Board Game

There is women's basketball in Jadwin Gym tonight, which means you have your next chance to root for the Tigers to miss some shots.

Wait? What? 

TigerBlog will explain.

First, the game is between Princeton and Fordham, and it tips at 7. It's also the last home game until Dec. 11, with five straight road games on the Tiger horizon after tonight.

Here are two scores that should get your attention: Fordham 76, Princeton 67 last season and Maryland 83, Fordham 76 in the Rams' most recent games.

By the way, after the NCAA field hockey game last Friday, TB walked across the big parking lot at the University of Maryland to the XFinity Center, where he saw the Terps play No. 1 South Carolina. Maryland lost 81-56, but Princeton alum (and reigning Ivy Player of the Year) Abby Meyers led all scorers with 21 and has now been in double figures in all three games this season.

So getting back to why you have your next chance to root for missed Princeton shots, the answer is obvious. On missed shots, you get to see Ellie Mitchell go after offensive rebounds.

There are few things better these days with Princeton Athletics than watching Ellie Mitchell chase down missed shots. This applies on either end, but especially on the offensive end.

It's early in the season, yes, but here is the list of players in Division I who have more rebounds than Mitchell does to date: 

Yes, the answer is nobody. 

If you go per game, then she also leads Division I at 17.0. She was trailing only Lilly Ritz of Youngstown State before last night, when Ritz had only six against Penn State. Also for Mitchell, that means that she is averaging at least twice as many rebounds as every other player in the Ivy League with three exceptions.

Ritz, by the way, had 20 in her first game this season. She's an interesting story, a transfer from Division II Wheeling, where she led that division in rebounding, and before that, a player at Division II California (Pa.). Her father is Kevin Ritz, who pitched for a decade for the Tigers and Rockies.

Back to Mitchell, she is eighth in the country in offensive rebounds per game, with 6.3 per game. Only eight other players in the league average that many total per game.

Mitchell is coming off a game where she hauled in 23 rebounds, in a 62-58 win over Seton Hall Monday night. Only one player in Princeton women's basketball has ever had more than 23 rebounds in a game, and that's Margaret Meier, who had games of 30, 24 and 24 in the 1970s. Ellen Devoe had a 23-rebound game in the 1980s.

Who's the last men's player to get at least 23 rebounds in a game? If you guessed Bill Bradley in 1964, you'd be correct. 

The 23 rebounds are one off the most by a women's player in Division I this season (Kansas City's Dani Winslow had 24 against Tennessee State). Interesting note: Mitchell, Winslow and Ritz are all listed at 6-1, so they're hardly the tallest players in the country.

In her three games this season, Mitchell has these three stat lines:

vs. Temple: 12 points, 15 rebounds
vs. Villanova: no points, 13 rebounds
vs. Seton Hall: eight points, 23 rebounds

Mitchell finished last season with double figures in rebounding in 16 games, including seven of the last eight. She led the Ivy League in rebounds per game, and she finished the season with 23 in two NCAA games. She had eight in the win over Kentucky, matching the number of the Wildcats' Ryhne Howard, who just happened to be the No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA draft. She then had 15 more in the one-point second round loss to Indiana.

Fordham, who reached the WNIT a year ago, brings a 2-1 record of its own to Jadwin tonight, with the Maryland loss after double figure wins over Yale and St. Peters. 

And no, TB doesn't really expect for you to root for Princeton to miss shots. Still, in those moments when they do, you'd be wise to keep your eye on No. 00.