Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Cornell
Players Mentioned
Title Share at Stake for Men's Hoops Saturday at Cornell
February 25, 2017 | Men's Basketball
Standing in the way is Cornell, led by a coach who contributed to three of those first 26 Ivy titles, Brian Earl '99. The Tigers' 11-0 Ivy League record and 14-game winning streak is the program's longest since Earl was a junior and current Tiger coach Mitch Henderson '98 was a senior in 1997-98.Â
All the links and info you'll need for this weekend's games are below.
Princeton at Cornell, Saturday, Feb. 25, 6 p.m., Newman Arena
• Watch: Ivy League Digital Network | ESPN3
• Listen on WPRB 103.3 and TuneIn
• Live Stats
• Follow @Princeton_Hoops for in-game updates
• Princeton Game Notes
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• Princeton is 11-0 in the Ivy League for the first time since 1998 (14-0), has won 14 in a row for the first time since 1998 (20, program record), and the team has clinched an Ivy League Tournament bid. It's the sixth time Princeton has been 11-0 in the Ivy, and all five Princeton teams to make it to 11-0 also made it to 14-0. Â
• Up next: It's the final home weekend of the season, with Harvard (Friday, 5, ESPNU) and Dartmouth (Saturday, 6) coming to Jadwin. Princeton will recognize the 1966-67 team, which was ranked as high as No. 3 in the nation by the AP and made the NCAA regional semifinal, during the weekend.
• Princeton can clinch a share of the Ivy League title with a win at Cornell. It would be Princeton's 27th Ivy League championship. Â
• The Tigers have been able to complete the Columbia-Cornell road sweep four times in the last six years, losing at Cornell in 2012 and 2015 while extending their win streak at Columbia to eight with Friday night's win.
• Princeton, Vermont and Gonzaga are the only league-undefeated teams in Division I entering Saturday. Gonzaga (17-0 WCC) hosts BYU Saturday to close its conference season. Vermont (15-0 America East) visits Stony Brook Saturday to close its conference season.
• In Princeton's 69-60 win over Cornell two weekends ago, the Big Red outshot Princeton 45.3 percent to 41.4 percent from the field, but Cornell went just 4 of 18 (.222) from 3-point range. The Tigers were only a bit better at 7 of 23 (.304). Cornell's percentage was its fourth-lowest of the season, and the Big Red have been up and down since, shooting .409 at Penn, .235 at Dartmouth and .375 at Harvard.
• Against Cornell, Weisz (21), Cannady (14) and Stephens (14) had three of Princeton's four leading scorers on the season in double figures again, while Matt Morgan (23) and Robert Hatter (18) giving Cornell two of its three double-figure scorers on the season with double figures in that game. Stone Gettings (12.8 ppg) had four points.  Â
• Junior Amir Bell has enjoyed quite a bounce-back in the Ivy League season. In non-conference play, he averaged 3.8 ppg while shooting .268 from the field and .120 from 3. In Ivy play, he has averaged 9.3 ppg, shooting .581 from the field and .552 from 3. Bell has Princeton's highest shooting percentages overall (among players with >1 FGA) and from 3 in Ivy League play.
• Senior Steven Cook, who has fundraised for a Sudanese hospital and interned with an anti-poverty organization in his native Chicago, in addition to being a team tri-captain this season, a two-time All-Ivy Leaguer and an Academic All-Ivy League honoree, was named to the NABC Good Works Team and a CoSIDA Academic All-District honoree. The NABC honor makes him one of five Division I players selected, and Cook will travel to the Final Four to be recognized as part of the Good Works Team. He is the program's first Academic All-District honoree since Justin Conway '07 in 2007.
• With Steven Cook and Spencer Weisz both as active members of the 1,000-point club, it's the first time since the last month-plus of the 2011-12 season that Princeton had two 1,000-point scorers at the same time (Douglas Davis '12 & Ian Hummer '13). Cook is the fifth player to reach 1,000 points under Mitch Henderson (Davis, Hummer, T.J. Bray '14, Weisz), putting Henderson alongside only Pete Carril as Princeton coaches who have had as many as five players reach 1,000 during their tenures. Carril had 14 during his 29-season career.
• Mitch Henderson has already passed two coaches on Princeton's all-time wins list since the start of the season, and he's two wins from becoming Princeton's outright third-winningest coach all-time. After starting the season with 96 wins, Henderson (114) has since passed Frederick Leuhring (100) and Butch van Breda Kolff (103) to stand as Princeton's fourth-winningest coach with Albert Wittmer (115) in third.
• The Tigers are 29-5 in home back-to-back Ivy weekend games under Mitch Henderson, including 15-2 on Fridays and 14-3 on Saturdays of home back-to-backs. Princeton is 21-14 in road games on back-to-back Ivy weekends under Henderson, including 12-6 in Friday games and 9-8 in Saturday games of such weekends.
• Princeton is 35-5 against the Ivy at home under Mitch Henderson and 25-16 on the road.Â
• Under Mitch Henderson, the Tigers now have a 41-35 (.539) record in the pre-New Year portion of the schedule and a 73-24 (.753) record from Jan. 1 forward.
• Through Friday's (2/24) games, Princeton has the most wins among New Jersey's eight Division I teams since Mitch Henderson took over at Princeton prior to the 2011-12 season. Princeton's 114 wins during that time are three better than Seton Hall's 111.
• Through Thursday's (2/23) games, Princeton ranked No. 1 in the nation in fewest turnovers (241) and No. 2 in fewest fouls (375). The Tigers were also top 10 percent nationally in 3s per game (ninth, 10.2), scoring defense (13th, 62.5 ppg allowed), turnovers per game (14th, 10.5), and assist-to-turnover ratio (26th, 1.37) and fouls per game (28th, 16.3).
• Princeton averages 10 (10.2) of 26 (26.3) from 3-point range this season. Princeton tried 23 3s against Cornell, tied for the fifth-most 3s tried against the Big Red this season. The Big Red are 3-5 when opponents try at least 23 3s.
• Through Thursday's (2/23) games, Princeton ranked 53rd in the RPI. That was 80 spots better than the next-highest Ivy team, Harvard, at 133. Princeton has faced three teams ranked higher than it in the RPI, including VCU (25), Monmouth (45) and Cal (46).Â
• Senior Spencer Weisz has been close to a triple-double this season, most recently getting nine points, eight assists and seven rebounds last week at Yale. He netted 13 assists Dec. 10 at Liberty. He got 10 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists against Saint Joseph's on Dec. 14. He had nine points, eight rebounds and seven assists Dec. 31 against Cal Poly. Princeton has never had a recorded triple-double.
• At Bucknell, Weisz surpassed the 300-assist and 500-rebound mark, becoming the third player in program history to have 1,000 points along with 500 boards and 300 helpers. Weisz stands at 1,187 points, 579 rebounds and 350 assists. The other two players are Kit Mueller '91 (1,546 pts., 560 reb., 381 ast.) and Ian Hummer '13 (1,625 pts., 725 reb., 308 ast.).Â
• ESPN's Feb. 20 bracketology had the Tigers as a 13th seed in the Midwest in Greenville, S.C. against Duke. Among Princeton opponents, VCU was an ninth seed in the South, Cal was an 11th seed in the South, Monmouth was a 13th seed in the East and Bucknell was a 15th seed in the East.
• Princeton entered the weekend leading the Ivy in scoring defense (62.5 ppg allowed), scoring margin (+9.3), 3FG percentage (.387), turnover margin (+2.74), assist-to-turnover ratio (+1.4), defensive rebounding percentage (.762) and 3s per game (10.2). Devin Cannady leads the Ivy in free throw percentage (.919) and Steven Cook leads in steals per game at 1.7. Cornell's Matt Morgan is the Ivy's leading scorer at 17.6 ppg and leads the league in 3FG/game at 2.8.