The Princeton men’s basketball team will begin its 15-game non-conference slate with a trip to Akron on Nov. 8 for what looks on paper to be one of the toughest schedules coach Mitch Henderson has put together.

Schedule is set! 🗓️

Time to start counting down to the official start of the 2025-26 season!

Check out the full schedule ⬇️

🔗: https://t.co/sz7ThPAJjp#MakeShots 🐯🏀 pic.twitter.com/X9XVDQzj8G

— Princeton Men’s Basketball (@PrincetonMBB) September 19, 2025

Here are some notes:

— Trips to Akron (Nov. 8), Iona (Nov. 18), Monmouth (Dec. 3) and Loyola Chicago (Dec. 6) are all return games as part of a home-and-home series. Those four teams all played at Jadwin last season and the Tigers went 3-1 in those games.

— Visits form Northeastern (Nov. 20) and Merrimack (Dec. 22) the home legs of a home-and-home in which Princeton was the visitor last season. The Tigers went 2-0 in those games.

— The home opener is set for Nov. 11 against Bucknell. The Bison are making the first of two trips to Mercer County — they’ll also play at Rider on Dec. 9 — and have plenty of local connections amongst the coaching staff. Head coach John Griffin III began his college coaching career as an assistant at Rider. His brother and assistant Matt played two college seasons at Rider and Director of Operations Mike Walley is a graduate of Notre Dame High and TCNJ. Princeton will travel to Lewisburg, Pa., next season.

— How about this for a cool road trip? The Tigers are headed to Phog Allen Fieldhouse for a Nov. 15 matchup with Kansas. This is the third all-time meeting between the programs, with the Jayhawks winning in 1999 and 2001. In that 2001 meeting, a 78-62 Kansas victory, the Tigers were led in scoring by Chicago White Sox manager Will Venable with 11 points.

— Princeton will take part in the Terry’s Chocolate ESPN Events Invitational in Orlando from Nov. 24-26. The MTE guarantees the Tigers three games and begins with a contest against Bradley. The field also includes UC San Diego, Liberty, Rhode Island, Towson, Vermont and Temple. The Tigers have regular-season games scheduled at Temple (Dec. 22) and home against Vermont (Dec. 30) making it possible they could face those teams twice in a season.

— Princeton returns to CURE Insurance Arena in Trenton on Nov. 30 to face Saint Joseph’s for a third straight season. The Hawks have had a tumultuous few weeks with coach Billy Lange stepping down to take a position with the NBA’s Knicks and the ascension of Steve Donahue — yes, former Penn boss Steve Donahue — to head coach. Henderson has beat Donahue 13 straight times and holds an 18-2 record against his now former Ivy League foe. Despite the upheaval on Hawk HIll, St. Joe’s still has a talented roster, including Trenton-bred Deuce Jones, who was the Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year at La Salle last season.

— As for Ivy League play, that begins on Jan. 5 with a visit from Penn, now coached by Fran McCaffery. Not only do the Tigers have 13 straight wins over the Quakers, they’ve evened the all-time series at 126-apiece. The series is tied for the first time since it was 3-all following a 28-20 Princeton victory on Feb. 18, 1905.

— Unlike most seasons when the Ivy League slate wraps up with a game against Penn, it will end with a trip to the John J. Lee Amphitheater on March 7 against Yale. The Bulldogs have bested the Tigers in 14 of the last 17 meetings, including a three-game sweep last season.

Originally Published: September 19, 2025 at 4:13 PM EDT