Another year, another Top 25 ranking for Princeton.

Coach Carla Berube’s Tigers have been ranked at least for a week in The Associated Press women’s basketball poll in four of the past five seasons after entering at No. 25 on Monday.

“Absolutely thrilled about the consistency we’ve had over the last couple years,” she said in a phone interview Monday. “We’ve had some great teams and had some really talented student athletes. I think we play a really tough non-conference schedule and if things go well, it puts us in a good position to be in the Top 25 and in that conversation.”

The Tigers have lost just once this season, at No. 7 Maryland. The Tigers have wins over Georgia Tech, Seton Hall, Rutgers and Rhode Island already this season.

“Kudos to my associate head coach who does the scheduling that gets us prepared for the Ivy League and prepared for the opportunity if all goes well to play in mid-March,” Berube said. “We’ve seen a lot of teams and styles because of our schedule that we’re ready to play in some big games down the road.”

Princeton was hit by injuries last season, including one to star Madison St. Rose that put her out for the season. The younger players got experience as Berube started four sophomores and made it to the NCAA Tournament as an at-large team.

Now they are a year older and St. Rose is back.

“Her experience and her play is really I think has helped us and enhanced our experience on the court,” Berube said.

She’ll need all of them to be playing well after the new year when Ivy League play starts. The conference has gotten a lot better the last few years and had a league record three teams in the NCAA Tournament last season.

“To see three teams last year was tremendous, but not a huge surprise,” she said. “Battling a Penn and Harvard and Columbia, you know those games are tough and really competitive. it’s fun to see how the league has grown and that we’re in the conversation of being with some of the top in the country.”

The Tigers still have non-conference games left against George Mason and Temple before league play opens up after the New Year.

NET ratings

No. 1 UConn still holds the top spot in the NET ratings Monday. The Huskies are followed by Texas, UCLA, LSU and Michigan. Princeton is the highest mid-major program in the rankings, coming in at 34. The Big Ten has seven of the top 15 teams.

The NET is just one tool the NCAA selection committee uses to figure out which teams make the NCAA Tournament and where they are seeded. It has predicted the winner pretty accurately since it first was used in 2021. Four of the five national champions were No. 1 in the NET on Selection Sunday

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