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Put the ball in the basket. That’s what the game is all about.

There are lots of other skills involved in basketball - rebounding, passing, ball-handling - and the Princeton WOMEN’S BASKETBALL team matched sixth-seeded St. John’s in all of those aspects March 20 in the program’s first NCAA Tournament appearance. The only thing the Tigers couldn’t do was put the ball through the net, as they fell to the Red Storm, 65-47, in Tallahassee, Fla.

Princeton battled St. John’s to a draw on the boards and turned the ball over only four more times than its opponent. But the Tigers made just 28.3 percent of their field-goal attempts and hit one of 10 3-pointers, both season lows. The Red Storm shot 45.8 percent from the floor, pulling away late in the first half and never letting up. Perhaps most frustrating was the fact that Princeton took the attempts it wanted. But all too often the ball would go halfway down and pop right back out.

21 - Consecutive wins. Nationwide, only two teams enter the postseason with longer streaks: No. 1 Connecticut (72 games) and No. 2 Stanford (22).

80 - Assists by versatile forward Niveen Rasheed ’13, a team high. Rasheed also leads Princeton in scoring, rebounds, and steals.

22.4 - Princeton’s average margin of victory in 14 Ivy League games. Its closest contest was a 69-57 win over Columbia at Jadwin Gym.

Princeton (26-2, 14-0 Ivy) vs. St. John’s (24-6, 12-4 Big East)

(Photo by Beverly Schaefer)

March 20, 12:21 p.m.

Donald L. Tucker Center, Tallahassee, Fla.

TV: ESPN2, ESPN 360 (online)

Radio: WPRB, 103.3 FM

For Princeton, 2009-10 has been a record-setting season. The Tigers have won more games (26) and scored more points (71.6 per game) than any women’s basketball team in school history. Their current 21-game winning streak is a program best. They are the first Tiger team to post a perfect 14-0 record in Ivy games, and their NCAA Tournament seed — No. 11 in the Dayton Region — is the highest in league history. Not bad for a team that was picked to finish third in the Ivy’s preseason poll of media and sports information directors.

In the NCAA first round, Princeton will face another high-scoring team that outperformed expectations this season. St. John’s flipped its 4-12 Big East record in 2008-09 to a 12-4 finish this year, tying for fourth place in the conference and posting the program’s best record in 26 years. Five of its six losses this year were against NCAA Tournament teams. (The two teams that beat Princeton, Rutgers and UCLA, also reached the tournament.)

History

Twenty-eight years have passed since the Tigers and Red Storm met on the hardwood. (In fact, the last meeting, in 1981-82, predates the Red Storm nickname by more than a decade.) St. John’s holds a 3-0 advantage in the all-time series. St. John’s has played in the NCAA Tournament five times, advancing to the second round twice (1988 and 2006). Princeton is making its first NCAA Tournament appearance. Ivy League teams have played 18 NCAA Tournament games, winning just once — in 1998, when Harvard, a No. 16 seed, shocked top-seeded Stanford in Palo Alto.

Strengths and weaknesses

Both Princeton and St. John’s appear in the national rankings in several team categories. The Tigers had the No. 5 defense in Division I and ranked No. 41 in scoring offense. Starters Devona Allgood ’12, Niveen Rasheed ’13, and Lauren Edwards ’12 were each among the country’s 50 best shooters, based on field-goal percentage. Even in its weakest categories, Princeton ranks among the top third of Division I teams. The Red Storm is in the top 50 for scoring offense, scoring defense, fewest turnovers, assist-to-turnover ratio, and 3-point defense. Their most prominent flaw is free-throw shooting (61.5 percent, which ranks 316th among 332 Division I schools).

(Photo by Beverly Schaefer)

The 26-2 Princeton women’s basketball team earned a No. 11 seed in the NCAA Tournament and will face No. 6 seed St. John’s in the opening round Saturday, March 20, in Tallahassee, Fla. ESPN2 will broadcast the game, which begins at 12:21 p.m. EDT. Players, coaches, and friends of the program — including President Tilghman — gathered to watch the selection show March 15 at Triumph Brewing Co. in Princeton.

Co-captain Tani Brown ’10 said the NCAA bid is “the cherry on top of a sundae that’s taken four years to make.” For some on the team, the wait has not been quite as long, but the experience is still sweet. Freshman Niveen Rasheed, the Ivy League Rookie of the Year, called Princeton’s record-breaking run “something that’s so much bigger than all of us.”

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL completed an unbeaten season in Ivy League play with a 68-51 win over Penn at Jadwin Gym March 9. The Tigers stormed to an early lead and held off a second-half charge by the Quakers, finishing the regular season with a program-best 26-2 record.

At the season’s start, Princeton aimed to win the Ivy League title and earn a trip to the NCAA Tournament — an undefeated league record was never a stated goal. But, coach Courtney Banghart said after the Penn game, “to be able to go 14-0 to get there is pretty cool.”

By David Marcus ’92

Under former head coach Bill Tierney, the Princeton men’s lacrosse team won games by confusing opponents with a unique defensive style. Tierney’s successor, Chris Bates, is doing the same thing with offense. The Tigers beat Johns Hopkins 11-10 in overtime at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore March 6, a week after opening their season with a 17-14 victory at home over Hofstra. Princeton’s impressive offensive production stems from Bates’s free-flowing system, and it comes despite the loss of three of the team’s top four scorers last year.

Jack McBride ’11 (Photo by Beverly Schaefer)

“They’re a challenging group to defend because of the way they play offense, a hybrid of box [indoor] lacrosse and basketball,” said Hopkins coach Dave Pietramala after Saturday’s game. “They try to confuse you and force you to jump in and out of a defense. They’re slick off the ball. They’re unselfish.”

The change is evident even in Princeton’s best offensive player, preseason first-team All-American Jack McBride ’11, who scored many of his 35 goals last year by beating defensemen one-on-one. This year, McBride is moving more without the ball, and he’s quicker to pass.

With a 21-2 record and a 16-game winning streak, Princeton WOMEN’S BASKETBALL has leapfrogged perennial Ivy League favorites Harvard and Dartmouth and earned national attention, drawing a handful of votes in both of the major top-25 polls. The Tigers also made a certain four-star general take notice. Gen. David Petraeus *85 *87, on campus to receive the University’s James Madison Medal, gave the team a shout-out during the opening remarks of his lecture Feb. 20.

Princeton has dominated Ivy opponents, winning its first nine league games by an average of 22.8 points. No Ivy team had led the Tigers in the second half of a game. A victory over Cornell Feb. 26 would give this year’s team the program record for wins in a season, but the ultimate goal is still on the horizon: an outright Ivy title, which would give Princeton its first trip to the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament.

In MEN’S BASKETBALL, Princeton had one of its best shooting performances in recent memory Feb. 19 when the Tigers drained 13 of 19 3-point attempts in an 82-58 win over Yale. But the following night against Brown, Princeton struggled from behind the arc, and the Bears took advantage, pulling ahead in the final four minutes to win 57-54.

Since Ivy League colleges do not award athletic scholarships, recruits for Princeton’s football team are not asked to sign the NCAA’s letter of intent. But even without the paperwork, several high school seniors announced their intentions to join head coach Bob Surace ’90’s first crop of Tigers on or before “signing day,” Feb. 3. The following 13 players were mentioned as Princeton recruits in published reports:

Robert Basile, linebacker, Quakertown H.S., Quakertown, Pa. [PhillyBurbs.com]

Connor Clegg, defensive end, Chagrin Falls H.S., Chagrin Falls, Ohio [Cleveland Plain Dealer]

Max Coale, offensive lineman, River Hill H.S., Clarksville, Md. [Baltimore Sun]

Princeton’s winter teams returned from the January exam break and posted a near-perfect weekend that included big wins for men’s and women’s swimming and a combined 7-0-1 record for the basketball and hockey teams.

MEN’S and WOMEN’S SWIMMING swept Harvard and Yale at the annual H-Y-P meet, held in DeNunzio Pool Jan. 29-30. The Tiger men opened the action Friday night and sealed victory by winning six of the nine races held Saturday. Jon Christensen ’12 won three individual events in the meet. In the women’s competition Saturday night, Meredith Monroe ’12, Courtney Kilkuts ’10, and Alicia Aemisegger ’10 each set school or pool records. Those three also joined Megan Waters ’11 to break the Princeton record in the 200-yard medley relay.

MEN’S BASKETBALL opened Ivy League play with wins at Brown (63-46, Jan. 29) and Yale (58-45, Jan. 30). Douglas Davis ’12 led Princeton in scoring in both games. The Tigers improved to 11-5, including nine wins in their last 10 games.

Congratulations to our four prizewinners for The Weekly Blog’s basketball trivia quiz: Stuart Schulman ’84, David Taylor ’02, and Robert Comfort, who each scored a perfect 10-for-10; and Al Kaemmerlen ’62, who had nine correct responses.

Kaemmerlen, a former Tiger basketball captain, had a distinct advantage on the first question: He played in Princeton’s 1961 NCAA tournament win over George Washington, scoring 16 points as the Tigers topped the Colonials 84-67 at Madison Square Garden.

Answers to the quiz are included below.

1. Princeton has won 13 NCAA tournament games, most recently in 1998. In what year did the Tigers pick up their first postseason victory? 1961, vs. George Washington

2. Princeton and Penn have tied for the Ivy League title four times (including once in a three-way tie with Yale). Which team has the upper hand in head-to-head Ivy playoff games? Princeton, 2-1

3. Which quotable coach explained his switch to zone defense by telling reporters, “It seems that as the cost of attending Princeton increases, so does the slowness of our team”? Pete Carril

4. Fill in the blank: Bill Bradley ’65 made headlines at Princeton before he even played a varsity game, sinking 57 consecutive free throws for the Tiger freshman team.

As Princeton basketball players begin their annual break for fall-term exams, The Weekly Blog presents these 10 questions to sharpen your Tiger trivia skills. Send us your answers (or best guesses) for a chance to win prizes, including Princeton basketball T-shirts and a Vineyard Vines Princeton tie. Entries are due by Jan. 21. Winners — and answers — will be posted Jan. 22 on The Weekly Blog.

1. Princeton has won 13 NCAA tournament games, most recently in 1998. In what year did the Tigers pick up their first postseason victory?

2. Princeton and Penn have tied for the Ivy League title four times (including once in a three-way tie with Yale). Which team has the upper hand in head-to-head Ivy playoff games?

3. Which quotable coach explained his switch to zone defense by telling reporters, “It seems that as the cost of attending Princeton increases, so does the slowness of our team”?

New head football coach Bob Surace ’90, center, with wife Lisa ’92 and Athletic Director Gary Walters ’67. (Courtesy Princeton Athletic Communications)

Bob Surace ’90, an assistant coach for the NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals and a former All-Ivy center at Princeton, was introduced as the Tigers’ new head football coach Dec. 23.

At a press conference, Surace outlined his overarching goals: “Hopefully, we’ll have a smart team, a tough team, a disciplined team, and a team that is an unselfish team. If we do those four things, I think we’ll be competitive with anybody.”

Surace, the first alumnus in more than 30 years to serve as Princeton’s head coach, will continue to coach Cincinnati until the end of the Bengals’ season, but he will begin assembling his coaching staff at Princeton as well. Athletic Director Gary Walters ’67 said the new coach’s background will help his transition from the NFL to the Ivy League. “He knows our institution, he knows our philosophy, and he’ll be able to educate through athletics,” Walters said.

The NFL schedule prevented Surace from seeing Princeton play in person last season, but he watched November’s Princeton-Yale game on television and said that the Tigers played “inspired football.” (Princeton won, 24-17.)

Surace had a successful two-year stint as head coach at Division III Western Connecticut State University before he joined the Bengals staff in 2001. He has spent eight years coaching in the NFL, serving as assistant offensive line coach for the last six.