March 29, 2013 at 9:58 am
Filed under Basketball, Luke Owings, Marvin Bressler, Princeton, Today's News
While it doesn't directly tie to basketball, I still wanted to acknowledge the death of Rabbi Jim Diamond, who was killed yesterday in a bizarre accident.
I knew Rabbi Diamond as a fellow WPRB DJ, through his friendship with my parents and from interviewing him about the late Marvin Bressler two years ago.
(He described Marvin perfectly with the line "He was a profound and responsible skeptic.")
Diamond was also Professor Bressler's choice to lead his funeral ceremony and it was Diamond who permitted the beautiful gesture of Bressler being buried with a basketball to occur.
Rabbi Diamond was a friend to many at Princeton and a kind, funny man. My condolences.
A funeral is scheduled for Sunday at 1:00 pm ET at the Jewish Center in Princeton.
Luke Owings is part of a piece about the Fullbridge Program.
Princeton over UCLA makes a Sports Illustrated list of biggest NCAA Tournament upsets.
May 24, 2012 at 8:58 am
Filed under Baseball, Basketball, Bill Bradley, Craig Robinson, Marvin Bressler, Oregon State, Today's News, Will Venable
Less than two years after he was hired, Princeton Director of Basketball Operations Kendrick Saunders is leaving the program to accept an assistant coach position at Navy. I'm sorry to see him go but I wish him the best of luck with this hands-on opportunity. The job description for the now-open DOBO position can be found here.
The Princeton Varsity Club will honor Stu Orefice with the Marvin Bressler Award at their annual banquet.
Batting well over .400 for his career versus St. Louis coming into last night, Will Venable was a triple short of San Diego's first cycle against the Cardinals.
Bill Bradley talks about his new book as well as his days with the Knicks.
Craig Robinson is taking Oregon State to Spain and France this August.
There was a report yesterday that Brown was hiring Penn assistant and former Bears standout Mike Martin as their next head coach but a different report paints the situation as more up in the air.
April 10, 2012 at 9:17 pm
Filed under Banquet, Basketball, Marvin Bressler, Pete Carril, Photos, Princeton
Princeton held its annual awards banquet in the lobby of Jadwin Gym tonight.
The worthy recipients of honors at the 2011-2012 banquet included:
Class of 1959 Bob Rock Sixth Man Award - Mack Darrow.
B.F. Bunn Trophy - Doug Davis.
Friedman Memorial Award Trophy - John Comfort.
Davis and Ian Hummer were also recognized for their All-Ivy status.
It was easily the shortest banquet on record. Not having Marvin Bressler as the MC anymore and all three seniors being fairly quiet in public will speed a night crisply along.
The fact this event was held on what would have been Bressler's birthday was a nice, purely accidental touch.
Pete Carril was asked to introduce the Friedman award and recalled the story behind the man this plaque is named after.
John Comfort (who said his thesis was due tomorrow), Patrick Saunders (who was recently admitted to the University of Vermont pre-Med program) and Doug Davis each gave brief remarks after the full team was called up to receive their varsity letters.
It was personally heartwarming to hear head coach Mitch Henderson single out my father's photo of Ian Hummer's dunk versus Cornell from the dais.
All the food looked great. Wish it hadn't been Passover!
A few photos follow after the jump.
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July 6, 2011 at 8:22 am
Filed under Basketball, Marvin Bressler, Princeton
Today marks a year since Marvin Bressler's passing. On this anniversary I keep coming back to a quote from Rabbi Jim Diamond about Professor Bressler:
"He was a skeptic in the best sense of the term. He was not an irreverent skeptic. He was not a cynical skeptic. He was a profound and responsible skeptic."
What would Marvin would have had to say about last season, had he been here to experience it?
I think he would have gotten a big kick out of it all.
January 12, 2011 at 1:10 pm
Filed under Marvin Bressler, Pete Carril, Princeton
As some readers know, I've been working on a book about late Princeton professor Marvin Bressler since the summer. I've interviewed 60+ different individuals for their stories of Professor Bressler.
In my research I've uncovered many incredible things that I look forward to someday sharing with you, but one critical missing piece is a recording of Professor Bressler's speech from February 21, 2009 at the Princeton Boathouse.
There were hundreds in attendance at this reception honoring Pete Carril the same evening "Carril Court" was dedicated, but I have been unable to find anyone who taped Marvin's incredible improvised remarks about his friend.
Several have cited what Marvin said that night as one of his finest moments. If you have any leads, cameraphone footage or remembrances of what was said I would like very much to talk with you.
It seems impossible in this electronic age that Professor Bressler's words have vanished into the ether without documentation and I'm hopeful visitors to this site can help my search.
Yrs,
Jon Solomon
princetonbasketball.com
November 2, 2010 at 10:22 am
Filed under Basketball, Georgetown, Marvin Bressler, MCCC, Princeton, Recruiting, Today's News
Princeton will honor Marvin Bressler with a "MARV" patch on their uniforms this season.
There's an excerpt of a lovely note written posthumously to Professor Bressler in the latest Princeton Alumni Weekly.
Future Tiger Clay Wilson has been named Oklahoma class 3A Preseason MVP.
The 2010-11 season opens on November 12th against Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights struggled in a foul-plaqued 80-68 exhibition victory over McGill College.
Despite returning zero starters from last season, Howie Levy's Mercer County Community College team is ranked 17th in NJCAA DII Preseason Poll.
Senior big man Tyler Adams, who had previously verbally committed to Duke changed his mind and pledged his services to Georgetown.
New Egypt center Desmond Huebert, who is deciding between Maryland, Wake Forest, Villanova, Georgia Tech and the Tigers will "probably" visit the Princeton campus this weekend.
October 20, 2010 at 9:46 am
Filed under Craig Robinson, Georgetown, Marvin Bressler, Princeton, Recruiting, Today's News
The thorough Blue Ribbon Yearbook team preview for Princeton is up on the ESPN web site. It is my understanding this piece was written by Kathy Orton of the Washington Post. Those with ESPN Insider can read articles on all eight Ivy schools here.
The Washington Times reports from Georgetown Media Day.
Slam Magazine has a lengthy piece about what makes the Hoyas' basketball program special.
Pam Hersh of the Princeton Packet writes about Marvin Bressler's memorial service.
Here's video of Craig Robinson on C-Span talking about "A Game of Character."
Senior wing Armani Cotton has declared his intent to play basketball at Yale.
October 10, 2010 at 9:09 pm
Filed under Basketball, Marvin Bressler, Princeton
It was a classy display by Princeton head coach Sydney Johnson to have his entire team and coaching staff show up to today's memorial for Marvin Bressler en masse.
Seeing the current Tigers occupying the back two rows of the filled-beyond-capacity auditorium, two things struck me:
1. The similarity in the experiences of those who were assisted by Marvin when they made his acquaintance during his first days at Princeton in the early 1960s to those who graduated in the past few years.
2. A sadness that the current freshmen on the team sitting in Robertson Hall will not have the fortune to get to know Marvin and that they did not share the privilege of his company.
Three inch buttons with Marvin's visage on them or select "Bresslerisms" were handed out at the door.
September 27, 2010 at 10:04 pm
Filed under Basketball, Marvin Bressler, Princeton
Princeton Alumni Weekly Photograph Collection
As some of you are already aware, for the past month I have been interviewing individuals about Professor Marvin Bressler, who passed away on July 6th at the age of 87 after a long illness.
Having already taped pieces with 30+ coaches, friends and former players, I hope to eventually speak to every branch of the Princeton basketball tree and record their anecdotes.
I mention this because while there are many boldface names who have stories about Professor Bressler to share, I've reached the point in my work where I'm comfortable making a public appeal for "Marvin Stories."
I think of Marvin as such an incredible storyteller and I never had the chance to record his stories before he passed away so I am trying to paint a detailed picture of the man through other people's personal recollections as well as the tales that he took such pleasure in recounting repeatedly.
If you are reading this and you have any memories from your time with Professor Bressler you would like to share I'd certainly be curious to talk with you. Emails can be sent here.
I also welcome any and all suggestions of people to try and speak with.
Jon Solomon
princetonbasketball.com
September 8, 2010 at 8:07 am
Filed under Baseball, Basketball, Chris Young, David Blatt, Marvin Bressler, Princeton, Richmond, Trading Cards
Chris Young will make a third rehab start on Saturday night. This time out Young will take the ball for the Lake Elsinore Storm in the first game of the Class A California League Southern Division finals.
Andy Glockner from Sports Illustrated includes the 1998 Princeton team on his list of the most compelling college basketball teams since the early-90s UNLV squad.
Dave Blatt talks to the Associated Press about Thursday's game between Russia and the United States at the 2010 FIBA World Championship.
Richmond has released their 2010-11 basketball schedule.
A memorial on the Princeton campus for Marvin Bressler will be held on October 10th.
We've upgraded our site's backend to the latest version of WordPress and made several internal improvements to site functionality. If you notice any issues navigating princetonbasketball.com in the next few days, please let us know.
July 13, 2010 at 9:38 am
Filed under Basketball, Marvin Bressler, Northwestern, Pete Carril, Princeton, Recruiting, Today's News
Let's get ahead of ourselves, shall we? Rivals names Princeton coach Sydney Johnson as one of five head men who could make a big leap after the 2010-11 season.
Princeton Alumni Weekly remembers Marvin Bressler.
I'd never been able to bring myself to watch the final seconds of Princeton's 1991 NCAA Tournament loss to Villanova since I saw it live, but the Tigers' last shot can now be streamed here. Coach Carril's disgust as he walks off the court sums it all up.
A guard from Illinois has committed to Northwestern over interest from Princeton, Harvard and Bucknell.
The NCAA has announced how their new 68 team format for the tournament will be bracketed.
July 10, 2010 at 10:00 am
Filed under Basketball, Craig Robinson, Marvin Bressler, Northwestern, Princeton, Today's News, Will Venable
In our most recent interview with Princeton head Coach Sydney Johnson, he discussed the two Tigers playing basketball this summer in Georgetown's Kenner League.
It turns out two additional players are competing in a similarly sound league closer to campus. Sophomore-to-be Will Barrett and junior guard Douglas Davis are both participating in the Philadelphia Area College League (formerly the Sonny Hill League) at Charles Y. Audenreid High School.
Someone at the gym on Thursday reveals that Davis and Barrett faced off on opposing teams, part of squads loaded with Villanova and Penn players. At the close of a physical game in a sweltering gym, Barrett hit a three with five seconds left to tie the score before Davis nailed the game-winning triple at the buzzer.
Marvin Bressler is remembered on the Princeton web site and on TigerBlog.
Northwestern's John Shurna was named to the named to the United States Select Team.
Oregon State head coach Craig Robinson tells the Gazette-Times about his busy off season.
Will Venable could begin to take batting practice again this weekend.
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