Tigers to Hit the Road at Harvard, Friday on ESPNU, Dartmouth Saturday

For the first time this season, the Princeton men's basketball team will head out on the road for a full Ivy weekend, visiting Harvard Friday at 7 on ESPNU and Dartmouth Saturday at 7 on the Ivy League Network and Eleven Sports.

Princeton (11-10, 3-3 Ivy) at Harvard (10-11, 5-1 Ivy), Friday, Feb. 9, 7 p.m. ET, Lavietes Pavilion, Cambridge, Mass.
Princeton at Dartmouth (4-15, 0-6 Ivy), Saturday, Feb. 10, 7 p.m. ET, Leede Arena, Hanover, N.H.
• Watch: ESPNU/ESPN3 (Friday) | Ivy League Network/Eleven Sports (Saturday
• Listen: WPRB 103.3 FM/TuneIn
• Live Stats: Harvard | Dartmouth
• Tickets: Harvard | Dartmouth
• 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 will be 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: The Tigers' road swing will continue with the annual New York trip, first with a late game at Cornell Friday at 8 p.m. and then a 7 p.m. Saturday tip at Columbia. Both are the second halves of doubleheaders with the women's teams.

• Last year, Princeton got its first win at Lavietes Pavilion since 2010, 57-56 over the Crimson. If the Tigers win Friday, it'd give Princeton its first three-game win streak against Harvard since 2010 and 2011. The last time Princeton won back-to-back games at Lavietes was in 2009 and 2010.

• The Tigers will be looking to snap a two-game Ivy win streak, the first time Princeton has lost back-to-back Ivy League games since losing at Harvard and Yale in 2015. Both were at home, marking the first back-to-back home Ivy losses since 2008, when the Tigers lost their last two home games to Cornell and Penn. Princeton hasn't lost three Ivy games in a row since 2014, losing at Harvard and Dartmouth before a home loss to Columbia.

• With Penn and Princeton meeting for the second time Tuesday, all the Ivy teams will have played the same number of league games the rest of the way. Penn leads at 6-0, followed by Harvard at 5-1, then Princeton, Brown and Columbia, all at 3-3. The top four teams will make the Ivy League Tournament set for March 10-11 at Penn.

• Last season against Harvard, Princeton won the two meetings by a combined five points. Steven Cook '17 led the Tigers with a 24.5 point-per-game average, eight in front of the next Tiger, and top returner, Myles Stephens, at 16.5 points per game. Amir Bell (7.0) and Devin Cannady (6.5) are the only returners who scored last year against the Crimson, with Cook, Spencer Weisz (9.5) and Pete Miller (1.0) all in the Class of 2017. The Tigers overcame being outshot overall 45.2 percent to 41.4 percent and from 3-point range 40.8 percent to 29.3 percent, and outrebounded by 5.0 rebounds per game. Princeton turned the ball over just 7.5 times a game against the Crimson, who committed 17.5 turnovers per game against the Tigers. This season, Princeton will have to cut down on its average to replicate that, as the current Tigers average 12.2 turnovers per game overall and 10.7 in the Ivy. Harvard is turning it over 14.2 times a game overall and 15.5 in league play.

• Seth Towns led Harvard against Princeton in scoring last year at 14.5 points per game with Chris Lewis (9.0) and Justin Bassey (9.0) as the next-closest returners behind the graduated Siyani Chambers (12.5). The Crimson aren't shooting it quite as well overall this year (.412) as they did agains Princeton last year (.452), and the Tigers (.468) are far outperforming what they did against Harvard last year (.414), especially from behind the arc, shooting .393 to .293 in the two games against the Crimson a year ago.

• Spencer Weisz '17 led Princeton against Dartmouth in scoring last year at 19.5 points per game, but Myles Stephens (15.5) and Devin Cannady (11.5) are back. The Big Green lost Evan Boudreaux (18.0), who led them in scoring last year against Princeton, as well as Mike Fleming, who had a second-best 9.5 points per game against Princeton last season, leaving Miles Wright (6.5) as the team's leading returning scorer against Princeton from a year ago. Princeton outshot the Big Green overall last year head-to-head, .469 to .402, and from 3, .365 to .342, while outrebounding the Big Green by 2.5 boards per game and committing just five turnovers a contest to Dartmouth's 11.5. That led to two victories by an average of 10.5 points each.

• A pair of former teammates at La Mirada High School near Los Angeles will meet 2,500 miles from home Saturday in Princeton's Vittorio Reynoso-Avila and Dartmouth's Ian Carter. Much closer to Hanover, Princeton's Jerome Desrosiers will reunite with fellow Northfield Mount Hermon (Mass.) alum Ian Sistare of Dartmouth.

• Harvard is 0-4 this season when opponents make at least 10 3-pointers, and no Crimson foe has made more than 11. The Tigers average 9.9 made 3s per game this year, and Princeton made nine and eight 3s against the Crimson last season.

• The Crimson are 4-0 when shooting 45 percent or better from the field but just 6-11 when shooting below that and 1-5 when shooting below 40 percent. Harvard is 0-7 when teams shoot better than 45 percent from the field but 10-4 when holding opponents below that.

• Dartmouth has shot 40 percent from the field in every game but three this season, and two of those games were against Harvard. Also, only three Big Green opponents have shot below 40 percent from the field this season, and eight have shot at least 50 percent. The Big Green are 0-8 in those games. Four teams have made 10+ threes against Dartmouth this year, with Boston College, New Hampshire, Columbia and Harvard all making 12 and all getting wins.

• Devin Cannady continues his climb up Princeton's 1,000 career points list after joining the club Jan. 6 at Penn. Now 19th all-time at 1,118, he's one of just five players with between 1,100 and 1,200 points, along with Chris Thomforde '69 (1,122), Rick Hielscher '95 (1,130), Frank Sowinski '78 (1,133) and former teammate Steven Cook '17 (1,148).

• Cannady has 378 points this season and needs 138 the rest of the way to have scored 516, which would be the most any Tiger has scored since Brian Taylor '84 poured in 676 points in 1972 (entered with the Class of 1973). Cannady needs just 508 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 62 3-pointers this year, is the seventh player in program history with three 50 3-pointer seasons. The others are Sean Jackson '92, Brian Earl '99, Gabe Lewullis '99, Kyle Koncz '08, Douglas Davis '12 and former teammate Spencer Weisz '17. Only Davis and Earl had four 50 3-pointer seasons, which Cannady is able to achieve as well.

• Last year, the four-member freshman class of Will Gladson, Jose Morales, Vittorio Reynoso-Avila and Richmond Aririguzoh logged a combined 462 minutes. This year's five-member freshman class of Sebastian Much, Jerome Desrosiers, Ryan Schwieger, Elijah Barnes and Charlie Bagin have more than doubled that already, with 1,063 minutes so far. Will Gladson had 304 of the 462 last year and Much, Desrosiers and Schwieger have 999 of the 1,063.

• 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 to make the Ivy League Tournament. 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 have won nine of 13 after a 2-6 start to stand 11-10 overall and 3-3 in the Ivy.

• Entering Wednesday's (2/7) games, Princeton ranked in the top 10 percent of Division I in fewest fouls (19th, 358), fewest turnovers (20th, 256), 3FG percentage (29th, .393) and 3s per game (34th, 9.9). Devin Cannady had the top individual ranking with a 29th-best .883 free throw percentage. Harvard's top ranking was 40th with a .757 free throw percentage with Chris Lewis ranked 67th at 1.81 blocks per game, and Dartmouth was No. 1 in the nation in fewest fouls at 310. The Big Green's Brendan Barry ranked 28th with a 2.86 assist-to-turnover ratio.

• The Tigers have used seven starting lineups this season. Ten Tigers have started a game, and only senior Amir Bell and juniors Devin Cannady and Myles Stephens have started all 21. Tiger rookies have accounted for 24 starts between Sebastian Much (16), Jerome Desrosiers (seven) and Ryan Schwieger (one), while two other seniors (Mike LeBlanc, five, Alec Brennan, five) have started, as have two sophomores (Will Gladson, five, Richmond Aririguzoh, three).

• Feb. 6 against Penn, Devin Cannady became the sixth Tiger with 200 career 3-pointers. He hasn't passed anyone on the career 3-pointer list since Dec. 6 at George Washington, when he passed Dan Mavraides '11 for seventh, but Cannady is nearly done chipping away at the 43 3-pointer gap between Mavraides and Spencer Weisz '17 (209) in fifth. Princeton's single-season 3-pointer mark belongs to Sean Jackson '92, who drilled 95 in 1990-91. The Ivy League record held by Cornell alum Ryan Wittman is 109 in his senior year of 2009-10. Cannady enters the Brown game with 59 3s.

• Devin Cannady, Myles Stephens and Amir Bell have combined for 50.6 percent of the minutes through 21 games. All three average at least 33.5 minutes per game, and no other Tiger is closer than rookie Sebastian Much at 20.3 mpg. The Bell-Cannady-Stephens trio accounts for 2,905 of the 3,946 points on the roster, or 73.6 percent.

• Under Mitch Henderson, the Tigers now have a 48-42 (.533) record in the pre-New Year portion of the schedule and an 82-28 (.745) 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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