Home of the Roundball Poets
Steve Silverman 
PRINCETON, N.J. – The Harvard Crimson put an abrupt end to anticipation of a rubber match between regular-season co-champions Princeton and Columbia by defeating the latter in the second of two Ivy League Tournament semifinal games played at Jadwin Gym in an overtime thriller, 72-65.
The No. 3 Crimson advance to face No. 1 Princeton, which defeated Penn earlier Friday, 60-47. The tournament final will be played Saturday at 5 p.m. at Jadwin Gym.
Thanks to a weekend sweep of Penn, the Princeton men’s and women’s basketball programs both won Ivy League titles this weekend, meaning that two more banners will soon be added to the crowded rafters at Jadwin Gym. Here are four takeaways from Princeton’s historic basketball weekend:
Despite another stupefying second-half collapse, the Princeton men’s basketball team somehow hung on to defeat the Harvard Crimson at Lavietes Pavilion Saturday, 58-56. With the win, the Tigers retained a share of first place in the conference standings and guaranteed themselves an opportunity to earn at least a share of the Ivy League title with a win on senior night at Jadwin Gym next Saturday against the Penn Quakers in the regular season finale for both teams.
The Tigers gutted out this hugely important road win despite a harrowing stretch of offensive futility that echoed Princeton’s epic second-half collapse against Yale last weekend.
Senior guard Ryan Langborg led the Tigers with 18 points and six rebounds while Evan Nelson led Harvard in scoring with 19 points in a losing cause. Chris Ledlum, playing his final game at Lavietes, was held to 14 points (five below his average), but muscled his way to a game-high 11 rebounds for the Crimson, who were eliminated from Ivy Madness on Senior Night by Princeton for the second year in a row.
The Princeton men’s basketball team enters the final three weekends of the Ivy League regular season in an enviable position. At 7-3 in conference play, the Tigers are tied for first place in the conference standings with Yale and host three of their final four regular season games at home, including two season-defining matchups against Brown and Yale this weekend.
Yet there are some reasons for concern as Princeton prepares to make a final push to defend its league title. The Tigers have struggled recently with consistency, losing three of their last seven games, including losses at Brown, Yale and Dartmouth.
At the midpoint of the Ivy League season, the Princeton men’s basketball team sits in a familiar position: tied for first place in a crowded field of evenly matched teams. At 5-2 in conference play, the Tigers are tied atop the league standings with their new rival, the Cornell Big Red. Lurking not far behind is an upsurging Dartmouth team and resurging Yale squad each at 4-3, while three other teams – Brown, Harvard and Penn – remain within striking distance with a record of 3-4. Only one team in the Ancient Eight – Columbia – appears to be out of the running with a conference record of 1-6.
For the fourth season in a row, the Princeton Tigers men’s basketball team has raced out to a 3-0 start in the Ivy League. As a result, the Tigers currently stand alone atop the conference standings. Here are three observations about how the Tigers have managed to put themselves in the driver’s seat yet again in their quest to repeat as regular season champions:
With conference play in the 2022-23 Ivy League men’s basketball season fast approaching, let’s take a look back at the nonconference results for each team and examine each program – listed by season winning percentage:
The big question entering the 2022-23 season for the Princeton men’s basketball team was how coach Mitch Henderson was going to replace the contributions of an outstanding cadre of seniors who helped lead the Tigers to an Ivy League championship last season.
Nine games into the season, that question has partially been answered. A dynamic trio of freshmen is blending nicely with four returning upperclassmen to win big games for the Orange and Black.
After a disappointing 0-2 start to the season, the Tigers have come together to win their last seven games. ‘
The Princeton basketball community lost a father figure Monday with the death of its legendary coach, Pete Carril.
It is difficult to express in a short essay the importance of Pete Carril to followers of Princeton basketball or to the game of basketball itself. Most of the epitaphs I digested in the immediate aftermath of the news of Carril’s passing emphasized his coaching record – 514 wins, which remains an all-time record among Ivy League coaches – and his signature style of coaching, including his frumpy demeanor, and of course his perfection of the Princeton offense, which became stylish after Princeton defeated UCLA in the 1996 NCAA tournament.
After watching two scintillating semifinal games in the men’s basketball tournament at Lavietes Pavilion on Saturday, here are four takeaways from the perspective of a diehard Princeton fan: