After two convincing wins over Dartmouth and Harvard this weekend, the men's basketball team (15-12 overall, 6-7 Ivy League) will be playing tonight to avoid the first losing Ivy League season in Princeton history.
After squandering an 18-point lead in the final eight minutes of their first match-up with the Ivy League-champion Penn Quakers (19-8, 12-1) this season — a game they went on to lose, 70-62, in overtime — the Tigers will have a chance tonight to send their historically hated rivals off into the NCAA Tournament on a low note.
And after pouring in a combined 32 points against the Big Green and the Crimson, senior guard Will Venable will need just one point tonight to become the 26th player in University history to reach the 1,000-point mark for his superb Princeton career.
In other words, though Ivy League schedule-makers may have originally envisioned that tonight's game at Jadwin Gym between Princeton and Penn would be a battle for the conference title and a post-season berth, enough is still at stake to make Princeton's final game of the season well worth watching.
The opportunity to see Venable, senior center Judson Wallace and their fellow classmates play in the final game of their collegiate careers will be among the most compelling reasons to watch.
"It'll be a good way to go out having the opportunity to play Penn in the final game," Venable said. "It's where I want to be."
For Venable, at least, just being there will by no means be sufficient. Consequently, Princeton fans can expect an elevated level of play to accompany the special night.
"Thinking about the fact that these are my final opportunities to be on the floor has been something I've thought about preparing for the game each day," Venable said. "I try to keep in my head that I don't want to be sorry at the end of the game and to make sure I put everything out there that I could."
Maximum effort will likely be exactly what the Tigers will need — not just from Venable, but from every player — to take down the mighty Quakers.
Penn is led by guard Tim Begley, the clear favorite to win Ivy League Player of the Year honors because of his averages of 13.8 points, 5.4 rebounds and a league-leading 4.9 assists per game. Four Quakers have averaged double digits in scoring during conference play this season, including Begley, guard Ibrahim Jaaber and forwards Mark Zoller and Steve Danley.
Penn not only leads the Ivy League in scoring offense at 68.6 points per game but also holds opponents to a lower field goal percentage, 39.6, than any other team in the league. That defensive performance owes a lot to the emergence of Jaaber, a lockdown defender.
As a result of their conference dominance, the Quakers clinched a berth in the NCAA tournament on Feb. 26 — by far the first team in the country to do so this year.
Quakers are beatable
Though Penn has stormed through the Ivy League, the Quakers' sole loss did come on the road against Yale on Feb. 20.
Princeton has more reason to like its chances tonight because of how well the Tigers played for the majority of the first game this season between the two teams. The Tigers held Penn to 35 points over the first 32 minutes, 25 seconds of the game before allowing that same total in the game's final 12:35.
"It's all about defense and sustaining it for 40 minutes," Venable said. "In the Penn game [earlier this season], we played for 35 minutes really well, and then everything just fell apart. We need to go out there and compete for 40 minutes and stick to the things we try to do the entire game."
One thing Princeton must try to do early in tonight's game is establish a balanced offense, continuing to create good looks for the team's perimeter shooters — junipr point guard Scott Greenman has been on fire from long range lately — while pounding the ball to Wallace and senior center Mike Stephens in the low post.
Wallace was remarkably effective throughout the better part of the game at The Palestra, scoring 21 points on eight-of-11 shooting. Since that game, however, Wallace has struggled with foul trouble, injuries and turnovers, while losing minutes to Stephens. For the Tigers to win tonight, at least one of these senior big men will have to come up big.
Venable, meanwhile, can be counted on for the same excellent guard play he has contributed over his entire career at Princeton, pushing the ball downcourt, his eyes always directed forward.
"We're not looking in the past so much," Venable said. "You start doing that, you get pretty depressed."
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