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Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
2006-07 Princeton Men's Basketball Season Outlook
October 25, 2006 | Men's Basketball
In sports, they say, it's important to have a short memory. You can't worry about what happened yesterday, only learn from it and move onto tomorrow.
The Princeton men's basketball team learned that lesson well during its up-and-down 2005-06 season. In turning a 3-12 start into a 9-3 finish, head coach Joe Scott and the Tigers refused to dwell on what happened for a few weeks in December. Instead, a solid nucleus began playing an equally solid version of Princeton basketball, one that ended in a terrific last memory when the Tigers beat archrival Penn in the final three seconds of their season.
The challenge for the 2006-07 Tigers, then, is to make what became good into something better.
That challenge becomes magnified for Princeton with the loss of Scott Greenman, who was simply tremendous during his team's late-season run to second place in the Ivy League. It becomes magnified with the fact that the Tigers could play three Big East teams and seven teams who reached 2006 postseason play before the calendar hits January. It becomes magnified with a freshman class, expected to contribute, which has just four weeks of practice before Princeton opens its season at the BCA Classic Nov. 10.
But if the Tigers found anything out in 2005-06, it was that they could respond to challenges in a way that made everyone believe there was more to come. Whether or not Princeton turns good into better this season is unknown, but there is plenty of reason to believe it's a possibility.
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When the Tigers found that solid nucleus during the Ivy League season, the results were often terrific. Just in the final seven games of the 2005-06 season, Princeton shot better than 50% from the field five times.
The good news is that, of the eight players that were part of that nucleus, seven return this season. Two of those were All-Ivy picks, seniors Justin Conway and Luke Owings, and another, Noah Savage, was Princeton's leading scorer for most of the season. The others all made huge plays to help Princeton win games, whether it be swingman Edwin Buffmire against Dartmouth, sharpshooter Kyle Koncz against Harvard or much-improved Michael Strittmatter against Yale.
However you look at it, every one of those players has the potential to turn good into better in 2006-07.
Conway is Princeton's captain in 2006-07, and that by itself is a tremendous story. Prior to a Jan. 29 game at Davidson last season, he hadn't played one minute all season. He had played in just one game, for one minute, as a sophomore. But there he was making the game-winning basket in overtime against Penn, and that wasn't even close to the most important thing he did for Princeton in the final 13 games.
Playing center at 6-4, Conway helped Princeton average nearly 13 points per game more in the final 13 games than it did in the first 14 games. Defensively, he averaged nearly two steals per game, many of them in huge situations. When the season was over, he also led Princeton in rebounds per game (4.2), averaged nearly three assists per game and missed just two of his 27 free-throw attempts. He also averaged nearly nine points per game, including a 21-point outburst in that win over Penn.
The Santa Fe, N.Mex., native could see time as an undersized center again in 2006-07, yet he is versatile enough to play the forward positions in Princeton's offense as well. He has the ability to drive past bigger players, and he also is an improved three-point shooter.
Owings struggled with inconsistency during the pre-conference season in 2005-06, but rebounded in the second half to earn All-Ivy honors. He averaged nearly 11 points and five rebounds in league play despite playing less than 28 minutes per game, and he shot over 50% from the field and nearly 40% from three-point range.
The 6-6, 210-lb. Owings is one of the Ivy League's better three-point shooters (nearly 43% for his career), yet at times he has played center in Princeton's offense. In many ways, he is Princeton's most experienced player heading into his senior season, and the Tigers are counting on the kind of consistency that an experienced senior can bring on and off the floor.
Savage has started every game in his first two seasons in a Princeton uniform, and he enters his junior year already just outside the top 15 all-time at Princeton in three-pointers. He averaged 10 points per game a year ago, including a career-best 28-point outburst in the overtime win at Cornell, and started the year averaging nearly 17 points per game in the first five games.
A terrific three-point shooter who led the team with 53 “treys” a year ago, Savage also has the strength and height at 6-5 and 220 lbs. to score inside at times. He led Princeton in minutes played a year ago and has averaged more than 30 minutes per game for his career.
The fourth starter returning from a year ago is Koncz, who, at 6-7, was often the tallest Princeton player on the court during the Ivy League season a year ago. Despite that fact, he spent most of his time on offense behind the three-point line, often with great success, especially after he broke into the starting lineup in December.
Koncz, who averaged nearly eight points a game a year ago, had nine games a year ago where he made three or more three-pointers and four games in which he made at least five “threes.” He averaged 22 points in two wins against Harvard, making 11 of his 18 attempts from behind the arc in those two games, and he also made five of seven three-point attempts at Wake Forest. He shot nearly 39% from behind the arc while starting 22 games.
The Strongsville, Ohio, native is also one of Princeton's best perimeter defenders. His 30 steals last season were the most among players returning to the team this season.
Buffmire's unique inside-outside game served Princeton well late last season, and his experience will be important for the Tigers during his senior year. Though he started five games in midseason a year ago, he later found his role as the team's perimeter player off the bench, averaging five points, three rebounds and 29 minutes off the bench during the league season.
His late basket and blocked shot in the final minute against Dartmouth at Jadwin Gym gave Princeton a win in that game, and he shot nearly 50% from the field for the season. Buffmire has the ability to be a rebounder at 6-4 and can also score and defend in the lane. He also led Princeton in blocked shots a year ago.
Strittmatter, a 6-8 forward, didn't play in the first seven games of his freshman season, but he quickly became an important performer off the bench for the Tigers after that and even started four games around the New Year. His two huge three-pointers on consecutive possessions gave Princeton a lead it wouldn't relinquish in the second half against Yale, and he also proved to be an adept passer in the Princeton offense.
He played double figures in minutes in all but two of Princeton's Ivy League games and averaged nearly three points per game for the season. Strittmatter also made 16 of his 17 free-throw attempts a year ago.
Junior Kevin Steuerer was also a find in 2005-06, playing in 17 games and starting five in the early season when Greenman was out due to injury. Steuerer, who twice played all 40 minutes in a game last season, averaged nearly 17 minutes per game and more than an assist per game and will certainly be in the mix for playing time in 2006-07.
Matt Sargeant, a junior guard, has seen playing time for the Tigers during his first two years despite injury problems. Junior Zach Woolridge and sophomore Jason Briggs also return to the Tigers for the 2006-07 season.
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Princeton's incoming class has the potential to make an important contribution right away. The group, almost as a whole, comes from successful prep programs and has the combination of skills necessary to be successful in the Princeton system.
Zach Finley, a 6-9 forward/center from Rapid City, S.Dak., led St. Thomas More to a perfect record and a Class A state championship as a senior. An all-state and all-conference pick his last two years, Finley averaged nearly 20 points and 10 rebounds as a senior.
Both sharpshooting Lincoln Gunn and point guard Marcus Schroeder come to Princeton from the powerful De La Salle program in Concord, Calif., outside Oakland. The 6-4 Gunn was that team's leading scorer a year ago, averaging better than 12 points per game, while the 6-2 Schroeder led a defense that allowed just 35 points per game to its opponents. De La Salle won the California Division I state title in 2006 and finished the year with an impressive 32-1 record.
6-5 swingman Chris Petrie, the nephew of former Tiger standout and NBA All-Star Geoff Petrie, will join Savage as former Hun School players on the Princeton roster. Petrie, the son of Gettysburg College coach George Petrie, spent a postgraduate year at Hun in 2005-06 and helped the Raiders to a 17-9 record.
Blake Wilson, a 6-4 shooting guard, had an outstanding senior season at South Jersey's Haddonfield High School before heading to Princeton. He averaged 17 points, five rebounds and four assists per game for a team that won its third straight South Jersey Group II title and finished 34-2 in 2005-06. Overall, Haddonfield's four-year record was 111-8 during Wilson's career.
Another South Jersey product, 6-9 center Pawel Buczak, will join the Tigers this season after an outstanding career at Moorestown High School, while California product Nick Lake averaged 18 points and 11 rebounds as a senior at The Bishop's School.
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The Tigers will play in two tournaments in the early season, beginning with the eight-team SportsTime Ohio BCA Classic Nov. 10-12 at Ohio State. Princeton also participates at Marquette's Pepsi Blue & Gold Classic in early December, a tournament the Tigers won a decade ago.
In addition to potential matchups with teams like Ohio State and Marquette in those two tournaments, the Tigers will host Rutgers Dec. 9 at Jadwin Gym. Princeton's home opener, after seven games away from campus to begin the year, is Dec. 6 against Lehigh.
Before the Ivy League season, Princeton will also travel to two-time defending NIT champion South Carolina as well as Manhattan, the MAAC regular-season champ a year ago, and Iona, the 2006 MAAC tournament champion. Rice, with potential All-America and NBA first-round draft pick Morris Almond, pays a visit to Jadwin Gym Jan. 6.
Princeton will again play its first two Ivy games before its intersession, traveling to Columbia and Cornell Jan. 12-13, before resuming its schedule Jan. 29 with a trip to the Meadowlands to play Seton Hall. The Tigers and Pirates will be playing for the first time since the 1988-89 season.
For the third straight year, Princeton will host Penn at Jadwin Gym to conclude the regular season. That game is scheduled for Tues., March 6, with Princeton's trip to The Palestra scheduled for Tues., Feb. 13.
Princeton's games against both Cornell and Penn at Jadwin Gym will be televised by ESPNU, while the Tigers' game at Penn will air on CN8 and a game at South Carolina on Comcast Southeast. Several other Princeton games, including potential matchups at the season-opening BCA Classic, may be televised on regional sports networks.