Are You Kidding?

Bill Carmody, the former men's basketball coach, used to carry a newspaper clip around, and for all TigerBlog knows, he's continued to do so during his 11 years at Northwestern.

The clip was basically a quote from former New York Yankees outfielder that said, basically, "I don't worry about things I can't control because I can't control them, and I don't worry about things I have control over, because I have them under control."

TigerBlog sort of likes to think the same way. For the most part, TB is good at rolling with the punches, and he usually doesn't get too worried about things he can't control.

Still, enough is enough, and TB wasn't too happy to read the weather forecast for the area Thursday into Friday.

In case you didn't go to the link, it includes words and phrases like "snow hurricane" and "74 mph winds" and "a powerful storm of historic proportions."

C'mon already. The area has already been wiped out three times by blizzards, and even the rain the came in the last 24 hours couldn't get rid of even half of the existing snow. There is going to be snow on the ground into April.

But it's still February, at least through this weekend, and even if Princeton lacrosse season begins Saturday, the month and the weather still scream winter.

And, as winter winds down, it's a pretty big weekend coming up for Princeton teams.

* Women's basketball
The Princeton women are currently receiving votes in the national polls and are actually ahead of North Carolina. And why not? The Tigers are 21-2 and 9-0 in the Ivy League, and eight of their nine Ivy wins have come by at least 19 points (with the other by 11).

The Ivy race is essentially down to two teams, Princeton and Harvard, who is 7-2 in the league. In fact, a Princeton win Friday night against Cornell (1-9 in the league) would mathematically eliminate every other team other than Harvard.

Still, it's not all smooth sailing to the finish line for the Tigers. Among Princeton's final five opponents are Columbia (15-9 overall, the only team besides Princeton and Harvard with a winning record) and the trip to Dartmouth (the defending champ) and Harvard (the challenger). Should Princeton get its first NCAA tournament bid, it's going to earn it.

Princeton's game against Columbia Saturday is part of National Girls and Women in Sports Day, with the always-popular sports fair scheduled to start at 4:30.

* Men's basketball
Princeton is 7-2 in the Ivy League (16-7 overall), while Cornell is 9-1 (23-4 overall) and Harvard is 7-3 in the league (18-6 overall). The math still exists for all three to reach 20 wins, which would be a first in Ivy history.

The other math is also simple as Princeton is at Cornell Friday night. A Tiger win would leave the teams tied in the loss column; a Cornell win puts the Big Red two games clear of the field.

* Fencing
The Ivy League fencing champions are determined by two round-robin events on consecutive weekends. The first was last Sunday at Cornell; the champions will be crowned this Sunday at Penn.

Princeton is undefeated on the men's and women's side, while the only other unbeaten is Columbia's women.

Because Cornell and Dartmouth do not have men's teams, then Princeton would win at least a share of the league title with a split of its two matches Sunday (against Harvard and Columbia). The Princeton and Columbia women meet in the first match Sunday (11 a.m.).

* Women's swimming and diving
The Ivy League championships are being held at Harvard this weekend. To give you an idea of the favorites, Princeton has won eight of the last 10 championships, while Harvard has won the other two, including last year's.

* Track and field
The men's and women's indoor Heps are being held at Dartmouth; TigerBlog once attended the event at Dartmouth and was impressed with spaghetti and sauce. Cornell is the defending champ for the men's and women's sides, and the Big Red women have won seven of the last eight years. Princeton's women did beat the Big Red outdoors last spring.

* Men's hockey
The Princeton men enter the last weekend of the regular season in ninth place in the ECAC standings. Should they come out of the last weekend ninth or lower, then Princeton would be on the road for the first round of the playoffs.

Princeton trails eighth-place Harvard by one points and seventh-place Quinnipiac by two and can mathematically finish anywhere from seventh to 11th. The Tigers host Yale Friday and Brown Saturday; Quinnipiac plays the same two teams, while Harvard is at St. Lawrence/Clarkson.

* Women's hockey
The women's schedule is one week ahead of the men's, and unlike the men, only the top eight teams make the playoffs. The Princeton women finished sixth, and they are are third-place Harvard.

* Men's volleyball
Princeton hosts defending NCAA runner-up and perennial EIVA champion Penn State Friday and then St. Francis Saturday at Dillon Gym.

And hey, if all that's not enough, then there is always the men's Ivy swimming and diving championships next weekend at DeNunzio Pool.

And you can also see men's tennis and women's water polo on campus this weekend.

Of course, there's also the men's lacrosse game, Saturday at noon against Hofstra in Chris Bates' first game as Tiger head coach.

TigerBlog could write a lot more about that - and will.