In New Jersey, which advertises itself as the Garden State, one grows accustomed to seeing some of the finest homegrown products plucked by outsiders.
Thus, when the men's basketball team (10-8 overall, 1-3 Ivy League) visits league-leading Penn (11-7, 4-0) tonight, Princeton fans should not be too shocked to see the Quakers led by a pair of Jerseyites — guards Tim Begley and Ibrahim Jaaber.
Eliciting greater concern throughout Tiger Nation, however, is Penn's potential theft of the Tigers' Ivy League title. Although the conference schedule is just beginning, Princeton is already three games behind the Quakers in the Ivy standings and in grave danger of falling completely out of the title hunt.
The first of the Tigers' remaining 10 Ivy games — and the 211th in the historic Princeton-Penn rivalry — is the most crucial if they hope to begin climbing back into contention. The Tigers head to the Palestra on a five-game road-losing streak. Losses this past weekend at Dartmouth and Harvard have called into question preseason predictions that Princeton would repeat as Ivy champion.
In stark contrast, thanks to the outstanding play of Begley and Jaaber, the Quakers have breezed through their first four Ivy games without being seriously challenged. Penn enters the game riding a seven-game winning streak, during which it has outscored opponents by an average of more than 20 points per game.
Begley, one-half of the Quakers' excellent starting backcourt, has emerged as a favorite for conference Player of the Year honors. His all-around play is reminiscent of what Tiger fans have come to expect from their own senior guard, Will Venable. Begley leads his team in scoring with 13.4 points per game, and is second in rebounds per game (5.8), while dishing out an Ivy League-best 5.2 assists per game.
Jaaber, a sophomore who stepped into Penn's starting lineup for the first time this season, is also drawing comparisons to Venable — on both sides of the court. While Jaaber's scoring average of 10.4 ppg is identical to his Princeton counterpart's, his nose for the ball may be even more Venablian than that of Venable himself. Jaaber's average of 2.6 steals per game leads all Ivy Leaguers, while Venable sits a distant second with 1.9 per game.
Tiger freshman forward Noah Savage played against Jaaber in high school, when both were local stars — Savage at the Hun School of Princeton and Jaaber at the Peddie School in nearby Hightstown.
"He's real quick," Savage said. "What I remember most about him is that he deflects a lot of balls and gets his hands on everything."
With Jaaber setting the tempo, the Quakers' defense has rivaled Princeton's. Although the Tigers currently lead all Division I NCAA teams in scoring defense, allowing opponents an average of only 52.8 points per game, this is largely a result of their own slowdown offensive style. When one compares the field-goal percentage of Penn and Princeton opponents, the Quakers actually hold the slight edge — .391 to .401.
To combat Penn, the Tigers must build on some of the positive elements that can be found amid the frustrations of their rocky Ivy League start. Princeton, which struggled mightily to knock down three-pointers earlier this season, has improved to shoot 42 percent from beyond the arc over their first four Ivy League games.
The Tigers' biggest advantage might actually be in the paint, but only if senior center Judson Wallace is healthy. Wallace's back injury hampered his play two weekends ago against Brown and Yale and forced him to begin the game on the bench for the first time this season against Dartmouth on Friday. He did make an impressive return to the starting lineup with 23 points in the loss to Harvard on Saturday night.
Ultimately, though, in this match-up of two teams who have battled to a 22-22 series tie over the past 22 seasons — two teams that have combined to represent the Ivy League in the NCAA tournament for 16 straight years — the best game plan for the struggling Princeton squad may be to forget history.
"The fact that this game is coming off two losses," Savage said, "is more important than the fact that we're playing Penn."
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