Akron Up Next For Men's Hoops Team Saturday in Diamond Head Classic

Following Friday's hard-fought, down-to-the-wire battle against Middle Tennessee, the Princeton men's basketball team will turn right around and face Akron Saturday in the second of three games at the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic

Princeton (5-7) vs. Akron (6-3), Saturday, Dec. 23, 1:30 p.m. HT/6:30 p.m. ET, Stan Sheriff Center, Honolulu, Hawaii
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• Up next: The Tigers will wrap their 12-day, five-game, 10,500-mile trip with the last of three games at the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic when they face either Davidson or Hawai'i at 7:30 a.m. or 9:30 a.m. Hawaiian time.

• Princeton and Akron have met just once, a 62-58 Akron win at Akron on Dec. 30, 2012. Princeton has faced one MAC team since, a 73-68 win over Kent State a year later in Jadwin.

• Akron was picked fourth in the MAC East in the coaches and media poll.

• 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 of four after a 2-6 start.

• Entering the Hawaii tournament, Akron had allowed its last three opponents (IPFW, App. State, Miss. Valley State) to shoot a combined .474 (36-76) from 3. USC shot only .250 (7-28) from 3 in Friday's game, but five of Akron's nine opponents this season have shot better than 40 percent from 3 against the Zips. Princeton shoots .401 from 3 on the season but has been either hot or cold, with four of the team's 12 games seeing the Tigers shoot .563 or better from 3 and the other eight seeing Princeton shoot .382 or lower.

• On the season, Princeton averages 25 3-point attempts per game. Four of Akron's nine opponents has taken that many, with two (UT-Martin with 15 made, Miss. Valley State with 12) making better than 40 percent and two (USC with seven made, Cleveland State with eight) making below 30 percent. Akron had shot better than 47 percent in three straight games before running into USC, where the Zips shot 32 percent.

• Akron's top national stat ranking heading into the tournament was in fewest fouls, where the Zips ranked fourth with 148, but the team was 187th in fouls per game, with 18.5. The team was also 25th in fewest turnovers, with 124, but 299th in turnovers per game, with 15.5. Daniel Utomi was sixth nationally with 4.0 3s per game and 12th with a .500 3FG percentage.

• Devin Cannady is the lone Tiger to score in double figures in all 12 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 42.1 percent to 47.8 percent for opponents, leading to 63.4 points for and 75.1 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 .391 in losses. The difference there stands out more than the rebounding difference (+0.4 rpg in wins, -4.5 rpg in losses) and turnover difference (+1.4 in wins, -2.0 in losses).

• The Tigers went back to their most-used starting lineup for the MTSU game, with rookies Jerome Desrosiers and Sebastian Much joining the trio of senior Amir Bell and juniors Devin Cannady and Myles Stephens who have started every game. That five has started five games with no other starting combo coming together more than three times.

• 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 179 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 Saturday's game with 963 career points. Senior Amir Bell is at 847 and junior Myles Stephens is at 719.

• 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 99 3s this year. The Ivy League record held by Cornell alum Ryan Wittman is 109 in his senior year of 2009-10.

• Entering Friday's (12/22) games, the Tigers' top statistical rankings were 27th in 3FG percentage (.404) and 30th in 3s per game (10.2). Devin Cannady's 3.55 3s per game were 16th, and he ranked 20th in minutes per game at 36:43, 23rd with a .914 FT percentage, 25th with 39 3s and 26th with a .476 3FG percentage.

• Devin Cannady, Myles Stephens and Amir Bell have combined for 52.5 percent of the minutes through 11 games. All three average at least 34.5 minutes per game, and no other Tiger is closer than rookie Sebastian Much at 20.8 mpg.

• From among the Tiger freshman class, Sebastian Much, Jerome Desrosiers and Ryan Schwieger have seen the most time, with each playing between 13.4 (Desrosiers) and 20.8 (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 2,529 of the 3,322 points on the roster, or 76.1 percent.

• The KenPom top 100 through Friday's (12/22) games included at least five regular-season foes on the schedule, including Miami (13), USC (38), Butler (44), Middle Tennessee (66), BYU (67) and Davidson (85). The first five of those opponents are already in the books, with a potential game against Davidson Monday.

• Under Mitch Henderson, the Tigers now have a 46-42 (.523) 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.

• When Princeton begins the 2018 Ivy League season Jan. 5 at Penn, it'll be 672 days since the Tigers last lost an Ivy League game, at Harvard on March 4, 2016. Though the Tigers have won 16 Ivy games in a row (not counting the Ivy League Tournament), that's nowhere near the program's record Ivy winning streak. Mitch Henderson was a part of that one too, as the Tigers won 35 straight league games from 1997-99. The league record belongs to Penn, which won 48 in a row from 1992-96.

• 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.

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