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New-look PU women’s hoops opens at No. 4 Maryland

Cowher, Tigers have high hopes

By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
  It won’t be a secret for long.
   Meagan Cowher now can go to her left side in the post.
   ”I was very open to getting better,” said the Princeton University senior basketball player. “It’s just the last couple years I’ve been able to rely on a lot of the strengths I do do well. Senior year, I’ve been scouted throughout the Ivy League, and it’s pretty obvious what I tend to do. It’s exciting to be able to work on a different part of my game and try to grow as a player.”
   If the Tigers’ new staff can help Cowher — who has a chance to become the program’s first three-time first-team All-Ivy League player this season — improve, her teammates should be quick to follow. It gives Princeton hope that it can improve on last year’s fifth-place finish in the Ivy League.
   ”The first premise that we’re going to be built on,” said first-year PU head coach Courtney Banghart, “is to try to get better every day. We’re not going to worry about Nov. 9 any more than we’re going to worry about (Tuesday’s) practice.
   ”The second thing is we’re going to be built on the foundation of toughness. That comes in many forms. That comes at the defensive end. Princeton last year was seventh in defense. That’s not good enough. We’re going to try to hold teams to a lower field goal percentage than we did last year. Also mental toughness and they’re learning a whole new system. It’s structured freelance.”
   Cowher is excited to see how her skill set works in the new offense that will debut at No. 4 Maryland tonight in the Preseason NIT. Two years ago, the Terrapins won the national championship.
   ”It’s always exciting to play a nationally competitive team like Maryland just because that’s why you play Division I basketball, to play in these big arenas in front of these crowds and such talented players like they have,” Cowher said. “For us, it’s nice. There’s not a lot of pressure. No one expects us to go out there and win this game. It’ll be a great test of where we are and how far we’ve gotten this year.”
   The Tigers have improved in leaps and bounds, with a big leap coming since Sunday. With every day together, Banghart and the Tigers are feeling better about their team.
   ”If we don’t look to attack, it looks pretty bad,” Banghart said. “If we all look to attack, it looks pretty versatile. Over the last two days, we’ve gotten a lot better at that. We’ve gotten rid of our seatbelts and gotten out of our phone booths. We’re getting there.
   ”I have been so pleasantly surprised with their level of concentration and collective energy all year,” she added. “Every day they come with bright eyes. You can hear a pin drop when I talk to them. They are totally into it. They have totally bought into the fact that every day we have to get better and that takes concentration. All the feedback we’re getting from them is they’re really welcoming this change and energy.”
   Since coming to Princeton from Dartmouth, where she played and served as an assistant on teams that went to four NCAA Tournaments, Banghart has set about reshaping the Tigers. The goal is to move Princeton toward the success rate of Dartmouth, which has won 15 of the last 26 Ivy championships.
   Banghart and her staff skipped no one in working on the things that needed to improve. Not even Cowher, who led the Ivies in scoring last year on the way to her 1,000th career point was immune to corrections. She has been working with assistant coach Melanie Halker on making herself even more of a threat in the low post than she was last year.
   ”It’s not a secret that I’m pretty firmly right-handed,” Cowher said. “She has done a lot of great work on forcing me to go to my left in practice. I do feel a lot more confident. It’s amazing how just a couple of months with her have made such a difference. I’m excited to try it and expand my game a little bit.
   ”With everything with them, everything they say, whether it’s a criticism or a complement, it’s said with such a good nature and understanding, you know all they want is the best.”
   The best may be yet to come. Banghart already has five impact freshmen coming for next year. This season, the Tigers will be tested in the non-conference schedule by the likes of Maryland and home games against Cal, Vanderbilt and Rutgers before they open Ivy play Jan. 12 with Penn.
   ”Right now, we’re trying to settle into all these new things that have been thrown at us,” Cowher said. “By the time the Ivy League comes around, we’ll feel a lot more comfortable with all these new things we’re running.”
   The Tigers, just two years removed from their own Ivy League championship season, will focus on defense. They plan to extend their defense full-court at times. On offense, they plan to utilize a wealth of possibilities.
   ”Depth is definitely a strength,” Banghart said. “Some teams, especially in the Ivy League, have two or three very good players and then not much else. I would say we’re very different from that. We have an obvious proven star in Meagan Cowher and then a bunch of pieces that will all have a chance to contribute. We’ll go a little deeper than other teams will. A lot of people will get an opportunity. We have depth at all the positions.”
   In Cowher, they have a clear offensive leader, one whose game has developed since the arrival of Banghart’s staff. It should make her even harder to guard.
   ”She really has diversified her package,” Banghart said. “She can go left or right. She can go from the high post as opposed to just the baseline and short corner area. She’s going to be one the move more than she was and of course get plenty of looks.”
   Cowher could debut her moves to the left tonight. Maryland certainly presents a test for the Tigers, the first of the season for a team that is starting to put everything together.
   ”The last couple days a lot of things finally clicked,” Cowher said. “We’ve been a lot more aggressive with our offense and started to relax and play and focus on the instincts, which is why we’re all here in the first place because we know a little bit about basketball and how to play. I do think every day we get a little better. Hopefully we’ll continue that trend until the Ivy season and then we’ll be ready to go.”