Princeton head coach Mitch Henderson and princetonbasketball.com editor Jon Solomon met prior to practice at Jadwin Gym late this afternoon to tape the 14th installment of their season-long weekly interview series.
Henderson and Solomon reviewed Princeton's impressive sweep at Columbia and Cornell in decent detail before diving into this weekend's final home contests of the season versus Harvard and Dartmouth.
This exclusive Q&A streaming after the jump is 13:00+ in length. You can catch up on all of the season's discussions here.
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.
You should hopefully know the drill by now. The middle of the week between Ivy contests at this time of year means Know! Your! Foe! updates about opponents Princeton has faced rather recently.
With Harvard and Dartmouth heading to Jadwin this weekend for the final regular season home games of the campaign, Michael James of the @ivybball Twitter account and Bruce Wood from Big Green Alert join us again to provide insight on how a pair of Tiger opponents' last two weeks have treated them.
If you want to read their original takes on these teams, please check out these Harvard and Dartmouth K!Y!F! posts from the middle of the month.
Additionally, if you cover a team the Tigers will face down the line, let us know. It would be great to talk with you.
A trap game if there ever was one awaits Georgetown when they travel to UConn tonight. No matter what happens, John Thompson III held the Hoyas together when things could have fallen apart.
Ian Hummer shares Ivy League Player of the Week honors with Harvard's Wesley Saunders for the third time. It is the sixth occasion Hummer has claimed either all or half of the POW honor this season.
One of the top five biggest positive movers in KenPom rankings this week was Princeton.
Here's some more on Mercer's crazy comeback against Burlington.
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.
Our brief conversation on Friday night after Princeton's win at Columbia wherein you wondered what percentage of Denton Koon's points this season came off of layups like the one above reminded me to ask Brian from Hoya Prospectus to generate 2012-13 shot selection tables for the Tigers.
After the jump you can view individual lines for the entire regular season broken down into five separate columns: Dunks, Layups, Two Point Jumpers, Three Point Jumpers and Free Throws.
There's a piece on Ian Hummer (with a great photo) in the new Princeton Alumni Weekly.
Do you know what player currently leads the nation in three point percentage?
Princeton recruit Steven Cook was named to the Central Suburban League All-Conference team. Cook's New Trier squad has won 24 games heading into the Illinois state playoffs.
Future Tiger Spencer Weisz is one of 10 New Jersey players worth the price of admission.
Scoring points was again an issue for Northwestern (13-15), who went down 74-43 at Purdue.
If you need a basketball fix tonight, Mercer hosts Burlington in the Region XIX playoffs. I'll be heading over as soon as my daughter's gymnastics class concludes.
Big Apple Buckets has five thoughts from the Tigers' victory over Columbia.
Princeton recruit Spencer Weisz and Seton Hall Prep came out on top in the Essex County Tournament finals.
Otto Porter was sensational for Georgetown (21-4), scoring a career high 33 points and silencing a crowd of 35,012 as the Hoyas won their final trip to the Carrier Dome as a member of the Big East 57-46 over Syracuse. Hoya Prospectus is happy to crunch numbers that equalled an end to the Orange's 38 game home winning streak.
Richmond (16-11) came out on top 72-55 at Fordham.
A shot from Ahmad Starks did not drop at the buzzer as Cal escaped 60-59 at Oregon State (13-15).
Denver (18-8) made it seven straight, 63-57 at Northern Iowa.
Purdue hosts Northwestern in the day's only game involving a Carril Cradle squad.
Around the Ivy League: Harvard (17-7 / 9-1) outscored Yale (11-16 / 5-5) by nine in the final eight minutes of a 72-66 Crimson victory. Check this out: Columbia (11-13 / 3-7) went without a field goal the final 15:17 of the second half and still beat Penn (7-19 / 4-5) by a 58-41 final. The Lions were 2-20 from the field, 19-22 at the line as the Quakers made 16.7% of their own attempts. Brown (10-14 / 4-6) topped Dartmouth (6-18 / 2-8) in Providence, 59-50.
Cornell didn't get a lot of clean looks at the basket in the opening 20 minutes at Newman Arena on Saturday night and the few open shots they attempted uniformly came up short. It was a horrid 5-32 frame by the Big Red (15.6%) and a simultaneously stifling defensive performance from Princeton as the Tigers held Cornell to one field goal over a 7:05 span opening up a 33-14 lead at the break.
“I really liked the way we controlled the game with our defense early on,” said Princeton head coach Mitch Henderson following the Tigers’ first Ivy road weekend sweep since a visit to the Empire State in February 2011.
It looked like the second half would be more of the same as Will Barrett's three pushed Princeton up 22 when play resumed. The lead was a healthy 42-24 with 14:30 to go when Cornell mounted a very serious run, playing their penetrate-and-then-press game to run off 17 of the following 23 points and actually close within seven.
Chris Clement's lefty drive and kick to T.J. Bray for three out of the right corner returned the lead to double figures with 7:47 showing and from that point forward control of the contest was returned.
“Threes like that kill a defense and give us so much energy,” Bray said. “Denton [Koon] set a good flare screen on it too. Everyone made the right play.”
Come the final buzzer Princeton could look up and see an overall margin equal to where the game stood at halftime but it was as agonizing a 19 point win as conceivable.
Ian Hummer was superb throughout - 10-12 from the floor and 3-3 at the line for 23 points. Barrett added 13 and Koon 11. Clement topped his career high of six set the previous evening by a digit.
As a team Princeton went 22-25 from the stripe, 14-15 in the second half.
Shonn Miller was impressive for Cornell, scoring 23 by going 10-11 at the line with 10 rebounds.
A full recap plus postgame audio from Coach Mitch Henderson, Ian Hummer & T.J. Bray 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
