Gamenight At Jadwin

TigerBlog's colleague Elliott Carr is the men's basketball contact here in the Office of Athletic Communications.

Elliott texted TB from North Carolina over the weekend, where the Tigers were playing in the Asheville Championship, to ask him about other in-season tournaments the team had played. Back when TB was the men's basketball contact, and back when he was covering the team as a sportswriter, the in-season tournaments were among the highlights of each year.

In fact, looking back on them now, TB counts many of those trips among his favorite experiences of his entire time at Princeton.

When Elliott asked about those tournaments, the first one TB mentioned was the 1998 Rainbow Classic in Honolulu. Where else would you start except for Hawaii in the week between Christmas and New Year's and a tournament in which Princeton defeated Texas, Florida State and UNC Charlotte on three straight nights to come home with the title? 

Among his other favorites was the 1996 First Bank Classic in Milwaukee, where the weather was much, much different. This was during Bill Carmody's first year as the Tiger head coach, during an early December stretch of time in Milwaukee when there was not one ray of sunshine.

As for the games, Princeton defeated Rice in the first round. That put the Tigers in the final against host Marquette, who was led by Chris Crawford, a big man who would go on to play seven seasons for the Atlanta Hawks in the NBA.

Princeton's starting lineup that game, as was the case all year, featured three future Division I head coaches: Mitch Henderson, Brian Earl and Sydney Johnson. The coaching staff also featured four head coaches: Carmody, Joe Scott, John Thompson III and Howard Levy. How many teams can ever have matched that? 

TB remembers a few things about that Marquette game. First, Princeton centers Steve Goodrich and Jesse Rosenfeld both fouled out, leaving 6-4 Johnson to be the Tiger big man and to have to contain Crawford down the stretch. Second, Princeton had the lead late, and because Marquette had only been called for one foul, there had to be six more fouls called before the Tigers went to the line.

As a result, Princeton would inbound the ball and be fouled immediately. This went on until the next foul would put Princeton on the line for a one-and-one, but instead of inbounding it into the backcourt from midcourt, Henderson instead whipped a perfect backdoor pass 50 feet or so for a layup that clinched the 66-62 win. The recipient? TB thinks it was James Mastaglio, but it could have been Earl or Johnson. What he remembers most was the pass, and the shocking decision to throw it.

Today of course Henderson is the Princeton head coach. His team is home tonight against Marist, with tip at 7. Marist is 1-1, and its two results have some interest for Princeton fans - the Red Foxes lost to Mike Brennan and Scott Greenman's American team and defeated Columbia.

As for Princeton, the Tigers have started out quickly. After the warmup win over Division III Rutgers-Camden, Princeton traveled to the Asheville for the weekend. Though the championship eluded the Tigers, they nonetheless looked like 1) a team that is very good and 2) a team that is going to get better as the year goes along.

Princeton defeated South Carolina 66-62 - the same score as the 1996 win over Marquette - and then went two overtimes with Minnesota before falling 87-80. That's a win over an SEC team and two overtimes against a Big Ten team, and that's a pretty good showing for mid-November.

Ethan Wright had an amazing game against the Gophers, with 14 points and 18 rebounds, a total that has not been bettered at Princeton since 1979 (Bob Roma against Villanova). And Wright wasn't even one of the two Princeton players on the all-tournament team (Jaelin Llewellyn and Tosan Evbuoman). Both of them look like they can get to the basket any time they'd like.

It was a very strong showing for Princeton, who flew home Monday morning and now plays the Red Foxes before heading off to play at Oregon State Sunday afternoon. 

There will be plenty of chances to see the Tigers at home before the Ivy schedule starts, with six home games in just over a month beginning tonight. There are also away games that are much easier to get to than the one in Oregon, with trips to Monmouth, Hofstra and Lafayette.

As TB said, this looks like a team that is already well worth watching, now and when the league rolls around after the new year.