The Tigers are coming

Finals are almost over, and the Cardinal will be back in Maples on Saturday afternoon, eager to take on their next opponent — the Princeton Tigers.

The two teams have competed only once before — in a Stanford invitational tournament at Maples in 2002.

However, one of the visiting Princetonians knows Maples well. Milena Flores (Stanford '01) is in her fifth season as an assistant coach at Princeton where she works primarily with the guards. Milena was a standout point guard herself at Stanford. She holds the Stanford records for the second-most assists in a game and the third-most career assists.

There may be a surprising number of Tiger fans at Maples. Two of the Princeton starters are from the Bay Area. Niveen Rashid is from Danville and Lauren Polansky is a native of Danville.

Princeton is favored to be the Ivy League champion this season, as they were the preceding two seasons. They went to the NCAA tournament twice, but lost in the first round both times. They have a tough schedule this season that they hope will take them further in the postseason.

Their current RPI rank, as reported by Collegiate Basketball News, is 17 and their schedule strength rank is 23.

The team is a lot different than it was last year, although it lost only one player to grauation — Ivy League Player of the Year Addie Micir. Micir was one of the top perimeter shooters in the league who could also drive to the basket, and the Tigers' play revolved around her.

Last season 30% of the Tigers' points came from beyond the arc. This season it's just 22%, but the Tigers' offense is faster-paced and they're looking to do more in transition. Head coach Courtney Banghart said “We’re going to be messier; we’re going to be trapping; we’re going to be playing at full court on both sides of the ball. Our looks are different, so we’ve tweaked our offensive looks to better suit our personnel.”

The Tigers' new style was working very well as they won their first six games. But they've had tougher opponents since then and have lost three of their last four — to No. 24 Delaware, Navy and No. 23/21 DePaul.

The probable starters are:

• #24, 6'0" junior forward Niveen Rasheed rejoins the Tigers after missing half of last season with a torn ACL. She leads the team in scoring (17.4 ppg) and rebounding (9.0 rpg) and is second in assists and steals. She has been the top scorer in seven of Princeton's 10 games this season and the top rebounder in six of them.


• #30, 6'0" senior guard Lauren Edwards has started every game since the beginning of her sophomore year. She averages 9.4 points and 4.5 rebounds per game. She is the only Tiger to shoot much from beyond the arc — she makes 1.4 per game at a rate of 30%.


• #44, 6'3" senior center Devona Allgood averages 8.9 points and 6.7 rebounds per game.


• #20 6'0" junior forward Kate Miller averages 6.2 points and 2.0 rebounds per game.


• #3, 5'8" junior guard Lauren Polansky runs the point for the Tigers. She was the Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year last season. She leads the team in steals (3.4 per game) and assists (2.5 per game), but has a couple more turnovers than assists.

Here are Princeton's 2011-12 statistics and their roster.