There’s always uncertainty when a team makes the state tournament.
For Princeton the event is a complete unknown.
After a 10-year hiatus the Tigers are back in the state tournament after a stunning win in their Region3 co-final. It continued a trend of shockers as the they opened the postseason with a comeback victory at Greenbrier East and now they’ll hope to keep the momentum going.
Princeton (11-14) will open tournament play on Tuesday at 1 p.m. in the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center. Standing in its way is a Morgantown team (19-5) that finished as the state runner-up last year.
The Mohigans have fared well in their return bid to the title game, having only lost five games with three of them coming to the same in-state opponent in Wheeling Park.
“They’re very similar to what we saw from GW,” Princeton coach Matt Smith said. “They’ve got a guard who’s really tough and a post player who can really dominate a basketball game. They probably do have a little better shooting from 3 than GW did. They get out and run with it too. But I think us just having played GW and them having a similar style of play is beneficial for us.”
Princeton is led by senior post Maddie Stull who averaged 12.7 points per game and posted 11 double-doubles.
There will be a lot of learning experiences for the seventh-seeded Tigers, especially if they hope to upset Morgantown which earned the No. 2 seed. But one advantage may already be built into the Tigers’ style of player.
Princeton shoots maybe 30 percent from the field on a good night and won its regional game at GW shooting just 22 percent from the floor. Considering teams historically don’t shoot well within the confines of the Charleston Coliseum (teams shot just 33.3 percent combined during the entirety of the 2019 tournament), that bodes well for Princeton which doesn’t rely on efficiency to win.
“Everybody talks about the backdrop and everybody that’s seen us knows we are what we are,” Smith said. “We’re a defense-first team. We’re going to scrap and we’re going to play good defense and we’re going to rebound and find a way to make enough shots to beat you. I like that stat though. I hadn’t heard that. If everybody shoots in the 27 percent range, I really do like our chances because that’s the basketball we’ve played all year. I think it does play into an advantage for us.”
Smith’s players aren’t the only ones new to the experience. In his third year at the helm Smith has had to rely on some of his more experienced peers when navigating the process of getting the team prepped on top of the administrative procedures required of him.
“This is my first trip up and you’re just bombarded with information,” Smith said. “I mean you get packet after packet after packet and you drive to Parkersburg and they give you more stuff. All of that is a lot and all you want to do is focus on basketball and you’ve got all this other stuff to do, but being honest with you (GW head coach) Jamie LaMaster has been amazing. He reached out last Wednesday after the game, congratulated us, helped us get in contact with coaches for film and opened up their gym for us this evening for a shootaround. He’s been great and has been fantastic if I have a question (PikeView coach) Tracy Raban has been greta too. She’s reached out and tried to give me some ideas of what to expect.
“All of our coaches came on the same time three years ago and we’ve never been here. It’s a new experience for all us and any wisdom we can get from those two is vital. It’s so nice for both of them to reach out and help us.”
