That's Madness? - And Other Thoughts

A few thoughts ...

* Well, the NCAA men's basketball tournament just ended with a championship game that was over by the first media timeout. And that game may just make the women's championship game tonight look like a barnburner. The entire men's tournament featured 64 games, of which exactly one can be called great - the regional final between Pitt and Villanova. TigerBlog thinks this is a by-product of oversaturation. It seems like every college basketball game all year is on TV, and after awhile it all starts to look the same. The entire season becomes even more meaningless when you factor in the tournament hype itself. It won't be long before the first "bracketology" for 2010 is out, and the amount of time that ridiculously overexposed media types spend discussing potential No. 1 seeds and bubble teams and Cinderellas has come to exceed the amount of time the tournament is actually played. In other words, a great event - maybe the best annual event on the American sports scene other than the Super Bowl - isn't quite what it used to be and gives no indication that it realizes there's a problem. What does any of this have to do with Princeton? Not much, other than a word of caution to the men's lacrosse tournament to be careful not to make these same mistakes and a hope that the Ivy League doesn't abandon its policy of not having postseason conference basketball tournaments, which would destroy the uniqueness of the Ivy League regular season and by extension February Friday and Saturday nights in Jadwin Gym.

* Speaking of overexposed media types and items that have nothing to do with Princeton, when will the people behind televised sports realize that the events themselves are what attract viewers, not the announcers?

* Okay, getting back to Princeton, after a pretty light home card last weekend, there are 15 events on campus this weekend (not to mention the teams that are on the road). Keep in mind that we're approaching what figure to be the last four home dates for retiring men's volleyball coach Glenn Nelson, including three this week (beginning tonight at 7 against NJIT). There is also tennis, track, lacrosse, rowing, baseball and softball at home this weekend, including a lacrosse doubleheader against Harvard Saturday (women at noon, men at 3) and a pair of softball/baseball doubleheaders against Columbia (including one for Easter Sunday).

* Spring football is continuing as well, with the annual spring game set for Saturday April 18 at Princeton Stadium.

* The Ivy baseball standings are pretty interesting now that intra-division play is finished. Yale is in last place in the Rolfe Division with a 4-4 league record; that same record has Columbia in first place in the Gehrig Division. Princeton and Cornell are off to 2-6 starts, but both are only two games back of Columbia with 12 to play (beginning for Princeton with four this weekend against the Lions). Dartmouth is 8-0 in the Rolfe, followed by 7-1 Brown.

* Inside Lacrosse named Tyler Fiorito its Division I Player of the Week. Interestingly, Fiorito did not make the Team of the Week, but two of his teammates did: D Chad Wiedmaier and M Rich Sgalardi. Wiedmaier was also named the top freshman in the country, while Fiorito ranked fourth on that list.

* Craig Haley, formerly of the Trenton Times, offers links to instructional pieces from three Princeton coaches: a video with Scott Bradley on baseball and articles with Bill Tierney on lacrosse and Julie Shackford on soccer.