Men's Basketball: Tigers still living high at NCAA Selection Show party

About 200 Princeton students, players, families, and media members gathered in the West TV lounge of Frist on Sunday evening to support the men’s basketball team and watch the NCAA Championship Selection Show on CBS. It was a light-hearted atmosphere, with senior team captains Dan Mavraides and Kareem Maddox and head coach Sydney Johnson ’97 making impromptu speeches and enjoying the aftereffects of junior guard Douglas Davis’ game-winning shot from the night before, when a 63-62 win over Harvard gave Princeton the Ivy League’s automatic tournament bid.

“I don’t think we were expecting this many people to come out and watch the Selection Show,” Maddox said afterward. “There [are] a lot of guys out here, a lot of girls that truly love Princeton basketball almost as much as we do.”

That light atmosphere continued even after 6:15, when CBS announced the No. 13-seeded Tigers would face No. 4-seeded Kentucky in a first-round matchup this Thursday in Tampa. As Princeton’s name popped up on the screen, the crowd erupted into cheers.

Simultaneously, many eyebrows raised as players began to realize the difficulty of their impending opponent. Earlier in the day, the Wildcats won the Southeastern Conference tournament by throttling the regular season SEC champion Florida, 70-54.

Maddox soon stood up and acknowledged the tough matchup ahead for the team, but stayed upbeat about Princeton’s chances.

“They know we are the wildest cats,” he said.

Mavraides, on the other hand, said he was more excited just to see Princeton’s name on the bracket, and was less worried about Kentucky.

“It was just pure ecstasy. It was great to see,” Mavraides said. “We had a great turnout here for the Selection Show so it was really unbelievable. It’s all kind of surreal.”

Monday marks the 15-year anniversary of Princeton’s landmark upset over defending national champions UCLA 43-41 in the 1996 NCAA Tournament. Johnson was a member of that squad and scored 11 points in the victory, including the game-tying layup.

This year’s team has several parallels to that famed squad. That year, Princeton and Penn shared the Ivy League title after the Quakers beat the Tigers at the end of the season. Princeton recovered from two regular-season losses to win the playoff, earning a 13 seed to play a perennial title contender in UCLA.

Substitute Harvard for Penn and Kentucky for UCLA, and even Johnson admitted the script looks pretty similar.

“The moment we had against UCLA, in some sense Doug Davis had that moment yesterday,” Johnson said. “It’s kind of nice to see history repeat itself.”

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Earlier in the celebration, Maddox, Mavraides, and junior co-captain Patrick Saunders stood and spoke to the fans present. From behind the Ivy League trophy that was draped in the net from Saturday’s game, Maddox and Mavraides thanked the crowd for the support they’ve given the team over the course of the season.

Johnson then singled out Davis, the hero of Saturday’s game against Harvard, who was conspicuously left off of the postseason All-Ivy League teams. Several players were still living off of the high from Davis’ game-winner of the night before.

“I can’t sleep,” Mavraides said. “I’m just thinking about [the shot] the whole time. It has been great.”

“I feel like every time I’ve seen Dan Mavraides I’ve given him a hug,” Johnson said. “Maybe one or two more hugs and then you got to get ready for a terrific coach and great players [of Kentucky].”

Johnson said he and the coaching staff will begin preparation immediately, and will have a team practice on Monday and Tuesday. They will likely head down to the warmth of spring break in Florida on Wednesday to prepare for the game.

While the coaches quickly left to watch film of the Wildcats, Maddox will be doing the same thing as many of the other members of his senior class.

“I’m going to go work on my thesis,” he said with a grin.