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Princeton University Athletics
2005-06 Men's Basketball Season Outlook
October 31, 2005 | Men's Basketball
Oct. 31, 2005
In the span of just a few months, the Princeton men's basketball team has transformed from one of the league's most known commodities into one of its most speculative ventures.
With the departure of five seniors following the 2004-05 season, including a pair of three-time All-Ivy League picks in Will Venable and Judson Wallace, the 2005-06 Tigers will feature a group that has no players who have earned all-league honors. A team that could count on four seniors in a solid eight-man rotation last season has turned into a team that has just one senior, team captain Scott Greenman, on its roster.
Even with all those changes, however, the Tigers have plenty of reasons to believe that they can return to the top of the Ivy League standings. For one, Princeton still has three starters returning, despite the losses of 1,000-point scorers Venable and Wallace. Second, the Tigers welcome back 6-8 sophomore Harrison Schaen, who showed flashes of brilliance as a freshman in 2003-04 before taking a leave of absence from Princeton last season. Princeton also has head coach Joe Scott's first recruiting class, featuring plenty of talent on the perimeter and in the post, and plenty of experienced depth on the perimeter with juniors Edwin Buffmire and Max Schafer and sophomores Matt Sargeant and Kyle Koncz. Then there is also the motivation factor from the disappointment of last season, when the Tigers finished with a losing record in Ivy League play for the first time in the 49-year history of league competition. Princeton's strong start against a non-league schedule that featured seven eventual postseason teams didn't carry over to its Ivy schedule, a result that the 2005-06 Tigers are determined not to repeat.
SHOOTING STARS
While the Tigers have long been known for their three-point shooting prowess (Princeton is still one of three teams, along with Vanderbilt and UNLV, to have made at least one three-pointer in every game since the rule came into effect in 1986), Princeton may have a particularly strong group of outside shooters in 2005-06. The Tigers, who took nearly half their shots from behind the arc in 2004-05, shot better than 42% from three-point range in the Ivy League last season.
Greenman's 52 "threes" in 2004-05 led the team, and he shot 54% from beyond the arc in league games and nearly 40% for the season. His 104 career three-point shots rank 11th in team history, and a similar season to last year would leave him fifth all-time at Princeton in that category. The Linwood, N.J., native is the team's leading returning scorer--he averaged 8.6 points per game a year ago.
Junior Luke Owings was another sharpshooter in 2004-05, despite missing four games in midseason due to a stress fracture in his left foot suffered in practice. He led the Ivy League by shooting 61% from three-point range in conference play, and he averaged better than six points per game despite playing just 23 minutes a game.
Another excellent marksman, sophomore Noah Savage, had an outstanding freshman season in any number of ways. Starting every game as a freshman, he was a two-time Ivy League Rookie of the Week who shot nearly 40% from three-point range. Savage averaged better than six points and 26 minutes per game in his first year.
That's not to say that those three players are merely three-point shooters. Greenman is also a terrific ballhandler and solid floor leader who has 111 assists and just 62 turnovers while starting all 56 games the last two years. Owings is probably Princeton's best returning rebounder, and he has a solid mid-range game to go along with his outside shooting ability. Savage is a hard-nosed and strong defensive player who can guard bigger people inside and smaller players on the perimeter, and he also was an 86% free-throw shooter a year ago.
Those three are Princeton's returning starters from a year ago, with Greenman and Savage starting all 28 games and Owings starting 19 due only to his midseason injury and subsequent recovery. All of them have the potential to be all-league players this season, and all of them will be counted on to lead a group with less total experience than in recent years.
HAPPY RETURNS
Schaen returns to campus after a productive year off and a summer playing alongside Princeton teammate Greenman on the United States team at the Maccabiah Games in Israel in July. The 6-8 forward/center hasn't put on a Tiger uniform since he played 19 minutes off the bench in Princeton's NCAA tournament loss to Texas in March 2004, one of his 25 appearances that season.
Schaen didn't play a ton of minutes as a freshman, about 10 per game, but he made several big plays during the Ivy League season on both ends of the court, particularly towards the end of key overtime victories against both Harvard and Columbia. He also finished second on the team in blocked shots with 17 despite the limited minutes, and he averaged 2.6 points and 2.2 rebounds as a freshman.
BACKCOURT DEPTH
Both Max Schafer and Matt Sargeant have filled in as starters in the backcourt during their Princeton careers, and each player could be a key performer for the Tigers in 2005-06.
Schafer, who started at the end of his freshman season in place of the injured Ed Persia, averaged 18 minutes per game in 25 games off the bench last season. A hard-working defensive player and an excellent ballhandler and passer, he needs to improve his outside shooting to become a more complete player. Schafer, who averaged more minutes per game off the bench than any Princeton player a year ago, averaged 2.5 points per game.
Sargeant, now a sophomore, started nine games in midseason as a freshman due to Luke Owings' injury, averaged nearly 17 minutes per game overall and showed composure and talent that belied his youth. He even led Princeton with 14 points in a home win over Loyola. Unfortunately, Sargeant's season ended early in 2004-05 due to a pelvic injury, though he should be recovered fully for the beginning of the 2005-06 season.
Junior Edwin Buffmire also saw increased playing time at the end of last season, averaging nearly 20 minutes per game in Princeton's last three games. At 6-4, Buffmire is a versatile guard who can shoot, defend and rebound, and he will likely see increased playing time in 2005-06.
Like Sargeant, sophomore Kyle Koncz also missed much of the end of last season with an injury, this one a stress fracture. Koncz is a terrific outside shooter who simply needs to develop confidence in his abilities at the Division I level.
INCOMING...
Princeton's five-member Class of 2009 features a good mix of versatile players in both the backcourt and frontcourt. Look for several members of the class to play right away, similar to what Savage and Sargeant accomplished last season for the Tigers.
In the backcourt, both wing Alex Okafor, from San Jose, Calif., and shooting guard Geoff Kestler, from Pittsburgh, will look to contribute immediately. Scott also brings in Jason Briggs, a 6-2 shooting guard from outside Seattle.
In the frontcourt, 6-8 Michael Strittmatter, a native of Phoenix, is a likely contributor for the Tigers in 2005-06. 6-9, 225-lb. Noah Levine, who prepped at The Hill School in Pennsylvania. and will also join the program this fall.
THE SCHEDULE
Like Ivy rival Penn last season, Princeton will host a first-round Preseason NIT game in 2005, welcoming Bruiser Flint's Drexel Dragons into Jadwin Gym on Monday night, Nov. 14, for the season opener. The winner of that game plays the winner of another first-round game between Missouri and Sam Houston State, with the winner of that second-round game advancing to the NIT semifinals at Madison Square Garden the day before Thanksgiving. The championship game is the day after Thanksgiving.
The Tigers will also play in the 2005 Pete Newell Challenge in Oakland, Calif., Dec. 21, facing Stanford as part of a doubleheader at the Oakland Arena. De Paul and California will play in the other game later that night.
Princeton will play at least 13 home games at Jadwin Gym this season, including a particularly strong stretch in early December. The Tigers host rematches of three thrillers from last season--Temple, Wyoming and Monmouth--in an eight-day span from Dec. 6-14. Scott's team then goes on the road three days later to face Wake Forest before heading to California.
For the first time since the 2001-02 season, the Tigers will begin their Ivy League schedule prior to the school's exam period and intersession. Columbia and Cornell come to Jadwin Gym Jan. 13 and 14 for the initial Ivy weekend, and Ivy League play resumes Feb. 3 when Yale visits. In between, the Tigers visit Davidson for a rematch of another thriller from last season.
Princeton plays its first four league games at home before going on the road for its next five Ivy games. The Tigers play at Penn on Valentine's Day, then conclude the regular season at home against the Quakers as part of a Penn-Princeton women's-men's doubleheader.