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Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Men's Basketball Preseason News and Notes
October 20, 2010 | Men's Basketball
• Princeton named its captains for the new season, with seniors Dan Mavraides and Kareem Maddox and junior Patrick Saunders getting the honor. Saunders is the first junior captain of the team since Judson Wallace '05 in 2003-04. It is the first time since 1991-92 that Princeton will have three captains.
• A few Tiger returners have changed their uniform number for this season. Sophomore Will Barrett will double his number from 12 to 24. The two-dozen digit was worn last season by Zach Finley '10. Barrett's vacation of 12 opened that number for freshman Ben Hazel. Sophomore Mack Darrow will go from 41 to 32, opening 41 for freshman Daniel Edwards. The number 32 was last worn by Zach Woolridge '08. Maddox will switch from 23 to 2, last worn by Jason Briggs '09. Brendan Connolly will change from 52 to 44, last worn by Michael Rudoy '07 in 2004-05.
• Aside from Edwards and Hazel, Princeton's rookies will wear 5 (T.J. Bray), 14 (Chris Clement) and 25 (Tom Noonan). Bray's number was last worn by head coach Sydney Johnson '97, while Clement is taking over the 14 last worn by Nick Lake '10, and Bobby Foley '11 last wore 25 during his freshman year in 2007-08.
• If all members of Princeton's 16-man roster become letterwinners, the Tigers will have 16 letterwinners for the first time since the 2007-08 season.
• This season will include the first time Princeton has faced the only Division I school named for a U.S. President that graduated from the school that is now Princeton. The Tigers will open the subregional round of the O'Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic at James Madison University on Nov. 22, which was named for the 1771 alumnus of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton) in 1938.
• James Madison will be one of six first-time opponents for the Tigers, a list that also includes Presbyterian, Siena, Tulsa, Towson, and whichever team Princeton faces on the second day of the UCF Holiday Classic, whether Furman or Central Florida.
• Princeton will face the closest NCAA Division III institution to its campus when The College of New Jersey visits for Princeton's annual non-Division I game on Jan. 23. It will be the first time since the 2000-01 season that the Ewing, N.J., school has faced the Tigers.
• When the Tigers face Duke on Nov. 14 to begin their participation in the O'Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic, it will be the first time since the 1990-91 season that Princeton has faced the defending NCAA champion in the regular season. That year, Princeton faced UNLV. The last time Princeton faced the defending champion at any time during the season was in the 1996 NCAA Tournament first-round upset of UCLA. Princeton has recently faced the same year's eventual NCAA champion in the regular season, meeting Duke in 2000-01 and Maryland in 2001-02.
• Princeton's 22 wins in 2009-10 were the program's most since 1998-99, when it finished 22-8 and advanced to the third round of the NIT. Also for the first time since that year, Princeton won two postseason games, advancing to the semifinal of the College Basketball Invitational. The postseason appearance was Princeton's first since the 2004 NCAA Tournament.
• If their 2009-10 scoring totals are replicated, Douglas Davis '12 and Dan Mavraides '11 will become the 27th and 28th members of Princeton's 1,000-point club. They would become the first members of that club since Judson Wallace '05 and Will Venable '05 reached it one month apart in 2005.
• Since freshman eligibility began in the program for the 1978-79 season, only Kit Mueller '91 has reached 1,000 points before his senior year, a feat Davis would match at his current pace. The only other players to reach 1,000 before their senior seasons in program history are Brian Taylor '84 and Bill Bradley '65, who did so using only their sophomore and junior seasons. Taylor entered with the Class of 1973.
• Named head coach on April 20, 2007, Sydney Johnson is already the third-longest tenured active coach in the Ivy League, one week short of Harvard's Tommy Amaker. Yale's James Jones is the Ivy dean, having been hired April 27, 1999.
• Johnson is in line to coach his 100th game at Princeton on Dec. 29 against Northeastern at the Central Florida tournament. He would become the eighth coach in Princeton history to do so, following Frederick Leuhring, Albert Wittmer, Cappy Cappon, Butch van Breda Kolff, Pete Carril, Bill Carmody and John Thompson III.
• Princeton returns its top five scorers for the second straight year. This year, that group includes Davis, Mavraides, sophomore Ian Hummer, Maddox and Saunders.
• The 2010 offseason is the shortest in Princeton history. The Tigers open Nov. 12, ending a stretch of 233 days away from competition since the 2009-10 season ended on Mar. 24, the latest a Princeton season has ended since 1922.
• Princeton will have a program-record seven games in the month of November, topping the previous high of five. The Tigers never had a game prior to Nov. 20 until 1997, when Princeton opened on Nov. 11. Princeton's earliest game ever was in 2007, when it opened on Nov. 10. This season will also mark the first time the Tigers have scheduled 30 regular-season games.
• Continuing a series that began on Feb. 22, 1917, the Tigers will open with Rutgers. The teams have faced each other every season since 1925-26 with two exceptions, in 1943-44 and 1995-96. This year will be the first time Princeton has opened a season with Rutgers since Dec. 1, 1971.