Princeton Welcomes Back Hero
Thirteen seeds beat four seeds quite a bit in the NCAA Tournament. It is certainly not a rare occasion. But when the Tigers of Princeton knocked off UCLA in the first round of the 1996 NCAA Tournament it turned into one of those iconic tournament moments. What made this moment a little more memorable than some others is that it was little Princeton taking on the reigning NCAA champs and the most powerful program in the history of college basketball. It was Mitch Henderson who became the face of that upset in an iconic photo capturing the true thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, to quote ABC’s Wide World of Sports. That was also Coach Pete Carril’s last season of coaching and Henderson helped him go out with yet another memorable moment in Coach Carril’s amazing career.
A four year starter at Princeton, Henderson played a big role in the success of the 1996 season. However, it was the following two years when Henderson was an upperclassman that he became a great player and Princeton was actually an even better team. In 1998, led by Henderson, the Tigers were a five seed in the big dance, beating UNLV in the first round before bowing out to Michigan State in the second round. At one point that team was ranked seventh in the nation.
Henderson spent a little time playing pro ball in Ireland and sat on the bench for the Hawks briefly as well. After that, he went into coaching, following his old coach at Princeton to Northwestern. That was in 2000. For the next 11 years he served as an assistant under Coach Bill Carmody with the Wildcats. Has Carmody really been at Northwestern since 2000? Wow…it might be time to move on…three NITs and counting, so he isn’t going anywhere for now.
But anyway, after outplaying the Northwestern team in practices, Henderson has finally got the chance to go home. He inherits a solid team that is coming off of an NCAA Tournament appearance and the enthusiasm is high to get another one of their own back into the program. Sydney Johnson, class of 1997, was the previous coach, who left after four years to take over the Fairfield job. Henderson should pick up right where Johnson left off and have this team competing for another postseason berth, but there is a ways to go before Princeton gets back to where they were the last time Henderson was gracing the sidelines of Jadwin Gym.
Read the in-depth men’s basketball preview for this team
