Stars are gone, but Big Green looms the largest

After coming so close to topping the Ivy League last year, the women's basketball team will face a significantly different field when it begins league games this January. But if the Tigers are to make another run at an NCAA Tournament bid, the team they'll ultimately have to top could well be the same.

"I think Dartmouth will be good again," head coach Richard Barron said.

Princeton and the Big Green split regular season games last year, with Dartmouth defeating the Tigers, 82-64, at Jadwin Gym and then Princeton returning the favor with a 62-49 win in Hanover, N.H.

The Tigers ended up in a three-way tie with the Big Green and Brown for the Ivy title, as each team finished the regular season with a league record of 12-2. After downing Brown in the first playoff game, Dartmouth took the Ivy League title game from Princeton, 63-48, and headed for March Madness.

The Tigers will face an altered — but still potent — team when they challenge the Big Green this year.

"[Dartmouth] graduated three starters and lost more than any other Ivy League team," Barron said. "We lost a lot with [center] Becky [Brown '06] and [guard] Katy [O'Brien '06], but we also had people to step in, especially at Katy's position. Dartmouth lost maybe the two best guards in the league."

The players Barron is referring to are former Big Green sharpshooters Angie Soriaga and Jeannie Cullen, who graduated after a season in which they almost singlehandedly turned Dartmouth into the best three-point shooting team in Division I basketball. The pair scored a combined 30 points in the playoff game that ended the Tigers' season.

But the departure of Soriaga and Cullen is no reason for the Tigers to stop fearing the Big Green. Dartmouth retains one player who has the Tigers particularly worried.

"They're bringing back [center] Elise Morrison, who missed almost all of last year," Barron said. "They'll have to adjust to how she comes back, but she could be the best post player in the League."

The Big Green is likely to improve as the season — and Morrison — progresses. Dartmouth will also have several talented freshmen to integrate into its system, further reason not to rule the Big Green out if it struggles early.

"They've got a couple of good young players joining their team, but they're really going to miss their senior class," Barron said. "But by the time the league rolls around, they may be ready. They may have figured all that out."

As Dartmouth seeks to return to its winning ways, Harvard will present stiff competition in the league as well.

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"Harvard is going to be improved," Barron said. "They'll have a better sense of who they are. They played a lot of kids last year. They had a lot of seniors that played, but they really leaned on their freshmen a lot. Now those freshmen are sophomores and don't have to play behind the seniors as much, so I think they'll have a better sense of their identity."

Barron feels that Columbia will join Harvard and Dartmouth as Princeton's primary competition for a place among the Ivy League's elite. The picture begins to look even more crowded when one factors in Cornell, which won six Ivy games last year, and which Barron sees as a potential sleeper to rise to the top half of the conference.

"Cornell is bringing everybody back from a good nucleus," Barron said.

Brown, meanwhile, presented a challenge for the Tigers last year, but could very well slip a bit in the Ivies this year. The Bears joined Princeton and Dartmouth in the three-way tie for first place and handed the Tigers their first of just two regular season league losses in 2005-06, beating Princeton 49-47 in Providence, R.I.

"Brown lost a lot in Sarah Hayes," Barron explained. "They really overachieved last year and Sarah Hayes was a big reason why. She deserved to be Player of the Year in the league because of what she did."

Despite some serious potential throughout the league, Barron is happy with Princeton's overall prospects in the Ivy picture.

"Columbia, Yale and Penn struggled last year and will have to work their way back up," Barron said.

Barron ultimately predicted that the toughest Ivy competition will come from Dartmouth, with Harvard and Columbia vying for third and the rest of the league following them.

Still, all these teams have a long way to go before they get the chance to face off against each other.

"The Ivy League is so unpredictable and injuries can play a big part," Barron said. "We might get a whole lot of momentum going into January, but then you have to take three weeks off and get that momentum back."

The Tigers begin their league games on Jan. 6 against Penn at the Palestra in Philadelphia.