Princeton University Athletics
Thursday TigerBlog - GPG Would Be Proud Of Ashley Chea
December 04, 2025 | Tiger Blog
As a college student a long time ago, TigerBlog used to play pickup basketball and then squash at Gimbel Gym on the Penn campus.
He wonders now how he would have responded had someone said to him "hey, you know you're going to play way more of both at Jadwin Gym up the road, right?"
Hey, there's no way to predict the future, right?
Back in those pickup basketball games, it was a mixture of undergrads who thought they were better than they were, University staff from basically any and all departments and some random types who showed up every day. TB remembers one player in particular, a rather unathletic looking man who looked to be soooo old at the time (but was probably 25 or so years younger than TB is now) and who worked for dining services.
He couldn't run too fast, and he was about 30 or so pounds away from being in good shape. You know what he could do, though? He could pass like almost nobody TB has ever seen, on any level. He was Larry Bird-like with the ball.
In one of those many games where he maneuvered to be on this guy's team, TB remembers aimlessly drifting from the top of the key towards the basket while the ball was in Great Passer Guy's hands. TB could see him, but GPG couldn't see TB, since he was facing the other way.
Then, in a blink, the ball was in TB's hands, with nobody between him and the hoop. It was so startling that TB almost had the ball sail right past him, but he managed to control it and make the layup.
In all his years of Jadwin Lunchball, TB never tried anything like that. Others did, often with somewhat unproductive results — like that one no-look pass that ended up slamming off one of the screens around the court. Who threw that pass? TB can't recall (actually he can, but, you know, he'll keep it to himself).
TB thought about all of that when he saw Ashley Chea's pass the other night against Seton Hall. Chea, playing the role of GPG, threw it perfectly to Olivia Hutcherson — sort of a much better version of TigerBlog when it comes to playing basketball — for the layup.
It was hardly shocking to see that it showed up as one of the top plays of the day yesterday on SportsCenter. In fact it came in at No. 3:
eyes in the back of her head. @ashleyycheaa ?? @oliviahutch2023 #GetStops ???? | #SCTop10 pic.twitter.com/Ow5SLPHb9h
— Princeton WBB (@PrincetonWBB) December 3, 2025
GPG would have been so proud. It was an incredible pass by Chea. How in the world did she do that?
As for the game, Princeton trailed by as many as 14 in the first half before taking down the Pirates 82-78 in what was a very, very entertaining game. Skye Belker led the Tigers with 26, including a three with three minutes to go that put Princeton up for good.
The game, and especially the final score, got TigerBlog to thinking. Coupled with the recent 100-93 win over Penn State, it made TB wonder how many times had 1) Carla Berbube's Princeton's teams allowed at least 78 points in a game and 2) won such a game.
And so off to the record book TB went. What he found was extraordinary.
Princeton's only loss this year was to Maryland, a Top 10 team, by the way. The score was 84-68.
So 84 is more than 78. That's one game.
How many other times had Berube's Princeton teams allowed 78 or more prior to that? If you guessed "one," then you are correct.
That game was a 79-76 loss at Utah last season. And that's it. Throw in the win over Rhode Island after the Maryland game, and that would be two games out of the first 150 she coached at Princeton.
That is not a lot.
TB even went back and forth over the list to make sure he had that right. Since then, there have been two more games of allowing 78 or more points — and that's in a span of five games.
And yet? Princeton won both of those games.
What does it mean? TB isn't sure. He's willing to go with something along the lines of "Carla Berube knows what she's doing." Clearly she does: Her team is the No. 1-ranked Mid-Major team right now, with a NET ranking of No. 29 in all of Division I.
Next up for Berube's team is a trip to Nashville, for a Saturday afternoon tip at Belmont. The game starts at 1 Central time, or 2 Eastern time and can be seen on ESPN+.
