With All-Ivy Stars Returning, Princeton Men’s Basketball Is Even ‘Deeper’ than Last Year

Coming off its third consecutive regular season Ivy League title, the top-ranked Tigers men’s basketball team is hungry for more. Blake Peters ’25 told head coach Mitch Henderson ’98 he has one goal at top of mind — four titles in four years.

“And that was about the end of the conversation,” Henderson recalled.

Even as the culture of college sports is changing at a rapid pace with the advent of the transfer portal, the Tigers will look familiar to fans on the court this year. Three of the Tigers’ five starters from last year are returning to Jadwin — and the two who aren’t returning graduated.

“It's not lost on me how many opportunities that these guys had and have and will continue to have,” Henderson said. “It's a different world.”

The Ivy League saw a handful of standouts transfer last spring, including Yale’s All-Ivy center Danny Wolf (Michigan) and Harvard’s Ivy Rookie of the Year Malik Mack (Georgetown).

Princeton is the only team in the Ivy League with two returning first team All-Ivy players in Caden Pierce ’26 (who also earned the Ivy Player of the Year nod) and Xavian Lee ’26, who led the Tigers in scoring last year.

Toward the second half of the season it was more of a struggle for Lee to get looks as opposing teams got increasingly physical with him.

“That’s been my biggest goal in the offseason, just in life in general, to be honest, putting on weight, getting stronger,” Lee told PAW. “I got a long way to go, obviously, but I feel really good about where I'm at right now.”

Lee declared for the NBA draft last spring but withdrew and opted to return to Princeton.

“May 2 at 12:01am, whatever time that was [the draft closed], I did a bunch of backflips,” Henderson said.

Henderson said that the Tigers are even “a bit deeper” than last year’s regular season champion squad.

Pierce returns to the court after averaging more than 16 points and nine rebounds per game last season. Tiger fans can rely on Pierce to put up major points this season — he had a 54.6 field goal percentage last season and averaged more than 30 minutes per game.

Late-season standout Dalen Davis ’27 will likely get some major minutes this year following the graduation of second team All-Ivy guard Matt Alloco ’24. In their heartbreaker loss to Brown in the Ivy Tournament last season Davis put up 21 points.

“Being more of a leader I think is the biggest thing with this team this year,” Davis told PAW. “So just playing together, and as a point guard, seeing what I can do to help out the boys.”

The Tigers relied heavily on a fast-paced offense last year, making a lot of shots in transition with a hot hand approach that Davis became an integral part of, especially toward the end of the season.

Also likely to be a scoring threat this year is Deven Austin ’27, who didn’t play last season because of an injury but will be back on the court this year. His freshman year he shot 57.9 percent from three and 51.2 percent from the field while playing less than 20 minutes per game.  

Jack Scott ’26 transferred to the College of William and Mary in May, but returned to Princeton this fall. Henderson said in a preseason press conference that he will not play this year, though as of Oct. 31, Scott remained listed on the team’s roster online.

The home opener will be at Jadwin Gymnasium 7 p.m. on Nov. 4 vs. Iona and airing on ESPN+.