Women's Basketball: For the love of the game

It was a less-than-glamorous moment for Micir, who became one of just 18 players in the program’s history to score 1,000 points earlier this season. But the next day, she took the court again against Cornell, scoring 14 points in a 65-43 win. Spectators took it as a testament to the player’s determination, but for Micir, it was just par for the course.

“I am a junkie,” Micir said of her relationship with basketball. “I watch it all the time. I go to as many games as I can … I love playing, and I like learning about the game.”

Micir was one of the many in the stands at the men’s basketball team’s 62-59 overtime win against Penn on Feb. 8. With three seconds left in regulation, Quaker guard Tyler Bernardini struck from beyond the arc to tie it at 56. It was a gut-wrenching play for the home fans, but Micir went back to her room that night and drew up Penn’s play, just in case she ever needed it.

Because, if nothing else, Micir is an athlete. Fortunately for Tiger fans, she’s an athlete who has Princeton running through her veins.

Micir hails from nearby Newtown, Pa., but she might as well have grown up on Carril Court. Whenever she got a day off from school, she would hop into the Ford Expedition of neighbor — and Princeton’s associate head football coach of 26 years — Steve Verbit.

“I’d go to work, and I’d drop [Addie, her sister and my two children] off at Jadwin [Gymnasium] and I’d go upstairs, so basically they would have Jadwin Gym and the Princeton athletic facilities as their playground,” Verbit remembered. “On many occasions, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.”

The hours of free time at Jadwin gave Micir the opportunity to hone her shot, which would become one of her greatest assets on the court. Even when she got home, she would continue to practice on the hoop her family had built in the backyard.

It was those endless hours of shooting and perfecting her abilities that made her into the player, leader and captain that she has become for the university that she views as home.

Micir describes herself as “eclectic.” She’s a fan of movies (her favorite: “The Goonies”) as well as music. On the scale of quirkiness at Princeton, she rates herself a six out of 10.

All of that changes when she takes the court.

“Basketball’s not serious, but I take it that way,” said Micir. “On the court, it’s more of a business-like mentality.”

That professional attitude helps Micir overcome setbacks — including a stress fracture in her right femur during her freshman season — and work on the parts of her game that don’t live up to her high standards.

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“She’s a true example of, even though you’re given a lot of talent, if you work on your weaknesses, your career’s going to skyrocket,” head coach Courtney Banghart said. “She’s gotten a lot better while she’s been here. It’s been a lot of fun to watch.”

The result of her hard work: 1,108 career points for Princeton in 3,129 minutes of play, putting her in the program’s elite. It has been her tireless work to continue to improve her game that has impressed teammates and friends alike.

“I think that it sometimes gets lost, the preparation it takes to play so many minutes and to play back-to-back games,” senior guard and fellow co-captain Krystal Hill said. “She takes care of her body. She eats right. She goes to the trainer. She does all the little things.”

Micir has seven more college basketball games scheduled. If the team defends its Ivy League title, she will have a handful more in the NCAA tournament. Either way, her time as a player for Princeton is running out.

“Now that we’re done with the first rotation of the Ivies, I’m kind of feeling my athletic mortality coming to an end,” Micir said. “It’s one of those things where you look to the few games you have left and hope to cherish each and every one of them.”

The end of the season may not signal the end of Micir’s career as a player; she is looking to try her luck in Europe on a professional team.

“She’s at a tough position,” Banghart said of her star’s overseas prospects. “[But] I think she’ll play, and I think she’ll coach, so I think she’ll be around this game for a very long time.”

Is that a job offer, Coach Banghart?

“She’s always welcome.”