Looking Grand

Happy New Year everyone.

TigerBlog will ask you the same question he asked himself yesterday. What day of the week is it? He had no idea. It's Tuesday today, right? 

Hopefully you all had a safe and happy New Year's Eve and 2024 is your best year ever. Are you the New Year's resolution type? 

TB has made the same New Year's resolution year after year — to go from third person to first person here. As of yet, he hasn't do so, and it appears that it'll have to wait at least another year.

Also, as with January 1 of any year, TigerBlog likes to point out that the lacrosse, baseball and softball openers are officially now next month.

The last weekend of 2023 featured some pretty exciting performances in Princeton Athletics. 

You can start in Baker Rink, where the final home event of the year saw the men's hockey team defeat Harvard 5-2. The Tigers actually scored the final five goals of the game after trailing 2-0 late in the first period.

The win moved Princeton into second place in the ECAC standings and first place in the Ivy League standings. Next up is a weekend trip to New Hampshire, who is ranked 13th in the Pairwise ratings, and then a home-and-home the following weekend with defending NCAA champion Quinnipiac, No. 3 in the Pairwise.

If you're wondering, the top five is Maine, Boston University, Quinnipiac, Boston College and Wisconsin.

The wrestling team had a strong showing at the Midlands tournament at Northwestern, where the Tigers finished 10th as a team. Luke Stout was the runner-up at 197 pounds, while Nate Dugan (184) and Aidan Connor (also 197) finished sixth.

The men's basketball team finished the 2023 part of its schedule with an 84-82 win over Delaware. Caden Pierce had 21 points and 10 rebounds, leading to this rather fascinating stat: Princeton is 15-1 in games in which Pierce reaches double figures in rebounds.

The Tigers are now 12-1 on the season as they get ready for the Ivy League opener at home Saturday at 2 against Harvard. Princeton also went 25-6 for the calendar year 2023, a year that, as you now, included a run to the NCAA Sweet 16 last March.

And then there was the women's basketball team. Princeton had an easy win on the home court of a very good Vermont team, winning that one 67-47, and then won at Le Moyne 66-55 on New Year's Eve afternoon.

The women also open their Ivy season Saturday, though they are at Cornell for a 2 pm tip as well. 

The big story of the two wins was that Kaitlyn Chen went over the 1,000-point mark for her career. She reached the milestone in the third quarter against the Catamounts, and, with the Le Moyne game added in, she now has 1,014 for her career. Those points have come in 73 career games, giving her an average of 13.9 per game.

Chen is the 28th Princeton women's player to reach 1,000 career points. There have also been 37 men's players who have gotten there, bringing the total number of Princeton basketball players to 65. 

Who was the first? That was Bud Haabestad, who got there on Jan. 15, 1955, in a win over Harvard. Who was the first woman? That was Jackie Jackson, who did so against Seton Hall on Feb. 3, 1978.

After not getting to play as a freshman during the Covid year, Chen averaged 10.5 points per game in her first year and then improved that to 16.2 last year and now 16.3 this year. If she keeps up that pace, she'll end the regular season with 1,242 points, which would put her in 13th place among the women.

One note about Chen that is very interesting to TB is that of her 389 career made field goals, only 40 are three-pointers. That's not 40 percent. That's 40 total. To get to 1,000 points in 2.5 seasons without being a three-point shooter primarily is wildly impressive.

Chen's 1,000th point came like so many of the ones that preceded it did. She took a pass above the three-point line, took two dribbles to her left, freed herself up from 15 and dropped it in without even touching the rim. 

Congratulations to Kaitlyn Chen for the achievement. 

And here's to 2024. Let it be a great one for everyone.