Monday TigerBlog – The Gold Standard – Princeton University Athletics

Ellie Mitchell had just fouled out of Princeton’s first-round NCAA women’s basketball game against West Virginia, and the TV screen flashed “Ellie Mitchell – 3 points.”

From his seat on the men’s lacrosse bus, from which he watched the game, TigerBlog could only roll his eyes. If anything ever failed to tell a story of game, which Princeton lost 63-53, it was “Ellie Mitchell – 3 points.”

Yes, it was accurate. She did have three points in the game. No, scoring was never how she was judged in her Princeton career.

Here are other numbers Mitchell had: 15 rebounds. Five assists. She had 10 of those rebounds in the first half. 

With each play she made, the men’s lacrosse coaches ooh’d and ahh’d. They raved about her energy, how she impacted everything on the defensive end, how tough she played on every possession.

In the end, it was the end of her Princeton career, one that she finished with 1,125 rebounds. It’s a school record, for women or men, and TB will be shocked if it’s broken any time soon.

The game also saw the end of the Princeton career of Kaitlyn Chen, who had 17 points in the game, leaving her with 1,276 career points, 12th best among Tiger women. 

There is a beauty to the NCAA tournament, and yet for every shining moment, there is a corresponding heartbreak. For Princeton, the heartbreak came one round earlier than it had each of the last two seasons, when the Tigers won their NCAA opener and came within a game of the Sweet 16.

Because of that success, and because of what the prize was for winning this game, this heartbreak was even tougher. It will be West Virginia, and not Princeton, who advances to take on Iowa, which means a second-round date with the great Caitlin Clark, as big a star as there is in sports today.

It would have been a great experience to compete against her, yes, but it was also a great experience to reach the NCAA tournament at all, any year, for any team. It is never something to take for granted, and winning there likewise is never, ever easy.

In the history of Ivy League women’s basketball, there have been four NCAA wins. Before these Tigers came along, there were two: Harvard in 1999 and Princeton in 2016.

Then Princeton beat Kentucky two years ago and North Carolina State last year. It changed expectations and goals for this group, but West Virginia’s pressure defense, especially in the third quarter, was too much to overcome. 

This is a glorious time for Ivy League basketball in general. This year saw the Ivy League get two bids on the women’s side for the second time ever, which shows you how nationally relevant the league is.

Yale’s men, of course, won their game Friday against Auburn, and it was no fluke. Afterwards, Yale coach James Jones suggested that Princeton was the best team in the Ivy League this year, and he felt that Yale had been the best team last year. 

It was last year that Princeton reached the Sweet 16. Kevin Whittaker, who knows as much about Ivy basketball as anyone, totaled that the Ivy League was now 8-12 in the last 20 games, and all of those games were against teams seeded at least seven spots above the Ivy team.

The gold standard through all of this has been the Princeton women. The team had never been to the NCAA tournament prior to the 2010 event, but this year’s trip was the 11th in program history. 

The coaching staffs have turned over. The rosters have turned over — replacing Mitchell, Chen and Chet Nweke becomes the next challenge there. The rules have changed. The game has changed. 

The constant has been Princeton women’s basketball success. 

Once again, the Tigers showed themselves to be among the very best women’s basketball teams in the country. They spent the year ranked nationally and finished with a 24-6 record. 

Yes, it stung to go out in the first round this time around. That just shows you how much they’ve accomplished through the years, and the last two specifically.

There will be big graduation losses to overcome, but there have been in the past as well. Don’t worry about this group though.

They’re not going anywhere.