Welcoming Back Greatness

TigerBlog had spent about an hour in the past when he was jolted suddenly back into the reality of the present. 

And what made that happen? It was these words:

"Who has the most gray hair?"

The conversation was between two members of the Princeton men's basketball teams of 1996, 1997 and 1998. They had gathered in the Frick chemistry building in advance of the current team's game Friday night against Cornell, where the former Tigers were honored in a pregame ceremony.

It was a ceremony, by the way, that saw each member of the group introduced individually, with each drawing a loud ovation. It's clear that this is a team that resonated with Princeton fans and whose legacy has earned the ultimate respect, as it should be. 

Welcoming Back Greatness.

It was a privilege to celebrate the 25-year anniversary of the iconic '96, '97 & '98 teams prior to tonight's opening tip!#MakeShots 🐯🏀 pic.twitter.com/SEipPtk6wh

— Princeton Men’s Basketball (@PrincetonMBB) February 4, 2023

During his time at the reception, TigerBlog was immediately taken back to all the time he'd spent with these guys when he was the men's basketball contact during their time at Princeton. He saw every game the three teams who were honored played during those years, and the athletes and coaches (and managers) from that era are some of the best people he's ever met, at Princeton or anywhere.

He'd seen some of them often through the years. There were some he hadn't seen since they graduated. Regardless of which group they fell into, it was just amazing to see them all.

But who has the most gray hair? TB wasn't ready for that.

In that moment, it struck him that it really has been 25 years since the 1998 team was vaulting up the national rankings, eventually to reach No. 8 in the final AP poll. It was that team that went 26-1 in the regular season and then defeated UNLV in the opening round of the NCAA tournament before falling to Michigan State — and team who would start four of the same players two years later when it won the national championship — in the second round in a game that was tied with a minute to go.

That's a quarter-century, in a blink of an eye. And now they were almost all back together on a campus that TB has never really left. 

Bill Carmody was there. So were assistants John Thompson III and Howard Levy. Joe Scott could not make it back, as his Air Force team had a game.

There were two different TVs going, one with a rotating photo display and the other with video of some of the highlight games of that era. There were also pictures remembering two members of those teams who have since passed away — Pete Carril and Kevin Gillett.

How much of a bond exists between everyone who was part of those teams? Consider where they all came from.

Chris Doyal flew back from London for this event. Steve Goodrich came from California. So too did Darren Hite. Phil Belin came from Nebraska with his wife and three children, the oldest of whom is an eighth-grader who is interested in writing. What advice did TB have for him? Read a lot.

C.J. Chapman, a very, very underrated player during his time as a Tiger, flew in from Denver. Ben Hart came from San Antonio. Mason Rocca came from Evanston. Jose Ramirez-Del Toro, who like Lewullis is a doctor, came from Pittsburgh. 

Chapman, Belin and Terence Rozier-Byrd (he lives in New Jersey and works in New York City) are all lawyers. Sean Gregory, whose piece on the team's trip to Spain in the summer of 1997 was featured in the 1998 media guide, is a great writer for Time Magazine. They're quite an accomplished group. Some even went into coaching basketball. Sydney Johnson was there. He was the 1997 Ivy Player of the Year, and he then coached the Tigers to the 2011 Ivy title and NCAA tournament.

As you probably know, the two head coaches in the game Friday night were teammates on those teams, Cornell's Brian Earl and Princeton's Mitch Henderson. Earl even stopped by the reception before the game, wearing his "Cornell Basketball" shirt. It didn't matter that he was the opponent that night. He was, and is, and will always be, one of them. 

They all will be. They're part of something really, really special in Princeton Athletics history. Gray hair or not, what they accomplished together is impossible to forget.