First, the good news: Devin Cannady’s suspension, which shelved him for three games, has been lifted. The criminal charge filed against him has been downgraded to something called “disorderly person,” a minor offense.
The bad news: Yale thoroughly outplayed Princeton in New Haven, leading for most of the evening en route to a 74-60 victory over the first-place Tigers. Yale’s Miye Oni turned in a remarkable effort, reminiscent of Maodo Lo’s 38-point outburst at Jadwin a couple of years ago. Oni scored 35 on a remarkable 13-for-18 from the field, including 5-for-7 from beyond the arc. As a team the Bulldogs outrebounded the Tigers 42-28, grabbing 37 on the defensive end, denying the visitors many second chances on an evening when they desperately needed them. The Tigers’ shooting woes continue. They shot just 33 percent from the field, 18 percent from deep.
Cannady showed a lot of rust after a month-long layoff. He scored just eight points, and even missed a free throw!
On the positive side, the Tigers overcame a 14-point deficit at the half, 36-22, to draw even at 42. The hot shooting Bulldogs countered with a 13-2 run of their own to reopen a double-digit lead, 57-46, under the nine-minute mark. Once again, the Tigers fought back to get within three at 63-60 with less than three minutes remaining. Yale closed out the game on an impressive 11-0 spurt. The Tigers now share first place with Yale and Harvard, each at 4-1.
Jaelin Llewellyn appeared to be at full strength after leaving the floor early in Ithaca with a recurrence of his ankle miseries. He was one of the few bright spots for Princeton, scoring 15 points in 33 minutes. Richmond Aririguzoh was another, adding another double figure scoring night, a team-high 17, to his growing resume. He played 27 minutes.
Perhaps with an eye toward tonight’s game in Providence, Henderson spread the minutes among 11 players. Cannady and Llewellyn were the only Tigers on the floor for more than 30 minutes of action.
Best to turn the page quickly on this one. Yale is deep, experienced, strong and fast. When all that talent comes together, as it did last night, it’s very hard to overcome. From the Tigers’ perspective, the return of Cannady adds a lot more than one loss takes away.
Good summary, George. After this weekend, Yale has clearly established itself as the team to beat in the Ivy League. Can you imagine how good they would be if they still had Makai Mason? Great news for Princeton that Cannady has returned. Although he was rusty against Yale (his first game action in nearly a month), he looked great tonight in a losing cause against Brown. Unfortunately, the Tigers regressed over the weekend in the face of some pretty stiff opposition. Myles Stephens drew two very tough assignments in having to guard Oni on Friday and Cambridge on Saturday. Suffice it to say, Oni won the clash on Friday, while Stephens did a much better job of limiting Cambridge on Saturday. Unfortunately, the Tigers allowed 4 other Bears to reach double-figures as the defense, which has lifted Princeton of late, didn’t get the job done this weekend. The theory we often hear in basketball (and other sports) is that great defense leads to great offense. But after watching two tough losses this weekend, my diagnosis is that Princeton’s offense went stagnant too often during long stretches, and that created too many scoring opportunities for Yale and Brown once the ball got going the other way. In other words, bad offense fathered bad defense. The woes on offense are most glaring in the three-point shooting department (18% against Yale and 27% against Brown); but breakdowns occurred this weekend in other areas as well. The bench was particularly unhelpful, highlgihted by Jose Morales scoring zero points in 32 minutes of play in the two weekend games. But rather than dwell too much on Princeton’s shortcomings, I think it’s fair to say that Princeton simply ran into some tough competition on the road this weekend, especially against Yale. Winning on the road is always hard in the Ivy League, but this year road wins are particularly coveted given the parity of all 8 teams. So, the bad news is that after dropping two games this weekend, the Tigers no longer sit in first place. The good news is that Cannady is back and Princeton will play 6 of their final 8 regular season games at home. Thus, if the Tigers can hold serve at home, they should be sitting pretty in terms of qualifying for the Ivy League Tournament. A regular season League title still remains within reach as well, although Yale is certainly the favorite at this point. On Friday, Harvard comes to Jadwin for what should shape up a battle royale. I’m pretty sure our guys will be hungry to get back in the win column against an unloved Crimson squad. Go Tigers!