Princeton coaching and Dartmouth playing legend Courtney Banghart spent 45 minutes in conversation with Ivy Hoops Online contributor Steve Silverman.
A conversation with former Princeton coach and Dartmouth guard Courtney Banghart
Kaitlyn Chen
Intellectual grit powers former Ivy League stars’ success in professional 3X3 basketball
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.
Taking stock of the big three at the midway point of the Ivy League women’s basketball season
With seven conference games in the books for every Ivy League women’s basketball team, the race for the regular season conference title has reached the halfway mark.
The three teams picked in the preseason to contend for an Ivy League title – Princeton, Columbia and Harvard – have lived up to their billing, racking up big wins in the nonconference season and largely dominating the other five Ivy teams in league play.
Here’s where each of the big three stands as we head into the final five weeks of the Ivy League regular season:
Tiger Takeaways for Princeton women’s basketball as Ivy League play approaches
A whiteboard used by Princeton women’s basketball coach Carla Berube and her coaching staff sits on a sideline chair af the Jon. M. Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Dec. 8, 2024 (Steve Silverman | Ivy Hoops Online)
Princeton women’s basketball ended 2024 on a high note, vanquishing the Le Moyne Dolphins, 75-43, on New Year’s Eve and finishing its nonconference schedule with a 9-4 record.
With the curtain rising on the Ivy League season in only three days, it’s time to take stock of how the Tigers have fared during the first half of the season and look ahead to the prospects for the six-time-defending Ivy League champions grabbing yet another conference title.
Here are four Tiger Takeaways from the conclusion of the nonconference season:
Tiger Takeaways from Princeton women’s basketball’s 5-4 start amid big changes
It’s been an up-and-down season so far for Princeton women’s basketball. With nine games in the books, the six-time-defending Ivy League champions have a mixed record of 5-4.
Highlights of the season include a three-game sweep of Big East opponents DePaul, Villanova, and Seton Hall, a dominant win over in-state rival Rutgers, and a resume-building win over Big 5 foe Temple.
The lowlights include blowout losses at Quinnipiac and Portland, a disappointing finish at Duquesne, and a heartbreaking injury to the Tigers’ superstar team captain, Madison St. Rose.
Carla Berube’s club was picked to finish first again in the Ivy League’s preseason media poll, but the loss of senior leadership, a monumental injury and a brutal, road-heavy slate of opening games has created challenges, opportunities and an intriguing future.
Here are three Tiger Takeaways assessing where the Princeton women’s basketball team stands one-third of the way into the season:
Princeton women’s basketball turns the ball over 29 times in 74-55 loss at Portland
The Princeton women’s basketball team traveled 3,000 miles to face a Portland Pilots squad on Friday enjoying the best season in its history. The result was a calamity for Princeton as the Tigers suffered their worst defeat in more than two years, falling to the Pilots, 74-55, at the Chiles Center.
The Tigers looked rusty and undisciplined after a 10-day layoff over the Thanksgiving holiday. Facing a relentless, trapping press, the Orange and Black coughed the ball up an astounding 29 times, wrecking any chance they had to notch a fourth consecutive road win.
Ivy women’s basketball Media Day highlights
As the 2024-25 season quickly approaches, the Ivy League hosted its annual women’s basketball Media Day on Thursday. The three-hour event, hosted by Lance Medow, can be viewed on the conference’s YouTube channel.
Prior to the event, the league announced the results of its preseason poll.
Princeton, which has claimed the Ancient Eight title for the last six years, was picked first with 122 out of a possible 128 points and 10 first-place votes. Columbia, which has tied for the top spot in each of the last two seasons, came in second with 110 points and five first-place votes.
Harvard, which has finished the last two years in third placed, was tabbed for third in 2025, earning 101 points and one first-place spot.
Penn, the final participant in last year’s Ivy tournament, was picked fourth with 75 votes, while Brown, which finished last year tied with Penn for fourth, was four points back in fifth place.
Sixth place went to Yale, which was as high as third place in 2022, with 48 votes.
While Cornell and Dartmouth ended last season tied for seventh place, the Big Red got the nod for seventh in this year’s poll with 30 points and the Big Green were eighth with 19 points.
Below are highlights from this year’s virtual Media Day:
Princeton’s Kaitlyn Chen on choosing UConn for grad transfer season
Next week, Kaitlyn Chen will graduate from Princeton University as one of the most decorated basketball players in the history of Old Nassau.
The senior point guard and former Ivy League Player of the Year recently announced she will enroll next fall at the University of Connecticut to play for the legendary Geno Auriemma as a graduate transfer.
Chen told Ivy Hoops Online she will pursue a master’s degree in sports management at UConn.
No. 9 Princeton women’s basketball bows to No. 8 West Virginia in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament
IOWA CITY, Iowa – No. 9 Princeton women’s basketball team ran into a buzzsaw in the first round of the 2024 women’s NCAA Tournament, falling to No. 8 West Virginia, 63-53, Saturday in Iowa City.
The loss ended an outstanding season for Princeton and marked the close of an era for a historic triumvirate of senior co-captains–Kailtyn Chen, Ellie Mitchell, and Chet Nweke–who led the program to new heights during their sensational careers at Old Nassau.
The Tigers (25-5, 15-1 Ivy) came into this contest against the Mountaineers (25-7, Big 12 13-7) filled with confidence and high hopes. And it first, it looked as though those hopes might be vindicated.
NCAA Tournament Reporter’s Notebook: Controversy swirls on the eve of round one in Iowa City
IOWA CITY, Iowa – Greetings from Iowa City, Iowa, the heartland of girls and women’s basketball.
Your faithful Ivy Hoops Online correspondent grew up in the Hawkeye State, so covering Princeton women’s basketball at this venue has been a nice homecoming for me. In fact, the last time I visited Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City was for a Boston concert with a group of my high school buddies 45 years ago. To be honest, I barely remember the concert, other than it was loud.
But one thing I remember clearly from those long ago days is how important girls’ high school basketball was to the state of Iowa. Back then, the girls’ game was quite different than today. Each team played six players at a time, three on offense and three on defense, and neither the offensive nor the defensive players were allowed to cross the half-court line.
Women’s basketball has come a long way since then, but one thing that hasn’t changed is the passion for the sport. When I was growing up here, no event was more important to the people of Iowa than the girls’ high school basketball tournament, which took place every year at Veterans Memorial Auditorium in downtown Des Moines.
Now, the chief passion in the state is Caitlin Clark and the University of Iowa women’s basketball team. The No. 1 Hawkeyes kick off the first round of games here Saturday afternoon against the No. 16 Holy Cross Crusaders. Later in the day, the No. 9 Princeton Tigers will face off against the No. 8 West Virginia Mountaineers.
How big of a circus is the Caitlin Clark show here in Iowa City? So big, that a gaggle of cameramen and reporters from all over the nation this morning staked out the Iowa women’s locker room in the bowels of Carver-Hawkeye Arena just to get a glimpse of the star player as she walked down the hallway to the team’s pregame day press conference. Then, after the player part of the press conference ended and it was time for coach Lisa Bluder to take questions from the media, nearly every reporter shuffled out of the room, leaving only yours truly and a couple of others to ask questions of the person who actually runs the team.
Here are some other impressions, news, and notes from Iowa City on the day before the round one games begin: