Ivy League Sports

By David Rosenfeld, Princeton University

In the span of just a few months, the Princeton men’s basketball team has transformed from one of the League’s most known commodities into one of its most speculative ventures.

With the departure of five seniors following the 2004-05 season, including a pair of three-time All-Ivy League picks in Will Venable and Judson Wallace, the 2005-06 Tigers will feature a group that has no players who have earned All-League honors. A team that could count on four seniors in a solid eight-man rotation last season has turned into a team that has just one senior, team captain Scott Greenman, on its roster.

Even with all those changes, however, the Tigers have plenty of reasons to believe that they can return to the Ivy League’s first division. For one, Princeton still has three starters returning, despite the losses of 1,000-point scorers Venable and Wallace. Second, the Tigers welcome back 6-foot-9 sophomore Harrison Schaen, who showed flashes of brilliance as a freshman in 2003-04 before taking a leave of absence from Princeton last season.

Princeton also has head coach Joe Scott’s first recruiting class, featuring plenty of talent on the perimeter and in the post, and plenty of experienced depth on the perimeter with juniors Max Schafer and Edwin Buffmire and sophomores Matt Sargeant and Kyle Koncz.

Then there is the motivation factor: Last season the Tigers finished with a losing record in Ivy League play for the first time in the 49-year history of League competition.

The Tigers have long been known for their 3-point shooting prowess — Princeton is

still one of three teams, along with Vanderbilt and UNLV, to have made at least one 3-pointer in every game since the rule came into effect in 1986) — and they may have a particularly strong group of outside shooters in 2005-06. Princeton, which took nearly half their shots from behind the arc in 2004-05, shot better than 42 percent from 3-point range in the Ivy League last season.

Greenman’s 52 3s in 2004-05 led the team, and he shot 54 percent from beyond the arc in League games and nearly 40 percent for the season. His 104 career 3-point shots rank 11th in school history, and a similar season to last year would leave him fifth all-time at Princeton in that category. Greenman is also the team’s leading returning scorer—he averaged 8.6 points per game a year ago.

Junior Luke Owings was another sharpshooter in 2004-05, despite missing four games in midseason due to a stress fracture in his left foot. He led the Ivy by shooting 61 percent from 3-point range in conference play, and he averaged better than six points per game despite playing just 23 minutes a game.

Another excellent marksman, sophomore Noah Savage, had an outstanding 2004-05 campaign. Starting every game as a freshman, he was a two-time Ivy League Rookie of the Week who shot nearly 40 percent from long range. Savage averaged better than six points and 26 minutes per game in his first year.

That’s not to say that those three players are merely deep threats. Greenman is a solid floor leader who has 111 assists and just 62 turnovers while starting all 56 games the last two years.

Owings is probably Princeton’s best returning rebounder, and he has a solid mid-range game to complement his outside shooting ability.

Savage is a strong defensive player who can guard bigger people inside and smaller players on the perimeter; and he was also an 86 percent free-throw shooter a year ago.

Schaen returns to campus after a productive year off and a summer playing alongside Princeton teammate Greenman on the United States team

at the Maccabi Games in Israel. The forward/center hasn’t put on a Tiger uniform since he played 19 minutes off the bench in Princeton’s NCAA tournament loss to Texas in March 2004, one of his 25 appearances that season.

Schaen averaged just 10 minutes per game as a freshman, but he made several big plays during the Ivy League season on both ends of the court, particularly towards the end of key overtime victories against both Harvard and Columbia. He also finished second on the team in blocked shots with 17 despite the limited minutes, and he averaged 2.6 points and 2.2 rebounds as a freshman.

Princeton’s five-member Class of 2009 features a good mix of versatile players in both the backcourt and frontcourt. Look for several members of the class to play right away, similar to what Savage and Sargeant (nine starts, 17 minutes per game) accomplished last season for the Tigers.

In the backcourt, both wing Alex Okafor, from San Jose, Calif., and shooting guard Geoff Kestler, from Pittsburgh, will look to contribute immediately. Scott also brings in Jason Briggs, a 6-2 shooting guard from outside Seattle.

In the frontcourt, 6-9, 225-pound Noah Levine, who prepped at The Hill School in Pennsylvania, is a likely contributor for the Tigers in 2005-06. Michael Strittmatter, 6-8, is a native of Phoenix and will also join the program this fall.