Princeton’s Mitch Henderson staying present in return to Kentucky, NCAA Tournament spotlight

A stop and a score — that’s all it took for a young Mitch Henderson to earn bragging rights over Rick Pitino on the basketball court.

Before his playing days at Princeton, when he was the subject of an iconic photo from the Tigers’ upset of UCLA in the 1996 NCAA Tournament, and before coaching his alma mater to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1967, Henderson as a high schooler battled Pitino in a game of one-on-one at a summer basketball camp the former Louisville and Kentucky head coach hosted in Lexington during the early 1990s.

“He would play one-on-one with all the campers and talk so much trash,” said Henderson, who spent part of his childhood living in Lexington, on Thursday at the KFC Yum! Center, site of the South Regional. “He was really good. He was probably in his late 30s at the time.”

The rules were simple: Pitino started with the ball needing three buckets to win. If Henderson stopped him and scored once, he’d walk away with a shirt that read, “I beat Rick Pitino in one-on-one.” Henderson did — and he tried to let Pitino hear about it after Princeton’s 70-64 loss to Iona back in December.

March Madness in Louisville:NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 is back at the KFC Yum! Center

Mar 23, 2023; Louisville, KY, USA; Princeton Tigers head coach Mitch Henderson answers a question during a press conference for their NCAA Tournament South Region game at KFC YUM! Center. Mandatory Credit: Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports

“I started to tell him, and he was like, ‘OK. Good luck,’ and he walked away,” Henderson said. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh — this guy.'”

Henderson is back in the Bluegrass State this week looking to earn more respect on the hardwood and appreciate “being present” as just the third No. 15 seed to reach the Sweet 16 since the NCAA Tournament’s inception in 1939. He raved about the campus sendoff, the team’s FaceTime call with Sen. Cory Booker and the personalized Louisville Slugger baseball bat he was gifted when Princeton arrived in the city.

With it, the Tigers, who face No. 6 seed Creighton at 9 p.m. Friday, will try to swing for the fences and join Saint Peters (2021-22) as the second No. 15 seed to advance to the Elite Eight. A victory over No. 1 overall seed Alabama or No. 5 San Diego State on Sunday, and they would become the lowest-seeded team to ever earn a Final Four berth.

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“It’s a life-changing moment for our group,” Henderson said. “Three weeks ago, we were fighting for our life to make the Ivy League Tournament.”

Midwest roots:Mitch Henderson busted brackets as a Princeton player before doing the same as a coach

Mar 18, 2023; Sacramento, CA, USA; Princeton Tigers head coach Mitch Henderson smiles after defeating the Missouri Tigers at Golden 1 Center. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

More than three decades ago, a 12-year-old, basketball-crazed Henderson and his family moved from Vincennes, Indiana, to Lexington when his father, an electrical contractor, got transferred for work. He enrolled at Tates Creek Middle School and took the court alongside three teammates who would also grow up to be Division I head coaches: Northern Kentucky’s Darrin Horn, Maryland’s Kevin Willard and G.G. Smith, who earlier this month was fired by High Point.

“This is an incredible place to grow up if you like basketball,” said Henderson, who after spending so much time on the East Coast “got excited about talking about Midwest stuff.”

“I can’t talk about this stuff at home,” he added. “Nobody knows what I’m talking about.”

Henderson moved back to Indiana for high school and was a three-sport athlete at Culver Military Academy. As a senior in 1994, he was selected as an outfielder by the New York Yankees in the 29th round of the MLB draft; but, when he told one of the team’s scouts over the phone he had been accepted at Princeton, the man with a thick Bronx accent on the other end of the line told him to pursue an Ivy League education.

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Now, Henderson is the only person to notch NCAA Tournament wins as a player and head coach at Princeton, playing a part in each of the Tigers’ four March Madness victories dating back to 1985.

Princeton Tigers head coach Mitch Henderson celebrates the victory against the Arizona Wildcats with guard Matt Allocco (14) at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento on March 16, 2023.

Until this year’s first-round upset of second-seeded Arizona, the most memorable of Princeton’s tournament triumphs came in 1996, when the No. 13-seed Tigers rallied from a 41-34 deficit with six minutes remaining to upend No. 4 UCLA’s quest for back-to-back national championships, 43-41, at the RCA Dome.

A photo of Henderson — who scored eight points and had a game-high four steals — leaping into the air with outstretched arms after the final buzzer sounded has become synonymous with underdogs in the field every year since.

Princeton coach Mitch Henderson holds up the iconic photo of him as a Princeton player after beating No. 4 defending champions UCLA in the first round of the 1996 NCAA tournament.

Thrust into the national spotlight again, Henderson on Monday made an appearance on “CNN This Morning,” where the photo resurfaced. And while his team practiced at the Yum! Center three days later, Henderson told the CBS broadcast crew assigned to the South Regional he’s ready to put that moment behind him and focus on this year’s run, which he called the most important in school history.

“He’s thankful for the past; but he’s more present in the present,” Princeton freshman forward Vernon Collins said. “He’s trying to garner more success for the program.”

Reach Louisville men’s basketball reporter Brooks Holton at bholton@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter at @brooksHolton.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: March Madness: Princeton’s Mitch Henderson back in Kentucky, spotlight