Boston Harbor

The sandwich is called the Boston Harbor.

It consists of whitefish salad, Nova Scotia lox, tomato, lettuce and onion. With a side of macaroni salad or maybe a potato knish, it's hard to beat - especially when you throw in a Doctor Brown's cream soda or black cherry.

TigerBlog always goes for the Boston Harbor at Rein's Deli, off exit 65 of I-84 in Vernon, Conn., on his way to or from Harvard.

Former Harvard SID John Veneziano turned TB onto the place somewhere in the mid-’90s, and it's been a staple ever since.

As an aside, you've never met a nicer person than Johnny V, who bailed on sports information long ago and who was part of a golden age of Ivy SIDs, people whom you went out of your way to hang out with the night before the game, back when camaraderie in the profession was at an all-time high.

On some trips to Harvard, the stop at Rein's is the highlight.

On trips like the one last weekend, it's just the icing on the cake.

TB rolled into the Rein's parking lot about two hours after the Tigers had finished off an impressive all-around win over Harvard in men's lacrosse. Princeton defeated the Crimson 12-5 after sprinting out to a 5-1 lead after the first quarter, ending a two-year losing streak to Harvard.

The win showed once again and without any doubt that Princeton is playing as well as any team in the country right now and has all the pieces in place to make a big run next month.

The big question is: Will Princeton get the chance?

Princeton is 9-3 overall, 5-0 in the Ivy League. They have a two-goal loss to Johns Hopkins back on March 2 and one-goal losses to North Carolina a week later and at the Carrier Dome to Syracuse two weeks ago.

Other than that, Princeton has a five-overtime win over Yale and then eight other wins by at least six goals.

Unfortunately for the Tigers, they don't have a Top 10 win.

Hofstra, which usually is a Top 10 team, isn't this year. The one that Princeton really would love to have back is North Carolina, a game that even UNC would admit that it was outplayed in, though in fairness the Tar Heels did pull it out.

And the way the selections for the NCAA tournament work, a Top 10 win means almost everything. Having two Top 10 wins means even more.

Princeton doesn't have one of those. And might not get the chance to get one.

Princeton is ranked in the top 10 in Division in scoring offense and scoring defense, along with only two other teams: No. 1 Loyola and No. 2 UMass.

There is no team in the country that goes into a game with Princeton with a better goalie, a better defenseman, a better all-around offensive player and a better midfield defense.

And yet none of it matters right now. Not according to the selection criteria.

Princeton is being done in by its schedule. The Tigers are locked into its six Ivy League games and its game against Rutgers. That leaves six opponents.

Princeton plays Syracuse and Hopkins every year, and that almost always (but not this year) affords the chance for a Top 10 win or two. That also leaves four opponents.

Princeton played Manhattan, which is not a top level team but is the kind of local, decent early-season matchup that every top team plays.

That left three teams for Princeton to schedule.

And Princeton went out and chose three teams that played in the NCAA tournament last year: Hofstra, Carolina and Villanova. Princeton blew out Hofstra and Villanova, but Hofstra has been done in by a series of one-goal losses and Villanova, like Princeton, is a bubble team.

And Carolina? That's the one that got away.

Suppose, though, Princeton had decided to drop Hofstra and Carolina and pick up instead a couple of Patriot League opponents. Then Princeton would have been accused of softening its schedule.

But how did anyone know that Lehigh and Colgate would become Top 10 teams? Had Princeton wanted to go that route, it could have just as easily scheduled, say, Lafayette and Army and missed out on the chance for quality wins, and yet here Lehigh and Colgate are in the Top 10.

In other words, you have to schedule and hope for the best.

Going back to Top 10 wins, Villanova has one - Lehigh. On Feb. 18. If you're a Princeton fan, by the way, root for Villanova to win the Big East tournament, though it would need to beat Notre Dame in the final. If that happens, Nova could be a Top 10 team, and Princeton's win would become a Top 10 win.

Penn State has one. The Nittany Lions beat Notre Dame. On Feb. 26. By a score of 4-3.

And then there's Navy. The Mids didn't even qualify for the Patriot League tournament, but they suddenly now find themselves with two huge legs up to the NCAA tournament - a .500 record at 6-6 and two Top 10 wins, over Colgate and Johns Hopkins.

That's Colgate, by the way, who lost 9-6 to Dartmouth, a team Princeton beat 21-6.

But the selections don't have any room for comparative scores or even a "as a committee we watched Team A and Team B and thought Team A was better" logic.

So where does that leave Princeton?

The Tigers host Cornell Saturday night (7) in a game that once figured to be huge and now isn't as big as it once was (though a Princeton win would mean an outright Ivy title).

 Why? Because the winner of the game won't get a Top 10 win. If it's Cornell, Princeton isn't in the Top 10. If it's Princeton, Cornell will drop out of the Top 10 (that's RPI, by the way).

The logic used to be that Princeton would be safe with a win over Cornell in the regular season, even if it didn't win the Ivy tournament. And that Cornell was safe no matter what.

Now? Each time Syracuse loses, Cornell's best win gets a little more precarious.

Still, there is a huge silver lining for Princeton.

Just win, baby.

Win the Ivy tournament - which will be held at either Princeton or Cornell, depending who wins Saturday - and Princeton is in with the Ivy's automatic bid.

And hey, a win over Cornell this weekend might still be just enough to push Princeton over the top at-large-wise, especially if Villanova wins and - don't say it - Denver loses in the ECAC tournament.

Or, it could be that the winner of the Ivy tournament is the only Ivy team in the tournament.

Princeton is ranked 13th this week in both the media and coaches' polls. Is no one watching Princeton?

TigerBlog is, and he knows how good this team is.

And he hopes they get the chance to show it.