Women's Basketball: Tigers hope 3rd time is the NCAA charm

On Saturday, the Tigers (24-4 overall, 14-0 Ivy League) will head to Bridgeport, Conn., to face Kansas State (19-13, 9-9 Big 12) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The game will tip off at 11:20 a.m. and will be broadcast on ESPN2 and ESPN3.

Both Princeton — a No. 9-seed — and No. 8-seeded Kansas State have depended on dominating defense all season, and head coach Courtney Banghart said she expects a physical and ugly game that will come down to which team’s stars play to the best of their abilities. The Wildcats allowed an average of just 56.7 points a game — second only in the Big 12 to No. 1 Baylor.

“Defensively, they like an ugly game,” Banghart said. “They’re giving up under 60 points a game, and that’s playing 19 of their games against tournament teams. That’s okay, because we can be ugly, too.”

In order to counteract Kansas State’s defensive prowess, the Tigers will look to take advantage of their rebounding abilities on both ends of the court to maximize their scoring opportunities.

Princeton led the Ivy League with 16.6 offensive rebounds and 27.5 defensive rebounds per game, while the Wildcats were ninth in the 10-team Big 12 in both categories, averaging 11.5 offensive rebounds and 23.3 defensive rebounds per game.

Defensive rebounding will be particularly crucial, as Banghart noted that Kansas State is susceptible to the transition game, something Princeton has excelled at all season long.

“If we can get those rebounds and get out and run, we’re pretty skilled transition-wise,” junior center Meg Bowen said. “That’s going to be key for us, to grab those defensive boards and get it out and get down the court.”

Banghart noted that Princeton has been strong on the boards even against some of the tougher teams they faced in the non-conference schedule. The Tigers grabbed 19 offensive and 23 defensive boards against No. 2 Stanford. However, despite nearly doubling No. 7 Delaware’s total of eight offensive rebounds, Princeton managed only 14 defensive rebounds against star forward Elena Delle Donne’s squad, which earned a No. 3-seed in the tournament.

“We’ve been a good rebounding team all year. That’s also been against teams in the non-conference schedule we’ve played, so that’s an important part of who we are,” Banghart said. “This would be a terrible time for us not to be disciplined and not to accentuate our strengths.”

Once the Tigers get the ball onto Kansas State’s side of the court, Banghart said she expects the Wildcats to be physical with junior forward and Ivy League Player of the Year Niveen Rasheed, who finished the season second in the Ivy League with 16.8 points per game. If Rasheed is double-teamed, senior guard and co-captain Lauren Edwards’ perimeter play and senior center and co-captain Devona Allgood’s post presence will prove crucial for Princeton’s offense.

Though the Wildcats sit dead last in the Big 12 with 57.8 points per game and a .383 shooting percentage, center Jalana Childs and guard Brittany Chambers were both named to the all-Big 12 first team and finished in the top 10 in the league in scoring.

Banghart described the 6-foot-2-inch Childs as a true center whose strength inside will give the Wildcats the advantage in the post. Allgood and Bowen noted that Childs has a strong hook shot that is difficult to guard, and Bowen suggested that perhaps the best approach to take against her defensively would be to try to prevent her from receiving the ball in the first place.

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“Anytime she’s in the paint, she’s money,” Allgood said. “Our plan with her is to be aggressive from the start and not let her get in the position where she likes to be.”

Banghart said that Chambers would pose a challenge to the Princeton backcourt through her playmaking, driving and shooting abilities. Though junior guard and Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year Lauren Polansky will likely get many defensive looks against Chambers, Banghart said she plans to switch it up in order to prevent the Wildcats’ star from getting too comfortable with any one situation.

“They don’t have a great shooting percentage, so we’re really looking to lock down on those two main players,” junior forward Kate Miller said, adding that the Tigers will dig off the other players and concede the three-point arc in order to limit Kansas State’s post presence inside.

While Kansas State’s poor shooting percentage might give the Tigers some degree of comfort, comparative statistics like these must be taken with a grain of salt due to the large discrepancy in the quality of competition the two teams have faced, especially during the conference-play section of the season. As Banghart noted, Princeton has primarily been playing against teams well outside the top 100, whereas Kansas State has been competing against many teams within the top 50.

Nevertheless, the Tigers received a vote of confidence in the form of the first ever ranking for an Ivy League team by the Associated Press poll, which placed Princeton in the No. 24 slot on Monday. Kansas State fell out of the Top 25 after being trounced by Baylor in January, but it ranks ahead of Princeton in the Ratings Percentage Index.

Saturday will provide an opportunity for the Tigers to live up to the hype and confront the ghosts of NCAA Tournaments past. Princeton has been held to fewer than 50 points in the past two years, but the game against St. John’s in 2010 was the Tigers’ first ever trip to the Dance and Banghart was admittedly more focused on making the experience memorable for the players. For last year’s game against Georgetown, the team was missing Rasheed to an injury.

This year, the team is more experienced, the stars are healthy and playing some of the best basketball of their careers and expectations are higher.

“Hopefully our experience the past two years being in it — a lot of the people that get a lot of minutes with the team have been to the NCAAs before and have been under the pressure and the spotlight,” Edwards said. “Hopefully that experience will shine through, and we can execute the game that we want to play.”