Head coach: Sydney Johnson (fourth season)
Record: 25-6 (12-2 Ivy League)
Final RPI: 40
Key players: Kareem Maddox (13.9 ppg, 7.1 rpg, 1.8 bpg), Ian Hummer (13.9 ppg, 6.7 rpg), Dan Mavraides (12.7 ppg, 4.6 rpg), Douglas Davis (11.9 ppg)
How they got to the Big Dance: By winning the Ivy League crown in dramatic fashion last weekend. Faced with a one-game playoff for the Ivy League title and an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament, Douglas Davis hit a buzzer-beating jumper from just inside the 3-point arc to give the Tigers a 63-62 win over Harvard (video below).
NCAA Tournament history: Princeton is no stranger to the dance floor. This will be the Tigers’ 24th NCAA Tournament appearance but first since 2004. Princeton has history of upsetting a four seed, too. As the 13 seed in 1996, the slow-it-down Tigers upset fourth-seeded and defending national champion UCLA in what is widely regarded as one of the top upsets in NCAA Tournament history. Princeton’s 50-49 loss to Georgetown in 1989 is still the closest a 16th-seeded team has come to beating a top seed.
The skinny: This isn’t your father’s Princeton team. While the Princeton style offense is still the backbone of the Tigers’ offense, it has evolved to keep up with the talent boost head coach Sydney Johnson has injected back into a traditionally strong program. There will still be plenty of spacing, tons of backdoor cuts and lots of rotation around the perimeter, but this Princeton team can run, likes to play pressure defense and can bang with teams inside. UK head coach John Calipari is impressed with Princeton’s big men, Hummer and Maddox, and their athleticism.
Princeton quote: “This last game against Harvard, we were getting a rebound and I looked down the floor and I saw five guys for Harvard sprinting back, just turning around and sprinting all the way back,” senior guard Dan Mavraides said. “That’s not something you would see teams do against Princeto,n traditionally. We’ve obviously had a big enough impact pushing the ball where teams kind of abandon going for offensive rebounding and want to get back on defense.”Calipari on Princeton: “They’re a team that has size for an Ivy (League team), has shooters. They run their stuff. They can run back cuts, but they also do a lot of post-up basketball. They’ll do pick-and-roll basketball, so it’s not just straight Princeton even though (the offense) will have (traditional Princeton) principles. They’re good. A couple of kids athletically, and I think they play with a chip on their shoulder.”
