UPIA1968
PhD Student
Posts: 1122
Loc: Cornwall, PA
Reg: 11-20-06
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03-05-17 09:32 PM - Post#225155
First off let's not kid ourselves. The Pussies are a very strong favorite.
All of these keys must happen:Keep turnovers as they have been recently:
Make threes:
Make all those close in shots they have been missing most of the year.
Princeton has no weaknesses. Penn must excel to win.
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palestra38
Professor
Posts: 32892
Reg: 11-21-04
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Re: Keys to beating Princeton
03-05-17 09:47 PM - Post#225160
In response to UPIA1968
Look, it's house money for us. We're just happy to be there. To win, we have to defend the paint. Then we have to hope they miss the shots they've been making. And we have to hit the shots we haven't been shooting as well as Princeton.
Plus another 24/12 game from Matt Howard will help a lot. He came into Harvard needing 95 for 1000 and got 24. I figure he gets there in the first round of the NCAA against some MEAC team. 
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gopenngo
Masters Student
Posts: 487
Reg: 01-30-06
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03-06-17 12:27 AM - Post#225193
In response to palestra38
No play-in game. A win over Princeton and then Yale/Harvard would have us sniffing the 15 line. Matt can get it vs Kentucky.
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AsiaSunset
Postdoc
Posts: 4366
Reg: 11-21-04
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03-06-17 11:10 AM - Post#225225
In response to gopenngo
Like others I got to watch Princeton/Harvard this weekend. While the game was very close, it just felt like Princeton was the far better team.
Harvard couldn't feed the post against that defense and Princeton repeatedly took advantage of the smallish Harvard guards by taking them off the dribble and in many cases backing them down the lane, making both Chambers and Aiken look not only undersized but exposing them as defenders. I felt like I should have been watching a one sided game but of course it was a nail biter.
Towns obviously hit a bunch of big time shots, but Steven Cook seemed to be the best player on the court by a wide margin. Weisz and Stephens continually got to the rim and Cannady and Bell are certainly no slouches. Considering that Princeton's less talented bigs seem to make Harvard's bigs irrelevant, I still can't figure out why that game came down to the last 2 minutes. But it did. Maybe we can create a similar illusion by hustling and hitting more open looks than we have in past games, but this one looks like a tougher mountain to climb than Saturday night.
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weinhauers_ghost
Postdoc
Posts: 2144
Age: 64
Loc: New York City
Reg: 12-14-09
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03-06-17 12:33 PM - Post#225238
In response to AsiaSunset
I saw the road game we played at Jadwin to open the Ivy season. As you no doubt recall, the first half was an utter disaster. It seemed as if every single one of our shots was contested, and they were shredding our defense. We primarily played man to man against them in the first half; Weisz and Stephens in particular killed us on the offensive boards.
The zone really disrupted their offense when we made our second half run, but we basically ran out of gas down the stretch.
Brodeur couldn't figure his way out of their double teams (which was prescient, given the way the balance of the league games played out), but if Betley hadn't picked up two early fouls I think the half might have been quite different.
Goodman was a DNP that game. He got just two minutes in the rematch; my guess is that he's now enough of a game changer that he'll see much more time. I'm thinking we might have to play AJ and Max together a bit more in order to offset their size up front.
This should be an interesting game. I hope home court gives us an advantage this time.
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PennFan10
Postdoc
Posts: 3590
Reg: 02-15-15
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03-06-17 12:55 PM - Post#225240
In response to weinhauers_ghost
The zone threw them off because they missed all their 3's. At the Palestra we weren't so lucky. Weisz made everything.
The double will come early and often in the post. We better have a plan.
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Streamers
Professor
Posts: 8331
Loc: NW Philadelphia
Reg: 11-21-04
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03-06-17 12:59 PM - Post#225241
In response to weinhauers_ghost
I think the 'home court' thing is overrated in the sense that PU has a bigger relative advantage at home than Penn does and their fans will turn out for this game. The timing advantage with our kids coming off of break seems like a bigger deal to me.
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Tiger69
Postdoc
Posts: 2819
Reg: 11-23-04
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03-06-17 01:23 PM - Post#225243
In response to Streamers
1. Pray/hope your shots drop
2. Pray/hope ours don't
3. Hire a witch doctor 
Like anything with as many variables as a 40 minute basketball game, it is easier to predict odds, or the outcome of a large number of games, than a single event. A few good bounces, a hot or cold player or two, a few controversial calls -- will make the difference. The teams are closely enough matched so that Penn has a respectable chance to win. As the favorite, a Tiger fan still has plenty to worry about.
GO TIGERS!
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Chip Bayers
Professor
Posts: 7001
Loc: New York
Reg: 11-21-04
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Re: Keys to beating Princeton
03-06-17 02:42 PM - Post#225252
In response to UPIA1968
Make all those close in shots they have been missing most of the year.
I thought this was an issue at times in the last couple of games, but is there shot chart data somewhere showing this to be a season-long problem?
They're at 52.3% on the year on 2s, good for 58th nationally, which is pretty good for a team coached to seek to shoot only layups and threes, and avoid the mid-range and deeper non-three jumper as much as possible. 52.3% in league play as well.
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10Q
Professor
Posts: 23529
Loc: Suburban Philly
Reg: 11-21-04
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Keys to beating Princeton
03-06-17 02:48 PM - Post#225255
In response to Chip Bayers
I
I believe...
Calling Lefko Fall Wall.
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Quakers03
Professor
Posts: 12533
Reg: 12-07-04
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03-06-17 10:16 PM - Post#225335
In response to 10Q
I'm dying to know what the line will be. I also have absolutely no idea what to expect from the crowd situation. It helps us Penn folks that we get the first two games, but it also means the last two games won't be as attended. There were tons of tickets left so I'd like to think Penn fans are scooping them up.
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JAG
Freshman
Posts: 30
Reg: 11-26-04
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03-06-17 10:43 PM - Post#225341
In response to Quakers03
The cheapest tickets are $40. They must be less for students, but they better be much less, and it will be hard to publicize that if the students are on break this week. The league touted the tourney at the Palestra as generating the wonderful atmosphere of Saturday night, and of the Big Five days of yore. Reaching students should be a big part of the tourney officials' agenda. BTW, the crowd Sat. seems way bigger than 4500. Was that due to the spring break? When word gets around about the excitement, the doldrums the 2nd Princeton game sent everyone into will be replaced by anticipation of return of the old tradition -- if the administration supports that.
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Quakers03
Professor
Posts: 12533
Reg: 12-07-04
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03-07-17 12:02 AM - Post#225349
In response to JAG
How many people are back on campus by Saturday at 1 spring break weekend? If they traveled they most likely won't be back.
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palestra38
Professor
Posts: 32892
Reg: 11-21-04
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03-07-17 09:06 AM - Post#225364
In response to Quakers03
Spring Break is an event in 2017---not the vacation where the kids are on their own. Probably half of them are in Mexico or the Caribbean. I would be surprised if there are more than 100 students from Penn at the game. But this event will attract alumni with Penn, Princeton, Harvard and Yale in it. They should have a good overall sale---but why are they scheduling alumni events during the first game?
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Penndemonium
PhD Student
Posts: 1903
Reg: 11-29-04
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03-07-17 11:21 AM - Post#225383
In response to palestra38
Any thoughts on strategy? I haven't watched Princeton, but what I heard from everyone's write-ups of the regular season games was that Princeton seemed much bigger than us, had very good shooters, and they tore up our zone. It sounded like they were delighted to exploit shots and penetration from the wings.
Going undefeated with a pretty good league is no joke - it sounds like a formidable team without obvious weaknesses.
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palestra38
Professor
Posts: 32892
Reg: 11-21-04
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03-07-17 11:34 AM - Post#225386
In response to Penndemonium
They are very very good. No apparent weaknesses. We probably need to play a lot of 2 center lineups, with Howard, Betley and Goodman. We cannot allow them to beat us inside, so they will get shots from 3---it is up to our best athletes to get out there as fast as possible to change shots.
I'm really more focused on the defense in this game. Our only chance is to keep the score down (strange thinking against Princeton, but this is not the stereotypical Princeton team). Don't allow them to get second shots or easy buckets inside.
But this is a tough one...I've said 4 or 5 times, though that we're playing with house money and I believe that. We should be loose---just run out and hope for the best.
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yoyo
Senior
Posts: 365
Reg: 03-25-09
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03-07-17 01:27 PM - Post#225409
In response to Penndemonium
Princeton is a good squad, this wont be a cake walk for Penn. 
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Tiger69
Postdoc
Posts: 2819
Reg: 11-23-04
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Keys to beating Princeton
03-07-17 01:39 PM - Post#225412
In response to palestra38
In addition to the many other rather questionable decisions made in setting up the tourney, why are so many games being crammed into such a short period, which puts the first game survivors into a final with less than a day's rest? The organizers of this travesty leaned so far overboard to combine the men's and women's tourneys at the same location in a compressed format that would least inconvenience spectators from their busy lives that they fell out of the boat! I have possibly erred in hanging this mess on Dookie Robin Harris. Who was really responsible for designing this first tournament? To steal a phrase from our current exec in chief, "You're fired!".
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palestra38
Professor
Posts: 32892
Reg: 11-21-04
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03-07-17 01:41 PM - Post#225413
In response to Tiger69
Well, you have the Ivy execs held hostage in Princeton, so how can you blame any other school for this?
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Tiger69
Postdoc
Posts: 2819
Reg: 11-23-04
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03-07-17 01:43 PM - Post#225416
In response to Tiger69
Sorry, I re-read my post above and realize that it sounds like I'm babbling or frothing at the mouth. Not quite. But, close. 
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