Sports Shorts: Fantastic fours; basketball freshmen

Princeton FIELD HOCKEY, ranked No. 4 in the latest Kookaburra/NFHCA Division I Poll, will host Stanford in the opening round of the NCAA tournament at 11:30 a.m. Nov. 14 in Class of 1952 Stadium. (The Princeton/Stanford winner meets the winner of Boston College and Syracuse Nov. 15, also in Princeton.) The Ivy League-champion Tigers completed a perfect 7-0 league season with a 7-0 win against Penn Nov. 6. Princeton (14-2 overall) has beaten three ranked opponents and was undefeated in eight home matches. The Tigers' only losses came at No. 1 Maryland (3-2 in overtime Oct. 7) and at Providence (2-1 Sept. 20).

WOMEN'S CROSS COUNTRY, also ranked No. 4 in the nation, will compete for an automatic berth in the NCAA Championships at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Meet in Princess Anne, Md., Nov. 14. The top two teams in the regional race advance to the NCAA meet. The Princeton women swept the top five spots in the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships Oct. 30 to win their fourth consecutive league title. Read more about the team in a Runner's World interview with three-time Heps champion Liz Costello ’10.

Princeton MEN'S BASKETBALL tips off its season Nov. 14 at Central Michigan, and many Tiger fans are hoping for big contributions from the team's freshmen, including forwards Ian Hummer and Will Barrett.

At Princeton's media day in late October, head coach Sydney Johnson ’97 gave cautious praise to his entire freshman class, saying that as a group, they "might play more minutes than people expect." But the newcomers still have much room for growth, Johnson added, because competing in college requires a certain "basketball IQ" that is hard to build in high school.

Senior co-captain Marcus Schroeder knows the first-year learning process well. He rarely left the floor as a freshman point guard in 2006-07, an up-and-down season in which the Tigers finished 11-17. Schroeder admits he was "kind of clueless" as a freshman when it came to managing his time and getting the rest needed to be a college athlete. "I tell [the freshmen] to just hang in there," he told PAW. "There are a lot of tough times. Everyone's away from home, and that's new for them. College basketball is a lot more intense than high school basketball. ... We're here to help them, if they need anything."

Princeton men's basketball freshmen

12	Will Barrett	Forward	6-10	200 lbs.	Hartsville, Pa.	Central Bucks South
52	Brendan Connolly	Center	6-9	270 lbs.	Brentwood, Tenn.	Father Ryan
41	Mack Darrow	Forward	6-7	225 lbs.	Lake Barrington, Ill.	Barrington
40	Gus Gabel	Forward	6-7	195 lbs.	Paradise Valley, Ariz.	Chaparral
34	Ian Hummer	Forward	6-7	225 lbs.	Vienna, Va.	Gonzaga
3	Jimmy Sherburne	Guard	6-3	195 lbs.	Whitefish Bay, Wis.	Whitefish Bay