What is orange and black and all over Brown?
What the women's basketball team (7-12 overall, 2-3 Ivy League) must be tonight in Providence when it plays the Bears (10-9, 4-2) in its sixth Ivy League match of the season.
Right now, Princeton is hovering in sixth place with three early losses against Harvard, Dartmouth, and Columbia. Brown holds second place, behind undefeated Harvard, with two losses against the Crimson and the Big Green.
If Princeton can come out with a W tonight, its record will be 3-3, and Brown's would drop to 4-3. Then, if the Tigers can do the same tomorrow night at Yale — now 1-5 and dead last — they will move up the Ivy scaffold into a much more comfortable position — potentially neck-and-neck with Brown, if the Bears lose to Penn that same night.
In order to do this, Princeton will have to apply the lesson it learned last Saturday in its slump-breaking 66-63 victory over Cornell (following Friday's 75-66 loss to Columbia) — the importance of execution.
The Tigers lost the first half against the Big Red because they allowed way too many turnovers, most of which were missed offensive rebounds. Cornell, in fact, out rebounded Princeton by a 25-10 margin. If a shot didn't go in, chances were the ball landed in the hands of the other team, who winged the ball back over half court and left the Tigers scampering back on defense.
Entering the locker room, senior captain and forward Maureen Lane said, "We just knew that we had to rebound better. We were giving them too many opportunities on the defensive end."
The second half was a completely different ball game.
"[What] made the difference was our offensive execution," head coach Richard Barron said. "We only had three turnovers in the second half."
So tonight, against the Bears, that is what the Tigers must do again — execute.
"How we rebound will determine how successful we are," Barron said.
Hoping to step up the rebounding, Barron has put in a new zone defense this week that he hopes will be more effective against Brown — a relatively short team that is deadly from the outside and, with the addition of freshman guard and top scorer Colleen Kelly, much improved since last season.
In Brown's first loss to Harvard last weekend, Kelly pulled down five boards and was one of only two to score in the double digits, with 17 points in the second half alone. The following day against Dartmouth she surpassed herself with 21 points — 15 from three-point land — and seven rebounds.
Six-foot Junior Nyema Mitchell is another towering threat who gave the Tigers considerable trouble last year with 21 points and eight rebounds.
"[Brown] is a quick, not very big, and a good transition team [with] primarily slashers on the perimeter. They are much improved — especially their guard play — from last year," Barron said.
Record-wise, Yale's one-win, last-place Ivy ranking is a much more reassuring sign for Princeton as it prepares for its weekend on the road.
Last year, Yale slid by Princeton in one of the most exciting contests of the season, pulling ahead after a barrage of three-pointers from both teams and winning in overtime, 85-80.
But only two out of five Eli starters from that game are still around.
"[The Elis] have struggled this year and don't really have a strong post presence," Barron said. "I think we can have some success inside."
On the other hand, Yale's single victory this season came against Columbia, which soundly toppled Princeton last Friday in Jadwin Gym.
"Yale does have several guards who can score," Barron said. "They run an offense with lots of cutting and movement."
Last weekend, the Tigers came away with lessons learned from the Big Red. This weekend, the door to the playoffs is upon them.
"A huge key," Barron said, "will be to continue to limit our turnovers like we did against Cornell."
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