Last Look Back

Well, this certainly is a busy week.

Here are just a few of the items TigerBlog has on his agenda: 

* Andrei Iosivas' preseason debut with the Bengals

* Ivy League football media day

* women's soccer on the new practice field

* the Women's World Cup

* Episode 4 of "March of the Tigers"

* the situation with the Baltimore Orioles' announcer

* the English Premier League kicks off

* the Premier Lacrosse League heads down the stretch 

* the great story about the Saints' rookie kicker

* summer reading list

* the new look princeton.edu website

Where in the world do you start? In the past, or in the future? 

The past it is. 

The new athletic year begins a week from Friday, when the women's soccer team — whose practice was in full swing when TB walked in Jadwin yesterday morning — hosts Monmouth (not Colgate) for the first of its three home games in six days to end August. Before then, here is one last look back at the quite remarkable 2022-23 season.

And hey, TB doesn't even have to do the heavy lifting on this one. His colleague Chas Dorman already took care of that for him. 

If you went to goprincetontigers.com yesterday, you got to see the piece that Chas put together on all of the league and national championships that the Tigers won last academic year. There are certainly a lot of them.

Here is the introductory paragraph: 

When Princeton's 38 varsity programs convened together at the start of the 2022-23 school year, each had a singular vision – compete for championships. When the final competitor crossed the finish line at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in June of 2023, the final tally stood at 16 conference championships and nine national titles. Take a look back at the championship moments from the 2022-23 Princeton Tigers as presented by Hamilton Jewelers.

You can see the piece HERE.

This is actually one of those stories where the photo on top tells you a great deal of what you need to know. For a lot of schools, that's a decade's worth of trophies for the case. Here? That was one year. 

Of course, what is it they say? Past performance is no indication of future success. Or, if you need a visual, there's this:

What does he say? All glory is fleeting.

That's the challenge as a new academic year begins. Yes, Princeton won 16 titles last year. Yes, Princeton won 16 more the year before. 

This is a new year, though. Nothing is ever taken for granted. If TB has learned anything from all his time here, that's what it is. Success is never taken for granted. Every year is a new challenge.

Having said that, there is some glory that stays forever. 

To complete a last look back at last year, what better way is there than to remember the men's basketball team's run to the Sweet 16. And what better way to do it than with the fourth installment of "March of the Tigers."

The videos keep getting better, or maybe it's just that the memories of that magical time keeps getting better. Either way, the current one is on Princeton's win over Missouri in the NCAA second round last March in Sacramento. It's the win that put Princeton into the Sweet 16.

As with the other videos, there's always something you see when you watch this one that you didn't exact remember 100 percent correctly. In this case, TB forgot the 7-0 run by Missouri to end the first half and cut a 14-point Princeton lead down to seven (TB almost said "Tiger lead," but they're both Tigers).

There was a great quote from associate head coach Brett McConnell, who talks about how he walked off the court disappointed that the team was only up seven and then had to catch himself and realize that they were up seven at the half in the second round of the NCAA tournament. 

TigerBlog didn't realize the game was that close at the break. Of course, he was a bit busy at the time, with the game on one computer while doing stats for Princeton-Penn men's lacrosse on another. He does remember the second half, though, when Princeton pulled away, when Blake Peters caught fire, when Missouri looked shell-shocked and when the ending was never in doubt in the final seven minutes or so.

It was a thing of beauty. You can remember it here: