Women's Basketball: Ivy favorites to benefit from Rasheed’s return

When a team goes 24-5 overall and 13-1 in its league for a full season, it might seem that the most logical strategy would be to continue doing the same things. But the women’s basketball team acknowledges that its composition has changed significantly over the offseason, and the Tigers have spent the first few weeks of practice adjusting their style of play accordingly.

“We’re starting over together,” senior center and co-captain Devona Allgood said. “Our team is a lot different than we were last year. Our coach is making good adjustments, and we’re still figuring it out.”

On the surface, the Tigers may not look all that different from the 2010-11 Ivy League Champions. They lost only one starter, Ivy League Player of the Year Addie Micir ’11, and each of this year’s starting five has started a significant number of games over the past two seasons.

However, Micir played such a critical role in Princeton’s offense that the Tigers found it more effective to alter their approach rather than try to replace her. One of the top perimeter shooters in the league who could also drive to the basket, Micir played all 40 minutes in many games, so the team’s play grew to revolve around her presence.

Junior forward Niveen Rasheed said that this year the Tigers will be more fast-paced on the offensive end and will look to do more in transition. According to head coach Courtney Banghart, the style of basketball may not always be as smooth as it was last year.

“We’ve gotten a lot more athletic, so we have to be different,” Banghart said. “We’re going to be messier; we’re going to be trapping; we’re going to be playing at full court on both sides of the ball. Our looks are different, so we’ve tweaked our offensive looks to better suit our personnel.”

A big factor in the rearranging of the team’s offense is Rasheed’s return. The 2009-10 Ivy League Rookie of the Year led the team with 16.4 points per game when she went down with a torn ACL last year. Against Lafayette in one of the last games before she was injured last season, Rasheed scored a career-high 28 points in just 22 minutes.

Though she said she might need more playing time to mentally get back to where she left off last season, Rasheed is 100-percent healthy and ready to alternate between the post and the perimeter forward positions this year.

“She’s always been such a force on the court for us, and, even off the court when she’s not playing, she’s really enthusiastic about the game,” senior guard and co-captain Lauren Edwards said. “Keeping everybody competitive and hungry is what she’s good at.”

Allgood — who shot 53.4 percent from the floor last year and averaged 11.9 points per game — will join Rasheed in the starting frontcourt. Junior center Meg Bowen, junior forward Kate Miller and sophomore forward Kristen Helmstetter will also likely see playing time up front.

Edwards, last year’s third leading scorer, will switch between the two wing positions on the perimeter, and junior point guard Lauren Polansky will continue to initiate the offense.

A freshman class of three rookies will join the team, which is hoping for its third consecutive Ivy League championship and NCAA Tournament appearance. The incoming group is led by 6-0 guard Mariah Smith from Peoria, Ill., whom ESPN ranked as the ninth-best wing nationwide and the No. 57 prospect overall.

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Guard Blake Dietrick and 6-3 center Jess Shivers join Smith in a freshman class that Banghart expects to contribute right away to the reshaped Tigers. Of the three, only Dietrick has been healthy throughout the entire preseason, but Smith has begun to practice recently and is supposed to be ready early in the season.

Though they have convincingly won the league in each of the past two seasons, Princeton has come up noticeably short in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, falling to St. John’s and Georgetown by double digits. A challenging non-league schedule will give the Tigers a chance to practice competing against some of the nation’s top teams. Princeton will host Marist — another one of the nation’s top mid-major programs — and No. 19 DePaul at Jadwin Gymnasium, and will travel to Patriot League champion Navy and No. 5 Stanford, who reached the Final Four last season.

“Our team is so excited to get the opportunity to play against teams of that caliber and also host some of them,” Banghart said. “They’ve earned the right to play and compete with and have a legitimate chance against some of the nation’s best.”

Though Banghart and the players say they approach every Ivy League game as a playoff game, no team in the Ancient Eight looks poised to mount a significant challenge for the league title. Last year’s runner-up, Harvard — the only team to beat the Tigers in league play in two years — lost two starters and will rely on some rookies.

While it will not be a breeze, a return to the NCAA Tournament is very likely for Princeton, and experience against stronger teams in a tough early schedule may help the team get a bit farther in the postseason.