Final Ivy Road Trip Sends Tigers to Brown, Yale

One last road trip is ahead for the Princeton men's basketball team as the Tigers play - and watch - to determine their Ivy League Tournament fate.

Princeton (12-15, 4-8 Ivy) at Brown (11-14, 4-8), Friday, Mar. 2, 7 p.m. ET, Pizzitola Center, Providence, R.I.
Princeton at Yale (14-14, 7-5 Ivy), Saturday, Mar. 3, 7 p.m. ET, Lee Amphitheater, New Haven, Conn.
• Watch: Ivy League Network/E SPN3
• Listen: WPRB 103.3 FM/TuneIn
• Live Stats: Brown | Yale
• Tickets: Brown | Yale
• Follow @Princeton_Hoops for in-game updates
• Princeton Game Notes

• The Mitch Henderson Show airs Tuesday nights during basketball season from 6-7 p.m. on Fox Sports 920 The Jersey. (The Feb. 6 broadcast was Wednesday, Feb. 7 due to the Penn game.) Originating live from Winberie's Restaurant & Bar (1 Palmer Square, Princeton), the weekly show features men's basketball head coach Mitch Henderson '98 along with assistant coaches, players, and other special guests. Derek Jones, the play-by-play voice for Princeton basketball on the Princeton IMG Sports Network and Ivy League Network, serves as host – tweet him your questions for Coach Henderson @DerekJones79. Fans who can't make it Winberie's can listen on Fox Sports 920 or live online. A podcast of each episode is also available following the show at GoPrincetonTigers.com/podcasts and the Princeton Athletics channel on iTunes.

• Up next: Princeton will aim this weekend for a chance to compete in next weekend's Ivy League Tournament, but the Tigers will need wins and some help in order to qualify.

• Princeton will need to win both games this weekend and see Columbia lose both of its games this weekend, along with a Cornell loss to Harvard, in order to grab the fourth seed in the Ivy League Tournament. With Princeton having split (or would having split, since Princeton will need to defeat Brown to remain in contention) with all of the teams with which it is competing for the fourth seed, the tiebreak Columbia holds is its win over Harvard, as Penn has beaten everyone except Harvard so far and Harvard's only other loss, aside from Penn last weekend, is to Columbia. Columbia is at Dartmouth Friday and Harvard Saturday with Cornell playing those teams in the reverse order.

• As for the overall Ivy League picture, Penn stands 11-1, Harvard 10-2, and Yale 7-5 as the top three seeds entering the weekend. Columbia is presently fourth, thanks to its win over Harvard, despite being tied with Cornell at 5-7 as the New York teams split their head-to-head meetings. Princeton and Brown are 4-8, with Dartmouth the only team eliminated from ILT contention at 2-10.

• Saturday against Dartmouth, in his final game in Jadwin, senior Amir Bell scored 17 points to become the 34th player in program history to reach 1,000 points, now at 1,002. He's the seventh Tiger to score 1,000 to play for Mitch Henderson, along with Douglas Davis '12, Ian Hummer '13, T.J. Bray '14, Spencer Weisz '17, Steven Cook '17 and junior Devin Cannady. Only Pete Carril, who had 18 of Princeton's 1,000-point scorers play for him, had more 1,000-point players during his tenure.

• On Feb. 3 in Jadwin, Princeton and Brown played what was then the highest-scoring game combined in program history, with Brown outscoring the Tigers 102-100 in overtime. That record lasted 13 days until Cornell defeated Princeton 107-101. Against Brown, both teams shot better than 50 percent, with Brown outshooting Princeton 57.9 percent to 55.1 percent and making 13 3-pointers (21 tries, .619) to 11 (22 tried, .500) for Princeton. The Bears' rebounding edge was just one at 34-33 and the Tigers' turnover edge was just two, 10-8. Princeton had five players in double figures, led by 27 points from Devin Cannady, and Brown had four, led by 32 from Desmond Cambridge. It was the first time since Jan. 3, 2016 at Hampton that five Tigers were in double figures and Cambridge's total was the highest for any Princeton opponent since Columbia alum Maodo Lo scored 37 on March 7, 2015.

• In what turned out to be the first of two games on the weekend to go to overtime, Princeton held off Yale 76-73. Once the Brown game went OT, Princeton had back-to-back OT games in the same Ivy weekend for the first time in program history. Trey Phills had a double-double for Yale with 17 points and 14 boards, while Alex Copeland had 18 points to match Myles Stephens for a game high. Amir Bell and Devin Cannady had 16 apiece as Bell had his first career double-double with 11 points. The win came despite Yale outshooting Princeton 49.2 percent to 45.5 percent and the Bulldogs outrebounding Princeton 35-33. Princeton countered with nine 3-pointers to six for Princeton, and the Bulldogs committing 16 turnovers to 11 for Princeton.

• Dartmouth's .268 field goal percentage was the lowest for a Tiger opponent in the Mitch Henderson era, and it ended a run that saw the previous eight Tiger foes shoot at least 43.9 percent from the field. Only six of Princeton's first 18 opponents shot 50 percent or better from the field. Princeton held Dartmouth to 14 first-half points, the lowest score for any Tiger opponent in a half since Cornell had 14 at the half on Feb. 23, 2013.

• Against Dartmouth, Amir Bell passed coach Mitch Henderson for seventh on the Tiger all-time assist list, now with 307. The stat has been kept since the 1974-75 season. Henderson graduated fourth, and all four players who passed him have played for him, including Bell, Spencer Weisz '17, T.J. Bray '14 and Ian Hummer '13.

• Princeton's four-game winning streak in Providence is its longest active road winning streak in the league. The Tigers have yet to win a league road game this season, and Saturday night, they'll visit Yale again a year after winning there for the first time since 2011.

• Princeton now has two active 1,000-point scorers for the second straight year, with Spencer Weisz '17 and Steven Cook '17 a year ago and now junior Devin Cannady and senior Amir Bell. Cannady stands 15th all-time at 1,192, and he's 15 back of Mitch Henderson's former teammate Steve Goodrich '98 (1,207) for 14th. Bell stands at 1,002, eight back of Will Venable '05 for 33rd.

• Cannady needs 434 points over the rest of this season and next to pass Ian Hummer '13 to become the second-highest scorer in Princeton history. It'd be the third time that the title of second-to-Bill Bradley '65 (2,503) on Princeton's all-time scoring list has changed under Mitch Henderson. Douglas Davis '12 changed the No. 2 spot for the first time in 21 years in 2012, and Hummer did it the next year.

• Cannady, with 74 3-pointers this year, is the seventh player in program history with three 50 3-pointer seasons and the fourth with two 70 3-pointer seasons. The others in the smaller club are Sean Jackson '92, Brian Earl '99 and Douglas Davis '12. Only Davis and Earl had four 50 3-pointer seasons, which Cannady is able to achieve as well.

• Cannady also continues his climb up Princeton's career 3-pointers list, now tied for fourth at 212 with Gabe Lewullis '99 with a gap before Sean Jackson '92 and third at 235.

• Princeton's five freshmen have played 23.6 percent of the team's minutes this season, up from 7.7 percent of the minutes a year ago. It's the highest share of minutes for a Princeton freshman class since the Class of 2017 logged 25.6 percent of the minutes in 2012-13. By the time that senior class was done, it included a three-time All-Ivy honoree in 2017 Ivy Player of the Year Spencer Weisz and a two-time All-Ivy Leaguer in 2017 first-teamer Steven Cook, both 1,000-point scorers.

• Entering Tuesday's (2/27) games, Princeton ranked in the top 10 percent in Division I in fewest turnovers (21st, 319) and 3s made per game (28th, 9.8). Devin Cannady had the top individual ranking at 30th in both minutes per game, with 36:38, and free throw percentage (.878). Brown's top ranking is 47th with a .756 free-throw percentage, led by Brandon Anderson's 26th-best 156 free throws made. Yale's top ranking was a 54th-best 466 assists.

• The Tigers have used 11 starting lineups this season with 11 players contributing to the total. It's the first time Princeton has had 11 players start a game since the 2005-06 season.

• Devin Cannady, Myles Stephens and Amir Bell have combined for 50.6 percent of the minutes this season. All three average at least 34 minutes per game, and no other Tiger is closer than rookie Sebastian Much at 19.6 mpg. The Bell-Cannady-Stephens trio accounts for 3,132 of the 4,344 points on the roster, or 72.1 percent.

• Under Mitch Henderson, the Tigers now have a 48-42 (.533) record in the pre-New Year portion of the schedule and an 83-33 (.716) record from Jan. 1 forward.

• 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.

• The Ivy League men's and women's basketball tournaments return to Philadelphia, where they will take place Saturday and Sunday, March 10-11, 2018. The top four teams will earn berths to the tournament, with the semifinals on Saturday and the championships on Sunday. All six games will be broadcast live on ESPN's networks. For tickets and more information please visit IvyMadness.com.

• The Ivy League Network (ILN) is available on Apple TV, Roku and the ILN app for Android and Apple devices.

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Amir Bell

Devin Cannady

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