Princeton held its 2009 Media Day on Wednesday afternoon. Coach Sydney Johnson and select Tigers spoke to princetonbasketball.com about the upcoming season. These interviews are exclusive to our site. If you're interested in inside access like this all season long, please consider becoming a donor.
Photos from today by Stephen Goldsmith can be seen after the jump.
A large contingent of men's basketball players, coaches and support staff took in Princeton's football game against Colgate yesterday evening. Some, like junior forward Kareem Maddox, were armed with signs of support for the TV cameras.
Assistant coach Brian Earl and new Director of Basketball Operations Martin Bahar, with Zach Finley and Nick Lake in front of them.
Finley, Marcus Schroeder, Lake, Maddox and (all the way at the bottom of the frame) Dan Mavraides.
Assistant coach Scott Greenman, Earl & Bahar.
Also in the stands, out of shot: John Comfort, Douglas Davis, Bobby Foley.
A reader in Atlanta sent me some pictures they took of Will Venable from last night's Padres/Braves game. Venable was 0-5 at the plate in San Diego's 2-1 extra inning victory, but did make a nice rolling catch (video) in the fourth inning.
They arrived shortly before tipoff at the Frank Erwin Center, claiming they had driven straight from Princeton to Austin, Texas without stopping, save for essential gas station pitstops and a quick Taco Bell drive-through.
Just outside of their destination these seven Princeton undergraduates quickly switched into their outfits for Princeton's 1990 NCAA Tournament game versus Arkansas - seven identical orange jumpsuits.
The above photograph ran on the back page of the Austin American-Stateman on Sunday, March 18, 1990 as part of a larger photo essay capturing the flavor of the weekend's games.
The caption reads:
"Nah, can't be...or can it? These Princeton students - yes, Ivy Leaguers - suited up in hunter fluorescent orange, hoping for a big kill."
The accompanying article quotes a Princeton student named Rob English clocking his just-completed NJ to TX drive in a 1983 Ford pickup as "Twenty-six hours, 43 minutes and six seconds" door-to-door, with a stop 10 minutes away from the arena to crack a champagne bottle over the vehicle's hood when it passed 100,000 miles.
Pictured in the second row - Steve and Pam from The 14 Club wearing headbands and a 16 year old me just to their left sporting my tried and true baseball cap. Click to enlarge.
I turned up a short stack of pictures - one from Princeton's 1999 NIT win over Georgetown at Jadwin Gym and two from the Tigers' subsequent victory at NC State five days later. The final two photos are undated from some point during the 1999-2000 campaign.
Have any snapshots in your collection you would like scanned? Let me know and I'd be delighted to share them.
Bill Carmody instructs his iron five against the Hoyas.
Tigers win!
Princeton cheerleaders storm the floor at Reynolds Coliseum.
Spencer Gloger and Ahmed El-Nokali.
Coach Levy and Coach Thompson (standing) with El-Nokali and Chris Young (sitting). Mike Bechtold crossing his arms in the background.
...is a picture by David Zeft of the Princeton coaching staff during the 1995-96 basketball season - Bill Carmody, Joe Scott, John Thompson III and Pete Carril.
It is a picture of four men that to-date have combined for 1036 wins as collegiate head coaches, the three assistants close to collectively equalling their mentor's 525 wins.
It is a picture of four men that manned the sidelines for an even 700 victories as head coaches at Princeton (against 363 losses - a winning percentage of .659), and who are together responsible for all but 19 of the Tigers' wins since 1967.
Thanks to the eagle-eyed reader who got permission to take this photograph off the wall, bring it home and scan it!
Another dinner at my parents' house, another picture to share...
The above scan is of a print of a photograph taken by my father, Robert Solomon, in the moments after Princeton defeated UCLA at the RCA Dome in 1996. Click to enlarge.
Look for Chris Doyal at halfcourt, Sydney Johnson with (perhaps) Coach Carril being interviewed by CBS in the bottom right and Mitch Henderson, Steve Goodrich, Sean Gregory, Jesse Rosenfeld, Jason Osier and others in front of the flag-waving Tiger cheerleaders on the left.
The first Senior on a Stick paid tribute to the lone member of Princeton's class of 1990 - forward Matt Lapin.
Lapin led the nation in three point shooting his senior year, hitting 53.4% of his attempts. His 71 triples are sixth-most in a season by a Tiger, which included eight in a game at Harvard on a team record 15 attempts.
The initial Senior on a Stick was poster-sized, hand-colored and hand-numbered (this one is #181 out of 200).
The text written under the image reads:
"Slapper on a Stick" 181/200 A "14 Club" Production PJB/SGC
How did Matt Lapin get the nickname Slapper anyway?
Well before there was princetonbasketball.com, there was The 14 Club, one of this site's biggest influences. The 14 Club was a couple from Princeton who traveled to Princeton games from coast to coast (I remember seeing holding a banner on TV when the Tigers played at #1 UNLV), printed the original Seniors on a Stick, hoarded NCAA Tournament tickets for fellow fans and worked tirelessly to support the orange and black.
As if the above wasn't enough, starting in 1990 they self-published an annual bound "Recruiting Wrap-Up" full of photocopied articles about the incoming freshman class with additional pieces they had culled regarding the next season's Princeton schedule and other news of interest. Pre-Internet, this was the best/only way to know about the incoming freshman class.
I recently uncovered their first book, and wanted to share some bullet points based on stories that are almost two decades old.
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
