PRINCETON, N.J. (AP) – Princeton is back in the NCAA tournament after a six-year absence and, as usual, one of college basketball’s giants stands in its way – a situation followers of the Tigers are familiar with.
One day after beating Harvard in a playoff game on Doug Davis’ buzzer beater, the Ivy League champion was given a 13th seed Sunday and will meet fourth-seeded Kentucky (24-8) on Thursday in a second-round game in the East Regional.
Kentucky beat Princeton 72-58 in a first-round game in 1977, the only other NCAA meeting between the schools
Under coach Pete Carril, Princeton was famous for scaring major programs in the NCAA tournament. The most famous is still a one-point loss to top-seeded Georgetown in 1989 and there was also near-wins over Arkansas and Villanova.
The Tigers beat defending champion UCLA in 1996, Carril’s final year. Current head coach Sydney Johnson played in that game, which occurred 15 years ago Monday.
Johnson, who was satisfied with the 13th seed, hopes a new generation can duplicate such magic.
“We’ve got to make our own history,” the fourth-year coach said. “I’ve challenged our guys. Obviously, we’ve done some nice things in the tournament. But those teams have done that by, every year, stepping up to their challenge and that’s what we have to do.”
The game will be a marked contrast in style and philosophy.
Princeton is the academic powerhouse whose players grow up in the Tigers’ deliberate system of precise ball movement. Kentucky coach John Calipari recruits blue chippers into his up-tempo program and often loses them to the NBA after one year.
Johnson’s immediate concerns were Kentucky freshmen Terrence Jones and Brandon Knight.
“Knight controls the game and he can shoot it,” Johnson said. “Terrence Jones is obviously an NBA talent.”
Dictating tempo will be a key.
“We have to play our style of basketball and I think we’ll be fine,” Davis said. “Those guys want to get up and down the court. But we’re not going to back down.”
If Princeton has one advantage, it’s the vaunted system incorporated by Carril and tweaked by his successors.
“I think no matter who you are in the country you’ve heard about the Princeton offense, but I don’t think a lot understand it fully, so we’ll try to take them by surprise,” said sophomore Ian Hummer, who averages a team-leading 13.9 points. “Sometimes I even get confused.”
Princeton is making an Ivy League-record 24th NCAA appearance, but its first since 2004, the Tigers’ longest drought since 1970-75. Princeton went to the tournament nine times in 16 years before going 38-45 with no postseason appearances under Joe Scott from 2004-2007.
After two rebuilding seasons under Johnson, Princeton went 22-9, finished second in the Ivy and went to the semifinals of the College Basketball Invitational last year.
Princeton’s 25 wins are the most since the 1997-98 team won a school-record 27.
Johnson said there was never a timetable to get back in the tournament.
“I just wanted us to compete as hard as we could and try to win every basketball game,” he said. “Finally, we’ve been able to turn the corner.”
Johnson is one of three former Tiger players to coach a team into the NCAAs this year, along with Georgetown’s John Thompson III and Richmond’s Chris Mooney. Johnson played with Mooney and coached under Thompson before coming to Princeton.
“I hope we’re getting the program back to where it was when Coach J played,” senior Dan Mavraides said. “We have a lot of confidence in ourselves with what we’ve done this year, the teams we’ve beaten and how we played. We’re definitely ready for this challenge.”
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