Most of the Class of 2001 came to Princeton thinking that a "backdoor pass" would secretly get you into the TI taproom.
But after the magical 1997-98 men's basketball season that saw the Tigers routinely beat Ivy opponents by 30 points en route to a national Top 10 finish, the campus was united in a chorus of "Sit down, you suck."
Jadwin Gym became more than just a haven for hardcore basketball fans that winter; it evolved into a common sanctuary for anyone donning orange and black, a place where sold-out crowds were as routine as wins over Yale.
Who among us hasn't owned a wallet-size men's basketball schedule featuring a picture of Steve Goodrich '98? Who didn't consider camping out in Carmodyville for NCAA tournament tickets?
After two second-place Ivy finishes, one departed head coach and two AWOL stars, however, the real question is, will we ever pack up our tents for Thompsontown?
The team may be able to bounce back from the recent gutting of its roster, but remaining the number one show on campus may not be so easy.
We left our 1998 spring midterm exams early just to watch them beat UNLV. We bet on the NCAA tournament. We even wore "Beat Harvard" underwear. It didn't matter if the team won or lost — so long as you were there to cheer them on. The 1997-98 squad galvanized the student body in ways that are hard to explain to freshmen who have never felt the Jadwin court shake beneath the bleachers.
The question now is, why trek down to Jadwin when you could be watching 'Sex in the City'? But we have an answer. We used to attend games just to see the Tigers double Brown's score. But now maybe we'll go for it all — the cheerleaders stacking themselves three-high, the band playing plastic flamingos, the free merchandise shot out of hydraulic cannons and everything else that makes Princeton basketball Princeton basketball.
Good luck to the 2000-01 squad and new head coach John Thompson III '88. We'll see you on the court in November.
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