Welcome to today's segment of "Records That May Never Be Broken."
First, there is Kaitlyn Chen, who is now the three-time Ivy League tournament Most Outstanding Player. In the history of the Ivy League, for all of the tournaments its run in all sports, no player has ever matched that achievement. In fact, only one — Yale men's lacrosse player Ben Reeves — has ever been the Ivy tournament Most Outstanding Player even twice.
Can anyone match Chen? Unlikely. It would take a lot, as in 1) your team has to in all likelihood win three tournaments in your four years and 2) you have to be honored above any other teammate. Neither of those are easy.
That's incredible stuff. To be the Most Outstanding Player three times? TigerBlog is willing to guess that nobody will ever do that again, or if they do, it would be because they are one of the greatest players in Ivy League history, which, of course, Kaitlyn Chen would also have to be considered.
Then there's Ellie Mitchell. In the Ivy tournament semifinal game Friday, she broke the career record for rebounds in a career at Princeton, for men or women. That record had stood for 46 years, without anyone who ever came remotely close. Mitchell now has 1,110 career boards. The only other players who have even reached 1,000 are Bill Bradley (1,008) and Maggie Meier Benchich (1,099).
Can anyone match that? Also quite unlikely.
It was Mitchell, by the way, who slapped the Striped P onto the "Ticket Punched" board after Princeton took down Columbia 75-58 Saturday evening in the championship game. She deserved that honor, after she continued to slap away all obstacles to the Tigers' success.
TigerBlog wrote last week that he couldn't believe that Mitchell wasn't a first-team All-Ivy League selection. When TB tweeted that out, his longtime colleague and friend from Cornell athletic communications Jeremy Hartigan replied with this:
I
contend Ellie Mitchell is the most valuable player in the Ivy League.
Favorite player to watch on an opposing team in a long time. No first
team is a crime.
Mitchell had 18 points and 22 rebounds in the two games, and yet maybe the best stat for her for the weekend was "charges drawn." She had four of them in the final, when Princeton held Columbia nearly 20 points below its average for the year. She also had a huge charge drawn with 14 seconds left in Friday's 59-54 semifinal win over Penn, at a time when it was a one-possession game.
Has there ever been a Princeton athlete who has impacted games the way Mitchell does without ever being the leading scorer? Mitchell is a three-time Ivy Defensive Player of the Year, not because she's a great one-on-one stopper but because she impacts the entire game when its on the other team's side of the court. How many shots does the other team not get because of her presence.
Madison St. Rose, who was Princeton's leading scorer in both games of the tournament with 19 against Penn and 18 against Columbia, was on the All-Tournament team along with Chen. They both inspire so much confidence when you watch them play; it's more surprising when their shot doesn't drop.
The tournament win was Princeton's fifth straight and gave the team an 11-1 record all-time in Ivy tournament games. This is Princeton's time of year, winning Ivy tournaments and then making a name for itself in the NCAA tournament, where it's won a game each of the last two years.
This year's challenge was announced with the women's Selection Show last night, when Princeton learned that it would be a nine seed and take on eighth seeded West Virginia.
The best part? The game is at Iowa, and the winner gets to take on the top seed in the region, the host Iowa. And that would mean Caitlin Clark.
How cool would that be?
Columbia, by the way, made it a two-bid Ivy for the second time ever, as the Lions drew a 12 seed and will play in a First Four game against Vanderbilt.
The date and time of Princeton's game is still to be announced, with the game either Friday or Saturday.
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