It has been a while since the two have tangled, but they'll get plenty of chances starting Friday. The men's basketball team will soon have to get reacquainted with an old friend: the road.
Although it has been almost a month and a half since their last away game, the Tigers are no strangers to playing on the road. Princeton (9-7 overall, 4-0 Ivy League) has had the luxury of playing — and winning — at home for the past five games. Earlier in the season, however, the confines of Jadwin Gym were an unfamiliar place. The Tigers spent nine of their first 11 games away from their home court, and they're going to have to get used to vagrancy again.
Starting Friday at Dartmouth, Princeton will play five games in a span of nine days, all on the road. Most significantly, the Tigers will stop at the Palestra to take on league-rival Penn in a midweek contest next Tuesday.
"It's Ivy League basketball," head coach John Thompson '88 said. "You play Friday, Saturday, and then we've always had the Penn game thrown in the middle on Tuesday. As a staff, I think we're used to it because we've all gone through it."
'More dificult'
"You go through the stretch of five games in nine days, and the guys have at least seen it or heard about it, though they all haven't experienced it. It's tough," Thompson said. "This happens to be a year where the conference schedule put the five-game stretch all on the road, so that makes it more difficult."
While the home court has been kind to the Tigers this season, the road has not. Princeton is 6-1 at home, and 3-6 on the road. In fact, the Tigers have won 46 straight Ivy home games against teams other than Penn, dating back to a 1993 loss to Yale.
Away from Jadwin Gym, however, since the 1998-99 season Princeton has lost three games on the road at venues other than the Palestra — once at Harvard and twice at Yale. Not many current Tigers were on the court during those games. Of the probable starters for Friday night's game in Hanover, N.H., only junior guard Ahmed El-Nokali was present and in uniform for all three of those road losses.
In order for the Tigers to continue their successful Ivy League campaign, they will have to maintain the level of play they have since league games began. In Princeton's four Ivy games, every offensive and defensive statistic has improved. During those four league matchups the Tigers are scoring 10 more points than in nonleague contests, while allowing 12 fewer points and shooting 51.2 percent from the field.
This performance has come from a team that has had to overcome adversity piled on top of adversity from before the season even started. Persistent injuries have plagued the Tigers since day one.
"Any given day, I don't know who's going to be able to practice," Thompson said. "Who knows what could happen between now and Friday."
But Thompson has found ways to win consistently since Ivy League play began.
"I think we've had to grow more just because we're looking at so many guys with inexperience and so many guys that were never asked to contribute," Thompson said. "And it's not just the freshmen that now have to step up and now have to do that."
Nevertheless, freshmen certainly have contributed immensely to the Tigers this season. Forward Andre Logan was the most recent Ivy League Rookie of the Week, the third Princeton freshman to win the award this year. Forward Konrad Wysocki has won the award twice, and guard Ed Persia has won the honor once. Logan leads the Tigers with 13 blocks, Wysocki leads the team with 17 offensive rebounds, and Persia is second in steals with 16.
The freshmen will look to continue to make an impact for the Tigers as Princeton leaves Jadwin Gym for a while and travel on a key stretch of five road games.
Player Updates: Junior guard Mike Bechtold has not practiced this week, and his status for this weekend is uncertain.
Forward Ray Robins, who took the fall semester off, has re-enrolled this semester. His role for the rest of the season has not been decided.
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