Princeton University Athletics
Mitch Henderson on SiriusXM • Feb. 14, 2017
On Princeton' 8-0 Ivy League start:
"I think we’ve been fortunate. The last few weeks, we’ve had some really close games. I like the group a lot. We do, I think, the things that matter a lot. We do those things well. We shoot the ball well. We’ve been taking care of the ball and we’ve been guarding. We’re at Yale on Friday. They’re the defending champ in the league and always a tough place to play. We’ve been on the elevator on the way up for the course of the season here. We know it’s going to be a hard one this weekend."
On the chance of winning the Ivy League:
"We’ve been close. This group really started to form last year. Toward the end of the season, we finished second in the league to Yale in kind of a heartbreaking fashion. That was really kind of a pinpoint I think for this group (and) their focus. You know how that goes. Over the course of the summer, you start to figure out and really lean heavily on your seniors and then kind of understand and pull you through the things that you need to do in order to win."
On the Ivy League Tournament changing the dynamic of the regular season and taking the pressure off individual regular-season games:
"I hope so. What I’m noticing, and you mentioned it right, I’ve been asked that question so many times before this year about, hey, what it would be like to have a tournament, and now that we have one, everything is in play. This time in the season, Tom, as you know, sometimes in the Ivy League you’ve got teams that are actually mathematically out. This is a totally different year, so I would hope that - you sort of reframe it. Focus on the positives. Here are some things that we’re doing well, here are some things that might catch us. I think we obviously have a league title in mind, but you want to be just getting better."
On the Ivy League Tournament:
"This is our first year doing it, and all of the coaches – I can’t speak for everybody, but I do think it’s added an excitement to the league that we need and that I think we actually deserve. The league is really good top to bottom, there’s great teams, great coaches. The differentiator between when I played in the league is just the level of play. A lot of the teams that were good, as you mentioned, Penn and Princeton teams from the 80s and 90s, and even going back, were really good. I think top-to-bottom, the level is very high, and that’s the first thing. The second thing is, we’ve got a tournament, and we’re all kind of figuring out here as we head into the ninth and 10th game of the Ivy League season, that everything is still in play right now, everybody’s still got a chance to get one of those slots."
On how the team has been successful:
"I think it’s the seniors. We have a few seniors that have really just led us in so many different ways. In the Ivy League, you play these Friday-Saturday games, and I think the Saturday games come down to experience and, if you will, mental toughness. Spencer Weisz, Steve Cook, have had games – Steve, we’re on the free-throw line down one, shooting an and-one free throw, missed it, and Steve Cook, a senior for us from Chicago, grabs it and puts it in to win the game. We had had the lead and we coughed it up, and so those are the kind of games that you play that game 100 times, you don’t come out victorious that often, but those are the kind of plays that I think seniors make. Spencer has just carried us. I keep teasing him. I’m like, I know you’re tired, but are you also tired from carrying us in certain games? I think seniors, and then we’ve been getting really consistent play from some young guys, which you don’t always get. Like I said, they’re taking care of the ball, and I think that is very underrated."
On the mental aspect of the game:
"That’s a larger part these days than any of us would let on. You’ve got to talk about it a lot, and bringing those kinds of conversations, from my perspective, into the mix is big. But again, I’ll go back to the seniors. There’s nothing that I could do or say if we didn’t have the right kind of leadership up top, and we do with this senior class. Pete Miller, Hans Brase, Khyan Rayner, Spencer and Steve, who I mentioned. Those guys have led us in a lot of different ways."
On the Princeton Offense today:
"I’d like to think of it as – Coach Carril gave me the best advice when I got here. He said, you’ve got to be yourself. So much of what I do is the result of those two guys. I was very fortunate to be around both of them. There’s a lot of advantages to it. We’ve tried to modernize it, and in terms of recruiting, I think we’ve gotten a level of player that can step right in. It’s really just – Coach would always say, good spacing and good players. We try to work really hard on spacing. We have modernized it. It’s more read-based. I think we’re very difficult to guard. When I was at Northwestern, we played Butler when they were really good and went to the final game a couple years in a row, I think between (2010) and (2011). They had Gordon Hayward and Matt Howard, and they were all over us. And that was the beginning for me of kind of realizing that, or just starting to think about different ways to do what we do, keep the good stuff but try to be more dynamic."
"I think we’ve been fortunate. The last few weeks, we’ve had some really close games. I like the group a lot. We do, I think, the things that matter a lot. We do those things well. We shoot the ball well. We’ve been taking care of the ball and we’ve been guarding. We’re at Yale on Friday. They’re the defending champ in the league and always a tough place to play. We’ve been on the elevator on the way up for the course of the season here. We know it’s going to be a hard one this weekend."
On the chance of winning the Ivy League:
"We’ve been close. This group really started to form last year. Toward the end of the season, we finished second in the league to Yale in kind of a heartbreaking fashion. That was really kind of a pinpoint I think for this group (and) their focus. You know how that goes. Over the course of the summer, you start to figure out and really lean heavily on your seniors and then kind of understand and pull you through the things that you need to do in order to win."
On the Ivy League Tournament changing the dynamic of the regular season and taking the pressure off individual regular-season games:
"I hope so. What I’m noticing, and you mentioned it right, I’ve been asked that question so many times before this year about, hey, what it would be like to have a tournament, and now that we have one, everything is in play. This time in the season, Tom, as you know, sometimes in the Ivy League you’ve got teams that are actually mathematically out. This is a totally different year, so I would hope that - you sort of reframe it. Focus on the positives. Here are some things that we’re doing well, here are some things that might catch us. I think we obviously have a league title in mind, but you want to be just getting better."
On the Ivy League Tournament:
"This is our first year doing it, and all of the coaches – I can’t speak for everybody, but I do think it’s added an excitement to the league that we need and that I think we actually deserve. The league is really good top to bottom, there’s great teams, great coaches. The differentiator between when I played in the league is just the level of play. A lot of the teams that were good, as you mentioned, Penn and Princeton teams from the 80s and 90s, and even going back, were really good. I think top-to-bottom, the level is very high, and that’s the first thing. The second thing is, we’ve got a tournament, and we’re all kind of figuring out here as we head into the ninth and 10th game of the Ivy League season, that everything is still in play right now, everybody’s still got a chance to get one of those slots."
On how the team has been successful:
"I think it’s the seniors. We have a few seniors that have really just led us in so many different ways. In the Ivy League, you play these Friday-Saturday games, and I think the Saturday games come down to experience and, if you will, mental toughness. Spencer Weisz, Steve Cook, have had games – Steve, we’re on the free-throw line down one, shooting an and-one free throw, missed it, and Steve Cook, a senior for us from Chicago, grabs it and puts it in to win the game. We had had the lead and we coughed it up, and so those are the kind of games that you play that game 100 times, you don’t come out victorious that often, but those are the kind of plays that I think seniors make. Spencer has just carried us. I keep teasing him. I’m like, I know you’re tired, but are you also tired from carrying us in certain games? I think seniors, and then we’ve been getting really consistent play from some young guys, which you don’t always get. Like I said, they’re taking care of the ball, and I think that is very underrated."
On the mental aspect of the game:
"That’s a larger part these days than any of us would let on. You’ve got to talk about it a lot, and bringing those kinds of conversations, from my perspective, into the mix is big. But again, I’ll go back to the seniors. There’s nothing that I could do or say if we didn’t have the right kind of leadership up top, and we do with this senior class. Pete Miller, Hans Brase, Khyan Rayner, Spencer and Steve, who I mentioned. Those guys have led us in a lot of different ways."
On the Princeton Offense today:
"I’d like to think of it as – Coach Carril gave me the best advice when I got here. He said, you’ve got to be yourself. So much of what I do is the result of those two guys. I was very fortunate to be around both of them. There’s a lot of advantages to it. We’ve tried to modernize it, and in terms of recruiting, I think we’ve gotten a level of player that can step right in. It’s really just – Coach would always say, good spacing and good players. We try to work really hard on spacing. We have modernized it. It’s more read-based. I think we’re very difficult to guard. When I was at Northwestern, we played Butler when they were really good and went to the final game a couple years in a row, I think between (2010) and (2011). They had Gordon Hayward and Matt Howard, and they were all over us. And that was the beginning for me of kind of realizing that, or just starting to think about different ways to do what we do, keep the good stuff but try to be more dynamic."