A Night Of Effort And Frustration

Welcome to what many consider to be the start of the best weekend in sports. 

It's time for the NCAA basketball tournaments, with their wall-to-wall games starting today and running all weekend and into next week. By the time this bonanza ends, there will be 16 women''s teams and 16 men's teams left

As you get set for your endless TV watching, keep in mind what TigerBlog says every year about the NCAA men's tournament: It's the only major sporting event that gets less exciting with each successive round. 

You remember St. Peter's and FDU and, of course, Princeton for its run to the Sweet 16 two years ago. You remember Gabe Lewullis' layup that knocked out UCLA in 1996. You remember the great upsets from the first round, with famous shot after famous shot. 

You don't remember who reached the Final Four those years. For TigerBlog, that makes this tournament more special, not less special. 

TigerBlog has been to a lot of these NCAA first rounds, and they are even better in person than they are on TV. There is an electricity in the building that is unrivaled, with the idea that something magical could happen at any time.

TB has also been in the postgame locker room after those magical moments — and after the ones where the magic wasn't there that night. It's an undeniably crushing place to be when it doesn't go your way. 

As much as winning in the tournament is incredible, there is also the harshness of losing. It's one and done, survive and advance — and if you don't, you go home. 

The Princeton women's basketball team experienced the latter last night in the First Four game against Iowa State. It was a game that could have gone either way, and ultimately it went the way of the Cyclones. 

Final score: Iowa State 68, Princeton 63. 

And just like that, it's over. 

Princeton did, as Pete Carril would have said, gave a good account of itself. Even after falling behind by nine in the first quarter, Princeton turned things around, going up 38-23 at the half after an amazing second quarter that ended with a 14-0 Tiger run. 

Iowa State turned it up in the second half, led by the unstoppable inside force of Audi Crooks, who went for 27 points on 12 of 21 shooting. Crooks was as advertised, which is to say one of the best scorers in women's basketball and one of its most efficient. When she caught the ball anywhere near the basket, it was, as one of the announcers said on TV at one point, "over." 

It's not that Princeton didn't battle, especially Parker Hill, who spent most of her night matched with Crooks. That was not an easy assignment, not at all. Hill finished her night with 10 points and 12 rebounds, as well as three of the Tigers' nine blocked shots (Olivia Hutcherson also had three). She gets a solid "A" for rising to the challenge. 

Princeton also got 19 points, seven rebounds and a team-best Fadima Tall, as well as 15 points from Ashley Chea and Skye Belker.

Still, if any one moment summed up the night for Princeton, it was the Belker three attempt from the corner with nine seconds to go. It looked all the world like it was in, took two laps around the rim and then floated away. All Tiger head coach Carla Berube could do was throw her hands skyward. 

Yes, it was a night of frustration. But it was also a night of effort. Princeton certainly played hard. So did Iowa State. 

The trip to the NCAA tournament for Princeton was its sixth straight. The Tigers were also part of the historic achievement of having three Ivy teams in the tournament, a first. 

Princeton started four sophomores last night against Iowa State. It also played almost the entire season without Madison St. Rose, who injured her knee in November and missed the rest of the season. 

Given how much Princeton lost to graduation and the loss of St. Rose so early, this was another exceptional season for the program.  

You want to keep playing for as long as you can. You want to keep it going. You want to make history. 

Some years, you do all three of those things by playing this week. That's certainly the case of the 2024-25 Princeton women's basketball team. 

Well done, Tigers.