Cornell drops 20 threes and 102 points on this sorry squad. Epic humiliation for the program.
The bus ride home will be fun.
Mitch looks Donahue-esque on the sideline every time they play Cornell or Yale. No answers. Just hope for a bad game from the opposition.
Please explain how you can have 3 returning starters (1 the IVY Frosh of year and then IVY player of year) not to mention Lee who could have left for NBA and this is what happens. This started from game 1 with the questionable starters and continued throughout season. Know your players and how to utilize them. Get a dang game plan//offense and defense. Cornell can take Yale
Better yet, how do you take down Rutgers, St. Joes, and Akron and then fade so badly in league play.
League play is always a different animal. Not surprising anyone.
What Earl did with Cornellâs talent (and Jaques continued) is what great coaching looks like.
What Jones does every year, using non-conf to prep for conference play, is what great coaching looks like.
Constantly underperforming in conference play with superior talent is what Henderson does. I just donât think heâs a great coach - a 4-game hot streak in 2023 doesnât change that.
(BTW, Earl got his William & Mary squad into the top 4, securing a double-bye in the CAA tourney. Amazing job that no one expected).
As Derek Jones just tweeted:
The last time Princeton allowed 100 points or more in a game was December 18, 2018 against Duke, when the Tigers gave up 101. That was the Duke squad with Zion Williamson, RJ Barrett, and Cam Reddish.
Oof. This game really was an all-time program low-light.
I held off on reading this thread to get a bit of a cooler perspective.
My broken record of âmore defensive pressure is needed all game long, gamble a bit more on forcing turnovers and guarding the perimeterâ is still playing. If nothing else, playing that style of D might get them out of their heads a little bit and would make them the hunters instead of the hunted. The Tigers cannot play âsoundâ man defense and stop anybody at the rim, whether on drives or in the post, and when they double against the likes of Cornell itâs pass to an open three point shooter. Even if you gave Cornell a lackluster 33% shooting percentage from beyond the arc, that would have only taken away 27 points from them and they were leading by over thirty for much of the game. They had 33 mostly wide open three-point attempts, way too many. Make them hurry, deflect passes, break up their flow.
The offensive breakdown seemed as much mental as anything schematic. But maybe, just maybe, letting Lee move without the ball more and have a high post passer/outlet would free him up a bit and get him the ball with an initial edge on his defender. Right now the whole defense is able to focus on him as he dribbles in the middle of the court. Cornellâs offense has more âPrincetonâ in it philosophically (if not in specific actions) than Princetonâs doesâthey move without the ball, they zip passes around quickly, the shot and assist distribution is pretty egalitarian.
Byriel is no Martini, but he can play better defense than that. That was really poor. And of course he needs to hit treys to help on the other end. Pierce had his moments, but also some dispiriting turnovers and missed FTs and close-in shots.
Frankly, I think that getting the youth into the game and letting them play some frantic scramble ball as a planned tactic for intervals throughout the game might make sense. The failed comeback against Yale was some of the best basketball the team has played in the entire conference season. Dean Smith used to have a Big Blue team where heâd make a line change. Time for some unconventional rotations and tactics.