Monday, April 21, 2014

Serving Notice

How many Tweets do you suppose are sent out there for the world to see each year?

The people at Twitter don't publish such statistics, so TigerBlog can't vouch for the reliability of what he learned. As near as he can figure it, there are 21,170,000,000 Tweets per year. That's more than 21 trillion.

Of all of those Tweets, it's hard to imagine any will be better than the one sent out by Scott Jurgens over the weekend. Scott, if you don't know, used to the head of marketing at Princeton and is now an Associate Athletic Director at Montana State.

So what did he Tweet to separate himself from the other 21 trillion, give or take? Just this:

"So I have determined that if Barnaby, my dog, would talk that he would talk and act like Johnny Utah from Point Break!"

It's untoppable, right?

First of all, TigerBlog is on record as saying that he thinks Point Break is a great movie. In fact, he wrote this in 2009:
One of TigerBlog's favorite movies is "Point Break," a great action movie with a tremendous plot and some great performances. Okay, it's true. TB admits it. He was even okay with the job that Keanu Reeves did as Johnny Utah. The movie is basically about a young FBI agent (Reeves) with a crusty old partner (Gary Busey) who chase a bunch of surfer/bank robbers led by their leader (Patrick Swayze). It has some great action scenes and chase scenes, and TB was able to forgive the ending.

Okay, Reeves didn't quite win an Academy Award. But Johnny Utah was a great character. A former college football hotshot quarterback who tore up his knee, ending his chances at the NFL, only to resurface in the FBI - where his first big assignment is to learn to to surf.

TigerBlog's only question - well, he has a bunch of questions - is why Barnaby would most take after Johnny Utah if he could transform from canine to human. And TB thought Barnaby and Jurgens already were speaking to each other.

There's a great picture in Gary Walters' office of the women's tennis team after the Tigers won the championship in 2010. It's a picture of the team as it got off the bus, and there on the end are Walters (TB gets that) and Jurgens (TB doesn't quite get that).

TB isn't sure how Jurgens ended up in the picture. He thinks Scott told him once, but he can't remember the story. Maybe he'll ask Barnaby.

That 2010 women's tennis championship was Princeton's second straight. Now, after three years without a championship, the 2014 women's tennis team is back on top of the league and headed to the NCAA tournament.

Princeton defeated Columbia yesterday 6-1 to finish a perfect run through the Ivy League at 7-0, and that's not something that's easy to do. To get to 7-0, Princeton had to defeat three ranked teams - Yale, Harvard and Columbia. The wins over Yale and Columbia were over the teams that shared the league championship a year ago.

Princeton did not have a senior in the lineup yesterday. The six players who played the singles matches included three freshmen, along with a sophomore and two juniors. There was another freshman who played doubles.

Laura Granville is in Year 2 as the Tiger head coach. A year ago, Princeton went 4-3 in the league, with losses to Yale, Harvard and Columbia. In fact, Princeton lost to the Lions 7-0 to end the 2013 season.

This year is another story. Princeton has won 10 straight matches, ending its non-league season by defeating Florida International, Maryland and FDU.

Then, in its perfect league run, Princeton had only one 4-3 match, the win over Yale, which would be Yale's only league loss. The Tigers sealed that win with a three-set victory at No. 1 by Lindsay Graff, a junior.

Princeton clinched at least a share of the league title Friday with its win over Cornell. Columbia, with a loss to Yale, had one league loss, so a Lions' win over Princeton could have set up a three-way tie for the championship.

Instead, this was all Princeton. The Tigers won the doubles point and then five of six singles matches, wrapping up an Ivy title and earning a spot in the NCAA tournament. The draw will be announced next week.

In the process, Princeton had a 13-point swing against Columbia, going from 7-0 down last year to 6-1 up this year.

And keep in mind how young the Tiger lineup is.

Of course, with how competitive Ivy women's tennis is, there are no guarantees. Still, Princeton figure to right there again for the next few years.

This year Princeton sent a message to the rest of the league. Serving notice, as it were.

Princeton women's tennis - 2014 Ivy League champ.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This was an excellent job by players and coaches. You noted that they upended three teams ranked above them, a remarkable showing.