A To Z

Princeton Basketball in the NCAA tournament, A to Z:

A - Arizona

Princeton's opponent on the men's side is Arizona, the two seed in the South. Arizona won the Pac 12 tournament this past weekend, defeating UCLA in the final Saturday evening after finishing second during the regular season. Arizona has a record of 28-6.

B - Berube

Carla Berube, Princeton's head women's coach, has led the Tigers to three Ivy League titles in three seasons. She also has a 4-0 record in Ivy League tournament games, winning the championship in both of her appearances. Princeton is 44-2 against the Ivy League since Berube became head coach.

C - Cunningham

Julia Cunningham has averaged one more assist per game this year than she did a year ago. In fact, her assist average by season has gone from 1.7 to 1.8 to 1.9 and now to 2.9, which leaves her second on the team. Cunningham came to Princeton with the reputation as a big scorer, and she currently has 1,053 career points, five away from tying Allison Cahill for 24th at Princeton. What's most impressive about Cunningham, who is a three-time All-Ivy League selection, is how far she's come as a defender in Carla Berube's system, to wit ...

D - Defense

Princeton's women rank fifth in Division I in scoring defense after allowing an average of 52.5 points per game. The Tigers have led the Ivy League in each of Carla Berube's three years as head coach. North Carolina State averages 71.1 points per game, by the way.

E - Evbuomwan

Princeton's Tosan Evbuomwan was named the Ivy League tournament Most Outstanding Player after averaging 21 points and five rebounds per game. Evbuomwan, a unanimous first-team All-Ivy player the last two years and the league Player of the Year in 2022, has 985 career points in three seasons, having missed a full year due to the pandemic. He also has 305 career assists, seventh all-time at Princeton and one more than Tiger head coach Mitch Henderson. Had Evbuomwan had another full season, he would almost surely beaten the Princeton career record of 413, held by Bill Ryan (1981-84). Evbuomwan also was named to the NABC All-District first team.

F - Final Four

Princeton's men have made one Final Four appearance, and that was in 1965. Bill Bradley still holds the NCAA record for points in a Final Four game when he scored 58 in a 118-82 win over Wichita State in the third-place game.

G - Going forward

The winner of the Princeton-Arizona game will play the winner of the game between No. 7 seed Missouri and No. 10 seed Utah State Saturday. The winner of that game advances to the South Region Sweet 16. The winner of the Princeton-North Carolina State game will stay in Salt Lake City to play the winner of the game between No. 2 seed Utah and No. 15 seed Gardner-Webb.

H - Henderson

Mitch Henderson is making his fifth NCAA tournament appearance with Princeton, three of which came as a player in 1996, 97 and 98 and then again in 2017 as head coach. He is 2-2 in his first round games to date.

I - International

Arizona's men's team has nine international players on its roster. Princeton has three, Tosan Evbuomwan (England), Xaivian Lee (Canada) and Leyi Adebayo (Australia). Princeton women's freshman Tabitha Amanze is from Nigeria, and North Carolina State's women's team has no international players. Princeton men's basketball athletic communications contact Elliott Carr is from Australia.

J - Jadwin Gym

Princeton's home court was the site of last weekend's Ivy League tournament, where the Princeton women defeated Penn 60-47 and Harvard 54-48 and the Princeton men defeated Penn 77-70 and Yale 74-65. The Ivy League tournament is relatively new, with this edition just the fifth all-time. Princeton's women have won four of the five titles, while Princeton's men have won two of the five.

K - Kaitlyn

That's Kaitlyn, as in Kaitlyn Chen, the Ivy League Player of the Year and Ivy League tournament Most Outstanding Player. Chen scored 17 points while playing all 40 minutes in Princeton's 69-62 win over Kentucky in last year's NCAA tournament opener and then scored 10 more in the second-round 56-55 loss to Indiana, who this year is a No. 1 seed.

L - Last time

Princeton and Arizona have met only once before, and it was long before any of the current players were born. To be exact, it was on Dec. 27, 1985, in the McKale Center, and Arizona won 54-41 despite a 22-point effort from Tiger guard Mike Harnum. Among the players for Arizona in that game were Steve Kerr, who had 16, and Sean Elliott, who had 15. Perhaps those names are familiar.

M - Minutes

Only one player in the Princeton-North Carolina State game averages at least 30 minute per game, and that's Princeton's Kaitlyn Chen at 33.5. There are five other players who average between 29 and 30 minutes per game: Princeton's Ellie Mitchell (29.6), Grace Stone (29.5) and Julia Cunningham (29.3) and NC State's Saniya Rivers (29.7) and Diamond Johnson (29.4). On the men's side, there are five players who average at least 30 minutes per game: Princeton's Matt Allocco (32.5), Ryan Langborg (30.9) and Tosan Evbuomwan (30.8)  and Arizona's Kerr Kriisa and Courtney Ramey (30.9 each). Arizona's Azuolas Tubelis is at 29.9, and Princeton's Caden Pierce is at 29.8.

N - NCAA Tournament

Princeton's men are making their 26th trip to the NCAA tournament, while the women are making their 10th. The men first played in the 16-team NCAA tournament in 1952, and among the highlights for the program are reaching the 1965 Final Four and the 1967 East Regional final, the 50-49 loss to No. 1 Georgetown in 1989 and the 1996 win over UCLA in the first round (Princeton head coach Mitch Henderson was a sophomore on that team). The Princeton women made their first appearance in 2010, and they have two the Ivy League's three tournament wins: in 2015 against Wisconsin-Green Bay and a year ago against Kentucky.

O - Overtime

If it comes to it, the Princeton women are 0-1 in overtime (having loss to Columbia on Jan. 6) while the North Carolina State women are 1-0 (having defeated North Carolina on Feb. 16 to get a season split with the Tar Heels and former Tiger head coach Courtney Banghart). Princeton's men's team is 2-1 in overtime, having defeated Dartmouth (first meeting) and Penn (second regular season game) and having lost to Yale (second regular season game). Arizona's men have not gone to overtime this season.

P - Palace

Okay, this one is a bit of a stretch. Princeton played in the London Basketball Classic during Thanksgiving weekend (at least American Thanksgiving weekend), in an event that was 11 miles away from Buckingham Palace. Princeton defeated both Army and Northeastern to win the championship.

Q - Quarterly

Princeton's women have cumulatively outscored their opponents in every quarter this season. The Tigers' best quarter has been the third quarter, in which Princeton has outscored its opponents by 115 points (270-155).

R - Rebounds

Princeton's men rank third in Division I in defensive rebounding and 10th in Division I in total rebounds per game. Arizona ranks fourth in Division I in defensive rebounding and ninth in Division I in total rebounds per game.

S - Sacramento

The California capital is the site of the Princeton-Arizona men's game. It's also where Pete Carril coached with the Sacramento Kings for 10 years after he left Princeton following the 1996 season. Carril, a member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, passed away this past August at the age of 92.

T - Tall

Arizona has five players who are listed as at least 6-10, and two who are listed as 7-0. Of those five, two have started every game: 6-11 Azuolas Tubelis and 7-0 Oumar Ballo, who are the team's two leading scorers. Princeton's tallest starter is Keeshawn Kellman, who is 6-9.

U - Utah

Princeton's women have never before played a game in the state of Utah. The Tigers flew out yesterday afternoon for Salt Lake City, which is on Mountain Time. Both Princeton and NC State are in the Eastern Time Zone, and the game will tip off at 10 PM Eastern, 8 Mountain, Friday night.

V - Veterans

All five Princeton starters from the NCAA tournament games last year will be starting in this year's tournament. The four who will start for Princeton are: Julia Cunningham, Ellie Mitchell, Kaitlyn Chen and Grace Stone. Abby Meyers will start for Maryland as a grad transfer; Meyers, who was the 2022 Ivy Player of the Year and who in Jadwin Gym this past weekend to cheer on her alma mater, is Maryland's second-leading scorer (14.5 per game).

W - Wolfpack

Princeton has never played North Carolina State, though the Tigers have twice played at North Carolina State in the NCAA tournament. NC State brings a record of 20-11 into the tournament, which for the program will be its 28th. Princeton and NC State have one common opponent, and that's UConn, who beat both (UConn 69, Princeton 64 and UConn 91, NC State 69).

X - Xaivian Lee

The Princeton freshman went 8 for 8 from the foul line in the Ivy League tournament. Lee made two with eight seconds to go to seal the semifinal win over Penn and then went 4 for 4 in the final 34 seconds to seal the win against Yale in the final.

Y - Youngsters 

Princeton has the two Ivy League Rookies of the Year: Madison St. Rose for the women and Caden Pierce for the men. This season is the first time Princeton has had the winner for both women and men.

Z - Zero

Double zero, actually. That's the uniform number worn by Ellie Mitchell, who has been the Ivy League's Defensive Player of the Year each of the last two years. She also has never met a loose ball she didn't feel entitled to, so it's not surprising that she ranks 11th in Division I rebounds and rebounds per game. Mitchell had 27 rebounds in the Ivy tournament, but she also added 10 points in each game, nearly double her per game average. Mitchell had the basket in the final minute that put Princeton ahead of Harvard in the final.