2010–11 Princeton Tigers men's basketball team
The 2010–11 Princeton Tigers men's basketball team represented Princeton University in intercollegiate college basketball during the 2010–11 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The head coach was Sydney Johnson, who was in his fourth season. The team's tri-captains were senior Kareem Maddox, senior Dan Mavraides, and junior Patrick Saunders. The team played its home games in the Jadwin Gymnasium on the University campus in Princeton, New Jersey. The team competes in the Ivy League athletic conference. The team was coming off of a 22–9 2009–10 season in which it  achieved the most wins by a Tigers men's basketball team since the 1998–99 team and its first back-to-back finishes of at least second place in the Ivy since 2001–02 season. The team was also following on the heels of its first postseason appearance since the 2003–04 team went to the 2004 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament, and its first postseason victory since the 1998–99 team won two games in the 1999 National Invitation Tournament. The team was led by returning second team All-Ivy League selections junior Douglas Davis and senior Dan Mavraides. This was  the first team to have two returning first or second All-Ivy players since the 2003–04 team returned Will Venable and Judson Wallace. The team was attempting to defend its scoring defense statistical championship, which it won for the twentieth time since 1976 in 2010. Following the season, seniors Mavraides (2nd team) and Maddox (1st team, unanimous) earned All-Ivy recognition. They were joined by sophomore Ian Hummer (2nd team). Maddox earned conference Defensive Player of the Year. After the annual 14-game round robin home and away schedule, Harvard and Princeton tied as co-champion, resulting in a one -game playoff to determine the league's automatic bid to the 2011 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament. The Tigers prevailed. Princeton then lost its round of 64 NCAA contest against Kentucky. The season marked the team's 26th Ivy League championship and 24th invitation to the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship. Preview. Princeton entered the season having not won a championship since the 2003–04 Princeton Tigers men's basketball team achieved the feat and went to the 2004 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament. The six-season championshipless spell tied a school record and put  the team on the verge of establishing a new one should the season not be successful. The team entered the season with its top five scorers from the prior season returning. The team's schedule included the 2010 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament champion Duke as well as Tournament participant who were the 2010 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference champions (both regular season and tournament). Most preseason publications predicted Princeton would finish in first place and Harvard would finish in second place, although the "Sporting News" projected that would finish in first followed by Princeton and Harvard. Breaking a  three-year streak by Cornell, the Ivy League media poll selected Princeton as the top team with twelve first place votes, Harvard second with four first place votes and Cornell third with one first place vote. It was the first Princeton team to be the preseason top-ranked media selection since the . Playing style. Head coach Johnson employs the Princeton offense. However, in 2010, Johnson tweaked it to be a slightly more uptempo version of the motion offense, which resulted in the highest scoring Princeton team in decades. The offense was still considered slow compared to most schools. Schedule. The  team lost to its only two ranked opponents (#1 Duke and #21 University of Central Florida), but defeated Siena in overtime. The team also defeated power conference opponents of Conference USA, of the Atlantic 10 Conference and of the Big East Conference. Princeton recorded its 11th and the Ivy League's 30th perfect conference record at the halfway point of the 14-game conference schedule. The team posted a perfect 12–0 home record. It was the team's sixth perfect home season in 42 full seasons at Jadwin gymnasium. In 2009, the team adopted 11-year-old Christian Michael "Crunch