The college basketball offseason is here, and we decided to have some fun over the next few months, ranking ALL 364 teams in D1. Number 68 is Princeton basketball.
Before you say we’re crazy – or that all of this is up for debate, let’s go over the very intricate process of how we came to this conclusion. We took a very statistical approach – with the help of Chat GPT – taking into consideration everything from March Madness wins and finishes, to AP Poll appearances, to conference players of the year. And then, a good friend of ours, Scott Blanchard, took our approach to the MAX.
Click here to visit the FIRST article, which explains how the formula works!
Here’s the breakdown of Princeton basketball!
NCAA Tournament Success
- Championships: 0
- Finals appearances: 0
- Final Fours: 1
- Elite Eights: 1
- Sweet 16s: 7
- NCAA wins: 15
- Bids: 26
Consistency Over Time
- Wins per season: 14.9
- Bids per season: 0.21
- AP Polls: 41
Player Quality & Talent
- All-Americans: 9
- NBA players drafted & played: 7
- Conference Players of the Year: 15
Conference & Other Success
- Conference regular season titles: 33
- Conference tournament titles: 2
- NIT titles: 1
- Other tournament titles: 1
Overall scoop on Princeton basketball
Where do you even start for Princeton basketball? I guess we’ll look at the old-time history first, as the Tigers had a handful of Consensus All-Americans in the early 1900s and won the pre-tournament natty in 1925.
But the success didn’t end there. In the 1950s, the Tigers started to become usuals in the NCAA Tournament, making it in ’52 and ’55 for some Sweet 16 appearances. Then, in the 1960s, the brand started becoming nationally relevant. The Tigers made the NCAA Tournament seven times in the decade, marked by four Sweet 16s – including a run to the Final Four in 1965.
Of course, the star of that team in 1964-65 was Bill Bradley. A 2x Consensus All-American, Bradley dominated in college and played for the New York Knicks from 1967-77. Afterward, he turned to a career in politics as a US Senator from 1979-97. That is barely reaching the surface of what Bradley has accomplished in his life, and I highly suggest reading more, because he has had one heck of a career across different fields.
The other season of note was 1967-68, the first one for head coach Pete Carril. He stayed until 1996, implementing something called the ‘Princeton offense.’ The Princeton offense helped both sides of the ball, as the Tigers led the country in scoring defense 20 times since 1976, including every season from 1989 to 2000 – clearly staying even after he retired.
Surprisingly, despite often getting to the NCAA Tournament, nearly all of Carril’s Princeton teams lost in the first round. They did win a play-in game and upset 5-seed Oklahoma State in 1983. And in 1996, in his final season, the 13-seeded Tigers knocked off the defending champs and 4-seed UCLA. And while it wasn’t an NCAA Tournament appearance, the Tigers did win the NIT in 1975 when it was still somewhat of a bigger tournament than it is today.
Princeton turned to Bill Carmody next, who also did well and left for Northwestern. John Thompson III also coached the Tigers for a few seasons before heading to Georgetown, where his father coached for years. A couple of coaches later, and the Tigers finally got Mitch Henderson, who has given them more stability as the head coach since 2011. He’s gone 260-153 with two NCAA Tournaments, including a crazy run to the Sweet 16 as a 15-seed in 2023. Under Henderson, the Tigers have once again been the cream of the crop in the Ivy League.
And that might be the most telling stat of Princeton’s run of greatness since the beginning of time. They’ve won 33 Ivy League regular season championships, trailing only Penn, which has the most with 38. Practically from 1902 until the present day, the Tigers have put a good product out on the basketball court. There’s no wonder why they made the top 70 all time!