Happy 25th

TigerBlog started out the week with a birthday (John McPhee's - by the way, TB and McPhee will be riding together tomorrow; will you be riding your bike when you're 90? Will TB?).

He will go the rest of the week with an anniversary.

It was 25 years ago today that Princeton defeated Penn 63-56 at Lehigh to win the 1996 Ivy League men's basketball playoff game and the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament that went along with it. The next day Princeton drew the 13th seed in the NCAA's Southeast Regional, where the opponent would be defending champion UCLA.

Four days after that, Princeton defeated the Bruins 43-41 in one of the greatest games in NCAA tournament history.

Mixed into all of that was the retirement of Pete Carril, announced shockingly in the lockerroom after the win over Penn. It was "Carril's Last Dance," as more than one headline suggested at the time.

In all of the time that TigerBlog has been at Princeton, for all of the great moments and championships and records set and amazing performances, that week remains the craziest. And somehow, that was 25 years ago. 

TigerBlog's memories of that week are still vivid. He remembers pretty much all of it, beginning with the game the Tuesday before it all at the Palestra, where Princeton would have clinched the outright championship with a win over Penn, who instead forced the playoff game with a 63-49 victory.

It was the eighth straight win for the Quakers over the Tigers, which meant that no player on Princeton's team went into the playoff game four days later having ever experienced a win in the rivalry.

Carril's message to his team in the days leading up to the game was "push back." If they push, don't back down. He said it over and over and over again. His point was that the last eight games didn't matter. It was this game, and it was going to be a night of toughness.

And that's exactly what it turned out to be. That, and a night of some seemingly small changes that paid off in a major way.

Specifically, that meant reinserting current Princeton head coach Mitch Henderson into the starting lineup and also starting then-freshman Gabe Lewullis. In the first two games that year against Penn, Lewullis played a total of 17 minutes and scored two points. He was scoreless in 12 minutes in the game at the Palestra the Tuesday before the playoff.

When it mattered most, though, Lewullis was a star. Playing close to where he grew up in Allentown, Lewullis went all 45 minutes in the playoff game, leading Princeton with 15 points. More than that, he also hounded Penn's leading scorer, Donald Moxley, into an 0 for 14 night from the field. 

Chris Doyal had a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds, while Sydney Johnson had 12.

Princeton locked Penn down well all night, but the Quakers made a living at the foul line to 1) stay close and 2) get Henderson and Steve Goodrich out of the game. The Tigers led by 13 with eight minutes to go, but Ira Bowman tied it with a three-pointer with 15 seconds to go.

Penn then took a lead in the overtime, and it seemed like it was getting away from Princeton. It was a 54-54 game with just over a minute left when Sydney Johnson hit a deep three that TB can still see. Then Johnson and Brian Earl sealed it at the foul line.

The rest of the night is familiar to every Princeton fan. After the celebration on the court, the players returned to the locker room to see that Carril had scribbled on an old blackboard that he was retiring and very happy (and that Bill Carmody would be the new coach).

That stunning news then spread into the media room, where it was already very late and where the "hometown hero Gabe Lewullis wins the game for Princeton" storyline quickly shifted into the "Carril wins and announces retirement" storyline.

Because of what happened later in the week (namely the UCLA win), that game at Lehigh has been a bit overshadowed. TB remembers so many details, from arriving really early and not yet being able to get inside Stabler Arena on a frigid night to the feeling that this night was going to be different than the one four days earlier to the then sinking feeling when Bowman forced overtime to the moment when TB was the first one in the locker room and saw what Carril had written and realized that his night was just beginning.

TB has also spoken with enough of the players from that team through the years who state flat-out that beating Penn that night meant more to them than beating UCLA. TB believes them.

It was an incredible, amazing night. 

It was 25 years ago today. 

How in the world did that happen?