ZACH ATTACK: Princeton University men’s basketball player Zach Martini looks to unload the ball in recent action. Last Saturday, senior forward Martini scored a career-high 23 points to help Princeton defeat Penn 105-83 in its regular season finale as the Tigers clinched the outright  Ivy League regular season title. The Tigers, now 24-3 overall and 12-2 Ivy, will compete in the Ivy Madness postseason tournament this weekend at Columbia’s Levien Gym in New York City. Princeton is seeded first and will face fourth-seeded Brown in a semifinal contest on March 16. The victor will play the winner of the Cornell-Yale semi on Sunday in the title game with victor in the final to receive the league’s automatic bid to the upcoming NCAA tournament. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Justin Feil

As the Princeton University men’s basketball team boarded the bus to Philadelphia to play at Penn on Saturday evening, they already knew they had accomplished two of their goals.

But the Tigers didn’t let the news that they had already locked up the No. 1 seed for the Ivy League Madness postseason tournament and at least a share of the Ivy regular-season title lull them into complacency as they took to the Palestra court for the final regular season game.

Led by sophomore star Caden Pierce’s career-high 32 points and senior standout Zach Martini’s career-best 23 points, Princeton asserted its conference dominance in a 105-83 statement win over Penn to clinch the outright Ivy title.

“It spoke to me the way our team has been all season led by our seniors, which is a very focused, determined group,” said Princeton head coach Mitch Henderson. “It was like the work’s not done yet — that’s great, but there’s one more thing to do. I thought they played that way. Really focused, but confident. Zach shot the lights out and Caden was just terrific. I thought it was a good win.”

The win sealed the third straight Ivy regular season title for Princeton. It’s the first time the program has strung together three consecutive crowns since they won four straight ending in 1992.

“First, really good players have passed traits and attributes down to one another and have decided, above all else, to make a priority in winning the league and things associated with that,” said Henderson. “We’ve obviously had a lot of turnover. It’s really difficult to win the league. I’ve been on the other side of this where you’re close but you still fall short on the last day. I’m very thankful and grateful to sit in the spot we’re in. It really means a lot to us. The seniors are a really special group. Those two guys are all about the team.”

Martini and fellow senior captain Matt Allocco have continued to push the Tigers to new heights. Princeton finished the regular season 24-3 overall and 12-2 in the Ivies. They have won nine straight heading into the Ivy tournament that rewards the winner with the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Last year, Princeton won the Ivy tourney and made a run to the NCAA Sweet 16.

“You know you get to the league tournament and everybody that plays in this league, and everyone who’s ever played in the league, they want to make the NCAAs,” said Henderson. “You’ve got an opportunity here.”

Columbia will host the men’s and women’s Ivy League tournaments this year. Princeton will face fourth-seeded Brown on Saturday in the first of two semifinals with No. 2 seed Yale taking on No. 3 Cornell in the second semifinal. The semifinal winners meet at noon Sunday for the league championship and the automatic bid to the NCAA tourney.

“I think the most important thing is win Saturday,” said Henderson. “That’s the main focus. There’s nothing else that matters. And then you get to Sunday if you’re fortunate and it’s just basketball. This is what these guys think about all the time — you want to play well on the biggest of stages. We’ll have confidence and I’ll have supreme confidence in their ability to do that and we’ll support them. It’s the only thing that you can do at the moment. There’s an awful lot on the line. Just because we’ve played back-to-back before doesn’t mean you’re not going to feel a little sore. You have the rest of your life to recover from that. You have one shot at these things. The guys are really aware of that.”

Only a couple weeks ago, it was a three-way tie between Princeton, Yale, and Cornell for the top spot, and it looked as if whoever emerged as the Ivy No. 1 seed might have a cakewalk with no team really looking especially interested in securing the final fourth spot. Since then, Brown has caught fire. The Bears are the second hottest team behind Princeton after picking up an overtime win at Yale last Saturday for their sixth victory in a row.

“Brown has won a bunch of games in a row,” said Henderson. “They’re playing for the same thing we’re playing for. (Kino) Lilly has been a really tough kid to cover. (Nana) Owusu-Anane is very good. They defend. They have multiple different ways to play. They’ve been dangerous all season. We’ve played two really close games against them. I know Saturday will be tough.”

Lilly led the Ivy League in scoring at 18.4 points per game, just ahead of Princeton’s top scorer, Xaivian Lee, who averaged 17.7 points per game. Pierce is sixth in the league at 16.3 points per game. Princeton beat Brown, 70-60, in Providence on February 3, and then 72-63 at Jadwin Gym on February 16. They will be preparing all this week for a game with a lot more on the line this time, and Princeton knows from recent history how tough the next step is. They lost in Ivy Madness in 2022 after winning the regular-season title, and won it last year while hosting at Jadwin.

“It’s a little bit of same old stuff because you have teams that you are familiar with,” said Henderson. “But you focus on the details and enjoy the littlest things. You can’t lose sight that two years ago we were coming off COVID and we won the league and we were really excited. Let’s not be stale in any way. There’s still room for growth for our group even though we played well. We also know Brown’s hot. Cornell and Yale, we know how good they are. You really have to be the best team to get it done this weekend, and we’ll be ready for that on the weekend.”

Henderson isn’t counting on an at-large bid although the Tigers have an interesting case. Princeton’s latest RPI had them ranked 17th. The NCAA tournament has never left a team ranked higher than 21st out of the field. The Tigers are also 48th in the newer NCAA NET ranking that looks at quad victories. Princeton didn’t play any quad 1 games, but was 3-3 in quad 2 games and unbeaten in quad 3 and 4 games.

“If we get a chance to be in the NCAAs, there’s not a single team in the country that would want to see us,” said Henderson. “We have experience, we’re well versed in what it takes to get there. I feel really good about our chance to make the selection committee proud.”

The Tigers are hoping that they can build off Saturday’s dominant performance in the Ivy tournament. Princeton made a season-high 17 3-pointers. The Tigers scored 49 points in the first half and another 56 in the second half to run away with it.

“The main thing is we’ve been taking care of the ball,” said Henderson. “That gives you a chance to be in most games when you’re not playing well. We’ve also been getting to the free throw line. That’s another way where you can get points and it creates a little bit of an advantage. We have our weaknesses, and people know those things, but we’re going to do it again this weekend.”

Princeton comes in as the No. 1 seed and defending Ivy tournament champion. They have been playing all season as a favorite with big expectations based off last year’s historic NCAA tournament run. The Tigers have seen pressure all season.

“I’m not sure we’re beyond that, but I think we’re pretty close to being through that,” said Henderson.  “We saw a lot of that during the league and the buildup to the league play where gyms were sold out, we were getting overrated chants. We went through that as a group and came out on the other side. We were 3-2 sitting there and now we’re 12-2. We’ve emerged on the other side with some growth. I don’t think of it at all as being defending champs. You look at this league, and there’s not a lot of advantages to being the 1 seed at this point. It’s a neutral site and everybody has the same amount of rest. There’s no advantage to being us. You just have to play well.”

Princeton is looking to use last year’s experience, and its experience gained through the season’s successes, to advance to the title game Sunday and secure another NCAA tournament berth. The Tigers have players in different roles but a lot of the same faces that helped ignite last year’s historic run, and Princeton can turn to them if things get tough this weekend.

“If there’s something that looks familiar, just say, ‘We’re OK, we’ve been here before,’” said Henderson. “Just have confidence in what we’ve been able to do to date. I don’t think you change your stripes at this point. You’ve got to keep being the best version of you. We’re going to put all our efforts into that. Mush [Allocco] and Cade, they both started last year, and of course Zach, Xaivian, and Blake [Peters] all came off the bench but they all played really pivotal roles in that really important run a year ago. So we’ll be ready. We’ll have some butterflies for sure, but we’ll be ready to go.”

The Tigers have had this point in the back of their heads all season. Ivy Madness is their chance to return to the NCAAs. It’s a step that they can’t skip before they consider being able to make another run late into March.

“It’s a new season almost,” said Henderson. “You have to reinvent and keep growing and understand that even now, it’s not perfect. There’s going to be tension. Embrace that, just play. I thought we did a good job of that last year. We did a good job of that against some of these teams a couple weeks ago. Now it’s on a different level and stage, and we’ll draw on some of those experiences, but it’s just basketball. We know we’ll have to play really well to win.”