Yale, Brown look to take revenge on men's hoops

As important as this weekend's games against Yale and Brown are for the men's basketball team, in neither contest will Princeton be the more desperate team. But to win, it is crucial that the Tigers play as if they are.

In truth, much is at stake for all three teams. For the Elis (9-12 overall, 4-4 Ivy League) and the Bears (10-11, 6-2), losses would all but eliminate them from the league race. And although Princeton (13-7, 6-1) currently sits in first place, its position is quite precarious, as Penn nips at its heels.

Yale and Brown "have their backs against the wall," senior guard Ed Persia said. "So we have to match their intensity."

That intensity must be present from the opening tip. Unfortunately for the Tigers, this has not always been the case this season — they trailed in the early going in five of their seven league games. While Princeton has overcome these early deficits in every case except for the Penn game, continuing to rely on second-half rallies is a dangerous proposition.

Persia theorized that the slow starts are due in part to Princeton's notoriously patient offense, which often takes several possessions to begin clicking. He admitted, however, that the repeated instances of such struggles might also be a sign of a "lack of mental preparation."

Beyond beginning the game fully focused, the Tigers' best bet to overcome their pattern of sluggish starts is to pound the ball inside to junior center Judson Wallace, who seemingly snapped out of his prolonged funk last weekend, and junior forward Andre Logan. Both should be able to assert themselves offensively against Yale's and Brown's interior defenders.

If Wallace, Logan and the rest of Princeton's big men cannot deliver, the Tigers will be forced to once again turn to junior guard Will Venable to save them. Venable began his recent string of strong performances with 18 points against the Bears, which he followed the next night with a game-winning layup against the Elis. This time around, in light of his recent success, shutting down Venable will likely be a defensive priority for both opponents — but it may not make a difference.

"I don't think it matters if they focus on Will," Persia said. "He's so athletic that he'll get his chances."

One area in which Princeton has not lacked intensity is on defense —it was execution on that end of the court that led to the victories over the Bulldogs and Bears. Princeton held its two opponents to 37 and 35 percent shooting, respectively.

An essential factor last time around — as it will be this weekend — was the Tigers' perimeter defense. Against Yale, shutting down high-scoring guard Edwin Draughn is key. Expect to see Venable with a hand in his face at all times, in hopes of limiting the star senior to single-digit points again.

Brown, meanwhile, has a trio of dangerous guards. Most likely, Princeton will reprise its prior strategy, assigning the tag-team of sophomore guard Scott Greenman and freshman guard Max Schaefer to cover star point guard Jason Forte. Although that matchup essentially concedes 15 to 20 points to Forte, it frees Venable and Persia to mark Patrick Powers and Mike Martin, respectively. Last time, the normally sharpshooting duo was limited to a combined three points.

But just because the Tigers left New Haven and Providence with victories, a repeat performance is far from ensured. If anything, beating a team the second time around is even more difficult than the first.

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"It's tougher because they know exactly what we're going to do," Persia said. "So we have to be a lot more precise."

Furthermore, as promising as the season-opening road victories are, Princeton has not yet matched its performance of that weekend. As a result, the Tigers of late January may very well have been more confident than the Tigers of mid-February, who have been shaken by a blowout loss to Penn and narrow escapes against Harvard and Columbia. Still, in the long run, a bit of humility may be beneficial.

"I feel like we were a lot more confident going into the Ivy League season then we are now — we knew what type of team we had," Persia said. "Just squeaking out a lot of our wins has put fear in us. But that's probably a good thing."