Paper Tigers

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I might be the only one left out there, but I'm still not sold on Princeton. Sure they're in second place in the league after pummeling Brown and Yale over the weekend, but Joe Scott's Tigers still have not proved they can win a tough game.

Let's be honest. Brown? St. Joe's Prep could probably beat that team even if they do shoot better than 25.7 percent (the Bears' mark against Princeton). And the Columbia game came down to an idiotic play by the Lions' Dalen Cuff calling a timeout when his team was out of timeouts in overtime. Joe Jones' squad lost it more than Princeton won it, especially considering the home team didn't score a field goal in the last 10 minutes.

This weekend we will all get a realistic look at what the Tigers are made of on the road, where they have yet to play an Ivy League game and have just one win all season -- over Lehigh on Nov. 20.

Yes, Princeton looks to have righted the ship once Ivy play began, but there are still too many things that stand between them and being competitive.

- Their offense is up to 58.8 points per Ivy game, but that is against four of the worst defenses in the league, and one game was overtime.
- Of their 235 points, 63 (27 percent) have come from the foul line. Officials will not be that kind away from Jadwin Gym.
- Still well over half of their shots are coming from three-point range. That will not be effective against the better guards in this league -- think Ibrahim Jaaber.
- Starting a former JV player at center isn't going to draw any defensive attention away from Scott Greenman and Noah Savage. We all know how that offense doesn't work without a center.
- They have yet to score more than 19 field goals in a league game. Even 1-5 Dartmouth averages more than 23.
- Yale is the only team not to out-rebound Princeton (although they held a 9-7 edge in offensive boards) who has a -5 rebounding margin.

If the Tigers are for real, they will win Friday night in Boston AND Saturday in New Hampshire -- both places they lost last season. I don't think they will be in second place come Sunday morning.

But I could be wrong. Princeton might win the league and be the first Ivy team even in the play-in game come March.