Playing Favorites

TigerBlog has done a lot of radio in his life, probably more than just about anyone else who isn't actually a radio person.

He began doing it while at Penn, where among his broadcasting partners were Scott Graham, who ended up doing the Phillies on the radio for a few years and now does a lot of work with NFL Films and is also the voiceover for just about anything you'll hear on radio or TV, and a bunch of guys who are now lawyers or investment bankers.

Oh, and Paul Jolovitz, who has something to do with radio in Philadelphia, especially with the Eagles.

TigerBlog first did Princeton basketball on the radio with David Brody, who, TB believes, took over for Howard David. TB doesn't remember exactly how he went from simply covering the games for the newspaper to being Brody's partner; it just seemed to happen one day.

In fact, TB was part of something that almost never happens on basketball on the radio, a three-man booth with Brody and former Tiger center Rich Simkus. As TB remembers, it sort of worked, especially since Princeton spent so much time moving the ball around on offense that there was time for TB and Simkus to both make their points and make fun of each other.

TB's radio career has been more of necessity, as in there really hasn't been anyone else to do the games or he does them cheap (as in for free). He's not the greatest radio guy out there, but he'd say he's pretty good at it.

He's done a ton of basketball and not as much football, and he has done lacrosse by himself for a long time - something that's not easy to do.

Since 2005, TB has been the PA announcer for football here, and he's never been able to figure out whether he likes radio or PA better.

Among the men's basketball voices TB has worked with here have been Tom McCarthy, Dan Loney and John Sadak, who has been the Tiger play-by-play man for a number of years now.

Starting this season, Derek Jones will be replacing Sadak, coming to the men's radio chair after calling women's games previously, like Sadak did as well.

Jones' former and new teams have both been selected as the preseason favorites in Ivy League basketball.

The women are seeking their fourth consecutive championship. The men are seeking their 27th overall and second in three years.

Each league school had two of its media members vote in the preseason polls, and a national writer was added in as well, meaning there were 17 voters in each poll or 34 overall.

Speaking of polls, TB has always wanted to be polled about a political race but never has been.

Anyway, between the 34 votes in the two polls, Princeton received 29 first-place votes. A bit stunningly, Princeton actually got more first-place votes on the men's side than the women's.

The men were picked on 16 of the 17 ballots, while the women were picked on 13 of 17.

In case you forgot, the Princeton women went 14-0 in the Ivy League last year and won all 14 games by double figures, including 12 of 14 by at least 20. The Tigers were ranked in the Top 25 at season's end, becoming the first Ivy school to be so honored.

In the last three years, Princeton is 41-1 in the Ivy League. Yes, the Tigers did graduate 1,000-point scorers Devona Allgood and Lauren Edwards, but Niveen Rasheed returns for her senior year as by far the best player in the league.

But hey, it's okay not to be unanimous. Last year, Princeton picked up 14 first-place votes in the preseason poll. TB respects the opinion of the four this year who picked Harvard to win the league, though he would like to hear the logic.

As for the men, size certainly won't be a problem, as nine of the 14 members of the team are at least 6-8 and five of the 14 are at least 6-10.

Princeton has the benefit of its summer trip to Spain under its belt as preseason practices are moving along and opening day approaches. Like the women, the men also have a total superstar to build around, in the case of the men the wildly athletic and talented Ian Hummer, who is a Big East player in the Ivy League.

Back about this time 15 years ago (maybe even 15 years ago today, for that matter), Bill Carmody said at Ivy League basketball media day - they used to have those types of things - that his unanimously selected team should be the favorite, based on what they had back, and that he would have voted for his team as well.

It was a far cry from what Pete Carril used to say before each season, which was this: "I'm still trying to figure out what game we're going to win."

Anyway, that 1997-98 Princeton team featured Mitch Henderson and Brian Earl, who are now the head coach and assistant coach for the 2012-13 team. The 1997-98 Tigers went out and destroyed the league, rose into the national Top 10 and have just recently been mentioned by Sports Illustrated's Alex Wolff as one of the most influential teams of all time for the impact that running the Princeton Offense would have as a result of that success.

So the 2012-13 Princeton men and women are favored. Now they just have to go out and do it on the court.

It should be a fun winter around here.