Brown on the schedule means the pleasure of exchanging Know! Your! Foe! emails with David "Bruno" Wise (pictured above), still the number one lone Brown basketball fan in my address book. There isn't anyone else I'd want to be discussing Friday's game with and David provides necessary insight into the Bears under first year head coach Mike Martin.
A Yale edition of K!Y!F! will run tomorrow on the site.
If you cover a team the Tigers will face down the line, let us know. We'd love to talk with you.
Princeton's 2013 recruiting has likely been complete for a while now, but somehow the news that guard Khyan Rayner ("Key-on Rain-er") was a part of the plan slipped under my radar until a tip from a reader last week.
The fact that Rayner's commitment to Princeton went unnoticed around these parts is no slight on his considerable ability. The high-scoring 5'10" guard from Portland, Oregon's Jesuit High School is a two time state champion and the Metro League's reigning Player of the Year.
Today I spoke with Jesuit coach Gene Potter about the sixth member of Mitch Henderson's 2013 class. Exclusive quotes and analysis plus links to player evaluations and videos of Rayner can all be found after the jump.
You can read complete profiles of all six future Tigers here.
Ian Hummer shares the latest Ivy League Player of the Week honors. For those of you keeping score at home that's three solo awards and a pair of split awards this season for the Princeton senior. Both times Hummer has been Co-POW the other recipient has been Harvard's Wesley Saunders.
The Daily Princetonian summarizes the Tigers' victories over Cornell and Columbia.
Fairfield (14-10) won their fourth straight, 64-54 at Siena.
The Stags will host Albany in a BracketBuster game on February 23rd while Denver will travel to Northern Iowa the same day.
One reporter wishes more professional athletes were like Will Venable.
There are five different former Princeton players currently suiting up professionally overseas. For the second straight year I asked each of them (minus Konrad Wysocki, who I still don't have contact info for) to update how things are going both on and off the court in Europe. Responses have been slowly trickling back since the start of the Tigers' exam break.
Read chronological first person dispatches from Mason Rocca, Judson Wallace, Dan Mavraides and Kareem Maddox after the jump, plus a brief word from Pawel Buczak.
The Full-Court Press breaks down the good and bad from Princeton's weekend sweep while the Columbia Basketball Blog kept a running diary of Saturday's NBCSN broadcast and the Cornell Daily Sun talked with some Big Red players about their visit to the Delaware Valley.
Somehow I missed that former Tiger Jon Berger was named to one of Forbes' "30 Under 30" lists.
Looking for something to watch? Stream a full archive of Princeton recruit Steven Cook and New Trier versus Waukegan.
In a game that featured 10 lead changes over the final 11:50, Stanford topped Oregon State (11-11) by eight.
Future Tiger Steven Cook had 15 for New Trier yesterday versus St. Viator.
Elsewhere, a double-double for Henry Caruso propelled Serra.
Northwestern (13-10) scored the initial 12 points and led Purdue wire to wire in a 75-60 decision. Reggie Hearn made his first nine field goals for the Wildcats.
The back half of a Lone Star State sweep for Denver (13-8) was a 79-64 win at Texas State.
Nate Lubick had 16 points and 10 rebounds in a 68-56 Georgetown victory over St. John's. The triumph was #200 for John Thompson III as the Hoyas' head man.
Before you settle in to watch the Big Game there's always Oregon State at Stanford.
Around the Ivy League: Is Harvard (12-6 / 4-0) a "team of destiny" or reaching Johnny Storm levels of fire-play? Brown (8-10 / 2-2) came from 22 down with 11:27 minutes to go, got to overtime courtesy a Sean McGonagill shot at the horn but could not take the lead in either of the two overtimes that followed as the Crimson survived 89-82. Errick Peck was 8-8 from the floor and Galal Cancer scored with 10 seconds to go as Cornell (10-11 / 2-2) won 71-69 over Penn (4-16 / 1-2) at The Palestra. Dartmouth (5-13 / 1-3) reached the win column in conference, 71-62 versus Yale (7-14 / 1-3). The Big Green connected on 22-24 free throws.
Back in December during a conversation about the decision to insert freshman forward Hans Brase in the starting lineup, replacing a team captain in the process, Princeton head coach Mitch Henderson said something prescient.
“Brendan Connolly is still going to win a game or two for us in the Ivy League.”
On a Saturday night in February with the Tigers’ defense getting knifed apart by the repeated dribble penetration of Columbia’s guards, Connolly was the second half difference-maker at both ends of the floor.
Knotted at 52 with 8:51 remaining, the difference wasn't fellow senior Ian Hummer's 12-14 free throw shooting or T.J. Bray's game-high 17 points and 3-3 marksmanship from downtown including a big jumper with the shot clock expiring.
The difference was a player who saw the floor only in the final 55 seconds of the previous evening's well-decided contest.
The difference was Brendan Connolly.
The senior center replaced the freshman Brase and with a burst of unexpected speed went around Cory Osetkowski for a reverse layup. Connolly also helped sure up the defense inside in a way Brase was unable, altering at least two drives and providing an immovable object for the Lions to try and knife past.
With the lead at three after a Mark Cisco left baseline jumper, Connolly glided to his right and tossed in a gorgeous hook shot on the run over Cisco from the center of the lane which provided needed distance in the final two minutes.
“When given the opportunity, he came through for us big tonight,” Henderson said of Connolly’s critical contributions. “I thought he did a really nice job changing the tone.”
The Tigers would make four of five free throws to keep Columbia at bay.
Princeton shot over 50% from the floor for the second straight night (23-45) and went 8-11 from three point range after starting an incredible 7-7. Also of importance: The Tigers attempted more than 20 free throws for the third consecutive contest.
Freshman Maodo Lo had some of the finest slashes for Columbia and he led his team with 16 points, Cisco adding 11.
The rest of this recap plus postgame audio from Coach Mitch Henderson, Brendan Connolly & T.J. Bray can be found after the jump.
Today's Game:Columbia (9-8 / 1-2) vs. Princeton (9-7 / 2-0) Location: Jadwin Gym - Princeton, NJ Time: 6:00 pm ET Radio: 103.3 fm WPRB TV: NBCSN Internet: goprincetontigers.com Series History: Princeton leads 143-84. Last meeting:Princeton 77 Columbia 66 - 2/17/12.
Columbia
Princeton
3-4
Home Record
5-3
5-4
Away Record
4-3
1-0
Neutral Record
0-1
243
RPI
121
179
Sagarin
89
173
Pomeroy
86
65.3
Points / Game
62.9
60.8
Points Allowed / Game
57.0
.425
FG%
.450
.757
FT%
.694
.359
3PT FG%
.355
32.9
Rebounds / Game
32.5
8.9
Off. Rebounds / Game
9.3
+0.9
Rebounding Margin
+2.5
13.7
Assists / Game
14.8
10.6
Turnovers / Game
12.9
3.1
Blocks / Game
3.1
Barbour: 14.1
Points
Hummer: 15.9
Cisco: 5.8
Rebounds
Hummer: 6.7
Barbour: 4.6
Assists
Hummer: 4.3
Barbour: 1.7
Steals
Bray: 1.9
Cisco: 1.0
Blocks
Hummer: 0.9
Daniels: .528
FG% (Min: 10 FGM)
Hummer: .520
Barbour: .889
FT% (Min: 10 FTM)
Bray: .758
Frankoski: .453
3PT FG% (Min: 10 3PTM)
Barrett: .500
Purdue vs. Northwestern - 12:00 pm ET - ESPN2
Denver vs. Texas State - 3:00 pm ET
St. John's vs. Georgetown - 4:00 pm ET - CBS
Xavier vs. Richmond - 6:00 pm ET
Yale vs. Dartmouth - 7:00 pm ET
Brown vs. Harvard - 7:00 pm ET
Cornell vs. Penn - 7:00 pm ET
Join fellow site members in the forum during the action, whether you're in the stands or watching on TV at home. You must be subscribed and logged in to participate. I'll try and be more active with the forum for this game.
Princeton recruit Steven Cook has assumed a leadership role with New Trier this season.
Future Tiger Henry Caruso recorded a new career high.
Fairfield (13-10) made it three straight with a 69-59 home victory over Rider.
Today Northwestern hosts Purdue, Denver plays at Texas State, Georgetown goes for a "Gray Out" at home versus St. John's and Richmond welcomes Xavier.
Around the Ivy League: Harvard (11-6 / 3-0) stayed unbeaten in the league but continues to play with fire. Yale (7-13 / 1-2) could not get off a chance to tie in the final seconds at Lavietes Pavilion, falling 67-64. Even entering the last :45, Penn (4-15 / 1-1) outscored Columbia (9-8 / 1-2) by four to record a 62-58 decision. Rafael Maia had 21 on 10-11 shooting as Brown (8-9 / 2-1) topped Dartmouth (4-13 / 0-2) by 12.
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
