The men's basketball team will open its out-of-conference schedule by hosting Drexel in the first round of the preseason National Invitational Tournament. If the Tigers can hold off the Dragons, who have made the postseason NIT three years running, they will face the winner of the first-round Missouri-Sam Houston contest.
A win in that game would send Princeton to Madison Square Garden for the NIT semifinals on Nov. 23, but in between those NIT contests the Tigers' schedule takes them to Bethlehem, Pa., for a non-tournament game against Lehigh. Princeton has not played the Mountain Hawks — who lost to Florida A&M in the play-in game of last year's NCAA Tournament — since the 1996-97 season.
After the NIT, the Tigers return home to face Lafayette, the alma mater of Princeton coaching legend Pete Carril, before hitting the road to face Colgate and its flock of talented guards.
A three-game home stand follows, during which the Tigers will take on Temple, Wyoming and Monmouth. The John Chaney-coached Owls have made the postseason for 22 straight years and are led by high-scoring senior Mardy Collins, whose averages of 5.9 rebounds and 2.8 steals per game last year secured him a place in any discussion about the country's best all-around point guard. Collins scored 25 points against Princeton last season when Temple handed the Tigers a heartbreaking 48-46 loss.
Things will not get any easier against the Cowboys, who beat Princeton, 64-59, in last year's thrilling, double-overtime season-opener. As for the Hawks, the Tigers narrowly beat them last season, but Monmouth is much improved and should repeat as Northeast Conference champs.
Princeton's next two games should be the biggest challenges of its season — road matchups against Wake Forest and Stanford. Chris Paul may have moved on to the NBA, but the Demon Deacons still pose an immense obstacle, especially with the expected contributions from guard Justin Gray and center Eric Williams. The Cardinal, meanwhile, begins the season ranked No. 13 in the nation and is led by speedy, pass-first point guard Chris Hernandez.
After a tuneup against Division III Carnegie Mellon, the Tigers will play their last two games on the road against Rutgers and Rice before the start of the Ivy season. The Scarlet Knights feature explosive guard Quincy Douby, who earned national attention by leading Rutgers to the finals of the 2004 postseason NIT as a freshman. The Owls, who lost their top three scorers from last season to graduation, will face Princeton for only the second time in history.
Two games into their Ivy schedule, the Tigers will play one final non-conference game on the road against Davidson. The Wildcats pushed heavily-favored Princeton to double overtime last season before falling, 70-68.
BROWN
With Jason Forte — the Ivy League's leading scorer each of the past two years as a member of the Bears — playing in Italy this season instead of Providence, R.I., one might think Brown should go ahead and say "arrivederci" to hopes of a successful season.
But for a team that just lost the third-most prolific scorer in school history to graduation, the Bears are actually in excellent shape.
Three starters are returning from last season, including shooting guard Damon Huffman, the reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Year, and forward Luke Ruscoe, Brown's lone senior.
The duo will not only fill the scoring void created by Forte's departure, but they should also help the Bears repeat last year's finish at the top of the league in turnover margin. Ruscoe and Hoffman placed second and 10th, respectively, among Ivy leaguers in steals per game in 2004-05.
COLUMBIA
A game against the Lions opens the heart of the Tigers' season — Ivy League play — on Jan. 13. As Columbia strives to make its way out of the league cellar this season, it can expect to draw the league's largest media contingent on a nightly basis — but not because the Lions' chances of improving are particularly good.
The reporters flocking to Levien Gym this season will mostly be members of the Japanese media, eager to document the progress of freshman guard K.J. Matsui, the first player from their country ever recruited to play Division I basketball.
Though Matsui made noise playing for the World Select Team at the 2005 Nike Hoop Summit, it is unlikely that his play will be enough to save Columbia, which is the only Ivy team other than Princeton to have lost both of its top two scorers from last season to graduation.
CORNELL
Thanks in large part to swingman Lenny Collins, the Big Red was the best-shooting squad in the league in 2004-05 and was the only Ivy team other than Penn to finish with a winning league record.
Collins, an all-Ivy first-team selection, is back this season, and Cornell hopes his sweet shooting continues to be contagious.
Last year, the Big Red led the Ivy League in three-point percentage and free-throw percentage and finished second to Princeton in field-goal percentage. It's no coincidence that, individually, Collins placed in the top 10 in the league in all three categories.
Collins' running — and gunning — mates this season will include guards Graham Dow and Khaliq Gant, who both cracked the starting lineup last year as underclassmen, thanks largely to their ability to knock down shots from inside and outside the three-point arc. But both must increase their scoring production this season to make up for the graduation of Cody Toppert, Cornell's high-scoring sixth man, and Eric Taylor, the Big Red's burly center.
DARTMOUTH
As guard Mike Lang was averaging a team-high 11.8 points per game for the Big Green last season and earning all-Ivy honorable mention recognition, one question always hung over his head.
Why, on a Dartmouth team that finished last in the league in field-goal percentage and scoring margin, was the then-junior sharpshooter being used primarily off the bench by head coach Terry Dunn?
After all, Lang shot a sizzling 43.5 percent from three-point range last season — fourth best in the league — and was the only Ivy player to rank among the top five in both three-point percentage and three-pointers made.
It is possible that Lang will stumble this season when called upon to be not only a starter but also the team leader — and the questions about him will be answered. But it seems more likely that Lang will continue to heat up the Ivy League with his long-range shooting prowess.
HARVARD
Forward Matt Stehle and center Brian Cusworth, arguably the two best front-court players in the league, will look to help last season's most-improved Ivy team make the jump to title contender.
The pair anchors the Crimson both offensively and defensively. Stehle and Cusworth finished one-two in the league in rebounds per game last season, each netting more than 13 points per contest. In addition, Cusworth led the Ivies in blocks with 45, and Stehle was the only player to place among the top 10 in the league in both blocks and steals.
But Harvard's season may well hinge on the play of its unproven guards. Last year's starting backcourt was lost to graduation, and neither of the returning guards who played significant minutes last season shot better than 33.3 percent from the floor.
If the unproven young players can mature quickly, though, the Crimson are a dark horse candidate to claim their first-ever Ivy basketball crown.
PENN
Overshadowed last year by teammate and Ivy Player of the Year Tim Begley, a trio of juniors will look to keep the Quakers at the top of the league standings this season now that Begley has graduated.
The most celebrated of these players is guard Ibrahim Jaaber, who was named to the all-Ivy second-team for his impressive offensive and defensive contributions last season.
Jaaber's average of 2.93 steals per game put him a full steal ahead of his closest competitor for the league lead. On the other end of the floor, Jaaber managed to score 11.5 points per contest and place eighth in the Ivies with 2.76 assists per game.
A higher proportion of those dishes this season will go to classmates Steve Danley and Mark Zoller. The two forwards earned all-Ivy honorable mention accolades last year and combined to average over 18 points and 11 rebounds per game.
On paper, at least, Penn's starting five is the most talented in the league, making the Quakers' untested bench their biggest question mark.
YALE
Lovers of euphonious sports names everywhere may have cause to rejoice this Ivy season, as the Eric Flato era seems poised to begin in New Haven, Conn.
Last year, Bulldog guards Edwin Draughan and Alex Gamboa each averaged double figures in scoring, while placing fourth and sixth, respectively, among Ivy assists-per-game leaders.
With the loss of those two players to graduation, Flato is the best candidate to replicate such statistical production. The sophomore guard, who often provided a spark off the bench for Yale in 2004-05, will be asked to step up and steer the Bulldogs' high-tempo offense.
One beneficiary of Flato's passes will be center Dominick Martin, whose scoring average of 12.3 points per game last season was eighth-best in the league. Often, though, Martin will not need Flato's help in getting the ball underneath the basket: his average of 2.63 offensive rebounds per game last season led the Ivies.
Martin, who spent his freshman year playing for the Tigers before transferring, has just one semester of college eligibility remaining, though, and will rejoin Yale in mid-December.
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