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Princeton Women's Basketball 2001-02 Preview... |
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2001-02 Roster | 2001-02 Schedule
By Tom Milajecki, Princeton Assistant of Athletic Public Affairs for Media Relations
New Coach Brings Fresh Outlook To 2001-02 Season
Richard Barron brings a whole new set of expectations to women's basketball program
Head coach Richard Barron has the arduous task of turning a 2-25 team that he inherited into a contender. Barron has been in this position before and passed with flying colors, turning a beleaguered University of the South team in Sewanee, Tenn., into a perennial power within five seasons. Barron and his Tigers are taking a big picture approach to this season, focusing on qualitative improvement rather than quantitative success. He knows that fine tuning his run-and-shoot style may be a season-long process.
"We are more concerned about changing the team culture and building a sense of excellence than we are with trying to quantify what our win total should be this season," says Barron.
Fortunately for Barron, experience will be on his side. Princeton returns five players who started at least 13 games in 2000-01, including leading scorer and second-team All-Ivy League selection Maureen Lane. Lauren Rigney comes off a season were she led the team in assists, blocks and steals. Her 20 points and 10 rebounds against High Point earned her the first double-double of her career. Rigney will receive much help from this season's junior class.
Allison Cahill, Lee Culp and Lauren Goldbeck join Lane to form a very solid junior corps. All together, Princeton returns 12 players from last season's roster, losing 25-game starter Jessica Munson to graduation.
Jessica Aitken, Maureen McCracken, Mary Cate Opila and Kelly Schaeffer enter their sophomore campaigns with Ivy League game experience under their belts. They will need to step up and provide the team with consistent play as do sophomores Elizabeth Bramwell and Eileen Powers, who return after injuries sidelined them all of last year.
Two strong freshmen in Karen Bolstor and Ashley Rook hope to make an immediate impact. Bolstor, a 5'8" guard comes from Kendall Park, N.J., while Rook, a 6'1" post player, hails from Naperville, Ill. With a new coach and a new system in place, an adjustment period is expected. The rate at which the Tigers adopt a new style of play will likely determine just how successful they are.
Princeton opens the 2001-02 season when it hosts Lehigh at Jadwin Gym on Friday night, Nov. 16. The Tigers have one home contest in December (Lafayette on Dec. 5) before they begin Ivy League play at Pennsylvania on Jan. 5. Trips to Seattle (Nov. 23-24) and Louisiana (Dec. 17-21) highlight the road portion of the schedule. Princeton faces Santa Clara in the first round of the Washington tournament on Nov. 23 and plays Nicholls State, New Orleans and Centenary on its three-game Louisiana swing.
The regular season comes to an end when the rival Quakers visit Jadwin on Wednesday, March 6. Coach Barron and staff have some work cut out for them considering the Tigers were outscored by an average of 15 points per game last season. With almost everyone back, however, and a positive attitude, Princeton may surprise a few teams this year. Here is a breakdown of the team by position:
Guard
In Barron's up-tempo approach, the guards control the pace of the game. Cahill and Opila will handle the point guard duties. Cahill, the second-leading scorer for the Tigers last season, averaged 9.5 points per game despite being slowed for most of the first half of the season due to injury. She was one of three Princeton players to finish in the Ivy League's top 10 for three-point field goal percentage (.301). Opila averaged 8.1 minutes of play in her freshman season and finished with 14 steals and nine assists. They will replace Munson, the only senior on last year's squad. Munson ran the point in 2000-01, racking up 42 assists and 23 steals while starting 25 of 27 games.
At the two-guard position, junior Goldbeck return with 26 career games started between them. Bolstor hopes to solidify the position for Princeton with her three-point shooting ability. Goldbeck played in 17 games last year and scored 23 points on 10 of 26 shooting from the field. Barron feels that there is more talent in the guard position than last year's play showed. The Tigers look to develop more depth and give more players an opportunity to compete. With the game played at a much faster pace, depth will become very important.
Wing
The wings will have to adjust after playing without a true post player for most of last season. Culp, Rigney and Schaeffer have control, while Lane will split time between wing and post. Lane leads a very solid group with her 2000-01 team-leading 14.3 points per game and .360 three-point field goal percentage. She was a second-team All-Ivy selection and Ivy League Player of the Week after scoring 61 points in two games as the Tigers split with Yale and Brown in the season's final weekend. Culp led the Tigers in rebounding last season with 6.9 per game and chipped in with 8.9 points per contest. Schaefer played in 19 games and connected on a team-high 19 of 22 (.864) free throws. With so many team leaders, the wing position looks to be a strength for Princeton. "We will play to our strengths this season without compromising our future," says Barron. "We want to develop a program, but at the same time we want to compete."
Post
Depth is not an issue when it comes to the post position, where Barron has Aitken, Bramwell, McCracken, Powers, Rook and Lane to rotate in and out of the lineup. In an offensive scheme that has the post as a central figure, these six women may determine how fast Princeton is able to compete with the league's elite. Neither Bramwell nor Powers played a minute as freshmen last season. This year's freshman, Rook, makes three new faces. Both Aitken and McCracken received playing time last season, but neither played more than seven minutes a game.
Lane, a junior, is the veteran of this squad. She will have to guide the young Tigers, who will all receive an opportunity to play. Change is the best way to describe Princeton in 2001-02. A change of the guard with first-year head coach Richard Barron brings a change in philosophy and a new set of expectations.
The addition of assistants Robyne Bostick and Jennifer Scanlon brings a winning attitude and experience in success. Bostick graduated from St. Joseph's in 1994, from where she was was named the Philadelphia Big Five Rookie of the Year in 1991 and Big Five Player of the Year in 1994, earning first-team All-Atlantic 10 honors in the process. Scanlon graduated from Duke (1996) as the fourth all-time leading scorer in Blue Devil history. She also played a year of professional basketball in Sweden. The turnaround from 2-25 will not happen overnight, but the wheels of change are already in motion--at the top anyway.
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