Princeton University Athletics
Monday TigerBlog - Spirit Of 76
January 12, 2026 | Tiger Blog
For instance, there is this:
Team A: 28 for 61 from the field, 5 for 17 from three, 15 for 19 from the foul line
Team B: 22 for 48 from the field, 11 for 27 from three, 21 for 23 from the foul line
If you added up the first one, it comes to 76 points. If you added up the second one, it also comes to 76 points.
They also both added up to wins.
Team A is the Princeton women's basketball team, who rolled to a 76-50 win at Yale Saturday afternoon. Team B is the Princeton men's team, who took down Ivy League preseason favorite Yale 76-60 Saturday afternoon.
The men's game, by the way, drew 4,884 to Jadwin Gym.
Then there is this:
First half: 23 points per game
Second half: 54 points per game
That one also belongs to the Princeton men, in their two Ivy League games to date. Princeton has defeated Penn 78-76 and Yale 76-60, for a total of 154 points for the Tigers.
Of those 154 points, the breakdown is this: 46 points in the first half and 108 in the second half. Princeton has shot 16 for 51 in the two first halves (.314) and 34 for 49 in the two second halves (.694).
That's incredible.
What explains this? Is it a function of great adjustments from the coaches? That is part of it.
What TigerBlog thinks, though, is that more than any X's and O's, what you've seen from the Tiger men this week is the importance of team culture. This Princeton team lost eight straight before its current three game streak, and that's the kind of run that could destroy a season, especially for a team without a senior.
In this case, TB — who is not around the team so is just observing from afar but also basing it on what he knows about how Mitch Henderson coaches — would say that this is a team that never stopped believing in itself, has never stopped playing hard, has been allowed to make mistakes and learn from them and a team that is now benefiting from that. That's a tribute to the players and the coaches.
And of course, getting Dalen Davis back has been huge. He followed up his 19 points against Penn with 17 more against Yale on a day when Jackson Hicke had a career-high 27 of his own.
TB's written this before, but go back and look at the 2001 Tigers. This is starting to feel a little bit more like that season.
Time, of course, will tell. In the meantime, Princeton is now 2-0 in the league, along with Dartmouth the only unbeatens. Those two will play a week from today in Hanover, after the Princeton-Harvard game in Cambridge Saturday.
There are three unbeaten teams on the women's side, where the Tigers are joined by surprising Cornell and Brown at 2-0. Harvard and Columbia are both 1-1.
Princeton got to 2-0 by steadily pulling away from Yale in New Haven, backed by 18 points and five assists from Madison St. Rose, 17 points from Ashley Chea and 12 points and seven rebounds from Olivia Hutcherson. Princeton won all four quarters, including a combined 39-21 in the second and third.
Princeton is now 14-1 overall and ranked 24th in the country. The only loss is against Maryland, who is 16-1 and ranked eighth.we're more cat people than dog people if we're being honest. #GetStops ???? pic.twitter.com/P32EOnPg7H
— Princeton WBB (@PrincetonWBB) January 10, 2026
Next up for the Tigers will be a home game Saturday against Dartmouth and another home game a week from today against Harvard.
As a reminder, the top four teams in both the women's and men's races will advance to the Ivy tournament, to be held at Cornell in March.
