Sports: February 25, 1998

Sports (overview)

• Goodrich makes good with "cool aggression" (Basketball)

• Men's lacrosse preview: talented Tigers will win another title

• Sabres sharp for fencing

• Venturi's victories lead grapplers (wrestling)

• Scoreboard

Brown forward Chris White came in for center Jade Newburn with 10:50 to play in the second half. The 1997 Ivy season was coming to a close, and the Tigers were a week away from clinching the Ivy title; the Bears were way, way out of contention. Princeton was leading by 10 points, but White, a 6'6'', 225-pound bruiser out of Brooklyn, wasn't in to provide offense. With a 4.9 points-per-game average, it was obvious he was in the game to do one thing: stop the Tigers' star center, Steve Goodrich '98. White took only 19 seconds to commit his second foul of the evening. Forty-three seconds later he had his third, sending Goodrich to the foul line, where he made two shots.

A minute and 41 seconds after that, Goodrich took a pass from guard Brian Earl '99 and drove to the hoop against White. He took a hard foul, but the basket was good. Then Goodrich straightened up, gave White a pat on the backside, and said a few quiet words in his ear. White whirled quickly and shoved Goodrich across the lane, drawing his fifth foul - a technical - and disqualifying himself. Goodrich, the polite prep school kid from Philadelphia, grinned as he stood at the foul line and made two of three.

His is a sort of cool aggression: the ability to reduce his opponent to tooth-grinding, wall-punching frustration without ever succumbing to it himself. That aggression has convinced Goodrich the best feeling you can have on a basketball court doesn't come from a slam dunk or a blocked shot, a fast break or a back door, or from any single play at all. What gives him the biggest thrill is "a general feeling the other team can't stop anything you're doing."

As a result, Goodrich doubts seriously that Princeton (16-1 overall, 4-0 Ivy) will look ahead to the NCAA tournament and lose focus on Ivy opponents. "These are guys who have played against you and really care about beating you," he says. "North Carolina's not going to say, 'Wow, it will make our season if we beat Princeton.' But Brown will be; Dartmouth will be." Goodrich's aggression won't allow him to give anybody that satisfaction. "It's the continuity. We beat Wake [Forest] once, but if we beat Brown again, we've beaten them seven times. It's the same guys. It's more personal."

When Goodrich arrived as a freshman, the challenge facing him was daunting. After learning the offense as a forward, he was thrust into the center position a week before the season because Rick Hielscher '95's bad knees were acting up. Goodrich had been a center in high school, but he knew even then Division I ball was going to be very different. "When I was in high school, I was bigger than everybody," he says, then starts going down a list of his shortcomings as a freshman: "I didn't have post moves... I had never shot hook shots... I wasn't a passer at all."

"When he came here he didn't have much," confirms coach Bill Carmody. "But he was mobile, and he could see." Goodrich may not have had much, but he dedicated himself to getting more. Working before and after practices, Goodrich turned himself into a two-time all-Ivy center, a distinction he'll most likely earn again this year. The hook he developed (and now takes with equal accuracy with right and left hands) has made him, in Carmody's estimation, "easily the best hook-shooter I've seen since I've been here." Goodrich tallied his 1,000th career point against Columbia on January 31 and is on a pace to break into Princeton's top 10 all-time scorers.

Carmody describes the often painful process of teaching Goodrich to become a passer in an offense that relies on the center's ability to distribute the ball. "It was a step-by-step process, and sometimes it seemed like we were taking baby steps." As a freshman, Goodrich's turnovers were twice as frequent as his assists. Now he averages over three assists per game and about two turnovers. He should get his 200th career assist later this season and will threaten the school's top 10 in that category also.

When Princeton beat Wake Forest, 69-64, in December, it validated a decision Goodrich made four years ago. Had things been different, he might have come into that meeting wearing a different jersey. (Wake had recruited him out of high school.)

As Goodrich remembers it, he had two options: "I could go to Princeton, where I could play right away. It's a good school, I could play in the Ivy League, and try to get the most out of playing basketball. Or, I could go to Wake ... [where] I probably would have red-shirted, and been a forward, and not contributed."

Goodrich thought he was making a certain sacrifice in terms of basketball by coming to Princeton. As it turned out, he got the best of both worlds. "Not only did I get the opportunity to play right away, but we've become a team that's had a chance to travel all over and play in the tournament and do that kind of stuff. And we don't just play a big game once a year - we're in a lot of big games. It couldn't have worked out better for me."

For a 21-year-old who's seen his picture in Sports Illustrated, his face on TV, and his name all over the papers, Goodrich is enjoying the attention without necessarily believing all of it. "Right now, the hype is kind of getting out of control. It's a good story because our record looks so good and we've played some good teams. ...It's fun to watch," he allows, "but you can't get too wrapped up in it."

That goes for the polls, too. Not ranked in the preseason AP Top 25, Princeton has since threatened to break into the top 10, placing 11th in both the Associated Press and the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll. One of the 30 voting coaches even gave Princeton his nod as the number one (yes, number one) team in the nation.

The Tigers emerged from exam-break hibernation on January 26 to stumble through a 59-50 win over Division III College of New Jersey, then headed straight back into Ivy play with a home weekend against Cornell and Columbia. They whipped the Big Red, 86-61, but needed a second-half rally to beat Columbia, 58-45, after trailing with about 15 minutes to play.

Goodrich may be cool on the court, but he speaks warmly of his time at Princeton: "Everybody I've talked to says this will be the best basketball experience I will ever have, and I find it hard to believe that it won't be. Playing here with these guys, who care so much about it, to win the games we've won, to do the things we've done. This experience is the best."

-Rob Garver

This article is adapted from one that originally appeared in Town Topics.

Men's lacrosse preview: talented Tigers will win another title

A powerful attack and experienced defense make Princeton a preseason favorite

The 1998 men's lacrosse team is already highly decorated. It's won 28 straight games and two consecutive national titles. Forty-six of 48 coaches ranked it as the best team in college lacrosse in a preseason poll, and four Tigers were honored as preseason first-team all-Americans. If it lives up to its potential, Princeton will win its third straight national championship this year. To do so, coach Bill Tierney must fill in several gaps - a few of them crucial - left by the 12 players who graduated last year.

The most notable gap is in goal, where Patrick Cairns '97 started for three years, last year allowing only 6.44 goals per game, the best goals-against average in the country. Competing for the job are Neal DiBello '98, Corey Popham '99, and Trevor Tierney '01 (the coach's son). Tierney calls Popham "the most technically sound" of the three. Attackman Jon Hess '98 says simply that Popham "gets hit by a lot of balls." That's more of a compliment than it may sound, since it means that the goalie is staying in the cage rather than getting caught out of position.

DiBello is more flamboyant. "You think he's out of the play, and then he makes a great save," says attackman Jon Hess '98. The young Tierney is adjusting to the rigors of college lacrosse, which in his case means facing some of the game's best shooters every day in practice. The coach is coy about which of his goalies will start; he says Popham has a slight edge at clearing the ball. Tierney may rotate his goalies if none is clearly superior, as he has in the past.

Whoever ends up in net will play behind substantially the same defense that helped Cairns compile his impressive goals-against average. Second team all-America Becket Wolf '97 is gone, but preseason first-teamer Christian Cook '98, honorable-mention John Harrington '99, and second-teamer Kurt Lunkenheimer '99 return. Jason Farrell '99, Ted Martell '99, and Adam Wolfman '99 will compete for the fourth spot. Whether that spot ends up being close defense (one of the three defensemen always on the field) or at longstick midfield (playing only when his team is on defense) depends on which of the three emerges.

Tierney must completely rebuild his defensive midfield, where he lost Jason Buttles '97, Derek Katz '97, and Ben Strutt '97. Tierney seems sanguine about his choices, pointing to seven or eight players who may contribute, including Mark Whaling '98, a defensive lineman on the football team and one of five team captains (along with Hess, Hubbard, Chris Massey '98, and Cook). The coach is equally optimistic about the possible replacements for his excellent face-off men, Dennis Kramer '97 and James Mitchell '97.

The Tigers' offensive midfield is an embarrassment of riches. First-team all-America Lorne Smith '99 returns; he'll play with Josh Sims '00 and Spencer Baugher '98. At Princeton's fall tournament, opponents couldn't cover both Sims and Smith, who are big, fast, and shoot the ball over 90 miles an hour. Fans should also watch freshman Rob Torti, Chris Berrier '00, and Seamus Grooms '98.

The attack of Hess, Hubbard, and Massey is not only one of the nation's best, it's one of the best this decade. As if that weren't enough, Hess says, "We'll be tougher to defend this year because we have better balance on offense." That's not good news for opponents; Princeton averaged nearly 15 goals a game last year.

If the Tigers get past their first two opponents, at number-four Johns Hopkins and number-three University of Virginia, on February 28 and March 7, respectively, they should win the rest of their regular-season games (contests against the University of North Carolina, Penn State, Rutgers, Hobart, and the usual Ivy slate). Then it'll be onto the NCAA tournament and, the team hopes, the Final Four on Memorial Day weekend, which this year will be played at Rutgers.

Tierney is circumspect when asked if he thinks his team will win in May. "Can we win it? Sure. Will we win it? Who knows?" he says. But this writer thinks Princeton will add to its cache of honors by winning its fifth national title in seven years.

-David Marcus '92

David Marcus, a former manager and longtime fan of the lacrosse team, now reports for Corporate Control Alert, a mergers and acquisitions newsletter.

Sabres sharp for fencing

After lunging to a strong start, the men's fencing team saw its hopes for a second consecutive Ivy title slashed nearly to ribbons at Columbia on January 31. Going into the match, head coach Michel Sebastiani had warned that the winner of the league title might well be decided that day. If he was right, the Lions took the inside track to the title with a 16-11 victory over the Tigers (52 overall, 1-1 Ivy).

Princeton, which also lost to St. John's 16-11 in the tri-meet format, got a strong performance from the sabre squad, as captain Graham Brooks '98 won 2-1 against Columbia and went 4-2 overall. Max Pekarev '99 was 2-1 and Terry Kim '01 was 1-2 to give Princeton a 5-4 advantage in that category. Despite strong performances from Marco Acerra '99 in the épée (2-1, 21) and Peter Rosen in the foil (2-1, 2-1), the Tigers left disappointed.

A week before, Princeton had destroyed New Hampshire and Hunter College, 25-2 and 21-6, respectively, in the Tigers' first team meet since a December 7 meeting with Penn, Rutgers, and North Carolina.

Princeton beat Penn 18-9 to open the Ivy season, with Pekarev going 3-0 in the sabre and Jason Burrell '00 (3-0) and Acerra (2-0) dominating the épée. The foil squad struggled versus Penn, but rebounded as Princeton beat UNC 17-10 and Rutgers 18-9. Dustin Reagan '01 led in foil, going 3-0 against UNC, 2-0 against Rutgers. In the épée, Acerra had a perfect day, going 1-0 against UNC, 20 against Rutgers.

The Tigers were back in Ivy competition on February 7, traveling to Cornell to face the Big Red, as well as Haverford and Brandeis. To win the title, Princeton needed another Ivy squad to pin a loss on Columbia, then had to win on February 21, when Harvard, Yale, and Duke came to Jadwin.

The women (73 overall, 1-1 Ivy) lived by the tie early in the season, winning 16-16 matches against both Columbia and Rutgers on indicators, but died by it in January. After battling Columbia to a 16-16 score, they lost the match on indicators to fall to 11 in the league.

The women traveled to Cornell on February 7, then met Ivy favorite Yale on February 21, when the Elis came to Jadwin with Harvard and Duke.

-Rob Garver

Venturi's victories lead grapplers

Resurgent after its near demise two years ago, the wrestling team (7-4 overall, 0-3 EIWA) began its season with a string of six wins. Among its strongest performers has been freshman 118-pounder Juan Venturi, pictured above during his win over Rutgers's Greg Theony on January 31. The "flamboyant" Texas native has an impressive record (16-7); his wins "set the tone" for the squad, says coach Michael New. "Juan has skills and desire that are unusual at this level," adds New. "He has untapped talent and will continue to improve" as he learns a collegiate (more strategic) wrestling style. The coach also says his team is getting better as a whole; adding new wrestlers this year has improved the Tigers' ability to practice and train together.

Scoreboard

M. basketball