Men's hoops awaits placement in NCAA tournament

The fans, for better or for worse, asked for it.

In the closing minutes of the men's basketball game against Penn Tuesday night, the Tiger faithful chanted, "We want Stanford!"

Depending upon where you look and whom you ask, Princeton (16-10 overall, 11-3 Ivy League) just might be headed to San Diego to play the Cardinal. CBS Sportsline projected the field of 64 yesterday afternoon, slotting the Tigers in the 16th seed in the West Regional against No. 1 Stanford.

But that's just one possibility. With an Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) of 128, the Tigers are ranked higher than at least three other teams who have already earned an NCAA bid. Despite the CBS prediction, this should prevent Princeton from receiving a 16 seed — or, even worse, from participating in the play-in game for the 64th and 65th-ranked teams. Most likely, Princeton will be a 15 or 14 seed.

That's more along the lines of what CNNSI.com and ESPN.com are predicting. Earlier in the week, the websites tentatively gave the Tigers a 15 seed that would send Princeton packing out West to Boise, Idaho, to face Iowa State or Florida. Only one website, CollegeRPI.com, is keeping the Tigers in the East — also at a 15 seed — where they would face Florida in East Long Island, N.Y. The Ivy League champion is often placed in the East. Since the league started with the 1956-57 season, 36 of the 44 Ivy representatives have stayed in the home region.

Nothing will be certain until the field of 64 is announced this Sunday at 6:30 p.m. And for the moment, most Tigers are not worrying about projections.

"Right now it does not matter who we play," senior guard C.J. Chapman said.

"Our motto all year has been, 'don't worry about what they're doing and just worry about us,'" junior guard Ahmed El Nokali said.

Though the older players on the team were reluctant to record opinions on Princeton's opponent, some of the younger players had more developed ideas on the subject.

"I think ESPN had us facing Illinois," freshman forward Konrad Wysocki said. "That would be a hard matchup. They have a lot of tall guys over seven feet. I'd much rather go up against someone like Virginia, which doesn't have so many tall players."

Nevertheless, the Tigers have stayed true to El Nokali's advice after receiving a day off for their 68-52 abusing of the Quakers. Now Princeton is back to business, perfecting its offense, working on shooting and simply concentrating on Princeton basketball.

If the Tigers were generally quiet about their upcoming opponent, several Tigers were quite clear on the matter of where they would like the game to be.

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"It would be nice to go to New Orleans or California," Chapman said.

"Some guys expressed interest in going to California, some to the south," El Nokali said. "A lot of it just depends on where they're from."

Senior captain Nate Walton hails from San Diego, where the Tigers would have to be either a 13 or 16 seed to play. Princeton would have to be a similar seed if they were to play in the East at Greensboro, N.C. Wysocki — who attended Greensboro Day School — would not mind that location at all.

"I would love to go to North Carolina because I played there as a junior and senior in high school," Wysocki said. "I have a lot of family there."

In addition to two other NCAA tournament appearances along with two NIT appearances, Princeton ties a record set by the Quakers from 1970-75.

The Tigers will be making their 22nd appearance in the NCAA tournament. Princeton has tied an Ivy League record with its sixth consecutive post-season game, stretching back to the 1995-96 post-season that saw the Tigers upset UCLA 43-41. The six straight appearances ties the record set by Penn from 1970-75.

Regardless of who the Tigers will face or where they will be sent, Princeton will concentrate on its game and not sweat the details.