Men's basketball opens up season tonight vs. Colgate

The men's basketball team begins its season tonight against Colgate. The Tigers will be welcoming the Raiders to Jadwin Gymnasium at 7:30 p.m. for the first game between the two since the 1988-89 season.

This marks the season opener for both teams, so they will be looking to find a quick boost to start the season off on the right foot.

Princeton, a perennial power in the Ivy League, has been projected to finish at first or second in its conference in this, its 104th season. The Tigers were 16-11 overall last season and 10-4 in the Ivy League, good for a second-place tie.

Colgate also tied for second place in its conference, the Patriot League. The Raiders finished 14-14 last season, going 9-5 in league play. They return three starters from last season's squad.

Colgate's two returning senior starters, Mark Linebaugh and Howard Blue, are both preseason All-Patriot League selections. Linebaugh led the team in scoring last season, at 13.1 points per game. He also chipped in 3.8 rebounds per game. Blue scored 12.5 points and hauled in 6.6 rebounds per game last season, but those two are the only returning players who scored over eight points a game last season.

Princeton is also returning three starters in junior center Judson Wallace, junior guard Will Venable and senior guard Ed Persia. Wallace and Persia are co-captains as well.

The Princeton offense uses the center as the hub through which most half-court sets run. As a sophomore last year, Wallace spent a great deal of the season trying to acclimate to that role. Things started clicking, however, at the end of last season, when he averaged just under 18 points per game over the final eight games. He also scored 22 points or more in four of the Tigers' last five games. Adding muscle in the off-season could make him a new player when he steps on the court tonight, though.

"He has helped make our team better and make his teammates better," head coach John Thompson '88 said. "He just has to keep progressing."

Wallace earned honorable mention All-Ivy League honors last year, and he is the only returning Tiger to have been named All-Ivy. Though back trouble kept him out of the only controlled competition so far this year — a scrimmage against Georgetown — he is expected to start against Colgate. As the center, he will need to play well for the Tigers to be successful.

"Everything runs through our center position," Thompson said. "We are very pleased with what he has done. He is going to have to help to make others better."

Persia led the team last year from beyond the arc with a .402 three-point shooting percentage. He made 48 shots, bringing his career total to 110, ninth in Princeton history.

Venable, though only a junior, has much of the experience on the squad. He has seen significant playing time in his first two years, and he logged the most minutes last season of any returning player.

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The wild card tonight will be sophomore guard Scott Greenman, though. He will start, after playing limited minutes in only 20 games last year.

Greenman did shoot over 40 percent from three-point range last year, though. He also dropped in five from beyond the arc in the Georgetown scrimmage.

Last year the team had trouble getting into a rhythm until the Ivy season had already started, mostly because of injury problems. So far this year, the problems have ranged from nagging minor issues to longterm ones. In addition to Wallace's back, senior forward Konrad Wysocki twisted his ankle in practice on Tuesday but is questionable for tonight. Junior forward Andre Logan, though, will be out about three weeks after tearing tendons in his wrist last month.

The main purpose of early-season games is for the team to learn how to play together, though, and Thompson expects this team to mesh more quickly than usual.

"Starting from day one, they have gelled together," he said.

The Tigers are trying to start things off with a W, and the home crowd should be behind them, especially since all students who come will get free pizza.

Tonight is another "day one" that may give a glimpse where the team will be on the last day of the season.