Princeton Men's Basketball at Harvard

Final: Princeton 77, Harvard 71
The Tigers get their first road sweep of Harvard and Dartmouth since 2006 and Mavraides sets a career high with 22 points.

0:20.3: Princeton 73, Harvard 67
Dan Mavraides reaches 20 points for the second time in his career (career high 21) and retakes Princeton's six-point lead by hitting a pair from the line.

0:22.o: Princeton 71, Harvard 67
Harvard calls its last timeout. We're inside of one possession left, so the Crimson will likely have to foul, especially down two possessions.

0:30.6: Princeton 71, Harvard 65
Dan Mavraides comes up big again, burying his second recent big three-pointer to take a six-point Tiger lead. He's got four threes on the game and has 18 points, second on the team only to Davis' 19. Jeremy Lin leads all scorers with 23.

0:51.6: Princeton 68, Harvard 65
It'll be Princeton's ball after Harvard calls its second-to-last timeout.

1:00 2nd: Princeton 68, Harvard 63
Tigers call timeout. It's a full.

2:56 2nd: Princeton 63, Harvard 60
Saunders picks up his third foul and comes out. Davis re-enters with four.

4:17 2nd: Princeton 61, Harvard 59
Davis picks up his fourth foul. Finley is out, Buczak also has four.

5:11 2nd: Princeton 59, Harvard 56
Davis now has 19 points as he hits a clutch three to give Princeton the lead. The lead has changed hands seven times this half.

6:45 2nd: Harvard 56, Princeton 56
Tied again, and neither team has cooled off from the field. Princeton is shooting 51.1%, Harvard 61.3%.

7:51 2nd: Harvard 54, Princeton 54
Zach Finley has fouled out and the game has its seventh tie as we enter the under-8 media timeout.

11:49 2nd: Harvard 46, Princeton 45
It's feeling like the last team to have the ball will win this one since neither team has been able to pull away. The Tigers are in foul trouble with Finley carrying four, Buczak three, Davis three and Mavraides three. Princeton has seven team fouls already this half, and some accurate shooting from the free-throw line could benefit Harvard big.

15:24 2nd: Princeton 41, Harvard 40
Different night, same kind of feel looking at the Ivy League scoreboard. Cornell is having its way with another opponent, this time Yale, while Penn-Dartmouth, Yale-Columbia and Princeton-Harvard are all close.

15:24 2nd: Princeton 41, Harvard 40
Add Zach Finley to the dunker list as he drives the lane and slams one home to retake the lead.

18:30 2nd: Princeton 35, Harvard 32
The Tigers have their first lead and Douglas Davis breaks into double-digits for the 12th time this year with 12 points.

0:00 1st: Harvard 32, Princeton 32
We have our second tie of the game. The Crimson end the half shooting 61.1%, overshadowing Princeton's 50%, normally enough for a lead on the scoreboard.

0:59 1st: Harvard 32, Princeton 30
It's been the same way all half, the Tigers staying just behind the Crimson, who are still shooting over 60%.

3:46 1st: Harvard 30, Princeton 25
The Crimson continue to inch ahead of the Tigers. Harvard is shooting 68.8% this half, something that will no doubt be a halftime topic.

6:51 1st: Harvard 23, Princeton 20
That's a big three from Marcus Schroeder. The Tigers need a stop.

7:37 1st: Harvard 22, Princeton 17
It's a packed house here at Lavietes Pavilion and there's plenty of orange and black with the local alumni club's reception following. The Tigers still haven't caught the Crimson on the court, however, and Princeton just picked up its ninth team foul.

7:37 1st: Harvard 20, Princeton 17
The Tigers have eight team fouls to Harvard's two, and the Crimson look to be on the road to breaking Princeton's two-game streak of going to the line more than its opponents. Harvard will have at least six attempts with the front end of the upcoming one-and-one, while the Tigers have just Davis' 2 for 3.

8:20 1st: Harvard 18, Princeton 17
Davis does better at the free-throw line this time around, making two. He's the only Tiger to have taken aim from the stripe.

8:28 1st: Harvard 18, Princeton 15
The Tigers still haven't led in this one, but they're keeping it close.

15:05 1st: Harvard 6, Princeton 6
The Tigers weathered Harvard's hot start and have tied it with a few gritty buckets of their own. Davis has missed the game's only free throw.

17:32 1st: Harvard 6, Princeton 2
Harvard has hit its first three shots, all layups.

Introductions: Same five for Princeton, with Douglas Davis, Marcus Schroeder, Dan Mavraides, Kareem Maddox and Pawel Buczak. For Harvard, Jeremy Lin, PeterBoehm, Doug Miller, Drew Housman and Andrew Pusar.

34 minutes to tip: Postgame, the Princeton alumni club of New England will be getting together for a reception. TigerBlog spots Princeton Varsity Club assistant directors Marie Muhvic and Steve Stoute in the gym.

35 minutes to tip: Hello from Cambridge (actually, Boston since Lavietes Pavilion is located on the other side of the Charles River from the Harvard campus) where the Princeton men's basketball team will take on the Crimson. It's a chilly one outside, and the Charles looks more like a rink than a river.

Princeton Men's Basketball at Dartmouth

Final: Princeton 59, Dartmouth 54
The Tigers have their first four-game winning streak since November 2006 and have as many wins this season, six, as they did all last season.

1:02 2nd: Princeton 57, Dartmouth 48
Patrick Saunders widens Princeton's lead further and now has nine points. That's a career best for the rookie, who accomplishes it in his home state.

1:30 2nd: Princeton 55, Dartmouth 48
Douglas Davis' latest bucket open Princeton's lead to seven, its largest, and puts him into double figures with 11.

3:30 2nd: Princeton 53, Dartmouth 48
The Tigers regain the five-point lead on another layup by Buczak, who now has 14, just one off his best.

4:00 2nd: Princeton 51, Dartmouth 46
Pawel Buczak is up to 12 points, three from his career high of 15 achieved at Manhattan. Nick Lake's foul sends Dartmouth's Clive Weeden to the line for two.

11:30 2nd: Princeton 40, Dartmouth 38
Alex Barnett is above his average now with 20 points, his last three making it a one-possession game. Still a long, long way to go in this one.

14:35 2nd: Princeton 36, Dartmouth 31
Tonight's games are much like the Ivy League race last season in that Cornell is the only team that's way ahead. Yale is ahead of Columbia and Harvard is ahead of Penn by a three-pointer each at last check, but the Big Red have a 15-point lead over Brown at the half.

16:00 2nd: Princeton 31, Dartmouth 31
Douglas Davis is up to nine points after a pair of free throws. Davis has gone double-figures in 10 of 13 games this season.

0:00 2nd: Princeton 27, Dartmouth 25
Dueling inspirational final shots? Princeton's Douglas Davis gets a breakaway layup with about 10 seconds to go, but Alex Barnett drilled a three-pointer at the halftime buzzer to trim the Tiger lead to two. Barnett now has a game-high 13 points.

1:00 2nd: Princeton 23, Dartmouth 22
A steal and a layup for Mavraides gives him 10, his fourth double-digit game in the last five contests.

6:45 2nd: Dartmouth 19, Princeton 18
It's a 6-0 run for the Tigers, with the latest bucket a three from New Hampshire native Patrick Saunders.

7:45 2nd: Dartmouth 19, Princeton 12
Barnett is ready to re-enter for the Big Green, but Dartmouth hasn't needed him while he's been out. The Big Green lead is at its biggest.

11:00 2nd: Dartmouth 15, Princeton 10
Marcus Schroeder gets in the scoring column with a nifty up-and-under move. Barnett is out of the game for the Big Green, but Dartmouth still grabs its biggest lead on a David Rufful three-pointer.

11:29 2nd: Dartmouth 12, Princeton 8
TigerBlog had a feeling Alex Barnett wouldn't be scoreless for long, and the league's second-leading scorer (18.6 ppg) has eight of Dartmouth's 12 points as the Big Green have taken their first lead. Sydney Johnson calls timeout.

14:00 2nd: Princeton 5, Dartmouth 0
In a bit of Princeton-Dartmouth symmetry, Dartmouth head coach Terry Dunn has been affiliated with four of the five Division I schools in the state of Colorado, except the one where a Princeton alum is now coaching. Dunn is an alum of Northern Colorado, albeit before it was Division I, and he was an assistant at Air Force, Colorado State and Colorado. Joe Scott '87, who is also Princeton's former assistant and head coach, was the head coach at Air Force and is now the head coach at Denver, where he guided the Pioneers to their latest win, a 56-54 Sun Belt Conference victory over South Alabama, last night.

16:45 2nd: Princeton 5, Dartmouth 0
Your score: Dan Mavraides 5, Dartmouth 0. A three-pointer and a long two show Mavraides might have a game closer to his 21-point output against Lehigh rather than the three he scored last time against Concordia.

Introductions:
All the staff on both the Princeton and Dartmouth benches, except for the athletic trainers and Dartmouth's student manager (Princeton's grad student manager Lawrence Schuler joined in), are wearing sneakers today for the annual show of support for the fight against cancer. A New York Times article with more detail on the tradition is here.

4 minutes to tip:
Dartmouth will start Marlon Sanders, Jabari Trotter, David Rufful, Kurt Graeber and of course, leading scorer Alex Barnett.

8 minutes to tip:
Princeton's starters are in, and the same five will start: Buczak, Mavraides, Schroeder, Davis and Maddox.

12 minutes to tip:
Ivy League basketball is finally here for the Tigers who get the 14-game, 40-day sprint started tonight. No starters are in the books yet, but Princeton coach Sydney Johnson has used only two lineups all season, the first for nine games and the current one for the last four. Unless Johnson has a switcheroo, Pawel Buczak, Dan Mavraides, Marcus Schroeder, Douglas Davis and Kareem Maddox will start.

It's Cold Outside

The Princeton men's and women's lacrosse teams, along with the rest of their Ivy League rivals, will begin practice Sunday on the scheduled Feb. 1 start date.

Before any Ivy League school has a formal practice, most of the rest of Division I will have already been practicing for more than two weeks and will have scrimmaged twice. There have already been regular season Division I women's games played (last weekend in an event in San Diego).

TigerBlog has one question about the early play: Why?

This January in the Northeast has been colder than most, but even the best January's are not exactly warm. TigerBlog understands the idea of getting in maximum practice time and being ready when the regular season starts. There is also the idea of playing important games early in the year and then having them be huge factors come NCAA tournament time for seeding and at-large bids.

Still, is it really helping to drag your players outside in mid-January in the 20 degree weather when you're trying to be at your peak three to four months later?

The Princeton men will practice for three full weeks and scrimmage twice before opening the season against Canisius on Feb. 21, which itself seems sort of early. The following week, Princeton will play a huge game against Johns Hopkins; since Bill Tierney has been Princeton head coach, the Tigers have never failed to get into the NCAA tournament after defeating Hopkins in the regular season.

Even with a young team, it's hard to imagine how starting practice in mid-January would have Princeton more ready to play that game when it rolls around.

On Your Mark ...

What's the difference between Fort Myers, Fla., and Princeton right now, other than the fact that it's 72 degrees in Fort Meyers and 27 degrees here at TigerBlog HQ?

Well, the local Division I men's basketball team in Fort Myers is Florida Gulf Coast University, which competes in the Atlantic Sun conference. As of this morning, Florida Gulf Coast has played more league games than any team in Division I - a total of 12.

Princeton (and Penn), on the other hand, are the only DI teams not to have played a league game to this point. That changes this weekend, when the two travel north to take on Dartmouth and Harvard Friday and Saturday

Princeton and Penn go through this each year, due to Princeton's academic calendar that features first semester exams in January.

What this does is set up a total sprint for the Tigers (and Quakers). Princeton has played 13 men's basketball games so far in 77 days since the opener against Central Michigan, which came before football season at Princeton ended.

Beginning Friday, Princeton will play its 14 Ivy League games in a 40-day stretch. It gets off to a tough stretch, with the trip north followed by a home game against defending champ and 2009 favorite Cornell.

There is little in college sports that can compare to an Ivy weekend, especially one on the road. TigerBlog remembers vividly its first experience on the Princeton men's basketball bus, back in the 1989-90 season, riding up Broadway after leaving Columbia on the way to Cornell, with 20 pizzas on board (TigerBlog and Sean Jackson were the only two who liked mushrooms, so we'd share one) and a 2 a.m. arrival time. It's a grind, no doubt, to play Friday night, hop on the bus, arrive somewhere in the middle of the night, have a shootaround in the late morning and then hang around until it's time to play again. Then it's back on the bus for the long ride home.

As for the Princeton women, they're off to a 1-0 start after having defeated Penn before exams. The Tigers will take on Dartmouth Friday night at Jadwin in a game that will always be special for Princeton head coach Courtney Banghart, who became the Ivy League's all-time leading three-point shooter for women's basketball at Dartmouth and later was an assistant coach for the Big Green. It will also mark the second Jadwin return for former Princeton assistant women's coach Mary Gleason, now a Dartmouth assistant.

Squash... Um, It's Like Racketball, Right?

Tonight on ESPN, #1 Duke will take on #4 Wake Forest in men's college basketball. If you're a big sports fan, you probably knew that already.

Now that may be big, but it's not #1 vs. #2. As far as we can tell, the only place that's happening is at the Jadwin Squash Courts, where the Princeton women (#1) take on Penn (#2) in a rematch of last year's national championship final.

Now, you may already know that too. After all, you're reading TigerBlog, which you came to from GoPrincetonTigers.com, which means you're probably a Princeton fan. And that means you probably know that Princeton has a pretty good squash program, even if you honestly don't know what that means. Any maybe you don't even care.

If you don't know, here's a little run-down of the great sport of college squash (a TigerBlog favorite). And if you don't care, perhaps this isn't the piece for you.

Squash is somewhat like racketball, which you may have played once or twice in college. There are different rules and different equipment; for instance, a squash ball is far more dead than a racketball. In squash, you go get the ball; in racketball, it's probably going to find you at some point.

Teams play nine varsity players per match, ranked first through ninth based on a system of challenge matches. For instance, Amanda Siebert will play No. 1 for Princeton because she won her last challenge match against whoever was No. 2 at the time. Challenge matches don't occur daily at practice, but they happen enough that lineups can and will fluctuate during the year.

Matches can be played in either two or three shifts. Most matches, including tonight, will be played in two shifts. This means that the even-numbered matches (2, 4, 6, 8 and a JV 10th match) will be played first. The players for the odd-numbered matches will serve as refs for these matches, and vice versa. In a situation when a "let" is asked for (meaning a do-over) because the two players accidentally bumped each other, the referee has to determine the call. It is not an ideal way to manage matches, but you're more likely to find Bigfoot than five capable squash referees for a Wednesday night in Princeton.

A three-shift match, used primarily for the national tournaments, will be played on three courts. Shift one is matches 3, 6 and 9, followed by 2, 5 and 8 and then 1, 4 and 7.

Each match counts the same; winning the No. 1 match is no more important than the No. 9 match. Individual matches are best three of five games, with individual games being won with nine points. You can only score on your serve, and if you get to 8-8, there are a couple ways to determine the game.

Now, this is a VERY basic explanation of the game (and if you're a crazed squash fan, don't kill TigerBlog for simplifying it), but it might help you understand it better. It is a fast-moving sport with incredible athleticism. Two evenly matched players can play dramatic point after dramatic point. When you figure that five of these matches go on at the same time, these team matches tend to be a lot of fun and quite exciting.

Princeton hosts a number of matches this season for both the men and the women, including the men's team national championships from Feb. 20-22. TigerBlog will talk more about that weekend later, but trust us; if the Sunday final is between Princeton and Trinity, do everything you can to get here.

Tonight's match won't have the same atmosphere because students are on break and the weather is lousy, but if you can make it, it should be well worth it. The women's match at 5:30 seems destined for a 5-4 or 6-3 decision with several tight matches, and the following men's match features a Princeton team that has won the Ivy League three straight seasons.

Think You're Having A Good Week?

So things are going well for you? Maybe you found a $20 bill in a pocket? Got a great parking space? You're an Arizona Cardinals fan?

That's nothing compared to what's been happening of late for Craig Robinson ’83, the current head basketball coach at Oregon State. He's also doubling these days as essentially the "first brother-in-law," as his sister Michelle (also a Princeton grad) is married to the President of the United States.

Robinson received some pretty good ink from his orange and black sweater and from spending inauguration night in the Lincoln Bedroom of the White House. Robinson, though, is doing more than just hanging on his family's coattails.

Inheriting a team that was winless in the Pac-10 last year, Robinson began his first season at OSU with a loss at Howard, a team now 3-16, and followed that with losses to Nevada, Yale and Montana State to start 0-4 and run the team's losing streak to 24 straight.

And then some funny things started happening. OSU began to win a few games prior to the start of the league season and pulled even at 5-5. Then the Beavers knocked off USC to end the long Pac 10 streak, getting that behind them.

After a 1-5 league start, OSU has since swept Cal and Stanford on the road (the first time in 16 seasons) and then added a non-league win to make it three straight, a 3-5 league mark and a 9-10 overall record.

OSU was named the "Team of the Week" by Andy Katz on ESPN.com.

Robinson's success at OSU can only be helped during the recruiting process by his family ties. In other words, this pretty good week for Robinson is likely to be followed by many more.

Men's Basketball Adds a TV Game

Tiger fans who want to see the men's basketball team on the road will have another chance to do so on TV as Princeton's Feb. 13 game at Yale will be on the YES Network. Chris Shearn, who has worked Princeton football games on YES as a sideline reporter, will be the play-by-play man with former Wagner coach Tim Capstraw, who has broadcast experience with the New Jersey Nets, on color. The sideline reporter will be Dan Fleschner.

Both Penn-Princeton games are also scheduled to be on TV, with the home game Feb. 17 on ESPNU and the Mar. 10 game at The Palestra on CN8. The ESPNU crew will be the same as for the UNC Greensboro game on Jan. 3, with former Philadelphia Phillies broadcaster Scott Graham on play-by-play and former Fairfield coach Tim O'Toole on color. The CN8 crew will be announced later.

Saturday's game at Harvard, the Feb. 21 Carril Court dedication versus Dartmouth and the Mar. 7 game at Cornell will also be available on Sirius Satellite Radio, which will pick up the home team's broadcast.

As always, every Princeton men's basketball game will have the excellent play-by-play of John Sadak online around the world at GoPrincetonTigers.com and on the radio in the Princeton area at WPRB 103.3.

Let Them Eat Cake

Here it is, the Jadwin Gym 40th anniversary cake that fans were treated to during the Princeton-Concordia game Sunday.

Fans were invited into the Backcourt Bistro to share the cake, and share they did. TigerBlog was looking forward to having the leftovers available on Monday, but there were no leftovers. The entire cake was eaten during the game.

To those who had a piece (or 2, 3 or whatever), glad you were able to enjoy it.

Princeton vs. Concordia Men's Basketball

Final: Princeton 64, Concordia 44
TigerBlog apologizes for the technical difficulties we encountered with the TigerBlog laptop, but here are a few final notes: Seven Tigers, the most since Dec. 16, 2007 against Manhattan, hit three-pointers, a fact that was accomplished by the first seven threes Princeton took. Thanks to Jon Solomon of PrincetonBasketball.com for noticing the last part of that note. Also, for the first time this season, Princeton took more free throws than its opponent, six to three. The Tigers also matched a season-high with nine three pointers, a feat accomplished in each of the last two games.

18:00 2nd: Princeton 35, Concordia 21
The Tigers are shooting 44.8% to Concordia's 25.8%, obviously a huge reason for the difference in the game. So are Concordia's nine turnovers to Princeton's two, which is on the way to the lowest total of the season for the Tigers. It has more than offset Concordia's significant rebounding edge of 25-15.

2:30 1st: Princeton 29, Concordia 17
Pawel Buczak? More like Pawel BOOM-czak, at least for one play. The junior from down I-295 in Moorestown slams it home for the first time this season.

3:30 1st: Princeton 25, Concordia 17
TigerBlog can personally verify that the huge cake being served in honor of Jadwin Gym's 40th birthday is both yummy and pretty. What's also pretty is the up-and-under layup by Douglas Davis, which gave Princeton a 25-17 lead.

5:00 1st: Princeton 23, Concordia 12
Judging early on, it looked like Concordia's lack of rust (the Clippers played yesterday on Long Island against Adelphi) out-did Princeton's having not played since Jan. 7 due to finals. But Douglas Davis just gave Princeton its largest lead with a three-pointer.

8:30 1st: Princeton 16, Concordia 9
The Clippers started the game on a 5-0 run, but Princeton scored the next 10 points. Threes by Nick Lake and John Comfort, who made his earliest appearance of the season today, gave the Tigers a 16-7 lead before Concordia had the last bucket.

Hello from Jadwin Gym, where Princeton basketball is celebrating the 40th anniversary of its home arena.

Talking With Tierney

Bill Tierney met this morning with a group of about 30-40 coaches for the Lower Bucks Lacrosse youth organization. The basic idea was for Tierney, Princeton's Hall of Fame coach, to give some basic pointers on coaching the sport and on common mistakes youth coaches make.

The result was about 90 minutes that were pure Tierney. He spoke about the good fortune he has had in his career, especially the opportunity to coach his sons, and blended that with a genuine appreciation for the tough job that youth coaches have these days. He was funny, direct, informative and above all humble.

His audience was mostly awed by having someone of Tierney's stature speak to them. During a Q&A session at the end, the "Q's" bounced around between lacrosse strategy and basic philosophy and the "A's" were informative, respectful and enormously well-embraced.

Among Tierney's points:
* if you walk way from a youth game happy only because you won, then you're not doing it the right way
* if you "kick 'em in the butt," then you have to turn around and embrace them as well
* if you take a bunch of kids and let them play a game, what they'll remember most is that they had a good time doing it
* kids inherently want to get along and play the right way and show good sportsmanship; it's when they look around and see the coaches and parents around them losing track of that that the kids begin to lose their way
* the goal is to keep all of the players in the program because they're having a good experience

For a youth coach, this was the equivalent of having Bill Belichek or Phil Jackson or whoever the best hockey coach is come and speak to a group of volunteers at the most grass-roots level of the sport.

TigerBlog was there to introduce Tierney and to listen to stories that were familiar. Tierney speaks often about his four children and his experiences with them, both sons Trevor and Brendan who were part of NCAA championship teams in their own right, and daughters Courtney and Brianne, who were college athletes and are now college coaches, as well as his wife Helen.

One of his best questions asked by the audience was the question of coaching your own children, something that most youth coaches do. It's a difficult balance, Tierney said, because you don't want to be seen to be favoring your child, while at the same time, you don't want to overdo it in the other direction.

He followed that with one his best stories, which comes from after Princeton defeated Johns Hopkins 8-4 in the first game of the 2001 season, which would end with the Tigers' sixth NCAA championship. Tierney had to replace Brendan in the starting lineup with freshman Ryan Boyle, one of the elite lacrosse players of all-time. It was not easy to do, for obvious reasons.

Boyle had four assists in that first game. Later that night, Tierney said, he got into bed feeling pretty good about the win, and before he could fall asleep, he heard his wife say: "would it have killed you to play your son a little more?"

The audience loved that one, as always.

As for TigerBlog, it had one regret over its intro for Tierney. Lower Bucks Lacrosse, and the many leagues in the area, didn't exist before Tierney brought the sport to Central Jersey and Southeast Pennsylvania. Its explosion is directly relatable to Tierney's success at Princeton.

TigerBlog forgot to mention that without Tierney, the gathering of coaches would most likely have been prior to the start of Little League baseball season.