Following Lafayette Win, Men's Basketball Team to Head to FDU Sunday

The fourth meeting in the series between in-state foes Fairleigh Dickinson and Princeton will come Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Rothman Center in Hackensack.

NEC Front Row will have the game on video, and fans can listen live on the Princeton IMG Sports Network (103.3 FM WPRB in Princeton) or through the TuneIn app (search "Princeton"). The RWJ Barnabas Health pregame show begins 20 minutes prior to tip-off.

Princeton (1-3) at Fairleigh Dickinson (3-2), Sunday, Nov. 26, 2 p.m., Rothman Center, Hackensack, N.J.
• Watch: NEC Front Row
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• Princeton Game Notes

• Up next: Princeton will make it back-to-back Wednesday nights with visits from Patriot League opponents when Lehigh comes to Jadwin Gym for an 8 p.m. (approximate) start. The game is the second half of a doubleheader with the women's team hosting Villanova at 5:30 p.m. Lehigh is 3-2 and has already faced two opponents Princeton will face in December: Monmouth (80-72 home loss on Nov. 14) and USC (88-63 loss on Nov. 22). Lehigh is at Pitt Saturday before coming to Jadwin.

• FDU and Princeton have met only three times, all in the last four seasons. The home team is 3-0 in the series, with Princeton leading overall 2-1. The Tigers won the last meeting two seasons ago in Jadwin 91-61 after dropping their only visit to Hackensack in December 2014 89-85. From the last meeting, Princeton returns 36 points from its last game against FDU two years ago, led by 13 points from Amir Bell and 10 from Devin Cannady, while FDU returns 22 points, led by 13 from Darian Anderson.

• Princeton came up even in the turnover stat against Lafayette (12-12) after losing the stat in each of its first three games. The last time Princeton didn't win the turnover stat in any of its first four games was the 2010-11 season. That year, Princeton lost the turnover stat in each of its first four games but was able to turn it around thereafter, winning the stat in 16 of the final 28 games as the team went 12-2 in the Ivy and took Kentucky to the final possession in the first round of the NCAAs.

• Princeton held Lafayette to .372 from beyond the arc last time out, the first time a Princeton opponent shot below 40 percent from the field this season. Each of Princeton's first three opponents last season (BYU, Lehigh, Lafayette) shot at least 40 percent from the field, but after those three games, Princeton foes hit 40 percent in only 15 of the final 27 games.

• FDU has been the only Northeast Conference opponent Princeton has faced since its last game against Wagner during the 2012-13 season.

• Princeton has started the same five in each of the last three games, with seniors Mike LeBlanc and Alec Brennan joining juniors Devin Cannady and Myles Stephens and senior Amir Bell, after freshmen Jerome Desrosiers and Sebastian Much started the opener at Butler with Cannady, Stephens and Bell.

• Just two-plus seasons into his Tiger career, Devin Cannady stands 12th on Princeton's career 3-point list with 149. He needs just 14 more 3s to vault to solo sixth place. He needs two more 3s to tie Bob Scrabis '89 and Tiger radio color analyst Noah Savage '08 for 10th at 155, and three more threes to tie Kyle Koncz '08 and former teammate Steven Cook '17 for eighth place at 156.

• Devin Cannady, Myles Stephens and Amir Bell have combined for 53.3 percent of the minutes through four games, down slightly from 55.2 percent of the minutes through the first three games, and each averages at least 33.5 minutes. Among the other eight who have played more than four total minutes, none averages more than the 15.3 minutes a game logged by rookie Ryan Schwieger.

• FDU is 3-2 overall but 1-2 against Division I opponents this season. The Knights got their first D-I win Wednesday night against another team whose coach has deep Tiger connections, with Holy Cross headed by Bill Carmody, Princeton's coach from 1996-2000 and having served as Mitch Henderson's head coach for his final two seasons from 1996-98. Henderson also served under Carmody for 11 seasons as an assistant coach at Northwestern before taking over at Princeton.

• The trio of Myles Stephens, Devin Cannady and Amir Bell, a group that accounts for 2,165 of the 2,730 points on the roster, or 79.3 percent. The three had been the only players to put up double-figure points this season until freshman Sebastian Much scored 10 against Lafayette last time out, and the 46.7 percent share of the points the three had against the Leopards was the lowest share in any game this season. The previous low for the trio's share was 55.6 percent against BYU.

• Princeton has 32 members of the program's 1,000-point club, with Spencer Weisz '17 and Steven Cook '17 joining last season. There are a few candidates to join this season, with Amir Bell at 770 points, Devin Cannady at 810 and Myles Stephens at 585.

• Entering Thursday's games, Princeton stood at 118 in the KenPom rankings, 12 spots behind Yale for tops in the Ivy. Each of Princeton's first three opponents stood in the KenPom top 100 as of that point, including Butler at 54, BYU at 78 and Saint Joseph's at 72. Princeton will also face top-100 opponents in Miami (18), USC (15) and Middle Tennessee State (90) with as many as two more such games (against the present top 100) in Hawaii against USC, Miami or Davidson (71).

• The Tigers have overcome up-and-down starts to have successful seasons in recent years. Under Mitch Henderson, the Tigers now have a 42-38 (.525) record in the pre-New Year portion of the schedule and a 78-25 (.757) record from Jan. 1 forward.

• Princeton is coming off a 14-0 Ivy League season, the sixth in program history and first since 1998, and the 14th in Ivy League history and first since 2008 (Cornell). That earned the Tigers their 27th Ivy League championship and the top seed in the inaugural Ivy League Tournament, which Princeton won to advance to its 25th NCAA Tournament.

• The Tigers graduated three starters in Ivy League Player of the Year Spencer Weisz, first-team All-Ivy Leaguer Steven Cook, and center Pete Miller. Despite that, Princeton returns two starters in junior Devin Cannady, an honorable-mention All-Ivy Leaguer, and classmate Myles Stephens, the Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year, a first-team All-Ivy Leaguer, and the Ivy League Tournament MVP. Princeton also returns senior Amir Bell, who has started 64 games in his career, including five games last year.

• Last season, Mitch Henderson notched his fourth 20-win season as Princeton's coach, the second-most in program history behind Pete Carril's 10.

• Princeton's 19-game winning streak that included the final 17 games of the regular season and the Ivy League Tournament was the second-longest in program history behind the 20 straight that the 1997-98 team won with Mitch Henderson as a senior.

• Mitch Henderson, at 119 wins, is the third-winningest coach in program history behind Franklin "Cappy" Cappon (250, 1938-43 & 46-61), for whom the men's basketball head coaching position is named, and Pete Carril (514, 1967-96), for whom Henderson played his first two seasons at Princeton.

• Junior Amir Bell enjoyed quite a bounce-back in the Ivy League season last year. In non-conference play, he averaged 3.8 ppg while shooting .268 from the field and .120 from 3. In Ivy play, he averaged 8.7 ppg, shooting .581 from the field and .559 from 3. Bell had Princeton's highest shooting percentages overall (among players with >3 FGA) and from 3 in Ivy League play.

• Princeton's trip to Hawaii for the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic Dec. 22-25 will be the program's fifth to the nation's 50th state, following the 1979 Rainbow Classic, the 1998 Rainbow Classic, the 2007 Maui Invitational and last year's Pearl Harbor Classic.

• Princeton ended last season tops in the nation in fewest turnovers at 298, fourth in fewest fouls at 482, fifth in turnovers per game at 9.9, ninth in scoring defense at 61.4 ppg allowed, 12th in 3s per game at 9.9, 15th in assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.44, and 17th in turnover margin at +3.2/game.

• Princeton ended 49th in last season's final RPI after ending the season ranked 47th in 2016.

• Princeton appeared in ESPN's August 2017 bracketology for the 2018 NCAA Tournament, seeded 12th.

• Princeton will face two teams ranked in each of the current AP and coaches polls. with USC 10th and Miami 11th in both the Nov. 20 AP and coaches polls.

• Princeton was voted a close third in the Ivy League's official preseason media poll. Princeton received three of the 17 first-place votes with Harvard getting six first-place votes and Yale eight. Harvard had 121 poll points to 118 for Yale and 114 for Princeton.

• The Pete Carril coaching tree is going strong in the 2017-18 season. Six current Division I head coaches played for and/or coached under Carril, including Mitch Henderson '98, Mike Brennan '94 (American), Chris Mooney '94 (Richmond), Sydney Johnson '97 (Fairfield), Brian Earl '99 (Cornell) and Bill Carmody (Holy Cross).

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