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Princeton University Athletics
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/ Men's Basketball
Myles Stephens and the Tigers will head to Yale and Brown this weekend.
Five Things to Look For as Princeton Heads to Yale and Brown
February 13, 2017 | Men's Basketball
It's back to the road for the Princeton men's basketball team, which will head to Yale Friday and Brown Saturday. Both games can be seen on the Ivy League Digital Network and heard on WPRB 103.3 FM and on Princeton's TuneIn channel, and Friday's game can also be seen on ESPN3 and heard on Westwood One and SiriusXM Channel 81.
1. Keeping Stephens on a roll:
Myles Stephens has scored no fewer than 14 points in each of the last seven games, the only Tiger to do that over that span. It was the Brown-Yale weekend at Jadwin Gym last month that got Stephens started on that run, and he's boosted his per-game scoring average from 8.2 entering the first Brown game to 11.0 entering this weekend. He shot 69.6 percent (15-23) from the field and 60 percent (3-5) from 3-point range that weekend while also pulling down 6.5 rebounds per game to earn Ivy League Player of the Week honors.
2. Heating up against Yale:
Princeton shot just 38.7 percent from the field in the Jan. 14 game against the Bulldogs in Jadwin, including 25 percent from 3-point range. But, that includes the Tigers going 1 of 15 from distance in the first half, still good enough to lead by two at the break, before going 6 of 9 from 3 in the second half to win by eight. The Tigers shot 40 percent from 3 in both games against Yale last season.
3. How will a lineup change affect the Yale game?
Yale's starting lineup for the Jan. 14 in Jadwin was Blake Reynolds, Sam Downey, Alex Copeland, Trey Phills and Miye Oni, with Anthony Dallier out due to illness. Alex Copeland, who has come off the bench since while Dallier returned to the starting lineup, scored 21 points against the Tigers to lead all scorers. Copeland played 38 minutes in that game and has topped out at 29 minutes since, returning to double-figure scoring in both games last weekend against Dartmouth (14) and Harvard (20).
4. Keeping an eye on Spieth and Blackmon:
Brown's two players averaging double-figure points this season, Steven Spieth and Tavon Blackmon, average a combined 28 points per game this season. At Princeton on Jan. 13, the two combined for just 12 points as Travis Fuller had 13 off the bench and Obi Okolie led the Bears starters with 12 in a 31-point Tiger win. That game was the last one in which Speith didn't reach double figures, and since being relatively quieted by the Tigers, Spieth has averaged 21.1 points per game over the seven contests in the interim. Blackmon has had only one single-digit scoring game since the Princeton contest, averaging 12.9 points over that span.
5. Breaking a couple hexes?
Princeton's last win in Yale's Lee Amphitheater came when Douglas Davis '12 sank his fall-away jumper at the buzzer to lift Princeton over Harvard and into the 2011 NCAA Tournament. The Tigers also beat the Bulldogs that year, but Yale has won the last five against Princeton at home. Winning in Providence after battling the Bulldogs in New Haven hasn't been easy either. Though Princeton won there in 2015, the Tigers haven't won back-to-back odd-year trips to Providence (years when Princeton plays at Yale first) since 1999 and 2001. Brown won the odd-year meetings in 2003, '07, '09, '11 and '13, with the 2011 win putting an end to Princeton's 8-0 Ivy start that year.
1. Keeping Stephens on a roll:
Myles Stephens has scored no fewer than 14 points in each of the last seven games, the only Tiger to do that over that span. It was the Brown-Yale weekend at Jadwin Gym last month that got Stephens started on that run, and he's boosted his per-game scoring average from 8.2 entering the first Brown game to 11.0 entering this weekend. He shot 69.6 percent (15-23) from the field and 60 percent (3-5) from 3-point range that weekend while also pulling down 6.5 rebounds per game to earn Ivy League Player of the Week honors.
2. Heating up against Yale:
Princeton shot just 38.7 percent from the field in the Jan. 14 game against the Bulldogs in Jadwin, including 25 percent from 3-point range. But, that includes the Tigers going 1 of 15 from distance in the first half, still good enough to lead by two at the break, before going 6 of 9 from 3 in the second half to win by eight. The Tigers shot 40 percent from 3 in both games against Yale last season.
3. How will a lineup change affect the Yale game?
Yale's starting lineup for the Jan. 14 in Jadwin was Blake Reynolds, Sam Downey, Alex Copeland, Trey Phills and Miye Oni, with Anthony Dallier out due to illness. Alex Copeland, who has come off the bench since while Dallier returned to the starting lineup, scored 21 points against the Tigers to lead all scorers. Copeland played 38 minutes in that game and has topped out at 29 minutes since, returning to double-figure scoring in both games last weekend against Dartmouth (14) and Harvard (20).
4. Keeping an eye on Spieth and Blackmon:
Brown's two players averaging double-figure points this season, Steven Spieth and Tavon Blackmon, average a combined 28 points per game this season. At Princeton on Jan. 13, the two combined for just 12 points as Travis Fuller had 13 off the bench and Obi Okolie led the Bears starters with 12 in a 31-point Tiger win. That game was the last one in which Speith didn't reach double figures, and since being relatively quieted by the Tigers, Spieth has averaged 21.1 points per game over the seven contests in the interim. Blackmon has had only one single-digit scoring game since the Princeton contest, averaging 12.9 points over that span.
5. Breaking a couple hexes?
Princeton's last win in Yale's Lee Amphitheater came when Douglas Davis '12 sank his fall-away jumper at the buzzer to lift Princeton over Harvard and into the 2011 NCAA Tournament. The Tigers also beat the Bulldogs that year, but Yale has won the last five against Princeton at home. Winning in Providence after battling the Bulldogs in New Haven hasn't been easy either. Though Princeton won there in 2015, the Tigers haven't won back-to-back odd-year trips to Providence (years when Princeton plays at Yale first) since 1999 and 2001. Brown won the odd-year meetings in 2003, '07, '09, '11 and '13, with the 2011 win putting an end to Princeton's 8-0 Ivy start that year.
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