Media Day

Mitch Henderson ducked his head into TigerBlog's office yesterday afternoon, said hello, smiled and then said the words that he's said more than any other the last two days or so:

"Can't talk. I have to do an interview in two minutes."

The spoils may belong to the victor. When it comes to the NCAA basketball tournament, the interviews do as well.

Henderson, the Princeton men's basketball coach, has led his team into the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament, where the Tigers will Creighton Friday night at 9 in Louisville. In doing so, everyone in the sports world has wanted to hear from him.

Or from a player. Or an assistant coach. Or even the Director of Operations.

The day started early for Henderson yesterday. He and Tosan Evbuomwan rolled out of Princeton at 6:30 or so to head to New York City to be on the CNN morning show (CNN sent a car for them). This was after they'd already recorded a spot for Good Morning America on Zoom.

NATIONAL NOTICE.

A huge thank you to @CNNThisMorning for having @M_Henderson98 and @Tosan_Evb on today to discuss our run to the Sweet 16!

It was an incredible honor to have the opportunity to tell our story on your platform.#MakeShots 🐯🏀 pic.twitter.com/cTR5uTdPtq

— Princeton Men’s Basketball (@PrincetonMBB) March 20, 2023

It's been an endless parade of requests here since Princeton's history-making wins over Arizona and Missouri propelled the team into the national spotlight. Princeton's men's basketball communications contact Elliott Carr estimated that he'd received more than 100 interview requests just for players, without counting those hoping to speak with the head coach.

It all took TB back to Henderson's playing days, after the Tigers knocked off UCLA in 1996. In the days before cell phones, TB spent all day checking his work voicemail, which would be full after 14 messages. Each time he cleared it and responded to those, there'd be another 14 waiting for him. This went on all day.

Just when he thought it was done, he got back to the hotel to find he had another 50 or so messages there. 

If you look at the history of Princeton Athletics, it's filled with national titles, Olympic medals, professional championships. Where does reaching the NCAA men's basketball Sweet 16 fit in on that list? 

What's harder, reaching the Sweet 16 in men's basketball or winning the NCAA title in, say, field hockey or lacrosse? 

Regardless of the answer, there is no denying two things. First, getting to the Sweet 16 is not easy. To get there out of the Ivy League, you're almost surely going to have to play at least one team in the top 15 or so, if not two.

Second, the media attention that is generated will be enormous. 

It can, in fact, get overwhelming. Back in 1996, after all of the interviews were done and the team was getting ready to go to practice, TB walked in the general direction of Pete Carril, who saw him coming and said "no more interviews."

And that after one NCAA win, not two.

As an aside, TB mentioned it would be with Jerry Izenberg, the longtime Star-Ledger columnist whom TB would say is the greatest sportswriter ever. When TB told Carril that it was with Izenberg, the coach responded with "gotta make time for that guy."

For his part, Henderson has done a great job of using this opportunity to let those who've never met him know what he's all about. He talks about how much he's happy that his players have had this opportunity, how life-changing it is for them. He talks about the great school spirit that embodies Princeton University. He talks about the athletic culture at the school.

You couldn't pay enough for this kind of advertising.

His pride in all of those things is obvious with every word he says. He's also not selling anything. He truly believes all this.

He's obviously a link back to the 1996 season, back to Carril. Henderson is more than that, actually. He's the latest link in the unbroken chain of Princeton basketball that dates back to Cappy Cappon and continued through Butch van Breda Kolff, who coached Carril at Lafayette, and then Gary Walters, who played for Carril at Reading High, and Bill Carmody, who coached with Carril and who was hired by Walters when Walters was AD to replace Carril, to former players John Thompson III, Joe Scott and Sydney Johnson, who all became head coaches, and now to Henderson (who coaches Scott's son Jack, a freshman).

Henderson relishes that history and his place in it, but he is more focused on the present and future. If anything, his tenure will be looked at as the launching of the program into a more modern era, one where his team gets way more offensive rebounds than backdoor layups.

Henderson was able to come back into TB's office and talk for a few minutes. He sat back on the couch in TB's office, which is framed on one side by a poster of Carril, with the saying "What good is being Spanish if you can't chase after windmills," which is TB's favorite Carril quote.

Those days will always matter with Princeton Basketball, and with Henderson. So will these days, these new days, the ones where Henderson has his team in preparation for the Sweet 16.

It wasn't too long before Henderson got up off the couch. 

"I have another interview to do," he said as he walked away.