SACRAMENTO, Calif. As the final minute ticked off the clock, the Princeton fans started chanting “Sweet 16! Sweet 16!” and coach Mitch Henderson cleared the bench with the victory easily in hand.
This upset was no small-school fluke against a more heralded team. It was a thoroughly dominating performance that sent Princeton to a place it hadn’t been in more than a half-century.
Blake Peters made five 3-pointers in the second half and Princeton shocked another power conference team to reach the NCAA Tournament regional semifinals for the first time in 56 years by beating Missouri 78-63 on Saturday.
I wish the Missouri men’s basketball team didn’t play until today. I wish I could’ve written this column Friday. But wishing doesn’t make it so, because what happened Saturday night sullied any optimism Tiger fans like myself may have had.