Sports: February 19, 1997
Men's Hoops Struggles to Victory
Carmody disappointed with Tigers' "flatfooted" efforts at Brown and Yale
When the men's basketball team (14-3 overall, 4-0 Ivy) is running coach Bill Carmody's offense the way he wants it, Princeton presents its fans with a display of synchronized, visual rhythm. Captain Sydney Johnson '97 or sharpshooter Brian Earl '99 bring the ball upcourt, then swing it to one side. Passes snap quickly around the perimeter, inside to center Steve Goodrich '98, and back out to the flanks. Guards and forwards cut hard down the lane and slide around screens, then circle back out to the sides of the court. Opposing defenses do what they can, but the Tigers get their shot. The patented back-door layup. A wide-open perimeter shot. Or, if the coach wants one, a soft hook, lobbed in by center Steve Goodrich '98.
But on January 10 in Providence, Rhode Island, Carmody's squad played an offense that looked more like a fifth-grade square dance. Earl caught the ball and looked, haltingly, at his options. A pass to Goodrich dropped off his hands and to the floor, sending him scrabbling between his legs to regain it. Passes were flat and forced, shots, when they came, caromed off the rim. In the last eight minutes of a lackluster, 44-40 win over Brown (which was 1-10 before the game), the Tigers couldn't score. The four points they got-which made up the winning margin-came on free throws.
Meanwhile, Brown was victimizing Princeton's usually effective defense (which is allowing opponents an average of 54.4 points a game), climbing out of what had been a 14-point deficit with 10:49 on the clock, and showing the sparse crowd why Carmody has come to hate playing at the Bruins' Pizzitola Center. "It's been this way three straight years," says the coach, with Princeton struggling against a supposedly weaker Brown team. In three of the last four years, the Tigers had lost close games in Providence.
Guard Aaron Butler led the Bruins' comeback, repeatedly dodging Tiger defenders for short-range jump shots. With just over three minutes remaining, they had pulled within four points, at 36-40. A three-pointer from Jason Rowley brought Brown within a basket of tying the game, but the basket came with less than two seconds on the clock. The Bruins ran out of time, and Princeton escaped with its first Ivy victory.
Team captain Johnson wasn't happy with the win. He called the team's performance "unacceptable" and added, "It's time for us to stop talking and take care of business on the court." Carmody wasn't happy either. "We have no zest, no life," he said. "We haven't played well offensively in the past three games," referring to Princeton's near-misses at Manhattan on January 3 (a game the Tigers won, 54-49) and against Rutgers three days later (they clawed past the Scarlet Knights, 71-66). "We're not moving, we're standing around, flatfooted," worried the coach. "If we keep playing like this, we're a .500 team."
Halfway through the game at Yale the next night, Carmody wasn't just worried. He was furious. According to Goodrich, Carmody berated the team for its poor performance in the halftime locker room: "I've never seen him like that before. He told us, 'You look pathetic.' " Johnson called the tirade "Carril-like," a description that spoke volumes to anyone who knew the former coach's intolerance for lackluster performance.
In the first half, the Tigers had played somewhat better than they had the night before against Brown, but the team was again letting a quick-footed shooter, forward Daniel Okonkwo, get past them and score (Okonkwo finished the game with 21 points, and his three-pointer at the halftime buzzer had given Yale a two-point lead, 26-24.)
When the chastened Tigers reappeared on the court for the second half, they began playing what Carmody later called "the best 15 minutes of basketball we've played in a long time." The coach enjoyed a virtual ballet on the offensive half, as his team began a 26-4 scoring run that was sparked by a smothering, aggressive defense.
With about seven minutes to play, the Tigers were ahead 50-30, Mitch Henderson '98 and Earl were hitting shots from the perimeter, and Goodrich was proving he's one of the elite centers in the league. "I don't like to talk trash, but there's no one in our league that can stop him down low," said Johnson. When the game ended, Princeton had won, 58-45, and Goodrich had driven home 21 points, including a rare dunk.
The team's less-than-dominant wins in the first weekend of Ivy competition, along with its struggles against Manhattan and Rutgers, show it's not a lock for the league title. Despite the talents of a defensive star like Johnson, Princeton has so far had a hard time stopping opposing players who are determined to get to the hoop. And like any team, they are prone to shooting droughts, meaning Goodrich and fellow center Jesse Rosenfeld '97 will have to continue as threats inside.
-Paul Hagar '91
Women's Basketball Splits First Two
A listener might be forgiven for doubting Liz Feeley when the coach said her team's 53-52 squeaker over Yale on January 11 hadn't been a "must win" for the Tigers. Feeley's squad (3-13 overall, 2-2 Ivy) had started its Ivy season the night before by losing, 72-70, to Brown. Despite the squad's protestations of unwavering morale, it's hard to believe that if the team had entered its 18-day exam hiatus at 0-2 in the league and at 1-12 overall, the coach would have considered it anything but unacceptable.
As it turned out, sophomore center Lea Ann Drohan sent the Tigers into the break with a one-game winning streak. Capping a breakthrough weekend, Drohan scored 20 points, grabbed four rebounds, blocked three shots, and made two steals as the Tigers outlasted the Elis for their first Ivy win.
"This is well deserved," said an elated Drohan after the game. "It's not a surprise to our coaches or to any of our players. We're one of the best 2-11 teams you're going to find."
On a night when the Tiger offense sputtered a bit, the team defense, according to Feeley, was the key to the win. "Defense. Flat-out defense," she said. "We really stepped it up immensely. We held them to 18 points in the first half [the Tigers scored 23]. The intensity, the pressure on the ball, the anticipation off the ball. That made all the difference."
The Tigers scored first and would not trail throughout the first half, but they could never put any distance between themselves and the Bulldogs. Yale tied the score at 11 with 11:24 remaining, but guard Kim Allen '97 hit a three-pointer to put Princeton back on top.
The Bulldogs came back to tie the score at 16, but then guard Erica Bowman '00 got a hot shooting hand. At a crucial moment with 3:06 remaining in the half, Bowman drove down the lane and scored on a pull-up jumper. Two minutes later, she nailed a three-pointer to put Princeton up by five. After a pair of Yale free throws, she scored again, on a driving layup with 16 seconds remaining, to keep the margin at five going into halftime.
The rest of the game was pretty much all Drohan and freshman guard Maggie Langlas. The 6'1" center planted herself on the low post, and there wasn't a whole lot the Bulldogs could do to stop her. Her drop-step layups and foul shots got her 13 second-half points, while Langlas got three of her five assists and eight of her 10 points.
Langlas's clutch three-pointer with 2:07 remaining brought the Tigers, who trailed, 47-52, at that point, within a basket. On Yale's next possession, guard and captain Zakiya Pressley '98 stole the ball and passed to Drohan for the game-tying basket. The Bulldogs missed the front end of a one-and-one, then put Pressley on the foul line with 9.3 seconds remaining to play and the game in the balance. She made one of her two shots, and the defense kept Yale from getting off a shot to end the game.
The night before, a dogged Princeton comeback fell just short, as Brown beat Princeton, 72-70. After trailing 39-31 at the half, the Tigers rallied to within a point, at 64-63, with under five minutes to go. But they couldn't tie the game and found themselves down by three, 68-71, with only 3.3 seconds left, and guard and cocaptain Sara Wetstone '98 standing at the free-throw line.
Wetstone made the first free throw, and her aim was to miss the second and give Princeton a chance for a game-tying putback. But her shot caromed hard off the backboard and fell through the net, giving the Tigers a useless point. They fouled on Brown's subsequent inbounds pass, and a Bears' free throw accounted for the final score.
Despite the difficult loss, there were bright spots for Princeton. Drohan and Langlas foreshadowed their fine performances against Yale with career-high point totals against Brown. Drohan netted 23 points and Langlas got 13.
Before playing Brown and Yale, the Tigers had fallen hard to a couple of highly rated nonconference teams. On January 4, George Washington overcame a two-point halftime deficit to beat Princeton by 20, 62-42. St. Peter's showed the team no mercy three days later, crushing the Tigers, 97-64.
According to Langlas, though, those pre-Ivy losses, ugly or not, aren't something the team would think much about. "Right now, we're really happy to be going into the Ivies," she said. "We believe in each other and I think everyone on the team is so focused and so encouraging that we're really going in with confidence."
Princeton started the rest of its league slate on the weekend of January 31, when it lost to Cornell, 57-58, and beat Columbia, 72-57, at Jadwin. The team traveled to Dartmouth and Harvard on February 7 and 8 and went to Yale and Brown the following weekend. The Tigers will host Harvard and Dartmouth on February 21 and 22.
-Rob Garver
Men and Women Swimmers Upset Harvard in Clash of Titans
For the last 24 years, men from Princeton or Harvard have won the Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League (EISL) and Eastern Seaboard Meet titles. This year, both teams entered the Harvard-Yale-Princeton double-dual meet undefeated-the Tigers were 5-0 in the EISL and 6-0 overall, the Crimson were 4-0 and 9-0-setting the stage for a showdown on January 31 to February 1 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Despite their perfect record, the Tigers weren't expected to beat Harvard, since the Crimson held most of the fastest times posted in the league this year, and Harvard had "an incredible amount of depth," according to Princeton's head coach, Rob Orr.
But Princeton did it anyway, eking out an 83-80 victory. Orr, now in his 18th year as coach of the Tigers, ranked the win as "one of the biggest" for the program and praised his seniors for rallying the team. "This is something the team can be very proud of for a long time," he said. Princeton posted a one-two sweep in the two diving events; won the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke, the 100- and 200-yard butterfly, the 50-, 100- and 1,000-yard freestyle, and the 200- and 400-yard medley relay; and got several second-place finishes.
Orr singled out the performance of Davin Quinn '98, who had shared a league-best time of 2:04.58 with Harvard's Dave Schwartz in the 200-yard breaststroke. Quinn beat Schwartz in the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke, winning the latter in a league-best time of 2:00.89. The Tigers (8-0 overall, 7-0 EISL) walloped Yale at the meet, winning 131-32.
Orr had harbored no illusions about the difficulty of beating Harvard. He speculated that the Crimson (10-1 overall, 5-1 EISL) could be "the best nationally ranked school ever to come out of the East."
Before the meet, Harvard men held 16 of the 19 best times in the EISL. They now hold only 12 of them, since the Tigers got top times in the 50 freestyle, 200 breaststroke, and 100 butterfly, and in the 200 and 400 medley relays.
Princeton will face Harvard again when it hosts the EISL championships, scheduled for February 26 to March 1 at DeNunzio Pool. Asked about the possibility of a second upset, Orr said it would be "a significant uphill battle," because the EISL format scores the top 16 finishers, rather than just the top three, favoring a team with more depth.
"We may have squeaked off a few first or second places at Harvard, but they got the next three or four spots in a lot of the races," said Orr. "[The EISL championships] will be a very difficult battle. . . . We'll set our sights on some individual victories and university records."
Princeton's women (5-1 overall, 4-1 EWSL) had also hoped to upset the Crimson on February 1, since a loss would probably have cost the team its hopes for title contention. Princeton had lost to Brown on December 7, and a second defeat would have made it difficult for the Tigers to overcome Yale, which was still undefeated at press time. Like the men, the women rose to the occasion, beating Harvard, 179-121.
The Tigers faced Yale on February 14 in New Haven. Harvard, Princeton, and Yale will likely be top contenders for the Easterns championships, being held February 19 to 22 at DeNunzio Pool.
Orange Line Leads Hockey's Offense
Winger Jeff Halpern '99 sounds a little hesitant when asked where he's from. Potomac, Maryland? . . . It's not exactly a hockey hotbed. "Yeah," says Halpern. "I don't really like to admit it. It's been a handicap at times-I've had to go out and earn respect." With 6 goals and 13 assists, Halpern is getting respect this season, as is his entire line. He is second among the Tigers in points, behind only forward and linemate Scott Bertoli '99, who has 11 goals and 11 assists. The two scoring leaders play on a line with forward Casson Masters '98, who has 3 goals and 9 assists.
Halpern, Bertoli, and Masters-who make up what coach Don Cahoon calls "the orange line"-have been tearing up the league this season, helping Princeton (13-5-2 overall, 8-4-1 ECAC) to its strongest start since the Depression. The Tigers have 13 wins in a season for only the eighth time in Princeton hockey's 96-year history.
Since the latter half of last season, when the orange line began playing as a unit, the trio has formed a balanced attack of strength, speed, and skill-but until this season, it wasn't always able to score. Now Halpern, Bertoli, and Masters put the puck in the net as well, collecting about a quarter of the team's total points (196). The Tigers have lost only one game when one of the three has gotten a point.
Why are they called the orange line? "There's nothing profound in the name," says Cahoon. "In practice we wear different colored jerseys, and they've been wearing orange for a couple of years. But [the players on] this line complement each other better than most others. That's why they're so effective."
The development of Bertoli, who forward and tricaptain J. P. O'Connor '97 calls "the most pleasant surprise this year," has played a big part in the line's offensive success. "He had a lot of potential," says O'Connor. "I think he adjusted even earlier than most people expected him to." O'Connor and forward Jean Verdon '97 have also been successful on the attack, with 15 points apiece.
According to Cahoon, the upstart orange line isn't the main reason for Princeton's success. "The seniors really deserve a lot of the credit," he says. "They are the ones who lead the way and motivate the team." The coach singles out the "unselfish" play of senior forward Keith O'Brien, who has 7 points so far. "He's a defensive type of player, a specialist of sorts, and he never complains," according to the coach.
Princeton is in good position for home-ice advantage in the ECAC playoffs, but it must realize how tough the competition is, especially since Cornell and Vermont, both of whom have beaten Princeton this year, are also near the top of the league. (Preliminary-round playoff competition begins March 4, with quarterfinal and semifinal and final rounds the following two weekends.)
"It's a seven-horse race for the lead," says Cahoon. "We have a long way to go before we prove we are a terrific team to everyone, and most importantly, to ourselves." If the Tigers, with their line of orange and their senior leadership, continue to play the way they have been, that proof will come with time.
-Shirley Wang '99
Scoreboard
Men's Basketball
(14-3 overall, 4-0 Ivy)
Princeton 90, Hamilton 48
Princeton 66, Cornell 42
Princeton 65, Columbia 53
Women's Basketball
(3-13 overall, 2-2 Ivy)
Rider 74, Princeton 71
Cornell 58, Princeton 57
Princeton 72, Columbia 57
Women's Squash
(6-1 overall, 3-1 Ivy)
Princeton 7, Trinity 2
Princeton 8, Dartmouth 1
Harvard 5, Princeton 4
Men's Swimming
(8-0 overall, 7-0 EISL)
Princeton 157, Dartmouth 86
Princeton 83, Harvard 80
Princeton 131, Yale 32
Women's Swimming
(5-1 overall, 4-1 EWSL)
Princeton 137, Dartmouth 99
Princeton 179, Harvard 121
Men's Volleyball
(3-1 overall, 0-0 Ivy)
Princeton 3, LaVerne 1
Princeton 3, UC-San Diego 2
Princeton 3, UC-Irvine 0
Long Beach 3, Princeton 0