Princeton puts winning streak on line against Pitino’s Iona
PRINCETON >> Mitch Henderson fondly remembers his time in Lexington, Kentucky as a junior high schooler when his family moved there after his father took a job as an electrical contractor and he attended the basketball camp put on by the University of Kentucky head coach.
The Kentucky coach at the time was Rick Pitino.
All these years later, Henderson will try to beat the Hall of Fame coach when he takes his Princeton team up against Pitino’s Iona on Tuesday night in a game that will be played at Kean University’s Harwood Arena in Union.
“I got a T-shirt, which everybody did, but you had to beat him … and it said ‘I beat Rick Pitino 1 on 1.’ I wore that shirt all the time,” Henderson said. “He was a legend in Kentucky at the time and this was 199192. That was that ’92 team that took Duke down to the wire. He’s a national championship winning coach.”
If the Tigers (8-2) can beat the Gaels (6-2) it will not only be their ninth straight victory, but will come against the best team on their schedule. There’s no doubt this is a step up in competition from the teams Princeton has beaten during this winning streak.
Iona has a NET ranking of 34 and KenPom mark of 58, which is in stark contrast to the team’s the Tigers have been beating. The seven Division I opponents Princeton has
bested have an average NET and KenPom of 271 and a combined record of 26-47. Only one of those schools — UMBC at 7-4 — is over .500.
This is, in no uncertain terms, a step up that Princeton needs.
“We’re aware of what we’re walking into,” Henderson said. “They have a NET rating of 35 and we’ve played some really good high-majors over the years and this is the best team on the schedule. It’s a huge challenge that we’re looking forward to. I think it’s going to be an awesome environment.”
This will mark the third straight meeting between the two teams to be contested on a neutral floor. The last two — both four-point victories for the Tigers — were played at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City and the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
This one takes place at Harwood Arena on the campus of Kean University in Union, which is approximately the middle point between the two schools (Princeton is 40 miles to the south; Iona 40 miles to the north).
Henderson said he preferred this to be a home-and-home, but Iona wanted a one-off neutral site.
“They wouldn’t play us there and they wouldn’t come here,” Henderson said. “We couldn’t figure it out, but I’m really pleased we’re playing the game. We’ve been looking for local games that are high level. It’s well documented we have a very difficult time finding games.”
At the end of the day, however, they got the game scheduled between two high-level mid-major programs.
“Let’s do it like this,” Henderson said. “It’s been a lot of work.”