Princeton travels to Duke, MSG in non-conference schedule
Princeton will be able to check off two of the most iconic basketball venues in the country this season.
The Tigers play St. John’s at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 9 and nine days later faced Duke at historic Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, N.C.
The game against the Blue Devils marks Princeton’s first trip to Cameron since opening the 2010-11 season there. It’s been even longer since the Tigers roared into MSG, last visiting the World’s Most Famous Arena in 2000 for a pair of contests against Rutgers and Penn State.
While in-state rival Rutgers is once again absent from the non-conference schedule, there are some interesting tri-state areas games as Princeton heads to West Long Branch to meet Monmouth for a third straight season and sandwiches a trip to Atlantic City between the St. John’s and Duke contests. That visit to the shore features a clash with Iona at Boardwalk Hall.
The opener is slated for Dec. 9 against Division III DeSales at Jadwin Gym. Other home games on the slate are Fairleigh Dickinson (Nov. 21), George Washington (Dec. 1) and Saint Joseph’s (Dec. 5).
The non-league scheduled wraps with a trip to Arizona State on Dec. 29.
Ivy League plays begins with a home-and-home against arch-rival Penn at Jadwin on Jan. 5 with the return leg a week later at the Palestra. The Ivy Tournament is set for March 1617 at Yale. and predictive metrics that will assist the Men’s Basketball Committee as it reviews games throughout the season,” NCAA senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt said in a statement. “While no perfect rankings exist, using the results of past tournaments will help ensure that the rankings are built on an objective source of truth.”
The NCAA has used the RPI since 1981 to help the NCAA Tournament selection committee pick at-large teams, seeding and bracketing teams each March.
The RPI has been criticized in recent years for not being analytical enough. The RPI is calculated on winning percentage, strength of schedule and opponent’s strength of schedule, but more accurate tools for evaluating performance have developed. NET will give equal importance to early and lateseason games, and caps wins at 10 points to prevent teams from running up the score.
NET was approved in July following months of consultation with the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee, the National Association Basketball Coaches, top basketball analytics experts and Google Cloud Professional Services.
Last season, the NCAA introduced a quadrant system to put greater emphasis on wins away from home. The quadrant system will remain in place for evaluating teams.
The Associated Press contributed to this report