A Little More Hoops

For the last two weeks, other than saluting Patrick Glory's NCAA wrestling title, TigerBlog has been all about basketball. 

Judging by the readership numbers, which skyrocketed by the way, it seems like most of you out there were okay with it. Hey, Princeton Basketball, both the men and the women, captured the imagination of the entire country. 

When a team does extraordinarily well on the national stage, here's always what's come to be known as the "Flutie Factor." It dates back to when Doug Flutie won the Heisman Trophy at Boston College in 1984, and as a result applications to go to school there went way up. TB heard quite a few joking references to this phenomenon with Princeton's success.

And so he starts today talking about ... basketball?

As he assumes most Princeton fans were doing, TB was rooting for Creighton to win it all after knocking out the Tigers Friday night in the Sweet 16. Creighton came really close to getting to the Final Four yesterday, falling 57-56 to San Diego State. 

Yes, that could have been called a foul. No, under absolutely no circumstances should that have been called a foul in that situation. First, the officials didn't call a tight game. Second, you can't decide a trip to the Final Four with that call. It's awful. 

And don't blame the Creighton player. You simply can't make that call in that situation. If there had been blatant, shot-altering contact, then yes. There wasn't any in that situation.

The Final Four is set on the men's side, with Florida Atlantic to play San Diego State and Miami to play UConn. The winners will play for the national championship.

If you're wondering, there are no No. 1 or No. 2 seeds who are left. FAU is a nine. San Diego state is a five. Miami is also a five. UConn is the highest (or is that lowest?) seed left as a No. 4.

When Princeton's Gary Walters was the head of the committee, the Final Four consisted of three No. 1 seeds and a No. 2 seed. TB will have to ask Gary if that's the goal of the committee and if the committee feels like that result makes them seem like they knew what they were doing.

One more basketball note - You can watch Princeton alum Abby Meyers and Maryland play against No. 1 South Carolina tonight at 7 for a trip to the Final Four. Meyers has averaged 12 points per game in Maryland's first three NCAA games this season. 

At Princeton, Meyers played in three NCAA games, averaging 17.7 per, including a 29-point outburst in the win over Kentucky last year. She has 89 points in NCAA tournament games in her career heading into the game tonight. 

Speaking of NCAA tournament points, Princeton's Ryan Langborg had 56 of them in the three games. When was the last time a Princeton player had at least that many points in one NCAA tournament? It's actually happened five times in program history, all of which happened in the 1960s:

1) Bill Bradley - 177 points (1965)
2) Bill Bradley - 86 points (1964)
3) Pete Campbell - 75 points (1961)
4) Joe Heiser - 58 points (1967)
5) Ryan Langborg (2023)/Bob Haarlow (1967) - 56 points 

Princeton has played in a lot of NCAA tournaments since the 1960s. Nobody has exceeded what Langborg did this year. 

Speaking of Princeton's NCAA tournament records, Blake Peters made 11 three-pointers in the tournament, bettering the record held by Brian Earl (1998). Peters is also three away from Earl's career record of 14, and the five Peters made against Missouri in Round 2 tied the single-game record set by Earl twice (he had five against both UNLV and Michigan State in the 1998 tournament).

Of course, Tosan Evbuomwan got in on the record-setting as well. His nine assists against Creighton are a new record, one better than the old record held by Kit Mueller (three times) and Bill Bradley (twice). Evbuomwan's 18 assists in the tournament are also a new record, beating the 14 set by Bradley in 1965 and equaled by Billy Ryan in 1983. 

And TB told you last week that Caden Pierce's 16 rebounds against Missouri were the third-best total a Princeton player has had in an NCAA game. Lastly, Langborg and Keeshawn Kellman both blocked two shots against Arizona, making them the fourth and fifth Princeton players to do so in a game.

With that, TB thinks he's done with basketball, at least for a little while. 

He will say this: The Final Four may be this weekend, but the 2023 men's tournament belonged to Princeton.