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It’s been more than a day since the No. 9 Princeton women’s basketball team lost its first-round game in the NCAA Tournament to No. 8 West Virginia, 63-53. yet the reality of the Tigers’ season coming to an end hasn’t completely set in for your faithful Ivy Hoops Online correspondent.
A few thoughts and onsite reports from the day after round 1 at the Iowa City pod of the Big Dance:
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.
Ivy Hoops Online contributor George “Toothless Tiger” Clark reports on Brian Earl departing Cornell men’s basketball after eight years as the program’s head coach to take the same job at William & Mary and reflects on what Earl has meant to Cornell, Princeton (as a former player and assistant coach) and the Ivy League:
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:
IOWA CITY, Iowa – As the curtain rises on first-round games from Iowa City in the 2024 NCAA Tournament, all eyes will focus on Caitlin Clark and her No. 1 Iowa Hawkeyes. Clark has ignited an explosion of interest in women’s college basketball with her electrifying shooting and record-breaking scoring.
But there are three other teams competing in the Iowa City pod this weekend, including the No. 9 Princeton women’s basketball team (25-4, 15-1 Ivy), which begins play in No. 8 West Virginia Mountaineers (24-7, 13-7 Big 12).
Let’s take an in-depth look at how these two teams from vastly different places in the women’s college basketball landscape match up against each other:
Ivy Hoops Online contributor George “Toothless Tiger” Clark recaps an 84-77 loss for Princeton (24-5, 12-3 Ivy) versus UNLV (20-12, 12-7 Mountain West) at Jadwin Gym in the opening round of the NIT to end the Tigers’ season:
The Princeton and Cornell men had disappointing exits from the Ivy Madness semifinals, but their seasons aren’t over. The Tigers and the Big Red have both earned bids to the National Invitational Tournament.
Two down, one to go.
Princeton women’s basketball added an exclamation point to its already triumphant Ivy League season Saturday by soundly defeating the Columbia Lions, 75-58, for its fifth consecutive Ivy League Tournament championship.
A valiant comeback by the Princeton men’s basketball team came up short at Levien Gym on Saturday afternoon as the No. 1 Tigers fell to the No. 4 Brown Bears, 90-81, in their Ivy League Tournament semifinal matchup Saturday. Here are three takeaways from the shocking end to Princeton’s magical Ivy League season:
NEW YORK – A jubilant and relieved Brown coach Mike Martin said time went backward over the last eight minutes as his team’s 18-point lead evaporated to three with under a minute left in regulation in Saturday’s Ivy League Tournament semifinal,
But the No. 4 Bears held on to defeat No. 1 Princeton, 90-81, in front of a packed house at Levien Gymnasium and a national ESPNU audience.
The team’s semifinal victory, the first-ever for a No. 4 seed in either the men’s or women’s division through the six-year history of the Ivy League Tournament, sends the Bears to Sunday afternoon’s finale and a chance for the program’s first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1986.
Despite a regular season championship, Saturday’s furious comeback and the national memory of last year’s Sweet 16 run, the Tigers’ chances at an at-large bid to the Big Dance appear to be slim.