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Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Tigers Return Home For Yale Friday Night
February 14, 2008 | Men's Basketball
The Princeton men's basketball team concludes the first half of its Ivy League schedule this weekend, beginning with Yale Friday night at 7:30 at Jadwin Gym. The game will be televised live by Comcast (formerly Patriot 8) in Mercer, Somerset and Hunterdon counties and available at the TigerZone at GoPrincetonTigers.com.
The Tigers (5-15, 2-3) will look to extend their home winning streak that currently stands at three games after defeats of Dartmouth and Harvard on their first Ivy League weekend Feb. 1-2. Princeton will also look to avenge defeats against Yale and Brown at Jadwin Gym last season.
Yale (9-11, 3-3) beat Harvard and Dartmouth at home last weekend, but enters Friday's game with a 2-7 record on the road this year.
Princeton got within one possession four times in the second half at Penn Tuesday but never got the go-ahead basket in a 70-65 loss to the Quakers. Four Princeton players scored in double figures, led by Zach Finley's 15 points, and the Tigers shot 50% from the field for the game.
Second-place Brown (12-8, 4-2) plays at Penn Friday night. The Princeton-Brown matchup Saturday will feature a pair of former Princeton Ivy League Players of the Year on the benches in Tiger head coach Sydney Johnson '97 and Brown head coach Craig Robinson '83, a two-time winner of the award.
TODAY'S TIP-IN...
Home, Sweet Home Princeton's five victories this season have all come at Jadwin Gym. The Tigers have won three straight home games entering Friday night's game against Yale, including their two Ivy home games against Dartmouth and Harvard.
LAYUPS...
Four Score Princeton shot 50% from the field at Penn and had four players score in double figures. Zach Finley had 15 points, Kevin Steuerer had 13 and Noah Savage and Lincoln Gunn each had 12 points.
Shooting Stars Three of Princeton's five starters (Finley, Steuerer, Koncz) are shooting 51% or better in Ivy League play.
Jadwin Effect During its four-game home stretch Jan. 9-Feb. 2, Princeton shot 48% from the field and 39% from three-point range. Tiger opponents shot 41% and 32% from behind the arc in that stretch.
Balancing Act All five Princeton starters are averaging between 8.4 points per game and 13.2 points per game in Ivy League play.
More From Home Princeton is averaging 63 points per game at home this season, 13 more than the Tigers have averaged on the road.
History Lesson Princeton and Yale are playing for the 217th time; the Tigers have also played Penn 217 times. Princeton's game at Columbia last Saturday was the 218th meeting between the schools.
Cats & Dogs Princeton has a 34-5 all-time record against Yale at Jadwin Gym.
THE MID-RANGE GAME...
597 & Counting Princeton is one of only three Division I teams (Vanderbilt and UNLV are the others) to have made at least one three-point shot in every one of its games since the rule took effect for the 1986-87 season. The Tigers have now made at least one three-pointer in 597 straight games.
Tough Trip Princeton and Penn have hosted 156 Ivy League weekends since the league's current travel partner format was adopted in 1956-57. The Tigers and Quakers have combined to go 4-0 100 times and have never combined to go 0-4 or 1-3 on a home Ivy weekend.
Triple Double Princeton has three players averaging in double figures in Ivy play. The Tigers had just one player average in double figures in scoring in non-league games.
Stepping Up Kevin Steuerer has scored in double figures in three of his last four games. He had scored in double figures three times in 46 career games before that stretch.
Up The Charts Kyle Koncz is currently sixth all-time at Princeton with 145 career three-pointers. He needs 11 “threes” to move past Bob Scrabis '89 into fifth place.
Streak Fact Princeton had defeated Yale at Jadwin Gym 13 straight seasons before last season's one-point Yale win in Princeton.
FROM WAY DOWNTOWN...
Remembering VBK The Tigers are wearing a “VBK” patch on their uniforms in 2007-08 in honor of former coach Butch van Breda Kolff, who passed away last August. van Breda Kolff led the Tigers to the 1965 Final Four and had a 103-31 record in five seasons at Princeton.
Aloha & Mahalo Princeton was the first Ivy League team to play in the Maui Invitational. The Tigers played Duke, Arizona State and host Chaminade at that tournament Nov. 19-21.
Deep Thoughts Three of Princeton's four coaches rank in the top 10 all-time at Princeton in career three-point shots (Earl, 1st; Johnson, 4th; Greenman, 9th).
The Company You Keep Princeton entered the 2007-08 season ranked 17th all-time in NCAA Division I with 1,533 victories.
Shining Moments Princeton has made 23 NCAA tournament appearances. Only 22 Division I schools had made more appearances than the Tigers entering 2007-08.
Us Or Them Either Princeton (nine times) or Penn (10 times) has been the Ivy League's NCAA tournament representative in each of the last 19 seasons (1989-2007).
Us Or Them 2 Princeton has won 25 Ivy League titles; Penn has won 25 Ivy championships. The other six Ivy League schools have combined to win 10 league crowns.
Branching Out Six Princeton graduates or former Princeton assistant coaches are currently Division I head coaches. (Bill Carmody, Northwestern; Craig Robinson '83, Brown; Joe Scott '87, Denver; John Thompson '88, Georgetown; Chris Mooney '94, Richmond; Sydney Johnson '97, Princeton).
The Worldwide Leader Princeton will appear on national television on ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU at least six times this season.
Princeton In The Pros Two recent Princeton graduates play in Italy's top division. Mason Rocca '00 plays for Napoli and also played for the Italian national team in the 2006 FIBA World Championships, while Judson Wallace '05 plays for Capo D'Orlando after two seasons playing in Germany.
More Princeton in the Pros Former Tiger basketball star Chris Young '02 played in the Major League All-Star game in 2007. The San Diego Padres' starting pitcher led the National League in earned run average for much of the 2007 season.
Even More Princeton in the Pros Head coach Sydney Johnson played seven seasons of professional basketball in Italy and Spain after graduating from Princeton. His teams won three league championships in those seven seasons.
PLAYER NOTES & ANECDOTES
Bombs Away Kyle Koncz has made at least three three-point shots 19 times in 46 games in the past two seasons.
Filling It Up Kyle Koncz scored a career-high 24 points against Harvard Feb. 2 at Jadwin Gym. He scored 21 of those points in the first half.
Toughing It Out Kyle Koncz did not practice after Jan. 1 last season due to a stress fracture in his foot but still played in 26 games and led the Tigers in scoring.
For Starters... Noah Savage has started 79 career games, most of any player on the current Princeton roster.
It's About Experience Noah Savage played in his 102nd career game Tuesday night at Penn.
Playing The Percentages Noah Savage is a 36% career shooter from three-point range and a 76% career shooter from the free-throw line.
Leader Of The Pack Zach Finley led Princeton in scoring during the non-conference season. Finley averaged 11.1 points per game in those 15 games.
Swatting Them Zach Finley's seven blocks against Chaminade were the most by a Princeton player since Chris Young had seven against Xavier on Dec. 27, 1999.
Record Breaker Zach Finley's seven blocked shots against Chaminade set a Maui Invitational record for blocks in a game.
Shooting Star Lincoln Gunn ranks ninth in the Ivy League in three-point field-goal percentage (39.2%).
Helping Out Lincoln Gunn has three or more assists 12 times in 20 games this season. His 56 assists this season lead the Tigers.
Return To Paradise Lincoln Gunn served as a ballboy while attending the Maui Invitational several times as a child while growing up in California.
Making The Most Of It Kevin Steuerer is second on the team with 36 assists despite averaging just 21 minutes per game this season.
History Lesson Kevin Steuerer's father Mickey was a team captain for the 1974-1975 Princeton team that won the NIT, the only Ivy League team to have won a postseason national tournament.
Land O'Lake Sophomore Nick Lake is shooting 15 for 25 from the field this season (60%) and 7 for 14 from three-point range (50%)
Court Time Marcus Schroeder is averaging 26 minutes per game as a reserve in Princeton's last seven games.
Stepping Up Junior guard Jason Briggs has averaged 11 minutes per game in Princeton's four Ivy League games. Briggs entered the Harvard game Feb. 2 having played 34 career minutes in two-plus seasons.
Stritt Talk 6-8 Michael Strittmatter made 22 of his 50 three-point attempts last season. He was leading the Ivy League in three-point percentage for much of the season.
On Guard Matt Sargeant, who has missed the last three games due to injury, has made seven three-point shots in 15 attempts this season and 17 of 33 shots overall (52%) in 13 games.