Friday, February 27, 2015

A Full Friday

TigerBlog has a theory that elementary and middle school concert bands and orchestras play songs that nobody has ever heard of so that if they do it wrong, nobody knows.

At least he's operated on that theory every since TigerBlog Jr. started playing the sax back in fourth grade.

Last night, TB went to watch Miss TigerBlog play her cello with the high school orchestra. This time, finally, they were playing songs TB recognized.

In fact, they were playing movie themes. Like "Raiders of the Lost Ark," which you are now reflexively hearing in your head. That was the first one. Then there was the theme from "Star Wars." And "Harry Potter" and "Lord of the Rings."

TigerBlog has mentioned this before, but he has good stories about "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "Star Wars."

He saw "Raiders" in the movies in 1981 with BrotherBlog. Sitting behind him were three young women TB didn't know, and when the movie ended, everyone got up to leave.

As is usually the case after a movie, everyone asked the people they were with if they liked it. And what did one of the young women say? "That was sooooooooo unrealistic." TB can still hear her, as she said one of the dumbest things TB has ever heard. Of course it was unrealistic. It was supposed to be.

As for "Star Wars," TigerBlog went to the movies to see the original and got there too late, so he saw only the second half. That's it. He's never seen the first half of the movie or any other "Star Wars" movie.

Of course, had the band director asked TigerBlog for his suggestions for movie themes, he would have referred her to the three best ever - "Rocky," "Patton" and "The Great Escape."

Anyway, the concert last night was very good. And TB was able to get out of there in time to be in front of ESPNEWS by 8:30, when Princeton women's basketball coach Courtney Banghart was going to be on live from the Lewis Library broadcast center.

When TB turned on the TV, he saw the list on the left side of the upcoming that "Princeton Undefeated" was the next story. Then it disappeared. Then it came back as the next story. Then it disappeared again.

Eventually, because of some issue on the Bristol end of the connection, Courtney was only able to be on the phone, as opposed to video. Instead, the screen then was filled with women's basketball highlights as the coach's voice was being heard.

Princeton women's basketball has been deluged by media attention of late. Not a day goes by when someone - or multiple someones - want to tell the story of Division I's lone unbeaten women's basketball team, one currently ranked 14th.

It's very reminiscent for TigerBlog of the 1998 men's team, who went 27-2 and reached the national top 10. That year they came out of everywhere as well, and TB was the teams' athletic communications contact. For the record, the current women's basketball contact is named Ben Badua, who in addition to doing things like downloading every single Princeton game from the Ivy League Digital Network onto a portable hard drive to overnight to ESPN and coordinating all of these interviews also had to write previews for baseball and Heps track and field.

It's helped Princeton that Kentucky's men's team is unbeaten, so every time the high profile Wildcats are mentioned, the Princeton women are also brought up.

Among the questions asked of Courtney last night was whether or not her team would match up well with once-beaten UConn. Courtney handled it well, talking about how good UConn is but that she can only "control the controlables" and worry about who is on the schedule.

Princeton is 25-0, and the closest the Tigers have come to a "1" on the right side of its record was two weeks ago at Yale, when Princeton won 56-50 in a game that was one possession in the final minute.

The rematch comes up tonight at 7 here at Jadwin Gym, where TigerBlog is currently sitting. He has no intention of going outside between now and the start of that game, except when he goes to work out and has to get over to Caldwell to change. So he'll be outside for about 10 seconds walking over to the field house and 10 more walking back.

Other than that, he has a pretty good planned here. There's squash (individual national championships) and men's swimming and diving (Ivy championships) that can watched, though he might be outside for another 10 seconds each way if he goes over to the pool.

Speaking of the pool, Princeton had a great night in it last night, to open up the early lead over Harvard after Day 1. There is still a long way to go.

There are preliminaries this morning and finals this evening on Day 2. It repeats tomorrow, with the champion to be crowned at night.

As for the squash tournament, TigerBlog was walking in before just in front of three athletes from St. Lawrence, one of whom said "how about this weather?" TigerBlog couldn't figure out if that meant that they couldn't believe that it wasn't warmer in Princeton or that it seemed warm to them, after their own winter near the Canadian border.

The squash men's individual final is Sunday at 11:45. The women's final is at 1. Princeton has two legitimate contenders on the men's side, Tyler Osborne and Sam Kang. The women's side figures to belong to Amanda Sobhy of Harvard, who is the heavy favorite to win her fourth straight individual championship, which would make her only the second woman and third person overall to do so. The other two? Princeton head women's coach Gail Ramsay and, on the men's side, Yasser El-Halaby.

As for TB's day, at 4 this afternoon he will be in front of his computer or the TV in his office (computer is a better bet) to watch No. 1 Denver play No. 4 North Carolina in men's lacrosse. That would be Denver, coached by Bill Tierney, and North Carolina, with assistant coach David Metzbower.

TB was asked by ESPNU to send along a picture of the two of them when they coached together at Princeton. TB told Metz that he's rooting for both teams to make it to Memorial Day weekend and the NCAA final four.

Of course, he'd love for Princeton to be there as well. He'll be in his car bright and early tomorrow, heading to Baltimore, to see the Tigers play Johns Hopkins.

Before then, though, is his rather full Friday.

The cornerstone event is the women's basketball game. Will it be close again? Princeton has played two opponents in the league twice now.

Against Dartmouth, Princeton went from winning the first game by 18 to winning the second by 39. Against Harvard, it went from winning by 50 to winning by 21. That meant that the margin of victory was more than doubled once and more than halved the other time, but all four of those wins were very comfortable.

Yale had a good game plan against Princeton the first time, with great patience offensively. And the Bulldogs had a way better night from three-point range than it usually does, with seven makes, nearly double the 3.6 average.

What will happen tonight?

And then there's the big picture. People can talk about how Princeton might be playing at home in the NCAA tournament - as ESPN's bracketology suggests, with Louisville unable to host as a third-seed. And those same people can talk about how well Princeton might do in the tournament.

The reality is that Princeton has to get there first. Are their chances good? Yes. But, TB never takes anything for granted.

Here's the doomsday scenario for Princeton. It's not going 30-0 and then losing at home in the first round of the tournament. That would be disappointing.

Here's the doomsday one: 3-1 in the next two weekends (Brown tomorrow night, then at Cornell and Columbia), combined with Penn at 4-0. Then Princeton has to go to the Palestra for the final regular season game, which under that scenario would mean that the Quakers would be playing for a share of the championship.

That's your doomsday scenario. Penn is still out there lurking. All it will take is one loss the next two weekends to change everything.

Yale and Cornell are both 6-4 in the league. Princeton beat Cornell by 28 here the first time. It beat Yale by six.

Was that game a fluke? Or does Yale know something?

TigerBlog will be here to find out later. He's not going anywhere.

Thursday, February 26, 2015

That's History

TigerBlog was an American history major at Penn.

Maybe he should have gone down a different path. Maybe physics. Or accounting.

Nah, history suited him. He's always liked the way one era flowed into another, the way it all built on itself, the way a modern world emerged from an older one.

He has the right kind of brain for memorizing dates and places. All in all, it fit him well.

Because of that, TigerBlog was only to happy to volunteer to be one of the readers of the questions at the History Bowl event at a middle school yesterday.

You know how this works. There are teams of kids from different schools who compete against each other answering questions about history, with points awarded in different ways.

In the end, the winning "team" was a single young man who was the sole representative from his school. He went up against other schools who fielded teams of four, and yet he beat all of them. It was pretty impressive.

TigerBlog read the questions for four matches. There were four rounds to each match, with four separate ways of awarding points. The bottom line, though, was that it was all historical trivia.

What surprised TB was the nature of the questions. Very few of them were American history. Most of them were European or non-Western, many going back to medieval times or even ancient times.

It made them pretty hard questions, at least for TB. Perhaps it's because that's the kind of stuff kids study in that age group. TB isn't sure. He just figured there'd be more American history questions than anything else.

And how would TB have done had he competed? He wouldn't have won, that's for sure. Maybe if it was more American history, he would have liked his chances more.

And while TB was thinking back to his college major, it dawned on him that there are things that history students study today that hadn't happened yet when TB was in college. That's a tad frightening. 

Anyway, fast-forwarding to the present, or even a few days into the future, there will be three Ivy League championships crowned this weekend, at a minimum. And one of them will definitely be awarded on the Princeton campus.

And possibly a second. At least mathematically.

Let's start with the first, which starts today and will run until Saturday. The Ivy League men's swimming and diving championships will be at DeNunzio Pool, and if history - and pre-meet projections - are an indicator, then the winner will be either Princeton or Harvard.

A week ago, TigerBlog pointed out that the last time the Ivy women's championship was won by someone other than those two schools was in 1999. Princeton then extended that streak by winning the 2015 title.

The domination by Princeton and Harvard on the men's side has been even greater. On the men's side, either Princeton or Harvard has won every year since 1993, when Yale got a share of the title with Harvard.

Anyway, there are afternoon and evening sessions today, tomorrow and Saturday.

Meanwhile, up at Harvard, it'll be the Ivy League Heptagonal indoor track and field championships for men and women.

As in swimming and diving, men's indoor track and field has been dominated by two schools for a long time, in this case, Princeton and Cornell. In fact, it's back to 1996 to find a different winner (it was Penn that year).

On the women's side, there have been four winners in the last six years - Princeton twice, Harvard twice, Cornell and Columbia once each.

The indoor Heps go Saturday and Sunday.

The other possible Ivy League champion for this weekend would be in women's basketball.

Princeton plays at home against Yale tomorrow night and Brown Saturday. A sweep by the 14th-ranked Tigers mathematically eliminates every team in the league other than Penn.

Right now, Princeton is 9-0 in the league - and 25-0 overall, the only undefeated women's basketball team in Division I. Penn is 7-2, while Cornell and Yale are both 6-4.

If Princeton wins tomorrow, then Yale would be eliminated. If Princeton sweeps, then neither Yale nor Cornell could catch Princeton.

If Penn splits with Yale and Brown and Princeton sweeps, then Princeton would be three games up on Penn with three to play. If Princeton sweeps and Penn gets swept, then Princeton would clinch the outright title.

ON THE OTHER HAND - that's all caps, so TB must be serious here - Princeton has to play Penn in the final game of the season at the Palestra. All Penn wants to do is have a shot at tying for the championship that night, which requires Princeton to lose one along the way and Penn to keep winning.

Will it happen? The four teams Princeton plays between now and then have all lost to the Tigers, by a lot (Brown), a lot (Columbia) a lot (Cornell) and a little (Yale, who lost by six in the first game between the two.

Yes, Princeton is the heavy favorite. No, nothing is etched in stone until it happens.

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Coach Carril and Mr. McPhee

There is a hallway in Caldwell Field House that goes from the entryway to the athletic training room.

If you were to walk down that hallway, you'd pass by the conference room and then, once through the double doors that begin the men's-only section, the locker room for coaches and staff on the left. As you continue, you'll go past locker rooms for men's track and field, men's lacrosse, men's soccer and finally men's basketball on the right.

On the left side, in the middle, is the cage for the athletic equipment room, which is flanked on either side by the bathrooms, with stalls, sinks and urinals in the front and a huge shower room in the back.

Opposite the cage are two benches, wedged against the wall, with one of those big old-fashioned scales next to it. The scale and the benches have been there, unchanged, for as long as TigerBlog has been around here, which is more than a quarter-century.

Yesterday afternoon, that little piece of ugly gray real estate was the best place, by far, to be on the beautiful Princeton campus.

And why would that be? Because there sat, together, two of the most iconic figures in the history of the University. Chatting it up on a Tuesday afternoon. About old times. About their health. About people they knew. About Princeton basketball. About fish.

It started a little earlier, when TigerBlog went to D level of Jadwin to ride the bike with John McPhee, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and longtime writing instructor at the University. The two will ride together indoors when the weather prevents Mr. McPhee from his usual outdoor loop around town.

When their ride ended, the two headed back to the locker room. That is when TigerBlog saw Pete Carril, Princeton's Hall of Fame basketball coach, at the far end of the hallway. TB called ahead to Carril and said he had someone he wanted to introduce him to, knowing full well that the two went back decades.

As Carril slowly - he walks very slowly these days - made his way closer, he figured out who it was.

"Johnny McPhee?" he called out. "Is that Johnny McPhee?"

With that, the two sat down next to each other on the bench. The next 15 minutes or so were somewhat magical.

How else can TigerBlog describe it?

Here was Pete Carril - Coach, as so many call him. TigerBlog has heard Carril speak so many times in so many different settings. He covered him as a sportswriter in his newspaper days and has the distinction of being Carril's last athletic communications contact.

Carril grew up in Bethlehem. His father worked in the steel mills there for 40 years. His high school coach was a man named Joseph Preletz, whose nickname was "Pickles." He played for three different coaches at Lafayette College, including Butch van Breda Kolff. He coached at Easton High, Reading High and Lehigh University before he came to Princeton, where he won 514 games and 13 Ivy League championships.

Here was John McPhee, - not Johnny, at least not that TigerBlog had ever heard before. TigerBlog has spent hours riding the bike with Mr. McPhee, as well as in his role as Academic Athletic Fellow for the men's lacrosse team.

McPhee grew up in Princeton. His father was the team physician for Princeton Athletics, and McPhee grew up on this campus, attending games in pretty much every sport, though his favorites were football and basketball. He went to Princeton High and then spent a post-grad year at Deerfield before returning to Princeton, this time as a student at the University. He graduated in 1953 and then spent more than 10 years as a writer at "Time," before he finally got his big break with "The New Yorker." And what was that break? A story about Bill Bradley as a Princeton senior, entitled "A Sense Of Where You Are."

That would become his first book. He's now at 28 - all non-fiction - and counting.

TigerBlog knows all of that and way more about both men. They go way back, the two of them. They're both unassuming men, even if they could be forgiven if they weren't, given all they've accomplished. They are genuine, no BS men. At a University that prides itself on its pomp, these two are much more about circumstance. 

They're both nearing their 85th birthdays. They both have lost a step or two from when they used to go at each other in tennis, squash, basketball - one of TB's favorite McPhee stories is when he told TB that he knew he was pushing Carril hard in a tennis match when Carril actually had to put his cigar down.

They are each walking, talking volumes of Princeton history. They are beloved throughout the campus, for what they've accomplished and how they've accomplished it. They are both in the 5-7, 5-8 range, but to TigerBlog, each man is somewhat larger than life.

And there they were, sitting on a bench in a locker room.

They talked about all kinds of subjects, including where they would meet up for lunch one day soon - Conte's of course. And they talked about an old picture of Carril that McPhee has for him. They talked about one of Carril's former students and players at Reading who recently passed away, and that led Carril to relate the story of the time Reading beat Bethlehem in front of 12,000 fans. Bethlehem had beaten Reading by 35 the first time they played, but Reading won this one 49-48. It was Gary Walters' sophomore year at Reading. Carril punctuated the story by pointing out that Reading's win made his father unpopular at work the next day.

Eventually, Mr. McPhee mentioned he was heading to the supermarket to get something for dinner. Carril suggested salmon and gave him his own special recipe. They talked about food. And fish. Kinds they liked. Kinds they didn't. Cod. Carril really doesn't like cod.

TigerBlog sat there, an observer of this fascinating dynamic. It was a little before the time when the room would begin to fill with athletes, down for that afternoon's practices. There were a handful who walked by, some on the way to and from the training room, including a track and field athlete with a black Princeton hat, with an orange "P" on it.

"I have one just like that," Carril told him. "Only mine is 29 years old."

They play off each perfectly, Carril and McPhee. It was like watching an old-time movie duo, Martin and Lewis, something like that, two men who know each other so well and who have for so long that their interaction is seamless.

But these aren't just any two friends. They are Pete Carril and John McPhee. It has been one of the singular best moments of TigerBlog's time here that he's had the great fortune to get to know each of them.

TigerBlog wondered if the young men in the locker room had any idea what they were watching, who these two men were. Yeah, they probably recognized Carril. They probably didn't recognize McPhee.

But did they know what these two men are? Could they begin to understand their depth, their drive, their shared work ethic, the genius behind each of their bodies of work, regardless of how different they were?

TigerBlog knew it. That's for sure. This might just have been two buddies who ran into each other and spent a few minutes together, but TB knew what he was watching was something very special.

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Gaga And Bagnoli

The Academy Awards Sunday night featured nearly four hours of the usual narcissism and celebrity worship, mixed with a misunderstanding of what actual talent, intellect, humor and humility are all about.

No, mostly what it was was good-looking people wearing expensive clothes remarking on how great they are and how what they do requires them to be so much greater than everyone else, rather than just getting that one lucky break that hundreds of others who are just as talented never got.

There was one glaring exception, though. TigerBlog hopes the moral of the story here is obvious, though he doubts it is.

Lady Gaga was, in a word, incredible, and was from the first note she struck of "The Sound of Music" all the way through to the end of her performance. And then it only got better, when Julie Andrews came out on stage.

Lady Gaga, maybe more than anyone, has associated the visual with the audio part of her performances, at least to this point. The big thing from her has always been what costume she's going to wear, how much skin she's going to reveal, what tattoo she has next. Her music was mostly an extension of that, not something that could stand on its own.

Her Oscar performance?

It stands on its own. It's been 50 years since "The Sound of Music" won Best Picture, and Lady Gaga brought it all back right into the moment. It was astonishing how good she was.

And what's the moral? There's no substitute for real, genuine, "I-can-do-this-and-not-everybody-else-can" talent. And that's what Lady Gaga had on display during the show, with a voice that she has kept hidden under a wig or outrageous outfit.

As for the rest of the show? TigerBlog saw "American Sniper" and "The Imitation Game." He didn't see "Birdman," so he can't say for sure if that was better than the other two, so he'll just say it this way: If "Birdman" is better than the other two, then it has to be really, really, really good.

Why is TigerBlog so anti-movie star? He's not, really. It's just that he values substance, and there's a real lack of it on display at the Academy Awards.

Coaching, like acting, is a profession where the most successful aren't necessarily the most talented. Some are the products of a no-lose system. Some benefit from having a unique player or players who carry their team - sort of like coaching Tom Brady or Michael Jordan.

Maybe they're the best coaches. Maybe there are any number of people who could coach those teams and win. And if you're one of those coaches, would you risk your reputation as being one of the greats of all time to take on a genuine challenge someplace else?

And this brings us to the big news in the Ivy League today.

Ordinarily, TigerBlog likes to stay away from commenting on specific things that are going on at the other league schools. Today it's a little different. You can't write about Ivy League athletics without mentioning Al Bagnoli, whose hire as the new head football coach at Columbia University was officially announced yesterday, several days after it became public.

When Princeton last saw Bagnoli, it was November. TigerBlog remembers it well, as he made a PA announcement congratulating Bagnoli on his fine career as Penn's coach, including his 17-6 record against Princeton.

And now, Bagnoli is taking over at Columbia. This is fascinating on 100 different levels.

With very few exceptions, Columbia has struggled since well before TB has been following Ivy League football. The current Lions have had back-to-back 0-10 seasons, and they will bring a 21-game losing streak into 2015.

And who will be leading them? One of the greatest football coaches in Ivy history, a man who won nine league championships at Penn, six of which came during perfect 7-0 league seasons.

Let's start with Columbia's perspective.

This seems like a perfect hire for the Lions. They're getting genuine buzz around their program. Hey, what Ivy fan doesn't want to see how Bagnoli will do? TigerBlog is interested in what happens.

On top of that, Columbia is getting a coach who clearly knows what he's doing. Yes, Penn hasn't been great the last few years. And yes, Bagnoli is 62.

On the other hand, maybe a new assignment reenergizes him.

Columbia has nothing to lose with this hire. The program has struggled under coach after coach, all of whom seemed promising when they came in. No Columbia fan can say that the school isn't making a commitment to try to turn it around now.

What about from Bagnoli's perspective?

TigerBlog's initial thought was why would he want this? Yes, the money is probably good, though TB doubts it's as much as he's read in some places. Who knows though. That's a private matter for Columbia University.

Just from a coaching standpoint though, what if Bagnoli goes there and doesn't turn the program around. Does that ruin some of his legacy, which as of now is as one of the league's all-time best?

What didn't dawn on TB is that perhaps Bagnoli doesn't care about that. Maybe coaches don't think in those terms.

Maybe all he's thinking is that he's the one who can get it done. Maybe that's what coaches - successful ones - think. That "I'm" the one who can get it done there.

If he does, then that settles it. Bagnoli is the greatest Ivy football coach ever.

Either way, it's fascinating.

His first Ivy game next year will be Oct. 1 at home, against Princeton. The Tigers are coached by TB's favorite Ivy football coach, Bob Surace.

TigerBlog goes to Surace for a lot of his perspectives on how coaches think and what goes through their minds. He's learned a lot from Surace on this subject.

Now Surace goes from coaching against Bagnoli at Penn to coaching against him at Columbia. It's a weird dynamic, one that doesn't come up too often.

When was the last time a coach went from being a proven, consistent winner over nearly a quarter-century to another school in the same league, let alone one that has struggled like Columbia has? TB can't think of any.

TB will be rooting for Princeton to beat Columbia of course, but that doesn't mean that he isn't going to be following what Bagnoli does with the Lions. And wondering where that program will be in three or four years. And what it means for the coach's legacy.

No matter, though, it's good for Ivy football in general. It certainly makes it more interesting.

Honestly, TB has no idea what to expect from any of this. He wouldn't even begin to guess whether he'll win big, or not win at all.

The best he can do is wish Bagnoli luck. At least in his final six Ivy games.

Monday, February 23, 2015

Swimming And Diving To The Top, Again

Maddie Sachson is a first-grader whose father made a deal with her Saturday evening.

If she'd let him finish watching the Ivy League women's swimming and diving championships on the Ivy League Digital Network, he'd give her extra reading time before bed.

An hour later, he went upstairs, and this is what he found waiting for him:
How cute is that?

TigerBlog was at Baker Rink at the time, following not on the digital network but on Twitter, which was being updated by Maddie's dad, Craig, TB's colleague in the Office of Athletic Communications.

TB was sitting with Steve Conn, his counterpart at Yale, watching the Tigers play the Bulldogs in men's hockey. At the moment that TB checked Twitter, Princeton was 100 points back of the leader, Harvard, with Yale right in the mix. Then Yale took the lead, something that Conn seemed to be okay with.

More than any other sport, though, a 100-point deficit in swimming and diving means less than the events that remain and who has qualified for them. And so, even down 100 points, Princeton was still in great shape.

Shortly thereafter the Tigers had erased that entire deficit and come away with the Ivy League championship.

Princeton made its move in the 200 free, with individual winner Claire McIlmail and then three others in the top eight. Caitlin Chambers won the three-meter diving, and the Tigers entered the final event, the 400 free relay, with an 11.5 point lead, needing to finish third or better to win the championship.

And what did they do? They finished first, with a meet record to boot, as McIlmail, Nikki Larson, Elizabeth McDonald and Madelyn Veith won in 3:18.5.

Few teams have been as consistently successful through the years as the Princeton women's swimming and diving team. For starters, the program has not gone consecutive years without winning an Ivy title this century, a streak in danger after Harvard's win last year.

In fact, it's been either Princeton or Harvard every year since 1999, when Brown won. TigerBlog knew that stat, and that's why he was taken aback that Yale was making such a run at the championship.

In the end, though, it was Princeton.

The Tigers have now won 12 of the last 17 Ivy League championships. Would you like some historical context for that?

Sure you would.

As TB said, Princeton is on a 12 for 17 run of Ivy League championships. Do you know how many Princeton varsity teams have ever had a similar (or better) stretch?

Princeton has 38 teams. As near as TB can figure it, only field hockey, men's lacrosse, softball and men's and women's swimming and diving have ever won at least 12 Ivy titles in 17 years.

If TB is wrong he apologizes to the team he's overlooked.

As for those five teams, only two of them - field hockey and women's swimming and diving - have an active such streak.

To have that kind of sustained excellence is not easy.

Winning 12 Ivy titles in 17 years means winning 71% of the Ivy League titles awarded in a 17-year period. This means consistently winning through multiple generations, as the roster turns over completely more than four times.

Also, because only Princeton and Harvard have won it that time, that means that Ivy League swimmers and divers who want to win an Ivy title know they have to go to one of those two schools. And hey, it just so happens that the ones who chose Princeton have won 71% of the time this century.

When Princeton and Penn dominated Ivy League men's baskeball, the pendulum swung back and forth between the two. Neither ever won more than 10 outright titles in 17 years.

In Ivy women's swimming, Princeton has dominated Harvard during the last 17 years.

It's hard to say the most recent championship was domination. Quite the opposite.

In some years, the Tigers have swum so far away from the field that there was no drama at all.

This one came down to the wire. In the end, though, it was the Princeton women's swimming and diving team.

Once again.

Friday, February 20, 2015

Thoughts For The Weekend

TigerBlog may be way, way overreacting to this. Or maybe it's because he spends a considerable amount of his time driving a carload of 14 year old girls back and forth to field hockey and any number of other places.

As an aside, if TB has learned anything from his 14-year-old daughter, it's that a father's main functions when transporting her to and from social/athletic/educational activities are to 1) drive the car, 2) cede control of the musical selections and 3) most importantly never speak.

Anyway, watching as Miss TigerBlog and her friends go from little kids to high school age, TigerBlog definitely takes seriously issues related to teenage girls. For as much as the average 14 year old girl can be a nightmare on a daily basis, she is also dealing with huge hurdles in her path from freshman year to graduation.

Not to sound sexist, but it's a lot tougher for a girl than a boy to navigate those years, at least in general. Society is constantly bombarding high school girls with images of what they're supposed to look like, what their bodies are supposed to look like, how they're supposed to act, even what they're not supposed to be interested in studying (math and science, girls?).

For as tough as it can be engage MTB in conversation or to get her to actually respond to one of TB's texts, TigerBlog has it pretty good with his daughter. Her goal is to study engineering in college. She plays two sports. She has nice friends. And, best of all, she's her own person, with pretty good self-esteem and a history of marching to her own drum, in a good way.

This is not true of every teenage girl. And that's why TB is a bit wary of the movie "The Duff," which opens today.

TigerBlog saw the commercial for it and couldn't really believe this was real. "The Duff" stands for "Designated Ugly Fat Friend."

The movie appears to be a predictable high school coming-of-age movie. TB is sure it has its cute moments. 

What he's concerned about is the effect this is going to have on the girls out there who will be called "Duffs" at school, and not in a funny coming-of-age way. No, in a vindictive nightmarish way. And it won't help the situation that the title character in the movie is hardly "U" or "F."

TB just hopes nothing catastrophic happens because of this movie. Hopefully he's just being hyper-sensitive.

And that's today's social commentary.

And now, the weekend in Princeton Athletics.

Let's start with the three game time changes, including one that includes a change in day as well. If you were planning on going to watch Princeton-Hofstra men's lacrosse today at 3, don't. It's being played tomorrow at 3 as the second game of a doubleheader, after the women play Loyola at noon, instead of 1, as was originally scheduled.

The men's game has been moved off of ESPNU and will be on ESPN3 instead.

Also, the women's basketball game tonight against Dartmouth has been moved from 7 to 6.

There will be two Ivy League champions crowned this weekend, and they figure to both belong to either Princeton or Harvard.

The Ivy League women's swimming and diving championships are being held this weekend at Harvard, and after Day 1, Harvard holds a slight lead over Princeton, who in turn holds a slight lead over Yale. Nobody else is close.

The last time a team other than Princeton or Harvard won the Ivy League title was 1999, when Brown did so. Since then, Princeton has won 11 and Harvard has won four, including last year's.

Princeton set the pool record in the 200 free relay, with Elizabeth McDonald, Nikki Larson, Kathleen Mulligan and Maddy Veith in a time of 1:31.10. McDonald, who didn't reach any finals at last year's championships, then won the 50 free as well.

Caitlin Chambers was Princeton's third winner on the first day as she took the one-meter diving.

The other Ivy title that will be decided this weekend is the one in women's hockey. This one will definitely be Princeton or Harvard.

The Crimson are finished with their 10 Ivy games and have 16 points, having gone 8-2-0. Princeton, who is at Brown tonight and Yale tomorrow, has 13 points at 6-1-1. The Tigers need three points to tie Harvard and four to win outright.

This is the last weekend of ECAC women's hockey's regular season, and the Ivy League champion is crowned through the head-to-head games of the Ivy teams within the ECAC schedule.

Princeton currently sits in sixth in the ECAC, two points behind St. Lawrence and one behind Cornell. The top four teams get home ice in the ECAC quarterfinals next weekend, and so Princeton needs to catch both to be at Baker Rink.

Interestingly, Harvard is in first place in the league with 33 points, eight ahead of Princeton. Because the Tigers did so well against the Ivy teams, they can still skate away with a title this weekend.

Beyond the Ivy titles, there is also basketball (Princeton needs to sweep at Dartmouth and Harvard to stay in the men's race), the "Princeton Plays Pink" women's basketball game tomorrow at which anyone who wears pink will get in free and home men's hockey and wresting.

As far as teams on the road, they include the softball team, which is opening its season in Boca Raton. That's in Florida.

The forecast is for sun and temps in the high 70s to 80. That's about high 70s to 80 more than it was here this morning.

It could be worse. TB has a friend in Ohio who texted him this morning the iPhone weather app that said it was minus-15 there. Hey, it was only zero here.

Anyway have a nice weekend. 

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Laxing In The Cold

Okay, TigerBlog doesn't want to complain about the weather or anything. Or beat the subject to death.

Still, it's getting a little unreasonable around here.

And the most unreasonable is about to happen.

The forecast for today is for a high of 18 degrees. Then it'll get downright insane.

By the time everyone around here wakes up tomorrow morning, the temperature will be well below zero. The forecast says minus-five, which would probably be about as cold as it's ever been in TigerBlog's lifetime, he's guessing. He can't remember when it got more than one below, and that hasn't happened too often.

And this isn't with the wind chill. This is the actual temperature.

The forecast for Saturday is for a high around 30 and a chance of late-day snow, and that forecast was way preferable to tomorrow's of a high of 19 or so. As a result, Princeton moved its men's lacrosse game against Hofstra from Friday to Saturday, with face-off at 3.

The women's season-opener against Loyola, originally scheduled for 1 Saturday, has been moved to noon.

For the record, that's three changes to the schedule for this weekend, along with the women's basketball game, which moved to 6 tomorrow night.

TigerBlog is trying to remember the coldest temperatures he's ever been in, and it might have been at Dartmouth one year for basketball. Princeton always stays at the Fireside Inn and Suites in Hanover, at the first exit off I-89 after you cross into New Hampshire from Vermont.

There's a relatively long driveway into the hotel. At the other end are a bunch of strip malls, food places and such, and it's about a seven-minute walk or so from the lobby of the hotel. TigerBlog remembers making that walk one time and feeling like his face froze by the time he got to the main road.

He can't remember what the exact temperature was then. He's also probably not going to try to walk seven minutes from his front door tomorrow morning to see if it's any colder than he remembers from that day.

TigerBlog knows people who prefer the winter to the summer. That's fine. It's their choice, even if they are nuts.

Look at THIS and tell TB you wouldn't much rather be there right now. 

Oh well. Nothing TB can do about it right now.

As for lacrosse, it's supposed to be a warm weather sport. Or at least a spring sport. It can't be fun to practice and play on days like there have been or will be for the next few weeks. It definitely can't be fun to get smacked by a lacrosse ball on bare skin on days like this.

Or, for that matter, to sit there and watch a game, if you're a fan. Princeton had 672 hardy souls at Sherrerd Field last Saturday to see the Tigers defeat Manhattan 14-4 in a game that started in 28 degree weather and ended in snow.

The problem these days is that with conference tournaments, an NCAA tournament schedule locked in place and a reluctance to play midweek games, the schedule gets pushed back earlier and earlier. Just 10 years ago, Princeton's opener was March 5. This year, Princeton opened on Feb. 14.

Why? Because with one fewer midweek game and an Ivy tournament that requires the regular season to be over a week earlier than before it, the math is not hard to do. 

Plus, wins are wins. It doesn't matter when you get them. It's not even late February yet, and Towson already has a huge win over Johns Hopkins and Denver has a huge win over Duke. Come selection time, those will matter a lot.

Hey, Penn had a nice win Tuesday night in overtime against a very good St. Joe's team. The Quakers came from down 9-4 in the fourth quarter to get that one 11-10.

If you're going to play at this time of year, at least play in the daylight.

Or indoors. Like Syracuse can, in the Carrier Dome, which TigerBlog loves. Cornell lost there Sunday 14-6 to Syracuse, in a game that was going to be tough for the Big Red, who had only two weeks of practice, like the rest of the Ivy teams.

Cornell's next game is against Hobart, and it's being moved from Saturday to tomorrow and off both campuses, to the Greater Binghamton Sports Center. TB isn't sure if that's indoors or not.

The solution would be to start the season later. Or to go back to more midweek games.

Or, better yet, do what baseball did and push the NCAA championships back into June, so the season can start at a more reasonable date.

Maybe that'll happen someday. It won't be soon. And so teams are left with the situation that they created, which is playing and practicing when it's below freezing to get all of their games in.

It's not that complicated. Either push the season back, or play in this weather. 

And so instead of a single game tomorrow and a single game Saturday, there's a doubleheader Saturday. The men's game was originally scheduled for Friday at 3 for ESPNU; now the game will be live on ESPN3 and then shown on delay on ESPNU at some point.

TigerBlog is mostly just happy that it's lacrosse season. Hey, he'd be there no matter what the weather is.

Of course, he gets to sit in a press box. On the other hand, he has to do that when the weather gets nice out too, though it seems worth the trade off.

The bottom line is that much of lacrosse season - maybe half - is now being played in awful weather, year after year, and that's a shame.

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Worth A Read

TigerBlog remembers Flinder Boyd as a pesky point guard at Dartmouth, back about 10 or 15 years ago or so.

As it turns out, he was Dartmouth Class of 2002.

TigerBlog remembers a bunch of other Dartmouth guys from around then some of whom played with Boyd and a few who were older. Guys like Greg Buth, Brian Gilpin, Shawn Gee, Sea Lonergan, Charles Harris and a few others, some of whom, as it turned out when TB looked through Dartmouth's archives, were a little older than Boyd.

Okay, so he can't remember all the years.

He does remember that most nights against Dartmouth weren't going to be easy, and he remembers how hard Dartmouth teams always seemed to play. He remembers nights in Leede Arena in Hanover, frozen nights in New Hampshire, with the late Kathy Slattery in charge of basically all things in the building and his friend Bruce Wood there to chronicle it all, both of them hoping that at least once there'd be an NCAA tournament in it for them.

Sadly, it wasn't to be for Slattery, who passed away some years ago after a long tenure as the Dartmouth sports information director. She was an imposing presence at Dartmouth, to be sure, and she was from the first moment TB met her, back in 1989 or so.

TigerBlog hadn't thought much about those days, or about Flinder Boyd, much of late.

Then he stumbled onto a story that Boyd had written, a story included in the Top American Sportswriting of 2014.

It's an incredible story, about an otherwise aimless young man whose complete focus is on taking advantage of his one shot at the big time at New York City's Rucker Park. Boyd does an amazing job of telling the story; it is clearly one of the best pieces TB has ever read.

It's a bit long, but it is well, well worth your time. Click HERE to read it.

Did you read it? Or are you finishing here first?

Either way, glad you're here.

TigerBlog will now fast forward to the current day Ivy League basketball races. It's a good time to do it, at about the midway point of the season, as each team has played eight of 14 league games, except for Princeton and Penn, who have played seven. This goes for women and men.

If you look at the standings, you'll see that on the men's side, Harvard and Yale are both 7-1, followed by Princeton at 4-3. No other team has fewer than four losses.

On the women's side, obviously Princeton is 7-0. Oh, by the way, the game Friday has been moved from 7 to 6; hopefully word has made it to you by now.

Behind Princeton, Penn is 5-2. Yale and Cornell are 5-3. Everyone else is under .500.

So how many teams are still in the title chase?

On the men's side, it's clear that Harvard and Yale are in the best position. Princeton, if it can win out, would be at 11-3, and Harvard and Yale would each have at least two losses, by virtue of losing to Princeton. Plus, one of them would have a third loss by virtue of playing each other.

Is it out of the realm of possibility that the one who wins the Harvard-Yale game would lose again? Maybe, maybe not.

But for the sake of discussion, let's say three teams are alive.

On the women's side? TigerBlog is very careful not to get ahead of anything here, but clearly Princeton is aiming for a 30-0 season. To do that, Princeton would have to beat each Ivy team again.

Given that Princeton has won six of its seven Ivy games by at least 18 points and five by at least 28 points, it's not crazy to think Princeton will get there. It's hardly set in stone, but Princeton will be the favorite in every one of those seven games.

On the other hand, if someone can nick Princeton along the way and Penn can win its next six, then the teams would get to the end of the regular season at the Palestra with only one game between them. That'd be a lot of pressure on the Tigers.

So you want to say Penn is still alive? You want to say the 5-3 teams are probably out of it, since Princeton would have to go 4-3 the rest of the way to allow them to get a share of the title? Okay, TB is fine with that.

That means that of the 16 Ivy League basketball teams, only five still have a chance at winning the league and getting to the NCAA tournament. At the midway point.

And there are many Ivy fans who would say that only three teams are legitimately in the race, two on the men's side and one on the women's side.

What's the point of all this?

The Ivy League is the only conference in the country that does not have a postseason conference tournament to determine its automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

For years, TigerBlog has been anti-tournament. In fact, he's surprised that every other one-bid conference still has its tournament.

If you look at the Patriot League, only five games separate first place from last place right now on the men's side. Doesn't the team that guts it out through that tough a race deserve to be the champion and go to the tournament? Or should they have to start from scratch again in a league tournament, one that completely devalues the regular season?

If anything, it's the current women's situation that would give a justification for a tournament, in that if someone besides Princeton won, then the league would probably get two bids. It's why the lacrosse tournaments are so good, because they don't deny NCAA bids to deserving teams. They give other teams a chance at getting one as well.

So why have a conference basketball tournament if it's going to keep your best team out of the tournament? TigerBlog doesn't get it.

The flip side is that the majority of the league's teams are not playing for NCAA tournament spots midway though the season. If there was a traditional conference tournament, every team would still be alive - even though most wouldn't have earned that right.

TB has said this before. If the Ivy League does want to adopt a tournament, make it a four-team one. Or even better, make it a three-team one on each side.

On a Friday, have the second place team play the third place team for the men and women. A doubleheader.

Then, on Saturday, have the winners play the first place teams in another doubleheader. A championship doubleheader.

TigerBlog could deal with that.

An eight-team tournament?

As he's said a million times before, TigerBlog would hate to see that.

Let the regular season matter. The Ivy League is the only league that, in TB's opinion, does it right in this situation.

Why give that up?

Tuesday, February 17, 2015


TigerBlog will start out by saying this: The women's basketball game against Dartmouth Friday night has been moved from 7 to 6.

The game is being picked up by the American Sports Network, who will syndicate it to various affiliates. A complete list will be available tomorrow, probably, and will be on

In the meantime, if you're going to the game, it's a 6:00 tip.

The men's game against Brown last Friday was switched from 7, which it said on the tickets, to 8, in order to accommodate the ASN. This begs the question of whether or not you'd rather show up at 7 and have missed the first half or 7 and find out that there's still an hour to tip.

With four days until the game, though, TigerBlog is hopeful that anybody who is coming to Jadwin will get the word by then.

And so that's the first thing TigerBlog wanted to say today.

Then there's the Ithaca visitors bureau, which has a website called

If you go there, you'll get this pop-up message:
That's it. We surrender. Winter, you win. Key West anyone?
Due to this ridiculously stupid winter, Ithaca invites you to visit The Florida Keys this week. Please come back when things thaw out. Really, it's for the birds here now. (Still want to Visit Ithaca? Are you sure? Ok, click here.) P.S. Send us a postcard.

Now how great is that?

The last few weeks have been awful here. They've been even worse in Ithaca.

TigerBlog would like to salute whoever came up with that. It's perfect.

Of course, TB will be in Ithaca April 25 for Princeton-Cornell men's lacrosse. Hopefully it will have thawed out by then.

TigerBlog writes about the weather a lot. What he'll say about it today is that it's pretty cold here. It's one of those days that make you think about how hot it gets in the summer and how you complain about how hot and humid it is and then you wonder why you do that when it's this cold out now because you'd much rather be hot than cold.

Here, TigerBlog will give you the high and low temperatures for two different places in the United States. See if you can guess which is which.

Place A:  27/10, 32/10, 17/-1, 19/3
Place B: 38/24, 33/21, 32/25, 36/32.

Give up?

Place A is Princeton. Place B is Anchorage. As in Alaska.

TigerBlog spent this past weekend mostly chilled, since he spent much of it in Baker Rink, where he saw Princeton play Clarkson and St. Lawrence in men's hockey.

Keep in mind, this is a Princeton team that came into the weekend in last place in the ECAC with a record of 1-14-1. And that Clarkson was in sixth and St. Lawerence second.

So what did the Tigers do?

They beat Clarkson 2-1 and tied St. Lawrence 1-1 in a game that they came within an eyelash of winning when Tucker Brockett came close enough to the game-winner 58 seconds into OT that the refs stopped the game to check the replay.

Princeton goalie Colton Phinney was great in both games, but it's not like he was the only reason his team was successful. In fact both games were completely even contests, and Princeton deserved all three points it got, equaling, by the way, it's previous ECAC season total.

Princeton is in Year 1 under head coach Ron Fogarty, an immensely likeable person with a great sense of humor and a commitment to rebuilding the hockey program, along with his staff. He's one of those coaches that you just know will be successful when you spend five minutes around him, and you can tell by watching Princeton play that it is hardly a team that has given up on the season.

The Tigers played hard all weekend. That much was clear. And they went toe-to-toe with two of the best teams in the league.

To show you the progress Princeton is making, the Tigers lost to St. Lawrence and Clarkson by a combined 7-0 on its trip up there back in November.

Princeton has two regular season weekends remaining, home with Brown and Yale this weekend and then at Dartmouth and Harvard. Then there is the ECAC playoffs.

This past weekend could be a pretty big one in the evolution of the program. Princeton won its league opener against Cornell back on Nov. 7 and then went 0-14-1 in its next 15 ECAC games, with only a 2-2 tie with Brown on Jan. 31 to earn a point.

And then Princeton went 1-0-1 this past weekend. It's one thing to know you're improving; it's another to have some tangible proof to know you're going in the right direction. That's what Princeton got this weekend.

Maybe one day, the Tigers will look back on this past weekend as the starting point of a resurgence.

Monday, February 16, 2015


One day it will be warm again. It just won't be any time soon.

It was about 12 degrees yesterday afternoon - pretty much the high - with winds that actually touched 50 miles per hour at certain points, driving the windchills well below zero when BrotherBlog decided to check in.

BB lives in Seattle, where it usually rains this time of year. Yesterday? Sunny and in the 60s.

If today it suddenly got up to 60, it would feel like about 140 or so, given how cold it's been around here of late. And the upcoming forecast?

In a word: yuck.

If you add up the low temperature in the forecast for the next five days, it comes to 29. That's total. Not 29 as an average. It'll be in the single digits for three of those days, and that doesn't even count right now, when it is actually below zero with the temperature, let alone the insane windchill.

TigerBlog was chilled all weekend, especially when he took the garbage out while wearing shorts last night.

Oh well. As Mark Twain once said, everyone talks about the weather, but nobody ever does anything about it. Or was that Ben Franklin?

After all, today is Feb. 16. It's winter. It's supposed to be cold. Just not this cold.

As of Feb. 16, there is still one undefeated team in Division I women's basketball. You might have heard this already.

It's Princeton, who checks in at 23-0, including 7-0 in the Ivy League.

When you're the only undefeated, people notice, including Dick Vitale, who tweeted Saturday morning that he was on the bandwagon. It was the same day that a big piece appeared in the New York Times centered around Alex Wheatley.

As TB said, when you're the only undefeated among 351 teams, people notice. 

All that almost changed Saturday night, when Princeton had its toughest call to date this season with a 56-50 win at Yale. Of Princeton's 23 wins this year, this was the closest.

It was only the second time this year that Princeton has played a game decided by fewer than 10 points, along with a seven-point win over American back in November, in a game that improved Princeton to 4-0.

The game Saturday night was huge. It was a game that was somewhat predictable, a night when everything wasn't going right.

Friday night was a typical Princeton night. The Tigers came out and overwhelmed Brown, winning 86-58.

Saturday night? This wasn't easy.

First of all, Yale came into the game with two league losses, after losing to Penn Friday night. Penn also had two league losses.

Lost in all the talk about a possible 30-0 season is the fact that Princeton needs to actually win the Ivy League first, and as Mark Twain said once - or was it Apollo Creed's trainer in "Rocky?" - "He thinks it's a fight. He doesn't know it's a show." In other words, Penn and Yale aren't necessarily on the same page as Princeton when it comes to this coronation.

Had Yale beaten Princeton Saturday night, a few things would have happened. One, Princeton's invincibility would have been gone. Two, it would have been a legitimate three-team race, with a one-loss Princeton team and two loss teams in Yale and Penn.

A Princeton win, on the other hand, basically eliminates Yale. Princeton is now 7-0, while Penn is 5-2 and Yale is 5-3. For Yale to catch Princeton, it would have to go 7-0 and have Princeton go 4-3.

For Penn to do it, Penn has to go 7-0 and Princeton needs to go 5-2. One of those two would be Penn obviously, so someone else has to beat the Tigers. If Penn trips up against anyone else, then Princeton would have to lose to Penn and two others.

These were the stakes at Yale Saturday.

The game didn't start out like a typical game for the Tiger women this year. Nothing was simple. Yale had a good plan - be patient and hope to make more 3's than normal - and the Bulldogs refused to go away.

Even when Princeton got the lead and looked like it was about to pull away, Yale answered. Leads of nine points and eight points disappeared.

Princeton did what championship teams do though. The Tigers won on the road in a tough spot.

Hey, Kentucky, the only undefeated men's team, has played six games this year that were decided by six points or less. It happens. Not every game is easy.

Princeton is home the next two weekends, first for Dartmouth and Harvard and then for Yale and Brown.

The talk continues to be of a perfect season, but Princeton can't get too far ahead of itself. In fact, it can only worry about the next weekend, the next two games.

Another weekend has come and gone, and Princeton is still undefeated. Whether it's by 28 or by six, they both count the same.

One more in the "W" column; nothing as of yet under "L."

Friday, February 13, 2015

Lorin Maurer, Six Years Later

Time marches on, and details start to blur a bit.

In this case, it was the date. TigerBlog thought it was Feb. 13, not Feb. 12. Off the top of his head, anyway.

It's been six years now, six years since he woke up to the ridiculous news that still seems too unlikely to actually have happened. Lorin Maurer, 30-year-old Lorin Maurer, beautiful, full of life Lorin Maurer, had been killed in a plane crash.

Lorin was the first person here at Princeton whose job was the Friends' Group coordinator. She was a perfect match for it. She had the right temperament, the right personality, the work ethic, the ability to be a team player.

She was Lo-Mo, as Jamie Zaninovich, then her boss here, called her. She had it all at age 30 - a job she liked and was good at, a great family, she was in love. What could go wrong, right?

TigerBlog was in a meeting with Lo-Mo one afternoon. She left the meeting to go to the airport, headed for Buffalo for her boyfriend's brother's wedding.

The next morning, TigerBlog woke up to an email that said Lorin had died when the plane crashed trying to land. Even now, six years later, TigerBlog remembers the instant and the feeling he had, of utter, sheer disbelief. It didn't seem real. It still doesn't.

He remembers the feeling that no, this can't be right. He remembers the way everyone else here that day shared the same feeling. 

Gone, just like that.

Gone, but not forgotten. Never to be forgotten here, at least as long as TigerBlog is here.

Each year since her death, TigerBlog has written about a woman who left here so abruptly, so tragically, on the anniversary of her death.

This year, he's off by one day.

It's to be expected. In some ways, six years doesn't seem like all that long ago. On the other hand, TigerBlog would guess that well more than half of the people who work in the athletic department now did not work here at the time of Lorin's death.

Over time, as TB said, details fade. And so he was off by one day.

But there are some things about Lorin Maurer that are still etched in concrete in TigerBlog's memory.

Like her voice. And her laugh.

And the way she'd walk past TigerBlog's office, whose door is always open, and stop, look in, smile, and keep going. She always would stop and smile. Then keep going.

Mostly, that's what TB remembers about her, that smile. She was always smiling, whether in TigerBlog's doorway or anywhere else he ever saw her.

He sees pictures of her every now and then, and there it is, that smile. But he doesn't need those pictures to remember it. Not in the least.

TigerBlog has spoken with Lorin's parents several times in the last six years. Each time he wants to say the right thing, the perfect thing to them, to let them know that their daughter's memory still lasts and that the people here who knew her haven't let that memory fade at all. And yet there is no perfect way to tell them anything, because mostly all he can think of is how cheated they've been, and how nothing he can say, write or do can change any of that.

Even now, sitting at the same desk in the same office with the same door open, it still doesn't seem all that real. TigerBlog can't write any of this without thinking back to the last moment he saw her, when she walked past his office that night six years ago.

It is so vivid. Lorin, in a hurry to get to the airport. You've been in that situation. A meeting ran a little longer than you thought, and now you're playing catchup.

Lorin was in a rush, but she did what she always did. Stopped. Smiled. Kept going. 

And so what if this should have been written yesterday? It's the important details about Lorin that TB remembers.  

TigerBlog and Lorin were friendly but not great friends, by any stretch. At the very least, there were way more people here who were closer to Lorin than TigerBlog was.

TB knew her simply as a nice person, someone who was easy to work with, someone funny who laughed easily. Someone who made Princeton Athletics a better place.

Someone who left way too soon, in a horrifically tragic way.

Someone that TigerBlog will never forget.

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Remembering The Shark

TigerBlog has two vivid memories of the pre-tournament reception he attended with the men's basketball team at Fresno State in 1995.

The first was when Pete Carril walked into the building where the luncheon was being held. He was smoking a cigar, and he was told by Princeton's escort that he couldn't take it in the building. There was a handrail by the stairs that led into the building, and Carril placed his cigar underneath the handrail as he walked inside.

About two hours later, when the event ended, Carril walked outside, grabbed his cigar back and stuck it back in his mouth.

As an aside, when TigerBlog first started doing this every day, he figured that if he ever was without something to say, he'd just tell a funny Carril story.

Anyway, the other remarkable thing about that day was the reaction that the local fans had to the new Fresno State coach.

The Bulldogs were in their first year under Jerry Tarkanian, the legendary "Shark" who had coached UNLV during the glorious Runnin' Rebels years. And now here he was, the biggest rebel of them all in college basketball, a coach who figured to be followed all the way to his grave by the NCAA and its investigators, now two games into his Fresno State career. Jerry Tarkanian, who couldn't sneeze without having the NCAA wondering what rule he was breaking in the process.

Tarkanian passed away yesterday at the age of 84. He wasn't the greatest coach in NCAA history, but he definitely was up there as far as entertaining goes. His teams - he coached at Long Beach State before he left for UNLV - played in fifth gear at all times, and there was no better show in college basketball than the Runnin' Rebels. The fact that they played in Las Vegas only upped the level of excitement.

No team ever was better on one given night than UNLV was in the 1990 NCAA final, when it blasted Duke 103-73. In the interest of fairness, Duke got revenge a year later, beating a 27-0 Vegas team in the semifinals 79-77.

In between those two games, Princeton ventured to play at UNLV early in the 1991 season, in a game televised by ESPN. It was on that night that a team that Carril always called "Las Vegas-Nevada" instead of "Nevada-Las Vegas" gave out its NCAA championship rings and then thumped Princeton 65-35.

Princeton and Fresno would meet in the final of the 1995 Coors Light Classic - that was the name of the tournament - and Princeton won 59-54 behind six three-pointers from current head coach Mitch Henderson. TigerBlog was at the first game of the tournament - Princeton drilled Boise State behind 18 from current assistant coach Brian Earl - but had to leave afterwards due to the death of his grandmother. For what it's worth, it's the only Princeton men's basketball game he missed between December of 1994 and December of 1998.

Tarkanian's Fresno teams never matched what he did at UNLV, but that didn't matter to the locals, who couldn't get enough of him (Tarkanian played at Fresno in the 1950s). He and Carril are both in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, the two coaches with so little in common other than they were never quite part of the coaching establishment around them, an establishment embodied by another coach who went head-to-head with Carril and who passed away this week, North Carolina's Dean Smith.

Carril and Smith took each other on four times, all in the late 1960s and early 1970s. When Princeton played North Carolina at Jadwin in 1996, Bill Carmody was the Tiger head coach.

Smith arrived at the game in a limo, not on the team bus. TigerBlog can imagine that Tarkanian would arrive in a limo, along with his players and perhaps a few Las Vegas showgirls.

TigerBlog was a fan of Tarkanian. It was really hard not to be.

As for present-day basketball, this is yet another big weekend in the Ivy League.

Harvard and Yale are tied for first at 5-1. Princeton is in second at 3-2. Everyone has at least three losses.

The good news for Princeton is that if it wins the rest of its games, it'll win the Ivy League title and play in the NCAA tournament. At the very least, you always want that to be the case.

The bad news is that Princeton doesn't have a lot of margin for error.

The Tigers home with Brown tomorrow night - the game was changed to 8 pm -  and Yale Saturday night. Harvard hosts Cornell and Columbia.

Harvard, by the way, is 5-1 in the league, with one three-point win and back-to-back two-point wins last weekend. Harvard appears to be averaging the same number of feet of snow per week as it is points per win of late.

Still, 5-1 is 5-1. Yale would love to have last weekend's game back, a 52-50 loss at home to the Crimson. It'll make the Bulldogs a desperate team this weekend.

Of course, with no conference tournament at the end, the drama is all in the regular season. Harvard is either vulnerable or has gotten its hiccups out of the way. Yale is either a legitimate contender or a team that won't be able to bounce back from that home loss.

And Princeton? The Tigers had a tough, tough loss to Cornell last Saturday, when a double figure lead vanished in the blink of a 22-0 run by the Big Red.

Now Princeton is playing to stay in contention through the end. The Tigers play at Dartmouth next Friday and then have consecutive games at Harvard (Feb. 21) and at Yale (Feb. 27).

This weekend will go a long way to showing if those games matter.

Of course, as TB said, keep winning and there's nothing to worry about.

As for Tarkanian? Rest in peace, rebel.

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Best Friends

As best friends go, TigerBlog Jr. couldn't have asked for much more than he's gotten from Matthew Anderson all these years.

TigerBlog remembers when he first heard the name "Matthew Anderson." It was when TBJ and Matthew where in fourth grade and TigerBlog had to make up rosters for Lower Bucks Lacrosse's 3rd/4th grade division.

When TigerBlog came across Matthew's name and saw that he was in the same elementary school as TBJ - back then, Lower Bucks drew from about 25 elementary schools - he asked if TBJ knew him. When TBJ said that Matthew was in his class, TigerBlog put him on his team - the Barrage.

That's where the two first became friends. Since then, they've played hundreds, thousands of hours of lacrosse together, much of it in Matthew's backyard or basement, along with Matthew's younger brother William.

They went their separate ways in high school but have remained remarkably close. They were on the same summer club lacrosse team for six years, and they've been each others roommates at lacrosse events at multiple colleges - often cramming a full semester's worth of mess into a two- or three-night stay. They've been part of way more wins than losses and together have learned to handle both ends of the emotional spectrum.

Matthew was maybe 12 years old when he zoomed past the six-foot tall mark, long before anyone else got there. He's always been the strong, mostly silent type.

Matthew is the best kind of best friend a father could want for his son. There has never been a minute where TigerBlog has had to worry about anything when TBJ said he was going to hang out with Matthew. TigerBlog has always stressed to his kids the value of being friends with people who will be positive influences in their lives, and it can't be truer than has been with Matthew. 

Miss TigerBlog, similarly, has a best friend. Hers is named Wiki. Okay, it's Victoria, but she's Polish and her name is in Polish, spelled Wikitoria, so TB has always called her Wiki.

MTB met Wiki when Wiki first moved to the house directly behind MTB's, back when they were both three or four years old. For the first few days they stared at each other from a distance of about 20 yards, eventually working up the courage to meet at the swingset in between them.

Since then, they've pretty much been locked together. Neither one of them is exactly the silent type.

Most recently, MTB and Wiki went to the Princeton-Cornell women's basketball game, where the only time they would get within three or four sections of TigerBlog was when they wanted money for food. Then they went to the Princetonian Diner, where they did a lot of giggling, laughing and eye-rolling. You know, it's what 14 year old girls do.

Ah, but TBJ and Matthew? They're guys. They don't make one-tenth of the noise that the two girls would. TigerBlog, as he has said before, has taken long car rides with the two of them and not heard a peep from either.

When they do talk, they mostly mock each other. It's what guys do.

The common denominator between the two friendships is a single word - loyalty. MTB goes to a public high school and Wiki goes to a private one, which is the opposite of TBJ and Matthew, but they stay loyal to each other always.

TigerBlog wonders if they'll still be friends 30, 40 years from now. TigerBlog had two best friends in high school. One he's still very friendly with, the other he hasn't seen or spoken to in decades.

He hopes that both of these friendships last. As is the case with Matthew, Wiki has been a great influence on MTB.

Wiki and MTB have come to games at Princeton for years as well, just not nearly as many as TBJ and Matthew have.

For four years or so, Matthew and TBJ were ball boys at Princeton men's basketball games. They came to almost every game at Jadwin Gym in those years, and they loved it. They shot around before the games and at halftime. They went out on the court during every timeout to mop up any loose sweat.

They interacted with the players, coaches and refs. TigerBlog Jr. once told an official during a timeout that he had made a bad call and might need to go back to "ref school;" TigerBlog is glad he got a laugh from the official and not a technical.

The night in 2009 that TigerBlog Jr. played the national anthem before a game against Cornell, Matthew was there to offer support in the way that only a best friend can - by saying "$20 says you mess it up."

They came to football games, lacrosse games, squash matches, hockey games here. Added all together, and they have probably been at more than 100 Princeton events together.

They were the classic little kids that Princeton Athletics has worked so hard to touch all these years, and TigerBlog can't help but think that they both got so much out of their experiences here. They got to see great role models in the Princeton athletes. They got to sit in venues that allowed them to be close to the action - or on the court for that matter. They saw first-hand the value of working hard at a sport and the opportunities that could be had to those who could play in college, all while getting an understanding that there are college athletes (Princeton's and others) who act with class and play to win but still play with what used to be known as "sportsmanship."

Multiply these kids out by all the ones who come here every year and get the same message, and there is one of the best things about Princeton Athletics. And it's why here in the Department of Athletics, there is such a push to make this a welcoming place for families and children.

Neither TBJ nor Matthew will be attending Princeton. Both will be playing college lacrosse. TigerBlog Jr. will be at Sacred Heart University; Matthew will be at Chestnut Hill outside of Philadelphia.

Why bring all this up today? It's because today is Matthew's 18th birthday. It's a big day, going from 17 to 18, legally becoming an adult.

So even though he's officially a man today and has locked like a man for years, TigerBlog will always remember what a great kid Matthew always has been. And what a great part of TBJ's life Matthew has been.

They're lucky they found each other all those years ago. Hopefully, they won't let go anytime soon.

Happy birthday Matthew.

And thanks for everything you've done.

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

And Then There Was One

Apparently, there aren't too may dog breeds that can have blue eyes.

TigerBlog stumbled upon one of them the other day. He can't remember if he ever saw a dog with blue eyes before.

What do you do in a situation like this in 2015? Of course, you take a picture with your phone.

TigerBlog asked the owner for permission first. How many times, though, do you see someone in the supermarket or on line at the movies or something and you want to take a picture of something about them without having them notice? That's very 2015.

Anyway, say hi to, uh, what was the dog's name again? Bailey? Roscoe? Something like that.

Dexter. That's it. Dexter the blue eyed dog.

Dexter obviously realizes that there's something unique about being a blue-eyed dog, as he posed perfectly for TigeBlog. The owner said he went into a pet shop and saw the blue eyes and said he had to take him home (and presumably name him after a serial killer from a TV show that TigerBlog never saw).

This isn't the first time TigerBlog has offered a picture of a random dog that he's encountered. The last one was Fred, the coolest dog on Earth.

It would be a shame if Dexter wore shades like Fred. You don't want to be covering up those blue eyes.

TigerBlog did a little research and found that blue-eyed dogs are somewhat rare, though not completely uncommon. You know what's even rare than a blue-eyed dog?

An undefeated women's basketball team in Division I.

In fact, there's only one of those. And it's Princeton, who moved to 21-0 over the weekend when it overwhelmed Columbia and Cornell.

Prior to yesterday there were two undefeateds, Princeton and No. 1 South Carolina, who had to play at UConn last night. UConn is No. 2 and loses at home probably as often as blue-eyed dogs come strolling down the path.

UConn defeated South Carolina 87-62, somewhat predictably. And that leaves Princeton as the only undefeated women's basketball team in Division I.

Kentucky, for the record, is the only undefeated team in Division I men's basketball.
Princeton moved up to No. 16 in the AP poll yesterday. Each time Princeton moves up, it breaks its own record for the highest ranking ever for an Ivy women's team.

TigerBlog saw both games at Jadwin this past weekend, and the word he used - "overwhelmed" - is pretty accurate. The Tigers shot 55% in both games, outrebounded both of its opponents by double digits - remember, there aren't a lot of offensive rebounds when you don't miss a lot of shots - forced more than 40 turnovers, never trailed and built double digit leads within the first nine minutes both nights.

What's next for Princeton?

Well, this isn't a coronation or anything. The rest of the league is trying to win as well, and there is one team in particular that can change the entire tenor of everything Saturday night in New Haven.

Right now, Princeton is 5-0 in the Ivy League. Yale is 5-1. Every other team has at least two losses.

If Princeton sweeps this weekend, then it's going to be next to impossible for the rest of the league to catch up. Someone would have to go 7-0 over the second half of the season and hope that Princeton loses to someone else on top of that just to force a tie.

On the other hand, if Yale can beat Princeton Saturday night? Then all kinds of things change, not the least of which is the aura of invincibility that Princeton now has.

Yale kids are smart. They know that their best opportunity is the one this week.

It's a big advantage for Princeton to play the Bulldogs Saturday instead of Friday. Yale can't spend the whole week focused on Princeton, and Penn is 3-2 in the league and the defending champ who still hopes to get to the last game of the season at 11-2 against a 12-1 Princeton team.

Yale, on the other hand, is home.

Will Princeton be favored? Of course.

But TigerBlog learned long ago to be cautiously optimistic about these things.

TigerBlog tweeted his good friend Eddie Timanus of USA Today during the UConn-South Carolina game and reminded him of something that Timanus already knew, that Princeton would be the lone remaining undefeated team in Division I.

Timanus asked TigerBlog if he'd like a shot at UConn, and TB said of course, because it would probably mean that Princeton was playing deep into March.

Timanus responded by saying "good answer."

Before Princeton can think about that, though, it has to take care of its business in the league. And this weekend, at 3-3 Brown and then at Yale, is a huge road test.

At the same time, you don't get to be the last unbeaten in Division I accidentally.

Monday, February 9, 2015

Bob's Memorial

The Bob Callahan memorial service Saturday afternoon came at a bad time for TigerBlog.

He had a longstanding commitment in Connecticut, and that's why he was unable to be at the chapel Saturday afternoon at 1:30.

That's not what he meant by how the service came at a bad time. By a bad time, TigerBlog means it came a few decades too soon.

Bob Callahan, who passed away Jan. 27 after a three-year battle with brain cancer, was Princeton's men's squash coach for more than 30 years. He was just 59 years old when he died.

Just 59. It pains TigerBlog to write that.

In a perfect world, Bob Callahan would have lived well into his 80s or 90s. There's no way to explain why he didn't, to comprehend why he would be stricken with such a vicious disease at its worst.

Bob Callahan was a one-in-a-million man. TigerBlog saw him mad only once, and that was so out of character for him that TB still can't believe it really happened.

If TigerBlog had to describe in one word, it would be this: "happy." That's what Bob Callahan was. He was a happy guy.

He never needed the spotlight. He never took credit for his success, always giving it to his players, even when he was the one who recruited them and, more importantly, set the culture for his program that enabled them to thrive.

Want to know the culture for Princeton squash during Bob's tenure?

One, it was competitive. Princeton squash was competing for national championships. Bob Callahan may have been a happy guy, but he was also a very, very competitive guy.

Two, and equally as important, there was no tolerance at all for anyone who didn't carry himself with the highest level of something that used to be called sportsmanship. Bob Callahan may have been a happy guy, but he was also a very, very classy guy.

And that was the culture.

Everyone in the squash world knew this about Bob. He was a true gentleman. And he combined that with teams that for more than three decades competed at the highest level of his sport.

Those two things are what defined Bob the coach.

Bob the person was one of the greatest family men TigerBlog has ever known. He and his wife Kristen raised five sons, all of whom graduated from Princeton.

Together they fought the disease, all of them with incredible dignity and courage. It left TigerBlog, and everyone else, awed by the Callahan family.

As for the service itself, TigerBlog heard the chapel was nearly packed. That's no surprise. TigerBlog isn't the only one who felt this way about Bob.

TigerBlog heard that former players and coaches spoke about Bob. It's not hard to imagine whatthey had to say about him.

Death, especially when it comes so early, is not easy to take. When someone has suffered as much as Bob did, the end does offer a bit of relief that the suffering has ended.

TigerBlog saw Kristen and the Callahan sons at the squash match against Penn the day after Bob died. They, as to be expected, carried themselves remarkably.

A memorial service is usually a similar type of atmosphere. It's a time to remember the person who has passed away and it's usually done with humor and fondness, as opposed to just sadness.

The sadness? That's there when you least expect it.

For TigerBlog, that came yesterday, when he was doing, of all things, the laundry.

There it was. The white "P Squash" shirt that Bob's successor, Sean Wilkinson - whose actual title is "the Robert W. Callahan ’77 Head Coach of Men's Squash - gave TigerBlog and many in the department.

On the back was a single word, "Callahan," with a ribbon.

When TB saw the shirt, it reminded him that Bob is gone. Bob, a friend for 20 years, a colleague, a role model, a shining light of everything that is good about college athletics, is gone.

There's nothing fair about that.

Friday, February 6, 2015

Weekend In New York

TigerBlog's phone buzzed yesterday afternoon just before four, indicating a text message.

When he checked, he saw it was from former Princeton men's basketball coach and current Georgetown head coach John Thompson. His question was simple: What year was the great comeback game against Penn?

That one's easy. It was 1999. Feb. 9, 1999, to be exact. TigerBlog didn't mention the date, even though he knew it.

Thompson followed up by saying simple "great game."

Yes. It was. In fact, if you factor out historical context and judge games simply on their own merit on the day they were played, it could be the single best sporting event TigerBlog has ever seen live. It's either that or Princeton's 15-14 four-overtime win over Syracuse in men's lacrosse, also in 1999.

Hey, TigerBlog never put that together before. The two best games he ever saw were played a little more than two months apart in 1999?
Well, maybe Duke 104, Kentucky 103 in the 1992 NCAA tournament has to be up there too. TigerBlog covered that game at the Spectrum in Philadelphia in his newspaper days. So two of the three best games he's seen live - and the two best involving Princeton - were in 1999.

Has it been all downhill the last 16 years? Nah. There have been some great ones since.

Of course, historical context changes everything. It vaults Princeton 43, UCLA 41 at or near the top, along with Princeton 10, Syracuse 9 in overtime on Memorial Day 2001.

For just that one game on that one day, it's hard to beat the Princeton-Penn game at the Palestra 16 years ago this coming Monday.

If you don't remember or never knew, Princeton scored the first points of the game on a three-pointer by Brian Earl and then saw Penn go on a 29-0 run. It was 33-9 at the half and then got worse, going to 40-13 with 15 minutes left.

And then? Princeton came all the way back, finally taking the lead on a basket by Chris Young with two minutes to. Penn had the last chance to win it, but couldn't, and Earl ended up clutching the ball as time expired.

Princeton 50, Penn 49.

The Palestra was vicious in that first half. It was Princeton's worst nightmare, until the game completely turned on a dime. Princeton couldn't miss. Penn panicked. Its fans were silenced.

TigerBlog reminded Thompson that five players played the entire second half for Princeton, including one who had not played a minute in the first half. The five were Earl, Gabe Lewullis, Chris Young, Mason Rocca and the one who didn't play at all in the first half, Ahmed El-Nokali.

The historical context isn't as kind.

Princeton and Penn were both 6-0 heading into that game. There was a long stretch of years where Princeton and Penn would meet in the seventh and 14th games of the Ivy schedule, and so they were both unbeaten heading into that one.

Princeton had won three straight Ivy titles and was coming off its 27-2 1997-98 year. The 1999 race figured to be a toss up.

Unfortunately for the Tigers, there would be overtime losses at Harvard and Yale and then a blowout loss to Penn at Jadwin in the season finale that clinched the league for the Quakers. The Tigers had a pretty nice consolation prize that year, winning two games in the NIT, against Georgetown and North Carolina State, before losing to Xavier.

After a few texts back and forth about that game, TigerBlog finally asked Thompson what made him think of that. He said that someone had talked to Chris Young, and TB followed up with his two big questions: 1) what kind of NBA career would Young have had and 2) how good would Princeton have been in basketball if Young had played his junior and seniors years.

Oh well.

With that Thompson was off to practice.

TigerBlog can now fast-forward to the present and the current men's basketball race.

Georgetown is now 15-7 overall and 7-4 in the Big East. Thompson is very likely headed back to the NCAA tournament. His team has a big one tomorrow at No. 7 Villanova, whom Georgetown crushed at home a few weeks ago. 

Princeton has played eight fewer league games than Georgetown. The Tigers are 2-1 in the Ivy League and heading Columbia tonight (7) and Cornell tomorrow night (6).

Both of Princeton's weekend opponents are 2-2 in the league. Yale is 4-0, and Harvard is 3-1. The Bulldogs host the Crimson tomorrow.

Obviously that game in New Haven is huge. Harvard does not want to fall two games back of Yale.

If you're Princeton, what's your rooting interest in that game?

If Yale sweeps this weekend at home, the Bulldogs would still be unbeaten and would be two games up on Harvard - and everyone else, except possibly Princeton, if the Tigers also swept. This would put a lot of pressure on the Tigers on Valentines' night, when Yale is at Jadwin.

On the other hand, if you view Harvard as the team to beat still even with its loss to Dartmouth, then you're rooting for Yale.

Either way, Princeton can't get too caught up in anything other than the task at hand. Sweeping this trip won't be easy. The Tigers are playing two teams who must sweep themselves this weekend if they want to be any factor in the league race.

And the travel between Columbia and Cornell is arduous. TigerBlog has been at games at Columbia on a Friday night and rolled into Ithaca after 3 a.m. due to bad weather conditions on the way. On the best of nights it's still a four-hour bus ride from Columbia to Cornell.

Anyway, each weekend in the Ivy League is its own entity. You head into Friday's games with so many distinct possibilities of seasonal outcomes, and you look up Sunday and the possible outcomes have been narrowed as the bigger picture little by little comes into clearer focus.

That'll be the case again this weekend. When it's over, Princeton can be in first place - or three games back of an undefeated Yale team. Or something in between.

However you look at it, this is a big weekend for the Tigers.

When Thompson was the Princeton coach, he always talked about worrying about one possession at a time. The bigger picture will then take care of itself.

Approaching Friday's tip-off, it still seems like pretty good advice.

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Princeton Can Use A Man Like Joel

TigerBlog hasn't quite given up on "Two And A Half Men" and "Modern Family."

Each week he says "enough, they're not remotely funny anymore," and each week he watches again, hoping that they can recapture their former glory.

In the case of "Two And A Half Men," it's almost painful to watch what's become of Alan's character. On the other hand, there are only two episodes left, and TB actually chuckled once or twice the last two weeks.

As for "Modern Family," it just hit a wall. The five members of the Dunphy family aren't anything close to funny anymore. The only possible laughs come from Cam or the dynamic between Jay and Manny, like last night, when Manny said he napped because he was "tired from the marathon" and Jay said "it was a Downton Abbey marathon."

Also on last night's episode, the middle Dunphy child, Alex, had her college interview with, of all places, Princeton. As she was getting ready, her older sister Haley was making fun of her, and Alex responded that she was getting ready for her Princeton interview and that you have to be "an exceptional thinker to go to Princeton."

Or, presumably, to work there.

When she actually gets to the interview, the interviewer is on her phone complaining that all of the candidates are the same, with their perfect grades and spots on the debate team and in the band. Alex overhears this and then, to be different, morphs into Haley. It wasn't very funny.

Oh, and the interviewer? Whoever wrote the script is obviously not a Princetonian. No self-respecting Princetonian would every introduce herself to a potential candidate and NOT mention her class year in the first sentence.

As fictional Princeton interviews go, there's the one from "Fresh Prince of Bel Air," which TigerBlog never saw, so he can't comment on. There's Alex P. Keaton's from "Family Ties," when he agonizingly has to leave the interview abruptly because of something that happened to his sister Mallory, who was crying, and while excusing himself says "go Tigers. Beat Yale. I mean that."

The all-time, undisputed fictional Princeton interview was Joel's in "Risky Business." You remember that one right? Joel, played by a young Tom Cruise, has turned his house into a brothel when his interviewer shows up. When it's pointed out to him that his record is "not quite Ivy League," Joel gives his new philosophy on life - including an f bomb and everything - and it is implied that he invites the interviewer to enjoy himself, leading to an assessment that says "Princeton can use a man like Joel."

Among those who are real people and actually were admitted to Princeton, it's a fairly busy athletic weekend. If TigerBlog is counting correctly, then 15 teams are competing this weekend - and that doesn't include men's and women's lacrosse, who scrimmage.

TigerBlog doesn't want to get too bogged down on lacrosse or anything, but he would say that if you have any chance to get to Sherrerd Fild at noon Saturday, do so. Princeton will be hosting Albany in a scrimmage, and even though it doesn't count, it is a chance to see the incomparable Lyle Thompson play live.

Thompson, for those who don't know, is to lacrosse what a combination of LeBron James and Meadowlark Lemon would be to basketball. There is no other show in lacrosse like Thompson.

Princeton plays Penn at 1:45 or so and then Albany and Penn play after that. Free. Open to the public. 40 degrees. Lyle Thompson. Be there.

If you're more interested in things that count, well, you have a lot going on here this weekend.

A lot, as in: women's tennis, women's water polo, men's tennis, wrestling, women's hockey and of course women's basketball. The 18th-ranked Tigers host Columbia tomorrow at 7 and Cornell Saturday at 6.

If you want to drive a little, you can see the Ivy League fencing championships at Columbia Sunday and Monday. It's not quite a championship meet, per se, but a round robin of all the teams, and the Ivy champion will be crowned with the final standings.

Princeton has won the last five Ivy League women's fencing championships. The Tigers are currently ranked third nationally in women's fencing - one spot behind the host school for the Ivy event. In other words, a sixth straight Ivy title wouldn't be shocking, but it's not etched in stone either.

Speaking of Ivy titles, the women's hockey team is playing to put itself in position to win one with its game Saturday at Baker Rink against Cornell. Face-off is at 4. The Tigers are also playing for a shot at hosting an ECAC quarterfinal series.

The men's basketball team is on the road, with games at Cornell and Columbia. The Tigers return home next Friday in a game that has been moved from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.

It's a late change in the start time, and TigerBlog imagines that not everyone will get the word. On the other hand, it's better to be an hour early to a game than an hour late.

Anyway, if you know someone who is going to men's hoops next weekend, make sure you tell them about the time change.

And make sure you come this weekend. Everything is free here other than women's basketball.

And women's basketball is only $5 for adults and $3 for children.

TigerBlog can't imagine a better value anywhere.