Steven Cook notched 28 points and seven steals in a pull-away victory over Stony Brook. (ivyleaguedigitalnetwork.com)
PRINCETON, N.J. – On a night when the Ivy League generally beat up on the America East Conference, Princeton did its part, besting the Stony Brook Seawolves at Jadwin in the Tigers’ return home after almost two weeks on the road. A little home cooking was just what the Tigers needed, especially after Wednesday’s disaster Fairleigh Dickinson.
The storyline for Saturday, a come-from-behind 77-64 victory, starts with a formula developed when we began to keep score in basketball: Find the guy with the hot hand and keep getting him the ball. Steven Cook, the rangy Tiger sophomore from Winnetka, Ill., was that guy.
Cook scored a career-high 28 points, doubling his previous best, shooting 5-for-7 from three point territory. He added an impressive seven steals, mostly from the top of the Tigers’ 1-3-1 zone, a total exceeded only one time in the last 40 seasons.
Maodo Lo posted 20 points in a win over Bucknell Saturday. (gocolumbialions.com)
NEW YORK – “Maodo Lo” is a combination of syllables that practically begs for a nickname. After a brief flirtation with “Lo Library” — a clever reference to the central building on Columbia’s campus, but not the most intimidating name for a slashing shooting guard — the Levien denizens (led by the raucous Columbia University Marching Band) seem to have settled on “Chairman Maodo.” The reference to the founder of the People’s Republic of China seems appropriate for the politically engaged student body in Morningside Heights.
On Saturday night, “the Chairman” gaveled the meeting between Columbia (4-2) and Bucknell (3-6) to order with a trio of three-pointers in the first six minutes, pacing the Lions to a 62-39 rout of the visiting Bison.
Yale’s victory over UConn marks a signature win on the Elis’ resume. (yalebulldogs.com)
Yale had a Montague, but UConn had no Capulet to defend. And as such, Yale defeated UConn, 45-44, at Gampel Pavilion, in a stunner to most of the 9,538 in attendance.
Jack Montague hit a three-pointer from the left corner with 1.7 remaining on the clock to give Yale the win. Montague was 50-95 in threes entering the game but had not made one against the Huskies. The Elis were only 3-for-21 from three for the game.
If there was any doubt about how good, tough and athletic Yale is, it was answered by the middle of the first half, when the Elis held a 22-9 lead over the defending national champions.
“Well that was pretty wild!,” Jack Montague tweeted after the game. (yalebulldogs.com)
Yale hadn’t beaten UConn in 28 years. UConn had won 68 games in a row against in-state rivals.
But it took only one play to flip that script.
Trailing 44-42 with 3.2 seconds left on the game clock, Yale inbounded the ball. Just a second and a half later, junior guard Jack Montague nailed a three-pointer that clinched the Elis the win, only the second for an Ivy over a defending national champion since Princeton trumped UCLA in 1996.
Leading the way for the Bulldogs (8-2) was junior forward Justin Sears, who notched 12 points and 15 rebounds, just 10 fewer boards than UConn (3-3) posted as a team. Senior guard Javier Duren also contributed 15 points.
Alex Mitola and the Big Green have a chance to jumpstart its season against Maine Saturday.
You could call Dartmouth’s 1-4 start a big disappointment, or you could call it the norm since the Big Green have struggled mightily under Paul Cormier, going a combined 31-83 over the last four seasons. If they don’t turn it around soon, they could be looking at yet another long, unbearable season.
On a more positive note, besides a 20-point blowout loss in the season opener against St. Bonaventure, most of their games have been close. Three of Dartmouth’s four losses have been by five points or less, including the most recent loss (by one point) to Longwood.
Poor free throw shooting has been the difference between a winning record and the abysmal 1-4 start for Dartmouth this season. In their two-point loss to New Hampshire, the Big Green shot just 11-for-18 from the charity stripe, or 61.1 percent. Against Longwood, a game decided by one point, Dartmouth shot a grim 57.9 percent from the line compared to Longwood’s 79.2 percent. This kind of foul shooting wouldn’t help a high school team win games, much less a division one basketball program. Turnovers have also been a major issue. In order for this Dartmouth team to have any success at all, it will need to do a much better job of protecting the basketball.
Although early in the season, Dartmouth has a lot of work to do if it hopes to be competitive in Ivy League play. While its defensive play has been solid, it must also improve on the offensive side of the ball. The Big Green currently rank second to last in the league in scoring, and most of their offense comes from junior point guard Alex Mitola. Dartmouth’s starting center, Gabas Maldunas, a second-team All-Ivy selection his sophomore year, has been inconsistent at best in his return from tearing his ACL last January. While understandable since it has only been 10 months since the injury, Dartmouth is going to need him to make an Adrian Peterson-like recovery and return to full strength as soon as possible. Unless Mitola gets some offensive help fast, it could be another long season for Cormier and the Big Green.
Time for a new Ivy Hoops Online feature – #TweetWatch will round up some of the best Ivy hoops-related tweets in a given week. Ancient Eight, meet 21st century:
Lots of good stuff going on here. First, I’ve never seen Jerome Allen smile that wide at a postgame presser, win or lose. Second, everyone who bet that Allen would win a “pop-a-shot” arcade competition between City 6 basketball coaches before Penn basketball won its first game can collect. Still, props to Allen and his City 6 counterparts for shooting hoops to raise money for the nonprofit food bank Philabundance, which does fantastic work. The Camp Out for Hunger campaign was sponsored by the Preston and Steve morning radio show from local Philadelphia station 93.3 WMMR. Keep making it rain, Jerome.
Wesley Saunders notched 10 second-half points following a scoreless first stanza against Northeastern. (gocrimson.com)
In the Crimson’s fourth game against a fellow Boston team, Harvard pushed its record to 5-1 overall and 5-0 at home with a scrappy (and interesting) win against Northeastern. After leading 16-4 just seven minutes into the game, Harvard allowed Northeastern to claw its way back. Second-chance opportunities burned the Crimson, accounting for 10 of Northeastern’s 22 first-half points. In the last 13 minutes of the first half, Harvard scored a mere 11 points. Given that Harvard was favored to win by eight points, its five-point lead going into the break should have felt encouraging, but considering Northeastern’s weak play, it was actually a disappointment.
Tavon Blackmon is averaging 7.4 points and 2.9 assists this season. (providencejournal.com)
So what’s up with Brown?
The Bears have always been a solid defensive unit under coach Mike Martin. They boast a frontcourt that features two-time Ivy Defensive Player of the Year Cedric Kuakumensah and fellow defensive stalwart Rafa Maia. Sophomore guard Steven Spieth also came into this season with a bit of a reputation as a strong backcourt defender as well.
And yet the Bears also have what is comfortably the worst defense in the conference statistically at this early stage of the season. They can’t defend in transition at all.
“You are what your record says you are.” – Bill Parcells
Princeton’s record says “we are not very good.”
Unable to hold an eight-point lead at the half last night at Fairleigh Dickinson, the Tigers surrendered an unfathomable 64 second-half points, losing to the Knights, 89-85. In one eight-minute stretch in the second period, the teams combined for 29 points, 25 of which were entered in FDU’s ledger.
Gary Walters and his classmates celebrate Princeton’s Final Four bid in 1965.(paw.princeton.edu)
Very few people have had a stronger impact on Princeton basketball than Gary Walters, who served as his alma mater’s athletic director for 20 years before retiring earlier this year and was a point guard for the Tigers from 1964-67. He was starting point guard on Princeton’s 1964-65 Final Four Team, and we caught up with the Ford Family Athletic Director Emeritus to ask him about his memories of that legendary squad for its 50th anniversary.
Q: What were your expectations going into the 1964-65 season?
A: Very high based on any number of factors, including having the national player of the year and Olympic captain in Bill Bradley and a strong sophomore class, all recruited by coach Butch van Breda Kolff.
