Princeton's Newest

There is a chance that the President of the United States will read this.

Why wouldn't he? His niece is mentioned in it.

Better he should read about how his niece - her name is Leslie Robinson - is coming to Princeton to play basketball as one of the members of the Class of 2018 than he should read the one from last Friday, when TigerBlog gave some of the worst predictions in the history of predicting when he came up with his NCAA men's lacrosse tournament thoughts.

Let's see. There were eight games over the weekend. TigerBlog got three right.

He missed on all three Ivy League teams. He was wrong about Albany against Loyola. He was wrong about Bryant against Syracuse (okay, everyone was).

He still has a shot at the national champion if Duke wins. He has Denver in the Final Four as well. On the other side of the bracket, his prediction of Loyola and Syracuse in the Final Four and Loyola in the final isn't going to happen.

The entire tournament is turned completely upside down. In fact, either Maryland, Bryant, Notre Dame or Albany will play for the national championship on Memorial Day, and would it shock anyone if that turned out to be the high-flying Great Danes and the incredible Thompsons?

Anyway, even though the President is an affirmed prognosticator of his own, he seems more interested in basketball than lacrosse. Actually, TB has no idea if President Obama is any kind of lacrosse fan at all or if he's ever held a lacrosse stick.

Basketball? That's another story. The news accounts through the years have been filled with stories and pictures of Mr. Obama on a basketball court, shooting, playing.

It's a basketball family clearly.

The Princeton connection comes from Mrs. Obama, who is a member of the Class of 1985. Her brother Craig graduated from Princeton two years before she did, and he remains now one of only two Princeton players ever to be a two-time Ivy League Player of the Year in men's basketball, along with Kit Mueller.

Leslie Robinson is Craig Robinson's daughter. She comes to Princeton from Corvallis High School in Oregon, where she averaged 22 points, nine rebounds and 3.4 assists a year ago while earning all-state honors.

Maybe the President and First Lady will come to a game during her time here. Maybe they'll wait until after his term expires in January of 2017, which would leave the Ivy League portion of her junior year and then her entire senior year.

TigerBlog has met two U.S. Presidents in his time here - Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, both after Princeton teams won NCAA titles. Whatever your political beliefs, it is a huge thrill to shake the hand of the sitting President of the United States. 

Robinson is one of three members of the incoming class of women's basketball players. 

The other two are Kenya Holland from Virginia and Tia Weledji from Kansas. That's a pretty good geographical range.

When TB first saw the names of the new recruits, he thought of Weledji and wondered how long it will take Princeton public address announcer Bill Bromberg to get it right.

Then he thought ahead, to some night in February or March 2018, when these three will presumably, hopefully be together again, this time on Senior Night at Jadwin.

TigerBlog is always fascinated by that juxtaposition. The newbies haven't even arrived on campus. And then in a blink of an eye, four years will fly by and it'll be senior night.

The goal is to win Ivy League championships and play in NCAA tournaments, something that Princeton did four straight years before falling just short this past year. The Tigers did get into the WNIT and did win a first-round game in that tournament.

The program is one of extremely high standards, beginning with the coaching staff. A season like last year's - a game off an Ivy title and a postseason win - still left everyone involved with Princeton women's basketball feeling like the big prize got away.

Now these three women will be joining the program, hoping to get it back to where everyone involved works all year to get it. The Ivy title. The NCAA tournament.

It's become a great program, filled with players who have had great experiences in their four years.

The clock for the Class of 2018 will start ticking soon.

So anyway Mr. President, TigerBlog hopes you liked reading this. He can send you some links to others if you'd like.

Just let him know. 

And of course, it's written every day, so if you want to get in the habit of checking it out on a daily basis, that's good too.

It's always good to have new readers.