Jadwin Gym

Caden Pierce to sit out his senior year at Princeton, the latest jolt to Tigers men’s basketball

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(Steve Silverman | Ivy Hoops Online)

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.

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LISTEN: Dartmouth men’s basketball downs Princeton, 76-61

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Ivy Hoops Online correspondent George “Toothless Tiger” Clark recaps a 76-61 defeat for Princeton (17-9, 6-5 Ivy) versus Dartmouth (13-11, 7-4) at Jadwin Gym Saturday:

LISTEN: Princeton men’s basketball tops Harvard, 76-71

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Ivy Hoops Online correspondent George “Toothless Tiger” Clark recaps a 76-71 win Friday for Princeton (17-8, 6-4 Ivy) over Harvard (9-14, 4-6) at Jadwin Gym:

Previewing another epic clash between Columbia and Princeton women’s basketball

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Sole possession of first place in the Ivy League is on the line Saturday night when the Columbia Lions’ women’s basketball team travels to central New Jersey to face their biggest rival, the Princeton Tigers, at Jadwin Gymnasium. The game tips off at 5:30 p.m. ET and will be televised on ESPN+.

The clash provides Columbia (18-5, 9-1 Ivy) with an opportunity to regain control of the Ivy League regular season title chase after the Lions dropped a hard-fought battle to Harvard last week, 60-54, at Levien Gymnasium in Morningside Heights.

Princeton (18-5, 9-1) can also seize control of the Ivy race with a win and close out its home schedule on Saturday with a 12-0 record. The Tigers are currently riding a 30-game home-court winning streak, the longest such streak in the nation.

Who was the last team to defeat Princeton at home? You guessed it, the Columbia Lions. On Jan. 6, 2023, Megan Griffith’s squad strode into Jadwin Gym and took down the Tigers, 58-55, in an overtime thriller.

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Princeton women’s basketball races past Penn, 74-60, for Carla Berube’s 500th win

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By now it’s a familiar recipe: Start the game with tenacious defense, add a heavy dose of imposing play in the paint and mix in a strong measure of sharpshooting from the outside.

When Princeton women’s basketball succeeds in combining these ingredients, it’s nearly guaranteed to win, as it did on Saturday afternoon in a 74-60, wire-to-wire putdown of Penn at Jadwin Gymnasium.

The triumph was Princeton’s 13th straight win over its arch-rival and the 500th head coaching win of Carla Berube’s career. Berube is 116-22 at Princeton after posting a 384-96 at Tufts for a career .809 winning percentage.

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Yale men’s basketball really is as good as advertised – and maybe better

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So much for a nip-and-tuck game with arch-rival Princeton.

And so much for a trap game at Penn in between playing at Princeton and Cornell.

Yale answered those bells emphatically with a 77-70 win at Jadwin Gym and a 90-61 win at The Palestra.

In fairness to Penn, it was a 12-point game with a little under six minutes t0 play and then Yale closed the game out with a 23-6 run. But the game was never in doubt.

If consistency is a virtue, then Yale was more than virtuous. The Bulldogs shot 57% from the filed in both games and held both Princeton and Penn to 34% shooting.

“That’s a really good Yale basketball game,” Yale coach James Jones said. “A really good game from us from start to finish.”

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LISTEN: Princeton men’s basketball shuts down Brown, 69-49

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Ivy Hoops Online correspondent George “Toothless Tiger” Clark recaps a 69-49 win for Princeton (15-6, 4-2 Ivy) over Brown (10-9, 2-4) at Jadwin Gym Saturday:

Yale and Princeton: This era’s Ivy League men’s basketball duopoly

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I am old enough to remember the Princeton-Penn hegemony in Ivy hoops.

We’re talking 1965-2015. That’s 50 years. That’s a long time. Names like Carril, Dunphy, Bradley, Petrie, Calhoun and many, many more.

Tommy Amaker entered in 2007 and assisted in disrupting the world order. In 2010, Cornell made a run to the Sweet 16.

Since then, it has been mostly Yale and Princeton.

And the rivalry is very heated.

James Jones and Mitch Henderson could not be more different, personally and stylistically. But since 2016, their hegemony is crystal clear.

Yale has gone 88-28 and Princeton 85-31 in the Ivy regular season. Yale has won three Ivy League tourneys and Princeton two. They have each won two NCAA tourney games.

Little to separate them, but Yale has won 11 out of the last 14.

Princeton and Yale have, as a duo, separated from the pack.

This year, Yale sits atop the Ivy standings at 4-0. Princeton is 3-1 after a home loss to Cornell.

Yale has a league-leading NET ranking of 79 and a KenPom ranking of 75. Princeton sits at 130 and 137, respectively.

“I’m excited about the opportunity,” Yale coach James Jones. “That’s what college basketball is all about.”

And he is correct. The 5 p.m. start at Jadwin Gym will be televised by ESPN2.

Keys to the game:

  • Yale senior guard John Poulakidas shooting from long range.
  • Princeton senior guard Blake Peters making three-plus treys.
  • Yale senior guard Bez Mbeng not picking up two quick fouls guarding Princeton junior guard Xaivian Lee.
  • Princeton being able to rebound with Yale, especially on the offensive glass. How vocal an expected sold-out crowd is at Jadwin.

LISTEN: Cornell men’s basketball outlasts Princeton, 85-76

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Ivy Hoops Online correspondent George “Toothless Tiger” Clark recaps an 85-76 win for Cornell (11-6, 3-1 Ivy) over Princeton (14-5, 3-1) at Jadwin Gym Saturday:

LISTEN: How Princeton men’s basketball completed another comeback to clip Columbia, 71-67

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Ivy Hoops Online correspondent George “Toothless Tiger” Clark reflects on a 71-67 comeback win to remember for Princeton (14-4, 3-0 Ivy) over Columbia (11-5, 0-3) at Jadwin Gym Monday: