Harvard, Dartmouth to Visit Jadwin This Weekend as Ivy Home Season Comes to a Close

The Tigers will host Harvard Friday at 7 p.m. on ESPNU and Dartmouth Saturday at 6 p.m. on the Ivy League Network and Eleven Sports. The first 500 fans will receive a Jadwin Jungle t-shirt.

Princeton will recognize its four seniors, Amir Bell, Alec Brennan, Mike LeBlanc and Aaron Young, prior to Saturday's game.

Princeton (11-14, 3-7 Ivy) vs. Harvard (14-11, 9-1), Friday, Feb. 23, 7 p.m. ET, Jadwin Gym, Princeton, N.J.
Princeton (11-13, 3-6 Ivy) vs. Dartmouth (6-17, 2-8), Saturday, Feb. 24, 6 p.m. ET, Jadwin Gym, Princeton, N.J.
• Watch: ESPNU/ESPN3 (Friday) | Ivy League Network/Eleven Sports (Saturday)
• Listen: WPRB 103.3 FM/TuneIn
• Live Stats
• Tickets
• Follow @Princeton_Hoops for in-game updates
• Princeton Game Notes

• The Mitch Henderson Show airs Tuesday nights during basketball season from 6-7 p.m. on Fox Sports 920 The Jersey. (The Feb. 6 broadcast was Wednesday, Feb. 7 due to the Penn game.) Originating live from Winberie's Restaurant & Bar (1 Palmer Square, Princeton), the weekly show features men's basketball head coach Mitch Henderson '98 along with assistant coaches, players, and other special guests. Derek Jones, the play-by-play voice for Princeton basketball on the Princeton IMG Sports Network and Ivy League Network, serves as host – tweet him your questions for Coach Henderson @DerekJones79. Fans who can't make it Winberie's can listen on Fox Sports 920 or live online. A podcast of each episode is also available following the show at GoPrincetonTigers.com/podcasts and the Princeton Athletics channel on iTunes.

• Up next: The Tigers will wrap the regular season with a trip to Brown Friday and Yale Saturday to complete the 14-game Ivy League circuit.

• The Tigers' six-game Ivy League skid is the program's longest since the 2007-08 team lost nine straight Ivy games. It's an unusual stretch for the Tigers, as that stretch in 2008 is the only other time that Princeton has lost as many as six straight Ivy games.

• A berth in the four-team Ivy League Tournament is still possible, but the field battling for it is crowded. Yale stands third at 5-5 with Brown, Columbia and Cornell all at 4-6 and Princeton one game back of that group at 3-7.

• Amir Bell is closing in on becoming the 34th member of Princeton's 1,000th point club and the seventh to play for Mitch Henderson. He has 979 points entering the Harvard game. Only Pete Carril, who had 18 of Princeton's 1,000-point scorers play for him, had more.

• Princeton committed 15 turnovers in the 66-51 loss two weeks ago at Harvard, leading to a 17-8 Crimson advantage in points off turnovers. That tied for the second-most turnovers for Princeton this season and one of six games where Princeton committed 15 or more. Harvard has forced 15 or more turnovers nine times this season and has forced 10 or more turnovers in all but four games this season. Princeton has seven games this season where it did not commit 10 turnovers.

• Harvard also outshot Princeton from the field in that game 44 percent to 34 percent despite Harvard going just 5 of 17 (.294) from 3 to Princeton's 7 of 25 (.280). Only six opponents have succeeded in holding Harvard below 40 percent from the field, and though the same can be said for Princeton, three of those six games have come in the last two weekends while Harvard has shot at least 40 percent from the field in every Ivy game.

• Christian Juzang led Harvard with 20 points in the meeting two weeks ago. The sophomore didn't have any career double-figure games entering the Ivy season, but he's got five since the league slate began, including four of the last five games. The 20 points against Princeton was a career high, but he surpassed it last Friday against Brown with 21.

• The Harvard game was the first time in 10 years, against any opponent, that no Princeton player scored 10 or more points. Princeton last saw that in a game against Lehigh in 2008.

• Against Dartmouth, the Big Green went on a 12-0 run in keeping Princeton off the board for five minutes after a 52-50 Tiger lead with just more than seven minutes to go in the game. That sealed the win for Dartmouth, as a 10-point, 62-52 lead with two-plus minutes left was too much for the Tigers to overcome. Dartmouth outshot Princeton from the field on the night 47.2 percent to 39.7 percent.

• Each of the last seven Tiger foes have shot at least 44 percent from the field, and four opponents did better than 50 percent. Only six of Princeton's first 18 opponents shot 50 percent or better from the field. Three of the last six Tiger opponents have made 10 or more 3-pointers after just four of the first 19 opponents did.

• Amir Bell is now eighth in Princeton history with 301 career assists, a stat kept since the 1974-75 season. He needs four assists to pass coach Mitch Henderson '98, which would make Bell the fourth Tiger to play for Henderson to pass him on that list alongside Spencer Weisz '17, T.J. Bray '14 and Ian Hummer '13. Henderson graduated fourth on the Tiger career list and would be eighth when Bell passes him.

• Princeton has won eight in a row at home against Dartmouth with the Big Green's last win coming the night Carril Court was dedicated in 2009. It's tied for the longest active home winning streak against an Ivy opponent, as the Tigers have won eight in a row at home against Cornell.

• Devin Cannady continues his climb up Princeton's 1,000 career points list after joining the club Jan. 6 at Penn. Now 15th all-time at 1,180, he's 27 back of Mitch Henderson's former teammate Steve Goodrich '98 (1,207) for 14th.

• Cannady has 440 points this season and needs 76 the rest of the way to have scored 516, which would be the most any Tiger has scored since Brian Taylor '84 poured in 676 points in 1972 (entered with the Class of 1973). Cannady already has the most points in a season since T.J. Bray '14 scored 468 in 2013-14, and should Cannady pass that, he'd have the most since Ian Hummer '13 scored 515 in 2011-12, who had the most since Taylor in 1971-72.

• Cannady needs 446 points over the rest of this season and next to pass Ian Hummer '13 to become the second-highest scorer in Princeton history. It'd be the third time that the title of second-to-Bill Bradley '65 (2,503) on Princeton's all-time scoring list has changed under Mitch Henderson. Douglas Davis '12 changed the No. 2 spot for the first time in 21 years in 2012, and Hummer did it the next year.

• Cannady, with 72 3-pointers this year, is the seventh player in program history with three 50 3-pointer seasons and the fourth with two 70 3-pointer seasons. The others in the smaller club are Sean Jackson '92, Brian Earl '99 and Douglas Davis '12. Only Davis and Earl had four 50 3-pointer seasons, which Cannady is able to achieve as well.

• Cannady also continues his climb up Princeton's career 3-pointers list, now fifth at 210. He's just two back of Gabe Lewullis '99 (212) for fourth with a gap before Sean Jackson '92 and third at 235.

• Princeton's five freshmen this season have played 23.6 percent of the team's minutes this season, up from 7.7 percent of the minutes a year ago. It's the highest share of minutes for a Princeton freshman class since the Class of 2017 logged 25.6 percent of the minutes in 2012-13. By the time that senior class was done, it included a three-time All-Ivy honoree in 2017 Ivy Player of the Year Spencer Weisz and a two-time All-Ivy Leaguer in 2017 first-teamer Steven Cook, both 1,000-point scorers.

• Princeton has turned around tough Ivy starts before under Mitch Henderson. In his first season of 2012, Princeton was 2-3 before going 8-1 the rest of the way for a 10-4 finish. In 2014, Princeton started 0-4 in the Ivy before going 8-2 the rest of the way to finish 8-6. In 2015, Princeton was 5-5 in the Ivy before winning the last four to finish 9-5.

• Entering Monday's (2/19) games, Princeton ranked in the top 10 percent in Division I in fewest turnovers (18th, 294), 3s made per game (29th, 9.8) and fewest fouls (34th, 432). Devin Cannady had the top individual ranking at 27th with 36:38 minutes per game. Harvard was 27th in scoring defense at 65.5 points per game allowed with Chris Lewis 18th at a .600 field goal percentage. Dartmouth was third in fewest fouls with 374.

• The Tigers have used nine starting lineups this season with 11 players contributing to the total. It's the first time Princeton has had 11 players start a game since the 2005-06 season.

• Devin Cannady, Myles Stephens and Amir Bell have combined for 50.7 percent of the minutes this season. All three average at least 33.9 minutes per game, and no other Tiger is closer than rookie Sebastian Much at 19.3 mpg. The Bell-Cannady-Stephens trio accounts for 3,048 of the 4,214 points on the roster, or 72.3 percent.

• Under Mitch Henderson, the Tigers now have a 48-42 (.533) record in the pre-New Year portion of the schedule and an 82-32 (.719) record from Jan. 1 forward.

• Princeton is coming off a 14-0 Ivy League season, the sixth in program history and first since 1998, and the 14th in Ivy League history and first since 2008 (Cornell). That earned the Tigers their 27th Ivy League championship and the top seed in the inaugural Ivy League Tournament, which Princeton won to advance to its 25th NCAA Tournament.

• The Tigers graduated three starters in Ivy League Player of the Year Spencer Weisz, first-team All-Ivy Leaguer Steven Cook, and center Pete Miller. Despite that, Princeton returns two starters in junior Devin Cannady, an honorable-mention All-Ivy Leaguer, and classmate Myles Stephens, the Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year, a first-team All-Ivy Leaguer, and the Ivy League Tournament MVP. Princeton also returns senior Amir Bell, who has started 64 games in his career, including five games last year.

• Princeton's 19-game winning streak that included the final 17 games of the regular season and the Ivy League Tournament was the second-longest in program history behind the 20 straight that the 1997-98 team won with Mitch Henderson as a senior.

• Princeton ended last season tops in the nation in fewest turnovers at 298, fourth in fewest fouls at 482, fifth in turnovers per game at 9.9, ninth in scoring defense at 61.4 ppg allowed, 12th in 3s per game at 9.9, 15th in assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.44, and 17th in turnover margin at +3.2/game.

• Princeton ended 49th in last season's final RPI after ending the season ranked 47th in 2016.

• Princeton was voted a close third in the Ivy League's official preseason media poll. Princeton received three of the 17 first-place votes with Harvard getting six first-place votes and Yale eight. Harvard had 121 poll points to 118 for Yale and 114 for Princeton.

• The Ivy League men's and women's basketball tournaments return to Philadelphia, where they will take place Saturday and Sunday, March 10-11, 2018. The top four teams will earn berths to the tournament, with the semifinals on Saturday and the championships on Sunday. All six games will be broadcast live on ESPN's networks. For tickets and more information please visit IvyMadness.com.

• The Ivy League Network (ILN) is available on Apple TV, Roku and the ILN app for Android and Apple devices.

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