Opening Tip-Offs, Closing Kick-Offs

So here's a list for you: UCLA, UConn, Texas, Miami, Tennessee.

What do they have in common? Hint, it's basketball related.

Give up? 

They're the other schools besides Princeton to have its men's team reach the Sweet 16 while its women's team won at least one game in last year's NCAA tournaments. Think about that for a few minutes.

Of course, a few minutes are all you get, because that was last season. This season is only a few minutes away, or at least a few hours. 

As hard as it might be for you to believe, tonight is opening night for the Princeton basketball teams. 

The men, fresh off one of the great achievements in Princeton Athletics history, play Rutgers in the Jersey Jam at the Cure Insurance Arena in Trenton. The women, who have won an NCAA game in back-to-back NCAA tournaments — host Duquesne in Jadwin Gym.

Rutgers and Princeton have met 110 times but have not played since the 2013-14 season. Duquesne is picked to finish fifth in the Atlantic 10. 

By the time Thanksgiving rolls around, the men and women will have combined to play nine games. The women will have played games in Tennessee and California.

There will be plenty more to write about Princeton Basketball between now and March. The Ivy League tournaments will be held this year at Columbia, and those events are a little more than four months away. 

The magic that can come with March is the culmination of a long road. The goal of both teams is to be playing their best at that time of year, which is how it worked out a year ago. For now, enjoy watching how these teams develop, which players take a big step up in their roles, which newcomers step right in and get big minutes. 

Yes, it's basketball season. 

At the same time, it's still football season and will be for two more weeks. This past game didn't go the way that Princeton might have hoped, with a frustrating 23-21 loss at Dartmouth Friday night, but there is still a ton left to play for these last two games.

Right now, Harvard is 4-1, followed by 3-2 Princeton, Yale, Penn and Dartmouth. Those first four teams all finish the season with games against two of the others:

Princeton vs. Yale, Penn
Harvard vs. Penn, Yale
Yale vs. Princeton, Harvard

As for Dartmouth, the Big Green finish the year with games against Cornell and Brown, who are both 2-3 after this past Saturday's games.

Unless Harvard wins out, then this will be the third time in league history that the champion will have two losses (the other times were 1969 and 1982). In other words, that's not something that doesn't happen often.

Will that happen? Would it shock you if Harvard finished 6-1 and was sole champ? No. Would it shock you if the Crimson lost to Penn, Yale or both? No. 

With the head-to-head matchups that remain, the permutations for the final standings are numerous. Bob Surace's message to his team after the Dartmouth loss Friday night was to worry about what Princeton can control and not worry about what it couldn't.

As for the game itself, what is it about Dartmouth's Memorial Stadium? It's a House of Horrors for Princeton. The Tigers haven't won there since 2009, and the game Friday was as frustrating as any of those. 

Princeton trailed 10-0 after 10 minutes and then rallied twice to take leads of 14-10 and 21-17 before a pair of late Dartmouth field goals ruined it for the Tigers. It was one of those games that as it ends, it's hard to consider how it got away. 

Of course, the last time Princeton had that feeling, it was when it lost to Brown in OT in Week 2 of the Ivy season. The next week? Princeton came out and derailed Harvard, who had been cruising to that point.

Will that happen this coming weekend, at home against Yale, the preseason favorite? You'll find out in five more days.

First, though, it's time for the opening tip-off for Princeton Basketball. 

Remember, that's Princeton-Rutgers men at the Cure Insurance Arena in Trenton. It's Princeton-Duquesne women at Jadwin Gym. 

Tip for both is 7.