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Username Post: Penn game thread        (Topic#20125)
SRP 
Postdoc
Posts: 4894

Reg: 02-04-06
03-11-17 11:11 PM - Post#226423    
    In response to whitakk

That is funny given program history.

 
Tiger81 
Masters Student
Posts: 409
Tiger81
Loc: Montclair, NJ
Reg: 11-21-04
03-12-17 06:49 AM - Post#226454    
    In response to SRP

I was at the Cathedral of College Basketball yesterday (anyone else sick of hearing that?) for both semis. Watching the Princeton-Penn game was agony!

Shots that the Tigers have been making all year just would not fall. Give Penn's defense credit because they were aggressive and it was a very physical and loosely-called game. Penn also made a lot of hard shots. I was there with my sister and her husband who live in Philly, and are not Ivy hoops-crazed like me, and she said at one point, "Penn's players seem to shoot much better than Princeton's.". I told her that had not usually been the case this year but it was yesterday (I then asked her to kindly refrain from any further positive observations about the Quakers).

The two senior stalwarts Cook and Weisz just could not get anything going and when they both missed very makeable shots at my end of the court in what seemed like their final possession, I was despondent. What a crappy way to end this special season, losing to an also-ran Penn team in their building! But then Penn's elder statesman Matt Howard missed that FT and Bell flashed up the court in what seemed like 3 long strides and Myles, who willed the team to victory, was Stephens-on-the-spot!

In OT, the game I thought I would see, with Princeton making shots and the defense thwarting Penn, finally played out. Princeton won despite Penn playing at a very high level and abysmal shooting from Cook, Weisz and Cannady, who was bottled up the entire game but canned his FTs when it was crunch time.

Yale looked really good in taking down Harvard. They also have many weapons and Bruner finally looked like the dominant player that he was advertised to be. He is a terror on the boards and made several athletic post moves against Harvard's bigs. Kevin W's write-up on the NYC Buckets site was superb as usual and perfectly described how Harvard gave the keys to Bryce Aiken down the stretch. Once the ball was in his hands you knew he would shoot, and while that worked a lot yesterday it also seemed to paralyze the rest of Harvard's offense.

To win the final Princeton will need to shake off today's offensive performance and try to channel the precision of their last game against Yale. It should be a good one.

Go Tigers!

 
bradley 
PhD Student
Posts: 1842

Age: 74
Reg: 01-15-16
03-12-17 07:23 AM - Post#226455    
    In response to Tiger81

Your description reads like the perfect storm (shots rimming in or out etc) which many of us feared as to the results of one game in a post-season conference tournament. It is a description as to the inherent risk of giving an automatic bid to the team that wins 2 games in 24 hours in a post-season tourney.

For some time, there was a debate on the forum as to which team was the "best" team. It always seemed to be a matter of opinion vs. which team earned the right to go to the NCAA tournament. Although the tournament is very challenging to win based on the absurd format, the regular season winner defines the team that earned the right to go if not for the creation of the IL Tournament. I believe that Princeton has answered the secondary question as to which team is the "best" team and now, we will see if they receive the automatic bid. Sad but true.

 
SRP 
Postdoc
Posts: 4894

Reg: 02-04-06
03-12-17 11:30 AM - Post#226476    
    In response to bradley

Great account , Tiger61. Now let's have a game with great Princeton defense throughout AND all the shooters dialed in.

 
SomeGuy 
Professor
Posts: 6391

Reg: 11-22-04
Re: Penn game thread
03-12-17 08:43 PM - Post#226634    
    In response to gokinsmen

I may give the opponent to much credit, but as a Penn fan I thought Henderson did a great job. I thought the decision to play small in the second half was a game saver. I thought the timeout right before the media timeout when Penn got up 10 was about as good a use of a timeout as you'll ever see, as Penn never regained momentum after that. I also really liked that, when Penn had the ball at the end of regulation, Henderson actually turned away from the action for a moment to try to pump up the Princeton crowd under the opposite basket. I thought that showed an appreciation of the atmosphere.

Seemed to me that both teams played (and both coaches coached) their butts off. I came away proud not only of the Quakers but of all four teams. I think we're playing an increasingly high level of basketball in the league, and it was a fun showcase for that.

Go beat Notre Dame.

 
Tiger69 
Postdoc
Posts: 2801

Reg: 11-23-04
Re: Penn game thread
03-12-17 11:25 PM - Post#226679    
    In response to SomeGuy

Thanks, SomeGuy. You're a Penn guy I could buy a beer

 
SRP 
Postdoc
Posts: 4894

Reg: 02-04-06
03-13-17 07:18 PM - Post#226846    
    In response to Tiger69

Interesting quote from the PAW account of the game:

"After Stephens hit a layup to trim the Princeton deficit to 33-32 to start the second half, Penn went on an 11-2 run to open a 44-34 lead with 15:46 left. It was the first time this season that Princeton trailed an Ivy opponent by double digits in the second half of a game. That’s when the Tigers showed their resolve.

“If I didn’t know them better, I would have questioned a little bit of that myself,” Henderson said. “We just said, ‘What are we going to do here?’ Their ability to have a conversation with each other — it wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t fun, we were calling each other names — but I’m so proud of them, they figured a way to get it done.”"

Oh to be a fly on the wall....

 
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