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Doug Davis '12 (and a hapless Rutgers defender)

When I came to Princeton, I thought one of my birthrights as a newly minted Tiger was a reliably awesome basketball team. After all, Princeton is the school of Bill Bradley! We’ve got a freakin’ offensive system named after us! But my freshman year (the 2008-09 season) the Tigers went a decidedly middling 12-14 – it wasn’t all that much fun to be a Princeton basketball fan.

Last year, things got a little better – Princeton finished the regular season a respectable 20-8, and made a run at the CBI postseason tournament.

But this year? Watch out, world — the Tigers may be the team to beat in the Ivy League.

(Note to the Women’s Basketball Team: You’re awesome. But you were awesome last year, too. So this post will focus on your male counterparts.)

Princeton is 14-4, with two of our losses coming against ranked NCAA opponents (then 1 Duke, and later a nail biter against 19 Central Florida). We’re undefeated through two games in the Ivy League, and we’re 9-1 in our last 10 games.

The only team standing in our way is Harvard. The Crimson squad is 15-3, 4-0 in the Ivy League, and riding an eight game win streak.

Friday night’s game, then, at home against Harvard, is the most important game of the season for Princeton. Win, and we take control of the Ivy League. Lose, and we’ll have to wait until the end of the year to try to exact our revenge. But either way, make it down to Jadwin this Friday night at 7. Princeton basketball is living up to its lofty heritage. Make sure you’re there to appreciate it.

Goofy Ivy Leaguers Celebrating

Back in early February I wrote a blog post in response to Cornell Basketball’s ascension into the top 25 in the coaches’ poll. The gist of the argument was that while Cornell may have been enjoying temporary success the glory of their program it couldn’t hold a candle to the historically decorated Princeton Tigers.

Fast forward to yesterday, when Cornell absolutely demolished the Wisconsin Badgers in the second round of the NCAA tournament. This was a different win entirely than their first round victory over Temple (considering Temple’s head coach, former Penn coach Fran Dunphy, has made in to the NCAA tournament 12 times and been knocked in out of the first round 11 times). This was a game Cornell was not meant to win. But it wasn’t even close; Cornell was up by 12 at half and won by 18.

This is the first time an Ivy League team has been to the Sweet Sixteen since Penn in 1979. And watching Cornell’s historic run has made me reconsider my earlier blog post. Traveling back to Princeton this past weekend, I noticed people gathered in bubbles outside the bars and restaurants in airports and train stations, trying to watch the tournament. Normal people cared about an Ivy League sports team.

For the first time in my life, I was jealous of Cornell.

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The most visited posts inthe past two weeks:

Article Tags

“CBI”

Princeton Basketball – Living Up to the Hype

Cornell’s Run to the (Bitter?)Sweet Sixteen

The most visited posts in
the past two weeks: