Doubleheader Wednesday

Do you know who the No. 1 ranked team in the country in men's basketball is? 

That would be the University of Arizona. The Wildcats are 8-0, with wins over Top 25 teams Duke, Michigan State and Wisconsin. Next up is a date against No. 3 Purdue Saturday in Indianapolis.

The two head coaches can be forgiven if their pregame chat includes various expressions of how much they hate New Jersey. 

From the Purdue side, the Boilermakers (who by the way are TigerBlog's second-favorite college basketball team) have been bounced out of the NCAA tournament the last two years by St. Peter's (2022 Sweet 16) and FDU (2023 first round, a No. 16 over a No. 1). That's two straight years where the Boilermakers were as favored as anyone to win a national title, only to be taken down by a small private school in Northern New Jersey.

And Arizona? As you probably recall, the Wildcats were a No. 2 seed in last year's NCAA tournament, only to go out in the first round against Princeton. Given the perfect start to the season, Arizona's last loss still was to the Tigers.

Princeton won its first nine games this season before falling to St. Joe's Sunday afternoon in Philly. Next up for the Tigers are games at home against Bryn Athyn today at 4 and Delaware Valley on the 22nd, with only a trip to a very good Delaware team on Dec. 30 before the Jan. 6 Ivy League opener at home against Harvard.

The game today is the first of a doubleheader that continues at 7 when the women take on Rutgers. 

The Princeton women come into that game after a 61-58 win at Villanova Monday night. It's quick turnaround for the Tigers, whose game at Villanova was a thriller all the way.

Once again, TB has to talk about Ellie Mitchell and her rebounding. She had 19 of them against Villanova. That's a ridiculous number, 19.

Mitchell ranks fifth in Division I with 11.9 boards per game. She's also one of six players in Division I with two games of at least 18 rebounds, after she had that number against Oklahoma.

She now has 938 career rebounds, leaving her four away from tying Ellen DeVoe for third in program history and 26 away from tying Bella Alarie for second. The record is currently held by Margaret Meier, with 1,099.

Meanwhile, Kaitlyn Chen had a 31-point night against Villanova, which was 1) a career high and 2) more than half of Princeton's point. The Tigers were down five in the fourth quarter before coming back to win.

While Mitchell chases the career rebounding leaders, Chen is making her way up the scoring charts. Her 31-point night against Villanova left her with 968 for her career, or 32 away from becoming the 28th 1,000-point scorer in program history.

That's a lot of points, especially in only two-plus seasons. That speaks to what a great and consistent scorer Chen has been.

The Rutgers women have had 39 1,000-point scorers, the most recent of whom is Kossandra Brown, who went over the mark earlier this season. Rutgers comes to Jadwin after falling in its Big Ten opener to Indiana 66-56; Princeton has a nine-point loss to Indiana on its 7-3 record.

The teams have one other common opponent, Seton Hall, whom the Tigers defeated 75-71 in Jadwin and whom Rutgers lost to 82-63 in South Orange.

Rutgers leads the all-time series against the Tigers 17-4, though at one time that was a 15-1 edge before Princeton came out on top in three of the last five. 

The Princeton women will be playing for the second time in three days. After this, there will be plenty of rest, as the next game isn't until Dec. 29, at Vermont.

As for the men's game, Bryn Athyn comes in with a record of 8-2 on the year. If you've ever been to Bryn Athyn, which is about 45 minutes from Princeton in Bucks County, Pa., then you know that the town and the college campus are beautiful.

The team's nickname is Lions, so it'll be Lions vs. Tigers who tip at 4. Then it'll be Tigers and Scarlet Knights at 7.