Caden Pierce announced on Tuesday that he will step away from basketball during his senior year at Princeton. The two-time All-Ivy League forward told ESPN that he plans to graduate next May from Princeton and enter the transfer portal to play his final year of NCAA eligibility as a graduate student.
Pierce’s withdrawal from the Princeton men’s basketball team is the latest and perhaps heaviest blow to hit Mitch Henderson’s squad since the 2024-25 season ended with a heartbreaking loss to Yale in the semifinals of the 2025 Ivy League Tournament.
The offseason started ominously for Princeton with the news breaking in late March that two key assistant coaches, Brett MacConnell and Lawrence Rowley, would not return to Mitch Henderson’s coaching staff for the 2025-26 season.
There was no obvious explanation for the coaching staff shakeup, other than Princeton’s leadership perhaps deciding that something needed to change after the Tigers underperformed expectations during the 2024-25 season.
A wave of player defections then descended on Old Nassau.
First, superstar guard Xaivian Lee announced that he would enter the transfer portal to play his senior year on a larger stage. Days later, Lee landed a NIL and sneaker deal reportedly worth nearly $6 million to play for the reigning national champion Florida Gators.
Next, another rising senior, Jack Scott, bolted for the second year in a row, transferring to Duke, where he will undoubtedly spend most of his time riding the bench. Scott transferred last year to William & Mary, only to return to Princeton when things didn’t quite work out in Williamsburg.
Then, Pierce dropped his bombshell news, leaving Princeton with no seniors on its roster heading into the 2025-26 season.
“What I am learning as I continue to grow is that the ‘only constant in life is change,’” Pierce explained in a statement he issued on X Tuesday. “Whether that is teammates and coaches who I came in with leaving, or the broader landscape of college basketball evolving, all of these factors have led me to sit out my senior year of basketball at Princeton this upcoming season to preserve my eligibility.”
“This was a very hard decision for me, as Princeton is my home and where I will earn my degree this May,” Pierce stated. “I am forever grateful to Coach Henderson, my teammates and the broader Princeton men’s basketball community for the opportunity they provided me during these past three years.”
Thank you, Princeton Men’s Basketball pic.twitter.com/ijNY3tCLhF
— Caden Pierce (@CadenPierce_3) July 8, 2025
Pierce’s announcement brings to a close a sensational three-year career at Princeton.
During his freshman year, Pierce established himself as a fearless presence in the paint, hauling down the second most rebounds in the Ivy League, starting 31 of 32 games, and winning Ivy League Rookie of the Year honors in 2023.
As a freshman, Pierce played a prominent role in Princeton’s historic run to the Sweet 16, grabbing a game high 16 boards in the Tigers’ NCAA Tournament Round of 32 upset of Missouri.
Pierce blossomed into a star during his sophomore campaign. The native of Glen Ellyn, Ill. became a double-double machine, finishing with 16 double-doubles during the 2023-24 season and earning Ivy League Player of the Year honors.
As a junior last season, Pierce took a step back, partly due to a severe ankle injury he suffered in the final Division I nonconference game of the season against Akron. Even so, Pierce electrified a national TV audience with a game-winning drive to the hoop in the final seconds of Princeton’s 83-82 upset of Rutgers on December 21.
Are there any more shoes to drop at Jadwin Gym this offseason?
Since the transfer portal is officially closed for 2025, junior guard Dalen Davis and sophomore forward Malik Abdullahi, two highly recruited playmakers who could attract interest from other programs, are likely to stay at Princeton for the upcoming campaign.
But even without further defections, Henderson will face one of the stiffest challenges of his coaching career during the upcoming season in trying to manage a depleted roster with no seniors and no returning stars.
Only two starters from last year’s squad are slated to return this fall, sophomore swingman CJ Happy, and junior guard Jackson Hicke. Together, they averaged only 10.5 points per game last season.
Happy and Hicke likely will be joined in the starting lineup by Davis (9.5 ppg) and Abdullahi (4.3 ppg), with 6-foot-8 junior Jacob Huggins (2.1 ppg) possibly filling the center position.
The bigger question for Princeton men’s basketball is whether the uncertainty and tumult engulfing the program will now subside, allowing Henderson to focus on reforging a championship-caliber team.
The events of the past four months, including the dismissal of key members of the coaching staff, have suggested a curious rift within the program, although no specific complaints or concerns have made it into the public sphere.
In May, Princeton announced the hiring of Mike Brennan as associate head coach, a former Princeton guard who helped lead the Tigers to Ivy League championships in 1991 and 1992.
Brennan has extensive coaching experience in Division I basketball, serving as the head coach of the men’s basketball team at American from 2013 to 2023.
It’s possible that Brennan’s experience and steady hand will help Henderson calm the choppy waters at Old Nassau.
On the other hand, Princeton, along with its Ivy peers, is likely to continue to struggle to find and retain talented players in the new world of pay-for-play intercollegiate athletics.
Some of the most talented Ivy players, like Lee and Yale’s Danny Wolf, will find it in their best interests to forgo an Ivy degree for the opportunity to play big-time college basketball and earn a six- or seven-figure payday. Others, like Pierce, will find a way to obtain a coveted Ivy degree while finishing their collegiate careers elsewhere and earning a paycheck as a graduate student.
So long as the Ivy League refuses to share revenue with players, award scholarships, or allow collectives to offer lucrative NIL deals, the outflow of talent from the Ancient Eight will continue to wreak havoc on Ivy rosters – as it has during this winter, spring, and now summer of discontent at Princeton.