Princeton MBB Earn Postseason Bid in CBI

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Courtesy: Princeton Athletic Communications

PRINCETON -- Gaining the program's first postseason berth in six years, the Princeton men's basketball team will host Duquesne Wednesday in the College Basketball Invitational tournament.

The game will be broadcast live at 7 p.m. on HDNet. Princeton and Duquesne have met twice, though not since 1973. Duquesne won in the first round of the 1952 NCAA Tournament in Chicago, and Princeton won in the 1973 ECAC Holiday Classic at Madison Square Garden.

Duquesne (16-15, 7-9 Atlantic 10) finished eighth in the Atlantic 10 and last played in the first round of its conference tournament Tuesday night at St. Bonaventure. Princeton's (20-8, 11-3 Ivy) last game was also Tuesday, a win over Penn at Jadwin Gym to close the regular season and clinch a second-place league finish for the Tigers.

The winner of the Princeton-Duquesne game will face the Hofstra-IUPUI winner Monday.

The 2009-10 season has seen Princeton win 20 games for the first time since 2004, also the last time it made a postseason appearance. Princeton has won 18 of its last 22 games with the four losses coming by a combined 11 points.

With Princeton joining the CBI, the Ivy League has gained three postseason bids in 2010, with Cornell in the NCAA Tournament and Harvard in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament. The last time three Ivies made it to the postseason was 2002, when tri-champions Penn, Princeton and Yale were all invited.

The postseason appearance will be the 29th in Princeton's history, all in the last 59 seasons. The Tigers have been to 23 NCAA Tournaments and five National Invitational Tournaments.