The 2002 season. Most remember what was supposed to happen this year. A few names to consider — Chris Young '02, Spencer Gloger (now) '04, Andre Logan '04, coach Bill Carmody. Those are the three of the players and the coach who were supposed to carry the team. Carmody left a year ago with Young and Gloger. Logan tore his ACL at the start of the Ivy season.
Just like the preceding year, though, the 2002 basketball team showed its resiliency in overcoming personnel losses — a separate loss being 2001 all-everything for Princeton, center Nate Walton '01, to graduation — to create the first three way tie for the Ivy league title.
The road to the Ivy title was not an easy one. It started with mediocre preseason play with a couple of high points — the 13-point halftime lead against Maryland being one of them — and some low points, including the loss to Florida International, which ended the season with an RPI ranking of 253.
Heading into the Ivy season, Penn and Brown were the teams to beat, with Princeton usually coming in third on the radar screen. Brown fell into a hole and its travel partner, Yale, stepped in to take its place at the top. It ended up being the Tigers, the Elis and Penn who each had three losses to end the season and share the Ivy title.
Princeton was hot to start off the Ivy slate, going 5-0 to take a healthy control of the race. The Tigers could have kept the three-way race from ever taking place during the second weekend in February when it played both Yale and Penn. Princeton, however, lost both of their meetings — Yale on that Saturday and then Penn on the ensuing Tuesday — to allow the race to continue.
That could have been the low point of the season. Shooting was an issue. Guard Will Venable '05 said team leadership was an issue. Something was not clicking.
Things started clicking soon thereafter, though, as the Tigers won six straight, one of which was a 59-46 home victory against Yale Feb. 22.
Thus, the stage was set for the annual end-of-the-season matchup between the Tigers and Quakers, this time in Philadelphia March 5. The scenario was as follows — Princeton was 11-2 and would win the title outright with a victory. A Penn win, on the other hand, would create a three-way tie by bringing Yale into the picture.
The game started with atrocious shooting from both squads, sending the teams to the locker rooms with Penn holding a 24-19 lead. Both improved in the second half, but the Quakers shot well enough to bury the Tigers en route to a 64-48 victory.
To decide the Ivy League's automatic qualifier to the NCAA tournament, the two first-place teams with the worst head-to-head records would play each other first, and then the winner would take on the third team. Princeton, at 1-3 head-to-head, took on 2-2 Yale at the Palestra to play 3-1 Penn for a berth in the Big Dance. All games were held at neutral sites.
Just like the Penn game, though, the Tigers came out with poor shooting and saw their chances to qualify for the tournament slip away. This time, Princeton shot 34.5 percent from the floor and were sent back up I-95 with a 76-60 loss.
Just like the pre-Ivy League season, the road to the helm of the Ancient Eight had its ups and downs. Losing to Penn twice is always a down. So is losing twice to Yale. Moreover, allowing the Elis to be co-champs for the first time in fifty years is another down. Still, though, this team that lost its early-season star in Andre Logan was able to come back from his injury and still manage to share the title — Princeton's second straight — with a Penn team that was ranked as high as 34th at one point in the season.
As for next year, Princeton loses forward Mike Bechtold '02 and guard Ahmed El Nokali '02 to graduation — perhaps its best players.
Logan should be back, though, and the Tigers may get a little help from Spencer Gloger, who is expected by many to return to the team after a two-year absence. In either case, expect them to be knocking on the Ivy title door again next season.
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