Lee really knows how to shine for the NBA scouts, huh? Let him keep shooting. When they double, he can give it up.
I wonder if Poulakidas is playing a little tight this weekend because the scouts are here to see him too. He just looks off - not Pierce-level off, but clearly not himself.
Refs just forgot that an airball FT is a deadball TO. Yale gets a free layup on the “rebound.”
This is Division I sports. Ivy refs actually don’t know the rules.
No one but Lee came to play tonight. Oh well. To be expected after last night.
Just make the ILT and get Pierce back on track by then. It’s ultimately about two games in two days.
This is the worst shooting I have ever seen.
I don’t know which is more ridiculous - that the halftime score was 13-12, or that Tigers could be outscored in the second half by 40 points.
Not at all sure they can make the ILT, or for that matter that they should.
??? Halftime score was 32-20.
Princeton and Cornell both seem to have lost their confidence this weekend.
But this game shows why I will always defend Xaivian. We got nothing without him. Even Pierce is not on his level.
Mitch waving the white flag with 6:49 left. Lee goes to the bench - at least he impressed the scouts tonight.
The espn box says 13-12. Men's College Basketball Scores, 2024-25 Season - ESPN
That’s broken. ESPN’s gamecast/boxscore has had issues tonight.
Then you didn’t watch the game. 19p (5-11, 3-6 from deep, 6r, only 1 TO) in 29 minutes against smothering defense. Dazzling moves on his 3s, crafty FTs drawn. Several tough rebounds in traffic. Multiple nice passes - though only 2 were finished.
From a Princeton hoops POV, tonight was a decade-lowlight. From a scouting POV, Lee’s performance was even more impressive since he had zero help. Imagine what he could do with NBA-level bigs and wings around him.
This regular season is officially a bust. But hey, it’s the Ivy Madness Era!
It damned us last year. Maybe it’ll save our season this year (a la 2023).
It’s about TEAM. Not about Lee’s draft status.
Just looking for silver linings. Especially since it helps recruiting.
High school players see Tosan and Xaivian getting NBA attention and want to come to Princeton over other mid-majors and Ivies. Jack Stanton said as much - he had offers from Yale, Columbia and Stanford but chose Princeton because of their player development.
Winning league championships making ncaa’s. The pedigree of the university, success of the program. That’s silver lining aplenty.
No league championship this year. There’s still hope of making the NCAA tourney, but that’ll take a major turnaround.
I still believe the team can do it, but they need Xaivian to lead the way. Hopefully Caden finds himself soon.
The first half defense was good. The offense started out looking OK, with some actual actions and a few backdoor passes for layups. But the putrid three-point shooting could not be overcome, along with some dumb turnovers and total inability to score near the rim against Yale’s size.
In the second half the defense started to break down too as morale dropped, which is another bad habit. Also looking pretty lost against Yale’s defense at the other end. I would sure like to see more actions with Pierce moving without the ball like we had last year, but he’s also got to figure out how to post up a little farther away and use the room to drop step, go up and under, etc. The whole team is just not good at contested layups.
As soon as Pierce decides to go into his back-to-the-basket post moves, the lane starts to look like mid-town Manhatten during rush hour (prior to congestion pricing). All the defensive bigs want a piece of the ball.
When the Indian’s finally beat Princeton on the road next weekend it will a first since “Roug House Rudy” was a star.
LaRusso was born Nov. 11, 1937, in Brooklyn, N.Y., and was a two-time All-Ivy League selection who led Dartmouth to its last conference championships, in 1958 and 1959. The Big Green secured its 1959 title in a one-game playoff against Princeton that was won on a last-second shot by LaRusso.
Family birthday dinner out last night so I “missed” the game. Looked at my phone to see Tigers down 17-16 with about 4 and a half to play in the first half–pleasantly surprised.
I just watched the first half–I will not watch the second–and was actually impressed by how the Tigers played those first 16 minutes. The shooting was woeful, we had some boneheaded turnovers, and we had at least three shot clock violations or wild heaves as the shot clock wound down, but the defense was playing hard. Even with long scoring droughts, the game was close in the first half until two late threes from Townsend (!?) put Yale up a dozen.
What to make of this team? At one point we had four or five guys shooting close to or over 40% from the 3-point line. Last night they shot 22.9%. We had 7 guys play for 10 of more minutes last night—those 10 were 17% from beyond the arc. Subtract X. and the remaining 6 were a combined 2/23–8.7%. That is impossibly bad and many of those misses were good looks.
I’m afraid the Tigers will be in a dog fight to make Ivy Madness. Those early wins over Harvard and Dartmouth were really important.
Big Green.