Lackawanna vs. MCCC - 5:30 pm ET - Region XIX playoffs
Ohio State vs. Northwestern - 7:00 pm ET - ESPN2
Oregon State vs. Oregon - 11:00 pm ET - ESPNU
First Georgetown (22-4) gave up a five point lead with :11 left in regulation, then the Hoyas came from down seven in a second overtime with two minutes remaining and won their 10th straight 79-78 via an Otto Porter drive. Hoya Prospectus crunches the numbers.
The Spiders and Fairfield will both take part in the 2013 Tip-Off Tournament and it is possible Chris Mooney and Sydney Johnson will coach against one another in the Naismith Bracket.
A reverse dunk by Princeton recruit Steven Cook triggered a New Trier victory in the St. Patrick Regional semifinals.
Future Tiger Henry Caruso went 14-15 at the free throw line in Serra's Central Coast Section Open Division semis win over Sacred Heart Cathedral. This sets up a fourth game between the Padres and Archbishop Mitty.
It was a comeback every bit as improbable as Princeton's 1999 Miracle at the Palestra and the only connection between the Tigers' rally from down 27 in the second half against Penn and what Mercer County Community College (20-9) pulled off with less time remaining tonight in the Region XIX quarterfinals versus Burlington was Howie Levy '85 on the sidelines.
"It brings back good memories," Levy said with a chuckle following his team's 20th victory of the season. "I've been on the right side of it both times!"
Lost offensively versus a switching zone, unable to score with any consistency for almost 30 minutes, lacking energy on several defensive rebounds and decisively trailing 38-19 with 10:03 to go, the Vikings unexpectedly found their rhythm, forced a number of steals in the half court and ran off the game's next 21 points uninterrupted to take a two point lead with 4:05 remaining.
"Holy cow. That was something else," said Levy. "These guys looked liked they were throwing in the towel. Somewhere, somehow - they figured it out. When they started playing hard and started playing together is when things started going our way."
Also like the 50-49 comeback in Philadelphia, Mercer caught the Barons with plenty of time remaining.
"When we got the lead I was chuckling to myself," Levy admitted. "I could not believe we got the lead."
"With about four minutes to go it became a basketball game," Levy added. "That's what you wanted."
While both ends of a one-and-one from MCCC's Mustafa El-Amin moved the home team in front three with just over a minute to go, a left wing falling down three pointer evened the score for just the third time all night.
Mercer was tied up in the post, which gave Burlington the ball back with :42.9 showing.
With seven seconds between the shot clock and the game clock, the Barons ran time down until Tariq Jett was bumped going to his left on the far baseline. At the line Jett put his team back in front by one but his second free throw was a touch long.
Andre Wilburn rebounded in traffic and as Burlington relaxed slightly on defense Tyliek Kimbrough was able to break open from Christopher Thompson cutting in the opposite direction on the left wing, take a long outlet and drive for a basket just beyond Jacob Ogenyi's reach with four ticks to go.
It was Kimbrough's only basket of the game after missing his first six attempts.
A deep right wing three by Thompson was off the mark at the buzzer and a small court-storming took place on the floor named after former coach Howie Landa as Mercer's players rightfully went berserk.
El-Amin scored 20 for Mercer, the only Viking in double figures. It was El-Amin who authored the comeback with a series of three point shots, shooting 7-15 from the field while the rest of his team went 11-34.
It sounds funny in retrospect but a key to the victory might have been MCCC holding the Barons to 18 first half points while Mercer was only mustering 13 of their own.
Otherwise the deficit might have been even larger, though perhaps it only meant the comeback that followed would have been all the more incredible.
Here's the latest collection of videos from various corners of the Princeton basketball family. Above, Tiger recruit Henry Caruso in action as Serra takes on Bellarmine.
12 additional clips of varying lengths and sources can be found after the jump.
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.
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.
On Saturday night Princeton wraps their first full weekend of Ivy play by hosting Columbia. As part of our Know! Your! Foe! series please welcome John Templon from Big Apple Buckets back to princetonbasketball.com.
Our email exchange can be found after the jump.
If you haven't read the Cornell preview that was published here yesterday, please do so.
Additionally, if you cover a team the Tigers will face down the line, let us know. It would be great to talk with you.
Here's the latest collection of videos from various corners of the Princeton basketball family. Above, Mitch Henderson is among a group of coaches who helped ring NASDAQ's closing bell today.
10 additional clips of varying lengths and sources can be found after the jump.
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
