Have A Great Thanksgiving

The fall/winter crossover season is pretty much over, with only the men's water polo team's NCAA tournament appearance in California next weekend still to be played.

After several weeks of craziness all around, this week is a quite a bit tamer. The Princeton Athletics schedule is pretty quiet, with only six events — and one at home — from this past Monday through this coming Sunday.

This offers all of the people in the athletic department who have been all over the show these last few weeks to finally exhale. You know the names of the coaches and athletes who compete, but the names of those who work behind the scenes to make it all possible are largely anonymous. 

TigerBlog would list them, but he'd leave someone out and doesn't want to risk that. Rest assured that were it not for all of them, there would be no Princeton sports, and again, rest assured that every one of them has worked especially hard the last few weeks to make sure everything is covered.

That home game is Saturday at 2, when the men's basketball team hosts Northeastern in Jadwin Gym. The Tigers also have a game today at 4 at Old Dominion, which you can see on ESPN+ if you're not in Norfolk, Va.

The women's basketball team also has two games, though they are both in the same location — Fort Myers, Fla. Carla Berube's team will play a pair of ranked teams there, first taking on No. 22 Oklahoma tomorrow at 3 and then No. 21 Indiana Saturday at 11 am. 

For its part, Princeton isn't ranked, but it is fourth in the "others receiving votes" category. By the way, UCLA, who beat Princeton 77-74 last week, has moved up to No. 2 in the poll this week. 

The men's hockey team is at Ohio State for games Friday and Saturday, with puck drop at 5 both days. And that is that for this week's schedule.

Why is it so light?

As you know, tomorrow is Thanksgiving.

TigerBlog has included these thoughts on the holiday almost every year:

As holidays go, you can't do much better than Thanksgiving. It's got it all, really: a huge meal (with turkey, no less), football, family, history (dates back to 1621), start of a four-day weekend for most people, leftovers. It's even a secular holiday, so every American can dive right in, regardless of religion.
 
The Lions and the Cowboys, obviously, always play at home on Thanksgiving, and the NFL has now added a third game (maybe a little too much). Beyond watching football, how many out there have played their own Thanksgiving football games, all of which, by the way, are named "the Turkey Bowl?"

The holiday may lag behind Christmas in terms of great Hollywood movies, and "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" is no match for "A Charlie Brown Christmas" or "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown." Still, there are some great moments in movies and TV shows around Thanksgiving.

Rocky and Adrian had their first date on Thanksgiving – "To you it's Thanksgiving; to me it's Thursday," Rocky said romantically – as did Meadow and Jackie Jr. on "The Sopranos" (it didn't quite work out as well as it did for Rocky and Adrian). "Everybody Loves Raymond" had two pretty good Thanksgiving episodes, the one where Marie makes a low-fat dinner and the one where Debra makes fish instead of turkey. As an aside, TigerBlog's Aunt Regina once made Cornish game hens instead of turkey, so he knows how they all felt. And of course, there was the Thanksgiving episode of "Cheers," which has the big food fight at the end.

The Woody Allen movie "Hannah and Her Sisters" starts and ends on two different Thanksgivings. "Miracle on 34th Street" is a Christmas movie, but it does start with the Thanksgiving parade in New York City.

And of course, there is the best of all Thanksgiving movies: "Planes, Trains and Automobiles." It'll make you laugh a lot and cry a little, and it ends on Thanksgiving.

TB wishes everyone a great holiday and hopes that maybe you take a few minutes to think about what you really are thankful for these days.