End Of Season 5

TigerBlog, for the third time, would like to mention his lone experience with "Star Wars."

It was back when the movie first came out, back in 1977. TB and BrotherBlog were in New York and went to see it, only they went at the wrong time, so they watched the second half of the movie.

And that's the extent of TB's "Star Wars" experience. BrotherBlog went on to see four of the first six and now has tickets to see the new one in IMAX Sunday.

TigerBlog is probably in the minority of adults in this country in terms of the amount of "Star Wars" he's seen. He's okay with it.

TigerBlog Jr., technically an adult these days, has seen every minute of every "Star Wars" movie, most of them more than once. He was there for "Star Wars - The Force Awakens" this past weekend, at a midnight show no less.

He is not the only one to go see the movie in the first weekend it was out. Basically, the "Star Wars" people were just printing all the money they wanted once the movie hit the theaters.

For this past weekend, TigerBlog was more interested in the final episode of Season 5 of "Homeland" than the movie. While he's hardly seen any "Star Wars," TB has seen every episode of "Homeland."

TigerBlog mentioned when this current season started that no show he's ever seen has done a better job of reinventing itself than "Homeland." Of the 22 characters listed in Season 1 as either "main" or "recurring," only two - Carrie and Saul - were still on the show in Season 5.

That's bold.

Like the other seasons, this past season had 12 episodes, which might have been two or three more than necessary. Still, by mid-season "Homeland" had found its storyline and stride, and it ended up being a great ending to the season. The final episode wasn't as dramatic as the two that preceded it, but it was still pretty good.

The best part of "Homeland" remains that it forces the viewer to realize that in today's world, this is not just fiction. There really are Carries and Sauls out there, and their jobs are real-life dramas that involve life and death, saving the first and preventing the second for people who will never know just what goes into keeping them safe.

If you're only going to watch 12 episodes of one TV show and that's it, watch Season 1 of "Homeland." It's the best season of any television show ever made, in TB's opinion. Season 5? It's not as good as Season 1, but it's still well worth watching.

So that's the TV viewing from this past weekend.

Well, that and the Princeton-Maryland men's basketball game.

Princeton lost 82-61 to Maryland in Baltimore Saturday night. Yes, Princeton lost by 21, but hey, don't be shocked if Maryland is the last team standing come NCAA tournament time.

As for Princeton, the Tigers were again led by Henry Caruso, who had 17 in the loss. Caruso is averaging 18.3 points per game for the 6-3 Tigers.

TigerBlog said this last week: TB wondered who possibly stopped Caruso in high school. His goprincetontigers.com bio doesn't mention his career point total, only that he averaged 21 as a senior, 16 as a junior and 12 as a sophomore and that he was the second-leading scorer in Juniperro Serra High School history. TB will find out how many he had and who had more than he did. Regardless, Caruso is a natural, pure, innate scorer.


Well, TB's colleague Andrew Borders had the answers.


Caruso scored 1,453 points in his career at Junipero Serra High School in California. The all-time leader with 1,490 is Tim Kennedy, who went on to play at Loyola Marymount.


The last Princeton athletic event before Christmas is tonight, when the men's basketball team hosts Bucknell at 7.


Bucknell brings a 3-6 record to Jadwin, but don't sell the Bison short. Bucknell is always good.


A year ago, Bucknell won the Patriot League regular-season championship. In fact, that's four Patriot League regular-season titles in five years. The Bison lost in the Patriot semifinals a year ago and then payed in the NIT, losing 73-67 to Temple.

So yeah, Bucknell will be a good test.

If nothing else, this is the last Princeton home men's basketball game for nearly five weeks (Bryn Athyn is at Princeton in the post-exam game Jan. 24)  and the last home game against a Division I team until the Harvard/Dartmouth weekend Feb. 5 and 6.

Oh, and the first 500 fans in attendance receive a Princeton beanie. TigerBlog has one. They're definitely worth it.