Men's Basketball: Tulsa will be tough test

Coming into the season, the men’s basketball team planned to ride the stellar play of its guards in order to make up for the lack of a clear playmaker among the team’s frontcourt. Almost 10 games in, though, Princeton’s highest scorer and star player has not been either senior guard and team co-captain Dan Mavraides or junior guard Doug Davis. Sophomore forward Ian Hummer, fresh off of winning Ivy League Player of the Week honors, surprisingly leads the Tigers (6-3) with more than 15 points per game.

Hummer’s scoring helped Princeton push its winning streak to four games after beating Monmouth University on Wednesday. That game began a stretch of four consecutive matches on the road, and Hummer and the rest of the team will take their talents to Tulsa this Sunday to play the Golden Hurricane (4-4).

“Overall, it’s just that I am more comfortable playing offense,” Hummer explained of his improved play. “Last year as a freshman coming off the bench, I didn’t know what to do. Now there’s a comfort level in my teammates and myself.”

After the departure of two big men from last year’s team in forward Zach Finley ’10 and center Pawel Buczak ’10, the team coaches gave Hummer an increased role in the offense, increasing his average minutes played from 18.6 to 30.1. He has responded by leading the team in field-goal percentage, shooting 62 percent from the field, and is second on the team with 6.6 rebounds per game. His performance has not gone unnoticed by the Ivy League media.

“I knew me and Kareem had to step up,” Hummer said of his fellow forward, senior co-captain Kareem Maddox. “The fact of me leading the team in scoring, I really didn’t expect that for myself. Me and Kareem are really playing well together.”

Hummer was named Player of the Week by scoring 22 points on 10-of-12 shooting against Lafayette and 17 points on 8-of-12 shooting against St. Joseph’s. He shot 75 percent from the field for the week, and contributed 10 more to the Monmouth win, including a key late-game shot to stave off the Hawks’ comeback attempts in a 64-61 victory on the road.

Hummer’s struggles at the free-throw line are the only thing holding him back. He is shooting 52 percent from the line and has been unable to fully capitalize on being fouled.

“I’m taking a lot of shots in practice, and I’m making a lot in practice,” Hummer said. “I know they are going to start falling for me, but recently they haven’t been.”

Hummer’s rise has not come at the expense of scoring from teammates. Maddox recently scored 30 points in a win against Siena, and their strong presence down low has opened up outside shots for Davis and Mavraides, who are scoring 14.9 and 14 points per game, respectively. The Tigers’ forwards to pass the ball, as Maddox leads the team in assists and Hummer is in third.

The Golden Hurricane (4-4) is led by guard Justin Hurtt, who is averaging 17 points per game. Princeton and Tulsa both shoot with similar accuracy, but Tulsa has struggled from three-point range, shooting just 34 percent compared to Princeton’s 40 percent.

Tulsa is currently on a two-game losing streak, but it is not to be taken lightly. It beat main-conference Pacific-10 Conference team Stanford by 12 just two weeks ago and will have a sizable crowd in place to rattle the Tigers. But they struggled in their most recent game against Oklahoma State, allowing forward Marshall Moses to score a career-high 31 on 12-of-12 shooting.

Judging by the Tigers’ season so far, this game will likely come down to the wire. Five of Princeton’s games have been tied or within one possession at the end of regulation. After taking a 15-point lead into halftime at Monmouth on Wednesday, the visitors needed a late score from Hummer and a block from Maddox on a last-second shot to preserve the win.

For the Tigers to continue their winning ways, they will need to keep the pedal to the metal and ride Hummer in Tulsa.