Tigers’ health fuels realistic Ivy chances
By: Justin Feil
A lot of the names and faces are familiar, but the Princeton University women’s basketball team has a different feel this year.
"I don’t know if our expectations are different," said Tigers head coach Richard Barron, whose team tips off 7 p.m. Friday at St. Joseph’s. "I think our expectations have been pretty high in the past. The possibility of realizing those expectations is maybe a little different. It’s nice because we do have a veteran nucleus returning."
The Tigers took a jump last year from seven wins in 2003-2004 to 13 last season. Princeton lost just one letterwinner from last year’s 13-14 team and they have brought in another outstanding freshman group.
"Depth is definitely a strength for us for the first time," Barron said. "We have 16 on our roster. Last year, we started our year with eight healthy players so that’s a big turnaround to have four full classes like this."
More than having the four full classes, with players from all classes expected to contribute, having the healthy players makes this year’s Tigers different. Princeton is hoping that having a full complement at their disposal will make them tougher to beat this year.
"The league hasn’t seen us healthy," Barron said. "Casey Lockwood is back playing at the level she was playing before she tore her ACL. She was headed toward possibly Rookie of the Year and she got hurt. We were above .500 in the league. She got hurt. We lost eight games in a row. She was a real blow. Meg (Cowher) didn’t play in the Ivy season very much, and didn’t practice at all after she broke her foot last year and she was still Rookie of the Year. So a healthy Casey Lockwood and a healthy Meg Cowher are something the league hasn’t seen.
"We have Becky Brown back (at center). We’ve moved Katy O’Brien to the 2-position and we have a freshman point guard, Jessica Berry. With all the returning talent we have, it’s still kind of a new-look team as far as what other teams have seen. That means we still have some adjustments to make too. They haven’t all played together and they’re still learning. We’ve got three starters who haven’t played a full Ivy season."
At least one of them, Lockwood, is excited to get started and show that she is fully back from a knee injury that cost her in essence a year of playing. She played in 19 games as a freshman before injuring her knee. She returned last year for the final 15 games, though she averaged just 16.1 minutes per game, nearly half of what she played per game as a freshman.
"It was a challenge for me mentally," said Lockwood, a junior from Ross, Calif. "I didn’t know what to expect of myself. It was entirely on me. It was a lot more insecurity about how good I was and feeling like I wasn’t as good, and that kind of spirals into itself. Just feeling anxious in games, I felt like a freshman all over again. But it was definitely something good for me to go through."
Lockwood comes into this season brimming with confidence. She was at full strength as the Tigers toured Scandinavia for two weeks this summer. There, she got rid of the final mental crutch, the cumbersome brace she had to wear when she returned last year.
"I think it was more freeing than anything," Lockwood said. "I was so happy to get out of it. I think there’s mental issues with the brace. You put it on and then you feel like, hey I’m injured, or hey I’m slower. Constantly having to adjust it when you’re playing just makes me think about it more. I start to feel more like my old self without it."
Her old self was something special. In her first year of college ball, Lockwood averaged 10.8 points per game and 7.9 rebounds per game. She scored 20 points against Nebraska, and on three occasions she grabbed 11 rebounds. She was named to the All-Rookie team, though her knee injury cost her a chance to do more.
"It was rough. It was definitely a test," Lockwood said of the injury. "But I really do think it has the opportunity to make you stronger. A lot of people deal with it differently. It can harm how you play later with the fear of re-injury. Luckily, I had a lot of people supporting me and helping me through it, and an awesome trainer, so they helped me get through it really well. Being captain sophomore year helped me focus on the team and not so much myself and the struggles I was going through."
A religion major, Lockwood has faith that hers and the Tigers’ struggles are a thing of the past. Princeton has a solid core with her return and the healthy return of Cowher, a sophomore who was the Tigers’ first-ever Ivy League Rookie of the Year last season. Brown is a senior who comes into the season with more than 1,100 career points. O’Brien has started 48 games over the past two seasons and last year led the Ivies in three-pointers made per game. Berry is the unknown, a freshman who left Pulaski Academy in Arkansas as the school’s all-time leader in points and assists. She was a three-time all-state honoree.
The Tigers have 13 non-conference games before they open the Ivy season at Pennsylvania on Jan. 7. Among the games are dates at St. Mary’s in Calif., a home game against Rutgers and a road game at Tennessee.
"We like to play where our players are from," Barron said. "We like to play nationally ranked programs. It’s good for a couple reasons. It’s good to see that level and where we’re at. It’s something we can talk about then as a measuring stick. It also serves as, in addition to being a benchmark, it’s a goal. Once they see it, it’s more attainable. Playing at Tennessee is going to be a great experience.
"Hopefully when we start winning the league, those games will help us prepare for the NCAA tournament."
It’s a goal that the Tigers are focused on, and one they believe they have the make-up to accomplish this season. Many of the pieces return from last year, and they return with a brighter outlook than ever.
"Definitely we have realistic expectations for ourselves this year," Lockwood said. "I want to win Ivies and I know the seniors do. It’s something they’ve been working hard for since freshman year. I really think it’s doable. But it’s not without challenge along the way. It’s going to be really hard to do. It’s what every Ivy team does. I feel like we really could finally make it come true."

