Sports
AP Top 25 basketball poll – Asbury Park Press
PHILADELPHIA – After his Saint Joseph’s basketball team edged visiting Princeton 74-70 at a raucous Hagan Arena Sunday, handing the Tigers their first loss, Hawks coach Billy Lange praised Princeton as “an elite team,” lauded what was “a high-level college basketball game” and noted “the reality is teams in the Atlantic 10 and great, elite Ivy League teams, they can’t get games – no one wants to play them.”
Lange also said, “We’ll play Seton Hall here if they’ll play us…we’ll play St. John’s” and added, “Anyone that would love to play us in the Wells Fargo Center, we’ll play it and then return the game two years in a row.”
But when asked if he’s returning the Princeton game in New Jersey next year, the talkative coach grew taciturn.
“I’m not sure,” Lange said. “All I’m thinking about is the glass of red wine when I get home.”
Princeton coach Mitch Henderson, next up at the podium, answered the question more directly.
“It’s not a home and home,” Henderson said. “We don’t dictate our schedule. We say yes to everybody that wants to play us that’s good.”
Not only was this superb showcase for the sport a one-off game with no return contest planned, but Princeton did not even get a payday for it, as is common in such one-visit scenarios. St. Joe’s gave the Tigers a take-it or leave-it proposition, and while Lange fairly said, “I give them credit because they had the courage to do it,” his desire to schedule up against anyone anywhere apparently stops when it comes to visiting a Princeton program that was in the Sweet 16 last year and is Quad 1 opponent right now.
If it seems baffling that a coach of a program on the rise would play Big East opponents 2-for-1 with the home game on a semi-neutral court but not play Princeton 1-for-1, even though the Tigers are a bigger prize than much of that league, welcome to Henderson’s world.
That’s why Princeton’s 13-game non-conference slate consists of just two home dates against Division I opponents and two against sub-Division 1s. The Tigers couldn’t even get into a Feast Week tournament.
So after knocking on the door of the Associated Press Top 25 poll they fall to 9-1 and out of contention for now, even though they probably would have beaten Saint Joe’s on a neutral floor – the environment at Hagan is a huge home-court advantage. In the bigger picture, the scheduling gauntlet Princeton faces should be taken into account on Selection Sunday – they will have played more road games than any high-major or mid-major, by a lot.
The Tigers don’t want to do it his way, but when it comes to scheduling Princeton straight up, most coaches would rather think about that glass of wine.
Jerry Carino’s AP Top 25 ballot:
Also considered: Utah (7-2), Auburn (6-2).
Entered: Virginia at No. 19 (owns wins over Texas A&M, Syracuse and Florida); Northwestern at No. 22 (owns a win over Purdue); Colorado at No. 24 after beating No. 15 Miami by 27.
Dropped out: No. 16 Miami (7-2) after a 27-point loss to Colorado; No. 21 Texas A&M (7-3) after a loss to Memphis; No. 25 San Diego State (8-2) after a loss to Grand Canyon.
Analysis: It’s not advanced calculus this week. Not going to drop Colorado State and BYU out for taking their first losses — close ones to quality unranked opponents…Clemson takes a nine-spot leap forward after two wins over good opponents…Nothing needle-moving happened in the top 10 aside from Gonzaga losing close to Washington.
By conference: Big 12 (6), ACC (4), Big Ten (4), Big East (3), Pac-12 (2), SEC (2), American (1), Sun Belt (1), Mountain West (1), West Coast (1).
Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996 and the college basketball beat since 2003. He is an Associated Press Top 25 voter. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.
