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Princeton University Athletics
Men's Basketball Announces Awards at Annual Postseason Banquet
April 14, 2004 | Men's Basketball
April 14, 2004
Juniors Judson Wallace and Will Venable, each first-team All-Ivy selections in 2003-04, and junior Jon Berger, whose contributions stretched far beyond the court, earned team awards Tuesday evening at the annual Princeton Men's Basketball banquet held at Jadwin Gym.
Wallace, the team's leading scorer (15.3 ppg) and rebounder (6.4 rpg), and Venable, who led the Tigers in assists (81), steals (43) and minutes played (33.4 mpg), shared the B.F. Bunn Trophy awarded to that member of the basketball team "who through sportsmanship, play and influence has contributed most to the sport at Princeton."
"Judson was focused on getting to the NCAA tournament this year, and he worked hard last summer and during the season to make sure it happened," Princeton head coach John Thompson said at Tuesday's banquet. "Will had a great year overall, and he saved us so many times this year with big plays when we needed them." Wallace, a 6-10 center from Atlanta, was a two-time Ivy League Player of the Week and became the first Princeton player since Bob Roma in 1979 to average better than 15 points and six rebounds in a single season. He scored 20 or more points 10 times in 2003-04, including seven times in the final nine games of the regular season, all Princeton wins.
Venable, a 6-3 guard from San Rafael, Calif., exploded during the Ivy League season for Princeton, averaging nearly 13 points and over five rebounds per game in Ivy play and scoring in double figures in the last 12 games of the regular season, including a team-high 16 points against Texas in the NCAA tournament. He shot an impressive 56% from the field for the season and nearly 60% from the field in Ivy League play.
Berger, a graduate of Radnor High School outside Philadelphia, earned the Paul Richard Friedman Memorial Award, given to the member of the program "who does his very best every day in every way."
"We don't give this award out every year," Thompson said, "but it's really well deserved in this case. I can think of a lot of times that a half or game was about to start and I'd look to Jon tell me what he thought before I looked to anyone else. That says a lot."
Berger played in six games his junior season, recording an assist in Princeton's win over Southern Vermont Jan. 26.
Thompson also singled out 2003-04 co-captain Ed Persia, Princeton's lone senior this past season. Persia, who played in all 104 games of his career before a thigh injury forced him to miss the final five games of the 2003-04 regular season, averaged 9.1 points and three assists per game his senior year and finished sixth all-time at Princeton with 144 three-pointers.
"Eddie willed us to winning the title in so many ways," Thompson said. "He was focused right from the beginning of the year. Even though he didn't play in those final few games, he was still the one that led us to the Ivy championship."
Princeton finished 20-8 overall in 2003-04 and 13-1 in Ivy League play, earning the program's 23rd NCAA tournament berth in the process.