And The Winner Is ...

There used to be a place on Route 18 called "Movie City 5," which a long, long, long time ago used to show movies for $1.50. You'd wait on different colored lines depending on what movie you wanted to see, and a voice like that at an airport would instruct you to the right color.

TigerBlog has always loved the movies. He grew up going to the movies all the time, from the time he was a little kid through when he first was able to drive himself. The first R-rated movie TB ever saw in the movies? "Animal House."

There were two little movie theaters in West Philadelphia that TB went to all the time in college. These days, when obscure movies come on TV from those days, TB realizes that it's one of the movies he saw in those days. Movies like "The Right Stuff" and "The Year of Living Dangerously" and "Sophie's Choice" and "Tootsie" and the like.

TB doesn't go to the movies much anymore. TigerBlog Jr. and Little Miss TigerBlog love to go, though, so it's good to see the next generation following down the same path.

The best night to watch movies on television is the night of the Oscars. TigerBlog used to watch the Oscars, but now he's much more into watching the movies that are on TV instead.

As an aside, TigerBlog once wrote two stories about sports movies on the night of the Oscars back when he was the newspaper business, one of which was about the actual making of sports movies and the other of which was about TigerBlog's favorite sports movies ("Rocky" is No. 1; "Hoosiers" is No. 2) and performances in sports movies. He got more mail about those two stories (no email back then) than he did for every other story he wrote in 11 years combined, especially when he said "Field of Dreams" is the worst sports movie ever (because it glorifies the Black Sox scandal).

The Oscars, of course, were on last night. So were some of the greatest movies ever, like "Goodfellas," "Patton," "Saving Private Ryan," "Wedding Crashers." Okay, the last one isn't on the same level, but it's funny.

And, of course, "The Godfather," perhaps the greatest movie ever made, was on as well, followed by "The Godfather Part II."

"The Godfather" won the award as the Best Picture of 1972. If that seems like a long time ago, it was.

"The Godfather" was released on March 15, 1972. That release date was 42 days after the Princeton women's basketball team played the first game in program history.

Since then, Princeton has won some Ivy League championships in the pre-NCAA tournament days, tied for the title but lost with a bid on the line and played to a basically .500 record overall.

In all that time, though, Princeton had never played in an NCAA tournament game. All that changes this year, as the Tigers powered their way to an Ivy League championship that was cemented Saturday night with a win at Harvard.

Princeton is two years removed from a 7-23 overall record and 4-10 Ivy League record in Courtney Banghart's first year as head coach. During that season, Princeton went 0-4 against Harvard and Dartmouth, losing those four games by a combined 57 points. Of the 10 Ivy League losses, eight were by double figures.

Then there's this year.

The win over Harvard improved the Tigers to a ridiculous 25-2, setting the record for the most wins in a season by an Ivy League women's basketball team. Princeton is 13-0 in the league heading into tomorrow night's regular-season finale against Penn, and all 13 wins have come by double figures.

That's an accomplishment that even Princeton's 1998 men's team didn't pull off. TB isn't sure how many teams have ever won the Ivy League with all double figure wins, but it can't be many. Anyone wishing to look it up may feel free to do so.

Oh, and Princeton went 4-0 against Harvard and Dartmouth this year for the first time in program history. The combined margin of victory in those four games is 63 points.

Princeton has two seniors on the team, neither of whom start, and the freshmen and sophomore classes are dominant.

The result of all of this is that Princeton gets to play in the NCAA tournament for the first time. The latest ESPN women's "bracketology" has Princeton taking on St. John's in Norfolk on March 21, a Sunday.

More importantly, it gives Princeton a 12th seed, which is a great seed to have. It keeps you away from a dominant team in the first or second round, which is why so many 12 seeds have done so well in the tournament.

The women's selection show isn't until a week from today. During that time, Princeton will play Penn, see how the All-Ivy League teams shake out and enjoy the moment, hopefully, as the team that brought the first women's bid to Princeton women's basketball attempts to make some more history.

This is the 17th time the Ivy League champion has played in the NCAA tournament. The league is 1-16 to date, with the only win from Harvard over Stanford (a 16 seed defeating a No. 1 seed, though an injury-depleted one). Only three other times has the Ivy League champ lost by fewer than 10 in the first round.

Harvard's win over Stanford came in 1998, and the Best Picture of 1998 was "Shakespeare In Love." TigerBlog still can't figure out how that movie won instead of "Saving Private Ryan."

Of course, Academy Awards are subjective. In basketball, there's nothing subjective about it. You score more; you win.

Princeton women's basketball has won big all year. Their prize isn't a statue; it's the chance to play in the NCAA tournament.