Princeton University Athletics
Thursday TigerBlog - Goodbye Carla
March 26, 2026 | Tiger Blog
TigerBlog is pretty sure he had the same reaction to the news that Carla Berube is leaving Princeton to become the head women's basketball coach at Northwestern: "Nope. No. No. Won't allow it. La La La La La."
If you are looking for approval ratings, Berube will be leaving with a 100 percent positive one. TigerBlog has never heard anyone who has worked with her ever have a bad word to say about her.
TB is in that group, certainly. He got to know her during the years when he and Berube did the "Conversations With Carla" podcast, and even though they haven't had as many conversations the last few years, TB can't say enough good things about her.
There is absolutely nothing phony about her. She is as driven and competitive as any coach Princeton has had during TB's time here, and yet she has never lost the genuine, warm and upbeat qualities that define her personality.
The news was released yesterday afternoon, in conjunction with the announcement from Northwestern. This isn't the first time TigerBlog will have to root for Northwestern Basketball, since it's not the first time the Wildcats have come to Jadwin Gym to find a new head coach.
It was 26 years ago that Bill Carmody was hired away from Princeton to take over the program in Evanston. There are other connections between Princeton Basketball and Northwestern; men's head coach Mitch Henderson was an assistant for 10 years under Carmody, and Ford Family Director of Athletics John Mack was an administrator there as well.
TB would include Mike Mahoney in that group, though Mahoney has never actually worked at Princeton. Mahoney, who oversees athletic communications at Penn, was the men's basketball contact at Northwestern when Carmody was there.
And now Carla Berube heads there.
There really wasn't much more she could do at Princeton. In her six seasons as Tiger head coach, she put together a 147-28 record. That's a mere .840 winning percentage.
Her record in Ivy games was even more impressive, as in 77-7. That's .917.
She won five Ivy League championships and four Ivy League tournaments. She took her team to the NCAA tournament every year, including this past one, when her team went 26-4. She has two NCAA tournament wins on her Princeton resume as well.
Of course winning has followed her wherever she's gone. None of this is new to any Princeton fans, but she was a 1,000-point scorer and NCAA champ as a player at UConn. She coached Tufts for 17 years and went 384-96 overall. Add in her record at Princeton and you have 531-124.
Insane.
As TB wrote not that long ago:
Carla Berube is in her 23rd season as a college basketball head coach. Counting this season, she will have lost five games or fewer in 13 of those seasons. Actually, it becomes more incredible when you consider that only two of her first 10 teams at Tufts lost five or fewer, which means means that 11 of her last 13 teams have lost five games or fewer — including four of six at Princeton. Hey, if you want to throw in the four years she played at UConn, where none of those teams lost more than four games in a season, and in her 27 seasons as a player and head coach, she's up to 17 that have lost five or fewer.
The program she takes over is coming off an 8-21 season, including 2-14 in the Big Ten. The last time the Wildcats had a winning season was 2021-22, when they went 17-12. Each of the last three seasons has seen the team win just two B1G games.
There are certainly other questions that this move brings out. Can she win there? What does this mean for UConn when that job eventually opens? Who will replace her at Princeton?
None of those really matter right now.
For today, there is only the appreciation for Carla Berube, the coach and the human being, and all she did during her time here.
Princeton University is much better off for having her as one of its own — even if that time is now over.
Even as TB wishes her the best, he, again, speaks for Princeton fans everywhere when he says that he will miss her.
