Sweeping Into The Break

When TigerBlog saw that the Bradley Center was imploded yesterday, he immediately went back to his only trip to the arena in Milwaukee.

Like most random places - and some not random places - TB has been to, he's been to Milwaukee for just one reason. Princeton men's basketball was playing there.

This was back in December 1996, for a two-game tournament called "The First Bank Classic." TB's memories of that trip include the following:

* the team flew to Chicago, and then, when told it was only 90 minutes to Milwaukee, basketball/lacrosse player Jason Osier said "they have an airport there?"
* Princeton won, beating Ohio and then Marquette in the final
* it seemed like it was 27 degrees and freezing rain the whole time, which was fine, because TB doesn't think he ever had to go outside, since the hotel was connected to the arena
* Princeton centers Steve Goodrich and Jesse Rosenfeld both fouled out, leaving 6-5 Sydney Johnson to guard 6-10 future NBA star Chris Crawford
* the trophy for winning the tournament was gigantic and had its own seat on the plane home, complete with seat belt

TigerBlog also thinks that the Marquette game is the one when Princeton had committed seven fouls before Marquette had committed any, causing this exchange between then-Tiger head coach Bill Carmody and one of the officials:
BC: "fouls are 7-0."
Ref: "as soon as they commit one I'll call it, coach."

Further, TB is also pretty sure that's the same game when the lack of fouls called against Marquette worked out well for the Tigers, because Marquette had to foul Princeton six times to get them to the one-and-one in a two-point game. The first five were inbounded at midcourt and resulted in an immediate foul.

The sixth, which would have put Princeton on the line for a one-and-one, instead became a 45-foot crosscourt backdoor pass for a layup that sealed the 66-62 win.

Princeton started five players in that game, and three of them are now Division I head coaches - Sydney Johnson at Fairfield, Brian Earl at Cornell and Mitch Henderson at Princeton. There can't be too many examples of a time when a team had three players in its lineup who would go on to be Division I head coaches.

For that matter, you can add in that all four coaches for Princeton then became head coaches. Carmody, obviously, already was one, and still is. The other three members of the staff were Joe Scott (head coach at three places, including Princeton), John Thompson III (coached Princeton and then took Georgetown to the Final Four) and Howard Levy (now the head coach at Mercer County Community College).

Unlike any other coach in Division I men's basketball, Mitch Henderson has only one game left for the month. That game is Jan. 27, at home against Wesley, after a two-week break for exams.

Mitch can go into this particular break feeling pretty good about where his team is right now. The Tigers played a very solid game Saturday while beating Penn at the Palestra 62-53, completing a two-game, one-week sweep of the Quakers.

Princeton now heads into the break at 2-0 in the Ivy League, with 12 games in six weekends awaiting the Tigers once February and March roll around. Princeton has also won four straight since its loss at Duke.

What's most interesting to TigerBlog is that Princeton has been in the 60s in both of its wins against Penn and the one before it, the 67-66 win at then-No. 17 Arizona State.

Why is this interesting? One, Princeton hasn't been getting into shootouts on nights where it's raining three-pointers. In the last three games, Princeton is 19 for 72 from three-point range, and all three are wins.

Second, the Tigers have shown that they can execute when it's necessary. These games have all been close throughout, almost possession by possession in the second half, and Princeton has made every play that it needed to when it mattered most.

Third, Princeton is playing great defense. Arizona State and Penn in the game Saturday both were held below 33 percent shooting, and Penn shot 41 percent in the game at Jadwin. When you defend like that, good things will happen.

Princeton beat Penn on the road Saturday on a day when the Quakers honored their 1979 Final Four team, and the Tigers did it on a day when they were hardly perfect. That's a great sign.

There will be no momentum carryover from that game when the Ivy season kicks into high gear in a few weeks. At the same time, those two Penn wins are sitting there in the bank.

It wouldn't shock anyone if Penn went on a roll from here, and in fact Princeton should be rooting for the arch-rival to knock off some teams. The first goal is to get into the Ivy tournament, but there's nothing wrong with thinking about challenging for the league title and the top seed in that tournament after the two wins over Penn.

Yes, it won't be easy. It's a very good league this year, and no game is a layup. In fact, there's no guarantee for any team in the league that it'll be in New Haven come March 16-17.

Having two wins over Penn in your pocket, though, is a great way to start.

Heading into exam break at 2-0 in the league is reason to smile.