than the one at Solider Field, Northwestern hosts the UW Badgers. The start time for this game was moved up in deference to the NFC Championship.
Some video of Princeton recruit Bobby Garbade from Seton CC's triumph over Norwich.
Keep your eye on a Michigan center who says he is hearing from Princeton.
Around the Ivy League: Masked man Tyler Bernardini scored as career high 27 as Penn (6-8 / 0-0) won their first Big 5 game in four years, 73-61 over St. Joe's. Harvard (13-3 / 2-0) dug themselves out of a 12 point second half hole against Dartmouth (4-12 / 0-2). A 23-2 run did the trick for the Crimson. Yale (9-7 / 2-0) completed their season sweep of Brown (7-9 / 0-2) with a 59-51 victory. Columbia (11-5 / 2-0) caught Cornell (4-12 / 0-2) with 14 minutes to go and held on for their fourth straight overall, 70-66 in Ithaca.
Richmond vs. UMass - 12:00 pm ET - Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic
Devry vs. Mercer - 2:00 pm ET
Oregon vs. Oregon State - 6:00 pm ET - FSN
Denver vs. Middle Tennessee State - 8:00 pm ET
Brown vs. Yale - 2:00 pm ET
Dartmouth vs. Harvard - 2:00 pm ET
Columbia vs. Cornell - 4:30 pm ET - Time Warner Sports Central NY
St. Joe's vs. Penn - 7:00 pm ET - Comcast
A new career high for Princeton recruit Denton Koon at the C.W. Stessman Invitational.
Seton CC won their 11th straight. Future Tiger Bobby Garbade had 23 points in the victory.
Early in the 2010-11 season, with the Tigers holding a 2-3 record after a pair of last second losses during James Madison's subregional of the College Basketball Experience, I looked at five concerns these first five games had raised.
With the back half of the season beginning Sunday versus The College of New Jersey, the time has come to try and answer a single question:
Princeton baseball coach Scott Bradley thinks Young will help New York.
Northwestern (13-5) rested John Shurna and still was able to decimate SIU Edwardsville, 98-55.
Eight straight for Denver (10-9) after a resounding 74-36 win over Arkansas State. The Pioneers now have the longest DI winning streak in program history. The victory was also the largest margin of victory for the school since returning to Division I in 1998-99.
The 14-Game Tournament writes about how the Ivy League's non-conference performance this season was the strongest showing since the 2001-02 season.
Mercer (7-13) returned to the win column after a 62-43 win over Essex. Gary Carthan scored 14 for the Vikings.
Northwestern (12-5) kicked off a busy week with an 74-60 win over Michigan. John Shurna had his worst practice of the season on Monday, then scored 24 points on Tuesday.
The Princeton coaching staff has shown interest in a guard from Kansas.
11th & Washington writes that rooting for new Met Chris Young won't be hard.
Postgame audio - Coach John Thompson III, Julian Vaughn, Austin Freeman & Chris Wright:
Georgetown was unable to stop Seton Hall on 11 consecutive defensive possessions, yet the Hoyas put the ball in the basket often enough themselves to stay within striking distance of the Pirates throughout the second half of Tuesday's second half in Newark.
Seton Hall either scored or went to the free throw line every time they had the ball from the 8:53 mark until the final two minutes.
"At our next practice, I don't know if we're going to do anything else than play one-on-one," said Georgetown head coach John Thompson III. "We did a very poor job at the defensive end."
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
