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One More To Go: Princeton Faces Yale Sunday at The Palestra With NCAA Tournament Bid On the Line
March 11, 2017 | Men's Basketball
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Princeton survives!
— NCAA March Madness (@marchmadness) March 11, 2017
Tigers top Penn, 72-64 in OT, to advance to final of first Ivy League Tournament. #IvyMadness pic.twitter.com/7IzpHPhY8f
The top-seeded Tigers will take on third-seeded Yale in the Ivy League Tournament final at The Palestra Sunday at noon on ESPN2. It'll be the second time Princeton has met Yale with an NCAA Tournament bid at stake. The other time was in 1963, when Princeton beat Yale 65-53 at Fordham to earn the Ivy's bid. Princeton and Yale also met in an Ivy playoff in 2002, but the winner there had to take on Penn for the bid. Yale beat Princeton 76-60 at The Palestra and then lost to Penn 77-58 at Lafayette.
Some reading and viewing from Saturday's game:
• Highlights from Saturday's win
• New York Times: Princeton, at Center of Bull's-Eye, Keeps Focus Against Penn
• Washington Post: Ivy League plays a basketball tournament, and it's almost worth the 60-year wait
• Princeton Alumni Weekly: Men's Basketball: Princeton Survives Penn's Challenge
• Trentonian: Princeton escapes in overtime to reach Ivy Tournament final
• NJ.com: Princeton U. men survive Penn in Ivy tourney, will play Yale in final
• NYC Buckets: #1 Princeton 72, #4 Penn 64 (OT): Stephens' Putback Saves Tigers
• NCAA.com: March Madness: Recapping a historic day for the Ivy League at The Palestra
Sunday's links:
Watch: ESPN2 (TV)/ESPN3 (Online)
Listen: WPRB 103.3 FM (Princeton)/TuneIn (Online)
Attend: Tickets
Live Stats
Updates: @Princeton_Hoops (Twitter)
Princeton Game Notes
• Princeton's 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), has earned the Tigers their 27th Ivy League championship and the top seed in the inaugural Ivy League Tournament and a guaranteed spot in the NIT, should Princeton fall short in the Ivy Tournament.
• Up next: Princeton will be watching a selection show Sunday night, whether it's the NCAA show on CBS at 6 p.m. or the NIT show at 8:30 p.m. on ESPNU.
• Wednesday, Spencer Weisz was named the Ivy League Player of the Year and first-team All-Ivy, Myles Stephens was named Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year and first-team All-Ivy, Steven Cook was named first-team All-Ivy, Devin Cannady was named honorable mention All-Ivy, and Mitch Henderson was named Ivy League Coach of the Year. It was the second straight year but only the ninth time in Ivy history, first for Princeton since 1968 and third time in Princeton history that three Tigers were named first-team All-Ivy. It was the first first-team All-Ivy honor for any of the Tigers, third All-Ivy honor each for Weisz and Cook, and first All-Ivy honor for Stephens and Cannady. Weisz is the Tigers' 13th Ivy Player of the Year and first since Ian Hummer '13 in 2013. He is also the eighth player in Ivy history, first Tiger and first since Cornell's Ryan Wittman (2007/2010) to be named both Ivy Rookie of the Year and Ivy Player of the Year during his career (first ROY was in 1971 and first POY was in 1975). Stephens is the second Tiger to be named Ivy DPOY, along with Kareem Maddox '11 in 2011 (award began in 2009). Henderson's award was his first in the third year of the award's existence.
• Though this is the first Ivy League Tournament, there were 10 Ivy League playoff games to determine the NCAA bid when teams ended the regular season tied (two of the games occurred in 2002 when three teams tied). In only one of those 10 instances did one team sweep the other during the regular season. In 1996, Penn swept Princeton before the Tigers beat the Quakers in the playoff. Princeton then went on to beat defending NCAA champion UCLA in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
• Princeton is at 22 wins, tied for its most under Mitch Henderson (2015-16). Winning the Ivy League Tournament would get Princeton to 23 wins, its most since going 25-7 in 2011, its last Ivy title and NCAA Tournament year.Â
• Should the Tigers win the Ivy League Tournament, they would earn their 25th NCAA Tournament appearance and first since 2011, when the Tigers lost to Kentucky 57-55 in Tampa. The Ivy League has won four NCAA Tournament games since 2010, with Cornell advancing to the Sweet 16 in 2010, Harvard winning first-round games in 2013 and 2014, and Yale winning a first-round game in 2016. It's the most successful stretch for the Ivy League since 1978-84, when Penn and Princeton combined to win nine NCAA Tournament games. The Ivy's only NCAA Tournament wins from 1985-2009 came from Penn in 1994 and Princeton in 1996 and 1998.
• Should Princeton make it there, how have 14-0 Ivy League teams done in the NCAA Tournament? Three of the previous 13 14-0 teams won NCAA Tournament games, including Penn's wins over Duquesne and South Carolina in 1971, Penn's win over Nebraska in 1994, and Princeton's first-round win over UNLV in 1998.
• Should Princeton make it there, how have 14-0 Ivy League teams been seeded in the NCAA Tournament? Nine previous 14-0 seasons have occurred since seeding began in 1979. In order: 8 for Princeton in 1991, 14 for Penn in 1993, 11 for Penn in 1994, 12 for Penn in 1995, 12 for Princeton in 1997, 5 for Princeton in 1998, 13 for Penn in 2000, 11 for Penn in 2003 and 14 for Cornell in 2008.
• Princeton trailed by double figures only twice during the Ivy League season, in first halves at Dartmouth Feb. 3 and at Cornell Feb. 25, both times by 10 points. Princeton trailed by 10 Saturday against Penn, this time in the second half, and rallied to win in overtime.
• Princeton carries an 18-game winning streak into the Ivy League Tournament final, tied for the third-longest single-season winning streak in program history. Princeton won 20 straight in 1997-98, 19 straight in 1925 and 18 straight in 1996-97. Princeton also won 18 straight over the 1949-50 and 1950-51 seasons. With two as a player and one as a coach, Mitch Henderson has been a part of three of the four longest single-season winning streaks in program history.
• Mitch Henderson, at 118 wins, has passed three coaches on Princeton's all-time wins list since the start of the season to become Princeton's third-winningest coach, but the '98 Princeton grad has reached such status that it'll take him a while to pass anyone else. Franklin "Cappy" Cappon (250, 1938-43 & 46-61), for whom the men's basketball head coaching position is named, and Pete Carril (514, 1967-96), for whom Henderson played his first two seasons at Princeton, are in first and second place.
• Princeton and Vermont finished the regular season as only league-unbeaten teams in Division I, and Vermont won the America East Tournament Saturday.
• Princeton's 18-game winning streak is the second-longest in the nation. Vermont won its 21st in a row Saturday in the America East final.
• Devin Cannady's 76 3-pointers are the fifth-most in program history, with the record at 95 (Sean Jackson '92, 1990-91) and 84, 83 and 82 as the standards in between Cannady and the top. Cannady's .934 free throw percentage would put him in line for the best clip in program history among those with at least 40 attempts, with Joe Heiser '68 at .900 (117-130) in 1967-68.
• Princeton has had three games on neutral courts against Yale, a 1920 regular-season 33-28 win in Pittsburgh, the 1963 Ivy playoff win at Fordham 65-53, and the 2002 Ivy playoff loss at Penn 76-60.
• Princeton's 7-0 Ivy League road record, sealed two weekends ago on the Columbia-Cornell trip, is its first since 2004.Â
• Against Yale this season, Princeton outshot the Bulldogs 47.2 percent to 38.8 percent from the field, 42.6 percent to 28.6 percent from distance, 81 to 80 percent from the line, and had fewer turnovers, 28-21. Yale had a 33-29.5 rpg edge on the boards. Myles Stephens led Princeton against Yale at 19.5 ppg and Alex Copeland led Yale against Princeton at 14.5 ppg.
• Junior Amir Bell 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 averaged 8.7 ppg, shooting .581 from the field and .559 from 3. Bell had Princeton's highest shooting percentages overall (among players with >3 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. On Mar. 2, he became the program's first CoSIDA Academic All-America winner, earning third-team honors, since Steve Goodrich '98 in 1998. Earlier, he was named the program's first CoSIDA 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.
• Under Mitch Henderson, the Tigers now have a 41-35 (.539) record in the pre-New Year portion of the schedule and a 77-24 (.762) record from Jan. 1 forward.
• Through Saturday's (3/11) 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 118 wins during that time are three better than Seton Hall's 115.
• Through Friday's (3/10) games, Princeton ranked No. 1 in the nation in fewest turnovers (273) and No. 2 in fewest fouls (438). The Tigers were also top 10 percent nationally in turnovers per game (sixth, 10.1), 3s per game (ninth, 10.1), scoring defense (ninth, 61.5 ppg allowed), turnover margin (14th, +3.5/game), assist-to-turnover ratio (17th, 1.42), scoring margin (26th, +10.7), fouls per game (27th, 16.2), and winning percentage (30th, .778).
• Through Friday's (3/10) games, Princeton ranked 51st in the RPI. That was 82 spots better than the next-highest Ivy team, Harvard, at 133. Princeton has faced two teams ranked higher than it in the RPI, VCU (22) and Monmouth (47).Â
• Senior Spencer Weisz has been close to a triple-double this season, most recently getting nine points, eight assists and seven rebounds Feb. 17 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. He's the only player in program history with 1,000 points, 500 boards, 300 helpers and 200 3-pointers. Weisz stands at 1,219 points, 596 rebounds, 371 assists and 205 3s. The other two players with 1,000/500/300 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 Mar. 11 bracketology had the Tigers as a 13th seed in the East in Buffalo against West Virginia. Among Princeton opponents, VCU was a ninth seed in the West and Bucknell was a 13th seed in the South.
• Princeton enters Sunday leading the Ivy in scoring defense (61.6 ppg allowed), scoring margin (+10.6), 3FG percentage (.381), turnover margin (+3.54), assist-to-turnover ratio (+1.4), defensive rebounding percentage (.762) and 3s per game (10.0). Devin Cannady leads the Ivy in free throw percentage (.934) and Steven Cook leads in steals per game at 1.6.Â
• In Ivy League games only, Princeton led the league in scoring defense (56.4 ppg allowed), scoring margin (+13.5), field goal percentage defense (.417), rebounding defense (31.1/game), turnover margin (+5.00), assist-to-turnove ratio (+1.4), defensive rebounding percentage (.760), and 3s per game (9.6). Devin Cannady was the leading free throw shooter at .941 and leader in 3s per game at 3.1, Spencer Weisz led in steals at 2.0 and minutes at 35.4/game, and Amir Bell led in 3FG percentage at .559.