Everything You Need To Know

 Okay, here's everything you need to know about Princeton men's basketball sophomore Xaivian Lee in a nutshell:

Princeton was playing Cornell Saturday night in a game the Tigers had to have in order to have a chance at an Ivy League title and the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Ivy tournament. A seven-point Princeton lead had turned into a five-point deficit with a little more than four minutes to play, and now it was make-or-break time.

To that point, Lee was 3 for 12 from the field and 1 for 5 from three-point range. And then what happened?

First he got into the lane and scored, making it a three-point game. Then, after missing a three that would have tied it, he drilled a longer three with 2:38 to go that did draw Princeton even. 

As TigerBlog watched, he could hear the words that Pete Carril spoke so often: "If you're 0 for 9, do you have the courage to take the 10th shot? I want guys who take the 10th shot."

And now here's everything you need to know about Caden Pierce. After Lee's heroics, Cornell retook a two-point lead, this time with 2:20 to play. To that point, Pierce was having a solid night. From there? 

In the final 2:20, Pierce first got an offensive rebound and made two foul shots, tying it. Then he dunked and was fouled, making the foul shot to put Princeton ahead for good. Then he helped seal it with two more foul shots. 

Winning players make winning plays and winning time.

Final score: Princeton 79, Cornell 77.

And here's everything you need to know about the Princeton women's weekend. The Tigers, who are tied for first with Columbia, were down five to Harvard at the half Friday. After allowing 31 first half points, including 21 in the second quarter, Princeton then allowed six in the first 14:43 of the second half. 

Final score: Princeton 60, Harvard 49.

And then Saturday, Princeton sprinted away from Dartmouth quickly, building a 17-6 lead after the first quarter. Final score: Princeton 68, Dartmouth 42.

And, again, TigerBlog could hear Carril, who always said that a good weekend was allowing fewer than 100 points in two nights. For the Princeton women, it was a 91-point weekend, of which 31, or basically a third, came in the first half of the first game.

By the way, the two Princeton teams combined are now 45-7, which seems pretty good.

And here's everything you need to know with one weekend of Ivy basketball's regular season left to go:

The eight teams who will be playing at Columbia the following weekend are set. 

On the men's side, it's Princeton, Cornell, Yale and Brown. On the women's side, it's Princeton, Columbia, Harvard and Penn.

As far as seeds go, there are three that are locked in. Brown will be the No. 4 seed on the men's side. Harvard will be the No. 3 seed on the women's side. Penn will be the No. 4 seed on the women's side. Nothing that happens this weekend will change that.

What is at stake are the two championships and the remaining seeds. For the two Princeton teams, it's simple: win against Penn (the women in Jadwin at 2, the men at the Palestra at 6) and you have at least a share of the championship and definitely have the No. 1 seeds. 

Why? Because even if there were to be shared championships, Princeton's men and women would both have the tiebreaker based on highest NET. In that metric, neither team can be caught at this point.

Princeton can still get a share of the championship and the top seeds with a loss, but it would take some other things to happen as well. The easiest thing this week is to win.

Of course, should Princeton's women win Saturday, then they'd play Penn again five days later in the Ivy semifinals. The Princeton men, with a win, would play Brown in the Ivy semifinals. 

And that's what you need to know about Princeton basketball after this weekend. 

Still ahead? All of that is unknown at this point. Finding out figures to be exciting, or, as the league likes to call it, "Ivy Madness."