Tuesday, March 19, 2024

On To The NIT

It was the day before the opening round of the 1998 NCAA men's basketball tournament in Hartford.

TigerBlog went into the pre-tournament meeting, which included coaches, administrators, athletic communications reps and TV people. It was standard stuff, running through a pre-tournament checklist that is exciting the first time you experience it and then becomes like the safety instructions before a plane takes off if you're a frequent flier.

Back then, in Princeton's pre-Nike days, TigerBlog did have a closet filled with identifiable Princeton attire. For this meeting, he probably had no Tiger logo anywhere, and so when a stranger sat down next to him, he had no idea who TB was.

The stranger was UNLV head coach Bill Bayno, whose team, as it turned out, was 24 hours away from playing against Princeton. When Bayno introduced himself to TB and TB responded that he was Princeton's athletic communications contact, Bayno said this: "Nice to meet you. We have no chance of beating you."

He was right, of course. Princeton won that game 69-57. 

Anytime TB has seen UNLV since, he's thought of that exchange. He's also thought about how Pete Carril never called the school "UNLV" or "Nevada-Las Vegas" or even just "Vegas" but instead would refer to it as "Las Vegas, Nevada."

TB will remember both of those tomorrow night at 8, when Princeton and UNLV play at 8 at Jadwin Gym in the opening round of the NIT. The Tigers are one of four No. 2 seeds in this year's NIT, while UNLV is unseeded.

Princeton and UNLV have played four times in their history, and the Runnin' Rebels are 3-1, with the lone Tiger win in that 1998 NCAA game.The most recent game between the two was at a tournament in Charlotte in Dec. 1999, a game UNLV took 66-56.

As for the NIT itself, Princeton has had some great moments in the tournament. The best, of course, was in 1975, when the entire event was held in Madison Square Garden. Back then, Princeton knocked off, consecutively, Holy Cross, South Carolina, Oregon and Providence, all in one week.

The 1999 team also had a great run when it beat Georgetown at Jadwin and then won at North Carolina State before falling at Xavier in the quarterfinals. 

For Princeton, this isn't the tournament it was hoping to be in after last year's NCAA tournament Sweet 16 run and this year's Ivy League championship. Unfortunately for the Tigers, they came up a bit short against Brown in the Ivy League semifinals this past weekend, and then unfortunately for the Bears, they dropped a heartbreaker to Yale in the final after being ahead by six with 27 seconds to play. 

Still, it's always good to be playing this late in March, and the NIT can be a wonderful consolation prize. It's a chance to keep going together as a team, and it's a chance to start to look ahead to next season.

And that brings TigerBlog to Dalen Davis. 

A year ago, as a freshman, Xaivian Lee averaged 4.8 points per game. This year, he jumped to 17.3. 

This year, as a freshman, Davis has averaged 6.7 per game. Don't be shocked to see that number skyrocket next year as well.

Davis was extraordinary against Brown in the second half. With Lee slowed by illness, Davis came on to score 21 points in the second half and lead Princeton from down 22 to as close as three late in the game. He was, simply, unstoppable, in a way that Lee has been this season.

In the last eight games, Davis has averaged 11.1 points per game. For the first 20 of the year, he averaged just under five per game. He can shoot, and as he showed against Brown, he can get to the basket almost at will.

The NIT gives Princeton fans another chance to see him, and the rest of the Tigers — and to do so in Jadwin, where the Tigers are unbeaten this year. The winner of this game gets the winner of Boston College and Providence in the next round. 

It's not the NCAA tournament, but it can be a lot of fun. TigerBlog has seen Princeton play in the postseason many times, and the 1999 NIT is one of his favorite memories.

Tip-off tomorrow is at 8.

Monday, March 18, 2024

Tournament Tigers

Welcome to today's segment of "Records That May Never Be Broken."

First, there is Kaitlyn Chen, who is now the three-time Ivy League tournament Most Outstanding Player. In the history of the Ivy League, for all of the tournaments its run in all sports, no player has ever matched that achievement. In fact, only one — Yale men's lacrosse player Ben Reeves — has ever been the Ivy tournament Most Outstanding Player even twice.

Can anyone match Chen? Unlikely. It would take a lot, as in 1) your team has to in all likelihood win three tournaments in your four years and 2) you have to be honored above any other teammate. Neither of those are easy. 

That's incredible stuff. To be the Most Outstanding Player three times? TigerBlog is willing to guess that nobody will ever do that again, or if they do, it would be because they are one of the greatest players in Ivy League history, which, of course, Kaitlyn Chen would also have to be considered.

Then there's Ellie Mitchell. In the Ivy tournament semifinal game Friday, she broke the career record for rebounds in a career at Princeton, for men or women. That record had stood for 46 years, without anyone who ever came remotely close. Mitchell now has 1,110 career boards. The only other players who have even reached 1,000 are Bill Bradley (1,008) and Maggie Meier Benchich (1,099).

Can anyone match that? Also quite unlikely.

It was Mitchell, by the way, who slapped the Striped P onto the "Ticket Punched" board after Princeton took down Columbia 75-58 Saturday evening in the championship game. She deserved that honor, after she continued to slap away all obstacles to the Tigers' success.

TigerBlog wrote last week that he couldn't believe that Mitchell wasn't a first-team All-Ivy League selection. When TB tweeted that out, his longtime colleague and friend from Cornell athletic communications Jeremy Hartigan replied with this:

I contend Ellie Mitchell is the most valuable player in the Ivy League. Favorite player to watch on an opposing team in a long time. No first team is a crime.

Now she didn't make the All-Tournament team for the Ivy tournament?

Mitchell had 18 points and 22 rebounds in the two games, and yet maybe the best stat for her for the weekend was "charges drawn." She had four of them in the final, when Princeton held Columbia nearly 20 points below its average for the year. She also had a huge charge drawn with 14 seconds left in Friday's 59-54 semifinal win over Penn, at a time when it was a one-possession game. 

Has there ever been a Princeton athlete who has impacted games the way Mitchell does without ever being the leading scorer? Mitchell is a three-time Ivy Defensive Player of the Year, not because she's a great one-on-one stopper but because she impacts the entire game when its on the other team's side of the court. How many shots does the other team not get because of her presence. 

Madison St. Rose, who was Princeton's leading scorer in both games of the tournament with 19 against Penn and 18 against Columbia, was on the All-Tournament team along with Chen. They both inspire so much confidence when you watch them play; it's more surprising when their shot doesn't drop.

The tournament win was Princeton's fifth straight and gave the team an 11-1 record all-time in Ivy tournament games. This is Princeton's time of year, winning Ivy tournaments and then making a name for itself in the NCAA tournament, where it's won a game each of the last two years.

This year's challenge was announced with the women's Selection Show last night, when Princeton learned that it would be a nine seed and take on eighth seeded West Virginia.

The best part? The game is at Iowa, and the winner gets to take on the top seed in the region, the host Iowa. And that would mean Caitlin Clark. 

How cool would that be?

Columbia, by the way, made it a two-bid Ivy for the second time ever, as the Lions drew a 12 seed and will play in a First Four game against Vanderbilt.

The date and time of Princeton's game is still to be announced, with the game either Friday or Saturday.

Friday, March 15, 2024

Tournament Time

If all goes well for Princeton and Cornell fans, then Sunday would offer a pretty good TV doubleheader.

Princeton and Cornell will play in men's lacrosse Sunday at 2 on ESPNU. That game, which will be on Sherrerd Field, is a definite. 

The Ivy League men's basketball tournament championship game will tip off at noon on ESPN2 Sunday. If both teams win their semifinal games tomorrow, then it would be Princeton and Cornell again.

Standing in the way of that doubleheader are Brown and Yale, whose men's basketball teams will play Princeton and Cornell in the men's semifinals tomorrow. The first semi will be the Tigers and Bears at 11 on ESPNU, followed by Cornell-Yale at 2 on ESPNEWS. 

The tournament, which is being held at Columbia, starts today with the women's semifinals, which are both on ESPN+. Game 1 is at 4:30 between Princeton and Penn, and Game 2 follows at 7:30 between Columbia and Harvard.

The women's final is tomorrow at 5, on ESPNEWS.

The winner of each tournament gets the league's automatic NCAA tournament bid. Will it be a two-bid Ivy? Nobody wants to be the ones who find that out come Sunday's Selection Shows.

It was pretty clear early on that on the men's side, it would be Princeton, Yale and Cornell in some order for the top three seeds. It was also pretty much considered obvious that it was a huge advantage to be No. 1, and not only because it means that you won the league championship — which Princeton did outright.

The idea was that avoiding the other two teams in the semifinal would be an easier path, but somebody forgot to tell Brown that. Here are the overall Ivy records of the top four:

Princeton 12-2
Yale/Cornell 11-3
Brown 8-6

That's a pretty big drop from the top three to fourth, no?

Ah, but if you look at the standings for just the last six games of the Ivy season, this is what you see:

Princeton 6-0
Brown 6-0
Cornell 4-2
Yale 3-3

That should get everyone's attention, no?

Princeton defeated Brown twice this season, winning 70-60 in Providence and 72-63 in Princeton. The game in Princeton was on Feb. 16; Brown has not lost since.

In its six games prior to that, Brown was 1-5. What's been the big difference? Brown averaged 69.3 points per game in that 1-5 streak and then 76.5 in the winning streak. Brown allowed 74.2 points per game in the 1-5 run and now has allowed 69.3 in the winning streak. 

Those swings make a huge difference. Princeton, by the way, is the No. 1 defensive team in the league at 65.1 per game and the No. 3 offensive team, at 77 per game.

For the women, Princeton and Columbia split their two games and went 12-0 against everyone else. Will they meet in the final? 

Harvard was 9-5 in the league, and Penn was 7-7. Princeton will be six days removed from a 72-55 win over the Quakers, by the way, when they meet today.

A year ago, Princeton and Columbia were both 12-2, followed by 9-5 Harvard and Penn. The semifinal matchups were the same as they were this year. 

Harvard, though, knocked off Columbia, setting up a championship game against Princeton, which the Tigers won. 

What's the point of all of this? Things don't always work out the way you think they will.

Also, remember how many times you've heard "Defense wins championships?" If you look at the Ivy League women's basketball stats, you'll see that Princeton is first in scoring defense and then Columbia, Harvard and Penn are 4-5-6. 

Scoring offense? The four tournament teams rank 1-2-3-4, in this order: Columbia, Princeton, Harvard, Penn.

Oh, and the lacrosse game? 

Princeton and Cornell have won by far the most Ivy titles in men's lacrosse history. The rivals have ended the season against each other for the last 15 years, but the schedule has changed to see them open with each other. 

The Ivy League figures to be its usual wild competitive self in men's lacrosse this season. Each game will be huge. 

If you can't get to Princeton Sunday, you can watch this one on ESPNU.

Hopefully it'll be Game 2 of at least a Tiger doubleheader.

Thursday, March 14, 2024

Ivy Madness Eve

Should TigerBlog start with the history that Caden Pierce made yesterday? 

He'll get back to that in a second. First, this is how easily TigerBlog can be distracted:

He wanted to read about Wagner's NEC championship in men's basketball, something accomplished with only seven healthy players and with three road wins, including the final over Merrimack. Wagner defeated the top three seeds in the league, taking down No. 3 Sacred Heart, No. 1 Central Connecticut and then No. 2 Merrimack.

Before he could find a story about that game, though, TB saw a different story that said "March Madness Announcing Teams, TV Schedules Set." This immediately took him away from Wagner to that story, where he found that Princeton's own Tom McCarthy (he'll always be Princeton's own) will be paired with Deb Antonelli, Avery Johnson and A.J. Ross. 

Where will that group be? When TB texted McCarthy yesterday, he said that he won't know for sure until Sunday, when the Selection Show happens. TB then mentioned that another one of Princeton's own, Colgate Director of Athletics Yariv Amir, told TB that Pat McCarthy (himself yet another Princeton's own) was to be doing the Westwood One broadcast of the Patriot League final last night between the Raiders and Lehigh.

By the time that conversation had ended, TB had almost forgotten about the Wagner story. The Seahawks, as it turned out, had three players go all 40 minutes and another go 37. That would have made Pete Carril (the ultimate "Princeton's own") smile.

If you're a college basketball fan, this is your favorite week. It'll be wall-to-wall college hoops between now and the end of the second round a week from Sunday, complete with more conference champions, the selections, the First Four and then the best part of the tournament, the first two rounds.

March Madness, right? 

Tomorrow is the beginning of what has become known as Ivy Madness. The league will have its tournament at Columbia, beginning with the women's semifinals tomorrow and continuing with the men's semifinals and women's final Saturday and the men's final Sunday.

If you've missed it, here is the schedule:

Women
No. 1 Princeton against No. 4 Penn at 4:30 Friday in one semifinal and No. 2 Columbia against No. 3 Harvard at 7:30 in the other, both on ESPN+. The two winners will meet at 5 Saturday on ESPNEWS.

Men
The top seed is also Princeton, who will play No. 4 Brown at 11 am Saturday (ESPNU), followed by the other semifinal between Yale and Cornell at 2 (ESPNEWS). The winners play Sunday at noon on ESPN2. 

Before the tournament begins, the league announced the All-Ivy teams, which were voted on by the league coaches. Princeton's own were well-represented, though not necessarily as well represented as TB would have liked to have seen.

For the men, Caden Pierce was the league Player of the Year after averaging 15.7 points and 9.3 rebounds, along with putting up a whole host of impressive other numbers. Pierce was last year's Ivy Rookie of the Year, which makes him the first Princeton men's basketball player ever to be the league's Rookie of the Year one year and Player of the Year the next year. 

Before Pierce, only Spencer Weisz had won both awards in his career at Princeton. Keep in mind, of course, that the Rookie of the Week Award dates to 1972 and the Player of the Year award dates to 1976.

As for the All-Ivy teams themselves, Pierce and Xaivian Lee were unanimous first-team selections for the men, as was Kaitlyn Chen for the women. Ellie Mitchell was the Defensive Player of the Year for the women.

Princeton also had three second-team selections: Mitchell, Madison St. Rose and Matt Allocco. Mitch Henderson was the men's Coach of the Year.

What's TB's objection? He cannot believe Mitchell wasn't a first-team selection. Going a bit further, he can't believe Mitchell wasn't a unanimous first-team selection. 

Yes, she doesn't score a lot. On the other hand, yes, she changes every game she plays.

Oh well. This week isn't the time to worry about individual things. Now is the time for one thing — win the next game and keep playing.

And then ride that as long as you can.

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

A 46-Year-Old Record And The Woman Who Holds It

There exists within Princeton Athletics a bridge between generations that keeps the connections within programs strong.

The ones who played here previously know what their athletic experience meant to them, and they in turn want the current athletes to be able to have something similar during their time as Tigers. It's why alumni support is so great for things like TAGD and why so many former athletes take such pride in the successes that current teams have.

It's one of the best parts of being here for as long as TigerBlog has. It's given him a real appreciation for just how genuine and strong this connection is.

If he had any reason to doubt that such a dynamic exists, it was reinforced for him as he spoke with former Princeton women athletes for his book on the first 50 years of women's athletics here. This was especially true of those who started and helped grow the programs, back in the 1970s.

Because of that, he was hardly surprised to hear that Maggie Benchich is a huge fan of Ellie Mitchell and how she plays the game. Nor was it a surprise that Benchich said, quite genuinely, that she's hoping that Mitchell can break a record that she has held for the last 46 years.

Maggie Benchich was Maggie Meier when she played basketball at Princeton in the 1970s, winning four Ivy League titles in four years. She graduated as the only Princeton women's player ever with at least 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds, and to this day she remains the only one ever to do so (Bill Bradley is the only men's player who has reached those numbers).

Benchich finished her career with 1,099 rebounds, an extraordinary total when you consider 1) how long the record has lasted and 2) that nobody has come particularly close. And that would be men (where Bradley holds the record with 1,008) or women.

Nobody, that is, until Mitchell. 

Right now, as Princeton gets ready to play in the Ivy League tournament this weekend at Columbia, Mitchell, who yesterday was named the league's Defensive Player of the Year for the third time, has 1,088 career rebounds, leaving her 11 away from the record. She averages an Ivy League-best 10 boards per game.

Princeton's women's team, in all reality, has a minimum of two games to go this year, with more possible. First of all, there is Penn in Friday's first semifinal (4:30, ESPN+). Should Princeton lose, it would still play in a postseason tournament, so that's a second game.

In each of the last two seasons, Princeton has played four games from this point forward — two in the Ivy tournament and then two more in the NCAA tournament after winning the first game both years. 

Will Mitchell break the record? It's quite likely that she will. 

What does Benchich think of that? You can read for yourself. TigerBlog wrote a feature story about here, and you can get that HERE.

TigerBlog met up with Benchich at a deli not far from where she lives now and not far from Central Bucks East High School, where she first played the game in 10th grade. To that point, she had never been on a competitive sports team in her life.

In two years, she became the Philadelphia Bulletin area Player of the Year, and then she came to Princeton to play for Pat Walsh during the earliest days of the program. 

She and her teammates played in Ivy League tournaments as well, though they weren't quite what the current team can expect. There was no TV coverage. There was no NCAA bid at stake.

In fact, the league champion was determined over a two-day tournament in which each Ivy team played every other team once, all at the same location. Think that would fly these days? Not a chance.

It wasn't that long ago, of course.  

This weekend will be about more than the rebounding record. Mitchell wants to finish her career with a return to the NCAA tournament. She wouldn't care if she didn't get a single rebound this weekend if Princeton wins (though one is definitely helped along by the other).

Columbia and Harvard play in the second semifinal. The winners play Saturday at 5 on ESPNEWS for the league's automatic NCAA bid.


Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Spring Break Update

TigerBlog likes to drive to campus by coming up Nassau Street and turning onto Washington Road, down to Faculty Road. 

Usually, both Nassau and Washington are jammed with people, especially if TB drives down Washington Road when classes are letting out. He sees all kinds of Princeton athletes, some he knows and most he doesn't, and it's a great reminder that Princeton Athletics have always been and remain an extension of the overall educational mission of those who compete here.

As TB drove down Washington Rd. yesterday, he counted three people that he saw along the way. Only three? That's what happens when it's Spring Break here.

TB was on the men's lacrosse bus Sunday as it came back from the team's 14-8 win at Rutgers, and as the bus pulled onto the campus, head coach Matt Madalon remarked that you could "feel the stillness" of Spring Break. It's so true. This campus just has a completely different vibe when the students aren't around, and it all changes on a dime.

The big story in Princeton Athletics this week is, of course, the coming Ivy League basketball tournaments at Columbia. As a reminder, here are the matchups:

On the women's side, it's No. 1 seed Princeton vs. No. 4 seed Penn at 4:30 and then No. 2 Columbia against No. 3 Harvard at 7:30. Those games are on ESPN+. The winners meet Saturday at 5, on ESPNEWS, for the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

On the men's side, it's No. 1 Princeton vs. No. 4 Brown Saturday at 11 on ESPNU, followed by No. 2 Yale vs. No. 3 Cornell at ESPNEWS at 2. The winners play Sunday at noon on ESPN2.

Basketball, though, is not the only Princeton news this week. Consider:

The wrestling team had three automatic NCAA qualifiers after this past weekend's EIWA championships at Bucknell. The three are: Nate Dugan, who was the runner- up at 184, Luke Stout, who took sixth at 197, and Matt Cover, who was fourth at 285 after being seeded eighth.

Those three are definites for the NCAA meet in Kansas City, beginning a week from Friday. There are still at-large selections to be announced tomorrow, so the Tigers could have others who make the cut.

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Evan Harmeling finished 10th at the PGA Tour's Puerto Rico Open this past weekend. Harmeling, a 2012 Princeton grad, finished at 15-under after shooting 70-69-67-67. 

If you're wondering, his earnings for the weekend were $97,000.

Harmeling has a fascinating story. He's 35, and this weekend marked his first PGA Tour appearance after years on the Korn Ferry and other tours. He also runs a foundation that supports inner-city education, and you can read about those efforts HERE.

If you don't want to read that whole story, read this excerpt from it:  

Harmeling is putting his money where his mouth is. The Princeton alum has launched the Evan and Ariel Harmeling Foundation, alongside wife Ariel, aiming to provide greater educational opportunities for kids who wouldn’t have them otherwise.

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Another impressive Princetonian is football player Jalen Travis, the 6-9, 315-pound offensive lineman who is a two-time All-Ivy selection and a likely NFL player down the road.

If pro football doesn't work out, though, Travis still has a future that seems limitless. 

Last week, Travis was announced as the winner of the Coach Wooden Citizenship Cup. According to its website: 

The Coach Wooden Citizenship Cup is presented to six distinguished athletes from any sport – male/female high school, male/female intercollegiate, and male/female professional – who best display character, teamwork, and citizenship, the attributes Athletes for a Better World deems central to transforming individuals, sport, and society.  The award establishes the recipients as athletes of excellence both on and off the field, role models both as performers and persons, the most important and distinctive honor athletes can achieve.

HERE is the complete release about Travis and his honor.

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For this Spring Break, you can see Princeton teams compete all over the country, in places like California (women's water polo, women's rugby, softball, men's tennis), Florida (women's lacrosse, women's tennis), Virginia (baseball), Louisiana (women's golf) — and even New Jersey (men's lacrosse, men's volleyball).

The complete schedule is HERE.


Monday, March 11, 2024

Ivy Champs x 2

Ah, the perfect one-handed bounce pass for the uncontested layup.

This past Saturday afternoon at Jadwin Gym, late in the third quarter, Kaitlyn Chen and Madison St. Rose executed it to perfection.

Chen dribbled with her left hand on the right side of the court, heading back to the middle. St. Rose cut perfectly behind the Penn player who was guarding her. 

Without flinching, Chen threw a one-handed bounce pass. St. Rose caught it in stride. Layup. 

This is TigerBlog's favorite Princeton Basketball play. More than any other, even "chin" and "center-forward," this one captures the beauty of what became known as the "Princeton Offense." It takes timing. It takes two people completely on the same page. 

And it takes the courage to throw the pass, which is all-or-nothing. If it goes wrong, it usually goes very wrong.

You know who threw that pass better than anyone TB has ever seen try it? That would be Mitch Henderson, back when he was a player in the 1990s. Now he's the Princeton men's head coach, and this past Saturday was a big day for him as well.

Before his team ever took the court at the Palestra Saturday night against Penn, Brown had come back to defeat Yale in overtime in New Haven. The result of that game? Princeton clinched at least a share of the Ivy title and the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Ivy League tournament.

Also, Henderson made a little bit of his own history, becoming the first one to win three straight Ivy League men's basketball championships as both a player (1996-98) and a head coach (the last three).

His team then went out and put a huge punctuation mark on things, blasting Penn 105-83 behind 32 points from Caden Pierce and 23 from Zach Martini. That makes Princeton your outright Ivy League men's basketball champion for 2024, and nothing that happens from here on will change that. 

The 105 points? That's the first time Princeton has ever gone over 100 against the Quakers.

The win itself? That's the 10 straight for the Tigers against the Quakers. More than that, it continued one of the most amazing statistical achievements in Princeton history. 

Mitch Henderson as a player lost his first four games against Penn and then won five straight. As the Tiger head coach, he is now 21-4, pushing the total to 26-8, and 26-4 in the last 30. That's remarkable. Penn leads the series 122-97 in games Henderson has not played in or coached.

The Princeton women went into their game knowing that a win would give them at least a share of another Ivy League championship. Beyond that, interestingly, a win would also set up another game against Penn six days later, in the Ivy League semifinals. 

The Princeton women took down Penn 72-55, after the Quakers had put up a strong fight into the third quarter. The Tigers finished the game on a 35-19 run, and Kaitlyn Chen came up three rebounds shy of a triple-double, as she finished with 19 points, 11 assists and seven boards.

When it was over, they were 13-1 in the league, tied with Columbia for the championship for the second straight year and winner of an Ivy title for the sixth straight year.

Because Princeton and Columbia split and were 12-0 against everyone else, the last tiebreaker for the league seedings was NET ranking. It wasn't official until yesterday, but Princeton was too far ahead of Columbia to be caught, and so it will be No. 1 Princeton against No. 4 Penn at 4:30 Friday in one semifinal and No. 2 Columbia against No. 3 Harvard at 7:30 in the other.

The two winners will meet at 5 Saturday for the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Keep in mind the tournament will be played on Columbia's home court, Levien Gym.

For the men, the top seed is also Princeton, who will play No. 4 Brown at 11 am Saturday, followed by the other semifinal between Yale and Cornell at 2. The winners play Sunday at noon for the automatic NCAA bid.

Brown, by the way, hasn't lost since it did so against Princeton in Jadwin on Feb. 16. Since then, the Bears have gone 6-0, beating every other team in the league once, which means Cornell and Yale.  

The Ivy League tournament won't be easy for either team, or any of the eight teams who gather in New York City. That's how it's supposed to be. 

At the same time, that's two Ivy basketball championships on one Saturday for the Tigers. That's something that will never be taken for granted. 

On to New York City ...

Friday, March 8, 2024

Celebrations

Happy Birthday wishes to the great John McPhee, who turns 93 years old today.

If you recall, back on his 90th birthday, McPhee and TigerBlog bicycled 11 miles together. That is a pretty good life goal — riding 11 miles on your 90th birthday. 

McPhee goes way, way back with Princeton Athletics, all the way to when he was a kid and his father was the Princeton Athletics team physician. McPhee graduated in the Class of 1953 and of course went on to a long career as one of America's greatest non-fiction writers, not to mention as a Princeton writing professor.

While at Princeton, one of McPhee's roommates was Dick Kazmaier, the Heisman Trophy winner. The subject of his breakthrough writing piece was another Princeton athlete who wore No. 42, Bill Bradley, about whom McPhee wrote a piece called "A Sense Of Where You Are." 

It was that story that would be picked up in 1965 by the New Yorker, and McPhee has written for the magazine ever since. An expanded version of the story also became the first of his more than 30 books.

And now he's 93, and still writing.

TB and McPhee have ridden a lot more than 11 miles together through the years. In all of that time, TB has heard so many incredible stories from McPhee about his life and experiences, all of which can be considered extraordinary. 

Happy birthday to one of the best people TB has ever met.

As Mr. McPhee celebrates his birthday, this weekend will answer the question of which teams celebrate Ivy League basketball championships.

There are six regular season Ivy basketball games left, all of which will be played tomorrow. Harvard and Dartmouth finished their regular seasons Tuesday evening.

The four teams that will be advancing on each side to next weekend's Ivy Madness at Columbia have already been determined. As a reminder, that's Princeton, Yale, Cornell and Brown for the men and Princeton, Columbia, Harvard and Penn for the women.

The seeds, and the championships, will be settled this weekend.

For the men, there could be one champion or a two- or three-team tie. For the women, it'll either be an outright champion or a two-team co-championship.

Both Princeton teams play Penn tomorrow, the women at home at 2 and the men in Philly at 6. By the way, it's also Senior Day for the Tiger women.

The other games are Cornell-Columbia and Yale-Brown for both men and women and Harvard and Dartmouth for the women.

Should Princeton beat Penn, then it would have no worse than a share of the Ivy title — and that goes for both the men and the women. 

Princeton and Yale are tied for first on the men's side at 11-2. Cornell is a game back at 10-3. Should Princeton and Yale both win, then they'd be co-champions. Should both lose and Cornell win, then there'd be the three-way tie.

The tiebreaker for seeding between 12-2 Princeton and Yale teams would be NET ranking, where Princeton is currently 51 and Yale is currently 82. Should it come down to three teams at 11-3, then it gets a bit dicier in the tiebreakers, but Princeton (TB believes) would still be the No. 1 seed, based on the fact that Cornell and Yale would both have lost to Brown but Princeton would not have.

As for the women, Princeton and Columbia are both 12-1, with a loss to each other. Princeton's NET as of right now is 31, while Columbia currently sits at 57.

This weekend will see at least two and as many as five teams celebrate a league championship. Remember, the Ivy tournament determines only the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament; the league champion will be the regular-season winners. 

Between now and the start of the tournament, there will also be the All-Ivy teams and the league's Players of the Year. Princeton's teams will be well-represented in postseason honors, and that will all be a nice subplot.

The big story will be which teams are playing after next weekend. This weekend will help set the table for all of that. 

Then the fun will really begin.

Thursday, March 7, 2024

Today's Title Is Titles

As he has written many times before, TigerBlog has had many different titles during his time with Princeton Athletics.

In fact, he is now on his 11th — Senior Writer/Historian. His first was Manager of Sports Media Relations, and, if he recalls correctly, this is how it went from there:

* Assistant Director of Athletic Communications
* Assistant Director of Athletic Public Affairs for Media Relations
* Sports Information Director
* Interim Director of Athletic Communications
* Director of Athletic Communications
* Assistant Director of Athletics for Communications
* Associate Director of Athletics for Communications
* Senior Associate Director of Athletics for Communications
* Senior Communications Advisor/Historian 

That's a lot of titles. His favorite is his current one, so that's good.

TB mentions this again because his brother is now dealing with a new title of his own: (Interim) Dean of Students at the University of Washington Law School. That's Dean BrotherBlog to you.

Today's subject, therefore, will be "Titles."

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There will be titles on the line this weekend at the EIWA championships, which are being held at Bucknell, and the NCAA Fencing regional, which for Princeton will be at Drew University in North Jersey.

The big prizes are still down the road for both, but these events are huge, since they are the qualifying routes into the NCAA championships. Keep in mind that the Ivy League will begin to host its own wrestling tournament beginning next year, and that will be the NCAA qualifier moving forward.

You can read more about the fencing HERE and the wrestling HERE.

The NCAA indoor track and field titles will be earned this weekend in Boston, and Princeton will be represented by sophomore pole vaulter Tessa Mudd. The Ivy League record holder and the Most Outstanding Field Athlete at the recent Ivy League Heps championships, Mudd is the 13th seed in the NCAA event. 

By the way, there are 16 women in the pole vault at the NCAA meet, and only one school is represented by two athletes: Washington.

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The title on the current lead softball story on goprincetontigers.com is: "Spring Break Trip To California Up Next." You can read that story HERE, including capsules on each opponent.

This week is midterm week at Princeton, and it is followed as always by spring break. For the softball team, that means seven games next week in California. 

Princeton, who is 5-4 on the young season, are not the only team looking to take advantage of the California sun. Another is North Dakota, located in Grand Forks, where the low temps are still in the teens and 20s every night for the next 10 days, with highs somewhere between 30 and 50.

North Dakota has played 22 games so far, all in either Louisiana, New Mexico, Texas or Florida. The trip to California will be the team's fifth plane trip this season to date, and it's only early March. 

UND's home opener isn't until April 6.

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Chris Sailer, you may remember, was Princeton's Hall-of-Fame women's lacrosse coach for 37 years. Last night at Sherrerd Field, she took on a new title: color commentator.

Sailer made her ESPN+ debut on the call of Princeton-Monmouth. As someone who did a podcast with her for several years, TigerBlog was not surprised that she was excellent her first time out. 

For decades, Princeton Lacrosse was defined by Sailer and men's coach Bill Tierney, who won nine NCAA championships between them. Now both of them are at least dipping their toes into the broadcasting pool, as Tierney has been on ESPN as well.

The Princeton women are off to Florida for two games, at Florida this coming Wednesday and then at Jacksonville on Saturday the 16th.

The men are at Rutgers Sunday, and the winner of that game gets a trophy called entitled "The Meistrell Cup." 

This weekend, apparently Evan Harmeling, Class of 2012, will earn the title of "First Princeton alum to play in a PGA Tour event."

Harmeling, who has played in 169 pro events to date on the Korn Ferry and other tours, qualified for the main event at an event earlier this week in West Palm Beach.

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Looking for a good book to read? It's title is "The Complete Flying Officer X Series."

It's a compilation of essays written by an Englishman named H.E. Bates during World War II. He spent his time on an RAF base, talking to flyers and learning their stories and then writing about them. Apparently, in England, it was a very big part of the war effort and morale.

Not all of the pieces end happily. Most don't, actually. It makes you wonder how he did it.

And, for what it's worth, if you didn't realize it, you'd think the author was John McPhee.

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Play Of The Day

Princeton men's lacrosse attackman Coulter Mackesy caught a pass from goalie Michael Gianforcaro on the Princeton side of the midline Friday night at North Carolina in a game the Tigers would win 15-9.

When he looked up, he saw a 10-man ride, which meant the goal was empty. Mackesy turned and tossed the ball towards the net, which was probably 45 yards away. Swish.

The next morning, that play was the No. 2 Play of Day on SportsCenter. TigerBlog saw that Princeton men's lacrosse had the No. 2 Play of the Day before he saw which one, and the fact that you don't immediately know which play was the one honored is a sign that your team had a good night.

For that matter, if you had told TB that Mackesy's goal was honored, his first thought would have been "which one of the five he scored?" As it turned out, it was the one against the 10-man ride. 

Did Princeton men's hockey forward Ian Murphy watch that and say to himself "I can beat that?"

Whether he did or didn't, later that day, Murphy did in fact one-up Mackesy, coming in with the No. 1 Play of the Day on SportsCenter. 

That's two days. Two Princeton athletes. One came in second. One came in first. 

And that's a Tiger first, TB is almost positive.

What did Murphy do? See for yourself:

Yes, that's worthy of being No. 1.

Look at what he did. If you go to the roster, you'll see that Murphy is listed as righthanded. 

If you look at the play, you see that his right arm gets pinned against his body by a check as the puck drifts to the middle of the ice. With no other option, he swipes at it with his left hand, and he gets enough on it to put it into the top corner on the near side of the goal.

How did he get enough on the puck to get it past the goalie? How did he get it into the air in the first place?

That's an impressive effort. Yeah. Definitely No. 1.

Princeton finished its regular season this past weekend and now heads into the ECAC opening round playoff at Harvard this Friday night (face-off at 7). The first round is now single-elimination, if you forgot, as opposed to best of three as it was for years before last year.

Princeton is the No. 9 seed in the tournament, playing at No. 8 Harvard. The other first round matchups are No. 7 St. Lawrence and No. 10 Yale, No. 6 Union and No. 11 Brown and No. 5 Clarkson and No. 12 RPI.

The top four seeds are, in order, Quinnipiac, Cornell, Colgate and Dartmouth. The quarterfinals, which will be best of three, will match the lowest remaining seed at the No. 1 seed, the next lowest at the No. 2 and so on.

The game Friday night will be Princeton's second this season in Cambridge. The first? That was a 4-4 tie, after which Princeton won the shootout. The other meeting between the teams was a 5-2 Princeton win at Baker Rink.

And when were those games? 

The first was on Nov. 3, which was the same night Princeton played football at Dartmouth. The second game was eight weeks later, Dec. 30. 

The game Friday will be 70 days after the second game and 127 days after the first. That should give you a sense of how long a college hockey season is.

Murphy, by the way, was a first-team All-Ivy League selection two years ago and a second-team selection last year. He is currently tied for the team lead in goals with 11. 

He holds the team lead for goals that were SportsCenter's No. 1 Play of the Day.