Reflected Glory: Why Tiger Fans Treasured a Former Star’s National Title Journey

My wife Meredith and I spent much of the winter and early spring watching college basketball. Yes, we watched the Princeton men’s and women’s teams — after all we’re season ticketholders. But we also closely followed the fortunes of the University of Connecticut women’s team, who took us for quite a ride, all the way to an NCAA championship, UConn’s 12th title, the most of any collegiate program male or female, all under head coach Geno Auriemma.

And we were not alone. Throughout the season and especially during March Madness, conversations with friends at Jadwin and elsewhere would often turn to the UConn Huskies. What sparked such widespread Princeton interest? Two words and two numerals: Kaitlyn Chen ’24.

Despite losing her freshman season to COVID-19, Chen had a highly successful Princeton basketball career. She earned MVP honors in the three year-end Ivy League tournaments that she played in, helping the Tigers to NCAA tournament appearances and first-round wins over Kentucky and North Carolina State. Though she missed a year, Chen still ranks third in career assists and 12th in career points at Princeton. As a senior, she captained the team and won the C. Otto von Kienbusch (Class of 1906) Award — the highest athletic honor a Princeton woman can receive.

Because she only played three years, Chen had a year of basketball eligibility remaining. Thus, in the spring of 2024 she entered the portal as a graduate transfer and proved to be a highly sought-after recruit.

A native of San Marino, California, Chen seriously considered joining the highly regarded UCLA program, where she would have been close to home and could have played in front of family and friends. Instead, she chose to attend Connecticut. Her coach at Princeton, Carla Berube, was a starter on the undefeated 1994-95 team that won UConn’s first national championship. And it must have helped that Auriemma saw Chen in late 2022, when she scored 18 points and had seven assists in a 69-64 loss to UConn on its home floor.

Though the only transfer on this year’s roster – Auriemma prefers to develop his own players – Chen immediately became an integral part of UConn’s march to the NCAA championship. The Huskies were loaded with talent; thus, Chen wasn’t expected to carry the scoring and leadership load she had become accustomed to at Princeton. Nonetheless, she started in all 40 of UConn’s games, played a majority of the team’s minutes, and averaged seven points and three-and-a-half assists per game.

As the season progressed, UConn showed consistent improvement, highlighted by a 29-point February win over defending national champion South Carolina, breaking the Gamecocks’ string of 71 straight home-court victories. Coming into March Madness, the Huskies had won 10 straight games. Seeded second in their region, UConn defeated three No. 1 seeds in succession: a 78–64 win over USC in the Elite Eight; an 85–51 victory over top-seeded UCLA in the semifinals; and an 82–59 triumph over defending champion South Carolina in the final.

After the last of the confetti fell away, many of her Princeton basketball teammates along with coach Carla Berube, gathered on the floor of the Amalie Arena in Tampa to celebrate Chen’s success. Princeton basketball fans everywhere cheered the happy ending. The banner headline on the next day’s Princeton Athletics website announced, “Kaitlyn Chen ’24 and UConn Huskies Win National Championship.” Validating her importance to UConn’s national title run, Chen was later taken by the newly-formed Golden State Valkyries as the 30th overall selection in the WNBA draft.

All of this raises the question, why did so many Princetonians so closely track Kaitlyn Chen’s journey and the performance of the UConn Huskies? In part, it’s because Princetonians always rally around our own, regardless of the forum. But Chen’s achievements also affirmed a deeper belief held by many of us — that Princeton’s top athletes can successfully compete with the nation’s elite, even under the most intense circumstances.

Given the current state of college athletics, Princeton will likely never win a national basketball championship. But we can take pleasure that one of our own did so, even if in another uniform. Reflected glory, but glory nonetheless. Congratulations, UConn, and congratulations, Kaitlyn!