Mitch Henderson’s message to his team before it took the floor for its final game at the Myrtle Beach Invitational was simple. “Seventh place is better than eighth place,” Henderson relayed in his press conference after Princeton beat Portland, 94-67, to salvage the last of three games at the HTC Center on the campus of Coastal Carolina. It was, no doubt, a tough weekend for the Tigers in South Carolina as they got blown out by Wright State in their first game and then dropped a tight contest to Texas State when a second-half rally came up short. Princeton arrived at the Myrtle Beach Invitational as, arguable, the favorite to win it. It had the highest KenPom rating of the eight competing teams and a 4-1 record with the lone setback a close loss to undefeated Loyola Chicago. The Tigers are coming home with a 5-3 mark, a KenPom that dropped 22 spots to 112 and questions it has to answer with more challenging non-conference games on tap before Ivy League play starts in January. “This was a really informative couple few days for us,” Henderson said. “I’m excited about what we learned from it. We’ve got some pieces, but we really have to figure out how we’re going to come together and this weekend really exposed that for us.” What, exactly, was learned? “We’re getting, absolutely, everybody’s haymaker,” Henderson said. “… It’s very difficult to win and that can never be taken for granted although we have been on the winning side a lot the last few years. Our approach to the game and the four-minute period between media timeouts is growing. Not where we want to be, but it’s growing.” Henderson has tried different combinations based around his core four of Xaivian Lee, Caden Pierce, Dalen Davis and Blake Peters. Freshman Malik Abdullahi has popped off the screen with his athleticism, senior Philip Byriel has flashed an ability to stretch the floor, sophomore Jackson Hicke has had some nice stretches and freshman CJ Happy had a breakout performance against Portland on Sunday with 16 points. There have been nibbles here and there for freshmen Jack Stanton and Peyton Seals, and junior Jack Scott hasn’t quite looked in-sync since returning to the lineup, a decision that was likely influenced by Deven Austin’s sudden departure on the even of the season. “Last year, we played the same lineup the whole season,” Henderson said. “That won’t be the case this season.” Princeton has also had a bad habit of falling behind in games (it takes a lot of energy to comeback) and teams have made a point of being physical with the undersized Tigers. You have to think that took its toll on Pierce, the reigning Ivy League Player of the Year, in the first two games. He had a very un-Pierce like 14 points and 11 rebounds total — that’s typically a single game’s worth of production — until looking more like himself with 15 points in 20 minutes against Portland. Princeton also ranks in the 300s nationally in rebounding margin (-4.6) and defensive rebounding (22.8 per game), while fouls per game are slightly up from last season (13.5 to 15.5) when it ranked sixth nationally in fewest per game. “It’s a lack of discipline,” Henderson said. “Not fouling and then our defensive rebounding numbers are bad. We are really a 10-year low. That starts with me. Winning is really hard, but we can’t let anything slide. If you can hold a team to one shot, because that second shot, often, there is a lot of fouling that goes on. The other team gets an offensive rebound right around the basket and those and-1s really hurt you. It cost us on Friday night (against Texas State). It cost us in the Loyola game, too. We’re trying to clean it up.” The sky is certainly not falling after a couple tough losses against decent competition. The best — and history has shown only — route to the NCAA Tournament for Ivy League teams is by winning the automatic berth. After a layup on Wednesday against Division III Nazareth, the Tigers have road games at Saint Joseph’s (4-2; KenPom 94) and Furman (6-0; KenPom 120), a home date with struggling Monmouth (0-8; KenPom 300), a neutral site tangle with Rutgers (4-1; KenPom 79) and a home game vs. Akron (4-2; KenPom 132). By the end of that stretch, Princeton will be battle tested and ready for Ivy play. You can count on that. “Just because we had a good year last year doesn’t mean we’ll have a good year this year,” Henderson said. “When you get targeted, it’s difficult.” My AP Top 25 Ballot Kansas (5-0) UConn (4-0) Gonzaga (5-0) Auburn (4-0) Alabama (4-1) Kentucky (5-0) Duke (4-1) Iowa State (3-0) Marquette (6-0) Tennessee (6-0) North Carolina (3-1) Houston (3-1) Purdue (5-1) Indiana (4-0) Cincinnati (5-0) Wisconsin (7-0) Baylor (4-2) Florida (6-0) Texas A&M (4-1) Arkansas (4-1) Creighton (4-1) Ole Miss (5-0) Xavier (5-0) BYU (5-0) Drake (6-0) — No changes in my top five as Alabama bounced back nicely from its loss to Purdue by putting 100 on Illinois. Looking forward to the Maui Invitational, Players Era Festival and Kansas-Duke on Tuesday in Vegas. These top-10 teams facing off against one another will provide more poll clarity (or perhaps, not). — Big move for Shaka Smart’s Marquette up to No. 9 after victories over Purdue and Georgia. Can the Golden Eagles challenge UConn for the Big East title? — Speaking of the Big East: Xavier is in at No. 23 and Creighton drops to No. 21. Ryan Kalkbrenner didn’t make a field goal in the Blue Jays’ loss to Nebraska (his four points were from the free throw line) and guard Steven Ashworth got hurt. St. John’s dropped out after that backbreaker against Baylor and another setback vs. Georgia. — Wisconsin (7-0) was a high riser. Jumped the Badgers up from 24 to 16 this week after wins over UCF and Pitt. John Tonje had 33 against Pitt and ranks ninth nationally in scoring at 23 points per game. — See you later, Rutgers. Scarlet Knights lost at Kennesaw State (love that they played that game on the road even if it was only done as a favor to Ace Bailey’s people). Interested to see how Rutgers bounces back at the Players Era Festival in Vegas against Notre Dame, Alabama and third opponent that is TBD. — Arizona, too. Wildcats (2-2) have losses against Wisconsin and Duke, but losses nonetheless and with no quality wins they drop out. Baylor is the lone two-loss team in the top 25, but Bears have beaten Arkansas St. John’s and have played a more difficult early schedule than their peers. — Welcome aboard, Drake. The Charleston Classic is a great MTE and the Bulldogs stormed past Miami (Fla.), Florida Atlantic and Vanderbilt to the title. — Teams outside the power five conferences to keep an eye on: Furman (6-0), Saint Mary’s (6-0), Loyola Chicago (6-0), Dayton (5-0), and, yes, Columbia (7-0)!