"We Play To Have Fun"

As TigerBlog said Friday, there's a new Tiger in the women's basketball family.

Say hi to Theresa Croxton. 

Theresa is the baby. The rather nervous looking guy is Warren Croxton, who has now been a father for three whole days now.

And kudos to Warren, who appears to have dressed head-to-toe in Princeton gear to the birth of his first child. That's the kind of loyalty Princeton Athletics breeds.

Congratulations to Warren and his wife Michelle. Yesterday was bring-the-baby-home day, which means that he probably didn't sleep much last night.

Warren is the women's basketball contact in the Office of Athletic Communications (among his other sports). Because of Theresa's arrival, Warren is not in Bloomington, Indiana, for the women's basketball NCAA tournament.

Hey, if you're going to miss out on history, at least it was for a good reason.

You know how TigerBlog said that Warren looks nervous in that picture? You know who didn't look nervous at all? That would be Abby Meyers. Kaitlyn Chen. All of their teammates and coaches. 

There was not a single Tiger who looked scared in the least. You know how they looked? Like they were having fun. 

After the game, Chen said this: "We play to have fun."

The Princeton women's basketball team knocked off Kentucky Saturday afternoon 69-62 in the opening round of the NCAA tournament. This may have been an upset in terms of seeding. It may even have been an upset in terms of across-the-board talent.

What it wasn't was a fluke. Princeton didn't win because it got lucky or played a perfect game. 

Who wouldn't have fun in that situation? Every team would. It's the fact that the team you saw Saturday was the same Princeton team you saw in Jadwin Gym all year, the one that always seems to be having fun, that makes this group different. It's what defines them.

As for why they won, it's because the Tigers did the things they have done all year.

It was such classic Princeton women's basketball under head coach Carla Berube. The Tigers defended the way they do. They played hard. They played together. They played clutch.

Princeton may not have had the first-team All-American on its side, the way Kentucky did with Rhyne Howard. What they did have was Meyers, who put together what has to be the greatest single-game performance in program history once the stakes were factored in. 

Meyers scored 29 points, scoring from everywhere (pull ups, floaters, layups) and anywhere (three-point land). Her most acrobatic was a fourth-quarter drive to the basket that required her to spin the ball off the backboard and in, but really she was there whenever Princeton needed a score.

Chen, too, was her usual self, with 17 points in 40 minutes and her own ability to pressure the other team, regardless of who that team is. This Kentucky team is not just another team, by the way. Kentucky had won 10 straight, including a win over No. 1 South Carolina in the SEC championship game.

Think about that. The SEC champion Kentucky.

This was not a great week for Kentucky basketball against New Jersey teams. The Wildcat men lost to St. Peters Thursday in the first round, and then it was the Princeton women who won this game.

Berube was asked if this was the biggest win in program history. If it isn't, it's in the top two, along with Princeton's other NCAA win, an 80-70 win over Wisconsin-Green Bay in the 2015 tournament. 

Berube also was asked about comparing this to what it was like as a player. She said coaching is way more stressful. A good follow up question would have been to ask her what it feels like to be with a so-called mid-major as a coach after being with the bluest of blue bloods (UConn) as a player.

Next up is Round 2 tonight at 8 against Indiana, on Indiana's home court. The Hoosiers took out Charlotte 85-51 in the first round to improve to 23-8, a record that includes a run to the Big Ten final. The teams have not met since 1978 (Princeton won that game 62-51, for whatever that's worth).

The Hoosiers are very good. They score more than 72 per game and allow a little more than 60. They rebound. They force turnovers. 

It's the second round. The teams are supposed to be good. So yes, Indiana is very good.

So is its opponent tonight. Princeton is good. And it has a lot of fun playing together. Those two things couldn't be more obvious when you watch them play. 

Now they have at least one more chance to do so, after the history that the Tigers made Saturday afternoon.