Princeton Perfection Thus Far for Women's Basketball

Time out from sustainability for a bit of sports.

Jadwin Gym is home to a quiet phenomenon this year. The Princeton women's basketball team is undefeated, standing head and shoulders (at least figuratively) above its competition in the Ivy League and beyond. Is there anyone who can beat Princeton, and thereby spoil a potentially perfect season? Sometimes even a great team can have a bad night. It happened with Princeton last year in the last game of the season, when they lost to Penn. The hard lessons learned in that loss have added to the passion and consistent performances this year.

Some quick internet research suggests that this Saturday's game against Yale is the most plausible spoiler. The case runs this way: Each weekend, Princeton plays back to back games, Friday and Saturday. For the past two weekends, Princeton has won by smaller amounts on Saturday. Maybe they played weaker teams, or maybe there's a slight drop in energy the second night. Yale is the most winning team next to Princeton in the Ivy League, and they have a home game against Princeton this Saturday.

The potential threat of Yale seems diminished after their winning streak was broken by Harvard last week, but there can also be a rebound in intensity after a loss.

If you plan on going to one of the home games, and happen to mix an interest in sports and sustainability, check out these two past "sportscasts" on the trials and tribulations of improving recycling at Jadwin Gym.

Sunday's postgame update: A squeaker it was. I hadn't expected to be that right. The pattern of lesser winning margins on Saturdays continues. Princeton won by six, the first time in 18 games that they didn't win by double digits. But a win's a win. Now, if we could just start talking stats in sustainability like we talk about them in sports, we might make more progress winning today for a winning tomorrow.