Home Court

TigerBlog figured he'd do what he used to do in college while writing a paper. 

That's when he would do just enough of the reading to bluff his way through however many pages were required. Hey, he graduated. He has his diploma and everything.

In the case of yesterday's sort of assignment, or self-imposed assignment, he figured he'd watch just enough of the Ashley Chea documentary to be able to get 700 or so words for today's entry. There was only one problem.

It was way too riveting not to watch the entire show. And so TB did, all 1:24 of it. 

You can do so by clicking on this LINK.

Chea, of course, was a unanimous first-team All-Ivy League basketball player this past season, which was her sophomore year at Princeton. If you are a Princeton fan, you really should do what TigerBlog did, which was to watch the entire show.

The documentary on PBS is entitled "Home Court," and it follows Chea through her final three years at Flintridge Prep in California. It shows her knee injury, her recovery, her return to her high school team and club team and ultimately how her high school career ended. 

It also shows what her life was like as a first-generation American from a Cambodian family and the cultural differences between her upbringing here and her mother's upbringing in the old country. Chea's relationship with her high school coaches is one of the focal points of the production. 

Oh, and there is also the recruiting process. You'll see some very familiar faces in the show if you watch it, including none other than Shelley Szwast, the athletic department photographer. And, of course, Carla Berube, the Princeton women's head coach.

There are two kinds of really good documentaries. The first is when the subject is something that you're mildly familiar with from a few decades back that is now brought into clearer focus, like the one on Netflix about singer George Michael. Once you see it, you have a whole new appreciation for a subject you hadn't considered in a long time.

The other is when the subject is of interest to you but you don't necessarily know a lot about it. That's the case here. 

TigerBlog has watched Chea play for two seasons at Princeton. She plays with supreme confidence and energy, and her love of the game comes shining through every time she's on the court. 

She's also obviously a big-time player. She more than doubled her points per game from her freshman year (6.0) to this past season (12.6), as well as her rebounds (1.4 to 3.2) and assists (1.2 to 3.6), as she helped Princeton to a sixth-straight NCAA appearance.

Her documentary goes back way before she ever stepped foot on the Princeton campus. In fact, the Chea family is from Los Angeles, where her parents ran a donut shop. 

The show starts with video of Chea as she does ballhandling drills, with these words on her voiceover:

"When I play basketball, I feel like there's nothing around me that can stop me," Chea says in a voiceover. "Like if a meteor came and flew into the gym, that won't stop me from playing basketball. It's like my safe space."

There are so many highlights throughout the 84 minutes, including: 

* video of a very young Chea as she dribbled and shot during timeouts during her father's rec league games and of when her father put her through drills, including in their garage when it would rain
* the story of Asian basketball in Southern California through the years — with a special mention of basketball in Japanese internment camps in World War II
* her recruiting trips to UC-Santa Clara, Cal and then ultimately Princeton

There is great video of her as a high school and club player (there's also a high school teammate of hers who seemed to have shot 100 percent from three-point range for her career, all from the corner). 

And there are two other parts that deserve special notice.

First, there is a viral clip of Chea from a high school state playoff game where she puts up a three and then turns 180 degrees away to face the student section before it splashes in. The clip went viral on social media, with more than 10 million views.

The other is the story about her grandmother, who barely escaped the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia by bravely riding her bike away from sleeping soldiers who had detained her. 

It is not a fluff piece; it delves into some pretty deep issues that Chea confronts, as all teenagers do, only in a very public way. 

The project originally was going to be a documentary on Asian basketball players. Then there was a thought of featuring another Flintridge alum — Kaitlyn Chen, the three-time Most Outstanding Player at the Ivy tournament during her Princeton career who is now playing in the Sweet 16 with UConn as a grad student. Chen appears a few times in the movie.

In the end, the decision was made to feature Chea, who spent three years being filmed almost constantly. It was cut down to that 1:24 time frame. 

It's 1:24 that you owe it to yourself to watch. 

Staying Updated

Well, that was a pretty dull first two rounds of the NCAA men's basketball tournament. 

The field is down to the Sweet 16, and there is no team still standing that isn't from the SEC, the ACC, the Big Ten or the Big 12. There weren't too many riveting games, and one of the ones that was — Colorado State vs. Maryland — ended with a "did he walk or didn't he" controversy and the losing coach who bolted for the Big Ten (Minnesota) within hours.

Oh, and there was Maryland's Derik Queen, the one who either did or didn't walk, in the postgame interview, when he was asked what he likes most about his coach Kevin Willard. His response? 

"He did pay us the money."

Oh well. 

It reminded TigerBlog of when he was first in the newspaper business, way, way, way back when. A pitcher at a private school came in with the bases loaded in a one-run game in the last inning and got three strikeouts to end it. His quote? "That's what they pay me for." 

TB is pretty sure he was speaking metaphorically. It was the early 1980s after all. 

In the meantime, here are a few updates from the weekend:

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Princeton women's swimming and diving produced two All-Americans at the NCAA championships this past weekend at Washington State University. Those two would be sophomores Eleanor Sun and Dakota Tucker, and both did so in the 400 individual medley, where they finished 12th and 16th.

This was the first time since 2010 that the program produced multiple All-Americans in one season. It was a pretty good year for the Tigers, with a third-straight Ivy League championship with a team that is still pretty young, with a very strong sophomore class.

The men will will have their turn at the national championships in the same pool. Mitchell Schott, who has had a monster year, will compete as an individual in three events: 200 butterfly, 200 IM and 400 IM, as well as in two relays: 400 free (Schott, Patrick Dinu, Noah Sech and Brett Feyerick) and 800 free (Schott, Dinu, Sech and Arthur Balva). 

Schott, by the way, scored a perfect 96 points at the Ivy League meet last month.  

Divers Aidan Wang and George Callanan will also compete. 

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TigerBlog wrote about the softball team yesterday and its perfect weekend at its new facility. Karis Ford, who hit .750 for the weekend, was named the Ivy League's Player of the Week. Ford also had the first hit at the new Paul Field, with a home run in the first inning of Game 1 of the three-game sweep of Harvard.

The baseball team also began its Ivy season with a three-game sweep, in this case against Dartmouth. It was a long weekend, with 32 innings, including a Game 2 that saw the first 12 innings played Saturday and the final two Sunday before Jake Koonin won it on a two-run single in the bottom of the 14th, after Dartmouth had taken the lead with a home run in the top of the inning. 

Princeton won the first game 8-5 Saturday, and Game 2 was tied 5-5 after seven innings. And eight. And nine. And 10, 11, 12 and 13. Koonin, in fact, had left the bases loaded in the 12th —but he wouldn't let the second chance get away.

Princeton won the third game 8-1, behind seven shutout innings from Liam Kinneen.

The Tigers are at Rutgers tomorrow before hosting Columbia for three more this weekend. 

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The men's volleyball team had itself a league Player of the Week this weekend as well. In fact, it was Nyherowo Omene, who earned the EIVA Offensive Player of the Week for the third time this season.  

The 6-7 Omene is a senior who was a first-team all-league selection a year ago. This season, the South Holland, Ill., native is in the top 10 in the EIVA in five stat categories, including kills per set (first, 4.22), aces (second, 0.42), hitting percentage (third, .356), blocks (10th, 0.75/s) and points (also first, 5.08 per set).  

This weekend, Princeton will be at Sacred Heart for matches Friday night (7) and Saturday (4). Princeton is currently tied for first in the EIVA with George Mason.

A Perfect Debut

There was a time a few decades ago where you could walk from Gulick Field to Lourie-Love Field to Class of 1895 Field, which were the homes of Princeton field hockey, men's and women's soccer and softball. 

If you did so, you wouldn't see any of the following:

* a team room
* indoor plumbing
* a non-wooden seat
* a concession stand
* a concourse, for that matter
* a press box

For those who were never there, a large parking lot used to be where there is now a smaller lot and the neuroscience building, opposite Class of 1952 Stadium — which was back then a place to park tractors and trucks and such. It was a short walk from that large parking lot over to Gulick (the field hockey field) and Lourie-Love (soccer). Then, beyond Lourie-Love sat Class of 1895. 

All three had old, rickety wooden bleachers, no bathrooms and not a single amenity. If you were here when those were the long-time homes of Princeton's teams, you probably feel the same way as TigerBlog. 

They were certainly charming facilities. Princeton certainly did have big moments at all of those fields. They just went the way of a lot of old stadiums in all sports. And now they all have way more modern replacements.

TigerBlog couldn't help but think about the old days as the Princeton softball team opened a new facility, the Cynthia Lynn Paul ’94 Field, which made its debut this weekend as the home of Princeton Softball on the Meadows Campus. It opened in style, with a three-game sweep of Harvard. 

The new field is the first venue for Princeton Athletics named for a female alum. After graduating from Princeton in 1994, Paul would found Lynrock Lake LP, an investment management firm based in Rye Brook, N.Y.

She was also a Princeton softball player during the Class of 1895 Field era, which lasted from the 1980s until 2019. She won an Ivy League championship in 1991. 

She was all smiles when she posed for pictures on her field, and why wouldn't she be? The new facility is amazing, with its glistening turf field, batting cages, restrooms, seating for 300 and press box. 

Unlike 1895 Field and the temporary field at Strubing Field, it was also built with ESPN+ in mind, which means that the broadcasts are also pristine. 

TigerBlog watched the broadcast Sunday. He ha not been to the field yet, so he asked his friend Pattie Friend, whose husband Lloyd was in the Class of 1965 and who is as big a Princeton sports fan as you'll find. She was at the game yesterday, and here is how she described it:

"It's fabulous. It's so comfortable. It's engaging. It just feels right. The seats are great. The views are great. And you're so close to the field. The players know you're there. I didn't find one thing where I said 'oh, I don't like this.' It was like being at Yankee Stadium for free. It was wonderful to be there. I liked the old one, but this is so much better. I can't wait to go back."

Thanks Pattie. That sounds like a good endorsement.

As for the on-field event, it couldn't have gone any better for the Tigers. 

Princeton and Harvard have been the standard for Ivy League softball in recent years and, between the old playoff and the new tournament have been the last two league teams standing the last three years. 

The first regular season games played at the new field were Saturday, when Princeton won 8-0 and 6-0. The first hit was actually a home run, off the bat of the third Tiger to come to the plate, Karis Ford. 

The first winning pitcher was Brielle Wright, who threw a complete game. Cassidy Shaw was the second, also with a complete game shutout. 

Princeton completed the sweep with a third winning pitcher, this time Keala Hollenkamp, who pitched 2.1 innings of one-hit relief as Princeton came from 5-3 down with a four-run fifth and then, after Harvard tied it, with a sacrifice fly from Ford in the bottom of the fifth to make it 9-8. Hollenkamp made it stand up after allowing a two-out double in the seventh before getting a fly ball to end it.

And that was the end of the weekend for Princeton, and the debut of Cynthia Lynn Paul Field. 

It couldn't have been more perfect.

Spring Is Here

Spring is here!!!!

Hey, what's a few exclamation points between friends? If there is a day that deserves them, it's when spring arrives. 

Already the days are getting longer. The temperatures are rising. TigerBlog spoke to someone yesterday who said that he wasn't quite ready to put his snowblower away, but TB assured him he could. 

Probably.

You can tell it must be spring, since the schedule for the weekend includes the Ivy League openers for baseball and softball. TB will get back to that in a few moments. 

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First, there is still a little bit of winter to go. And there was still one very special moment for a Princeton wrestler — in the City of Brotherly Love, no less.

The NCAA wrestling championships are being held at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. Princeton's Luke Stout, the No. 11 seed at 197, won his first match yesterday, defeating Mickey O'Malley of Drexel 4-3. That win vaulted him into the second round last night, where his opponent was the sixth seed, Mac Something of Pitt.

Mac what? Mac Stout. There they were, brother against brother, in Round 2 of the NCAA championships. 

It was 10:17 last night when they took to Mat No. 6. There was no announcer on the ESPN+ broadcast, but you could hear the arena public address in the background. He said, TB is pretty sure, that this was the first brother vs. brother match in the NCAA championship history. He definitely said "this is really happening" when the match began and he introduced the two brothers.

It looked like any other match, once the reality of the fact that it was two brothers went away. In the end, it was Mac who won, 4-2. 

Oh, and instead of the cursory post-match handshake, there was a hug between the two.

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This weekend will, as TB said, see the opening games in Ivy baseball and softball. For Princeton softball, that means three games against Harvard, the last two teams standing in Ivy softball each of the least three years. 

More than that, it's the debut of Cynthia Lynn Paul '94 Field, located on the Meadows Campus. It is the first Princeton athletic venue named for a female alum. Paul was a member of Princeton's Ivy League title-winning team in 1991 after growing up in Cherry Hill, N.J., and went on to found Lynrock Lake LP, an investment management firm based in Rye Brook, N.Y. 

There are two games tomorrow, beginning at 12:30, and then one more Sunday, also at 12:30. 

The baseball team is also at home, against Dartmouth for three, with a doubleheader tomorrow starting at 11:30 and then a single game Sunday at noon. 

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The men's lacrosse team hosts Harvard tomorrow at noon. Princeton is 4-2, but it was the No. 1 team in the NCAA's first RPI release. 

How tough has Princeton's schedule been so far? Going by the RPI, Princeton has wins over No. 3 North Carolina, No. 4 Duke, No. 6 Penn State and No. 25 Rutgers, with losses to No. 2 Maryland and No. 5 Cornell (last week in Ithaca).

Where is Harvard in this? That would be 8th. And Princeton's next opponent, Dartmouth? That would be 17th. 

Harvard opened its Ivy season last week with a home win against Yale. 

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McKenzie Blake and Coulter Mackesy continue to chase the career records for goals with Princeton lacrosse, which currently stand at 209 (Kyla Sears for the women) and 163 (Jesse Hubbard for the men). 

Blake and her teammates will be in Baltimore tonight to take on Towson. The Tigers, by the way, are the No. 6 team in the women's RPI, the highest rating of any Ivy team.

Blake currently has 175 career goals, leaving her 34 away from Sears. At her current pace of 4.71 goals per game (third-best in Division I), she'd finish the regular season with 212. 

As for Mackesy, he has 143 goals in his career. With three more he would tie Chris Massey for second place at 146, and he's obviously 20 behind Hubbard's 163. If he continues at his current pace of 3.33 per game, he'd finish the regular season with 166.

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The complete weekend schedule can be found HERE.

A Night Of Effort And Frustration

Welcome to what many consider to be the start of the best weekend in sports. 

It's time for the NCAA basketball tournaments, with their wall-to-wall games starting today and running all weekend and into next week. By the time this bonanza ends, there will be 16 women''s teams and 16 men's teams left

As you get set for your endless TV watching, keep in mind what TigerBlog says every year about the NCAA men's tournament: It's the only major sporting event that gets less exciting with each successive round. 

You remember St. Peter's and FDU and, of course, Princeton for its run to the Sweet 16 two years ago. You remember Gabe Lewullis' layup that knocked out UCLA in 1996. You remember the great upsets from the first round, with famous shot after famous shot. 

You don't remember who reached the Final Four those years. For TigerBlog, that makes this tournament more special, not less special. 

TigerBlog has been to a lot of these NCAA first rounds, and they are even better in person than they are on TV. There is an electricity in the building that is unrivaled, with the idea that something magical could happen at any time.

TB has also been in the postgame locker room after those magical moments — and after the ones where the magic wasn't there that night. It's an undeniably crushing place to be when it doesn't go your way. 

As much as winning in the tournament is incredible, there is also the harshness of losing. It's one and done, survive and advance — and if you don't, you go home. 

The Princeton women's basketball team experienced the latter last night in the First Four game against Iowa State. It was a game that could have gone either way, and ultimately it went the way of the Cyclones. 

Final score: Iowa State 68, Princeton 63. 

And just like that, it's over. 

Princeton did, as Pete Carril would have said, gave a good account of itself. Even after falling behind by nine in the first quarter, Princeton turned things around, going up 38-23 at the half after an amazing second quarter that ended with a 14-0 Tiger run. 

Iowa State turned it up in the second half, led by the unstoppable inside force of Audi Crooks, who went for 27 points on 12 of 21 shooting. Crooks was as advertised, which is to say one of the best scorers in women's basketball and one of its most efficient. When she caught the ball anywhere near the basket, it was, as one of the announcers said on TV at one point, "over." 

It's not that Princeton didn't battle, especially Parker Hill, who spent most of her night matched with Crooks. That was not an easy assignment, not at all. Hill finished her night with 10 points and 12 rebounds, as well as three of the Tigers' nine blocked shots (Olivia Hutcherson also had three). She gets a solid "A" for rising to the challenge. 

Princeton also got 19 points, seven rebounds and a team-best Fadima Tall, as well as 15 points from Ashley Chea and Skye Belker.

Still, if any one moment summed up the night for Princeton, it was the Belker three attempt from the corner with nine seconds to go. It looked all the world like it was in, took two laps around the rim and then floated away. All Tiger head coach Carla Berube could do was throw her hands skyward. 

Yes, it was a night of frustration. But it was also a night of effort. Princeton certainly played hard. So did Iowa State. 

The trip to the NCAA tournament for Princeton was its sixth straight. The Tigers were also part of the historic achievement of having three Ivy teams in the tournament, a first. 

Princeton started four sophomores last night against Iowa State. It also played almost the entire season without Madison St. Rose, who injured her knee in November and missed the rest of the season. 

Given how much Princeton lost to graduation and the loss of St. Rose so early, this was another exceptional season for the program.  

You want to keep playing for as long as you can. You want to keep it going. You want to make history. 

Some years, you do all three of those things by playing this week. That's certainly the case of the 2024-25 Princeton women's basketball team. 

Well done, Tigers.

NCAA Game Day

It's NCAA tournament Game Day for the Princeton women's basketball team. 

The Tigers are doing something that they've never done before: play in a First Four game. It'll be a matchup of 11 seeds, as Princeton takes on Iowa State at Notre Dame this evening at 7. You can see the game on ESPNU.

The winner gets sixth-seeded Michigan Friday. 

Before you think about the Princeton-Iowa State game, consider the extraordinary moment in Ivy League sports history, as there are three women's basketball teams who have reached the NCAA tournament. 

The first time an Ivy League team played in the NCAA tournament was in 1983, which was the second NCAA event for the women. That year Dartmouth was selected into the 36-team field and lost in the play-in round 77-58 to Monmouth. 

Extra credit if you can name the conference Monmouth was in back then. Trust TigerBlog. You can't. It was the Cosmopolitan Conference (along with Marist, Wagner, Queens, LIU, Montclair State, FDU and Siena).

It wouldn't be until 1994 that the league would appear again, this time via the automatic bid. The first one went to Brown. It was in 1998 that 16th seeded Harvard took down a top-seeded Stanford team that was minus three starters to injury, and from then until Princeton's win over Wisconsin-Green Bay in 2015 the league was one-and-done.

There were some close losses in that stretch, though the record is dotted with massive blowouts. The average loss by the Ivy champ in those 16 years was just short of 23 points. 

And now? You have three teams in the tournament. You have large crowds at Ivy games. The players are more athletic, better shooters, skilled ball-handlers, stronger defenders — and they play a way more intense version than the league did 25 years ago. Princeton alone has won three NCAA games, including back-to-back in 2022 and 2023.

Maybe the most shocking thing about the three teams is that it wasn't so shocking after all?

With that as background, there's the matter of the games themselves in this tournament. Harvard will take on Michigan State Saturday at 4:30. Columbia is also playing in a First Four game, tomorrow at 7. 

Princeton's challenge is a big one, a 6-foot-3 one, to be exact. That would be Iowa State's Audi Crooks, the 6-3 force who led the Big 12 and is eighth in Division I in scoring (23.2 points per game). She made more than 60 percent of her shots and ranked third in Division I in field goal percentage. 

No player in Division I women's basketball made more baskets this season than the 304 that Crooks did. Oh, and she also had six games with at least 30 points. 

Here's an interesting note for you: Princeton averages 66.8 points per game. Iowa State allows 66.9 points per game. 

Also, Iowa State ranks 45th in Division I in rebounding margin. Princeton ranks 46th.

Iowa State, not surprisingly, scores nearly 80 points per game. Princeton allows fewer than 60. 

The Tigers have gone through an emotional roller-coaster in the last few days. There was the loss to Harvard in the Ivy tournament semifinals, followed by the uncertainty of if there would be an NCAA bid, followed by the joy that bid brought. 

As with any NCAA appearance, the days leading up to the first game are otherworldly. There's the travel. There's the venue. There's the preparation. There's the understanding that this is an opportunity to do something historic. 

Princeton has gotten to experience that all week. If you've been following the team's social media, you've seen nothing but smiles. 

Now it's time to shift emotions and get to the point of the trip  — the part where the ball goes up and the game is on. It takes a few minutes to settle the nerves, and then it becomes another game. 

Well, not another game. But you get the point. It becomes about doing the things you do well, adjusting to an unknown opponent, following the scouting report that has been put together and then playing hard and executing. 

The Ivy League has done something incredible for this NCAA women's tournament. This will always be remembered as the year that three teams reached the tournament, something nobody would have ever foreseen not that long ago. 

Now it's time to play. The three teams have earned this chance.

NCAA Championships

The Princeton women's basketball team went wheels up to Indiana at 10:15 yesterday morning.

When you find yourself in the First Four of the NCAA tournament, you have almost no time to get ready. Draw to tipoff is three days. Throw in the travel, and it's not quite like having a full week to watch film and have a complete scouting report in place. 

For Princeton, tomorrow is Game Day against Iowa State at Notre Dame, with a 7 pm start time. The winner of the game between the two 11 seeds comes back to face Michigan Friday at 11:30 (the one in the morning).

Yes, this will be a grind for whichever team wins tomorrow. 

The basketball tournaments, as exciting as they figure to be, are not the only NCAA championship events this month. For instance, the NCAA track and  field championships were held this past weekend in Virginia. 

The magic number for the Princeton men was 10, as in three tenth place finishes. 

The distance medley relay team of Collin Boler, Xavier Donaldson, Sam Rodma and Connor McCormick were 10th in a time of 9:27.25, finishing directly behind Wake Forest and Wisconsin and ahead of Washington and Georgetown. Virginia won the event in 9:15.12, a meet record.

Princeton also had two individual 10th place finishes, with Greg Foster in the long jump and Harrison Witt in the mile. Foster is now a two-time indoor All-American, as is Witt, who also earned the honor with the 2022 DMR. 

There was a familiar name on the men's side who won an NCAA title. That would be Princeton alum Simen Guttormsen, who won the pole vault competing for Duke. As you know, his brother Sondre won two indoor and one outdoor NCAA titles in the same event, and both of then competed in the Olympic Games last summer for Norway. 

As for the women, Princeton's Mena Scatchard had herself quite a run in the mile. 

Scatchard, who set the Ivy League record in the event earlier this season and was a double winner at Indoor Heps in the mile and 3,000 meters, found herself in 10th place at the NCAA meet entering the final lap. There were, by the way, 10 runners in the event.

And yet, 200 meters later, there she was, nipping Northern Arizona's Congdon for second by one-hundredth of a second, 4:32.87 to 4:32.88. The winner was Oregon's Wilma Nielsen, who won by a half-second. As she approached the line, Nielsen looked over her shoulder briefly and either 1) realized that she had it won or 2) was running out of gas. 

Were in the latter, Scatchard would have caught her in another few steps. 

Scatchard became Princeton's highest finisher ever at the NCAA indoor championships, bettering the third place finish of Cack Ferrell in the 3,000 in 2005. 

In addition to basketball, the NCAA women's swimming and diving championships begin tomorrow at Washington State in Spokane. 

The Princeton women had three swimmers who qualified in individual events, all of whom are sophomores: Eleanor Sun in the 400 IM, 200 IM and 200 butterfly; Heidi Smithwick will be in the 200 fly as well, while Dakota Tucker will swim in the 400 IM alongside Sun.

Diver Charlotte Martinkus qualified in the three-meter event. 

The men will be in the same pool only one week later. Princeton will be well-represented there as well. 

There will also be championships on the line at the NCAA wrestling event, which comes to the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia Thursday through Saturday. Princeton is sending five wrestlers:

Ivy champs Marc-Anthony McGowan (125/13 seed) and Luke Stout(197/11), as well as Eligh Rivera (141/26), Ty Whalen (149/15) and Kole Mulhauser (184/29). The weight-by-weight brackets are HERE.

The NCAA fencing championships, which is a co-ed event, is also on the schedule for this weekend, at Penn State. Here is how it works: 

The event will be held March 20-23 at Penn State. The men will compete on the first two days with the women competing the second two days. Each weapon will have 24 fencers with each fencer competing in a five-touch bout with each of the other fencers in that weapon, and each victory counting as one point toward the team total. The top four fencers in each weapon will advance on the second day of their competition to the individual championships, in which a 15-touch semifinal and a 15-touch final will determine the NCAA individual champion. The team title, which is combined between men and women, will be determined through the accumulation of wins during pool bouts. 

Princeton has qualified 10 fencers: 

Ronald Anglade, Sr., men's saber, third NCAA championships, placed 17th in 2022 and fifth in 2023
Alec Brooke, So., men's épée, second NCAA championships, placed 14th in 2024
Allen Chen, Fr., men's foil, first NCAA championships
Emese Domonkos, Fr., women's saber, first NCAA championships
Hadley Husisian, So., women's épée, second NCAA championships, placed third in 2023
Chin-Yi Kong, Fr., women's foil, first NCAA championships
Nicholas Lawson, Sr., second NCAA championships, placed second in 2022
Alexandra Lee, So., women's saber, second NCAA championships, placed seventh in 2024
Brandon Lee, Jr., men's foil, second NCAA championships, placed seventh in 2023
Leehi Machulsky, Fr., women's épée, first NCAA championships

History? Or Heartbreak?

TigerBlog was talking to Kit Mueller after Princeton's men's lacrosse game at Cornell Saturday afternoon.

Mueller's son, Cooper, is a sophomore on the team. 

After that conversation, TB got onto the bus for the ride back to Princeton. Along the way, he watched the Ivy League women's basketball tournament final between Harvard and Columbia. 

During the game, the idea of a three-bid Ivy came up frequently. Would the league really get three teams in the NCAA tournament? 

That wouldn't be decided until the Selection Show, which was still 24 hours away. And that took TB back to Kit Mueller — and back 34 years. 

Mueller's senior year at Princeton was 1990-91, when he won his second-straight Ivy League Player of the Year award. Princeton went 14-0 in the league that year and made it into the national top 20. 

When it came time for the Selection Show, Mueller invited TB to watch the NCAA draw with him and his teammates. Even now, all this time later, it remains one of the more vivid memories TB has related to Princeton Athletics. 

And that's why he smiled a bit as he rode along on the bus from Ithaca. 

There is really nothing like a Selection Show for an NCAA tournament. In most of the rest of the world of sports, you realize the moment you reach the playoffs. You also probably have a good sense of whom you will play and where. 

Not in the NCAA. 

Nope. Some teams get automatic bids. Others sweat out at-large bids. None of them know their seed, opponent or location.

You find out when everyone else does. For all of the time and energy put into "bracketology," none of that matters until the show.

There's a committee that chooses the field, and then it gets revealed to the world at a certain time on a certain platform, depending on the sport. 

That's why you see teams react with such joy when their name comes up. They can't help it.  

It also doesn't end happily for everyone. Someone has to the last team or teams left out by the committee. It's a helpless feeling.

Since that night back in 1991, TB has watched more of these shows than he can remember. He's seen them with teams that had automatic bids, teams that were pretty sure they were getting an at-large bid and teams that were hoping they would. It's not a happy place to be when it doesn't fall your way. 

All of this takes TB to last night's women's Selection Show. Would Princeton be in? 

Depending on which pre-tournament preview you liked, Princeton would either be the last team in or the first team out. 

So what happened? 

First of all, nobody wants to hear the commentators talk about anything at all. Just announce the brackets. 

For Princeton to get in, Colorado and Virginia Tech had to not be called. And each time a bracket was revealed, especially in the area of where the last time would be seeded, the tension would build. TB thought the games in College Park would be a good landing spot, but the 12 and 13 seeds went elsewhere. 

Still no Princeton. Still no Colorado. Still no Virginia Tech. 

Harvard? The Crimson had the automatic bid and a 10 seed. Their opponent will be Michigan State. Columbia? The Lions will play Washington in an 11 vs. 11 First Four matchup. 

And now half the bracket was gone. But a 10 and an 11 for the Ivy League? That was a good sign. Harvarad as a 10? Princeton had two wins over the Crimson. 

Okay, now what? History? Or heartbreak? 

As the show went to commercial, it showed a group of teams who were having watch parties, waiting to hear their names. Was it a sign that Princeton was among them and the other two weren't? 

The next 13 seed was Montana State, at Ohio State. Would the 5-12 game be Princeton? Tennessee was the 5. And the 12 ... South Florida. 

More drama. More angst. More nerves. 

 Okay. Maybe the 6-11 game? Michigan, the No. 6. 

And then? 

There they were. The Princeton Tigers!!!! In an 11 vs. 11 game, against Iowa State.

Has TB ever used exclamation points before? They're certainly justified here. 

There are three Ivy League women's basketball teams in the NCAA tournament. It's a first, and it's historic. 

Princeton lost a tough one to Harvard in the Ivy semifinals 70-67 after an other-worldly night by Harmoni Turner, who went for 44 points. That had to be a long bus ride home for the team.

And yet, two days later, that anxiety and sadness turned to pure joy. 

Princeton is back in the NCAA tournament. Maybe the Tigers had to sweat this one out a bit more than some of the others, but hey — the outcome is what matters. 

Time for more Madness.

The Madness Tips

Ivy Basketball Tournament Schedule

Today
Women's semifinal 1 - No. 1 Columbia vs. No. 4 Penn 4:30 (ESPN+)
Women's semifinal 2 - No. 2 Princeton vs. No. 3 Harvard 7:30 (ESPN+)

Tomorrow
Men's semifinal 1 - No. 1 Yale vs. No. 4 Princeton 11:00 am (ESPNU)
Men's semifinal 2 - No. 2 Cornell vs. No. 3 Dartmouth 2 (ESPNEWS)
Women's final - 5:30 (ESPNU)

Sunday
Men's final - noon (ESPN2)

Let the Madness begin.

At least the Ivy variety.  

To be honest, to this point there has been very little that can be filed under "madness." For instance: 

* it was pretty clear early on that Columbia, Princeton and Harvard would be the top three seeds, in some order — and that's what happened

* it was pretty likely that those three teams would go unbeaten against the other five teams, and they did  — a combined 30-0

* it seemed like Yale was going to be the No. 1 seed on the men's side — and it is

*  Princeton and Cornell seemed like locks to be in the top four earlier in the season — and they're both in Providence

The biggest surprise is the presence of the Dartmouth men, who make their first appearance in an Ivy tournament. If you recall the preseason media poll, Dartmouth was picked to finish eighth. 

And so that leaves the Ivy basketball madness to be played out in the next 48+ hours. And there might very well be a lot of it.  

Princeton, by the way, is the only school represented in both fields. 

Will it take at least 90 points to win the Dartmouth-Cornell men's game? Will Princeton shoot tomorrow like it did against Penn in the regular-season finale (hint, if the Tigers do, they will almost surely be in Sunday's final; Princeton was 18 for 33 from three in that game)?

On the other hand, Princeton was 22 for 77 from deep in two games against the Bulldogs. Will that matter this time around?  

Can the Princeton women beat Harvard for a third time? If it comes to that, can Columbia's women beat Princeton for a third time? When the dust settles, will all three be in the NCAA field?

The Harvard women are the second-highest scoring team in the league, at just short of 70 points per game. In the two regular season games between Princeton and Harvard, the Crimson scored a total of 108 points (52-50 Princeton at Jadwin, 70-58 Princeton in Cambridge).  

Princeton also held Harmoni Turner, the Ivy Player of the Year, to 15 points in both games, with a combined 11 for 38 shooting, including 1 for 13 from three. Can the Tigers do that again? Will Turner go off for her 22 points per game average? 

Harvard (51.2) and Princeton (56.3) are 1-2 in the league in scoring defense. Will this game be a grind-it-out variety? Will the postseason bring out a more up-tempo 40 minutes? 

However it plays out, there will certainly be drama in Providence. And come Sunday, there will be two automatic bids having been awarded and some anxious viewing of the NCAA selections. 

Enjoy it. 

Lastly, TigerBlog wants to mention John Feinstein, the legendary sportswriter who passed away yesterday at the young age of 69. Feinstein was known best for his Washington Post columns and his many books, most famously "A Season On The Brink."

The book was about a season spent with the Indiana University men's basketball team when Bob Knight was the coach. It was the 1985-86 season, to be exact. If Knight thought he was getting a fluff book that kissed his rear end, he was sadly mistaken. 

After giving Feinstein unlimited access to the team for the whole season, Knight was surprised to see that the final product showed him for how he was, good and bad. Afterwards, Knight called Feinstein a "whore and a pimp," to which Feinstein famously replied: "I wish he'd make up his mind so I'd know how to dress."

Feinstein was a huge fan of Ivy League athletics. His last book was "The Ancient Eight," which was about a season of Ivy football. 

TigerBlog, like so many in his business, knew Feinstein was many years. He was a wonderful man, a person who exuded warmth. Every time TB saw him, no matter how much time had passed, the first thing he'd do is ask how TB's children were doing. He'd mention something TB had recently written. 

When TB heard the news yesterday, he was saddened, like so many others. 

As Ivy Madness begins, give a thought to his family and to John Feinstein. He would have loved to be courtside. 

Tiger Eyes

Most, but not all eyes of Princeton fans, will be on Providence this weekend.

And why not? Brown University is the host of this weekend's Ivy League basketball tournaments, with the women to start tomorrow and the the men Friday. 

The schedule is this:

Tomorrow
Women's semifinal 1 - No. 1 Columbia vs. No. 4 Penn 4:30 (ESPN+)
Women's semifinal 2 - No. 2 Princeton vs. No. 3 Harvard 7:30 (ESPN+)

Saturday
Men's semifinal 1 - No. 1 Yale vs. No. 4 Princeton 11:00 am (ESPNU)
Men's semifinal 2 - No. 2 Cornell vs. No. 3 Dartmouth 2 (ESPNEWS)
Women's final - 5:30 (ESPNU)

Saturday
Men's final - noon (ESPN2)

The winners this weekend get the automatic bids to the NCAA tournament. On the women's side, it's almost a lock that more than one — and possibly three — will be in the NCAA field. 

Football is the driver of all things realignment and money in college sports, and yet for the month of March it all becomes about basketball. This week has already had some great storylines, a few brutal losses, some unseen runs deep into conference tournaments and championship celebrations of pure joy. 

And this is just the warm up for the NCAA tournament. So yes, Ivy Madness is a huge event.

It's not the only thing to keep an eye on this weekend, though.

*

The men's lacrosse team will be at Cornell Saturday at noon in a huge Ivy League opener for both. 

Princeton is the No. 2 team ranked team in the country in all three major polls. Cornell is sixth after its first loss of the year, at home last week against Penn State. To give you an idea of how even Princeton and Cornell probably are, Princeton and Cornell both went to OT against Penn State, though the Tigers won their game. 

Princeton, in fact, has wins over No. 4 Penn State, No. 5 North Carolina and No. 8 Duke (as well as unranked Rutgers). The team's only loss is to No. 1 Maryland. 

What word best describes the recent history for Princeton against Cornell? Excruciating. 

Cornell defeated Princeton 15-14 a year ago on Sherrerd Field. Two years ago at Cornell? 14-13 Big Red in overtime. Three years ago? 18-15 Cornell. The year before that? 14-13 Cornell. 

Cornell's C.J. Kirst (188) and Princeton's Coulter Mackesy (141) rank 1-2 among active Division I players in goals scored. The most important player on the field could be Princeton defenseman Colin Mulshine, who has had as much success as anyone while guarding Kirst. 

*

The NCAA indoor track and field championships will be held in Virginia Beach tomorrow and Saturday. 

Princeton, the Ivy League champion for the women and the men, will be represented by three individuals and one relay.

For the women, Mena Scratchard will compete in the first track event of the championships when she runs in one of the mile semifinals at 3:30. 

For the men, Greg Foster will compete in the long jump finals tomorrow at 7. Foster's qualifying jump for this event is 7.83 meters, which ties Arkansas' Henry Kiner as the top marks heading into the NCAAs.

 Harrison Witt will run the mile as well, with the semifinals at 7 tomorrow. Think this race is wide open? There are 16 runners in the field, and their qualifying times from 1-16 are separated by four seconds. 

*

The women's water polo team is in California for spring break, with a busy last few days there planned. Princeton began its trip with a 9-8 win over No. 12 Loyola Marymount and played No. 23 Pomona-Pitzer last night. 

Up next is a game today (4 Eastern) against No. 4 UCLA. That one will be followed by four more games at the San Diego State Invite: vs. No. 2 USC and No. 20 San Diego State Friday and then Cal State-Northridge and No. 15 Indiana Saturday. 

*

The other teams on the road will all finish up their Spring Break schedules this weekend. For the softball team, that means four games at the University of Missouri, beginning today with games against South Dakota State and the host team. Tomorrow, Princeton will take on Quinnipiac and Michigan. 

The baseball team is still in Virginia, where today is an off day before four games in three days at Liberty. 

*

The complete schedule is HERE.