On To The NIT

It was the day before the opening round of the 1998 NCAA men's basketball tournament in Hartford.

TigerBlog went into the pre-tournament meeting, which included coaches, administrators, athletic communications reps and TV people. It was standard stuff, running through a pre-tournament checklist that is exciting the first time you experience it and then becomes like the safety instructions before a plane takes off if you're a frequent flier.

Back then, in Princeton's pre-Nike days, TigerBlog did have a closet filled with identifiable Princeton attire. For this meeting, he probably had no Tiger logo anywhere, and so when a stranger sat down next to him, he had no idea who TB was.

The stranger was UNLV head coach Bill Bayno, whose team, as it turned out, was 24 hours away from playing against Princeton. When Bayno introduced himself to TB and TB responded that he was Princeton's athletic communications contact, Bayno said this: "Nice to meet you. We have no chance of beating you."

He was right, of course. Princeton won that game 69-57. 

Anytime TB has seen UNLV since, he's thought of that exchange. He's also thought about how Pete Carril never called the school "UNLV" or "Nevada-Las Vegas" or even just "Vegas" but instead would refer to it as "Las Vegas, Nevada."

TB will remember both of those tomorrow night at 8, when Princeton and UNLV play at 8 at Jadwin Gym in the opening round of the NIT. The Tigers are one of four No. 2 seeds in this year's NIT, while UNLV is unseeded.

Princeton and UNLV have played four times in their history, and the Runnin' Rebels are 3-1, with the lone Tiger win in that 1998 NCAA game.The most recent game between the two was at a tournament in Charlotte in Dec. 1999, a game UNLV took 66-56.

As for the NIT itself, Princeton has had some great moments in the tournament. The best, of course, was in 1975, when the entire event was held in Madison Square Garden. Back then, Princeton knocked off, consecutively, Holy Cross, South Carolina, Oregon and Providence, all in one week.

The 1999 team also had a great run when it beat Georgetown at Jadwin and then won at North Carolina State before falling at Xavier in the quarterfinals. 

For Princeton, this isn't the tournament it was hoping to be in after last year's NCAA tournament Sweet 16 run and this year's Ivy League championship. Unfortunately for the Tigers, they came up a bit short against Brown in the Ivy League semifinals this past weekend, and then unfortunately for the Bears, they dropped a heartbreaker to Yale in the final after being ahead by six with 27 seconds to play. 

Still, it's always good to be playing this late in March, and the NIT can be a wonderful consolation prize. It's a chance to keep going together as a team, and it's a chance to start to look ahead to next season.

And that brings TigerBlog to Dalen Davis. 

A year ago, as a freshman, Xaivian Lee averaged 4.8 points per game. This year, he jumped to 17.3. 

This year, as a freshman, Davis has averaged 6.7 per game. Don't be shocked to see that number skyrocket next year as well.

Davis was extraordinary against Brown in the second half. With Lee slowed by illness, Davis came on to score 21 points in the second half and lead Princeton from down 22 to as close as three late in the game. He was, simply, unstoppable, in a way that Lee has been this season.

In the last eight games, Davis has averaged 11.1 points per game. For the first 20 of the year, he averaged just under five per game. He can shoot, and as he showed against Brown, he can get to the basket almost at will.

The NIT gives Princeton fans another chance to see him, and the rest of the Tigers — and to do so in Jadwin, where the Tigers are unbeaten this year. The winner of this game gets the winner of Boston College and Providence in the next round. 

It's not the NCAA tournament, but it can be a lot of fun. TigerBlog has seen Princeton play in the postseason many times, and the 1999 NIT is one of his favorite memories.

Tip-off tomorrow is at 8.