Whose House?

The Princeton men's lacrosse team travels on two buses, one for the offense and one for the defense. 

TigerBlog always goes on the defense's bus, and so he was in his usual seat in the second row on the right side this past Saturday morning when the Tigers made their short trip to Philadelphia to take on Penn. 

Shortly before the bus pulled away, the driver, an amiable woman, picked up the microphone, something that had never happened before in TB's experience. She then greeted the players by saying "Welcome To D's House." 

Then she said: "Whose house," to which the players responded "D's house." This went back and forth for a few moments, getting louder each time, of course. 

It was a very nice moment. And then TB realized something: The driver would have no way of knowing that all of the players on her bus played defense. So why the "D's house?"

As it turned out, the bus driver's name was "Dee." And the "house" to which she was referring was her bus, not the Princeton defense's house. 

Still, it didn't take away from how nice the moment was. When TB explained the "Dee" or "Defense" situation, she thought it was funny. 

When you go for such rides, long or short, the driver always becomes a part of it. They end up becoming fans.

The ride home from Penn turned out to be a happy one, after the Tigers rallied past Penn 12-8 after trailing 7-4 at the break. The D held its opponent to eight goals or fewer for the fourth time in five games, something that Princeton last accomplished in 2012. 

It also led to what TB thinks is one of the best photos he's seen from a Princeton event:

That's Tucker Wade on the turf, after he scored Princeton's 11th goal. There is a lot to that picture; it tells basically the whole story of the game. Credit goes to Karla Donohoe.

Next up for Princeton is tomorrow's regular season finale, at home against Yale (face-off at noon). This will be the 112th meeting between the two teams. 

Today's trivia question: Only two rivalries among current Division I teams have been played more times than Princeton-Yale. Can you name them? TB will give you until the end to think about it.

Unlike a year ago, when the Tigers needed to beat Yale in New Haven just to get to the Ivy League tournament, Princeton goes into the final weekend this year already knowing that it has its spot in the four-team field.

Then again, so does Yale. And Harvard. And Cornell. The only drama last weekend was if Cornell would clinch the host role as the No. 1 seed, and the Big Red did so by taking down the Crimson 20-12. 

The matchups for next week are still very much up in the air. Cornell is the No. 1. Princeton could be two, or three, or four. The Tigers would clinch the second spot simply with a win tomorrow. Yale could move all the way up to the second spot by beating Princeton by three or more.

Also unlike a year ago, and the year before that, Princeton will head into the Ivy League tournament knowing that no matter what happens, it will be in the field when the NCAA selections are announced a week from Sunday night. Princeton did win the ILT the last two years and didn't even qualify the year before, when it was also assured of an NCAA bid and even reached the Final Four. 

There is still a lot  to play for tomorrow, of course. Princeton is currently where it's been the entire season in terms of RPI — No. 1. The Tigers are 10-2 overall, with the two losses to the No. 2 (Maryland) and No. 3 (Cornell) RPI teams. Princeton does have four wins over teams currently in the top 10. 

What number will be next to Princeton's name when the seeds are announced? That could change a bit, depending on this weekend and next weekend. From this time of year on, every game gets a bit bigger — and not every team gets to keep playing.

In the meantime, it's also Senior Day for the 11 Tiger seniors tomorrow. Here they are a week ago, after the win over Penn.

And it's a big game between two really old rivals. Who are the only rivals who have played each other more?

Trivia answer: Cornell vs. Hobart (142 times) and Johns Hopkins vs. Maryland (127 times).