Women's Basketball: Rasheed having breakout season

Niveen Rasheed grew up in a big sports family, and her brother, 17 years her elder, taught her how to play basketball. Now six feet tall and known for her toughness and athleticism, it seems that her years of facing him on the court have paid off.

“He’s a huge basketball guy, and he kind of took me under his wing,” said Rasheed, a freshman guard on the women’s basketball team. “We always played basketball together, and even now, he’s at most of my games, and he lives in Miami.”

With the support of her family, Rasheed has become the premier freshman in the entire Ivy League, and she has won all four Ivy League Rookie of the Week awards since the start of this season.

Her success builds on a stellar high school career. Rasheed attended Monte Vista High School, a big public school in Danville, Calif., where her skill helped shape the women’s basketball team into a competitive program.

“The girls’ program wasn’t so huge, but after my senior year, we actually became one of the elite programs,” Rasheed said.

Over her four years, the Mustangs posted a solid 99-18 record. Rasheed was captain during her junior and senior years, and she was the unanimous league MVP in 2007, 2008 and 2009. She was also a three-time all-metro, all-Northern California and all-state player, and she was recognized as a McDonald’s All-America nominee in her senior year.

Though Rasheed also played Amateur Athletic Union ball, her high school benefited the most from her skills. She graduated holding the school record in scoring, assists, rebounds and steals, and Monte Vista retired her number — the first time a number has been retired in the school’s history.

As a recruiter, Princeton head coach Courtney Banghart recognized Rasheed’s intensity and drive as a good fit for the Tiger squad.

“The thing I’ve always loved about Niveen is the way she competes,” Banghart said. “This summer, she played in the same club team as [freshman] Lauren Polansky, our starting point guard … They would be against teams that were nationally ranked and a lot bigger than them, but both Lauren and Niveen would stay in games out of sheer will. They would just compete as if their lives depended on it, and any player will be successful that way.”

Rasheed certainly has been successful early on this season. She leads the team in points (17.8 points per game), rebounds (8.0), and total steals (17), and she averaged 20 points per game last week in a win over Lehigh and a loss to Rutgers.

“Her numbers are so good because I think opponents just don’t have people who can guard her,” Banghart said. “We have her moving around from top of the key to low post to weak side, and I think it’s hard to match up against her.”

“She’s just a very energetic player and always the hardest-working player out on the court,” senior center and co-captain Cheryl Stevens added.

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Her team notices and feeds off her passion and hustle on the court. She picked up her first double-double in the win over UC-Irvine, netting 17 points and snagging 10 rebounds.

“She plays really hard and really aggressive, and she does a lot of the dirty work down low,” senior guard and co-captain Tani Brown said. “She has a lot of energy.”

Rasheed explained that this energy stems from her love for the game and her competitive spirit. “I hate losing,” she said. “I’m really competitive. Even in practice I don’t like to lose.”

Luckily, she has not had to deal a lot with losing so far this season.

The 6-2 Tigers kicked off the winter with three straight wins for the first time since the 1995-96 campaign, the first in which Princeton reached 20 wins. Since then, Princeton has dropped two games by 10 points each, to UCLA and Rutgers. Last night, however, the Tigers bounced back with a convincing 83-57 victory over Rider. Rasheed had a double-double in the game.

Rasheed has clearly not felt the transitional pangs many rookies experience. To her, the benefit of playing college basketball is that the level of play is consistently competitive.

“Here it’s fun because, if you’re not having a good game, you always have someone else who can pick it up,” Rasheed said. “All five positions can play. You can always pass to someone and trust them with the ball.”

This trust has created a close group of women on and off the court. Rasheed said her favorite part of basketball is the team dynamic, and her coach and the team captains see her as a humble, hard-working team player.

“She’s just really fun to be around, as they all are,” Banghart said. “Off the court, she is not the fierce competitor that she is on the court, that’s for sure.”

“Off the court, she’s super humble and a great teammate,” Brown explained. “She definitely earns all of the recognition that she’s getting this early in her career.”