96 For 187

TigerBlog's car is lacking in frills, which is fine with him.

One thing it does have is one of those built-in cords that connects his iPhone to his car radio, so he can play his music over the speakers in his car, rather than through the phone itself. Of course, it took TB until he'd put nearly 8,000 miles on the car to realize this, so he's mostly been listening to his music through the phone itself, which isn't nearly as high quality.

TigerBlog had to get a new car - well didn't have to, chose to - when TigerBlog Jr. started to drive. TB chose to give his son his old car, which has 170,000 miles on it, and get a new one, which TBJ originally, mistakingly and somewhat hilariously thought was going to go to him.

If you're a parent, then you know that there are three moments in a child's life that really, really make life easier for the mother and/or father.

First, there is getting out of diapers, a huge saver of money and ick-factor.

Then there is the ability to leave the child home alone. At first, this is a highly traumatic and stressful event for the parent, who runs to the store, grabs the first four things on the shelf and then runs home, only to find a completely find 11- or 12- or so year old exactly how the child was left 15 minutes earlier. Gradually that works its way up to a completely stress-free "text me if you need me" situation for the parent.

Lastly, there is driving.

Again, this starts out as highly stressful. TigerBlog isn't sure which is more of a potential problem, leaving a younger teenager home alone or letting an older teenager drive. Still, there is no arguing that a safe teenage driver is a marvelous advancement in parental ease.

To be honest, it takes awhile for a parent to really feel calm when the 16- or 17-year-old heads out in the car. Actually, TB isn't quite there yet, and is probably a few years away from it.

For the amount of running around it cuts down on for the parent, though, it's heavenly.

At first, it's hard for the parent to keep remembering that the child can do simple things, like go for a haircut or pick up a pizza. That's because there are years and years and years of conditioning that stems from constantly driving kids all over creation. And then, just like that, there's a simpler solution.

Hey, Miss TigerBlog was at the mall the other day, and TB simply summoned TBJ to go get her.

Of course, that doesn't always go well, like the time last week when TBJ left MTB stranded outside her school for 30 minutes before he showed up. But all's well that ends well.

Bob Surace, Princeton's head football coach, has two kids, a daughter named Allie and a son named A.J. They are almost, but not quite, to the second parental-ease function of being able to be left alone.

So with school ended but summer camps not yet started, Surace brought both of them to Jadwin with him one day last week. TigerBlog used to do that with his kids as well.

Today Surace came into the OAC holding a t-shirt left over from former Princeton quarterback and current Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett's camp here last weekend. He gave one to Craig Sachson, the OAC's resident Cowboys fan, the t-shirt and then offered one to TB, though he knew that TB, a Giants fan, would not accept it.

There seem to be more random NFL fans who live nowhere near the teams they root for than there are in other sports, and it seems to TB that that has gone on forever. He knows a Newtown (Pa.) police officer/youth lacrosse coach named Paul Deppi who for some reason has been a diehard Seattle Seahawks fan for a few decades, something that finally paid off last season when his beloved team won the Super Bowl. The only problem with that is convincing everyone else that you're not a bandwagon fan.

Most people, though, root for the team geographically close, which is how TB became a Giants fan in the first place. The Cowboys do serve an important function in this area: They give some common ground to Eagles and Giants fans, who can unite in their dislike of Dallas.

Anyway, as Surace was leaving, he pointed to the picture on the top shelf of TB's office, the one of Chris Marquardt as he makes a layup against Loyola Marymount in the final regular season game of 1991. A packed Jadwin Gym - packed like TB has never seen it on any other occasion - looks on in the background.

Surace mentioned that he'd just seen Marquardt at Reunions, and he mentioned that Marquardt's kids looked just like him.

Marquardt - TigerBlog didn't have to look up that he went to Clearwater Central Catholic High in Florida - stands 6-9, but he was much more of a three-point shooter than an inside player. As a senior in 1991, he was among the Division I leaders in three-point percentage, and TB thinks he might have actually been second.

The Division I leader in 1990 was a different Tiger, Matt Lapin, whom Pete Carril nicknamed "Slapper" after an uncharacteristic blocked shot. Lapin shot 53.4% from three-point range in 1990, making 71 of 133.

Surace suggested that Slapper was the all-time leader in three-point percentage at Princeton, but TB thought it was Dave Orlandini. TB also pointed out to Surace that he'd never met Orlandini, something that surprised Surace. TB is pretty sure Orlandini was a South Jersey guy, just like Surace.

Anyway, TB was right about the record. Actually, records.

Orlandini holds both the career and single-season percentage records. And then numbers are ridiculous.

Orlandini, who graduated with John Thompson in 1988, shot 60 for 110 in 1987-88, for a school record 54.5%. For his career - which only included two years with the three-pointer, which wasn't the rule until 1986-87 - he shot 96 for 187, or 51.3%. That's nuts. Go out on the court with nobody else out there and take 187 three-pointers. See how many go in.

TigerBlog leaves you today with this little quiz.

Orlandini is one of two Princeton players with a career three-point percentage of at least 50% and one of six to do so in a single season (obviously he's talking about those who met the minimum number of attempts, not someone who was 3 for 6). Can you name the others? TB gives you a few paragraphs to think about it.

Also, no women's player has ever shot 50% for a career or a single-season. Sandi Bittler holds the record for both, at 46.1% for her career and 47.5% for a single-season.

In the meantime, TB did want to mention about song lyrics and singing along with one's favorite songs.

Even when it's a song that someone has heard a billion times (like TB with the Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band song "Backstreets), there can be a line or two where the lyrics have never been clear. In that case, the person doing the singing in the car does one of three things.

First, there is simply getting the lyrics wrong. Second, there is singing really loudly up until the line where the song lyric isn't clear and then skipping that line. Third, there is singing really loudly up until the line of the uncertain lyric and then singing something close to the words (even if they aren't really words but just sounds that closely mirror the actual words) really, really softly.

Anyway, enough about that. Here's the answer:

For his career, Orlandini was .513 (96 for 187). Tim Neff was second at .512 (65 for 127), in the same years as Orlandini.

For a single season, this is the list:
1. Orlandini .545 (60 for 110, 1987-88)
2. Lapin .534 (71 for 133, 1989-90)
3. Neff .5164 (63 for 122, 1987-88)
4. Will Barrett .5161 (48 for 93, 2012-13)
5. Marcus Schroder .512 (22 for 43, 2008-09)
6. Matt Henshon .500 (20 for 40, 1990-91)

And that's it for today ...