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A reputable source tells Ivy Hoops Online that Princeton senior forward Denton Koon suffered a MCL injury at practice on Thursday and is not expected to start the season. However, Koon is expected to be able to return prior to the start of conference play.
Koon played in just 18 games last year and was ruled out for the remainder of last season in February due to a knee injury. The knee that Koon injured at practice Thursday was not the same knee that was injured last season.
The Tigers continued the Ivy League’s creditable showing in the 2014 post-season with a 56-55 victory over the Tulane Green Wave in the opener of the College Basketball Invitational in New Orleans. Princeton was in control of the contest throughout, although Tulane made a strong run at the end. The Green Wave clearly missed the services of leading scorer Louis Dabney, unable to take the court due to recent injury.
TJ Bray, mistakenly identified as “Ivy POY” by the Tulane play-by-play announcer, showed once again why he deserved consideration. Bray joined the Princeton 1000 Point Club with 12 for the game, to go with 9 assists. His 370 assists Red/Black, Even/ Odd, Low/High BetsVoit asettaa panoksen yhteen sarakkeista joka on poydan pitkalla sivulla. leave him just 11 shy of second place in the Tiger career record book. Hans Brase led the Tigers with 16 points.
Princeton’s up-and-down season continued its enigmatic pattern with another split at home, beginning with a lackluster 67-57 win over Dartmouth, followed by an historic loss at the hands of the Harvard Crimson, 59-47.
With a performance worthy of praise from even the most ardent Tiger fans, the Penn Quakers outlasted Princeton last night at The Palestra, 77-74, vaulting themselves into a tie for first place in the Ivy League in the process. Good for you, AQ. And good for you, Jerome Allen. The Penn faithful should cease calling for your job… at least for a while.
The Quakers established clear dominance inside right from the start, feeding Darien Nelson-Henry and Fran Dougherty again and again for relatively easy baskets. An early foul by Hans Brase sent him to the bench in favor of Pete Miller, who quickly drew two more, sending the coaching staff to their drawing boards. Penn continued to have its way through most of the first half, helped by the Tigers’ inability to convert their bread-and-butter three point shots.
Princeton turned in a gritty performance on New Year’s Eve against the Golden Flashes of Kent State at Jadwin Gymnasium. Despite squandering a 15-point lead to trail by one inside the final minute, the Tigers held on 73-68 to run its surprising season record to 10-2. Kent State slipped to a respectable 9-4.
The Tigers won the game at the free throw line, making 29 of 40 while the Flashes managed just 14 of 22. Princeton enjoyed its greatest number of trips to the charity stripe in nine years.
Will Barrett led four Tigers in double-figures with 19, including 4 of 8 from behind the arc. Hans Brase (15 points to go with a team-high 9 rebounds), Ben Hazel (13) and TJ Bray (11) rounded out the Tigers’ balanced offensive display. Bray’s 5 assists moved him into sixth place on the Princeton career list, just nine behind Coach Henderson.
The teams were evenly matched in almost every statistical category other besides free throws. For the first time this season, Princeton was outscored from three point range in a game the Tigers won. Henderson was visibly relieved to survive a tough game in which his team was arguably outplayed at home. Neither team made a field goal in the final 4 minutes, but Princeton kept the Golden Flashes at bay by making the most of its numerous FT chances down the stretch. Henderson got ten players on the floor for significant minutes, a big factor in keeping his key players out of foul trouble.
Next up is a Saturday visit to Lynchburg, VA for an afternoon contest against the Liberty Flames, the final non-conference game for the Tigers before the Ivy opener at the Palestra on January 11.
Princeton remains a long-shot to win the Ivy League crown but, after last night’s convincing win against cross-state rival Rutgers, 78-73 at The RAC, the Tigers have compiled a strong case to claim the Championship of New Jersey. Mitch Henderson’s squad has reached #70 in the Pomeroy Ratings, a long way behind Harvard’s #28, but higher than any Tiger quintet has reached under the Pomeroy system.
To find a key statistic to explain the Tigers 7-1 start, one need look no further than the 3-point shooting numbers. As a team Princeton is shooting 40% from behind the arc, led by TJ Bray at 52% and center Hans Brase with an eye-popping 13-29 (45%) mark. The Tigers have made 49 more 3’s than their opponents in 8 games, or an average of 18 points per game!
TJ Bray had another huge game against Rutgers, after a one-game suspension, with 23 points including 5-7 from downtown. Three other Tigers, Denton Koon, the increasingly reliable Ben Hazel, and sophomore Hans Brase, each contributed 14 points in the Tigers’ balanced attack. As a team Princeton canned 16 threes, their most against a D-I opponent in more than a decade.
The Scarlet Knights shot the ball very well (29-58), but were frustrated by the Tigers’ ball-control offense and ability to hold their own on the glass against the Rutgers’ bigs. Myles Mack did the most damage for the Knights with his typical 21 points and flashy floor game.
Another talented and very athletic team awaits the Tigers on Saturday at Rec Hall in State College, PA. Penn State, representing college basketball’s Goliath conference, the Big Ten, rolls out the red carpet for David of the Ivy League. A competitive performance for the Tigers in this one will boost their confidence before heading to Las Vegas for two games in something called the “South Point Holiday Classic.”
The Tigers went into Saturday night’s intra-state match-up with Fairleigh Dickinson far more concerned about who was not available to play than who was. A late first half surge, sparked by Ben Hazel’s three to give the Tigers a 9 point lead, helped Princeton overcome hot-shooting Sydney Sanders, Jr. and the Knights, 77-55, in what became a bench-clearing laugher.
Tiger highlights included a game-high 18 points from junior Denton Koon, clearly emerging from recent shooting woes, and the first career double-double for freshman Spencer Weisz, who canned 17 while grabbing 10 rebounds. He earned Ivy Rookie of the Week honors for his performance. As a team, Princeton continued to find the range from behind the arc, making 11-28, a 39% rate, while yielding a stingy 3-15 to FDU. The much taller Tigers outrebounded the quicker Knights, 43-28, 15 of which came at the offensive end.
But the big story in Jadwin was the absence of starters TJ Bray and Jimmy Sherburne, due to unspecified violations of “team rules.” Speculation raged, as might be imagined. Toothless Tiger is confident in reporting that Bray’s suspension is limited to one game, while Sherburne will be forced to miss next week’s games at Rutgers and Penn State. Questions regarding the nature of the infractions, the involvement of the NCAA in the investigation, and the manner in which the matter came to the attention of the athletic administration remain unanswered at this time. AD Gary Walters was present last night but observed the game from a remote location, far from the media.
Mitch Henderson was obviously relieved after the game that the depth and versatility of his team was demonstrated again. Freshman Peter Miller got a lot of minutes, particularly after Hans Brase picked up his second personal foul early in the first half. He is not yet a viable option in the post, but he is getting there. Ben Hazel played another steady game in the backcourt and senior Will Barrett gave Henderson his typical workmanlike performance, despite some foul trouble of his own. The night belonged to Koon and Weisz, however, who stepped up at a time when the team needed a big lift. The Tigers, at 6-1, are off to their best start in 15 years.
After watching his Tigers compete over 40 minutes, displaying generous amounts of (sorry, AQ) moxie at both ends of Hinkle Fieldhouse, Mitch Henderson offered the obligatory “no such thing as moral victories” cliche. Nonsense, Coach. This visit to Butler, a 70-67 loss, accomplished everything for which Henderson could reasonably hope: a chance to beat a high quality opponent at their place and lots of minutes for seven players still learning about how to play with each other. Had they been a tad more effective from the FT line, Princeton might have come away with an upset win.
Heading into Princeton’s season opener against FAMU, Mitch Henderson knew he had some holes to fill following the graduation of Ivy POY Ian Hummer. He did not expect, however, that one of them would be caused by T.J. Bray’s broken finger, which will shelf the All-Ivy candidate for at least a month. Meanwhile, the Rattlers arrived at Jadwin, still smarting from a tough loss Friday at Rutgers in which they threw 84 points at the Scarlet Knights only to lose by eight, determined to end their New Jersey weekend on a positive note.
Princeton responded with a trademark defensive performance, limiting the Rattlers to 50 points. Denton Koon, the 6’8″ junior forward, came off the bench to lead the Tigers in scoring (17) and rebounding (11), notching his first career double-double in a satisfying 67-50 win.
In 2012-13: 17-11, 10-4, 2nd place, No Postseason.
A Look Back
Mitch Henderson’s third season at the Tigers’ helm will be his first outside the shadow of Sydney Johnson.
In his first campaign, Henderson enjoyed the services of Doug Davis, a Johnson recruit, whose last-second playoff heroics in his junior year stalled, if only momentarily, the Amaker juggernaut. The Tigers compiled a very respectable 20-12 overall record in 2011-12, Davis’ senior year, overcoming a disastrous start to the Ivy League season to finish in third place at 10-4. Davis graduated as the second leading career scorer for the Tigers, trailing only some skinny guy from the 1960’s.
Davis held that second spot for only eleven months until he was overtaken by 2012-13 Ivy POY Ian Hummer, the Tiger team leader in virtually every significant category last year. The Tigers managed an overall record of 17-11, including a 10-4 mark in the League, good enough for second place. But it was the way the Tigers finished second that has caused much head-scratching among the Tiger faithful.