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Princeton University Athletics
Wednesday TigerBlog - The 20th Anniversary Of A Playoff Win Over Penn
March 09, 2016 | Men's Basketball
There have been very few nights in Princeton Athletic history quite like the one of March 9, 1996.
It was on that night that Princeton defeated Penn 63-56 in overtime in the one-game men's basketball playoff for the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, where five days later Princeton would defeat UCLA. The playoff win ended an eight-game losing streak to Penn.
If that wasn't dramatic enough, Pete Carril announced his retirement after the game, by simply writing it on a blackboard in a team room.
Wednesday's TigerBlog remembers that night, 20 years to the day:
Of all of the great little anecdotes TigerBlog has from his nearly 30 years at Princeton, perhaps his favorite is the one where Pete Carril was being badgered by a sportswriter after a Penn game at the Palestra.
The writer, by the way, was Brian Dohn, then of the Trentonian. TigerBlog was a big Brian Dohn fan, though he lost touch with him years ago, after Dohn left to go cover the Dodgers.
Anyway, Princeton had just lost to Penn in the final game of the regular season for its eighth straight loss to the Quakers. The outcome of that game left the teams in a tie for the league title and set up a playoff game for the NCAA bid five days later.
It also led to this exchange:
Dohn: "Do you think Penn has your number?"
Carril: "I don't believe in that."
Dohn: "But sometimes a team just has another team's number."
Carril: "Yeah, I don't believe in that."
Dohn: "Yeah, but maybe they just have your number."
Carril: "I'm telling you I don't believe in that."
At that point, another question was asked. This was from Jerry Henry, then of New Jersey Network.
Henry: "Coach, what can you do differently to beat them in the playoff game?"
Carril (looking at Dohn): "Nothing ... if they have our number."
That's a great one. So was the game itself. Princeton 63, Penn 56, in overtime.
That was 20 years ago today.
For the entire Wednesday TigerBlog, click HERE.