More Hoops

And for the second straight day, TigerBlog starts off with something of a correction. 

Before he gets to that, he'll share a story from the 1980s, when he was still covering high schools at the Trenton Times. 

There had been a call into the paper asking for a correction to be issued regarding one of the local teams, the reason long since lost to history. TB's then-colleague Harry Chaykun said this: "How about just writing 'The Times regrets the coverage.'"

That still makes TB laugh, 40 years later. Ah, Harry. TB definitely learned a great deal about the newspaper business — and the effective use of sarcasm — from Harry. 

Today's correction — and TigerBlog does not regret the coverage — comes from Jason Merims, a loyal reader. When TB said yesterday that he'd come up with five instances where an NBA team had Ivy Leaguers as teammates, Jason came back with one more. 

And how could TB have missed this one? 

It was on the 1976-77 New York Knicks, where Jim McMillian of Columbia was a teammate of TB's classmate Bill Bradley.  

Those Knicks missed the playoffs, going 40-42 in the regular season. That would be Bradley's last season in the NBA. A year later he was elected as a United States Senator from New Jersey for the first of three times.

McMillian's sophomore year at Columbia was the 1967-68 season, which was also the first for Pete Carril at Princeton. The Lions and Tigers tied for the regular season championship, setting up a playoff game at St. John's for the NCAA tournament bid. 

Columbia won that game 92-74 as McMillian poured in 37 points. 

Here was a quote from Carril after the game from the Daily Princetonian:

"Nobody helped out on defense at all—they let the guards drive right by us." And how did the writer attribute the quote? Did it say "Carril said?" Did it say "Carril responded?" 

No. It said "Carril grimaced." Who can't close their eyes and see Carril's face at that? 

That was the only time between 1963 and 1988 when the Ivy League representative in the NCAA tournament was someone other than Princeton or Penn. 

McMillian, for his part, went on to be part of the great 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers team, which won 33 straight games and then ultimately the NBA title by beating the Knicks (and Bradley) in five games in the finals. The Knicks returned the favor a year later, winning their second title in four years (a streak that is now two titles in 55 years).

So a thank you goes to Jason for pointing out the missed teammates. 

Another thank you goes TB's longtime friend and local sportswriter Rich Fisher, who emailed yesterday with another basketball note. 

If you knew Carril, you knew "grimaced" was perfect. If you know Fish, then you know he would write this: 

"Well this hoop item may or may not interest you as a little Blog Blurb, but I'm sending just in case. 

 Fred Falchi has gotten the head coaching job at Pennington, and he's bringing back his former player Richmond Aririguzoh as a volunteer assistant his first year. He said Richmond is finishing up his masters' degree so this may be a one-year deal but I'm letting you know. If you don't use it, I'll throw myself off a cliff ... but it will be a very low cliff, so I'll live."

Yeah, that had to be Fish. 

Falchi was the longtime coach at Trenton Catholic, which used to be McCorristin and then before that St. Anthony's.

Aririguzoh played for Falchi during the final years at Trenton Catholic, which has since closed. Aririguzoh also played at Princeton, where he was a two-time All-Ivy selection, including a first-team selection as a senior in 2019-20.

If you look in the Princeton men's basketball record book, you'll see Aririguzoh's name under the field goal percentage section. His career number of .636 ranks second all-time at Princeton (who is first?), and he holds the No. 2 and No. 9 best single-season numbers. 

Who is first on the single-season list? 

The career record is held by Howard Levy (.647). The single-season record is held by Alan Williams (.703).