SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- When Princeton outrebounded Arizona by one Thursday despite having two post players who were a combined six inches shorter than Oumar Ballo and Azuolas Tubelis, Tigers guard Ryan Langborg's eyes were wide open.
So, two days later, Princeton crushed a smaller Missouri team 44-30 on the glass, collecting 16 offensive rebounds that led to 19 Princeton points. That, combined with Princeton's 12-for-33 3-point shooting, allowed the Ivy League champs to romp to the Sweet 16 with a 78-63 second-round win.
"We gave up a lot of height to Arizona, and that gave us a lot of confidence on the offensive and defensive boards," Langborg said. "It gave us shooters the confidence that when we missed it, someone else is going to go get it. So then we were just getting them up and having fun."
Princeton, now 24-8, appeared even more confident on Saturday than it did Thursday, taking leads of up to 21 and leading for 37 minutes.
"Thursday obviously did give us confidence," said Princeton forward Tosan Evbuomwan, who had nine points, nine rebounds and five assists. "It was nice to be able to ride the momentum into this game."
While many teams coming off first-round upset wins take a dive in the second round after two days of celebration, the Tigers said they kept their heads down.
"Phones were definitely blowing up," Langborg said. "I think we kind of celebrated; we were enjoying all that that love that night. But I think after that, we realized it's still business."
A business that the Tigers are proving to be pretty successful with.
"The world looks at us as two upsets," Evbuomwan said. "But I feel like we're supposed to be here. We have a lot of confidence in one another, what we're doing. There's definitely no letup with this group."
