After breakout season, Stephens eager to lead new-look Princeton
PRINCETON » Princeton head men’s basketball coachMitch Henderson unabashedly calls himself a knucklehead for not starting Myles Stephens sooner than he did last season.
The evolution of the 6-foot-5 guard began with an insertion into the Tigers’ starting five in mid-December. It accelerated during Ivy League play in January. And by the end of the season, arguably the conference’s best two-play player resided at Jadwin Gymnasium.
Asked for Princeton’s strength entering the 2017-18 season, Henderson points to the team’s defense being “further ahead” than a year ago. At the center of that movement is the reigning Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year— an invaluable weapon for the new-look Tigers.
“Myles is able to guard other team’s best players,” Henderson said Thursday at Princeton’s Media Day, “and that gives you an opportunity to be in any game because everybody’s got really good players.”
During his sophomore campaign, Stephens was also a first-team All-Ivy Leaguer and the Ivy League Tournament MVP as Princeton won the inaugural conference tourney and advanced to its first NCAA Tournament since 2011.
Stephens, a Lawrenceville native, started in 21 of 30 games, averaging 12.5 points and 4.6 rebounds on a team-high 51.2 percent shooting from the field.
Those numbers upticked down the stretch in Ivy action when Stephens was regularly playing more than 30 minutes per game and Princeton went 14-0. In those contests he averaged 15.4 and 5.3 on 56 percent shooting, including 42 percent from deep, and blocked 10 shots.
In two Ivy League Tournament games, Stephens exploded with 44 points and 18 rebounds while connecting on 17 of 32 field goals.
An inside-outside threat who supplies toughness at 205 pounds and whose skills range from playing with his back to the basket to stroking it frombeyond the arc, Stephens was eager to develop further this offseason.
“I try to approach every season the same with different goals in mind,” Stephens said. “I think I can improve little things. Still working onmy shot, ball-handling and then one big thing is just leadership.
“Just trying to do the things that will help the team win, so defensively whatever I can do guarding the best player. Offensively, if it’s getting in the post or getting Devin (Cannady) shots, setting screens for him, setting drag screens for Amir (Bell) — whatever it is, just to help the team win. That’s what I’m trying to do.”
Stephens and Cannady will need to be significant catalysts for the Tigers, who graduated most of their 2016-17 rotation and three starters including Ivy League Player of the Year Spencer Weisz and 1,000-point scorer Steven Cook.
Neither junior guard sees the responsibility as pressure, though, but rather a comfort level in the system and the joy of fulfilling what they came to Princeton to do. Those two are teamcaptains this season along with senior guard Amir Bell.
“We givemax effort every practice, and I think that in itself is a kind of leadership,” Cannady said. “That’s something that we’ve grown together learning how to do. We came in here as freshmen not knowing anything, the Princeton offense. All I’ve done (inhighschool) was pick and rolls and shoot 3s, and now we’re cutting, moving the ball. We both were learning that as freshmen. And then as sophomores we both took on different roles and expanded those roles, and now we’re leaders.”