"It was my first year as a head coach, the 2000-2001 season. I'm the coach at Princeton University. Preseason, we were picked to finish seventh in an eight-team league-so next to last in the Ivy League. We'd lost our coach, we'd lost our top players to transfer, one player [Chris Young, now president of the Texas Rangers] was no longer eligible to play because he was drafted in baseball. We weren't expected to be good."
"So we win the game, and we're out on the court celebrating-Princeton University, where you would assume that they're a bunch of smart guys. My team decides to give me the Gatorade bath. Mind you, no one does that in indoor sports. It's only done in outdoor sports. These guys sneak up behind me, we're out on the court, and they throw the Gatorade tub over me."
John Thompson III, now senior vice president of Monumental Basketball, recalls his first year as head coach at Princeton University during the 2000-2001 season. The team was picked to finish seventh in an eight-team Ivy League despite losing their previous coach, top players to transfer, and a key player to baseball draft eligibility. Thompson assembled a strong group of players, including Nate Walton and Kyle Wente, who performed well in crucial games. In the final regular season game against Penn at Jadwin Gymnasium, Princeton needed a victory to win the league title. The team won, and in celebration, players surprised Thompson with an indoor Gatorade bath—an unconventional move typically reserved for outdoor sports. The celebration sparked chaos as fans and students rushed the court and slid across the gymnasium floor.
Read at Washingtonian - The website that Washington lives by.
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