Tip-Off At 2

Whose stat line is this: six points, 15 rebounds, two steals?

There are only two people who come to mind. One is Dennis Rodman, who is in the basketball Hall of Fame. For his career, Rodman averaged 7.3 points per game and 13.1 rebounds per game.

He also was a two-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year and a seven-time NBA first-team All-Defensive selection. 

When you think of Rodman, you think of his defense, tenacity and full-out effort all the time.

The other person who fits this description, at least to Princeton fans, is Ellie Mitchell of the women's basketball team. Mitchell is currently averaging 5.6 points and 12.5 rebounds per game, this one year after her Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year selection. Like Rodman, Mitchell conjures up images of her hustle and desire to get to as many loose balls as possible.

So what about the six points, 15 rebounds and two steals? While that could be any game for either one of them, it was actually Mitchell's line against Rhode Island last year. 

That game, played in Kingston, was one of the Tigers' rare losses a year ago, as the Rams won that one 61-53 after Princeton entered the fourth quarter up by one. 

Princeton gets a chance to avenge that loss this afternoon at 2 in Jadwin Gym. It will not be an easy one, not against a Rhode Island team that comes into the game with a record of 9-2 and with hopes of doing some avenging of its own after falling just short of reaching the NCAA tournament last year. 

Princeton had only one player in double figures in the game last year, and that was Abby Meyers, the only player not back from a year ago. Julia Cunningham had nine in that game, and the reigning Ivy League Player of the Week has 904 career points as she heads into this game.

After today, Princeton has 14 Ivy games and a non-league game against Hartford still to go in the regular season. Cunningham would reach 1,000 career points by the end of the regular season should she average 6.4 per game, which is less than half of the 13.8 she currently is putting up per night.

By the way, the first of those 14 league games is Saturday at noon at Harvard.

Whether she gets to 1,000 or not, Cunningham has developed into the kind of all-around player, especially defensive stopper, that head coach Carla Berube loves. A few weeks ago, there was this piece on Cunningham, which is definitely worth the watch:

Scorer.
Defensive Stalwart.
Leader.
Two-time captain.
Winner.@julcunningham4 has done it all during her time at @Princeton.

Watch how Julia has developed as a player and leader during her basketball journey. #GetStops 🐯🏀 pic.twitter.com/XKOdp3Rx7k

— Princeton WBB (@PrincetonWBB) December 4, 2022

Meanwhile, back at Rhode Island, the visitors today in Jadwin will bring with them a fairly international roster. In fact, of the 13 players, there are eight from another country.

For some reason, Rhode Island has done a lot of its recruiting in France, as there are five French players on the team. It would be interesting to hear their thoughts on penalty kicks to decide World Cup knockout matches.

The other three countries represented on the team are Estonia, Israel and Canada. The five U.S. players are from New York (two), Massachusetts (two) and Texas. 

The Rams' head coach is Tammi Reiss, who was the fifth pick of the 1997 WNBA draft and who is, among other things, an actress who has appeared in TV shows and movies and a former member of the Utah Jazz television broadcast team.

The associate head coach is Adeniyi Amadou. When TigerBlog looked at his bio, he saw that he had started out playing at the Army-West Point and then transferred to the University of Pennsylvania. When he saw that Amadou had led his college team in offensive rebounding, he was trying to place the name, until he realized that he'd missed the part that said "Indiana" before "University." Indiana University of Pennsylvania is a Division II school near Pittsburgh.

One fact that stood out from Amadou's bio, though, is that he's a native of Paris. Perhaps that explains the, well, French connection.

If you've stopped chuckling by 2, make sure you're in Jadwin or watching on ESPN+. It figures to be a really good game.