Earl And Bradley

When TigerBlog saw the news that Brian Earl had been named the head men's basketball coach at William & Mary, he sent Earl the following text:

"Thank you for allowing me not to have to have mixed emotions for Princeton-Cornell. Congrats. Good luck there."

The Ivy League Player of the Year in 1999 as a Princeton senior, Earl did a tremendous job at Cornell, rebuilding the program and making it one of the best teams in the Ivy League. The Big Red, like Princeton, reached the NIT this season after a disappointing loss in the Ivy League semifinals.

It was always very hard to root against Earl when his team's played Princeton. And if that was the case for TB and Princeton fans, imagine what it was like for Princeton head coach Mitch Henderson.

Earl and Mitch Henderson are very, very close. Each Princeton-Cornell game was an emotional roller-coaster for both of them, as you might expect. 

It was especially true when the 1996-98 teams were honored in 2023 on their 25th anniversary of winning three straight Ivy titles and two NCAA tournament games. It was held on a night when Princeton played Cornell, and Earl was surrounded by his former teammates — all of whom wanted him to lose.

The team he inherits is one of 34 in Division I on a list that none of them relishes, the list of teams that have never reached the NCAA tournament. That's out of the 352 D1 teams who are eligible (there are 11 more who are transitioning to Division I and are not yet able to qualify).

This past season, W&M went 10-23, 4-14 in the CAA. Clearly this is a challenge. 

Of course, winning at Cornell was also a challenge. The Big Red had six straight losing seasons before he arrived, including 25-61 in the three years immediately before he arrived. Earl then had four sub-.500 seasons before going 54-30 the last three years.  

If you want to watch Earl's introductory press conference at William & Mary, you can see it today at 1 on tribeathletics.com.

Earl's junior season was the first for Scott Bradley as the head baseball coach at Princeton. This past Friday, Bradley became the second Princeton coach to reach 450 career wins, which he did in a doubleheader sweep of Cornell to start the Ivy season.

The all-time record at Princeton is 564, held by Bill Clarke, for whom Clarke Field is named. Clarke, the first head baseball coach at Princeton, spent three different tenures as the Tiger head coach, from 1900-17, 1919-27 and 1936-44.

Clarke and Bradley have some things in common.

Both were Major League catchers for a decade or so. Both played for four different teams in the Majors. Clarke had a .256 career batting average. Bradley had a .257 career batting average. That's sort of cool.

Clarke began his career in 1893 with the Baltimore Orioles before also playing with the Boston Beaneaters, Washington Senators and New York Giants. You get extra credit if you can tell TB what the current editions of the Beaneaters and Senators are called.

Clarke was also nicknamed "Boileryard Bill," apparently because of his voice. 

The two wins for Princeton against Cornell were followed by a loss Sunday, leaving the Tigers at 2-1. Penn, the defending champion, swept Brown to start the year at 3-0. 

Remember, the Ivy League went to a four-team tournament last year after years of having the top two teams play in an Ivy League championship series. Princeton and Penn were the last two teams left in last year's tournament, which the Quakers would win to advance to the NCAA tournament.

Another note for Princeton baseball is that Kyle Vinci hit his 26th career home run in the Sunday loss to the Big Red. Those 26 home runs tie the school's career record, meaning Vinci will be all alone in first with his next one. 

The record has been held since 1999 by Matt Evans, who you may also recall was a three-time first-team All-Ivy League punter in football.

Also, the Boston Beaneaters eventually became the Boston Braves and then ultimately the Milwaukee Braves and now Atlanta Braves. The original Washington Senators are now the Texas Rangers, though a subsequent Washington Senators franchise became the Minnesota Twins.