The Weekend In Hoops

This weekend was the opening weekend for Princeton lacrosse, and the men and women both started with impressive performances, with a 22-6 win for the men over Monmouth Saturday and then a 17-11 win over No. 10 Virginia for the women yesterday.

And if you want anything else on Princeton lacrosse from TigerBlog, you'll have to wait until tomorrow. 

Lacrosse season, like football season, is a sprint. In a blink, it'll go from Week 1 to May.

The basketball season, though, that's another story. It was back on Nov. 9 when the men played their first game. It was the next day when the women tipped off.

For a little perspective, a few days later the football team played its home game against Yale. In Week 9. There was still the game against Penn a week later, and then the bonfire. Does that seem like awhile ago? 

The basketball seasons, though, are approaching their peak drama. It was a great weekend for the Princeton men and women, and they are both looking ahead to what is to come in the next few weeks.

TB supposes that there are basically four goals for an Ivy League basketball team. The first is to clinch a spot in the four-time Ivy League tournament, which is something that both Princeton teams mathematically did this weekend, when they both swept Brown and Yale.

Next up is winning the Ivy League championship. After that is the Ivy tournament championship. Then there is getting to the NCAA tournament.

It's all right there for Princeton, though it won't be easy. It'll be fun to watch, though.

It's already been a great year of Princeton basketball, as the teams are 38-9 between them, including 20-2 in the league. Clinching their spots in the Ivy tournament was nice, but it was something that was pretty much sewn up for both most of the way anyway.

As for the Ivy championship, they are both doing what former head coach John Thompson III used to say: Be in first place the end of the weekend.

One of the great traits for JTIII's teams was the way that they improved during the course of a season. How about the current Tigers? 

The men defeated Brown 76-74 in their first meeting. They also lost to Yale 80-74 in their first meeting. Both of those games were in Jadwin Gym.

This weekend, on the road, Princeton defeated Brown 69-50 and Yale 81-75. Those scores suggest a team that is peaking.

The game against Yale was huge for the goal of an Ivy League title. It was almost a must-have, for that matter. The Bulldogs came in at 9-1 in the league, against the 8-2 Tigers. Penn, which beat Brown 89-88 Saturday night after losing to Yale Friday, is at 9-3. 

That meant that it was either going to be three teams within a half-game of each other, or Yale two games up with two or three to play. Clearly, it was huge.

Princeton was led by the seemingly unstoppable Tosan Evbuomwan, who put up a 26-point, 11-rebound, five-assist performance Saturday night that wasn't anything out of the ordinary for him. The same is true of Ethan Wright, whose wildly impressive senior year continued with 23 points, nine rebounds and five assists of his own.

Princeton has a home-and-home against Harvard that begins Friday at home at 7 and then continues at Harvard Sunday at noon. After that is the regular season finale March 5 at Penn.

Harvard, by the way, is playing to get into the tournament and desperately needs each win. There are big, dramatic games to be played.

Another one of those is on the women's side this Wednesday at 5 against Columbia in New York City on ESPNU. What's at stake in this one? Princeton is 11-0. Columbia is 10-1. A Tiger win secures at least a share of the Ivy League championship and clinches the tournament's No. 1 seed.

A Columbia win? That ties the teams for first with two more games to go, which for Princeton is at Harvard Saturday and home against Penn a week from Friday. Columbia still has Brown and Cornell after the Princeton game and will be prohibitive favorites in both.

Princeton won its two games at home this weekend against Brown and Yale. The game Friday night was an 88-42 final. The game Saturday was against a Yale team that had stayed with Princeton for three quarters in New Haven the first time between the two. This time, it was all Tigers, with a 74-36 final. 

Princeton's defense continues to be outrageous (the Tigers allow 50.0 per game, 42.4 in Ivy games). For a note on the other end of the court, there's Abby Meyers, who is averaging 18 points per game. If she does so for the remaining three Ivy games and then two Ivy tournament games, she'd have 504 for the year. Only Meagan Cowher (532) and Bella Alarie (525) have ever reached 500 for a single season. 

And that's the basketball update. As TB said, there are huge games on the horizon, beginning Wednesday with the women's game. 

It's what you want to see at the end of a long season.