Now you’re the one being too optimistic. Princeton has a very good core group coming back but they need a floor leader like Allocco to handle the ball and to make everyone else better. They also need a true center who can defend the interior, rebound and get easy baskets on the offensive end. In the Sweet 16 season, the unsung hero was Kellman. He made a lot of dunks and put back baskets (easy shots). He also was a physical force who could defend anyone. Kellman left and went Florida Gulf Coast and shot 70% from the field. (I think he was near the top in the country). Princeton this year gets virtually no easy baskets. Carril used to always say “Just get me a center.”
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Too bad he didn’t know anyone in the recruiting department. 
As dour as I want to be, the fact is that Yale, Cornell, Dartmouth, Penn, Columbia all lose 2-3 key starters to graduation. Harvard and Brown lose 1 (Pigge and Lewis). Tigers lose 0 (having no seniors). As for the transfer portal, there’s no reason to believe Princeton is more vulnerable than anyone else. If anything, the opposite may be true.
Every Ivy team has weaknesses and we’re no different (lack of true center). But I’m not making excuses for Mitch next year. He absolutely has the horses to win the league and ILT next season, especially with the leaps that Clark, Stanton and Abdullahi should make (being underclassmen).
Penn is losing 2 key guys although its most heralded freshman, Ryan Altman, did not play this year due to injury.
Penn has shown under McCaffrey that it will aggressively recruit transfers to make themselves better. Princeton never will, even if it loses to Penn for years to come. I think Penn is on the rise.
I waited to comment to let my thoughts about this game and the season sort out. In a way, what I thought and said preseason has come true in terms on not having a physical presence near the rim on either end, but that’s not the whole story.
The people who say that the team showed great effort against Brown weren’t watching the same game I was. There was great effort on a number of possessions, but not the kind of consistent commitment to diving for loose balls, cutting off drives, harassing the dribbler, moving hard without the ball to open spots, etc. that are needed to win. (I actually thought that man for man, PU looked like the more talented team for most of the first three-quarters of the game. And the offensive rebounding effort on those long misses was pretty good. Just not enough consistency.)
I too was concerned about the lack of urgency by both coach and team once they fell behind. Aside from my refrain of trying to press for a few minutes when the other team is on a run but before the clock is the main thing, it was very frustrating how often Brown was able to reach in and deflect balls but the Tigers rarely did so. Clearly the officials were not going to call a whole lot of fouls on those stabs, and they are disruptive even when no turnover is created. If you let a Mike Martin team run its offense and just try to react, you’re increasing the task difficulty for no good reason.
DD had an awful offensive game. If he would pull up at the foul line and shoot his jumper, his offensive efficiency would soar compared to what he was doing against Brown (and sometimes in other games). Hicke showed better judgment, but he started to press too down the stretch. The frequent (though not constant) lack of overall team movement, spacing, screening, ball reversal, etc. does strike me as a failure of teaching or learning or discipline somewhere. I’m not saying to go back to the old Carril false motion at the start of every possession or anything like that, but if you’re not on a fast break or secondary break, spread out the perimeter players and let the inside guys set up just to force the D to declare and choose who’s going to be shaded toward. And it escapes me why Abdulahi would ever be posted in the corner when he almost never shoots a three and doesn’t need to be guarded there–stick him in the dunker slot, if you’re not going to directly involve him in ball movement or screens.
Last night I watched a replay of UCSD at UC Irvine because I was curious to see how the Tritons looked after losing everybody off last year’s 30-win team and relying on a lot of underclassmen (and a couple of transfers). They were one game over .500 in the Big West and playing the first-place team (that leads the country in blocked shots), were smaller, and had lost a close one to the Anteaters earlier in the season at home. You wouldn’t have known it, and the level of effort and discipline was very impressive–UCSD led almost the whole way and fought off several comeback runs by UCI in front of a pretty loud Anteater crowd. The contrast with the desultory play of Princeton these last few weeks was stark.
Part of it is that their program is built on defense, and they won’t give NIL or minutes to anybody not willing to play aggressively all the time in their 2-3 matchup zone (which is fun to watch if you like to see guys almost always knowing when to switch and where to move almost before the offense has made its move). They were flying in to wall off drives, then flying out to get to perimeter shooters, cutting off even slightly lazy passes into the interior, blocking shots, stripping drivers, etc. with maybe two or three easy baskets given up due to mental errors. The Triton offense wasn’t particularly complex, but even in the half court it was quick, with rapid passing and movement and confident shooting when open.
Something has to shift in that direction in order for Princeton’s players to enjoy playing the game, not to mention winning. Sure, there are some weaknesses in the lineup, but they have a lot of guys who can do a lot of things and are if anything more athletic overall than some of the groups that have succeeded in the past. I feel like one of MH’s problems is that he really wants the accountability and leadership to come from the inside of the team rather than from the coaching staff, and I think he is worried that if he leans too hard some guys might transfer out. But they don’t have a Weisz or Allocco or somebody like that on the squad (judging by what is observable on the court and the bench), and I think the players might appreciate more task-mastering mixed in with the positivity. Certainly all the calmness hasn’t seemed to increase the team’s confidence when things go south. Not asking for Mick Cronin East, but a little reminder that “you guys are better than this” wouldn’t contradict an overall positive approach.
Thank you for articulating an observation that was percolating in my brain.
Joe Scott just got fired at Air Force for being too tough on his cadet players. It’s hard to be too tough on cadets. Does this say more about Joe Scott or the new player friendly landscape of college athletics? This might be the reason Mitch has a softer approach.
Coaches are all trying to find the right balance. The KSU coach got canned after publicly roasting a poor effort by his team. You can practically see Bill Self biting his tongue in press conferences. Dan Hurley, Rick Pitino, and Mick Cronin seem to have more rope. Iowa Stat’e’s coach seems to have mellowed out some, at least in public–he’s a Marine who used to be noted for his strict approach.
It’s all contextual, depending on what/how they recruit, what their admin thinks about how easy they’d be to replace and what public image they want, results, etc.
AFA admin basically admits that they changed the rules on Scott in their goodbye statement:
”“Coach Scott’s passion for the game of basketball has long been evident in his competitive and direct coaching style. It was this coaching style that guided Air Force Basketball to some of the program’s most memorable achievements during his initial tenure at the Air Force Academy,” athletics director Nathan Pine said in a statement issued by the school. “This is a different day, and now is the right time for a new voice and a new approach to drive the culture and success of the men’s basketball program, aligned with the Air Force Academy’s mission of forging leaders of character developed to lead in our Air Force and Space Force. We thank Coach Scott for his 10 years of service to the Academy and wish him and his family well.”“
I think a coach can motivate without bullying their players. Inspire them. Challenge them. Praise their good habits. Call out their bad habits. Remind them how good they were when they play physical and confident. Remind them how bad they are when they get soft and hesitant. You can be vocal/loud without being insulting or spiteful.
I just don’t buy into this idea that coaches shouldn’t lead players - that the players should lead themselves. Here’s an idea: how about both? Especially with a very young team like the one Mitch currently has. These aren’t 30 year-old NBA veterans. Teach your college players how to communicate and motivate instead of complaining that you don’t have any “talkers” on the team for the second straight season.
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Henderson went to a military high school, and starred in
three sports. Clearly, he knows how that style works, and has made
a conscious decision to go another way.
I happened to be on vacation when Henderson was hired. I got paired for golf
with a young couple who were Princetoon alums. The woman was a athlete (field
hockey), and Henderson’s class. I said I had been hoping for Earl. She said
something surprising. She said she was happy they hired Mitch because he was
“perhaps the kindest person she knew.”
Looking back on his tenure, that statement seems to bear out. Perhaps, he could be
tougher, but he has worn well with his players and the community. He shares praise when they win, and accepts responsibility when they lose. It has not been a great year, but I feel
fortunate to have Henderson in place trying to right the ship.
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We could and probably would do worse than MH in a coaching change. The important thing to remember when being critical of the things you don’t like about a team’s play, the margins of adjustment you’d like to see, is that there a lot of other things that are working that you’re taking for granted.
Sustained poor relative performance would of course lead to bottom-line questions about all the things and whether a reach into the barrel of possible replacements would be wise. We are nowhere near that IMO with MH. Sure would like to see some improvement on the stuff we’ve been pointing out this season, though.
If he brings in some size and stresses defense he’ll be a better coach in no time.
When MacConnell and Rowley were replaced with Brennan and Matthew Johnson (a Dan Hurley assistant), it felt like Mitch adjusting his approach. More old school, more disciplined. But I guess not.
I really wish Allocco would join the staff as an assistant. As a young guy, he could fire up the players without coming off as an angry drill sergeant. It would be more like an older brother teaching them the right way.