Diamond Head Classic Set to Begin Friday for Men's Hoops Team Versus Middle Tennessee

Friday, December 22

Honolulu, Hawaii

5:30 PM ET

Princeton University

Middle Tennessee

The Tigers will start the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic Friday.

Diamond Head Classic Set to Begin Friday for Men's Hoops Team Versus Middle Tennessee

December 21, 2017 | Men's Basketball

The Tigers left Los Angeles with an impressive victory at USC, but the road gets no easier as Princeton will open the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic Friday with a 7-2 Middle Tennessee team that will be coming off three straight games against SEC opponents, winning two of those against Vanderbilt and Mississippi before a loss to Auburn in their last game Saturday.

Princeton (5-6) vs. Middle Tennessee (7-2), Friday, Dec. 22, 12:30 p.m. HT/5:30 p.m. ET, Stan Sheriff Center, Honolulu, Hawaii
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• Up next: The Tigers will continue their 12-day, five-game, 10,500-mile trip with the second of three games at the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic when they face either Akron or USC Saturday at 11:30 a.m. or 1:30 p.m. Hawaiian time.

• Princeton and Middle Tennessee have not met. The Tigers are 10-4 all-time against Conference USA teams at the time of the game, and this will be Princeton's first game against a C-USA team since defeating Tulane to open the 2014 CBI. Princeton beat Charlotte to win the 1998 Rainbow Classic, also the Tigers' last game at the Stan Sheriff Center. This is Princeton's fifth time in Hawaii, along with the 1979 and 1998 Rainbow Classics (1979's was held at the Neal Blaisdell Center), the 2007 Maui Invitational and the 2016 Pearl Harbor Classic at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.

• Middle Tennessee was the coaches' preseason favorite, getting 8 of the 14 first-place votes.

• 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. This year, the Tigers are starting to show it again, winning three in a row after a 2-6 start.

• Princeton is coming off its first win over a Pac-12 opponent since the 1996 NCAA Tournament win over UCLA. The Tigers overcame allowing USC to shoot 52.2 percent from the field by shooting 51.5 percent themselves, nailing 14 3s (on 37 tries), outrebounding the Trojans by one and committing two fewer turnovers. All that added up to a 103-93 OT win that saw Princeton score its most points on the road since 1967, Myles Stephens (30) and Sebastian Much (19) net career-high points and Stephens get a career-high nine boards, Amir Bell contribute a career-high nine assists and five steals, Jerome Desrosiers net a career-high six rebounds,

• MTSU has yet to shoot below 40 percent from the field in any game this season. Princeton has held just two opponents below 40 this season, Lafayette on Nov. 22 (.372) and Monmouth on Dec. 12 (.386), both Tiger wins. The Blue Raiders have shot 40 percent from 3 only once this season, making 11 of 22 in a loss to Auburn Saturday in the team's last game.

• On the season, Princeton averages 25 3-point attempts per game. Only one of MTSU's nine opponents has taken that many, when Vanderbilt went 8 of 27 in a 66-63 loss to the Blue Raiders on Dec. 6. Princeton averages .404 from deep this season, and only two MTSU foes have made more than a third of their 3s. Belmont went 10 of 22 (.455) in a 69-63 win on Nov. 16 and FGCU went 7 of 17 (.412) in an 81-76 win on Dec. 2.

• Middle Tennessee's top national stat ranking heading into Wednesday's games is 22nd in fewest turnovers, with 121, but the Blue Raiders are just 158th in turnovers per game, at 158. Tiger foes average 11.7 per game overall, 13.8 in wins and 10 in losses. MTSU leads C-USA in 3FG percentage at .305, with Princeton shooting .404 overall, .446 in wins and .362 in losses. MTSU's Nick King is among the nation's top scorers, ranking 12th at 22.9 points per game.

• Devin Cannady is the lone Tiger to score in double figures in all 11 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 connection is no surprise, but when the Tigers have won, strong shooting and defending have been major factors. In wins, Princeton is shooting .504 from the field and allowing .447, leading to 79 points for and 66.6 against, and in losses, the stats are about flipped, with Princeton shooting 41.8 percent in losses to 49.1 percent for opponents, leading to 62.8 points for and 76.2 points against. That extends to 3-point shooting as well, with the Tigers shooting .446 from deep in wins to .362 in losses and allowing .323 in wins and .398 in losses. The difference there stands out more than the rebounding difference ( 0.4 rpg in wins, -5.1 rpg in losses) and turnover difference ( 1.4 in wins, -1.8 in losses).

• The Tigers used their fifth starting combination of the season Tuesday at USC, with Alec Brennan joining Devin Cannady, Amir Bell and Myles Stephens, each of whom has started all 11 games, and Sebastian Much, who has started the last five. Brennan also started the BYU, Saint Joseph's and Lafayette games, but alongside fellow senior Mike LeBlanc along with Cannady, Bell and Stephens.

• Devin Cannady's climb up Princeton's 3-pointer list will remain in sixth place for a while as he closes the gap between his 177 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 Friday's game with 947 career points. Senior Amir Bell is at 818 and junior Myles Stephens is at 680.

• 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, now with 39, is on pace for 103 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 (12/20) games, the Tigers' top statistical rankings were 29th in 3FG percentage (.404) and 30th in 3s per game (10.2). Devin Cannady ranked 16th in 3s per game (3.55), 20th in 3s made (39), 24th in FT percentage (.914) and 30th in 3FG percentage (.476).

• Devin Cannady, Myles Stephens and Amir Bell have combined for 52.2 percent of the minutes through 11 games. All three average at least 34.3 minutes per game, and no other Tiger is closer than rookie Sebastian Much at 20.2 mpg.

• From among the Tiger freshman class, Sebastian Much, Jerome Desrosiers and Ryan Schwieger have seen the most time, with each playing between 14.0 (Desrosiers) and 20.2 (Much) minutes per game. Until Aaron Young scored 11 points at Cal Poly on Dec. 16, Much was the only Tiger outside of Devin Cannady, Amir Bell and Myles Stephens to have a double-figure scoring game this season, now with three. The Bell-Cannady-Stephens trio accounts for 2,493 of the 3,253 points on the roster, or 76.6 percent.

• The KenPom top 100 entering Thursday's (12/21) games included at least five regular-season foes on the schedule, including Miami (14), USC (42), Butler (53), BYU (64), Middle Tennessee (67), Davidson (82) and New Mexico State (92). Princeton could face as many as two of USC, Miami, Davidson and New Mexico State in Hawaii after also facing USC and Miami in scheduled games.

• Under Mitch Henderson, the Tigers now have a 46-41 (.529) 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 124 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.