Shown

Everyone, TigerBlog presumes, has seen the infamous Pelaton commercial by now.

You know the one. The wife and mother wakes up to find her gift is a new, very expensive exercise bike, and she then goes through her first year with the machine and how it "changes her."

Opinion seems to be pretty split between whether or not it's an appropriate gift and a fine commercial or the epitome of sexism.

TigerBlog's opinion is a little different. Get a real bike and go outside and ride. Who cares if it's cold. Put on layers.

This is obviously a major holiday week, with Christmas of course coming up on Wednesday.

For Princeton Athletics, it's a very rare week. In fact, it's the only week other than during first semester exams next month when there will be no athletic events at all for the Tigers.

There was a women's basketball game Friday in St. Louis. There will be a men's hockey game at home against Quinnipiac Saturday at 7.

In between? Nothing but holidays.

In fact, Princeton has eight athletic events in the calendar year of 2019. Of those eight, five of them will be Sunday, when the men's hockey team, men's and women's basketball team, wrestling team and men's volleyball teams are all playing.

There will be a basketball doubleheader Sunday at Jadwin Gym, as the women host New Hampshire at 1 and the men host Lehigh at 4.

As for the women's basketball team, the Tigers had quite a run through Missouri last week. Show me (as in the "Show Me State?").

Consider the Tigers to have shown.

First there was a game at Missouri, a Big 12 Conference school that has been to four straight NCAA tournaments.

The Princeton Tigers held those Tigers to 33 points, the lowest total Missouri has ever had, in a 68-33 win.

Here were Missouri's point totals by quarter in that game: 5, 10, 9, 9. That's suffocating.

Up next was a trip to St. Louis, an A10 school that was 7-3 coming in. Princeton won that one 66-50.

Princeton is now 11-1 on the season with only the game against New Hampshire left before the Ivy league season begins. The Tigers are also ranked eighth in Division I in scoring defense, allowing 51.4 points per game.

Princeton is 6-0 in December, and all six of those wins have been by double figures. No team has scored more than 55 points against the Tigers in that run.

That's an extraordinary run of defensive consistency.

The win over St. Louis saw Bella Alarie go for 23 points and 13 rebounds, giving her a program-record 36 double-doubles. Prior to that, Alarie had been tied with Niveen Rasheed.

If you were to find the 50 most tuned in Princeton women's basketball fans of this past decade and asked them who the top player of the last 10 years has been, TB is pretty sure you'd get a nearly 50-50 split between Alarie and Rasheed.

That's a teaser, by the way, since in the next week-plus, there will be some good decade-in-review stuff.

In the meantime, Princeton is on the verge of the national top 25, and could very well be in it when the rankings are announced today. Princeton's RPI is currently 12.

Princeton's stats are what you'd think of when you think of a team that has gone 11-1. The Tigers lead the Ivy League in assists, blocked shots, free throws attempted, free throws made, free throw percentage, rebounds, steals, three-pointers made, three-point percentage, turnover margin, fewest turnovers committed and most turnovers caused. That's a winning hand right there.

It makes you want to see this team play again as soon as possible.

This week, though, nobody is playing. You'll have to wait until Sunday to see the Tigers again.

In the meantime, there are holidays to be enjoyed, gifts to be exchanged, family and friends to be seen and everything else that comes along at this time of year - including a pause in Princeton Athletics.