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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Cal Poly
Five-Game Trip to California, Hawaii to Start Saturday at Cal Poly for Men's Hoops Team
December 14, 2017 | Men's Basketball
Five games, 12 days, three and five time zones away. That's what's ahead for the Princeton men's basketball team, which will head to California for two games before continuing on to Hawaii for three at the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic. First up is a trip to Central California Saturday night for the program's first visit to Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo.
Princeton (3-6) at Cal Poly (4-6), Saturday, Dec. 16, 7 p.m. PT/10 p.m. ET, Mott Gym, San Luis Obispo, Calif.
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• Princeton Game Notes
• Up next: Princeton and USC will get together in USC's Galen Center Tuesday night at 8 PT/11 ET on the Pac-12 Network. It'll be the second time Princeton has played in Los Angeles itself, after Dec. 27 and 28, 1969, when Princeton played in UCLA's Bruin Classic at Pauley Pavilion, defeating Indiana 82-76 before coming up just short against John Wooden and No. 2 UCLA, 76-75.
• Princeton's only meeting with Cal Poly was last season, on Dec. 30, 2016 in Jadwin Gym in an 81-52 Tiger win. Princeton returns 44 of its 81 points, led by 10 from Devin Cannady as one of two Tigers in double figures along with Steven Cook '17 and his 24 points. Princeton outshot Cal Poly 56.4 percent to 36.4 percent from the field, went 13 of 23 (.565) from 3 to 3 of 19 (.158) for Cal Poly. The Tigers also outrebounded Cal Poly 42-21 and overcame 13 turnovers to four for the Mustangs. Cal Poly, which did not have a double-figure scorer, returns 27 of its 52 points, led by eight from Donovan Fields.
• Cal Poly was picked ninth in the nine-team Big West's media poll. UC Irvine was the preseason favorite with 216 poll points, ahead of second-place UC Davis (189).
• The Tigers have overcome tough starts to have a strong Ivy League season before under Mitch Henderson. In Henderson's first season of 2011-12, Princeton started 1-5 before finishing 10-4 in the league, a record that's now one likely in contention for an Ivy League Tournament bid. In 2012-13, Princeton started 3-6 before going 10-4 in the league. In 2014-15, Princeton started 3-8 before going 9-5 in the league. Last season, Princeton started 4-6 before going 14-0 in the Ivy.
• The Mustangs are coming off shooting below 40 percent from the field in each of their last two games while doing so in four of their last five, with a Dec. 2 win over Pepperdine (.526) as the exception. Cal Poly shot better than 40 percent in four of its first five contests. 3-point shooting has weighed heavily in the dip, as Cal Poly has shot below 30 percent from 3 in four of five (.407 vs. Pepperdine) after starting off hot from 3, shooting .471 (57-121) over its first five games. Foes are shooting .371 from 3 against the Tigers, though only two opponents, Saint Joseph's and Miami, tried as many as the 24.6 3s attempted per game that Cal Poly averages. Both opponents won, with SJU going 10 of 27 (.370) and Miami going 14 of 25 (.560).
• The Mustangs had a cross-country flight of their own this week, having played Tuesday night at Bethune-Cookman in Daytona Beach, Fla. The 67-53 Wildcat win was the Mustangs' only game on the East Coast this season.
• Teams have been shooting well against Cal Poly of late, with opponents besting 40 percent from the field in each of the last four games and better than 40 percent from 3 in three of the last four. Two teams, and none since College of Charleston on Nov. 22, have tried against Cal Poly as many as the 24 3FG attempts a game that Princeton averages, and Cal Poly won both those games, with the other being Division II Holy Names of Oakland, Calif. (28 on Nov. 15).
• The Tigers have played nine games (6-3) against Big West teams at the time of the game, most recently against Cal Poly (home) and Hawai'i (Pearl Harbor Invitational, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam) last season, both Tiger wins.
• Devin Cannady is the lone Tiger to score in double figures in all nine games this season. It's the longest Tiger double-figure scoring streak to start a season since Ian Hummer '13 hit 10+ in each of the first 19 games of the 2011-12 season.
• The Tigers have used four starting combos this season. Amir Bell, Devin Cannady and Myles Stephens have started all nine games, while rookies Sebastian Much and Jerome Desrosiers, sophomores Richmond Aririguzoh and Will Gladson, and seniors Alec Brennan and Mike LeBlanc have all started at least one game. Against Monmouth, for the second straight game and the third time this season (Butler), Princeton went with Much and Desrosiers joining Bell, Cannady and Stephens.
• Devin Cannady's climb up Princeton's 3-pointer list will remain in sixth place for a while as he closes the big gap between his 171 career 3s and the 209 that former teammate Spencer Weisz '17 posted. He's also closing in on becoming Princeton's 33rd 1,000-point scorer and the sixth to play for Mitch Henderson, entering Tuesday's game with 911 career points. Senior Amir Bell is at 810 and junior Myles Stephens is at 664.
• More records: Princeton's single-season 3-pointer mark belongs to Sean Jackson '92, who drilled 95 in 1990-91. Counting only the regular season, Cannady is on pace for 106 3s this year, a number that would put him in the neighborhood of the Ivy League record set by Cornell alum Ryan Wittman at 109 in his senior year of 2009-10.
• Entering Wednesday's (12/12) games, Devin Cannady ranked 12th nationally in 3s made per game (3.67), 13th in minutes per game (37:06), and 16th in 3FG percentage (.516). Cal Poly's Donovan Fields ranked first in FT percentage, standing perfect at 28 for 28.
• Devin Cannady, Myles Stephens and Amir Bell have combined for 52.7 percent of the minutes through nine games. All three average at least 33.6 minutes per game, and no other Tiger is closer than senior Mike LeBlanc at 19.1 mpg.
• Three of the five Tiger rookies have logged double-figure minutes in at least one game this season, with Ryan Schwieger doing so in all nine and Sebastian Much in eight of the nine. Schwieger has scored in five straight games after doing so in two of the first four, while Much has scored 47 of his 53 points across the last six games.
• The trio of Myles Stephens, Devin Cannady and Amir Bell, a group that accounts for 2,385 of the 3,070 points on the roster, or 77.7 percent. Sebastian Much is the only other player with a double-figure scoring game this season, hitting 10 against Lafayette and Lehigh.
• The KenPom top 100 entering Thursday's (12/14) games included at least five regular-season foes on the schedule, including Miami (15), USC (30), Butler (48), Middle Tennessee (66), BYU (72), and Davidson (78). Princeton could face as many as two of USC, Miami and Davidson in Hawaii after also facing USC and Miami in scheduled games.
• Under Mitch Henderson, the Tigers now have a 44-41 (.518) 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.
• 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.
• 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.
