Princeton in Sweet 16 for first time since ’67
PRINCETON, N.J. — Two years ago, Mitch Henderson was coaching a Princeton team that was basically on sabbatical.
The Ivy League had called off sports again amid the pandemic as other leagues and the NCAA pushed ahead, so the Tigers blended in with other hoops junkies and watched March Madness like fans. Henderson ordered pizzas and smoothies, gathered the Tigers at their on-campus gym and they watched tournament games on the big screen.
“That was fun and we got to do something,” Henderson said. “It really brought us closer.”
Princeton’s bonding period over a season of Zooms and tournament watch parties fueled the Tigers’ growth into this season’s brainy basketball bullies of March. See ya, Arizona. Maybe next year, Missouri.
Oh, and that’s not the delivery driver this week dropping pizzas off at Jadwin Gym. That was Phil Murphy, the governor of New Jersey, who made a cameo appearance at a practice before the Tigers left for their first Sweet 16 since 1967. Murphy raised his arm with the rest of the Tigers and coaching staff and broke the huddle on the three count with “together!”
“I don’t think any of us have had a governor roll into practice,” Tigers standout Ryan Langborg said, laughing. “That was a really cool experience. But at the same time, it was just another day at the office.”
The cubicle is getting cramped. Politicians, professors, media hordes, anyone who can snag a spot has popped by the gym to glean insights on how the 15th-seeded Tigers have pulled this off. Ousting second-seeded Arizona by four points looked every bit an upset; blowing out Missouri by 15 in the second round did not.
“Things are going to be different as much as I try to keep it normal,” Henderson said. “At Princeton, we don’t get this that often. I love that they’re getting a chance to feel like celebrities.”
Take 2022 Ivy League Player of the Year Tosan Evbuomwan. He picked up food at Winberie’s — “where extraordinary people are regulars” — and received a standing ovation. Henderson, himself a March hero for Princeton under Pete Carril in the 1990s, was shuttled with his players to New York for spots on CNN and “The Dan Patrick Show.” Blake Peters became a March meme when he channeled Kevin Garnett and yelled “anything is possible!” Even late-night host Jimmy Fallon dropped a lyric that “Missouri got served by some old Princeton nerds, now you’re busted” in a campy song about the spate of extreme upsets.
Up next, Princeton’s biggest game since the 1967 team that boasted three All-Ivy League firstteam players lost to North Carolina in the Sweet 16 — when only 23 teams were in the tournament. The Tigers are 9 ½-point underdogs to No. 6 seed Creighton tonight in Louisville, Kentucky, according to FanDuel Sportsbook.
Still, Princeton has yet to be overwhelmed by the big stage. Missouri lost as a 6 ½-point favorite, and Arizona was a 13 ½-point favorite.
There’s no guarantee that the 47-year-old Henderson, who has only one losing season in 11 years at Princeton, will stay much longer. He could parlay this deep run into a job at a school where scholarships and other support await. It’s lately a Jersey thing — Shaheen Holloway bolted Saint Peter’s for Seton Hall after last season’s Elite Eight run, and Farleigh Dickinson’s Tobin Anderson used last week’s monumental 16-over-1 win against Purdue to leave for Iona.
Henderson has grown the program in the era of an Ivy League Tournament, and the game has evolved to the point where there is no more Princeton offense in Princeton’s offense. There was not a single backdoor cut — a staple in Carril’s heyday and the spark that punctuated Princeton’s famed upset over UCLA in 1996 — in last week’s wins.