Zielonka: Promise in Princeton, pause in Piscataway
I think I’d rather be Princeton’s 2-1 than Rutgers’ 2-0 right now.
There’s no such thing as moral victories, right? I think that depends on who you’re asking.
I’d love to know how Mitch Henderson was feeling after Princeton’s first loss of the season Sunday night, besides exhausted.
Two nights after Princeton knocked off South Carolina in the opening round of the inaugural Asheville Championship, the Tigers took another Power Five team, Minnesota, to two overtimes.
The Golden Gophers led for almost the entire second half. They shot 54 percent overall and 40 percent from the arc; the Tigers converted just 6 of their 28 threes. Between the shot disparity and the perceived talent discrepancy on paper between a Big Ten school and an Ivy, you might figure that would spell a blowout.
But even on a night when Princeton’s shot wasn’t falling, it kept a high-major opponent on its heels all game. It proved it could take a punch and hit right back.
Jaelin Llewellyn showed a national TV audience how he drives the lane like it did something awful to his family. He hit game-tying layups in the final seconds of both the second half and the first overtime, willing his team on. Tosan Evbuomwan went 8-for-18 for 16 points plus seven assists and five rebounds. Ethan Wright went to the dirty areas, as they’d say in hockey, getting a key steal and score when Princeton was down three in the final minute of regulation. He finished with 18 rebounds.
Read that back. A supposed forward led the team in assists and a shoot-first wing outrebounded everyone on Minnesota. It’s the era of positionless basketball, and more to the point, it’s a sign of these players’ versatility and insane desire to win.
Granted, Minnesota isn’t expected to do all that much this season following a regime change from Richard Pitino to Ben Johnson. Who knows what “quadrant” this loss will land in for Princeton come March. But little guy versus big state school is still little guy versus big state school, and close games like these are what make college basketball so enthralling to so many.
You don’t have to go back far to find the last time Princeton upset a Power Five school. Henderson’s Tigers beat then-No. 17 Arizona State 67-66 in a true road game in December 2018. Back then, it was Devin Cannady and Richmond Aririguzoh leading the way. Now it’s Llewellyn and Evbuomwan.
So I can’t even say this weekend marked a new step for the program. Hell, Henderson and his players probably traveled to Asheville expecting to win two games when few people figured they’d win one. Maybe that answers my own question about moral victories.
Besides, I think I’d rather be Princeton’s 2-1 than Rutgers’ 2-0 right now.
Rutgers needed overtime to get past Lehigh 73-70, then trailed Merrimack by nine Saturday before shutting them down and putting together a comeback. The Scarlet Knights have yet to hold a halftime lead, and the slow starts have started to concern me.
I had the opportunity to cover Rutgers-Merrimack in person. I can’t say it was the most thrilling game I’d ever seen. The two teams combined to make 29 of 108 shots – 26.9 percent – and Rutgers managed just 16 points in the first 20 minutes. I’m just glad for Rutgers fans watching at home that they had the option to turn on a rare blowout victory in football instead.
We know the Scarlet Knights’ defense has been their calling card in recent years, but this wasn’t just about defense. Guard Paul Mulcahy went 0-for-5 with most of his shots coming from the high post, where he looked overpowered. To be fair, Ron Harper Jr. thought otherwise.
“Paul got like four really good looks at the beginning of the game, and they just were all in-and-out, all in-and-out,” Harper said. “I told Paul, listen brother, on a different day those shots are falling. Just keep playing. (That’s) all you can do.”
Harper acknowledged it was one of the worst offensive performances in a half he’d seen at Rutgers, and said Steve Pikiell told them at halftime to not let their offense affect what they do on defense. They doubled their 16-point first half total with 32 in the second (more on that below). The fact is, it would be more anomalous and less concerning to fans and onlookers if they hadn’t had similar trouble against Lehigh – 37.5 percent from the field with just one out of 13 threes falling.
Everyone agrees that cold shooting nights are a fact of life. Rutgers just can’t start this slow every night, or it’ll turn into a long, long season.
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Cleaning the glass with other notes I want to share...
Credit to Rutgers for not only allowing just 12 points in the second half, but turning things around late on offense too. They only tried six threes and switched to more high-percentage shots, including this dominant move by Harper and two great dunks from Cliff Omoruyi. Their 32 points in the second half were more impressive than they may appear because of the game’s slow pace. Based on this formula, Rutgers had 24 possessions in the second half, meaning 1.33 points per possession.
“I knew the game would be a grind because that’s the pace they (Merrimack) play at,” Pikiell said. “Their zone forces you to run clock, and then the way their offense is structured, they’re running more clock. So we knew it’d be kind of an old-fashioned grind, and it was. But real pleased that we were able to come away 2-0. That’s where we want to be.”
Then there’s Seton Hall, also 2-0 after another lopsided win, this time over Yale. Given that Yale is the consensus favorite to win the Ivy, I truly thought this game would be closer. The Pirates made sure it wouldn’t be. Kadary Richmond bounced back from a tough outing in his Seton Hall debut and had 13 points, five boards and three assists. And Jared Rhoden is back healthy, debuting with 21 minutes off the bench. Hall fans can sleep easy in that regard. Next up: Michigan, which is No. 6 in the country as of this writing but will be a top-five team once the new AP poll arrives. A rematch of the 1989 national title game, Tuesday in primetime. Should be a great watch.