Men stay focused on league despite tough early games

"Everything I do has a kind of spin, a thought toward preparing us to win the league," men's basketball head coach John Thompson '88 said yesterday, remarking on his team's difficult pre-Ivy League schedule.

The first half of Princeton's schedule, which Thompson likes to refer to as the pre-season, is 13 games long, with four of them televised. All four of those games will be on the road, though one team, Rutgers, is not too far away.

The other three games will be nationally televised contests against big-time college basketball programs.

In early January, the Tigers visit national-power Oklahoma, followed by Minnesota one week later.

The biggest game, though, comes Dec. 17, the first Wednesday of Winter Break, at Duke. Cameron Indoor Stadium is known throughout the basketball world as one of the toughest environments in the country for a visiting team.

"Obviously because of the success of [the Duke] program, because of their terrific fans, because of all the national attention that they get, everyone is aware of what it's like to play down in Durham," Thompson said.

Because the last three games of Princeton's Ivy League schedule are on the road, the Tigers will be trying to gain experience playing on the road in a volatile atmosphere during the pre-league schedule.

"We have to go on the road to a similar atmosphere when we go to [Penn's home stadium,] the Palestra," Thompson said. "On other road trips within our league, we will go into smaller venues that, for the Princeton-Penn weekend, are sold out. Every place is not Cameron Indoor, but at the same time the circumstances can be similar."

A tough non-conference schedule is not just to prepare the team for Ivy competition, though. It is also a showcase of the basketball tradition at Princeton. For the last three seasons, Princeton has played a team that went to the Final Four later that year, and the Tigers stayed close for most of those games.

"We always have played the best teams in the country," Thompson said. "Overall, we've probably had our fair share of success. It's important to me and to our guys to know that by coming here they're going to get to play the best teams in the country."

The most important part of the pre-league schedule, though, is forming a cohesive unit, rather than just a collection of talented players.

"That's what we try to do in the pre-season, get them to gel as we get ready for the conference schedule," Thompson said. "As it relates to this year's team, [the focus of the pre-league schedule is] getting exposure and experience to some of our guys that have not had exposure and experience."

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

That does not mean that winning and losing do not matter in the preseason, Thompson said, but it is more important to be prepared to win games come the league-opener on Jan. 31.

"We're in a league where there is no post-season tournament, Thompson said. "When league play starts, every game is a playoff game. So I think it is important for us to take all the steps necessary so that when that starts, you have a good feel for your team as you go forward."

Though the time it takes for a team to gel varies from year to year, Thompson said that he expects this year's team to be ready especially quickly.

When the Ivy League season rolls around, Princeton is expected to be at the top of the heap. Defending-champion Penn lost Ivy League Player of the Year Ugonna Onyekwe and All-Ivy standout Koko Archibong from its frontcourt, but the team was really held together by a strong backcourt that remains close to intact, including two All-Ivy selections in Jeff Schiffner and Tim Begley.

"The glue and the people who made that team go are still there," Thompson said.

Yale also returns talent, experience and depth to a lineup that will provide a challenge to the teams that seem to always be at the top of the standings, Penn and Princeton.