For a crash course in how to replace a senior star, the Tigers might look to the Ivy champion women’s soccer team for inspiration. After losing Diana Matheson ’08 — a member of the Canadian national team and Princeton’s leading scorer — from a squad that finished 8-8-1, the Tigers defied all preseason expectations. Relying on a shutdown defense and the made-for-Hollywood rise of senior forward Sarah Peteraf, Princeton made a magical Ivy run to secure a share of the league title and an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.
The basketball team won’t lift that script verbatim — these Tigers all abide by the Honor Code — but Princeton hopes to write a similar storybook ending to its upcoming season.
Growing pains
In head coach Courtney Banghart’s first season, the Tigers finished 7-23 overall and 4-10 in the Ivy League.
It was a far cry from the team’s 2006 season, when the Orange and Black rode the one-two inside punch of Becky Brown ’06 and Cowher to a 12-2 league record. Brown and Cowher combined to average more than 30 points per game on the season, particularly impressive considering Princeton as a team averaged only 60 points per game during the 2007-08 season.
Princeton’s offense seemed sluggish at times, perhaps because of the absence of then-junior guard Jessica Berry. After returning from studying abroad, Berry sparked the Tigers to some of their best performances: Princeton averaged 65 points per game in its last five contests.
On Feb. 29 and March 1, the team secured its first consecutive Ivy League wins against Brown and Yale. Especially notable was the team’s defensive effort: Both the Bears and the Bulldogs scored 59 points, 10 less than the Tigers’ season average for points allowed.
Three starters return to wide-open league
Unlike in previous years, Princeton’s strength will likely lie on the perimeter. Senior guards Whitney Downs and Caitlin O’Neill, along with Berry, all started last year and combined to average 18.9 points and 5.1 assists per game. Downs is also a staff writer for The Daily Princetonian.
The team’s leading returning scorer, however, is sophomore swingman Addie Micir. Playing both guard and forward last season, Micir enjoyed a strong rookie campaign and finished second on the team in both points and rebounds per game, at 7.5 and 4.1, respectively.
Backing up the perimeter positions will be sophomore guards Krystal Hill and Shelbie Pool, along with junior guard Tani Brown.
In the paint, the Tigers’ muscle has been severely depleted. Senior forward Julia Berger and junior center Cheryl Stevens will strive to replace not only Cowher’s production but also Ali Prichard ’08’s four rebounds per game. Princeton will be hard-pressed to make up for that slack.
Banghart and her assistants aggressively recruited size in the offseason, bringing in an unusually large freshman class of five players, including four who stand six feet or taller. Freshmen post Devona Allgood, guard Beth Binkley, guard Lauren Edwards and forward Angela Groves will learn the college game by sharing the more than 15 shots per game that once belonged to Cowher.
“I think one of the things that makes us a lot stronger [this year] is that we will all be contributing equally,” O’Neill said. “It’s not just going to be one person who carries the team.”
Freshman guard Laura Johnson rounds out the basketball team’s Class of 2012.
Among the Ivy League’s eight teams, Princeton was picked in the preseason media poll to finish seventh. Harvard, who received 10 of 17 first-place votes, is picked to finished first, followed by Dartmouth and Cornell. The three teams shared the Ivy League crown last season, with Cornell receiving the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament after a two-game playoff. Princeton finished tied for sixth with Penn.
Yale is picked to finish fourth, Columbia fifth, Penn sixth and Brown eighth.
“It’s hard to go from sixth in the league last year to first this year,” O’Neill said. “But it’s absolutely doable.”
Harvard head coach Kathy Delaney-Smith, who has 400 career wins, returns three starters from last year’s squad including first-team All-Ivy guard Emily Tay and second-team All-Ivy forward Katie Rollins. Each averaged double figures in scoring, while Tay ranked second in the league in assists.
Though Cornell’s Ivy League Player of the Year Jeomi Maduka was only a junior last season, the Big Red will miss her services this year. The athletic forward was the league’s third-leading scorer, but was also All-Ivy in three indoor track and field events last winter and has chosen to focus on her track career. Dartmouth, meanwhile, returns 10 of 12 players from last year’s title-sharing squad, including first-team All-Ivy guard Koren Schram.
Yale returns all but one player, including All-Ivy guard Melissa Colborne, from its 7-7 fourth-place 2007 team. Colborne was second only to Cowher in scoring in the Ivy League with nearly 16 points a game. Columbia, historically an Ivy League underdog, looks formidable this year after finishing in a tie for fourth — the best finish in program history — last year. The Lions return three players who started at least 20 games last season, including junior guard Danielle Brown, who led Columbia in rebounds (116) and steals (57) a year ago.
Penn returns all five starters and 13 of its 14 players from last season’s squad. Among the Quakers’ returning stars is senior forward Carrie Biemer, who averaged 13.9 points per game and more than four rebounds per game last year, when Penn finished sixth.
Brown is expected to struggle this season after the graduation of point guard Annesley O’Neal, the Bears’ leading scorer in 2007. This season, Brown will look to its underclassmen, especially sophomore guard Sadiea Williams, for leadership.
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