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More injuries plague Princeton basketball team
Gloger doubtful for weekend games against Brown, Yale
By Justin Feil
Princeton Packet Sports Writer
Thursday, Feb. 3, 2000
The Princeton University men's basketball team has an identity crisis.
It's getting harder and harder to know who is a varsity player, and no one can judge it by looking at the bench where there will be almost as many guys in street clothes as there are in uniform for this weekend's Ivy League doubleheader. And more and more, there may be unfamiliar faces filling the Orange-and-Black jerseys.
"We had to bring up three jayvee guys yesterday just to practice," Tiger head coach Bill Carmody said Wednesday. "A couple of those guys may go on the road with us. I don't even know the last names of a couple of those guys."
The latest victim on the 10-7 overall and 2-0 Ivy League team is freshman Spencer Gloger, who suffered a second-degree ankle sprain in Tuesday's practice. He is doubtful for Friday's 7:30 p.m. game at Brown and for Saturday's 7:30 p.m. start at Yale.
So Gloger's name may be added to those of Mason Rocca (ankle surgery), Nate Walton (broken hand), Eugene Baah (thigh contusion) and Kyle Wente (ankle surgery). Walton has been cleared to practice and play, and he or Mike Bechtold, who would become the ninth different Princeton starter this season, could start in place of Gloger if it turns out the shooting guard cannot play.
"Spencer looks like he's out," said Carmody, noting that Baah is still bothered by his injury and may not even suit up. "Now I don't know what the starting team will be but either the fifth or sixth guy is going to be a guy with a broken hand."
It has actually gotten so bad that even the healthy players aren't healthy. Ray Robins, who will start again at forward, looks like he returned not from the first Ivy weekend but from a tryout for Don Cahoon, head coach of the PU men's ice hockey team. The sophomore had two teeth knocked out in the last two minutes of the Columbia game by an inadvertent elbow.
"One of them got knocked completely out, and one of them got fractured," said Robins, who expects to have a permanent tooth replacement within six months. "The one that got knocked completely out got put back in and now there's a brace across the top of my mouth bracing my front tooth to the one that isn't stable yet... It's like braces almost. You can cut your lip a little bit. But pretty much the fat lip that I got with the elbow is what's bothering me the most because it's what's causing all the pain."
If that's all the pain that Princeton has this weekend, Carmody and his growing-younger-by-the-minute troops will be happy. The Tigers have tried to band together in remembering that they must continue to win as their teammates heal.
"I think it's difficult to keep focus," Robins said. "It sometimes gets hard with guys in and out to do what we want in practice. The guys that are there are pretty focused on what we want to do."
What Princeton will look to do in these next two games is to go for its 26th weekend sweep in 29 tries. Brown brings a 3-1 Ivy League record into Friday night's game, and the Bears, who are 6-10 overall, have yet to lose in Ivy action on their home court. Yale, one of three Ivy teams to have won their last meeting with Princeton, is also 3-0 at home and 3-1 in league play while they are just 5-11 overall. Brown and Yale split their season series with each other.
"Brown, they press a lot," Carmody began. "They run it up and down the court a lot. They have two freshmen who are their high scorers. There is a sort of renewed enthusiasm there. They feel good about themselves. They're at home and they've won at home.
"Yale is a more experienced team. They have a center who's the same size as ours and they beat us last year. They're similar. They have good guard play and a 6-10 or 6-11 center. Very physical team, an offensive rebounding team, which has caused some problems all year. With our lack of depth, at least experienced depth, we'll play back-to-back, it's hard."
Gloger's absence could hurt the Tigers against the Brown press and it will give Young one less outlet if Yale center Neil Yanke — who is coming off a career-high 29-point, 13-rebound performance last weekend — is able to continue his strong play against the Princeton sophomore. That will make the contributions of less experienced Tigers like Robins critical to the team's chances.
"I'm happy to be where I am, but I'm not satisfied at all with the way I've been playing," the Paso Robeles, Calif. resident said. "I have a lot of things that I need to do to help contribute things that are expected of me.
"I think the Columbia game I had two rebounds and that's definitely not where I need to be. Defensively, step up and stop the guy that I'm guarding and play better team defense as well."
Offensively, Robins is averaging 4.6 points per game since stepping into the starting lineup, and would be leading the nation in three-point shooting percentage with 61.5 if he had attempted enough shots to be eligible. Since exploding with a 27-point outburst against Catholic, however, Robins hasn't had as many opportunities to shoot.
"Against Catholic, it was obviously very easy to get up any number of shots because they really weren't guarding me very tightly at all," he said. "In the Ivies it's a lot tougher to get any good looks at the basket because they don't sag off anybody. They play everybody hard. So I'm just trying to get in my rhythm and pick that up as well.
"My senior year was the first time that I had ever played the perimeter. I had always been an inside player up until my senior year in high school. It's actually still a learning experience playing the perimeter."
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