A Thursday Without Turkey

Another Thursday, though not quite like last Thursday ... 

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TigerBlog wrote about rebounding yesterday, which reminds him of something that Bill Carmody said to him before Princeton played Michigan State in 1989.

As TB recalls, Carmody said "we'll win if we get outrebounded by 15 or less." What happened? Princeton got outrebounded by 16 and lost by two.

Pete Carril once famously said: "A person's jumping ability is inversely proportional to his home's distance from the railroad tracks."

Sociologists can debate that all they wish. The reality is that at Princeton, rebounding was always an Achilles heel. The 1997-98 team, the one that went 27-2 and reached as high as No. 8 in the national rankings, was actually outrebounded by nearly three per game. You can put an asterisk on that perhaps because the Tigers shot just below 50 percent from the field for the year, so there weren't a lot of chances for offensive rebounds.

Carmody once said that his team played the "shoot and run offense," where "one guy shoots and four run back on defense." That is hardly the gameplan anymore. 

In last night's women's game against Seton Hall, Ellie Mitchell had nine rebounds despite fouling out after playing 31 minutes. With the nine rebounds, Mitchell became the four woman and sixth player in all in Princeton basketball history to reach 900 rebounds in a career. Mitchell now has 904.

As for the game, it was something of an early season classic, as the 25th-ranked Tigers and Pirates went to two overtimes before Princeton won 75-71. The biggest play of the night might have been a rebound, courtesy of Mari Bickley, a freshman who hauled in a missed Seton Hall shot in between three Pirates in the final minute of the second OT and Princeton ahead by one. 

The women are at Rhode Island Sunday.

The men defeated Bucknell 85-71 last night in Lewisburg in a game in which there were only 46 total rebounds, 23 for each team. Why so few rebounds? How about not a lot of missed shots. Both teams made better than 50 percent of their shots, including a blistering 58 percent for the Tigers, who host Furman Saturday at 2.

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One of the highlights on the weekend schedule will be held in DeNunzio Pool tomorrow through Sunday, as the men's and women's swimming and diving teams host the Big Al Invitational. For a full schedule of events, click HERE.

The competing teams will be: Princeton, Cal State Bakersfield, Columbia, Denver, George Washington, North Carolina, Penn, Penn State, Army (divers only). That's a pretty good field, with teams who will fly in and others who will swim in a pool with which they are very familiar. 

The event is named for Alan Ebersole, a Princeton swimmer who drowned in the Atlantic Ocean during a fall break trip to Florida in October 2004. The program has turned over many times since then, but it's important for everyone involved to know the name of the person for whom the meet is named.  

TigerBlog remembers when Ebersole passed away and the shock and outpouring of grief that accompanied the news from the swimming and diving teams and the department as a whole. It was one of the most emotional times he's ever seen from Ford Family Director of Athletics Emeritus Gary Walters, and many others. 

TB never met Alan Ebersole, but he's also never forgotten the empty feeling when he heard the news and when he wrote his obituary. It's hopefully of some consolation to those who knew him that his name remains a part of DeNunzio Pool.

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Wait, Ozzie Nicholas was the only defensive player to be a unanimous first-team All-Ivy League selection but was not a finalist for the Bushnell Cup? Actually, there were four unanimous first-team All-Ivy selections in all, with Harvard running back Shane McLaughlin and Yale wide receiver Mason Tipton on offense and Columbia punter William Hughes on special teams.

None of those four were finalists for the Bushnell Cup, which has two on offense (Yale QB Nolan Grooms and Brown WR Wes Rockett) and two on defense (Dartmouth DL Charlie Looes and Penn DL Joey Slackman).

Interesting, no? 

For what it's worth, Nicholas led the Ivy League in tackles with 103, or nine more than any other player and 16 ahead of third place.  

You know who didn't like that Nicholas wasn't a finalist? That would be none other than Andrei Iosivas:

 

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The College Football Playoff rankings have Ohio State at No. 6, despite only a very close, could-have-gone-either way loss at unbeaten Michigan on an otherwise perfect record? What has Florida State done to deserve to be ranked fourth, ahead of Ohio State? 

The Princeton men's hockey team was at Ohio State last weekend for a pair of games and had the chance to be around an entire community that was crushed by the result of a football game. This weekend, the Tigers are on the road, at Union tonight and RPI tomorrow night (face-off at 7 both nights).

The women are home, against RPI tonight at 6 and then against Union tomorrow afternoon at 3. 

It's way, way too early to get too hung up on the ECAC standings quite yet, though a quick look shows Princeton men tied with Clarkson for sixth place with Union and RPI tied for ninth, while on the women's side Princeton is eighth, followed by Union in ninth and RPI in 11th.

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Joe Dubuque's first dual match as Princeton head wrestling coach will be Sunday at 1 in Jadwin Gym against Indiana, who is the first team in the "others receiving votes" category in this week's poll. Indiana is also one of 13 Big Ten teams who are either ranked or receiving votes this week.

Oh, it's also Dubuque's alma mater. 

After the Indiana match, Princeton will be at No. 13 Rutgers Friday.

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There is also home men's and women's squash this weekend, while the fencing teams are at the Sacred Heart Duals. 

Oh, and there's also NCAA men's water polo and basketball. TB will have more on those tomorrow.