there’s your bad call in our favor lol
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Titanic Lady: “It’s been 84 years…”
What an effort by Byriel in the 2nd half. But 4 fouls on Lee??? I though that was last foul was on Pierce.
We’re switching to get Martini on Lee almost every possession.
It’s working.
Couple of bad TOs by Lee. Hopefully, he’s got another bucket or dime in him.
Wow
Testing 1, 2, 3… (Guess it works now!)
Absolutely insane ending.
So many bad TOs at the end (too cute with the playcalls, Mitch), but our guys’ heart won the game.
Peters’ offensive rebound. Pierce’s ice-cold back 'em down layup.
Now 6-2 against power-conference teams since Covid
If Pierce is truly “back” because he’s healthy now… we’re back in business.
This is the first game where he not only looked as good as his sophomore self, but even BETTER.
I can’t wait to rewatch this one later.
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That was a great college basketball game. Rutgers has talent but is lacking in the coaching…did you see how many white shirts were on the bench?
If Princeton made 66% of their FT’s this game would have been closed out with 3 minutes to play.
I gotta think the 10-day layoff hurt their FT/3pt rhythm, but it super-charged their physicality on the boards. They were finally battling under the basket on both ends. Loved it.
Pierce was a menace on the glass (as he should be) while Peters and Byriel both got rebounds I’ve never seen them get this season. Rebounding erases mistakes - 14 TOs, 8-18 FTs… 1pt victory.
Epic and funny play-by-play call from John Fanta to close out the game:
Post-Game presser from Trentonian’s Kyle Franko:
Pierce and Lee were both huge,
but we got big contributions from
others–Abdulahi, Peters, Davis, Byriel
and even Hicke. It will be interesting to see
who gets Ivy League minutes.
Love what Hicke gave us today. He made big shots and played solid defense, using his fouls well (minus one cheapie on Martini). He did make 1-2 bad TOs, but overall he was a nice sparkplug off the bench.
Peters played like a senior. Big shots, big steals, zero turnovers, and a huge offensive board at the end.
Byriel really showed me something in the second half. In the first half, he missed 4 open threes and played soft under the basket. But in the second half, he was a completely different player. Hit 2 treys and battled hard inside on every possession, grabbing boards and contesting shots at the rim.
If he plays that hard going forward, this team will have the starting center it needs.
Great win. I feel much more encouraged than a few games back. The experimenting by Mitch in non con games is paying off.
Agreed.
Busy day visiting the grandkids in Arizona (usually it’s the other way around), but I got to see most of the game.
Mitch out-coached Pikiell.
We handled the handsy tight perimeter defense by back door cuts, more than I have seen in some time.
And Rutgers did not really collapse on Lee when he drove, although his excellent passing may play a major role in this.
Abdullahi looked very active on the offensive boards, including an excellent left handed tip.
Ace Bailey not seem very threatened by Scott 
Nice block by Hicke.
Best game of year by far.
Just got home after a late lunch in a bar full of Rutgers fans and a joyful train ride home from Newark. Horrendous free throw shooting and higher than average turnovers but the Tigers were just so tough and smart today. This is the kind of game that I had grown used to watching the Tigers lose over much of my 50 years as a fan–great effort for 38 minutes or so against a bigger, stronger team from a high ranking conference undone by a late letdown. Maybe the 2023 team broke the spell. In fact, even after Bailey’s huge 3 with 15 sec left, I thought the Tigers would win today.
Outrebounding Rutgers in that fashion was stunning. Caden’s performance was nothing less than brilliant. Xaivian’s passing, particularly in the first half, was spellbinding. “The Rock” has a great scoreboard that shows points, rebounds, assists and fouls of each of the ten players on the court. At one point fairly deep into the first half, X had 0 points but I think he had 5 assists. He eventually turned into the scoring machine that we’ve witnessed many times now but I think he was playing his best when he wasn’t scoring but was dishing so beautifully.
Blake, Phil, Malik, Dalen, and Jackson all had big moments and I think Mitch really outcoached Pikielle. I am VERY excited for the rest of the season!
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Apparently, Xaivian was under the weather again (get that man some zinc and echinacea), but that makes his performance even more amazing. He’s truly become an elite playmaker and all-around PG.
Thrilled to see Caden look like Caden again. He had so much spring in his step today - reminded me of the Missouri game in 2023. 7 offensive boards by Pierce alone and then a fearless final bucket at the end.
The Ivy is looking a lot tougher than expected - Dartmouth beat Vermont by 30 (!!!) today and Harvard kept it close with Furman for most of their game. I don’t expect a 12-2 Ivy record again, but this team should be ready for Ivy Madness.
Just watched it off my DVR before coming here. Wow! I knew it was good when I realized I wasn’t fretting over the score in the first half, just enjoying the flow of the game. All those ORs and backdoors in the first half were terrific, numbing the pain of the FT butchery. The bizarre aspect was that not getting too many calls was actually helpful in the sense that the Tigers were doing a lot better from the field than the line.
Truly great to see the new and improved Pierce we were all hoping for at the beginning of the season, including sharp off-ball movement that led to a bunch of dunks and layups. Lee struggled at first with Rutgers’s physical defense, but then the passing and scoring wizardry showed up big time. Peters played a great, physical game, and Abdulahi, Byriel, Hicke, and Scott all chipped in when needed.
At the end I was crushed when PU had that awful inbounding turnover, but slightly relieved when Bailey hit the three so early because I had a feeling that 12 seconds was way too much time for Rutgers to defend the Tigers. Didn’t think Pierce on an iso backdown was going to be the finisher, though.
Rutgers looked like a very good team today, and Harper lived up to his hype, Bailey less so (he’s been less consistent all season but is obviously a unicorn type player). Early on their defensive specialists Davis and Williams were scoring as PU sagged off of them; getting those guys in foul trouble turned out to be important.
Let’s hope MH is right that “there is no going back” for Princeton. Because with today’s physicality and effort and a return to normalcy on FTs and turnovers, the team has enough talent to beat almost anyone.
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