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Painful weekend for the Tigers
Injuries, lack of depth costly against Yale
By Justin Feil
Princeton Packet Sports Writer
Monday, Feb. 7, 2000
The Princeton University men's basketball team felt two kinds of pain Saturday.
The first was from the well-publicized injuries that had three one-time starters sitting on the bench. The second came two hours later after the Tigers suffered their first Ivy League defeat of the season, 44-42, to Yale, the same team to first upset the Tigers last season.
"It was a matter of time with our situation," Princeton coach Bill Carmody said. "We couldn't get into foul trouble and we did (when Ahmed El-Nokali fouled out with six minutes left in the game). Nate Walton (who played with a broken bone in his right hand) was playing (Bulldog point guard Chris) Leanza in the last six minutes of the game. He did well, but we shouldn't have to do that. We're not deep enough though.
"The four games in a row on the road, it got to us. We had to be able to substitute, and there wasn't anyone to turn to. There were four jayvee guys on the bench. In the normal course of things, guys don't have good games. Usually there's someone else to stick in there."
One night after scorching Brown, 76-60, by shooting 59.5 percent from the floor and 88.2 percent from the free throw line, Princeton, which fell one game behind unbeaten Pennsylvania with the loss, simply went cold.
"We hit a lot of shots against Brown," Carmody agreed. "It was definitely an offensive problem. Yale gets some credit for that."
The Tigers, who fell to 11-8 and 3-1 in Ivy action, made just two of 16 shots from three-point range and made only eight of 14 foul shots against the Bulldogs. Princeton had three layups in the final three minutes of the game, but failed to convert any of them. Tiger center Chris Young's layup attempt with two seconds was blocked by Yale's Neil Yanke.
"They have two big guys," Carmody said of Yale. "They had a 6-foot-10 guy and a 6-foot-11 guy. You wouldn't look at their line and think they played good games, but they were a real factor. Still, three of the last four times down, we had layups and they got blocked.
"When you have a loss, you can point to about half a dozen things that went wrong. We had a steal, for instance, and Ahmed and Chris had a two-on-one. Ahmed missed the layup and we couldn't even get the rebound. Just everything that could go wrong did go wrong. But I thought our guys were playing hard."
And without Spencer Gloger (sprained ankle), Mason Rocca (ankle surgery) and with just limited minutes for Eugene Baah (thigh contusion), Carmody had only seven guys who had any Ivy experience.
The night before, against Brown, it didn't matter as four guys scored in double digits, led by Ray Robins' 23 points. Young's 17 points led Princeton against Yale, but even that came on 6-for-16 shooting from the floor and 50 percent from the foul line. Robins was also in double digits with 11 points, but he made only one of his five three-point attempts. C.J. Chapman missed all five of his attempts.
"I don't know when we'll have everyone back," Carmody said. "Spencer is day-to-day. He just can't cut right now. Mason, I don't expect him back until we go back on the road (Feb. 25 at Harvard). We have to look at can we get these guys to play better?
"You've played four games. You have to look at them one at a time. It's still early in the league, and you still worry about yourself. You don't start looking at the standings yet."
Princeton returns home to Jadwin Gym for this weekend's slate of games. The Tigers host Dartmouth on Friday and Harvard on Saturday.
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