BYU basketball to play Princeton in the Marriott Center this season

The BYU athletic department announced today that BYU has added a game against Ivy League opponent Princeton.

The game will be a Family Home Evening game on Monday, November 14th and will be the Cougars opening game of the 2016-17 basketball season.

The Princeton Tigers were 22-7 last season after finishing 2nd in the Ivy League. Averaging 79.1 points per game Princeton were one of the better offensive teams in the country in the 2015-16 season.

Like the 15-16 Cougars, Princeton was a qualifier for the NIT. They lost at Virginia Tech in the 1st round, 86-81.

Princeton only graduated 1 senior who was a fringe player that only played 65 minutes last season. Returning for the Tigers are all 5 starters and their top 4 bench players.

BYU’s original season opening game was to be played against BYU-Hawaii on Friday the 11th of November. This game is still going to be played, but will be added to the Cougars exhibition schedule.

Perhaps the reason for the late addition is the Cougars desire to beef up their non-conference schedule. Princeton is an upgrade from BYU-Hawaii.

The Cougars will be busy during the first two weeks of the season as they will be playing 6 games in 2 weeks.

BYU has played Princeton 4 times previously. BYU was won each of those 4 games. The last encounter occurred in the 1991 Cougar Classic in the Marriott Center. Gary Trost, Russell Larson, and Kevin Nixon were able to dispose of the Tigers, 65-59.