Sports: March 19, 1997
Cagers On Course
Longtime Tiger basketball coach is now "a quartermaster" for the NBA's Sacramento Kings
The novelist Anatole France once wrote, "People without weaknesses are terrible; there is no way of taking advantage of them." With only two full weekends of Ivy League play remaining, that's how most of the Ivy competition was feeling about the Princeton men's basketball team (21-3 overall, 11-0 Ivy).
Trying to hide a team's vulnerabilities in the context of a league as close-knit as the Ivy is like trying to hide a pimple on prom night, but the Tigers are looking pretty flawless so far. Witness veteran Yale coach Dick Kuchen, after his Bulldogs dropped their second game of the year to the Tigers, on February 14: "They shoot, they defend well, [center Steve] Goodrich ['98] gives them good looks inside, they're good passers, they catch the basketball, they're unselfish, and they play well together. I don't see too many chinks in their armor."
Princeton hasn't lost in calendar year 1997. The Tigers are 14-0 overall since national powerhouse North Carolina won in Jadwin on December 22, but comments like Kuchen's still make Princeton coach Bill Carmody nervous. "It makes me uneasy. Very uneasy," he says. "We've been playing well, you can't hide that, but because of the [competitive] nature of the league, you can't feel very good until it's done."
It was for that reason that the Tigers, rather than jumping right into the Ivy race, came out of their exam-week hibernation January 27 to face a sacrificial Division III opponent. Princeton entered the game with an 0-1 all-time record against the Hamilton College Continentals, having lost a 31-27 decision in Clinton, New York, in 1907. Revenge was sweet; Princeton rolled to a 90-48 win.
Back in the Ivy wars, the Tigers traveled to Cornell four days later, and beat the Big Red 66-42. On the offensive end, the stars were sophomores Brian Earl and Gabe Lewullis, who shot a combined 11-for-16 from the floor for 20 and 16 points, respectively. Defensively, it was senior captain Sydney Johnson, who made Cornell's high-scoring Alex Compton a virtual non-factor in the game.
Carmody calls his captain's defense "relentless." His opponents probably call it something else. Johnson's performance against Compton was typical, and the Cornell guard has plenty of company in his misery. Between them, Compton, Columbia's C. J. Thompkins, Dartmouth's Sea Lonergan, Yale's Gabe Hunterton, and Brown's Aaron Butler are averaging 14.5 points per game. Against Princeton they've averaged 4.5.
At Columbia the next night, Henderson's 8-for-10 field-goal shooting and 21 total points paced the 65-53 Princeton effort. The win over Columbia made Princeton 4-0 against the weakest teams in the league. The real test was just ahead.
In five crucial days in early February, Princeton met and beat the other three serious contenders for the Ivy title. After a scary 57-55 win over Dartmouth at Jadwin, the Tigers went on to dominate Harvard 75-51. Three days later, they blew Penn out of the Palestra, 74-59.
The Dartmouth game could easily have gone the way of the visiting Big Green. Princeton trailed by six points in the closing minutes before Lewullis closed the gap with a three-point shot and a driving layup that turned into a three-point play. Goodrich hit a pair of go-ahead free throws with six seconds remaining, but it still took a missed layup by Dartmouth's Keith Stanton to prevent overtime.
Carmody said that after the game he spoke to the team as though it were a loss, but a week later, his attitude had changed a little. "You have to give credit to Dartmouth when you see what they're doing now." (On February 14, the Big Green, at 8-2, was the only team with a realistic chance to catch the Tigers.) "We had to come through, and we did," said Carmody. "If we hadn't, do we beat Penn at the Palestra? I don't know."
Against Harvard the following night, things weren't nearly so close, as Princeton enjoyed a double-digit lead for three-quarters of the game. The win was impressive not so much because of the margin of victory, but for the way it was earned. Princeton lost Johnson and Goodrich to foul trouble early in the first half. That left Carmody to decide how he would defend against the Crimson's main scoring threats: guard Tim Hill, last season's Rookie of the Year, and first team all-Ivy forward Kyle Snowden.
"We hadn't really thought about anybody else playing Hill except Sydney, and we switched Mitch [Henderson '98] over and he did a very good job," said Carmody. "Then Jesse [Rosenfeld '97] came in for Goodrich, and there was no drop-off at all, either offensively or defensively."
The 74-59 Palestra win broke a four-year Princeton losing streak in Philadelphia, and the 15-point margin of victory was the Tigers' largest since 1976. The 74 points were the most for a Princeton team in that arena since Princeton scored 83 in 1965, when Bill Bradley '65 was the captain.
"It was exciting," said Earl, who scored a team-high 17 points. "You always have those fans down there screaming at you, but we kind of took them out of it."
It took a while for the Tigers to get their shooting touch against the Quakers. Penn took an early 8-0 lead as everything from three-pointers to easy hook shots clanked off the rim for the Tigers. A 14-4 run put Princeton ahead 29-23 at the 4:07 mark, but the Quakers rattled off seven unanswered points to lead by one with under a minute to play in the half. Rosenfeld nailed a hook shot at the 35-second mark to give the Tigers a 31-30 halftime lead.
In Carmody's opinion, the second half of the Penn game was one of the highlights of the season so far. Princeton came out of the locker room so fired up that by the 8:01 mark the Tigers led by 21 points. Johnson scored all 11 of his points in the second half as he and fellow-senior Rosenfeld (seven points) made good on their last chance to win at the Palestra.
Three days later, Kuchen's Bulldogs simply wilted under a rain of three-pointers. By the end of the 81-51 mismatch, the Tigers had scored as many points on three-pointers as Yale had in total. Princeton set a school record with 17 buckets from beyond the arc, led by Lewullis, who scored a career-high 24 points and shot 6-for-7 from three-point range.
Brown's embarrassing 0-48 all-time record at Princeton edged one loss nearer to 50 the next night, as the Tigers stomped the Bears 63-34. The 18-13 first half was pretty ugly all around. Princeton shot a meager 7-for-23 from the floor, and the Bears were even worse, at 5-for-17. In the second half, Princeton came around, but Brown didn't. The Tigers were 12-for-21 from the floor to outscore the visitors 45-21 over the final 20 minutes.
With one more run through the Ivy gauntlet facing him, Carmody was confident in a team that, he says, knows what it has to do to win. "I don't have to explain the X's and O's to these guys," he says. "I tell them this all the time: If we play hard-offensively and defensively-we're going to beat most everybody."
-Rob Garver
Fencing Heads to NCAAs; Men Regain Ivy Title, Women Rebuild
Victories over Harvard and Yale gave back to the men's fencing team (12-2 overall, 4-0 Ivy) the league title it lost to defending cochampions Yale and Columbia last year. Princeton defeated the Crimson 14-13 and the Bulldogs 17-10 in New Haven on February 22. A spirited Tiger team edged powerful Columbia, 14-13, early in the season, and beat challenger Penn soundly, winning 22-5 on February 12. Captain and sabre Graham Brooks '98 called getting the title the "first goal," saying the Tigers decided they were "just not going to let us lose."
The women finished their season with strong individual performances (especially from épée Caitlin Rich '99, who compiled an impressive 60-6 record), but the graduation of épées Lisa Picken '96 and Susan Ginn '96 and foils Nina Lightdale '96 and Adrienne Toy '96 stripped the team of much of its experience. The women (10-7 overall, 1-4 Ivy) ended up in fourth place in the league. Said Rich, "What we accomplished this year is incredible given our situation-next year, we'll be stronger."
Princeton is now looking forward to the NCAA Championships, which will be held at the Air Force Academy from March 20 to 23. Last year, the men's team placed fourth nationally. According to fencing maestro and head coach Michel Sebastiani, several Tigers have a solid chance to garner national honors this year at NCAAs.
In 1996, sophomore sabre Max Pekarev won the national title-Sebastiani says he has the "raw talent" to do so again. "He's not orthodox," says the coach. "He loves a fight, and he's impressed by no one." Brooks also has a great chance to advance; Sebastiani calls him "a classical fencer who works extremely hard-a studied, learned fighter, with a strong personality."
In men's épée, according to Sebastiani, the "explosive," Italian-trained Marco Acerra '99 (who finished ninth in his freshman year) "could go very far," and freshman Jason Burrell "will be somebody to worry about." For the women, Rich (fifth nationally in 1996), has power, "a clear style," and experience, and should advance. She may be joined by either senior Kristin Bratzler or by another newcomer, Nicole Polanichka '00.
In women's foil, says Sebastiani, a "top notch" freshman, Orsi Szotyory-Grove, has a good chance to challenge for national honors. The men will likely be led by "Mr. 100 Million Volt" Darren Raphael '98 (11th in 1996), who is a "spontaneous, all-out fighter, with unbelievable quickness and flexibility." Freshman Aaron Filner "has talent and smarts" and should make a strong showing as well, according to the coach.
-Paul Hagar '91
Track: Women Outpace Field at Indoor Heps, Men Finish Second
Each year, as winter peters out, the men's and women's track and field teams focus on the indoor Heptagonals championship, the climax of the indoor season. This year it was held in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on February 22 and 23. The meet marked its 50th year of competition in 1997, and Princeton's women (3-0 overall, 3-0 Ivy) celebrated by capturing their first indoor Heps title since 1989, outscoring second-place Cornell, 114.67-102. The men (5-0 overall, 3-0 Ivy), who were attempting to win their fourth consecutive indoor Heps title, fell a bit short, losing to Penn 121-97.5.
The meet saw the women turn in many outstanding performances and consistently place in each event. Cocaptain Tanya Baker '97 won the mile in 4:48.48 and placed fifth in the 800 meters; fellow cocaptain Katie Talarico '97 won the 3,000 meters. Both provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships, held March 7-8 in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Sprinter Nicole Harrison '98 usually blows away her competition, and at Heps she did not disappoint, winning the 55-meter hurdles (7.81), the 55-meter dash (6.94), and the 200 meters (24.22). Harrison broke meet records in the first two events, provisionally qualified for NCAAs in the last two, and was named Outstanding Female Performer for the second year in a row.
The women had a different attitude this season as they prepared for Heptagonals. After winning the Penn meet February 1 and the Harvard-Yale-Princeton meet February 8, the Tigers were confident in their potential to come away with a title. "In the past, we've always aimed at winning Heps, but I don't think we ever really believed we could do it. This year we didn't have any doubts," Baker said.
The men's team was edged out of this year's title by "a lean at the tape or a stride here and there," according to coach Fred Samara. The team had beaten Penn on February 1, 75-54, but its margin of victory was deceptively large; that meet could also have gone either way.
The men and women each finished the indoor season with undefeated dual-meet records. With the outdoor season just around the corner (it begins March 29), the women will look for a repeat performance, while the men should be hungry for redemption. Men's cocaptain and middle-distance runner Osborne Shaw '97 called the loss at Heps "a driving force," saying, "It will make us stronger and want it more" in the outdoor season.
-Sarah Slonaker '98
Sports Shorts
Women's field hockey: Coach Beth Bozman has been named Coach of the Year by the National Field Hockey Coaches' Association. This fall, Bozman led her team (18-4 overall, 6-0 Ivy) to a Final Four berth in the NCAA tournament; the 17th-ranked Tigers upset Iowa (which was seeded third in the tournament) and Old Dominion (which was seeded second) before falling to number-one North Carolina in the championship game. Princeton also won its third straight Ivy title. In nine years coaching the Tigers, Bozman has compiled a 101-46-6 record.
Men's lacrosse: Head coach Bill Tierney will serve in that position with the United States national team in the 1998 World Championships, a quadrennial event that Tierney says is "as close to the Olympics as lacrosse gets." Now in his 10th season at Princeton, Tierney has led the Tigers to three national titles, in 1992, 1994, and 1996; a 12-4 record in the NCAA tournament; and an overall record of 96-39. He had previously served as the head coach at Rochester Institute of Technology.
Sailing club: Princeton hosted a team race at the Raritan Yacht Club in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, on March 15 and 16; several schools will return March 22 and 23 for a second competition. The Tigers will compete in national qualifying trials for the Mid-Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association in Annapolis, Maryland, on April 19 and 20. According to junior Emily Kalkstein, 1997 is a building year for Princeton, which last placed competitors into the national finals in 1995.
Scoreboard
Men's BasketballÝ
(21-3 overall, 11-0 Ivy)
Princeton 57, Dartmouth 55
Princeton 75, Harvard 51
Princeton 74, Penn 59
Princeton 81, Yale 51
Princeton 63, Brown 34
Princeton 66, Harvard 61
Princeton 60, Dartmouth 53
Women's Basketball
(5-18 overall, 4-7 Ivy)
Dartmouth 62, Princeton 61
Harvard 80, Princeton 53
Yale 70, Princeton 56
Brown 66, Princeton 57
Harvard 79, Princeton 34
Princeton 70, Dartmouth 53
Princeton 48, Penn 45
Men's FencingÝ
(12-2 overall, 4-0 Ivy)
Princeton 23, Hunter 4
Princeton 14, Columbia 13
St. John's 15, Princeton 12
Princeton 23, Stevens Tech 4
Princeton 20, Haverford 7
Princeton 16, Vassar 11
Penn St. 15, Princeton 12
Princeton 19, Rutgers 8
Princeton 20,
New Hampshire 7
Princeton 16, Yeshiva 11
Princeton 14, Penn 5
Princeton 17, Yale 10
Princeton 14, Harvard 13
Women's Fencing
(10-7 overall, 1-4 Ivy)
Princeton 31, Hunter 1
Columbia 18, Princeton 14
Princeton 22, Duke 10
Princeton 24,
Fairl. Dickinson 8
Princeton 17, St. John's 15
Princeton 25, Haverford 7
Temple 18, Princeton 14
Princeton 23, Vassar 9
Princeton 16, Cornell 16*
Penn St. 25, Princeton 7
Princeton 22,
James Madison 10
Princeton 27, CCNY 5
Princeton 28,
New Hampshire 4
Penn 21, Princeton 11
Yale 24, Princeton 8
Harvard 26, Princeton 6
Men's Ice Hockey
(15-8-4 overall, 10-7-3 ECAC)
Cornell 4, Princeton 2
Princeton 5, Colgate 2
Brown 3, Princeton 2
Clarkson 2, Princeton 1 (OT)
Princeton 3, St. Lawrence 3
Princeton 4, Dartmouth 4
Princeton 2, Vermont 0
Women's Ice Hockey
(12-14 overall, 5-4 Ivy,
11-9 ECAC)
Brown 5, Princeton 1
Providence 5, Princeton 3
Cornell 3, Princeton 1
Princeton 7, St. Lawrence 3
Dartmouth 5, Princeton 1
Princeton 7, Boston Coll. 1
Princeton 5, Colby 4
New Hampshire 5,
Princeton 2
Men's Squash
(8-4 overall, 5-1 Ivy)
Princeton 7, Amherst 2
Harvard 5, Princeton 4
Princeton 8, Yale 1
Trinity 6, Princeton 3
Princeton 8, Penn 1
Princeton 9, Dartmouth 0
Trinity 7, Princeton 2
Amherst 5, Princeton 4
Women's Squash
(10-2 overall, 7-2 Ivy)
Princeton 8, Yale 1
Princeton 7, Penn 2
Princeton 9, Trinity 0
Princeton 8, Brown 1
Princeton 9, Penn 0
Harvard 5, Princeton 4
Men's Swimming
(10-0 overall, 9-0 EISL)
Princeton 176.5,
Columbia 97.5
Princeton 131, Navy 107
Women's Swimming
(6-2 overall, 5-2 Ivy)
Princeton 154,
Columbia 135
Yale 163, Princeton 136
Easterns-2nd
Men's Track
(5-0 overall, 3-0 Ivy)
Princeton 75, Penn St. 52
Princeton 75, Penn 54
Princeton 90.5, Yale 51
Princeton 90.5,
Harvard 28.5
Heps-2nd
Women's TrackÝ
(3-0 overall, 3-0 Ivy)
Princeton 62.67,
Penn 55.33
Princeton 89, Yale 23
Princeton 89, Harvard 36
Heps-1st
Men's Volleyball
(14-1 overall, 0-0 Ivy)
Princeton 3, St. Francis 0
Princeton 3, Concordia 0
Princeton 3,
E. Mennonite 0
Princeton 3, Juniata 1
Princeton 3,
E. Stroudsberg 1
Princeton 3,
George Mason 0
Princeton 3, Juniata 0
Princeton 3,
LIU-Southampton 1
Wrestling
(5-6 overall, 0-6 EIWA)
Columbia 53, Princeton 0
NYU Invit.-3rd
Penn 34, Princeton 0
Harvard 24, Princeton 9
Brown 25, Princeton 0
Cornell 31, Princeton 0
Boston College 36,
Princeton 6
ÝLeague champions
*Princeton wins by tiebreaker