Why Princeton’s brief NCAA Tournament stay will matter beyond this season

Just over 72 hours later, the Tigers became the first team eliminated from the tournament with a 68-63 loss to Iowa State in the First Four on Wednesday. They came back from a 9-point deficit in the first quarter to lead by as many as 15 early in the third, but Iowa State took command from there, and the Tigers couldn’t claw back again.

Though the Tigers’ tournament appearance was brief, it was important for the program, which relied heavily on sophomores all season. Its impact won’t be fully felt when the team boards its charter flight home from South Bend, Indiana, but it will reverberate in the months to come, as the returning Tigers learn from the experience and become better for it.

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The hours between Selection Sunday and Wednesday’s loss were a whirlwind. The Tigers learned their fate after 8 p.m. Eastern time on Sunday, and director of basketball operations Lilly Paro stayed up all night coordinating the logistics. The team arrived in South Bend around 1:30 p.m. on Monday.

“We did find out really late, of course, and then with the play-in games, it’s always a quick turnaround,” sophomore guard/forward Fadima Tall told reporters on Tuesday. “So I think we … stayed up maybe a little bit too late [Sunday] night but got back on our feet.”

“We had to pack real quick and wake up and go,” sophomore guard Skye Belker added.

The selection extended the Tigers’ NCAA Tournament streak to six (excluding 2021 because the Ivy League did not play that season amid the COVID-19 pandemic). But for many players, Wednesday’s game provided their first March Madness minutes, as Princeton starts four sophomores and brings more youth off the bench.

For example, Tall did not play at all in Princeton’s first-round NCAA Tournament loss to West Virginia last season — in fact, she played just 88 total minutes that season. This year, she started every game except for Senior Day, was the third-leading scorer and led the team in rebounding (among players who appeared in at least five games). The second-team All-Ivy selection was also a defensive linchpin all season.

“It’s just exciting to be able to play on a stage like this,” Tall said on Tuesday, looking ahead to her tournament debut.

On Wednesday, she had a team-high 19 points, seven rebounds, four assists and two steals in 38 minutes. In the first half, color analyst Stephanie White lauded her for being able to defend Addy Brown, Iowa State’s second-leading scorer, while also disrupting passing and driving lanes for other Cyclones.

“It’s just the little stuff we always harp about in practice,” Tall said postgame about her defense, “so doing that was second nature.”

Four other Tigers also made their NCAA Tournament debuts on Wednesday: sophomore starter Olivia Hutcherson, first-year Toby Nweke, junior Taylor Charles and senior Katie Thiers.

Other players were taking on bigger roles in the tournament after being role players in previous appearances. Belker, the only player to start against both West Virginia and Iowa State, struggled against the Cyclones, scoring 11 points on 4-for-17 shooting.

Senior forward Parker Hill had 10 points, 12 rebounds, three blocks and three steals while being tasked with guarding Cyclones All-American center Audi Crooks one-on-one.

Sophomore point guard Ashley Chea got off to a hot start, scoring the Tigers’ first 7 points and finishing with 15. Cyclones head coach Bill Fennelly was impressed with the unanimous first-team All-Ivy selection postgame, saying she was even better in person than she’d looked on film.

“When you play a great player, you work really hard, you help a lot and [you] hope they miss a couple,” Fennelly told reporters. “… She makes the game look easy. She doesn’t force anything. All her shots were good. … It was a player and half [defending] her the whole second half.”

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Despite Chea scoring the first points of the game on a jumper off her back foot, the Tigers trailed for much of the first quarter and entered the break down 18-11. But they roared back with a 27-7 second quarter to take a 38-25 lead into halftime.

Princeton settled in during the second quarter, head coach Carla Berube told reporters postgame, after some early nerves. The Tigers were more patient offensively, and they got 9 of their 10 total second-chance points in the quarter. They also got 9 of their 11 total points off turnovers in that quarter, capitalizing on Iowa State’s mistakes.

But at halftime, Fennelly asked his players if they were content to end their season this way, and they responded with a resounding no: a 27-9 third quarter. From there, the Cyclones held on, playing Princeton evenly in the fourth quarter to give Fennelly his 800th career win.

In the final two minutes, Princeton missed four of its five shots, including an open 3-pointer from Belker that swirled around the rim two full times before popping out. That would’ve pulled the Tigers within 2 points with five seconds left. Instead, it summed up the Tigers’ shooting woes, as they shot only 25.8% from the field in the second half.

The loss hurts for the Tigers, especially because the game was within their grasp. But getting this NCAA Tournament bid means Chea, Belker, Tall and Hutcherson — the four returning starters for next season — know what carrying the load in the postseason feels like now, rather than having to learn that later in their careers.

“You can’t simulate this kind of experience,” Berube said.

The Tigers finish their season with a 21-8 record overall and were second in the Ivy League in the regular season at 12-2. For many programs, that would be a high-water season, especially with that much youth. For Princeton, which had won six straight Ivy regular-season titles and five straight conference tournament titles before this season, it was a tough year. And it ended with the Tigers surrendering double-digit leads in two straight games, including the semifinals of the Ivy League Tournament.

“[It’s been] a lot of fun watching them grow and mature,” Berube said, “and I thought we had a lot of fun this year. That’s why I do what I do is getting to just be with them on a day-to-day basis. …

“Every year is different, but this one was challenging but also really, really rewarding. And I’ve gotta remember that because this [loss] definitely stings.”

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Throughout the season, Princeton improved dramatically. After graduating three-time Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year Ellie Mitchell and losing three other starters to graduation or injury, the chemistry on defense was a work in progress early on. Princeton has long been a dominant defensive program, but through Nov. 22, the Tigers ranked in just the 26th percentile nationally in points allowed per 100 possessions. Now, they rank in the 77th percentile.

They also got much better at taking care of the ball, and in that respect, a December trip to Portland and Utah was often described as a season-changer. The Tigers got swept and committed 44 turnovers across the two games, but the trip exposed their weaknesses and pushed them to get better.

Wednesday’s loss could have a similar impact in the offseason, lighting a fire under Princeton’s returners that accelerates the next step of their careers.

“Losing,” Tall said postgame, “is never something that I want to do ever again.”