NCAA Hooping

Well, this has been a fairly dull NCAA men's basketball tournament, hasn't it? 

Perhaps this is the year it actually gets better as it goes along, as opposed to the way it usually is, as TigerBlog has repeatedly said. The biggest upset of the first round was High Point over Wisconsin 83-82.

It was an exciting game and all, and congrats to the Panthers. At the same time, it'll hardly be remembered as one of the great moments in tournament history.  

The most interesting part of the first four days , to TigerBlog at least, was not even a game. It was a graphic. 

It was, specifically, this graphic, which popped up during the Iowa State-Kentucky Round 2 game: 

What you have here are three of the greatest players of all-time and a guy from Kentucky TB had never heard of before. Turns out that he 1) played at Blair Academy in New Jersey and 2) is a transfer from Oklahoma. 

If you're in TB's basic age range, you don't need him to tell you that Oscar Robertson played at Cincinnati and Larry Bird played at Indiana State. Bill Bradley? You better know where he played; if you don't, consult the statue of him in front of Jadwin Gym. 

Assists were not an official college basketball stat until 1974-75, though they sometimes appear on box scores back another 10 years. One of the games that did have assists kept was the 1965 NCAA regional final between Princeton and Providence, the one referenced in the graphic.

In that game, Bradley went for 41 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists — one short of a triple double. Speaking of those triple-doubles, 1) Robertson was the first player ever to average a triple double for a full NBA season, and 2) because assists weren't regularly kept, there's no record of how many such triple doubles Bradley might have had as a Tiger, though TB would guess it would have to be in, well, double figures. 

Imagine having a 41-point, 10-rebound, nine-assist game and it's not your best game ever, or, for that matter, it'snot your best game of that NCAA tournament. That would have been two games later, when Bradley went for 58 points, 17 rebounds and four assists in what was then the consolation game. Those 58 points, by the way, remain the record for a Final Four game. 

Hey, you can add that to the list of records that Bradley set that will almost certainly never be broken. 

Meanwhile, back in the present, the Princeton women's basketball team is back in New Jersey after its 82-68 opening round loss to Oklahoma State in Los Angeles. 

This was an uphill struggle for Princeton the whole way, as OK State got out quickly to lead by 10 after the first quarter and 18 early in the second at 31-13. Princeton would get within four twice and within five at 63-58 in the fourth before a 9-0 Cowgirl run put it away. 

signing out after 96 wins, four NCAA Tournaments and three Ivy League titles.

Thank you, @nat_strose and @taylorrcharless. #GetStops 🐯🏀 pic.twitter.com/NBIMAIU0Qo

— Princeton WBB (@PrincetonWBB) March 22, 2026

Princeton was led by Madison St. Rose, who scored 17 in her Tiger finale. Like Tiger alums like Kaitlyn Chen and Abby Meyers before her, St. Rose will graduate from Princeton and play elsewhere next year after missing almost all of her junior year with a torn ACL.

St. Rose cemented her status as a Princeton all-time great long ago. She finished her career with 1,215 points, and her 13.2 points per game leaves her a hair away from the program's all-time top 10. 

The other senior on this team was Taylor Charles, who had five points and two blocked shots in her final game. Charles was a strong role player during her career, playing in 75 games and being a part of four NCAA tournament teams. '

Skye Belker scored 14 in the game, giving her 1,004 for her career prior to her senior year. Ashley Chea also had 14, and she'll bring 847 points into her senior year. Should she match her assist total from this year next season, she'd vault to No. 2 all-time at Princeton. 

The loss ended the Tigers' season at 26-4, which basically speaks for itself, right? 

If it doesn't, then let TB add this: What Princeton women's basketball has built and sustained is extraordinary. The level of consistent excellence and national success is unmatched in Ivy League women's basketball history.  

The 2025-26 season simply adds to that legacy.