Men's Basketball: Princeton reclaims past glory

Anything less than an Ivy League championship would have been a disappointment for the Tigers, who the media tabbed as the preseason favorites. 14 games were not enough to determine the automatic qualifier to the NCAA Tournament, as Princeton and Harvard met for a third time in the league’s first playoff since 2002. Weeks, months, years of practice came down to 2.8 seconds on a Saturday afternoon in March.

Junior guard Doug Davis flashed to the baseline, where he caught the inbounds pass from senior guard Dan Mavraides. Davis dribbled right, pump-faked, leaned back to his left, launched an open shot and fell to the ground as the buzzer sounded.

The ball dropped straight through the net. Princeton 63, Harvard 62.

“It was kind of like my life flashing before my eyes, except it was my four years here — the worst team in Princeton history to top of the Ivy League,” Mavraides said of his feelings during the game-winning shot. “I might have blanked out, because the next thing I knew, I was on the ground screaming.”

Though it provided the most famous ending, the Ivy League playoff was just one of many thrilling finishes the Tigers endured in a captivating 2010-11 season. Princeton played 14 games that were decided by less than six points or overtime, remarkably going 11-3 in those contests.

From the opening game of the season, the Tigers gave fans their money’s worth. Sophomore forward Ian Hummer scored with 33 seconds remaining to force overtime against Rutgers at Jadwin Gymnasium, and the hosts pulled away in the extra period for their first victory over their intrastate rival in six years.

Two weeks later, Princeton was 2-3 and in danger of dropping two games below .500, as Siena held a six-point lead with one minute to play at Jadwin. But after a Davis three-pointer, Mavraides sank two triples in the final 10 seconds to force overtime. Princeton won again, starting a streak of 10 consecutive victories in close games.

Senior forward Kareem Maddox broke out against Siena, notching 30 points and 10 rebounds and asserting his position as one of the best players in the Ivy League. Maddox, merely a role player in his first three seasons, nominally came off the bench as the sixth man but played starter’s minutes and led the Tigers with 13.8 points and seven rebounds per game.

Maddox was the only Ivy League player to score 30 points multiple times this season, repeating the feat in a double-overtime victory at Tulsa in December. He was named the league’s Defensive Player of the Year and was a unanimous first-team All-Ivy selection.

Princeton entered conference play at 12-4 and swept Brown and Yale on the opening weekend, setting up a highly-anticipated showdown with the Crimson. With Harvard’s top frontcourt players limited due to foul trouble, Maddox and Hummer combined for 31 points on 21 shots as the Tigers won 65-61, establishing themselves as the conference favorites.

They escaped a wild overtime with a three-point victory over rival Penn and beat Cornell on a Maddox jumper in the final minute, but perennial nemesis Brown finally felled Princeton after eight consecutive conference wins, dropping the Tigers into second place. But momentum turned again one week later, as the Tigers completed a perfect season at Jadwin with a 66-61 victory over Columbia – thanks to a stellar second half from Mavraides — and Harvard lost by one point at Yale.

"Playing in so many close games this year was exciting but probably took years off of my life," Maddox said. "As seniors, myself, Dan and Bobby [Foley] understood that this was our last chance to win the Ivy League so every game was amplified. In retrospect, I wouldn't have had it any other way, but at the time it was nerve-racking."

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Princeton had a chance to clinch the conference title outright at Harvard, but the Crimson pulled away late to earn a share of its first-ever Ivy League title. As opposing fans stormed the court, Johnson told his players to sit on the bench and watch the celebration, providing motivation for a potential rematch.

But first the Tigers had to defeat Penn at The Palestra, and the Quakers took an eight-point lead shortly after halftime. With its season on the line, Princeton stormed back, making 14 of its last 17 shots — including 21 second-half points from Maddox — to share the title and force a playoff.

“I’ve dreamed about this moment since the day I arrived in Princeton,” Johnson said after the victory. “There’s a banner in Jadwin [Gymnasium] that says 2004, and then there’s a drought there. I wanted my players to have the experience that I had … and now they have it and I couldn’t be happier.”

Princeton drew a No. 13-seed in the NCAA Tournament and faced No. 4-seed Kentucky, which eventually reached the Final Four. The Tigers fell behind 11-2 early on but stormed back to tie the game at 20 on a Davis three-pointer. Maddox threw down a thunderous dunk to give the Tigers a brief lead shortly before halftime, and neither team led by more than five points for the rest of the game.

The Wildcats took control with a 14-4 run midway through the second period and appeared ready to close out the game, but Princeton stayed in it. Facing a four-point deficit in the final two minutes, Maddox halved the lead with a jumper, and Mavraides hit a fadeaway to tie the game with 38 seconds remaining.

Kentucky star guard Brandon Knight held the ball to run out most of the shot clock, made his move and floated a contested layup over Maddox’s arm high off the glass. It fell through the net and the Wildcats staved off an upset with a 59-57 victory.

Johnson broke down in tears in the postgame press conference, saying, “I love, love, love Princeton basketball.” So it was a shock when, less than three weeks later, Fairfield University announced that Johnson would be its next head coach.

A two-week coaching search resulted in the hiring of former point guard Mitch Henderson ’98, who had spent the previous 11 seasons as an assistant for former Princeton head coach Bill Carmody at Northwestern.

“I’ve never stopped being a fan since I’ve graduated,” Henderson said when he was hired. “When Doug’s shot went through the net [to beat Harvard], I jumped off my couch, I was so happy. I was excited for Sydney and his staff and for the team. I feel like I know our guys already.”

Henderson is Princeton’s fifth head coach in 17 seasons, as none since the legendary Pete Carril has outlived his first freshman class.