Specifically, he went to the building's team store, which is divided between the Indiana Pacers side and the Indiana Fever side. If the store wanted a more accurate portrayal of how sales are going these days, the store could be divided between the Caitlin Clark side and the everything else side.
TB bought himself a Clark t-shirt. Why not? Everyone else seems to be.
He also asked the two women who were working in the store how sales were going. The first woman was putting new shirts onto racks, and every single shirt she put out was a variation of something to do with Clark. Her comment was that they couldn't keep them on the shelves.
After TB picked out one of his own, he went to pay for it. While there, he asked the second woman if the store had sold as much Clark merchandise as everything else for both teams combined.
She simply smiled and said "more."
There's only one athlete that TB can think of who completely transcended the sport and became bigger than the sport itself, and that's Tiger Woods.
If you've been paying attention, then you know TB has been out here for a few days. First, he went to the NCAA women's rowing championships, which were about two hours away in Southern Ohio.
Once that ended, he made his way back to the Indianapolis airport to drop off his rented Chevy Malibu, which was a better car than he thought it was going to be when he first picked it up. Then it was an Uber ride into the city for the start of the NCAA men's lacrosse rules committee meetings, which began yesterday afternoon, continue all day today and then conclude tomorrow.
TigerBlog can neither confirm nor deny that what Matt Kinnear of Inside Lacrosse wrote yesterday matches up with the agenda, but it does make for interesting reading.
Meanwhile, back in the shadows of the Princeton campus, the other national championships for rowing were held over the weekend.
The NCAA only runs a championship for the women's open boats. If you missed it, Princeton finished fourth overall, behind Texas, Stanford and Tennessee. TB also learned a lot about how the championships work, how the scoring works, what the event is all about and what the sport's culture is.
The other national champions in rowing were crowned at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association event, which was held on Mercer Lake.
For Princeton, this meant a second place finish for the men's heavyweights, in both the first varsity 8 race and in the overall points standings. The lightweight men finished second in the first varsity 8 race and third in the points standings.
The women's lightweight team, though, continued to be a complete juggernaut. The Tigers, needing a win in the varsity 8 race to take home the title, blasted the field by 1.8 seconds, bringing home another national title.
In case you're wondering, the last time that the Princeton lightweight women lost a 1V race was back in 2019.
TB is a huge fan of great phrases, and you never where you're going to find one. In this case, it came from a quote from Sarah Fry, a member of the last three IRA champion 1V boats and a von Kiensbusch finalist this year:
"It's about the beauty of collective striving. There's a beautiful thing that happens
when there is eight people in a boat giving every ounce of their energy
and soul to what they are doing. That moment where everyone is all in
and we get to the core of ourselves in those sprint pieces, final 250m
and every day on the water, there's nothing like it. It's always about
the boat, it's never about one individual. Striving for something great
with the people you love is the best thing you can do."
Collective striving. That's such a great way to put it. That's just two simple words, but they speak to what has made the women's lightweight rowers so successful.
Actually, they speak to way more than that. They speak to what sports as a whole are about. Collective striving. Working together to create something better than you could by yourself.
That's perfectly said.
When that can be your quote when you're done with your collegiate athletic career, then you know it's gone really well for you.
Win or lose.
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