Men's Basketball: Two-season turnaround best in program history

At this time two years ago, the men’s basketball team was wallowing in its 6-23 final record and its last-place finish in the Ivy League.

With the younger half of that team all grown up, Princeton (22-9 overall, 11-3 Ivy League) has reversed its record from two seasons ago to claim the most victories since 1999. This turnaround marks the biggest improvement in wins in such a short period of time in the history of Tiger basketball.

“My first couple of seasons that I had here, I don’t think we approached the team in the same way,” senior forward and co-captain Nick Lake said. “By the end of this season, we went into games — not cocky, but I would say confident. We knew that we were all playing together. There was a different attitude about us this year.”

Princeton also earned a spot in a postseason tournament for the first time since that 1999 season. With the Tigers as Ivy League runners-up, the College Basketball Invitational extended a bid to the team.

“When we found out that we had made a postseason tournament, it was probably the best moment of the season,” Lake said. “That was the first time in our careers here, so it was a great feeling that we had accomplished that.”

Success didn’t come without its challenges. Princeton got off to a rocky start to the season. After wins over Central Michigan and Manhattan, the Tigers dropped four games in a row, three of them by double digits. During that stretch, Princeton faced its toughest opponent of the season, California, a team that ultimately earned an eight seed in the NCAA tournament. California dealt the Tigers their worst loss of the season, 81-60.

After this slump, Princeton fans feared the team was headed for another losing record.

“We were 2-4, and it could’ve been easy to think that this was going to be a tough season for us,” Lake said. “The beginning of the year was tough for us. We played some tough competition, and we lost a couple of games, and then we finally all got on the same page and ran up a pretty good streak of wins.”

The Tigers tore through the rest of their non-conference opponents, suffering only one loss at the hands of Maine. At the end of January, they crushed Goucher by a whopping 53 points in their last non-conference game.

Princeton went 5-0 in its first Ivy games before facing Cornell, the two-time defending champ. The Big Red — which was then ranked 22nd in the nation — faltered at Penn the night before it traveled to Princeton for a Saturday matchup in Jadwin Gymnasium. Tiger fans packed the arena in numbers not seen in years, but they left heartbroken by a tight 48-45 loss.

A week later, the Tigers were still fighting for a shot at the conference title until Brown ruined their chances with a three-point defeat in Jadwin. Cornell did not lose another league game, defeating Princeton by a close 50-47 score in Ithaca, N.Y., and the Big Red headed to the Big Dance and ultimately the Sweet 16. Though the Tigers twice lost to Cornell by a triple, they also defeated much-hyped Harvard twice by the same margin.

In the postseason, Princeton hosted Duquesne in the first round of the CBI, dominating it with a 65-51 win. The Tigers managed a victory over Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis in double overtime before falling to St. Louis in the semifinals.

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Ultimately, five of the nine losses this season were by fewer than five points.

Lake, co-captain for his second season, shared his duties with senior guard Marcus Schroeder. Schroeder, along with junior guard Dan Mavraides and senior center Pawel Buczak, started all 31 games this season. He also easily led the team in assists and steals.

“A lot of guys contributed in a lot of ways this season, but the one that stood out the most to me was Marcus Schroeder,” Lake said. “He doesn’t score a lot of points or get a lot of rebounds or stuff like that, but he does a lot of things that help our team win. He’s a really tough competitor, and he plays his heart out every day. He sets a really good example for everyone else to follow.”

The team’s top shooter, sophomore guard Douglas Davis, averaged 12.7 points per game. He rained threes and mastered the jump shot, tallying the most points in 14 games. In one of his finest performances, he made seven treys against Lafayette.

By the end of the season, Mavraides’ 11.6 points per game was just behind Davis’. Against Penn, Mavraides scored 24 points, the highest total by any Tiger in a game this season. He also led the team in rebounding with 4.4 per game.

Both Davis and Mavraides earned All-Ivy second-team honors.

Buczak and sophomore forward Patrick Saunders round out the starting roster, but Princeton benefitted from contributions from the bench. Senior center Zach Finley ended the season with the team’s highest field-goal percentage, netting 51.9 percent of his shots. Though junior forward Kareem Maddox is known for his impressive dunks, he also earned the team’s only double-double for the season when he scored 17 points and snatched 10 rebounds at Columbia. His prowess on the defensive end was also unmistakable.

This was the third season for head coach Sydney Johnson ’97, and CollegeInsider.com named him Ivy League Coach of the Year for the second year in a row.

After last week’s season-ending loss in the CBI, Lake said he is proud of the team’s progress and performance.

“I think we grew a lot as the season went on,” Lake said. “Together, as a team, we got a lot closer… By the end of the year we developed a sense of confidence, and we were feeling better about the way we were playing together.”

The Tigers will graduate their leaders, Lake and Schroeder, as well as their two big men under the basket, Buczak and Finley. With a solid season under their belts, the underclassmen will be able to focus on the next big step: beating the Big Red and taking back the Ivy championship. With Cornell’s three biggest stars — point guard Louis Dale, forward Ryan Wittman and center Jeff Foote — graduating this spring, it could be time for the Tigers to regain the conference crown.