Conversing With Carla

TigerBlog had his first "Conversation With Carla" for 2021-22 yesterday.

The Carla in question is Carla Berube, the head women's basketball coach. Carla's team opens its season tonight at Villanova (tip is at 7).

Now, if you're listening to the podcast today, keep in mind that it was recorded yesterday, so every time Carla says that the game is "tomorrow," she really means it's today. 

Of course, when TB created the Zoom link to speak with Carla, he originally entered Carla Tagliente in the email address line instead of Carla Berube. Carla Tagliente is the field hockey coach. Carla Berube is the women's basketball coach. Crossover season is everywhere now.

Before TB gets to women's basketball and everything else going on now, he does want to mention the field hockey team. There has never been a team that has come closer to making the NCAA tournament and winning the league title without actually doing so than the Tigers did this year. 

They lost to Harvard in a penalty shootout, costing the league title and automatic NCAA bid. They lost seven times, five times to teams ranked in the top 11 in the RPI and in the NCAA field. Two of those games were in overtime, to Maryland and Louisville, both in the top five. You're talking about a team that could play with anyone.

The good news for Princeton is that the team had no seniors on it. Not one. Every player will be back, which will include five All-Ivy selections. Among those will be Beth Yeager, the Ivy League Offensive Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year after setting the program record for goals by a freshman with 16, despite missing the last three games due to injury.

As for defender Gabby Andretta and midfielder Hannah Davey, if anyone is a team-first player, it's those two - Andretta played almost every minute of every game and never had one individual stat, while Davey moved from an offensive to defensive position this season and saw her goal totals go from 10 to one.

While the field hockey team had its season end earlier than it would have hoped, the women's soccer team found out Monday afternoon that it would be home in the NCAA tournament, hosting Vermont Friday at 6 on Sherrerd Field. 

Princeton comes into the NCAA tournament with a 14-2-1 record that includes five straight shutouts. Vermont won the America East tournament to get the league's automatic bid; the winner of the Princeton-Vermont game plays the winner of TCU-Prairie View A&M. Where would that game be? Rutgers, where else?

It's an extraordinarily busy weekend for Princeton Athletics, especially at home. TB will get into that more tomorrow.

For today, there was the Conversation With Carla, the podcast that TB and Carla (Berube) do during the women's basketball season. Again, the Tigers open their season tonight at Villanova at 7 (not tomorrow), beginning an NBA-like stretch of three games in five days that sees the Tigers head to Delaware Friday night and a Sunday home game at 1 against Boston University. In all, Princeton will play six games in November.

These are new-look Tigers obviously, with Bella Alarie having graduated to the WNBA ranks and Carlie Littlefield now playing at North Carolina (Littlefield had 15 points in her Tar Heel debut last night) after leading Berube's first team to a 26-1 record before Covid cancelled the 2020 NCAA tournament. That's a lot of missing points and a lot of missing leadership.

The cupboard is hardly bare, though. And Princeton hasn't put together the amazing women's basketball run that it's been on the last decade-plus by relying only on a handful of players.

Berube talks about the new faces on the podcast. She also talks about her team's challenging non-league schedule and the league opener Jan. 2 against Harvard at home, including some very heartfelt comments about Kathy Delaney-Smith, who is retiring as the Crimson head coach after 40 years. 

More than anything else, the takeaway from this podcast is just how thrilled Berube is about getting to a gamenight again. It's been a long wait, and now it's time to play for real. She talks about a return to "normalcy" on campus, and you can tell how thrilled she is for her players to have the opportunity again.

It's the season opener for the women's basketball team. Again, that's tonight at Villanova.