Men's Basketball: Tigers try to remain perfect

“I think, overall, the team is starting to find a chemistry that works well, and we’re starting to figure out what we need to do to consistently be competitive,” junior center Zach Finley said. “The key for us will be to keep our focus and continue to work hard to improve each day.”

Princeton will have another difficult road trip this weekend. On Friday, the Tigers will travel to New Haven, Conn., to take on the Bulldogs (8-12, 3-3). The following evening, Princeton will visit neighboring Rhode Island compete against Brown (6-14, 0-6).

The two schools that stand between the Tigers and a 6-0 start are familiar Ivy foes. The 2008-09 season, however, has not gone well for either opponent.

Brown has yet to notch a victory in conference play this year. With three losses by fewer than three points against Yale, Dartmouth and Harvard, the Bears have demonstrated the ability to keep themselves in the game for 40 minutes, but they have also demonstrated that they cannot close games.

The Bears are coming off a two-point overtime loss to Dartmouth and a one-point heartbreaker against Harvard that was decided by a pair of free throws after time had expired. By the time the Bears take the court at the Pizzitola Center against the Tigers on Saturday, they will have faced Penn as well; Brown probably will not have any momentum going into its game against Princeton.

If Princeton is able to get by Yale unscathed, chances are it will savor its first 6-0 start in conference play in a decade.

Yale, however, might not be a pushover. The Bulldogs have won the last four meetings between the two schools and three of the last four on their home court. With forward Ross Morin and guard Alex Zampier spearheading the Yale offense with a combined 26 points per game, Yale’s offense may prove troublesome. But Princeton basketball is known for its scrappy lockdown defense, and defense has carried it to its 4-0 start in the conference.

Over the past four games, Princeton’s defense has been especially effective. It held the Dartmouth offense to 54 points on Jan. 30, the high-octane Cornell offense to 41 points on Feb. 6 and Columbia to 35 points on Feb. 7.

“I think a lot of our defensive success comes from our coaches and the way they prepare us for each game,” Finley said. “They’ve continued to stress a lot of the same things that they were saying at the beginning of the season, and it seems like those things are starting to show up more in games now than earlier.”

Just how good has the Princeton defense been? Consider this: The Tigers rank fifth in the nation in scoring defense at 56.8 points per game and in three-point field-goal percentage at 28.3 percent.

“Our defense is something we take pride in,” sophomore guard Dan Mavraides said. “Winning 108-98 is one thing. But if you can hold a team to below 40 points to a game, that’s pretty impressive.”

The stars that have fueled Princeton offensively and defensively this season are not household names, even to loyal fans of the Orange and Black. Princeton’s top four scorers this season — freshman guard Doug Davis, Mavraides, junior center Pawel Buczak and sophomore forward Kareem Maddox — account for more than 61 percent of the team’s total offensive production.

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To say that this year’s team is different from last year’s is a gross understatement. Davis, the Tigers’ leading scorer at 12.5 points per game, is a freshman. Finley, who started in 26 of 27 games last season, has yet to make an appearance in the starting lineup.

Head coach Sydney Johnson ’97 also seems to have adopted the point-center style of play used by former head coach Pete Carril in the late ’80s. The most refreshing difference of all, however, is that Princeton has transformed itself from a 6-23 squad just one year ago to an Ivy League contender once again.

If the Tigers knock off Yale and Brown this weekend, Princeton will also have its first nine-game winning streak in five years.

“I don’t think there’s any added pressure from reaching a mark for consecutive wins, but our goal is to win the league, and we’re just taking it one game at a time,” Mavraides said. “Every game is just as important as the next one, and we’re kind of taking it one by one.”