Princeton University Athletics
Friday TigerBlog - Madness And More
March 20, 2026 | Tiger Blog
The Siena men's basketball team almost beat Duke — and almost tied Bill Carmody.
In the end, neither happened.
Siena, a 16-seed, led No. 1 seed Duke by as many as 14 points before the Blue Devils rallied for a 71-65 victory. The Bill Carmody part?
Well, TigerBlog got a text from his longtime friend and former colleague John Cornell yesterday afternoon that Siena was "going all Bill Carmody on us right here." It took TB a few seconds to realize what he meant.
If you recall the opening round of the 1999 NIT between Princeton and Georgetown at Jadwin Gym, Carmody — then the Tiger head coach — played only five players the entire way. Five guys. Forty minutes each.
Princeton won the game 54-47. Can you name the five players who went all 40 minutes?
As for Siena yesterday, head coach Gerry McNamara went with the same five until he subbed with 10.8 seconds remaining, when he made his only lineup change of the day. He was left with four players who went all 40 and one who went 39:49.2.
Why did he do this? TB looked at Siena's stats and saw that the Saints had three players average at least 30 minutes this season, with three more over 20 minutes and four more over 10. Also, clearly his five guys were exhausted at the end.
The Princeton answer, by the way, is Chris Young, Mason Rocca, Brian Earl, Ahmed El-Nokali and Gabe Lewullis.
The first full day of NCAA tournament games yesterday featured that near upset and a genuine upset, when 12th-seed High Point defeated fifth-seed Wisconsin 83-82. It might seem shocking that the Big South champ could beat a Big 10 team, and in many ways it is. Still, High Point is now 31-4. It doesn't matter what league you're in; when you're used to winning, you know what to do at the end.
The same, hopefully, will be true for the ninth-seed Princeton women's basketball team, who brings a 26-3 record into its Round 1 game tomorrow night (7:25) against eight-seed Oklahoma State at UCLA. The Cowgirls are 23-9 overall, 12-6 in the Big 12.
If you want to read a little more about Madison St. Rose, by the way, there was this piece from Emilia Reay in the Asbury Park Press.
Here's an interesting note about the game: The Princeton women are the only New Jersey team, men's or women's, who reached the Division I tournament.
Meanwhile, there is more to March than just the Madness. For Princeton, there are also two games against Cornell.
The Princeton men's hockey team will play the Big Red in the second ECAC semifinal tonight at 7:00 in Lake Placid, after the game between Dartmouth and Clarkson. The final will be tomorrow evening at 5, with an automatic NCAA tournament bid for the winner.
Princeton and Cornell have split two meetings so far this season, with each on top at home. For Cornell, that meant a 2-1 win in Ithaca on Jan. 16. For Princeton, it was a 4-2 win at Baker Rink Feb. 21.
Princeton went to Lake Placid Wednesday after sweeping Union at home last weekend, winning two games by a 5-2 count. The Tigers in Year 2 under Ben Syer finished in fourth place during the regular season, which meant a first-round bye and home ice last weekend.
Elsewhere in Princeton-Cornell news, those two will meet tomorrow at noon at Sherrerd Field in men's lacrosse.
Since the start of last season, Princeton is 18-5, with two of those losses to the Big Red, who happen to be the defending NCAA champion. Princeton's other three losses are to Penn State this year (Princeton won last year) and Maryland and Syracuse last year (both of whom Princeton has defeated this year).
Princeton is ranked third in all three polls (Inside Lacrosse, USILA, USA Lacrosse Magazine) but is No. 1 in the first RPI, which was released this week. The Tigers have won five straight since that opening loss to Penn State, and all five are against RPI Top 20 teams, including two in the top 10).
Cornell has two losses this season, to Richmond and Penn State. Like Princeton (who won at Yale), Cornell won its Ivy opener last week against Brown.
If you want to see the full weekend schedule for Princeton's teams, click HERE.
