PRINCETON: Tigers ousted in CBI quarterfinals

PU men’s first season under Henderson ends

By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
   The Princeton University men’s basketball team had played Evansville’s game and won in the first round of the College Basketball Invitational Presented by Zebra Pen.
   The Tigers couldn’t do the same at Pittsburgh in the CBI quarterfinals, as their season ended with an 82-61 loss to the Big East school Monday.
   ”That was the disappointing part of the game,” said PU head coach Mitch Henderson. “We knew we wanted to play a game in the 50s. They had close to 50 in the first half.”
   Princeton fell behind 12-2 only five minutes into the game, but clawed back in promising fashion to cut it to 16-13 with 10:03 left before halftime. It was all Panthers from there as they closed the half on a 33-12 run to build a 49-25 lead.
   ”Against Pitt, when we got it to three, they called a timeout,” Henderson said. “We just couldn’t sustain the level of play we needed to. Pitt really made shots in the first half. I think we played fairly well in the second half, but it just wasn’t our night.”
   Pitt put five players in double figures. Princeton came within a point of having three players in double figures, led by Douglas Davis’s 20 points, but it wasn’t nearly enough to overcome Pitt’s 56-percent first-half shooting and 39-26 rebounding edge that included a gaudy13 offensive rebounds.
   ”It was our defense,” Henderson said. “We just could not stop them. It’s the second game in a row where a team really lit us up. They made tough shots. We were able to play the sort of defense we wanted to, but only in the second half.”
   Princeton outscored Pitt, 36-33, in the second half and made a run that cut the deficit as low as 11 points before the Panthers pulled away. It marked the final game for Princeton’s seniors — Davis, Patrick Saunders and John Comfort. They pushed the team to a third straight 20-win season as the Tigers finished 20-12.
   ”I talked about this after the Pitt game,” Henderson said of the trio. “From a historical perspective, they were asked to do something that only the class before them had done. They picked Princeton when it wasn’t that popular of a choice. They were asked to put Princeton back on the map. As a former player and a coach, I’m proud of what they did.
   ”With John, Pat and Doug, we have three really good shooters. It’s a good group. If you’re doing your job right, you want to miss your seniors. We’re certainly going to miss ours.”
   Saunders had three points, a rebound, an assist and block in 24 minutes. Comfort grabbed a rebound and dished out an assist. Davis played all but three minutes, and his 20 points moved him past former Princeton standout forward Kit Mueller into second place on Princeton’s all-time scoring list with 1,550 points. Only Bill Bradley, who scored 2,503 points in just three seasons, sits ahead of the Hun School graduate.
   ”The way I look at it is more in terms of the context of what Doug did in terms of maybe achieving what Kit Mueller did,” Henderson said. “His teams won a lot of games. Bill Bradley is in terms of college basketball history, he’s one of the most special players in college basketball history.
   ”On the court, it’s tough to live up to the numbers. Off the court, we’re all aware of what kind of person (Bradley) was and the example he set while he was at Princeton. The scoring is nice and I think we’re very happy for Doug. I’m also happy he left the program in good shape.”
   Henderson feels good about where the Tigers are going for next year. They’ll have to replace a pair of starters in Davis and Saunders, but Princeton will start off with a little different baseline next year.
   ”There are a lot of things we found this year,” Henderson said. “The play of our centers, we started off the year knowing we had Mack Darrow and Brendan Connolly at that position for us. Brendan established himself as someone that can score on the inside. Mack is our most efficient player on the floor with assist-to-turnover ratio and ability to make 3s. And the development of T.J. Bray as a point guard. He shot the ball well in conference. There was the emergence of Jimmy Sherburne, and we know he can play in the backcourt. I’m not mentioning Ian (Hummer), and he’s going to be a huge part of our success. Ian knows his job at times is going to get his teammates involved. I’m pretty encouraged by the development at the end of the year, especially all the underclassman.”
   Henderson also developed in his first year as a head coach. He returned to his alma mater after serving as an assistant at Northwestern, and he found things that he will take into his second season to make himself a better coach.
   ”Just to listen to your team and make the adjustments that are necessary,” Henderson said. “Each group is different. I had a set of experiences and had seen a lot of things. This was a new environment for me. I think we made some adjustments five, six, seven games in that helped us as a team. It may not have been something I was used to, but it’s something that would help the team. That’s what was important.”
   The Tigers played their best basketball of the season down the stretch. They won nine of their last 10 games before falling to Pitt.
   ”I was really happy with the way we finished the year,” Henderson said. “I’m proud of the guys. Looking back on it, certainly from my perspective, I was always looking for improvement. From the team’s perspective, they were always able to do that. We showed significant improvement, especially with the way we finished the league.
   ”It was a tough finish at Pitt. It was fun to be able to play a little longer with this group. It’s a fun group. They enjoy being around each other. We’re obviously excited about next year.”