If you're looking for the most underrated player TigerBlog has seen in his time watching Princeton men's basketball, consider this stat line:
* 21 points, 8 for 13 from the field, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals
Not a bad game, right. A little context makes it even more impressive, by the way. TigerBlog will add that context in a second.
For his career, Mr. Underrated scored 1,010 points, and he's also fourth all-time at Princeton in steals and 14th in assists.
Despite reaching 1,000 career points, he was never really what you would consider to be a scorer. Or, for that matter, maybe not even a basketball player.
The player to whom TB is referring is Will Venable. You know him better for his long Major League Baseball career and his current role as the first base coach for the Chicago Cubs.
Venable, by the way, had a pretty good career as a Major League Baseball player. His career numbers? He had a career .249 batting average with 81 career home runs (more than TB would have guessed) and 135 stolen bases. His career OPS was .719, which isn't bad, and none of this factors in that he was also one of the top defensive outfielders in baseball.
Back when he was a Princeton basketball player, though, TB always wondered what his ceiling could be in that sport. There were many nights against many nationally ranked opponents where Venable was clearly the best player on the floor, including the night with that stat line above, a night when Duke had Shelden Williams and J.J. Redick.
That was back on Jan. 5, 2005, when Princeton lost at Duke 59-46. Venable had 21 of Princeton's 46, including, TB thought, a wild baseline drive and dunk. Or was that a different game? Was it in the game at Duke the season before?
Venable was a ferocious defender and a great all-around player, and he was also quiet and confident. And he had a complete killer instinct. Added all together, it made Venable one of the elite players that TigerBlog has ever seen play at Princeton, even if he's not always included in that conversation.
That night at Duke his senior year, by the way, was proof of everything TB has been saying.
TigerBlog was at that game. He's seen Princeton play at Duke a few times, including on Nov. 14, 2000, for John Thompson III's first game as head coach.
There are two things that stand out to TB about that game. First, TB was on the radio with Tom McCarthy, and the game was the first round of the preseason NIT. After Duke won, Tom said "... and Duke advances to play ..." and then paused, as neither he nor TB had bothered to see whom the winner would play, since it figured to be Duke anyway.
Second, after the game, TB and McCarthy went to a Waffle House and saw Duke's Shane Battier there. Battier had scored 29 points in the game, joining Carlos Boozer, Jason Williams and Nate James in double figures for the Blue Devils. Princeton had two players in double figures, Andre Logan (16) and Mike Stephens (10).
TigerBlog wasn't in Durham last night for the most recent Princeton-Duke game. He watched that one on TV.
Princeton lost 101-50 to Duke, who is far and away the most talented team in the country. In fact, it's not really all that close between Duke and whoever is second.
This isn't to say that the Blue Devils are a lock to win the NCAA title. That's never easy, and it won't be any easier starting four freshmen. And yes, Duke has replaced Kentucky as the "one and done" capital of college basketball. And yes, Duke is not the same team on those occasions when it ventures out of its home arena, and TB thinks that playing on neutral courts always hurts Duke come tournament time.
Still, when it comes to sheer talent, who can possibly match up to that team?
In fact, someone who knows a lot about college basketball texted TB last night and said that this Duke team could be the most talented team any Princeton team has ever played.
That's why it's impossible to judge anything Princeton did in the game last night. In fact, the Tigers hung in well, holding the lead for the first 14 minutes or so.
Myles Stephen had a strong game for Princeton with 19 points, and Jaelin Llewellyn still had seven assists to go with eight points. Duke, though, was just overwhelming in the last five minutes of the first half and the entire second half.
Even if you're not a Duke fan - and TB isn't - you have to be impressed with how this team plays and just how loaded with talent it is.
The good news for Princeton is that it has a quick turnaround, to Friday night at Lafayette.
Still, there's nothing wrong with scheduling Duke, or any other team.
It's a chance to play the best and to play in that environment, and that's never a bad idea.
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4 comments:
Before last night's game, my friends and I were discussing the point spread of 29. I opined that, it really depends on by how much Krzyzewski wants to beat us. If he wants to beat the spread, he can.
Two factors may have influenced Krzyzewski's attitude. The first is that Princeton jumped out to a 13-5 lead and actually kept the lead until the six-minute mark of the first half.
The second is an anecdote I recall from a Sports Illustrated article of about twenty years ago. In a feature-length interview, Krzyzewski recalled his first difficult years at Duke, before he turned the program around. He specifically mentioned a frustrating game from his second season, after which he said he just stood immobilized in the shower, letting the water run over him, in what must have been practically a biblical cleansing of the pain of losing.
Krzyzewski further revealed that he kept a custom-made paperweight on his desk to remind him of that harrowing night in December 1981. The paperweight was inscribed, "Princeton 72, Duke 55. Never again."
I covered the '05 game in Durham for the Prince and will second what an incredible performance it was by Venable. I think the dunk was the year prior, but he converted half-a-dozen acrobatic drives into the lane while getting absolutely clobbered by Duke's D. I went back to the column I wrote to find Coach K's post-game praise for Venable:
"I don't think there could be a better competitor in the Ivy League," Krzyzewski said after the game, before correcting himself. "Or in any league. He's a hell of a competitor."
http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2005/01/venable-carries-tigers-with-heart-soul
Venable attended last night's game, along with at least a dozen former players.
The 51-point margin of defeat was the largest in Princeton basketball history. I suppose one positive side of this is that Penn has now been removed from the record book as the benefactor of Princeton's worst defeat.
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