Men's Basketball: Tough St. Joseph's team comes to town

Tagged as the favorite for the Ivy League in the preseason media poll — receiving 12 of 17 first-place votes to runner-up Harvard’s four — the Tigers (4-3) undoubtedly entered the season as the team to beat. And while the team has not done terribly this season, it has also failed to overwhelmingly impress. Four of Princeton’s seven games this year have been determined in the final seconds of regulation play — including two overtime victories and two one-point losses.

These close defeats have been disappointing because they indicate that the Tigers have the talent to be a 6-1 team.

Sunday’s match at Jadwin Gymnasium against St. Joseph’s is Princeton’s last home game of the calendar year — and a critical opportunity to prove that the Tigers are still championship contenders.

Princeton enters the matchup against the Hawks on the heels of a dominating win against Lafayette on Tuesday.

Despite barely pulling away in an overtime victory against Siena College the weekend before, the Tigers proved their offensive prowess in a dominating 82-64 trouncing of the Leopards on Lafayette’s home court in Easton, Pa.

The win gave the Tigers 503 points in the season — the highest since the 1971-72 squad scored 580 points in the first seven games.

Leading Princeton in the matchup against the Leopards was sophomore forward Ian Hummer, who scored a game-high 22 points and leads the team overall in points scored.

While the Tigers will undoubtedly look to this underclassman sensation to light up the scoreboards against St. Joseph’s, Hummer is far from the only player finding the net. Besides Hummer, fans of the Orange and Black should look primarily to three players to lead the offensive attack against the Hawks: senior guard and co-captain Dan Mavraides, junior guard Doug Davis and senior forward Kareem Maddox.

Mavraides proved indispensible to the team against Siena: His three-point shot in the last 10 seconds of regulation play sent the game to overtime, swinging the momentum in Princeton’s direction and putting his team on the path toward a 86-77 win.

The sheer amount of time that Davis spends on the floor — 35.6 minutes per game, more than any other player on the team — is enough to prove his importance, but he also leads in steals and is tied with Mavraides for first in three-pointers. Maddox rounds out the group. Blessed with an immense wingspan, Maddox uses every possible opportunity to take advantage of his physical gifts — he leads the team in defensive rebounds and blocked shots.

These four players have become much of the core of the men’s basketball team, and thus the pressure will be on their shoulders to come up with a win against St. Joseph’s.

Fortunately for the Tigers, there are several aspects of the game that play in their favor. Not only will Princeton be playing at home, but for the Hawks the matchup will be the end of three road games in five days. The Tigers, by contrast, will have had almost a week of rest from competition. Additionally, Princeton should be able to pounce on St. Joseph’s most glaring weakness: its inability to rebound. In their most recent game, the Hawks were outrebounded by an outstanding 46-23 margin, and overall this season St. Joseph’s boasts an unimpressive minus 4.0 rebounding margin.

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With almost two months left before the beginning of the Ivy League season, Princeton has plenty of time to iron out any remaining wrinkles in its game play.

Nevertheless, the matchup against the Hawks has the potential to make a lasting impression on fans and dispel any suspicions among the Ivy League that the Tigers are all bark and no bite.