(Photo by Stephen Goldsmith) STANDING TALL: Players on the Princeton University women’s basketball team stand and cheer last Monday evening at the Triumph Brewery after they found out their assignment for the upcoming NCAA tournament. The Tigers were sent to College Park, Md. where 12th-seeded Princeton (24-4) will face No. 5 Georgetown (22-10) on March 20 in an opening round contest.

Micir Coming Full Circle for PU Women’s Hoops As Tigers to Face Georgetown in NCAA Opener

Bill Alden

Addie Micir went scoreless as she made her debut for the Princeton University women’s basketball team in November, 2007 in a 76-52 loss at Maryland.

This Sunday, Micir will be looking for a much better day at the Comcast Center in College Park, Md. as 12th-seeded Princeton (24-4) faces No. 5 Georgetown (22-10) in an opening round contest of the 2011 NCAA tournament.

“It is kind of ironic; it is the place where Krystal [Hill] and I started our careers,” said senior guard and co-captain Micir, during the selection show party last Monday at the Triumph Brewery as she reflected on the return trip to Maryland.

“It is close so hopefully we’ll get a good crowd coming. We are really excited.”

It will be the second straight trip to March Madness for the Tigers, who fell to St. John’s 65-47 in the opening round of the 2010 tourney.

Micir believes that experience will help the Tigers better handle the excitement of the NCAA tournament in its return engagement.

“Our offense stalled and we didn’t know what to do,” said Micir, recalling the loss to the Red Storm which saw the Tigers fall behind 34-18 by halftime.

“I think this year, we are going to be more mature and stay in our offense and really get after them at the defensive end. Hopefully, things will turn out better.”

Things have turned out really well for Micir in her final college campaign as the Tigers have overcome a season-ending injury to top scorer Niveen Rasheed to win a second straight Ivy crown.

“For me as a senior, it has been good,” said Micir, who is averaging 12.1 points a game and was recently named as the Ivy Player of the Year, a first in program history.

“We have been through a lot of bumps in the road and came out on top of the Ivy League. We are looking to make a statement in the tournament.”

The Tigers made a statement in the regular season finale last week as they cruised to a 78-27 rout of Penn to end the season with 13-1 league mark.

“Sometimes you have a little hangover after winning the league and we really came out against Penn and played good defense,” recalled Micir.

“Our offense kind of exploded; I think that was good for us. It gave us good momentum going into this week of practice, knowing we need to still get after it.”

The team’s Ivy title helped pave the way for Micir to take home the league’s top individual honor.

“It is really special,” said Micir, who now has 1,175 points in her Princeton career.

“A lot of people have asked me about that and, like I said, you don’t get noticed as an individual unless your team does really well. I think we have a great team this year and that showed in the Ivy League.”

Princeton head coach Courtney Banghart believes the game against Big East school Georgetown amounts to a great opportunity for her team.

“I think there are clearly matchups that wouldn’t be as good,” said Banghart. “Georgetown was on a list of about 10 schools that we thought we might get and I think it is good for our kids. They have quick guards (Sugar Rodgers and Monica McNutt); we have really good guards. I am happy about that matchup. We also have a lot of fans in the D.C. area who are going to come out and support the team.”

In the wake of last year’s NCAA setback, Banghart plans to concentrate more on offense this time around.

“This team will compete, they will fight, they will rebound, and they will defend,” asserted Banghart. “We have got to be able to score so we are going to spend a little more time in the quarter court on offensive end.”

Despite seeing her team pull away from the pack in winning the Ivy crown, Banghart doesn’t think her squad has played its best basketball yet.

“I just like the fact that this group still wants to get better,” added Banghart. “They are not done; a team that gets better in March is a pretty special team.”

Micir, for her part, is hoping to have a special March. “I am soaking up every moment,” said Micir. “I don’t get another one of these so it is going to be exciting. It is the last go-around now.”

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