No. 10/13 Miami Up Next for Tigers at Saturday's HoopHall Miami Invitational

An opponent ranked in the top 10 of the AP poll is up next for the Princeton men's basketball team, and only a few miles away from their home court when the Tigers take on No. 10 (AP)/13 (Coaches) Miami in Saturday's HoopHall Miami Invitational at AmericanAirlines Arena, home of the Miami Heat.

The Tigers will be looking to bounce back from Wednesday night's comeback that came up just short against Lehigh, 85-76, while the Hurricanes will aim to keep on rolling, entering at 6-0 and with a win Wednesday night at No. 12/12 Minnesota, 86-81, in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

Princeton (2-4) vs. #10/13 Miami (6-0), Saturday, Dec. 2, 8 p.m., AmericanAirlines Arena, Miami, Fla.
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• Princeton Game Notes

• Up next: The Tigers will head to George Washington Wednesday night for a 7 p.m. tip. The all-time series is tied 2-2, but as it'll be the first meeting since Nov. 24, 2009, it'll be the first meeting between any of the current players... sort of. Patrick Steeves is playing as a second-year graduate student for the Colonials after being on the Harvard roster for four years but only playing during his senior season. Steeves was quiet in an 83-62 Tiger win in Jadwin on Feb. 5, 2016, but in the return game at Lavietes on Mar. 4, 2016, he went off for a career-high 25 points to lead Harvard to a 73-71 win, extending the Crimson's home win streak over Princeton to six, a run that ended last year. GW's Adam Mitola is the younger brother of Alex Mitola, who followed the same Ivy-to-GW path after playing at Dartmouth (2012-15) before a grad-student stint in the capital (2015-16).

• Princeton will be facing an AP Top-10 team for the first time since Dec. 19, 2015 when the Tigers took on No. 6 Maryland at Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore, an 82-61 Terp win. The Tigers were within four at the half, but the Maryland victory made it 25 games in a row that an AP Top-10 team avoided the upset against the Tigers. Princeton's last win against an AP Top-10 team came on Jan. 3, 1977 in Jadwin Gym against No. 2 Notre Dame, a 76-62 victory.

• The Maryland game in 2015 came just 10 days before the Tigers faced Miami on the Canes' home floor. Princeton led Miami, then ranked 13th by the AP, 53-47 with 10 minutes to go before the Hurricanes went on a 10-0 run to seal it. The Tigers have two of their three leading scorers from that game back in Amir Bell (17) and Devin Cannady (13), 30 of the 32 points they return. Miami returns 13 of its points, all with Ja'Quan Newton.

• Miami was picked fourth of 15 in the ACC preseason media poll. Bruce Brown was a preseason second-team All-ACC pick, receiving one vote for preseason Player of the Year, and Lonnie Walker received three votes for Preseason Rookie of the Year, the second-most behind the 58 that Duke's Marvin Bagley got.

• The Tigers have had back-to-back games in which the two halves have been very different. Against FDU, Princeton went from allowing 36.4 percent from the field and 0 of 9 from 3 to 58.8 percent and 6 of 11 from 3 while turning the ball over five times before the break and 12 after. That allowed FDU to trim a 22-point halftime lead to as little as four before the Tigers held on, 83-76. Against Lehigh, it was the Mountain Hawks who built the 22-point halftime lead on 58.1 percent first-half shooting while holding Princeton to 30.3 percent (and 0 of 10 from 3) before the Tigers improved to 51.5 percent and 7 of 14 from 3 after the break to get within two points before falling, 85-76.

• The Tigers will have to be sharp on both ends against a Miami team that has shot 50 percent or better from the field in five of its six games this season and has allowed 40 percent shooting only twice this season. No team has shot better than 31.3 percent from 3 against the 'Canes this year. Princeton has shot 40 percent or better in four of its six games, and from 3, Princeton has either shot better than 55 percent (twice) or below 37 percent (four times), nothing in between.

• Turnovers will also be key against Miami, which hasn't committed more than 12 in any game this season and hasn't let an opponent commit fewer than 12 in any game this season either. Princeton is coming off its lowest turnover game of the season, seven, and has forced double-figure turnovers from its opponent in each of the last three games.

• Princeton has used three starting lineups this season, with sophomore Richmond Aririguzoh making his first two career starts in the last two games alongside seniors Mike LeBlanc and Amir Bell and juniors Devin Cannady and Myles Stephens. Cannady, Stephens and Bell have started all six games, doing so alongside rookies Jerome Desrosiers and Sebastian Much against Butler before LeBlanc and Alec Brennan each started the next three games and Aririguzoh for Brennan the last two.

• Just two-plus seasons into his Tiger career, Devin Cannady stands seventh on Princeton's career 3-point list with 164. He needs just three more 3s to vault to solo sixth place and pass Dan Mavraides '11 (166) for sixth. He'll be in sixth for a while as there's a 43-bucket gap between Mavraides and former teammate Spencer Weisz '17 in fifth (209).

• Entering Thursday's games, Cannady ranked third in the nation in 3s per game at 4.33 and fifth nationally in 3FG percentage, at .591. Daniel Utomi of Akron led the former at 4.5 while Illinois' Aaron Jordan les the latter at .655. Cannady, who also ranked 14th in total 3s (26), eight back of Wofford's Fletcher Magee for the lead, has shot .500 or better from 3 in four straight and five of six games this season.

• Devin Cannady, Myles Stephens and Amir Bell have combined for 53.5 percent of the minutes through six games. All three average at least 34 minutes per game, and no other Tiger is closer than senior Mike LeBlanc at 21.3 mpg.

• Three of the five Tiger rookies have logged double-figure minutes in at least one game this season, with Sebastian Much doing so in five of the six and Ryan Schwieger doing so in all six. Much has been strong the last three games, playing 53 of his 78 minutes on the season over that stretch, going 12 of 17 from the field, 4 of 8 from 3, and scoring 29 of his 35 points. Schwieger has scored 11 of his 18 points over the last two games.

• The trio of Myles Stephens, Devin Cannady and Amir Bell, a group that accounts for 2,266 of the 2,889 points on the roster, or 78.4 percent. The three had been the only players to put up double-figure points this season until freshman Sebastian Much scored 10 twice in the last three games..

• Princeton has 32 members of the program's 1,000-point club, with Spencer Weisz '17 and Steven Cook '17 joining last season. Devin Cannady is rapidly approaching the number, starting the season with 740 and already at 859. Amir Bell has the next-most with 786, and Myles Stephens has 621.

• Entering Thursday's games, Princeton stood at 131 in the KenPom rankings, 20 spots behind Yale for tops in the Ivy. Princeton has, will have or could have (depending on the Hawaii tournament) as many as eight games from Thursday's KenPom top 100 on the schedule, including Miami (18), USC (20), Butler (58), BYU (69), Davidson (77), Saint Joseph's (82), and Middle Tennessee (86). Princeton could face as many as two of USC, Miami and Davidson in Hawaii.

• The Tigers have overcome up-and-down starts to have successful seasons in recent years. Under Mitch Henderson, the Tigers now have a 43-39 (.524) record in the pre-New Year portion of the schedule and a 78-25 (.757) record from Jan. 1 forward.

• Henderson is on track to coach his 200th game at Princeton on Feb. 6 vs. Penn. The only other Tiger mentors to coach 200 games are Albert Wittmer (1923-1932, 115-86), Franklin "Cappy" Cappon (1938-43 & 1946-61, 250-181) and Pete Carril (1967-96, 514-261). Henderson, at 121 wins, is third behind Cappon (250) and Carril (514, 1967-96), for whom Henderson played his first two seasons at Princeton.

• 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.

• 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 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 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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