Something Very, Very Special

The Princeton men's basketball team will play Creighton in the Sweet 16 Friday in Louisville.

Creighton, the sixth-seed in the region, defeated third-seeded Baylor 85-76 Sunday to move on in the tournament. Princeton is the 15th seed.

Creighton and Princeton have exactly one common opponent this season, and that's Arizona, who defeated the Blue Jays 81-79 in the Maui Classic final. That was back on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

Princeton, of course, took down Arizona, the No. 2 seed, in the first round of the NCAA tournament Thursday by a 59-55 count before erupting past seventh-seed Missouri 78-63 Saturday in the second round. 

If you're looking ahead, the winner of the Princeton-Creighton game will play Sunday against the winner of Alabama, the No. 1 overall seed, and San Diego State, the region's fifth seed. The winner of that game will go to the Final Four.

Princeton and Creighton have only played once before, and that was in 1961. Creighton won that one 63-54, which along with the one common opponent results will have zero effect on the game Friday.

There will be no next opponent for the Princeton women's team, not in the 2022-23 season at least. Princeton's season ended Sunday night in Utah, where the Tigers fell 63-56 to the host Utes, the second seed. 

By the way, TigerBlog has a love-hate relationship with the score 63-56. It was by that score that Princeton defeated Penn in the 1996 Ivy playoff game. It was also that score by which Princeton lost to Michigan State in the 1998 NCAA men's second round.

Now you can add the women's loss by the same score in this year's second round.

It's disappointing, obviously. The women would have loved to have join the men in the Sweet 16.

On the other hand, it wasn't for lack of effort. The way that Princeton's women defend, and even more so the way that they play so hard at all times, was extraordinary to see.

It's what gave Princeton its 64-63 win over North Carolina State in the first round Friday night. TB has talked to a bunch of people about that game, and the consensus goes something like this: Wow. 

TB wrote after the game that it was the second most amazing basketball game he's ever seen, and that is definitely the case. Princeton won that game on sheer will, and it was that same will that almost pulled out the game at Utah, a No. 2 seed.

Princeton was down by 14 in the first half. Princeton allowed 20 points in the first quarter. From there? Nothing, not one thing, came easily for Utah.

Remember, Utah is a team that averaged 84.1 points per game, third-best in Division I. It's a team that scored 90 per game on its home court, the Huntsman Center, where the first two rounds were held.

Perhaps no player has ever defined a team culture and identity more than Ellie Mitchell does for the Princeton women's basketball team. She is a blur of energy, a non-stop competitor and a great defender. She never stops. She plays so hard every second of every game that it's hard to imagine where she gets the strength from at the end.

Her performance in Utah this weekend was extraordinary. In two games she had 13 points, but it's the next number that's ridiculous: Mitchell had 29 rebounds. Here's another crazy number: Mitchell had 15 offensive rebounds in two games. You can throw in seven blocked shots and seven steals.

Her battle Sunday night against Utah's Alissa Pili, the Pac 12 Player of the Year, was epic. Mitchell had 18 rebounds. Pili had 27 points, but Mitchell made her work for all of them. 

Kaitlyn Chen had 19 points. Grace Stone, the hero Friday night with her late three, had 16 more.

What the Princeton women's basketball team has built of late is something very, very special. The Tigers had never made it to the NCAA tournament prior to 2010, and yet they've now played in 10 of them.

The Ivy League has four NCAA women's basketball wins all-time, and Princeton now has three of them. There are NCAA wins each of the last two seasons. 

There has been a litany of great players who have played for Princeton during this extended run, when the roster has been turned over and turnover over and turned over. For as great as some of them have been as individuals, they all have bought into the team concept that the program has been built on through these years. It's a compliment to Courtney Banghart, the coach who first took Princeton to the tournament, and now Carla Berube, who is everything you could ever ask for in a head coach.

TB has written that Berube is laid back and intense at the same time, and she is definitely both of those. The program has completely energized its fan base, which has grown exponentially through the years. Now, a Princeton women's basketball game is an event.

There was no Sweet 16 to be had this time around. Will the Tigers get there? They've come very, very close the last two years, falling by one to Indiana a year ago and now by seven to Utah.

The end of the game stung, but it was hard not to, once again, be impressed by the Princeton women. 

If you thought they'd go quietly after the win the other night and after being down 14 points to one of the best teams in the country, you haven't been paying attention. 

This isn't an "oh well, we did our best" group. This is an "I don't care what the scoreboard says; there's still time on the clock, so we don't let up" group.

Like TB said, they're very, very special.