Home of the Roundball Poets
LOUISVILLE, KY. – Greetings from the South Regional of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. We’re several hours away from tip-off of the Sweet 16 matchup between the No. 15 Princeton Tigers and the No. 6 Creighton Blue Jays, the first time an Ivy program has played a game this deep in the tournament since 2010.
Here are a few tidbits from my first 12 hours in Louisville, the birthplace and home of Muhammad Ali, Churchill Downs, and the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory:
As the Princeton men’s basketball team was coasting past the Missouri Tigers on Saturday en route to the program’s first trip to the Sweet 16 in the modern NCAA Tournament era, my phone began to buzz with text messages from friends and family members, many of whom were asking the same question: How is Princeton doing this?
#15 PRINCETON TAKES DOWN #2 ARIZONA.
THIS IS MARCH.
(via @CBSSports)pic.twitter.com/bx8OQJyLpa
— Overtime (@overtime) March 16, 2023
A paltry 4-for-25 from three-point range.
Just three points from the foul line.
A major size disadvantage against the No. 10 KenPom team in the country 2,800 miles from home.
None of it stopped No. 15 Princeton from stunning No. 2 Arizona at the Golden1 Center in Sacramento, Calif. Thursday to advance to the NCAA Tournament Round of 32 in a winning effort for the ages.
The Princeton men’s and women’s basketball teams did more than punch tickets for the NCAA Tournament by winning championships at the Ivy League Tournament over the weekend. They also made history for the university and the Ivy League.
By winning both the men’s and women’s regular season and tournament titles, Princeton became the first school in Ivy League history to win four conference basketball championships in the same season. It’s a record that may be tied someday, but it can never be broken.
As the Princeton basketball community basks in the glory of this unparalleled success, here are three reflections from the perspective of a long-time follower and admirer of Princeton basketball:
If you play it, they will come.
For Saturday’s Ivy League playoff, the emotions ran the gamut from high to low, from hope to despair, from anxiety to exhilaration, as the Palestra played the role of backdrop to one final night of Ivy League theatre, regaining its role as the arena of Ancient Eight dreams.
Harvard-Yale was everything one could have asked for and more with the third game in the fierce rivals’ season series nearly needing overtime. Seriously, what could have been better? You take two evenly matched teams playing to the wire and feature them at by far the best arena in the entire conference.
All I ask is that we see this again.