Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Tigers, Tigers, Tigers - And Mark Turgeon - You've Been TAGD

Okay, Tigers, Tigers, Tigers and more Tigers. Wherever you are Tigers. All over the country and the world, Tigers.

Today is TAGD.

That's Tiger Athletics Give Day. The third one, to be precise.

TigerBlog was at his desk yesterday when two-time TAGD champ Luis Nicolao, the men's and women's water polo coach, walked in to say hi.

TigerBlog had done Luis a favor back when he was in Portugal with men's lacrosse a few weeks ago, buying him a pin at the Hard Rock Cafe in Lisbon. Unfortunately, TB forgot to use Luis' rewards number, so he had to give him the receipt so Luis could get the credit to his account, on top of the pin.

As TB was going through a bunch of stuff the other day, he found the receipt. And on the receipt, it mentioned how to get rewards credit online, so TB brought it with him to give to Luis.

For the record, TigerBlog paid for the pin, Luis offered to pay TB back and TB wouldn't take Luis' money. Also, some of the friendliest people you'll ever meet work at the Lisbon Hard Rock Cafe.

Anyway, when Luis came in to get the receipt, he was wearing a TigerUp t-shirt. He's ready for TAGD. TigerBlog could tell yesterday how much he wants to win again, how competitive he is.

That's one of the best parts about TAGD. It takes incredibly competitive people and pits them against each other to see who can do the best job of mobilizing their alums and Friends.

TAGD goes from midnight to midnight, Eastern time. The first two TAGDs rank 1-2 in the most gifts ever given to Princeton in a single day.

If you want more information on TAGD, go to the event website right HERE.

And again, the money that is raised goes directly to helping Princeton's athletes and coaches have the best possible experience they can. It goes right to what each team needs most.

Also, one of the best parts about TAGD is that it's also a competition for the most total gifts, not just the most money, so every single gift is important.

One person who should be giving some money to Princeton's Friends of Basketball is Mark Turgeon, the head coach at the University of Maryland. Will he? No. But he should.

After all, it's the least he could do.

Turgeon is 3-0 against Princeton alums this year, with three wins by a combined 13 points, all three of which were heartbreakers for the former Tigers.

Maryland defeated Mike Brennan and American 62-56 in a game American led with six minutes to go and trailed by one at the under-4 media timeout.

Then it was the Georgetown game. Against John Thompson's Hoyas, Turgeon trailed by six with 37 seconds to go and then rallied to win 76-75. TigerBlog wasn't watching and could only follow on his phone, and he had to refresh it a few times before he believed it was true.

Finally, there was the game Friday against Richmond and Chris Mooney. This time, Maryland needed overtime before it would win by six.

That's three wins in three games, all of which could have gone the other way.

So c'mon Turgeon. You can give a little here to make up for it. Buck up, buddy. You can be a Friend of Princeton Basketball.

As for the current men's basketball team, the Tigers will be playing at VCU. That's Virginia Commonwealth, by the way, a school in Richmond that will be playing in front of its 86th straight sell out crowd.

VCU is 5-1 on the season, with its only loss by eight to Baylor, a Top 10 team, at the Paradise Jam in the Bahamas last week.

Princeton comes in after putting up 108 points in its last game, against Rowan. The Tigers allowed 46. You can do the math.

Yes, Rowan is Division III team. Still, only four times in program history has Princeton scored more points than it did the other day, and all four of those games were between 1965 and 1967.

Next up for Princeton? A trip to Hawaii, to take on Cal and Hawaii at Pearl Harbor. It's see-the-world time for the Tigers.

And again, a little reminder for the Tigers from all over the world. It's TAGD. Have fun, and help out if you can. You know your gift is important, and you know it's appreciated.

That goes for Tigers everywhere. Tigers, Tigers, Tigers - and Mark Turgeon

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

As a Princeton alum, I love the opportunity to talk to the current athletes about their experiences and compare them to my own. It's definitely a different world now, but the constant is the name itself. Princeton. Having the TAGD day is a great idea, because it appeals to so many of us who want to keep the Princeton spirit going and help out the current athletes any way we can. And we want our team to be the TAGD winner!!! So TigerUp everybody.