Men's Basketball: Squad will ride win streak into break

Be it winning or losing, the men’s basketball team seems to like its streaks. After all, what would a Tiger be without its stripes?

After fighting to a scrappy 46-42 win against Monmouth on Wednesday, Princeton (5-4 overall) is now on a three-game winning streak, its longest since the seven-game run that carried it from 2-8 to 9-8 last season.

The Tigers will look to finish the calendar year with two more wins, as they travel to Maine (6-4) on Sunday and then face Wagner (1-8) at home on Dec. 30.

Princeton’s first-ever meeting against Maine was last year, and the Tigers dropped a 58-55 decision to the Black Bears in overtime. As head coach Sydney Johnson ’97 pointed out, it was only the second game of the season, and the Tigers hadn’t quite found their rhythm yet, but nevertheless they are prepared for a challenging game on Sunday.

“I’ve seen a little bit of tape on them, and I know that they have some key pieces back,” Johnson said. “It’s always tougher when you have a team that’s returning key players. They look as good as they did last year, and that was good enough to beat us, so I know we’ll have to play well.”

Wagner is a different story. The last and only time Princeton ever played the Seahawks was in the 1978-79 season, and the Tigers notched a win in that matchup.

The current Tigers’ lack of experience against Wagner is mitigated by its less-than-intimidating record, but Johnson still feels that this game should be an exciting one.

“[Wagner head coach Mike Deane] is a terrific coach. What heís doing is he’s coaching a younger, inexperienced team --— they’ve been in a lot of close games,” Johnson said. “If the kids weren’t working hard or well-coached, they might’ve been blowouts. When we play them, it’s going to be a challenge, because they take every game seriously.”

Of course, the Seahawks aren’t the only ones focusing on improving. Princeton’s newfound defensive dominance has catapulted it to double-digit wins recently, as it held both Lafayette and UNC-Greensboro to 50 points or less.

Senior guard and co-captain Marcus Schroeder said he is enthusiastic about the defensive outlook.

“I think defensively we’ve been pretty good this year,” he said. “We’ve been holding teams to under 40 percent field-goal percentage and in the 50-point range, and that’s been very good for us. That gives us a chance to win.”

Specifically, the Tigers have worked on their rebounding, a weakness that contributed to several of their losses this season.

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“There have been times where we’ve given up a lot of offensive rebounds, and I think we focused on that. We did a good job on the boards and didn’t give [the opponent] a lot of second-chance points,” Schroeder said. “Defensively, you have to stop the other team, but at the end of the possession, you have to get the rebound.”

Of course, there is the danger that the recent improvements won’t stick. As Johnson pointed out, Princeton needs to be able to rely on a solid defense.

“We have been defending better over the last few games, but our great weakness is that it hasn’t yet become part of our team identity,” Johnson said. “If we don’t embrace defending as something we do on a daily basis, we’re going to have a disappointing year.”

The Tigers have run both hot and cold offensively as well: In the recent game against Monmouth, Princeton won despite shooting an underwhelming 30.4 percent for the game.

In the wins against Lafayette and UNC-Greensboro, however, the Tigers shot 47.8 and 50 percent from the field, respectively. Schroeder noted that one of the more stable trends is the improvement in ball movement.

Johnson said that the team is making improvements in several areas of its game.

“I think offensively we’re getting better, we’re moving the ball better,” Johnson said. “Against Lafayette, we shot well. And in those games where we haven’t shot well, it’s a testament to our defense that we were still able to come out with a win.”

The upcoming games against Maine and Wagner may be the last games of 2009, but Princeton doesn’t need the excuse of a new year to make a fresh start: It seems that they’ve already begun to put together consistent wins.

At the same time, Schroeder wants to take it one day at a time.

“We need to stay on an even keel and understand that you’re only as good as your next game,” he said.