No. 24 Women's Basketball Set For NCAA Tournament In Iowa

IOWA – The No. 24 Princeton Tigers begin their NCAA journey with a first-round matchup against the No. 8 seeded West Virginia Mountaineers.

Princeton and West Virginia will battle at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday on ESPN2. The winner will take on the winners of No. 1 Iowa and No. 16 Holy Cross on Monday.

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•Each bullet point is named after a different type of corn since Princeton is playing in the Iowa City pod.

FLOUR CORN
•This is the fifth straight NCAA Tournament that Princeton has participated in.

•2023 was the fourth straight NCAA Tournament that Princeton has reached in seasons it has participated. The Tigers reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive year after defeating NC State 64-63 on a game-winning three by Grace Stone with 4.7 seconds to go.

Princeton fell in the second round to No. 8 nationally ranked Utah, 63-56, finishing 24-6 overall.

•During the 2021-22 season, head coach Carla Berube's unit defeated No. 6 seeded Kentucky, the SEC Champion, in the first round, the program's second-ever NCAA victory.

•Princeton would then take No. 3 Indiana to the limit in the Second Round, falling to the hosts at Assembly Hall, 56-55.

•Before the 2021-22 campaign, the Tigers last appeared in the NCAA Tournament in 2019, dropping an 82-77 decision to No. 17 Kentucky.

•The program has been seeded as low as No. 12 and as high as No. 8. The Tigers' No. 8 seed in 2015 is the highest seed ever by an Ivy school in the NCAAs.

•The Tigers' first NCAA Tournament win was an 80-70 decision over No. 9 seeded Green Bay in 2015. It was the second Ivy League victory in the NCAA Tournament. Princeton
finished that season at 31-1 overall.

•Despite finishing second in the conference, Princeton became the first Ivy school to earn an NCAA at-large bid in 2016. The Tigers dropped a 74-65 contest to No. 6 seed West Virginia.

FIELD CORN - Stats of Mar. 17
•Princeton is in the WBCA Top-25 for the second week in a row, sitting at No. 24

•They reached as high as No. 23 in that poll and No. 25 in the Associated Press poll.

•The Tigers are one of only 13 teams to have a perfect home record (11-0).

•Princeton is No. 34 in the NCAA Net Rankings, the third-best mark among non-Power Five and Big East schools. (Gonzaga, UNLV).

•Princeton ranks in the NCAA's Top 100 in ...
Scoring defense (56.0, 17th), turnover margin (+4.76, 22nd), field goal percentage (45.8, 24th), turnovers per game (12.9, 27th), scoring margin (+13.8, 28th), rebounding margin (+6.7, 31st), offensive rebounds per game (13.4, 53rd), assist/turnover ratio (1.08, 57th), three-point field goal percentage (33.2, 81st), turnovers forced per game (17.62, 81st), blocks per game (3.7, 91st),

FLINT CORN
•Along with her Ivy Tournament Most Outstanding Player honor, Kaitlyn Chen was a unanimous first-team All-Ivy along with being named to the named to the USBWA Ann Meyers Drysdale Award Watch List (Feb. 27) and the Intersport Women's College All-Star Game Player Watch List (Feb. 29).

•The senior captain leads the Tigers in scoring at 15.8 points per game. She has 12 double-digit performances in the last 13 games and 25 overall this season. She also has six 20+-point outings.

•She has 1,259 career points and is 13th on the program's all-time list behind Ellen Tomasiewicz (1,275).

•Chen recorded her 1,000th career point in the Dec. 29 win over Vermont, becoming the 28th Tiger to reach that milestone.

•The captain is shooting 49.1 percent from the floor. Her 32.3 percent from deep is also a career high.

•Chen has 145 assists this season, which is third-most in a single season in program history. She is 12 shy of Blake Dietrick's record of 157 in 2014-15. Chen is 41st in the NCAA in assists per game (5.0), 65th in total assists and 90th in assists/turnover ratio (1.81).

•Her 351 dimes are tied for the third-most in Princeton history with Jessica Berry '09 for third. She is 11 shy of Leah Spraragen '92 for second (362).

•Madison St. Rose is second on the squad in scoring at 14.5 points per game.

•St. Rose has raised her scoring output from 8.8 as a freshman to 14.5 as a sophomore, along with her shooting percentage (.361-.429) and three-point percentage (.255-
.346).

•The sophomore has scored in double figures 23 times this season.

•She has already surpassed her total field goals (164), three-point total (46-27), assists (40-20) and steals (49-28) from her freshman campaign.

•Skye Belker is third on the unit in scoring at 8.7 points per game. She set a new personal best with 21 points vs. Columbia at home.

•It was the second time she's registered at least 20 points in a game. She also has 10 double-digit performances.

•Since moving into the starting lineup vs. Columbia on Jan. 20, Chet Nweke has posted 10.8 points while shooting 66.2 percent from the floor along with 6.5 rebounds per game.

•Ellie Mitchell continues to be one of the best rebounders in the country as she is 16th in offensive rebounds per contest (4.0), 30th in rebounds per game (10.0) and 39th in total rebounds (291).

•Mitchell has 53 games with at least 10 rebounds or more. She recorded six as a freshman, 16 as a sophomore, 17 as a junior and 15 this season.

•Mitchell is the only player in the NCAA to record at least 18 rebounds, five assists and three steals in two games this season (vs. Oklahoma and at Columbia).

•She has the two highest rebounding totals (338 last season and 311 in 2021-22) ever by a Tiger. She is the program's all-time leader in rebounding (1,110), recently passing Margaret Meier (1974-78) for first (1,099).

•Meier and Mitchell have the two highest career rebounding totals in Princeton Basketball history, men or women.

BLACK AZTEC CORN
•Head coach Carla Berube's unit is No. 21 in Her Hoop Stats' Simple RPI (61.4) which treats all games equally (25% Team Win %, 50% Average Opponent Win %, 50% Average Opponent's Average Opponent Win %).

•It is different from the NCAA RPI because the NCAA RPI values home wins as 0.6 wins, home losses as 1.4 losses, away wins as 1.4 wins, and away losses as 0.6 losses.

•Princeton is 12th in the country in offensive rebounding rate (39.3).

•Princeton sits No. 18 in Her Hoops Stats Defensive Rating (82.0), a statistic that controls for pace and adjusts defensive rating for the strength of the offenses teams have faced.

•The Tigers are No. 30 in Her Hoops Stats Rating (24.5), a rating of teams that controls for pace, adjusts for opponent quality, and incorporates margin of victory in addition to wins and losses.

• The Tigers are No. 40 in Her Hoops Stats Offensive Rating (106.5), a statistic that controls for pace and adjusts offensive rating for the strength of the defenses teams have faced.

Kaitlyn Chen
Offensive Win Shares - 3.3 - 50th overall
Win Shares - 4.3 - 98th percentile
Assist Percentage - 28.9 percent - 97th percentile
PER - 25.8 - 95th percentile
Assist/Turnover Ratio - 1.81 - 95th percentile
Offensive Rating - 113.3 - 94th percentile
Defensive Win Shares - 1.1 - 91st percentile

Ellie Mitchell
Total Rebound % - 20.3 - 29th overall
Defensive Rebounding % - 25.3 - 48th overall
Defensive Win Shares - 1.6 - 50th overall
Offensive Rebounding % - 15.6 - 52nd overall
Defensive Rating - 78.9 - 97th percentile
Offensive Rating - 113.9 - 94th percentile
Total Win Shares - 3.2 - 94th percentile
Assist/Turnover Ratio - 1.50 - 90th percentile
Steal Percentage - 2.7 - 86th percentile

Madison St. Rose
Win Shares - 3.3 - 95th percentile
Offensive Win Shares - 2.2 - 94th percentile
Defensive Win Shares - 1.1 - 92nd percentile
Steal Percentage - 2.8 - 90th percentile
Usage Rate - 25.6 percent - 88th percentile
PER - 21.9 - 88th percentile

PURPLE CORN
•Princeton and West Virginia's only matchup was in the 2016 NCAA Tournament, a matchup won 74-65 by the Mountaineers.

•Iowa leads the all-time series against Princeton, 2-0. The two teams faced off in 1998 and 2019.

•The loss 77-75 overtime loss on Nov. 20, 2019 in Iowa City was the first of Carla Berube's tenure at Princeton. She's lost just 15 times since.

• One current player from each team played in the 2019 Princeton-Iowa game. Ellie Mitchell played six minutes off the bench for the Tigers, getting a rebound and drawing a foul, and Kate Martin played six minutes off the bench for the Hawkeyes, going 0-1 from the field, grabbing three rebounds and committing two turnovers.

•The Orange and Black has never faced Holy Cross and is 1-0 all-time vs. UT-Martin. The lone matchup came in 2002.

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