By Andrew C. Mytelka '85
How many times are we going to do this?" asked a dejected Kit Mueller '91 after the men's basketball team (20-7) had narrowly lost to another highly ranked team in the first round of another NCAA. tournament. Last year, the opponent was Georgetown, and in a game hard-core Princeton fans still talk about as if it happened yesterday, the Tigers fell to the top-ranked Hoyas by one. This year, they played the seventh-ranked Razorbacks of Arkansas and lost by four, 68-64. Last year in Providence, Rhode Island, they were giddy over what they had accomplished; this year in Austin, Texas, they were disappointed over what they had missed.
Mueller and his teammates might be disappointed, but they've got nothing to be ashamed of. In what may have been an even gutsier performance than in the Georgetown game, Princeton held a team that averaged ninety-eight points a game to third below that. After falling behind by thirteen points in the second half, the Tigers mounted a comeback that made up the deficit and nearly carried them to victory. Arkansas escaped with some clutch rebounds and free throws in the waning seconds of the contest.
As the game reached its climax, a clear majority of the 11,578 frenzied fans in Austin were screaming their support for the Tigers and their hope for an upset-and not just because Princeton is a perennial underdog in NCAA competition. In Providence last year, the hometown fans backed the Tigers out of
April 18, 1990
Against Arkansas, It's Déjà Vu All
Over Again for Carril and Tigers
George Leftwich '92, the Tigers unflappable guard
The contest was billed as a struggle between Princeton's deliberate and patient style of play and Arkansas's high-scoring, fast-paced game. In recognition of the Tigers' top-ranked defense and, no doubt, their strong showing against such national powers as Georgetown, Xavier, and Michigan State, the N.C.A.A. seeded Princeton thirteenth in the Midwest region. The oddsmakers in Las Vegas, perhaps chastened by their poor prediction last year, when they picked Georgetown by twenty-three, cautiously installed Princeton as a twelve-point underdog against Arkansas.
The Hogs, meanwhile, were seeded fourth, and they grumbled about it. A squad that went into the tournament fifth in the nation in scoring and third in won-loss percentage (26-4), Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson complained, deserved a higher ranking. He called it a "slap in the face" to the Southwest Conference. Perhaps his griping also reflected his frustration at being paired with Princeton-a team, Georgetown Coach John Thompson told him, "You don't want to play." The subsequent course of the tournament seems to have confirmed Richardson's contention: nine days after eliminating the Tigers, Arkansas beat Texas to claim the regional championship and advance to the Final Four. But as he conceded after the game against Princeton, "Coach Carril's forgotten more basketball than I'll ever learn."
In the postgame press conference, Pete Carril blamed the loss on "self-destruct play"-in particular, a rebound by Arkansas's Lenzie Howell with :56 on the clockbut this is too harsh a judgment. Rebounding has rarely been a strength of a Carril team, and the Tigers can hardly be expected to compete in this area when, for example, the opponent can substitute a 6'9", 270-pound center for the foul-plagued starter, a 6'9", 235 pounder. In any case, Princeton was only out-rebounded, 26~25.
Free-throw shooting was a different matter. In the first half, Arkansas got into foul trouble early and Princeton was shooting in the bonus after the twelve-minute mark But the Tigers missed several opportunities to add to a lead that once reached eleven points. Toward the end of the second half, when Princeton was forced to foul to regain possession of the ball, the Razorbacks coolly sank the free throws that put the game away.
Another key to this game was depth. The Tigers went unusually deep on their bench this season, but in a tournament game, Carril wanted the players who had gotten him there on the floor. Mueller, forward Matt Eastwick '92, and guards George Leftwich '92 and Sean Jackson '92 played all forty minutes, and forward Matt Lapin '90, competing in his last collegiate game, played most of the game until he fouled out with 1:56 to go.
Despite his players' iron-man performances, Carril said after the game that they bad not "run out of gas," and to a large extent the Tigers succeeded in slowing down the Hogs' up-tempo game. But as Arkansas coach Richardson observed, even if his team's constant pressure doesn't cause turnovers, it exacts "wear and tear." And whether the reason was fatigue or foul trouble, Richardson freely substituted his players, keeping them fresh and able to play with the aggressiveness that foul trouble inhibits. By contrast, when Leftwich picked up his fourth foul with eight minutes to play, he had to stay in the game, because Jerry Doyle '91, usually the first guard off the bench, was ill.
Nevertheless, Princeton could just as easily have won this game. Arkansas's much-vaunted matchup press forced Princeton to turn the ball over fifteen times-Matt Henshon '91, who replaced Lapin when he fouled out, described the anxiety of watching the Arkansas press turn every pass into an adventure-but the Tigers' defense was also superb, creating a dozen turnovers of their own. Arkansas limited Lapin, a Tiger stalwart in the last weeks of the season, to only seven points, but Princeton shut down Todd Day, the Hogs' leading scorer, who managed just nine (less than half his season average).
Overall, both squads shot remarkably; well from the field-over 50 percent each. But the anticipated duel of long-range shooters-Lapin, who led the nation in three-point average, versus Arkansas' Lee Mayberry, who was second-never developed; three-pointers didn't really figure in this game. Of course, if Lapin (one of five) or Jackson (two of seven) had made more, Princeton might have won.
Princeton's stars were the players upon whom Carril will depend next season, when the Tigers, two-time Ivy champions, will attempt to extend their dynasty. Mueller led all players with nineteen points and eight assists; Eastwick enjoyed the best game of his career, scoring seventeen (including three of four from three-point range) and playing his typically fierce defense (he was responsible for turning Day to night); and Leftwich was four-for-four from the field.
With the loss of only one player to graduation this year, the Tigers figure to be even stronger next year and earn another chance for that elusive first-round N.C.A.A. win. And judging from the quality of their personnel and the toughness of their regular-season schedule-this year, for example, they played four teams that made it to the N.C.A.A. (Michigan State, Xavier, Dayton, and Arkansas-Little Rock)-we think it's only a matter of time before they get it.