That's Cold

TigerBlog was doing the PA at a high school girls' lacrosse game last night, and he can tell you first hand that it was beyond freezing.

The temperature was 39. The wind chill was probably half that. And this was late April?

What's up with that?

If you consider a nice spring day to be something between, say, 62 and 72 degrees with perhaps a gentle breeze and sunshine, then the greater Princeton metropolitan area has had exactly none of those yet. Okay, maybe one or two. Maybe three at the most.

There have been a few where it's been near 80 already. Just nothing spring-like.

TigerBlog grew up an hour east of Princeton. He remembers great springs, with great spring weather.

One of his best memories of his old house was the window in the kitchen. It had a long metal rod that slid out, pushing the window back. With the rod was pulled in as much as it would go, it had to be turned to the right to be secured and locked.

He used to love when that window was open in the spring and the fresh air would pour inside the house.

There was a line of trees that started at the end of his block and ended in TigerBlog's backyard, which was the halfway point of his street. The edge of the treeline always formed a great blend of green leaves against the blue sky on the nicest spring days.

He can almost see it now, looking up and out of that window.

Anyway, as TigerBlog was at the girls lacrosse game shivering, he thought about the Penn Relays. So he texted Mike Henderson, Princeton's Director of Track Operations and an honorary member of the Office of Athletic Communications - he is a former SID and his desk is in this office.

"Warm?" TB asked. "So cold" was the response.

Princeton had a good start to the Penn Relays.

Julia Ratcliffe won the hammer throw. The 4x400 men's relay advanced to the Championship of America final for tomorrow, defeating such notables as LSU and Texas A&M. All three women in the 5K - Kathrn Fluehr, Kathryn Little and Erika Fluehr all ran personal bests. In the steeplechase championship, junior Emily de La Bruyere ran 10:38.03 to finish in sixth place.

Princeton did well on a cold night.

You want really cold?

The Tewaaraton Trophy nominees were announced this morning. The top 25 players in Division I, for men and women.

Well, supposedly top 25.

You can't tell TigerBlog that Kip Orban and Mike MacDonald don't belong on the list. At least one of them.

There were six offensive middies nominated. None of them is Orban.

Of course, none of them have as many goals as Orban, who has 36. None of them have a shooting percentage anywhere near that of Orban's .429 (none is better than .350, actually).

MacDonald? He's fourth in Division I in points per game and sixth in goals per game. Neither was nominated.

TigerBlog will never figure out why Orban doesn't get his due. He wasn't even honorable mention All-Ivy last year, let alone All-America. He wasn't a preseason All-America this year.

Each game now he seems to pass someone on Princeton's season or career scoring list who regular earned both of those honors. The same is true with MacDonald.

Oh well. It doesn't really matter, TB supposes. Orban and the Tigers have more important things to worry about now.

What matters is tomorrow's game at Cornell. Princeton-Cornell men's lacrosse is one of the best events on the Ivy League athletic calendar each year. Cornell has won 28 Ivy titles. Princeton has won 27. Nobody else has won more than eight. They are by far the dominant teams in Ivy men's lacrosse history.

Princeton has already assured itself a share of the league title and a spot in next week's Ivy tournament. A win over Cornell would mean an outright championship and that the men's tournament would join the women's tournament in Princeton. Princeton's women have already sewn that up, though those Tigers need a win over Brown tomorrow or a Penn loss tomorrow to get the outright Ivy championship.

Back at the men, a Cornell win would mean that the tournament would be in Providence if coupled with a Brown win over Dartmouth or in Ithaca should Brown lose.

Princeton is also playing to get into the NCAA tournament. If the Tigers don't get the automatic bid from the league, then they will find themselves as probably either the last team in or first team out. Every game is huge now, especially in an Ivy League that could get four teams into the NCAAs.

Still, TigerBlog can't help but be a bit, well, pissed off about the way Orban has been consistently overlooked.

Back when TB first started doing radio for Princeton basketball, he was often part of a three-man radio crew with David Brody and Rich Simkus. One night, as halftime came, TigerBlog said that Pete Carril looked "pissed off" as he left the court.

Brody and Simkus then looked at him without speaking, at which TB said "what, you can't say 'pissed off' on the radio?"

At that point, Brody said: "I guess you can, because you just did. Twice."

The same applies here. Can TB say "pissed off?" He must be able to do, since he's said it a bunch of times.

But it applies in this case.

Orban deserves better. So does MacDonald.