Having watched all the games, he’s not getting his usual touches because he’s struggling so mightily whenever he does get the ball in his spots. He’s a TO or near-TO half the time and missing lightly contested layups and baby hooks the other half of the time.
Mitch hasn’t said a single word about injury and no reporter is willing to ask, so we can only guess. I suspect he’s having a nagging but minor injury - something like back spasms that have wrecked his leaping ability.
Again to clarify - he’s not getting the touches - or out another way, they aren’t running the offense through him - because THEY know he isn’t right. Lee can’t carry the team for the whole game - Lee and Davis can’t either. There was a stretch where Lee and Davis alternated beating their guy off the dribble and making highlight layups - and Dartmouth actually extended the lead a bit because they hit threes. Once the layups stopped falling the game was over. They knew not to help out on those drives which would open up the three pointers.
I fell in love with Princeton basketball 50 years ago, as a 10-year old kid when the Tigers won the NIT at Madison Square Garden. My parents took me to the game. Seeing my childhood heroes on the court at half time brought back some powerful memories.
Tonight I did something I had never done over the last 50 years. I walked out on a Princeton game before it was over. This team has no joy left. They play with neither heart not head. They appear broken. I know Xaivian can do some amazing things on a basketball court but tonight I couldn’t help but think that he may have destroyed Princeton basketball. At least for me. Watching him dribble around the top until he finds a seam to squeeze through and then take a terrible shot or have a shot blocked is not the Princeton basketball that I came to love.
This team seems to be broken mentally. And Mitch seems broken too. He stands and scowls, with hands in his pockets, in a manner that suggests he’s lost all of his joy in the game too.
Something is terribly broken. Its frankly hard to watch. And tonight, with six minutes left in the game, I just had to walk away.
They say that “winning cures everything.” Well, the opposite is true too. Losing spoils everything. It makes everything and everyone look broken.
This isn’t the Killer Ps era with 6 teams that are roadkill for Penn and Princeton. Everyone but Columbia (post-DLR injury) can actually play. Also, teams shoot more 3s than ever which means more variance. Only Yale with 3 stars who are ALL producing is having a great year. Cornell has the same record as we do.
Ultimately, Pierce is clearly not right and we can’t win without him. It’s that simple. I hope he heals up in time or gets right mentally if it’s not injury.
Gokinsmen - you beat me to it - losing looks bad whether it’s Lee and Davis trying to put the team on their backs with hero ball or the Joe Scott slow Princeton offense.
Here is Caden Pierce’s game log for the end of last year’s Ivy campaign. All the predictions of success for this year presuppose this player returning or even getting better from his sophomore year.
I think this is an astute observation. Nobody knows what to do until Xavian either includes them, or not. Might be better off with him moving on - tough to say but it could be the answer.
Exactly. If Pierce were simply matching his sophomore year production - not even exceeding like you’d expect from an upperclassman - then we’d be right there with Yale.
Gokinsmen is right on this one - team ball got them into trouble. In the first 11:30 of the game they were 2-18 from the field, down 21-4. Lee had only taken 3 of his 22 shots. Happy 1-3, Hicke 1-4, Lee 0-3, Pierce 0-2, Peters 0-2, Davis 0-2, Byriel 0-2.
That start really got us into a huge hole… no surprise they ran out of gas in the 2nd half.
Again, I don’t know why Mitch hasn’t adjusted. Play to your strengths early, then let that create opportunities for others. You don’t see Yale putting Poulakidas in the corner to see if they can get Aletan and Simmons going first. Heck, even if Poulakidas is cold, they keep feeding him.
We knew going in to the season that there was going to be a problem at center, especially on defense. Pierce underperforming his previous season has exacerbated the problem. The reason the Tigers got crushed in the second half had little to do with the offensive struggles, it was because they offered no defensive resistance to Dartmouth, especially inside, until MH (too late as usual) put them in scramble mode and they could force some turnovers (which they’re actually pretty good at when they try,
The offense looked fine in the first half as far as getting in-rhythm, open shots–the team just went like 0-14 on 14 good-to-great looks. “Make shots” is a good slogan, but if you can’t do it in games…
I thought Hicke played a pretty good offensive game, but nowhere near enough production to make up for only Lee and Davis being able to hit anything. I really, really don’t like the many possessions without a plan to get rid of the help defenders by off-ball cutting and the lack of quick ball movement overall. Happy actually improves things in that regard because they kind of have to play a semblance of organized offense when he’s in the high or low post. And if we’re going to descend into the iso-ball rabbit hole Lee is going to have to be more aware of where the shot blockers are on his drives and go to that jump-stop midrange jumper in the lane when there’s someone lurking.
Very good observation. I’ve only watched Princeton 3 times this year so don’t have enough to provide great analysis. I’ve also read a thousand times how great Lee is and that he’s going to play in the NBA, despite needing more strength, a better jumper and being a better defender. Princeton lacks leadership, Davis and Pierce are worse this year, the team isn’t always ready to play and trails early in games are frequently mentioned shortcomings. Some of that has to be on the veteran point guard.
After seeing the Quakers win going away Friday night after our typical dismal start, your losing badly at Jadwin is very encouraging to finally ending our 15 game losing streak in a couple of weeks, we have nothing else that matters this year!
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Let’s not go crazy here!
Even in a season like this, that’s the ONE game I’m not worried about.
I forgot to mention another HUGE problem in this game: Blake Peters on defense.
Dartmouth scored 5 easy layups on him: 4 post-ups, one drive. That’s 10 points on a single vulnerability! Whenever they could, they pulled our bigs away from the basket and threw a pass to whoever Peters was guarding. Easy money with no help available. Mitch made no adjustment to prevent it.
You misunderstand me. I love Blake - it’s not his fault he’s 6’1" being asked to guard players 4-7 inches taller than him at the rim. I’m saying it’s Coach Henderson’s job to make sure that doesn’t keep happening. Peters is getting hung out to dry on defense and that’s not fair to him.
