The Last Day Of April

Today would be April Fools Day if someone had decided to have it on the last day of the month instead of the first day of the month. 

There's an April Fools Day joke in their somewhere. Could TigerBlog have convinced you that there was a movement to have that happened? Or perhaps that it was now going to be April Fools Month? Or at least April Fools 1st to the 15th? 

Think about it as April turns to May. 

April, by the way, once again was reluctant to let spring arrive. It used to be "April showers bring May flowers." Now it's "April's weather was worse than February's."

*

Congratulations go out to McKenzie Blake on being a three-time first-team All-Ivy League selection in women's lacrosse and the unanimous Ivy League Attacker of the Year. 

In all, Princeton had seven players honored when the team was announced yesterday. The other first-team selections were also hardly surprising, with honors for attacker Haven Dora and defender Dylan Allen.

Jami MacDonald, Amelia Hughes, Abigail Roberts and Sophie Whiteway were second-team selections. Paige Vegna was the team's Academic All-Ivy pick, and Princeton also earned Coaching Staff of the Year honors. 

With the individual league honors out of the way, Princeton can prepare to host the Ivy League tournament this weekend. 

It begins Friday at 4, when the top-seeded Tigers play No. 4 Brown. Game 2 will follow with the second-seeded Yale and third-seeded Penn.

The winners meet Sunday at noon for the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. You can get your tickets HERE.

Princeton will be in the NCAA tournament no matter what happens this weekend, most likely on Sherrerd Field next weekend as well. The NCAA selections will be announced Sunday night at 9. 

*

The men's lacrosse All-Ivy team will be announced today. TigerBlog is hoping to see Princeton goalie Ryan Croddick on the first team. 

If you went back to the start of the season, the goalie spot was Princeton's biggest question mark. Croddick had played a total of 24 minutes in his first two years combined, so it wasn't outrageous to wonder how he would do. 

Now, as Princeton enters the postseason with the Ivy League tournament at Cornell this weekend (Princeton opens with Harvard in the semifinals Friday at approximately 6:30), Croddick has cemented himself as one of the team's biggest strengths. 

Croddick leads the Ivy League in all three major categories for goalies: save percentage, goals-against average, saves per game. He's also second in Division I in saves per game and third in save percentage, as well as a three-time Ivy Player of the Week.

Oh, and he also is the first Princeton goalie since 1973 to have three points in a season (Croddick has three assists). 

First-team All-Ivy? Find out today at 2. 

*

The Larry Ellis Invitational comes to Weaver Track and Field Stadium this weekend. Ellis, the longtime head coach of men's track and field at Princeton, is one of the most respected people the sport has ever known. 

TigerBlog knew Ellis back in the 1990s. He was always a bit intimidating, though not as a human being. In that respect, he was, to use a rather obsolete word, a complete gentleman. No, it was his accomplishments that made him a bit intimidating, back when TB was much younger. 

Ellis coached in the Olympics. He was Bob Beamon's high school coach. He was the kind of person who made you feel like you had to do what you do in a manner that respected how he did what he did. 

Ellis was part of one of the most insightful moments TB has ever experienced, and he'd like to share it with you again. 

TB was walking down the Jadwin balcony when he saw Ellis and one of his athletes outside of his office, and TB heard the athlete ask the coach what he needed to do to be able to get to a certain time in his event.And what did Ellis answer? With all the wisdom of the world, he said simply "run faster."

That is pure genius. 

Larry Ellis passed away in 1998. The Larry Ellis Invitational originated one year later.