Five Things to Look For as Princeton Heads to Dartmouth and Harvard

Princeton will hit the road for the first time in Ivy League play this weekend at Dartmouth and Harvard. It'll be the first time all eight teams have a back-to-back Ivy League weekend, and Princeton enters the month at 3-0 in the Ivy with Harvard, Columbia and Yale right behind at 3-1.

Friday's game at Dartmouth and Saturday's game at Harvard are both 7 p.m. starts. You can watch the Ivy League Digital Network broadcasts here, listen to the radio broadcast here, follow live stats here (Friday) and here (Saturday), and get updates on Twitter @Princeton_Hoops.

Princeton Game Notes

Here are five things to look for as the Tigers make the northern swing through New England:

1. How will the road affect the Tigers' hot start?
The last six visits to Harvard's Lavietes Pavilion have been Tiger defeats, and the last time Princeton swept the trip was in 2010. Princeton performed well in its last visit to Hanover, hitting 53.7 percent of its tries from the field including 12 3-pointers. The previous night at Harvard, Princeton made seven 3-pointers and shot 43.1 percent from the field, but Harvard outdid that at 51.8 percent.

2. Will the 3s rain in Leede again?
Princeton has taken at least 25 3-pointers in each of the last three trips to Hanover, making 12 of 25 a year ago, 8 of 26 in 2015 and 10 of 30 in 2014. The last two trips, that's been good enough for a win, but in 2014, the Big Green won 78-69 after shooting 52.1 percent from the field. The last two trips, Princeton has held Dartmouth below 50 percent from the field, at .455 last year and .417 two years ago.

3. Will a big performance lead the Crimson?
Harvard has had a 20-point scorer in each of the last three home games against Princeton. In 2014 and 2015, it was Wesley Saunders, first with 24 points and then with 23. Last year, Patrick Steeves had 25 points off the bench. Neither Saunders nor Steeves is back for the Crimson this year.

4. How will turnovers affect the outcome in Hanover?
In the game at Princeton last year, the Tigers beat Dartmouth by 13, 83-70, with Princeton committing 10 turnovers to eight for Dartmouth. That led to a 16-8 Dartmouth advantage in points off turnovers, and the Big Green also won the rebounding battle 35-31. Princeton was able to overcome that by shooting 53.8 percent from the field and making 13 3s. In Hanover, the Tigers came away with a 19-point win, 84-65, after the Big Green committed 19 turnovers to 15 for Princeton. That led to 26 Princeton points (Dartmouth had 15 off the Tiger turnovers), an advantage that Princeton added to another strong shooting performance with a .537 clip from the field and 12 3-pointers while Dartmouth narrowly won the glass, 30-29.

5. How will turnovers affect the outcome at Harvard?
The Crimson are 1-4 this year when committing at least 16 turnovers and 10-2 when they commit 15 or fewer. Princeton has forced at least 16 turns from opponents three times this year, against Hampton, Lehigh and VCU, with Princeton getting the win against Hampton. That stat was of great consequence in Princeton's two meetings with Harvard last year, as the Crimson committed 19 turnovers, leading to 23 Princeton points in an 83-62 Tiger win while Princeton coupled that with 51.6 percent shooting from the field and 12 3-pointers. On the return trip, Harvard cut it down to 13 turnovers, leading to just 10 Princeton points, and shot 51.8 percent from the field.

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