Highly Defensive

Is 32 points, 19 rebounds, six blocked shots and six assists a good night for a basketball player?

How about if that line came in a game that brought a championship to end a perfect season? And how about if the player whose line it was happened to be a senior?

Yeah, that's not too shabby, right?

Want some hints as to whose line that was?

Hint 1 - the player has a strong connection to Princeton basketball.
Hint 2 - it was a 1993 high school state championship game in Massachusetts.
Hint 3 - the same player had a team-high 15 points in the 1992 state final, bringing the team's two-year record to 50-0.

Give up?

Those numbers belong to Carla Berube, the head coach of women's basketball at Princeton. Berube put those numbers up at Oxford High School in Western Massachusetts, a team she led to a pair of state titles.

Her team almost won three straight championships, but her sophomore year ended with a semifinal loss to Southwick High School. Who was Southwick's best player that year? Rebecca Lobo.

Berube and Lobo would be teammates at UConn, where Berube would add another perfect season her sophomore year, helping the Huskies go 35-0 while winning the NCAA championship.

Berube mentioned her high school coach, John Doldoorian Jr., in yesterday's edition of "Conversations With Carla," the weekly podcast that she and TigerBlog do (you can listen to it HERE). She speaks with great admiration for her high school coach, the one who coached her before Geno Auriemma did at UConn.

TigerBlog has heard a lot of coaches here talk about a lot of high school coaches through the years. The basic premise is that having a great high school coach gives young athletes such a huge advantage.

On the other hand, TB also heard an unnamed Princeton coach say this about an unnamed Princeton athlete: "He could have been really good. His high school coach should be taken out into the town square and flogged."

Berube talked about how her high school coach was the first to really stress defense, something her college coach would as well. From the first day she was hired at Princeton, Berube has spoken about that end of the floor, and her first Princeton team is clearly buying in.

The Tigers are off to an 8-1 start under Berube heading into tomorrow's game against Penn State at home (tip off at 3). Princeton won its first four, lost in overtime at Iowa, and has won four more since.

The game tomorrow gives Princeton another shot at a Big 10 team.

Princeton is allowing 53.2 points per game, which is 16th-best in Division I. The Tigers also lead the Ivy League in blocked shots per game and steals per game.

Princeton has played nine game this season. Of those nine, Princeton has held its opponent to 53 or fewer points six time, including four straight. Also, there have been four opponents who have been held in the 40s, including three of the last four.

Couple that with the fact that Princeton is 18th in Division I in fewest turnovers per game, and you have the foundation of a winning formula.

What's even more impressive is that Bella Alarie has been on the court less than 40 percent of Princeton's minutes so far this year due to injury. There are six players on the team who have played more than Alarie has.

Alarie, of course, is the two-time reigning Ivy League Player of the Year and three-time first-team All-Ivy League selection. She was just named the Philadelphia Sportswriters Association Amateur Athlete of the Year, something you can read more about HERE.

Princeton follows its game against Penn State with games at Missouri and at St. Louis next week. After that it's a Dec. 29 game against New Hampshire in Jadwin Gym before the Ivy League opener at Penn on Jan. 11, followed by first semester exams.

Penn, by the way, is another really strong defensive team, one that actually allows fewer points per game than Princeton has to date.

Princeton and Penn have dominated Ivy women's basketball this decade. This year figures to be a great Ivy race, with seven of the eight teams above .500 right now.

In the meantime, it's Princeton and Penn State tomorrow on Carril Court. Once again, tip is at 3.