Princeton

Princeton women’s basketball overcomes flight delay to net season-opening win at Georgia Tech

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While politicians in Washington blame each other for the government shutdown, the Princeton women’s basketball team refused to let flight delays likely caused by the shutdown spoil their season opener against Georgia Tech on Sunday afternoon.

Despite a 12-hour flight delay that resulted in a 3 a.m. arrival at the team hotel last night, the Tigers rallied in the fourth quarter to defeat the Yellow Jackets, 67-61, at McCamish Pavilion in Atlanta.

The game was a triumphant homecoming for junior Olivia Hutcherson, a native of Johns Creek, Ga., who told the ACC Extra announcers before the game, “I have all of Johns Creek here.” The defensive star didn’t disappoint her fan base, tallying a career-high 15 points and grabbing six rebounds.

Hutcherson also played her usual lockdown defense, helping the Tigers claw 26 turnovers from Georgia Tech, including 10 in the fourth quarter.

“Olivia was amazing,” coach Carla Berube told Ivy Hoops Online. “What she was able to do on both ends kept us in the game in the first half when our shots weren’t falling.”

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2025-26 Ivy League women’s basketball preview

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The release of the Ivy League preseason media poll and 2025-26 Media Day revealed Princeton as the favorite heading into the 2025-26 season, followed by three-time defending champion Columbia, 2025 Ivy Madness title-holder Harvard in third and Penn rounding out the upper half of the conference.

Brown, which has tied the Quakers for fourth place the last two years, is the clear choice for the fifth slot. Dartmouth, Cornell and Yale are pegged for the last three spots, with the Big Green one point ahead of the Big Red and seven points in front of the Bulldogs.

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Orange & Black Report: Previewing the Princeton men’s and women’s basketball teams

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In less than a week, the Princeton men’s and women’s basketball teams will tip off their new seasons, and for the first time since 2016, neither program will enter the campaign as the defending Ivy League champion. 

What are the prospects for the Orange and Black returning to the top of the Ivy League standings in 2025-26? Let’s investigate the probabilities for both programs, starting with the women:

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2025-26 IHO Women’s Preseason Poll

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The 2025-26 Ivy women’s basketball season tips off Friday, so it’s time for Ivy Hoops Online’s preseason poll – not to be confused with the Ivy League-released media preseason poll. Here’s how our contributors collectively predict the league will shake out, with select observations from some of them:

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Q&A with Princeton women’s basketball coach Carla Berube

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Princeton women’s basketball coach Carla Berube joins Ivy Hoops Online contributor Steve Silverman for an in-depth reflection on her program heading into the 2025-26 campaign, going over how Madison St. Rose looks coming back from injury, the Tigers’ standout Class of 2027, how the team’s offensive attack will be different this season, Princeton’s difficulty of mining the transfer portal, the team’s loaded nonconference schedule and much more:

A conversation with former Princeton coach and Dartmouth guard Courtney Banghart

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Courtney Banghart was named the 2015 Naismith National Coach of the Year and one of Fortune Magazine’s World’s 50 Greatest Leaders during her 12 seasons as Princeton coach from 2007 to 2019, a span during which the Tigers went 254-103 (.711) and won seven Ivy titles after previously never having played in the NCAA Tournament. (University of North Carolina Athletics)

Princeton coaching and Dartmouth playing legend Courtney Banghart spent 45 minutes in conversation with Ivy Hoops Online contributor Steve Silverman.

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Princeton women’s basketball releases loaded 2025-26 schedule

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Last March, the Princeton women’s basketball team reaffirmed a valuable lesson as it celebrated earning its sixth consecutive bid to the NCAA Tournament: If you play a challenging schedule and win games, the NCAA Tournament selection committee will reward you. 

The Tigers on Wednesday released their schedule for the upcoming 2025-26 season, and once again, it’s loaded with top opponents. 

The schedule includes 13 nonconference matchups, only four of which will be played within the friendly confines of Jadwin Gymnasium. The remaining nine games will be played either on the road or at a Thanksgiving week tournament site that has yet to be announced.  

Overall, the Tigers will face at least two teams from the Big Ten, three teams from the Big East, two teams from the Atlantic 10, two teams from the American Conference, an ACC team, and a Missouri Valley Conference opponent, in addition to a full slate of Ivy League matchups. There are no cupcakes on this schedule. 

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Caden Pierce to sit out his senior year at Princeton, the latest jolt to Tigers men’s basketball

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(Steve Silverman | Ivy Hoops Online)

Caden Pierce announced on Tuesday that he will step away from basketball during his senior year at Princeton. The two-time All-Ivy League forward told ESPN that he plans to graduate next May from Princeton and enter the transfer portal to play his final year of NCAA eligibility as a graduate student. 

Pierce’s withdrawal from the Princeton men’s basketball team is the latest and perhaps heaviest blow to hit Mitch Henderson’s squad since the 2024-25 season ended with a heartbreaking loss to Yale in the semifinals of the 2025 Ivy League Tournament.

The offseason started ominously for Princeton with the news breaking in late March that two key assistant coaches, Brett MacConnell and Lawrence Rowley, would not return to Mitch Henderson’s coaching staff for the 2025-26 season. 

There was no obvious explanation for the coaching staff shakeup, other than Princeton’s leadership perhaps deciding that something needed to change after the Tigers underperformed expectations during the 2024-25 season.

A wave of player defections then descended on Old Nassau.

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Intellectual grit powers former Ivy League stars’ success in professional 3X3 basketball

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At the Spokane Hoopfest, home to the world’s largest 3X3 basketball tournament, seven former Ivy League women’s basketball stars will lace up their sneakers this weekend alongside 25 other elite hoopsters from across the globe in a center court showcase staged by the 3X3 Basketball Association. 

Blake Dietrick and Carlie Littlefield (Princeton), Harmoni Turner and McKenzie Forbes (Harvard), Camille Zimmerman and Hannah Pratt (Columbia), and Roxy Barahman (Yale) have signed up to play on the 3XBA tour this summer, with the Spokane Hoopfest as the opening stop. 

An eighth Ivy alumnus, Kaitlyn Chen, had signed up to play in Spokane as well, but the former Princeton star and recently crowned national champion at UConn pulled out of the 3XBA tour after she was offered a contract to play for the WNBA’s Golden State Valkyries. 

In April, the Valkyries selected Chen early in the third round of the WNBA Draft, only to waive her a few weeks later during training camp. Ditto for Harvard’s Turner, who was also drafted in the third round by the Las Vegas Aces and later waived.

Other WNBA Draft picks failed to earn roster spots this spring as well, and many of those players have now found an opportunity to continue developing their professional basketball careers by signing on to join the 3XBA tour.

The 3xBA describes itself as “the premier professional women’s FIBA 3X3 tour and youth development pipeline in the United States.” Part of its mission is to provide an outlet for standouts like Chen and Turner, who didn’t quite make the cut in their first attempts, to land a roster spot in the WNBA.

“The idea, is that young players, the bubble players, who maybe are the 13th and 14th kids who would make a WNBA roster if we had that many spots, can come and play 3X3 and potentially end up on a USA national team or make money, have a livelihood during the summer, and then go and play their five-on-five season overseas if they want to, in the fall and spring,” Blake Dietrick told Ivy Hoops Online.

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