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Tiger Men's Hoops Posts Sweep to Take Ivy Title; Will Learn March Madness Assignment on Sunday
By Bill Alden
When one looks at the Ivy League's individual statistical leaders in basketball, the Princeton men's basketball team is barely on the radar screen.
The Tigers have one player in the league's top ten in scoring and rebounding (Judson Wallace) and none in the top eight in assists.
But demonstrating a collective inner resolve and focus, the team's sum has been greater than its parts. Princeton is the league's top defensive team by a wide margin, giving up just 56 points a game and it has developed a penchant for doing whatever it needs to win.
Last weekend, the Tigers utilized their depth of character to win tight games at Harvard and Dartmouth to ensure that they will finish at the top of the only list that really matters ? the Ivy standings.
The triumphs left Princeton with a 19-7 record overall and a 12-1 Ivy record, thereby clinching the crown by eliminating the last remaining contender, archrival Penn, which ended the weekend at 17-9 and 10-3 in the league.
On Friday night, the Tigers traveled to the Boston area for their annual down-to-the-wire affair in Harvard's Lavietes Pavilion before a crowd of 2,050. While Princeton had won four straight games at Harvard, the last three were nailbiters (67-66 in 2003, 50-48 in 2002, and 69-67 in 2001) that weren't decided until the last minute.
This year's game followed the same basic template. Princeton jumped out to a 26-20 halftime lead but the Crimson, who had taken the Tigers to double overtime at Jadwin Gym in early February, were not about to go down quietly. Harvard not only erased the Princeton lead but edged ahead 50-47 with just under four minutes remaining.
But at that point, the Tigers showed the will that has set them apart in this championship season. They fought back to knot the game at 51-51 and then sophomore guard Scott Greenman nailed a three-pointer from the corner to give Princeton a 54-51 lead. The Tigers never looked back as they won 60-51.
As usual, Princeton showed plenty of balance with Judson Wallace scoring a game-high 16 points, Greenman chipping in 14 points and a career-high five rebounds, and Will Venable chipping in 12 points and six rebounds despite being hampered by a sore back.
A night later, the Tigers headed to Dartmouth in what looked like an easy assignment considering that the Big Green came into the evening with a dismal 3-24 overall mark and a 1-12 record in Ivy play.
But Princeton knew that the Big Green weren't going to be a pushover, facing a Leede Arena crowd that was sure to be highly charged in view of the fact that it was senior night and longtime coach Dave Faucher's last game before retirement.
In the early going, the Tigers appeared to be on the way to cruising to an easy win, building a 32-14 lead at the break. But playing with emotion, the Big Green battled back. Early in the half, Dartmouth went on a 13-0 run to shave Princeton's lead to seven. Then after the Tigers extended their lead to 47-33, Dartmouth put together a 10-0 spurt.
A Venable layup stopped the run and then the Tigers went 12-of-12 from the free throw line over the final 1:58 to escape with a 64-59 win and clinch the 23rd NCAA bid in program history.
Wallace poured in a game-high 24 points to lead the Tigers, tying a school record in the process as he went a perfect 12-for-12 in free throws on the night. Venable chipped in 11 points and seven rebounds while Andre Logan contributed eight points and eight rebounds.
Espousing the "one-game-at-time" mantra all season, Princeton head coach John Thompson III maintained that such an approach was key to the team securing its second trip to March Madness in his four-year tenure.
"I've said all year that it's a 14-game tournament and we'd see where we were when dust settled," said Thompson in his post-game media conference. "We've stayed focused throughout and never wavered from caring about the game that day."
Wallace, for his part, credited Harvard and Dartmouth for pushing the Tigers to their limit. "Dartmouth tonight and Harvard last night showed a lot of heart," said Wallace after Saturday's game. "But we showed heart too. They made their runs and got the crowd back into it, but we were able to play well at the end of both games."
The Tigers, who will wind up their regular season by playing at Penn on March 9, will gather around their television sets early Sunday evening to find out out who their opponent will be in the team's first NCAA appearance since losing to North Carolina 70-48 in the first round of the 2001 tourney.
With the Tigers likely to draw one of the heavyweights of college basketball, they will get an ample opportunity to show the nation the special heart that has set this team apart.
