Princeton broke through for a massive upset in 2023, claiming a spot in the Class AAA state tournament.
Last season didn’t yield the same results as the Tigers fell in the regional round. Bumping down from Class AAAA to AAA, the Tigers are hoping to return to Charleston. They’ll need to do so without the contributions of multi-year starter Maddie Stull who was a consistent offensive force for the Princeton.
That said, head coach Matt Smith brings back several key players.
“We do return four starters from last year’s team,” Smith said. “We’re expecting Asia Collins, Makalee Wright, Addisyn Sarver and Carley Hurt to step up cause we are gonna be losing a lot with Maddie. She’s been a three-year starter three-time all-state honorable mention. That’s hard to replace. Those four will be seniors  they’ve seen it now. They will be able to get in there and hopefully step up and then you know right now we’re looking at Abby Honaker and Lakyn Burner as people who can step up and help in their own way. Emma Sands can do a lot of the rebounding that Maddie did in there hopefully and Abby can come in as a sophomore and help out with the scoring that we’re gonna miss from for Maddie graduating.”
With a roster of six seniors, Smith has set the bar high with expectations.
“I think every year the expectation is to go to Charleston,” Smith said. “if that’s not what you’re playing for then you don’t need to play so that’s the expectation and that’s been our goal since summer. We do drop down a classification technically, but our region is still loaded with talent. It’s just gonna be a gauntlet to try to get through there and without the sectional tournaments you don’t have that luxury or fallback where you make it to a sectional championship you’re guaranteed two games. There’s no more that you got it. You gotta win through your tournament and that’ll be a big change and that makes regular season that much more important because seeding now will be will be that much more important. You do wanna play those games at home rather than going on the road. So yeah, those are some big differences but I like who we are and who I think we will be.
“I think we’ll be pretty good. I think that we have the ability to play with everybody in the region and we’ve got some other teams on the schedule early to help us test and see where we need to be as far as the top-ranked teams in triple-A go. PikeView is always a rivalry game and it’s a good environment. Greenbrier East, I mean we split with them the last couple years and two years ago we got them on their floor to go play in the sectional championship that year. Then we have Sissonville and Nicholas County. I mean you can go on and on. It’s just a loaded region.”
The calling card for Princeton will again be defense. It took the Tigers to the state tournament in 2023 and has been the identity Smith’s strived for.
“I’ve told the girls that the most disappointing thing I’ve ever heard as a coach was last year when I was pulled to the side and told that we don’t play defense the way that we normally have and you know that’s something we have to do and we’re gonna be undersized,” Smith said. “We don’t have someone like (Cadence) Stewart from East where they’re gonna get hot and go for 40. We have to do it as a team and we have to start on the defensive end. It’s been something we’ve focused on early, that defensive effort and getting after it and doing the little things on defense that can kinda help us get out in the transition maybe get some easy buckets and relax so hopefully the offense starts a little bit earlier. But no, the format doesn’t change, we are who we are. Yeah we’re gonna force the issue. We’re gonna play tight defense trying to make you uncomfortable and see if we can’t get some easy buckets out of it.”
To prepare for a potential state tournament trip, Smith has tailored his schedule to challenge his team. He’ll play three of the top five teams in Class AAA in Wayne, defensing state champion Nitro and Greenbrier East as well as PikeView, Beckley, Spring Valley, Sissonville and Huntington.
“I’ve always been from the mindset you’ve learned what it’s like to be there now you gotta learn how to win and you know it,” Smith said. “I know sometimes coaches like to get all these easier teams to kinda boost your record, make kids feel good but I’m done. This is our fifth year now being here at Princeton and it’s not enough now to have a decent record or surprise somebody and get to a state tournament. We wanna compete and the best way to compete is to play the best teams in the state in your classification and see where you stack and up what you need to work on.
“As soon as the state tournament was over I called Nitro and I said ‘Hey let’s let’s play,’ and he said ‘Hey, you gotta come to me,’ and I said, ‘Just tell me a date you.’ Those are the things that matter. They show you what you need to work on and they show you where you rank with some of the best teams in the state and then you go from there. We’re playing them early enough so that we can see it and make adjustments. Wayne called me and said they were coming to Beckley on a Friday night and wanted to play on Saturday. I said I would love to play on a Saturday. Those are two of the better teams returning in Class AAA. We don’t want to kill our kids every night but we do want to challenge them and be playing our bets basketball at the end of the year.”
