On Monday, the Associated Press released its weekly polls for men’s and women’s basketball. The Tigers entered the Top 25 for the first time since November 2022 in women’s basketball, coming in at No. 25 in the Week 4 poll. On the men’s side, the Tigers picked up 14 points in the poll.
“It’s great to get recognized,” women’s head coach Carla Berube told The Daily Princetonian in a phone interview. “I think we’ve put together a challenging early season schedule and have competed at a really high level for many of those games. The recognition is great, but there’s still so much work to be done.”
Women’s basketball (4–2 overall, 0–0 Ivy League) was last ranked in the November 2022 preseason AP poll, when they started the season at No. 24. Their Top 25 ranking this year came after a busy week, playing then-ranked No. 20 Oklahoma and No. 19 Indiana in Fort Myers, Florida. Princeton upset the Sooners on Thanksgiving before falling to the Hoosiers on Saturday afternoon.
“I don’t think it will change all that much,” Berube told the ‘Prince’ when asked about how the ranking will affect the team’s mentality going forward. “I think we know who we are and how we need to work on a consistent basis.”
Princeton has three players averaging double-digit scoring, with senior guard Kaitlyn Chen (17.0), sophomore guard Madison St. Rose (17.7), and first-year guard Skye Belker (10.3) all hitting the mark.
Coming into the season, Chen was named to the Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year Preseason Watch List. She has certainly not disappointed, captaining the Tigers to a 4–2 record. Belker — who scored 20 combined points in last week’s two contests —was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week for the first time in her career.
Women’s basketball will return to action on Wednesday evening at Jadwin Gymnasium when they host Seton Hall (4–2, 0–0 Big East). The contest will not be a cakewalk for the newly ranked Tigers. The Pirates hosted the No. 6 ranked University of Southern California Trojans last week, and lost by just 10 points. The Columbia Lions, who finished as the runner-up in the Ivy League regular season last year, beat the Pirates by 11 on November 10th.
“We have to play much better,” Berube added. “That Indiana game was not our best. They are very talented and athletic and work extremely hard. We need to play disciplined and take care of the ball.”
Meanwhile, the men’s team (6–0, 0–0) is off to its best start in 26 years. Led by a starting five who all played a role in last year’s historic run to the Sweet 16, the team operates as a well-oiled machine on the court. The Tigers have not only won but covered the spread in the six games.
The core of senior guard and captain Matt Allocco, sophomore forward Caden Pierce, and sophomore guard Xaivian Lee are averaging a combined 50 points a game. Just this past weekend, Lee scored a career-high 30 points against Northeastern. This performance — along with 19 points at Old Dominion — earned the sophomore guard from Canada Ivy League Player of the Week honors.
In the most recent poll released this afternoon, the Tigers received 14 points. The last time the Tigers were ranked in the polls was at the conclusion of the 1997–98 season when the Tigers were ranked eighth in the country. This team was notably captained by current head coach Mitch Henderson ’98 and Steve Goodrich ’98, who led the team to a 27–2 record that season.
Men’s basketball will return to action on Wednesday evening when they hit the road once again to face the Bucknell Bison (2–4, 0–0 Patriot League) in Lewisburg, Pa.
The men’s and women’s teams have never been ranked simultaneously, and the beginning of the season shows promise that both teams may be able to deliver another historic season to Tiger fans.
Hayk Yengibaryan is an associate Sports editor at the ‘Prince.’
Please send corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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