It wasn't as uncomfortable as my awkward men's room interaction with Rick Majerus in 2005, but the Saint Louis head coach did have some strange comments during his postgame press conference on Wednesday night.
My favorite moment was when Majerus went on (and on and on) about how good Princeton's "number 23" was and how he could not believe he didn't recruit him.
He proceeded to state several times in a row that he was an extremely talented freshman who would most certainly be Ivy League Player of the Year by the time he was a junior and/or senior in his opinion.
I didn't have the heart to break it to him that Kareem Maddox's junior season had just ended.
Majerus then began to circuitously compare "number 23" to Scottie Pippen, changed his mind, reversed his field and returned to his original postulation in the same run on sentence.
He came back to his Ivy Player of the Year postulation at least one more time, but by this point I was called out of the room as the length of Majerus' comments had moved Princeton's interviews from the Chaifetz Arena's media room to outside the Tigers' locker room.
Princeton's athletic department sent me complete plus/minus sheets for the entire regular season and I've split out Ivy-only plus/minus numbers along with CBI-only plus/minus numbers in Excel out of those .pdfs.
These dandy columns below show the number of minutes played by each Tiger this season and the difference in points scored by the team while each player was on the floor versus points allowed by the Tigers during the same span.
A handful of videos I haven't had found the right moment to post that have been collected over the last week+, starting with highlights of Princeton recruit T.J. Bray (#20) and Catholic Memorial above.
Back in February, I looked at Marcus Schroeder's chances of finishing his career as Princeton's all-time steals leader.
While Schroeder did not reach that mark and came up just shy of 300 career assists, he did conclude 2009-10 as one of two Princeton players in the top five of both categories.
Schroeder's 90 assists and 52 steals this year were both his single-season highs.
Congratulations, Marcus on this impressive feat.
Assists:
413 William F. Ryan, 1981-84
381 Christopher J. “Kit” Mueller, 1987-91
358 John R. Thompson III, 1984-88
304 Mitchell G. Henderson, 1994-98 295 Marcus Schroeder, 2006-10
280 Sydney A. Johnson, 1993-97
270 Nathan W. Walton, 1996-2001
263 Brian W. Earl, 1995-99
260 Armond G. Hill, 1975-76
253 William D. Venable, 2001-05
Steals:
169 Sydney A. Johnson, 1993-97
167 William F. Ryan, 1981-84
167 George H. Leftwich, 1988-92
156 William D. Venable, 2001-05 156 Marcus Schroeder, 2006-10
144 Gabriel E. Lewullis, 1995-99
144 Joseph W. Scott, 1984-87
142 Mitchell G. Henderson, 1994-98
140 Brian W. Earl, 1995-99
136 Armond G. Hill, 1975-76
Postgame audio - Marcus Schroeder, Nick Lake, Zach Finley & Pawel Buczak:
Postgame audio - Coach Sydney Johnson:
The final buzzer sounded for the last time on Princeton’s class of 2010 and the Tigers lined up to shake hands with the victorious Saint Louis Billikens, 69-59 winners in the semifinals of the College Basketball Invitational.
As the two teams dispersed to opposite sides of Chaifetz Arena, one by one Princeton players walked off the floor.
Eventually just a lone Tiger remained on the court.
Senior co-captain Marcus Schroeder, shuffling his feet with his head down while he fought of tears.
As Schroeder reached the edge of the hardwood, hesitant to step into the shadows, his coach stopped him for a second to rub his head and tell him how proud he was.
An instant later both Schroeder and Sydney Johnson were gone, and with them the last memory of a 2009-10 season that both will someday look back on fondly.
“It is tough for all of us losing our last game,” Schroeder said a few minutes after this moment. “I think I speak for all of us seniors that we’ve very proud of what we’ve gone through here. To have a season like this with 22 wins is pretty remarkable.”
The Billikens’ Kwamain Mitchell kept Princeton from adding to their victory total, scoring 17 of his game high 21 points in the first half.
“We tried to stop him in as many ways as we could and it seemed like he found ways to score or if he wasn’t scoring he was dishing it off to someone and they were knocking down a three,” Schroeder said of Mitchell’s effort.
Big man Willie Reed added 20 and 10 rebounds for Saint Louis.
Kareem Maddox’s 16 off the bench paced the Tigers, with Douglas Davis adding 14 - six of those late as Princeton tried to extend the game with fouls.
Today's Game:Princeton (22-8 / 11-3) vs. St. Louis (22-11 / 11-5) Location: Chaifetz Arena - St. Louis, MO Time: 9:00 pm ET Radio: 103.3 fm WPRB TV: HDNet Internet: goprincetontigers.com Series History: Saint Louis leads 2-0. Last meeting: Saint Louis 82 Princeton 52 - 12/17/70.
Princeton
St. Louis
11-3
Home Record
17-3
11-5
Away Record
5-5
0-0
Neutral Record
0-3
111
RPI
80
103
Sagarin
81
104
Pomeroy
93
60.4
Points / Game
63.4
52.8
Points Allowed / Game
59.7
.441
FG%
.437
.716
FT%
.615
.361
3PT FG%
.325
30.8
Rebounds / Game
33.7
8.9
Off. Rebounds / Game
9.2
+1.3
Rebounding Margin
-2.3
11.8
Assists / Game
12.5
13.1
Turnovers / Game
13.3
3.3
Blocks / Game
4.9
Davis: 12.7
Points
Mitchell: 16.2
Mavraides: 4.4
Rebounds
Reed: 8.0
Schroeder: 3.0
Assists
Cassity: 3.2
Schroeder: 1.7
Steals
Mitchell: 1.4
Maddox: 0.9
Blocks
Reed: 2.2
Finley: .602
FG% (Min: 10 FGM)
Reed: .576
Saunders: .941
FT% (Min: 10 FTM)
John: .813
Saunders: .456
3PT FG% (Min: 10 3PTM)
Jordan: .383
Thursday, March 25th
(12) Cornell vs. (1) Kentucky - 9:50 pm ET - CBS NCAA Tournament
I realized this morning that Princeton's Brian Earl has been involved in each of the Tigers' last six postseason victories. Four as a player, two as assistant.
Also offering articles on the CBI quarterfinal from people who were not in attendance are the Daily Princetonian and the Trentonian.
Princeton's next opponent is a depleted St. Louis team who is down to just eight scholarship players after guard Justin Jordan broke his thumb in Monday's double overtime comeback versus UW-Green Bay.
Richmond's Chris Mooney may interest Seton Hall, among other institutions.
A Tennessee senior forward who had been considering Princeton and Cornell has opted for the Big Red.
Cornell center Jeff Foote had the following to say about the Tigers' defense: "Princeton is one of the best defensive teams I've ever played against...Princeton - not taking anything away from Wisconsin or Temple - is a better defensive team than them. We're used to that style of play and we're ready to play that kind of game."
Will Venable has taken a circuitous route to the major leagues.
Here's a Trenton Times preview of last night's action that I initially missed.
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
