More Congratulations

After a day of congratulations yesterday, TigerBlog offers up a few more today:

* 

TB has no idea how big Ieisha Jackson's feet are. He does know that she has big shoes to fill.

Jackson has been named as the successor to the retired Karen Malec and is now the Associate Director of Athletics for Event Operations. 

Not that Jackson isn't up for the task. Far from it. In fact, TigerBlog — and anyone who has worked with her — knows that she brings a lot of the same characteristics, personality and work habits that Karen brought to the job for so many years. 

Has it really been eight years since she started at Princeton? According to her Instagram post:

Eight years ago, I started my first “big girl” job at Princeton University as the Director of Track Operations. About a month into working here, I sought out the Associate AD for Event Operations, Karen Malec, and let her know I was interested in events and to let me know if I can be helpful in any way. Fast forward 3 years later, an opening came up in her unit, and I became the Manager of Event Operations. As luck would have it, another position, better suited for me at the time, would open 3 months later. So I became the Manager of Intercollegiate Programming and 3 years later, Assistant Director of Athletics for Programming. My career journey at Princeton has been nothing short of a blessing and it’s not over yet. That being said, as I enter my ninth year working in Princeton Athletics, I do so with the great honor and privilege of carrying on Karen’s 36 year legacy. I’m excited to share that I have been promoted to the Associate Director of Athletics for Event Operations at Princeton University.  

As you can see behind her, Ieisha is now on her fifth title in her time at Princeton. TigerBlog isn't sure if he has the record for all-time job titles at Princeton Athletics, but he does have 11 of them. 

Congratulations to Ieisha. Princeton Events is in good hands. 

*

He's not a Princetonian, but he is an Ivy Leaguer. Columbia alum Michael Zheng won again at Wimbledon, moving into a third-round match today against No. 3 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime today around 11:30 Eastern time. 

Zheng also hit one of the more remarkable shots you'll ever see to save a set point in his second round win over Nicolas Mejia Wednesday. Had he lost that point (which you've probably seen by now), he would have been down two sets to none. Instead he won in four 6-7, 7-6, 6-1, 6-4. 

Zheng is the two-time NCAA singles champion, and he defeated Princeton's Paul Inchauspe in the semifinals this past fall. Inchauspe did defeat Zheng in the first singles match between Princeton and Columbia in the ECAC tournament championship match in February at the Si Qin Indoor Family Tennis Center. 

*

Congratulations to everyone in the Northeast who loves when it's really hot. This is your weather. 

Today will be the second straight day in Princeton where the temperature soars past 100 degrees, and it certainly feels every one of those degrees if you step outside. TigerBlog will take this over the weather of six months ago, when Princeton was in the beginning of one of the coldest Januaries it has ever had. 

*

And finally, congratulations to the United States of America, which turns 250 tomorrow. 

The Declaration of Independence that formally separated the new country from the British Empire was unanimously adopted by the Second Continental Congress, in Philadelphia. That took a lot of courage, since the Empire, well, struck back and didn't let it go without a war that lasted into the next decade. 

What was the fledgling country's original name? It wasn't the United States of America. It was "The United Colonies." It wasn't until Sept. 9, 1776, that the Continental Congress adopted the name United States of America. 

Have a great — and safe — Fourth of July everyone.  

Congratulations

Today begins with congratulations to TigerBlog's longtime friend and colleague Michael Mahoney. 

Formerly at that school in West Philadelphia that issued TB a diploma that he now keeps in a bin in the bottom of his closet, Mahoney will now be working as the Senior Associate Commissioner for Strategic Communications and Media Relations for the Atlantic 10 Conference. 

There aren't many better people in college athletics, or anywhere, than Mahoney. He's one of those people everyone seems to 1) know and 2) like. 

It's good to see him taking a new step in his career. TB can root for the A-10. 

Question for you: How many schools are in the Atlantic 10? 

There are 14 full-time members and five affiliate members in either men's lacrosse or field hockey. TB remembers when the league was the Eastern 8, including Villanova and Pitt. Does Mahoney know all this history? He'll figure it out quickly if he doesn't. 

Keeping with the theme for today, what else is worthy of congratulations? 

There's Princeton Athletics, for one. Specifically, there's this video:

Congratulations go out to everyone involved, those who made the highlights and those who made the video. That's a decade's worth of highlights for most places. That was all in one athletic year at Princeton. 

The 2025-26 year will be remembered for a long time around here, what with 20 league championships, an individual national champion, a team national champion, another NCAA runner up and so much more. One of the teams that won its league championship was the softball team, and one of its stars this spring is the next to be congratulated. 

That would be Graciela Dominguez, who is headed to the Central American and Caribbean Games in the Dominican Republic, where she will compete for the host nation later this month. From the RELEASE: 

Dominguez hit .427 in 2026, the fourth-best single-season batting average in program history, and had 70 hits, fifth-most in a season in Princeton history. She also helped Princeton set a team single-season record with a .347 batting average. 

Next up is Maile Organek, a coxswain for the men's heavyweight rowing team who guided the second varsity 8 to a gold medal at the IRA championships. You can read THIS FEATURE STORY on the webpage about Organek by another of TB's friends and colleagues Elliott Carr, including this: 

On Tuesday, May 26, she received a sociology degree and was commissioned into the United States Army as a second lieutenant by her grandfather. By Sunday, May 31, she had flown across the country and coxed the Tigers’ second varsity eight to its first gold medal at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) National Championship Regatta since 1998. To put a bow on her time at Princeton, Organek was bestowed the highest honor a coxswain can receive in collegiate rowing; the 2026 Intercollegiate Rowing Coaches Association (IRCA) Coxswain of the Year award.

Elliott's story is very good. 

And then there are congratulations to the five Princeton men's lacrosse alums who have been selected to the Premiere Lacrosse League all-star game, which will be Sunday at 2 in Annapolis. 

Coulter Mackesy, the all-time leader in goals scored at Princeton, finds himself tied with Brown alum Dylan Molloy for the PLL lead in points this season with 20 each. Mackesy, in his second year, is coming off a four-goal, two-assist performance this past weekend in California to lead his Cannons to a 15-12 win over the Redwoods. 

Among the other Tigers headed to Annapolis are, not shockingly, Waterdogs teammates Michael Sowers and Zach Currier. Sowers is tied for the league lead in assists (again, not shocking), and Currier, well, TB didn't bother looking up his stats because they never matter when it comes to Currier. 

Shortstick defensive midfielder Beau Pederson of the Archers will be making his first all-star game appearance. In addition to being a defensive beast, Pederson also has three goals and an assist. 

The fifth all-star is rookie Chad Palumbo. Think you've had a good few weeks? Palumbo has 1) won an NCAA championship, 2) graduated from Princeton, 3) led all PLL rookies in scoring to this point.  

The all-star game will be seen live on ESPN. Congrats to all five.  

Top 20 Tigers

Welcome to July, the only month of the year with no Princeton Athletic events. 

Fortunately, the sports world continues, with events like the one currently scattered around North America. 

Here's a question: If France gets a World Cup goal from someone other than Mbappe, does it still count? He seems to score a lot on his own.  

Mbappe scored twice against Sweden yesterday as France won 3-0 to advance to the Round of 16. The second of those goals was about the most perfect two-man play in soccer history. Make sure you check it out. 

By the way, Mbappe has now played 18 career World Cup games and has scored 18 goals. That seems pretty good. Through four games this year, France has scored 10 goals, six of which have come from Mbappe. 

TigerBlog stayed up way later than he expected the other night to watch the entire Morocco-The Netherlands game, won by the Moroccans on penalty kicks after tying it late in regulation. It was a riveting game the entire way, as was Germany-Paraguay before it, another game that went to PKs. 

Oh, and one of the players from The Netherlands proved TB's "roll-over" rule. During the course of play, he went down and rolled over three times (proving that he actually was not hurt but was flopping). A few minutes later, he took a cleat to the head and began bleeding. This time he dropped to one knee (clearly hurt). 

TB's question is whether or not, after 90 minutes of regulation plus stoppage time plus two 15-minute extra periods and their stoppage time, are penalty kicks the best way to decide a winner in such an important situation. Keep playing until someone scores? The positive of that is that teams know they have to attack at some point; the bad news is that game could go on for a very long time. 

Maybe do what field hockey does? Take a few players off the field to open things up? TB should have addressed this during his time on the NCAA men's lacrosse rules committee. 

As you might remember, the Princeton men's lacrosse team won the NCAA championship this past spring. In addition to being an amazing run to the title, it was also worth 100 points for Princeton in the Learfield Directors' Cup standings. 

The Directors' Cup has as its goal to recognize the best overall athletic programs in Division I, Division II, Division III and the NAIA. Its website has this mission statement: 

A program that honors institutions maintaining a broad-based program, achieving success in many sports, both men's and women's, in which all sports that the NCAA, NAIA or Two-Year College sector offers a championship, along with FBS football, and all student-athletes that compete in those sports, are treated equally.

The way it does this is by assigning points for NCAA of NAIA tournament appearances and success. Your league championships don't earn you any points. 

In Division I, each school gets to count 19 sports, of which five have to be men's basketball, baseball, women's basketball, women's volleyball and women's soccer, whether you score points in them or not. The remaining 14 come from you best finishes regardless of gender.  

With the end of the Men's College World Series, the final Cup standings have been released. Princeton finished 20th, which is just remarkable. The Tigers rolled up 878.5 points, the highest total in program history (the Cup dates to the 1993-94 academic year). Princeton's 20th place finish was the second-highest, behind the 18th place of 2021-22. 

What makes it most impressive is the context of who finishes that high. Of the top 44, the other 43 besides Princeton are all in the Power Four conferences. The 19 schools above Princeton were all in either the ACC, Big Ten or SEC (including the overall winner, Texas). 

That is not easy to do. It's one thing to get to an NCAA tournament. It's another thing to advance far enough to get the higher point levels. 

The 20th place Directors' Cup finish is just another major accomplishment for Princeton. So are the 20 conference championships. 

Meanwhile, if you're wondering where Princeton has finished each year since 1994, here you go: 

2026 - 20

2025 - 32

2024 - 34

2023 - 26

2022 - 18

2019 – 30

2018 - 40

2017 - 48

2016 - 33

2015 - 41

2014 - 44

2013 - 35

2012 - 39

2011 - 38

2010 - 32

2009 - 40

2008 - 60

2007 - 63

2006 - 47

2005 - 42

2004 - 33

2003 - 34

2002 - 21

2001 - 24

2000 - 57

1999 - 31

1998 – 25

1997 – 60

1996 – 23

1995 – 29

1994  - 34

 

 

Wimbledon Drive

 

So do you think this road is always called this or is that only during these next two weeks? 

TigerBlog had to go pick something up yesterday (a gift for his brother and brother-in-law; TB would want to know if you told him the same thing), and it was in a warehouse in an office park that he'd never been to before. As he always does, he followed Waze. 

You know what's frustrating about following a GPS like that? It's how it says "turn right in 1,000 feet." How does that help? It should say "right turn coming up in a few ... not now ... not now ... now ... now ... NOW ... TURN HERE IDIOT!!!"

That would resonate more for TigerBlog. 

Anyway, he was so engrossed in trying to find this place that he completely missed the street sign the first time around. He also drove past it on his way back, only noticing it at the last second. He was going to let it go but then thought "blog content" and turned back to snap the picture. 

Wimbledon is one of TigerBlog's favorite annual sporting events. He'll watch more tennis the next two weeks than he will watch Major League Baseball for the entire season. 

He goes back with Wimbledon to the days of Bjorn Borg, Jimmy Connors and newcomer John McEnroe. They remain his favorite players ever on the men's side. 

Are you familiar with the 1980 Wimbledon final between Borg and McEnroe? It was one of two the greatest tennis matches ever played, along with the Roger Federer-Rafael Nadal 2008 final. 

Borg defeated McEnroe 1-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-7, 8-6; the fourth set tiebreaker went to McEnroe 18-16 after Borg had five match points. It took 3:35, because TV timeouts were way shorter then. The 2008 final went to Nadal 6-4, 6-4, 6-7, 6-7, 9-7 and took a total of 4:48. 

There weren't many great first round matches yesterday, though there was one that really interested TigerBlog. He'll get back to that one in a few moments. 

First, there was a tight four-set win for Novak Djokovic, who is one of TB's favorites. Jannik Sinner needed five sets to get out of the first round as the top seed. 

Maybe the best of all the matches yesterday came when an unseeded American player knocked off the No. 26 seed, from Great Britain no less. The Brit is Cameron Norrie. The American is Michael Zheng, who in four hours defeated Norrie 6-7, 6-2, 6-7, 6-3, 7-6, taking the final tiebreaker 10-4. 

Zheng also won his first round match at the Australian Open back in January. He'll next play Nicolás Mejía of Colombia in the second round.  

Is that name familiar? Michael Zheng? 

Yes, it is. 

Zheng won the two most recent NCAA singles championships while at Columbia. That makes the second round match Columbia vs. Colombia. 

Despite winning the NCAA title, Zheng finished sixth in the final ITA singles rankings. Who was fifth? Princeton's Paul Inchauspe. 

Zheng defeated Inchauspe in the NCAA semifinals and then beat SMU's Trevor Svajda in the final. Inchauspe defeated Svajda in the NCAA team tournament, when Princeton fell to SMU. 

Inchauspe and Zheng played three times this past year, and Zheng won two of them. The one that Inchauspe won came in the final of the ECAC tournament, an event in February between the eight Ivy League schools. 

Princeton defeated Columbia 4-3 to win the tournament, helped greatly by Inchauspe's 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 win over Zheng. The deciding point then came courtesy of Landon Ardila at No. 3 singles. Unfortunately for Princeton, Ardila then missed all seven Ivy League matches due to injury, though he was back for the NCAA tournament. 

In a year that didn't include an NCAA men's lacrosse national championship and run by the field hockey team to overtime of its own NCAA championship game, that match in February quite possibly have been the best Princeton event TB saw. Despite that, it was an epic day, one that really stands out to TB, for the competition — and for reconfirming something that TB has long known. 

In the world of Princeton sports, you never know when you're going to stumble across a masterpiece. That's what that match was for TB. What will be the event in 2026-27 that comes out of nowhere to become a classic? 

Who knows. 

In the meantime, TB will root for Columbia against Colombia in Round 2 at Wimbledon.  

Bon Voyage

Do you want to know what everyone should do as his or her 91st birthday approaches? 

That's right. Go on a two-week cruise in the Mediterranean. 

That's what FatherBlog is doing. He flies out of Newark to Nice tonight and then gets on a ship for his vacation. Why not, right? For the record, TigerBlog was not invited. 

The first stop is Saint-Tropez, which just happens to be one of FatherBlog's four favorite places in the world (it's actually No. 1 on his fab four). The other three? Istanbul, Rio and South Africa. 

FB grew up in Brooklyn, graduated from Boys' High, briefly attended Hunter College and then spent two years in the Army. It was during his storied military career — he'll tell you he rose from the rank of private all the way to private — that he developed his love of traveling, something that has never waned. 

As such, despite all of the "you're almost 91; are you sure you can handle such a cruise" questions he was asked, he still has been determined to do this. If TigerBlog had to guess, he'd say the odds are greater that his father has another big trip in the future than they are that this will be his last one. 

If you're looking for FB's secret to such longevity, it's something along the lines of this: Eat whatever you want. Don't exercise a lot. Don't go to doctor's offices. 

So anyway, bon voyage, FatherBlog. Have fun. Make good decisions. That's what TigerBlog would say to his kids, so he might as well tell his dad that too. 

It dawns on TB that his father, for all his world travels, has seen very little of the United States, or Canada for that matter. It's pretty much all been international, covering Europe, Asia, Australia, South America and Africa. To his memory, TB doesn't think his father has been to Antarctica, so six continents isn't a bad record. 

TB now shifts the focus to North America, where the current World Cup has entered the 32-team knockout round. It began with one game yesterday and is now down to 31 teams, after Canada's goal in stoppage time meant a 1-0 win over South Africa and a spot in the final 16. 

CANADA TAKES THE LEAD IN STOPPAGE TIME 🇨🇦

Stephen Eustáquio is the hero! pic.twitter.com/ZaSCikmLiB

— FOX Sports (@FOXSports) June 28, 2026

Canada, of course, is coached by Princeton alum Jesse Marsch. His career trajectory has seen coach successfully on this continent and in Europe, including in the English Premier League, Major League Soccer and the Austrian Bundesliga (where he led his team to a spot in the Champions League). 

What's going on now is all new for Marsch, and for Canada. Prior to this World Cup, the Canadians had never won a World Cup game, let alone reached the knockout stage. Before 2026, Canada had qualified for two World Cups, going 0-6 in Group Stage games and scoring only a single goal. 

This time, Marsch led Canada to a 1-1-1 record in the Group Stage, which put Canada into the knockout stage. Yesterday's game was the first the team played outside of Canada, in Los Angeles to be exact. It was also the only knockout round game played to date, leaving Canada as the first team to advance. 

Here is part of what Marsch had to say aftewards: 

"Our goal in tournament -- other than inspiring our nation -- was to make a run to face one of the giants of the soccer world. And given Morocco's recent run, they are a giant. And given the Dutch's dominance over the decades, they are a giant too. I feel like [this next game] is a free hit and we are going to go out and give it our best shot."

Next up for Canada will be the winner of the game between the Netherlands and Morocco, which will be played tonight at 9 Eastern in California as well. The team that advances tonight will face Canada Saturday in Houston. 

Saturday is the Fourth of July, which might seem like an interesting day to focus on Canada. But hey, Princeton alums are Princeton alums. And Marsch is an American, from Wisconsin. He also joins his college coach at Princeton, Bob Bradley, as Tiger alums who have coached a team into the final 16. 

 

Summer Friday

Welcome to the first full weekend of summer. 

What is on your dance card? Whatever it is, keep this in mind: there are eight weeks to go until the first Princeton Athletic event of the 2026-27 academic year. And, as he does every Friday in the summer, TigerBlog will remind you of the countdown as the new year approaches. 

In the meantime, have a great weekend — but only after you read up on this:

*

Well, Princeton University is no longer the same. Karen Malec doesn't work here anymore. 

That's a tough sentence to write. There hasn't been a day, until today, where TB has worked at Princeton and Karen hasn't. 

As TB has written before, Karen announced her retirement back in March after 34 years at Princeton. Nobody has ever served the department with greater devotion and professionalism. Maybe others have been up there with her, but nobody has ever outdone her. As such, she clearly has earned her retirement and whatever she wants to do with it. 

It's just that it won't be the same without her. TB ran into her outside Jadwin on the 20,000 step walk the other day. He knows they'll stay in touch. It's just that, again, it won't be the same.  

*

Speaking of 20,000-plus steps in a day, TigerBlog got this text from his colleague and friend Warren Croxton: 

"176 straight days of 20,000 steps."

Impressive Warren. It does make TB wonder how many steps Warren had 177 days ago. 

Also, it got TB to thinking. You could take 20,000 steps in the NBA and still not get called for traveling.  

*

Cleveland State. 

That was the school TigerBlog couldn't remember the other day. Fortunately, his longtime friend Bruce Wood of the Big Green Alert emailed him the other day with the quote he couldn't remember. 

It came after TB wrote about Jerry Tarkanian and his issues with the NCAA. Tark had a wildly famous quote about the organization he hated. It went like this: 

"The NCAA is so mad at Kentucky they're going to give Cleveland State another year of probation." 

TB knew it was something like that. Thanks for the heads up Bruce. 

*

The group stage of the World Cup is winding down, with the 32-team knockout round to come. This is the first time that there have been 48 teams in the draw and then 32 in the knockout round. 

Canada is one of the 32 teams who will continue to play beyond the group stage. Reaching the knockout round is a first for Canada, which had never won a World Cup game prior to this year.

The team is coached, of course, by Princeton alum Jesse Marsch. In a nice little World Cup fact, Marsch is now the second former Princeton men's soccer player to coach a team into the knockout round, along with Bob Bradley, who had been Marsch's coach at Princeton.  

*

TigerBlog went to see "South Pacific" yesterday at the Bucks County Playhouse. The musical, which by the way was written by Rogers and Hammerstein in nearby Doylestown, has always been one of TB's favorites. 

He's mentioned this before, but musical theater is one of his favorite things, especially classics like "South Pacific." He doesn't like to see plays. He wants to walk out of the theater humming and singing, like he did yesterday. 

His seat was on the aisle, seat X101 to be exact. As it turns out, his seat was the aisle, middle and other aisle, since there was no other seat in the row. In fact, his seat was next to the lighting and sound board in the back of the theater. 

This was great for the first act and second act. It wasn't quite as peaceful at intermission, since it was directly in the path of those who needed to use the ladies room. That line snaked past TB's seat, and his determination to stick it out in his seat quickly ebbed when he got whacked by an older woman's walker. That's when he decided it would be best to stand off to the side til the curtain came back up. 

If you don't know much about the show, it's set in, well, you can guess that part, during World War II. One of the main characters is named Lt. Joe Cable, who is of all things a Princeton alum, at least a fictional one. He's also described as "athletic," though it never says what sport he played. 

After the show, TigerBlog ran into Lt. Nellie Forbush, or at least the actress who played her (Alexandra Socha). She had previously played Glinda in "Wicked" on Broadway; that's another of TB's all-time favorites. 

TB asked her if she knew Sam Gravitte, the former Princeton men's lacrosse player who had also been in "Wicked" on Broadway. She said that yes, she knew him, but no, they hadn't been in the show together. 

Sam is in a new show in New York City at the Laura Pels Theater on West 46th Street. This show is called "A Walk On The Moon," a musical based on the 1999 movie that is set in the summer of 1969. TB hasn't seen it yet, but he'd like to. He did see Sam as Fiyero (the male lead) in "Wicked" though, and he was spectacular. 

If you're interested in Sam's new show, you can get more information HERE.

See? Not all Princeton lacrosse alums in New York City work on Wall Street. At least one works on Broadway.  

The 20,000 Steps

Okay, John Nolan, you'll appreciate this story. 

Who is John Nolan? He's a broadcaster in Indiana whom TigerBlog tried to hire at Princeton when Nolan graduated from Syracuse. He's done a lot of college basketball and, for the last two seasons, has been the play-by-play man for the Indiana Fever. 

It was Nolan who once mentioned to TigerBlog about America's obsession with round numbers. TB couldn't help but think of that yesterday afternoon. 

If you had been in TB's neighborhood, you might have noticed that he was walking up and down his driveway. Why was that? Well, it's because he had 19,200 steps for the day — and he had to get that over 20,000, no? 

And so he did. See for yourself:

That was for you, John Nolan. 

Anyway, how did TB get that many steps in? It started with a nice morning walk and then continued with a massive tour of the Princeton campus, a tour that started on Nassau Street, made its way through the Art Museum and Prospect Gardens all the way to Jadwin Gym and ultimately the racket center on the other side of the lake. After all that, it was back to Nassau Street. 

And, of course, ultimately up and down his driveway. 

If you walk around the campus during the school year, it's obviously awash with people and energy. Every where you go, you'll see any and all segments of Princeton life. It's nearly impossible for TB to do so and not run into at least one person he knows. 

In the summer it is wildly different. There is hardly anyone around, and many of those who are fall into the category of visitors, either campers or those attending conferences or those who've come to do a tour and the like. 

That's not to say that nobody was around. TB saw field hockey backup goalie Kylie Elefante, a rising sophomore who was a member of the team that reached the second overtime of the NCAA championship game last fall. 

Oh, and TB should mention that BrotherBlog is in town from Seattle, and he and Princeton superfan Pattie Friend joined TB on the long walk around the campus. BB works on a college campus as well, the University of Washington, where he is a law school professor. TB at one time considered going to law school, though he's sort of glad he never did at this point. 

The other thing to mention is that Pattie Friend is an extraordinary Princeton campus unofficial tour guide. Also, when you walk around with Pattie Friend, she will inevitably find someone she knows.

In the case of yesterday's walk, that came in the form of someone who was walking into Jadwin. TB had no idea who it was; the only thing he knew was that she wasn't wearing shoes and her socks were dirty. 

So who was it? How about Alexandra Kelly, the All-American jumper who just finished her Princeton track and field career. Kelly was also a von Kienbusch Award finalist this past spring. Mrs. Friend knows Kelly from her job checking students into Cannon Club for dinner on Sunday nights. 

This time, she and Kelly gave each other a nice hug, with big smiles. TB asked them to pose for a photo, which they happily did. 

For TigerBlog, it was nice to see someone he'd never actually met but about whose many achievements at Princeton he'd written. He didn't introduce himself though. He just watched Kelly and Mrs. Friend talk about what's next after graduation, how each other was doing and just enjoying each other's company as old friends do. 

In that moment, TB was reminded of something that he's known for a long time. Those in the athletic department talk about doing what they do to help the athletes have the best possible experience. That's certainly been a driving factor for TB all these years, and he's pretty sure he's been successful. 

But it's not something unique to him or his colleagues. The Princeton athletes come from all over (in the case of Kelly from Long Island) to spend their four years on the campus where TB, BB and Pattie walked yesterday. And they are touched by any number of people while they're here. 

Pattie Friend is one of them. She's one of those who makes Princeton better for the Alexandra Kellys who come into her orbit. 

It was a great day for 20,000 steps. And for that reminder. 

For a quiet early summer day at Princeton, there wasn't much more you could have asked to see than that.  

Shark Tales

If you're in TigerBlog's age range, then everything about the above screenshot makes you laugh. 

If you're too young to appreciate it, well, you missed out on a great decade. 

Just in case you don't know who those referenced are, TB offers you a quick primer: 

* Barney Miller? He was one of the greatest police captains in one of the greatest precincts with one of the greatest rosters of detectives in New York City history (at least the fictional kind)

* Kojak? Who loves ya baby? He was the greatest fictional police officer New York City has ever seen (with all due respect to Barney Miller). 

* Jerry Tarkanian? The Shark? He had a bit of a, um, interesting relationship with the NCAA during his years as the men's basketball coach at Long Beach State, UNLV and Fresno State. In fact, Tarkanian sued the NCAA twice, once in a case that reached all the way to the United States Surpreme Court and another that ended with a $2.5 million settlement of a harassment suit (though the NCAA didn't admit the harassment). 

Of those three, by the way, only Barney Miller (actually Hal Linden) is still alive. 

Tarkanian — the only one of the three who actually was a real person — went 2-1 against Princeton, as near as TB can figure. At least that's how TB remembers it. 

Tarkanian's UNLV teams defeated Princeton 68-56 in the second round of the 1984 NCAA tournament 69-35 in the 1990 regular season. That second game came on banner-raising night at the Thomas and Mack Center after the Runnin' Rebels won the 1990 NCAA championship. 

The 1984 NCAA game? Princeton had four players who went all 40 minutes, including one who led the team with 24 points on 10 for 13 shooting, with a team-best seven rebounds mixed in. Can you name him and the other three? 

The third game was in December 1995, during Tarkanian's first season back at his alma mater (and Pete Carril's last season at Princeton, though nobody knew it at the time). Princeton won that game 59-54, with 34 of those points from the two most recent Tiger head coaches, as Mitch Henderson has 18, and Sydney Johnson had 16. 

Oh, and Carril always made TB laugh when he referred to the name of the school where Tarkanian spent most of his career. Everyone calls it "Nevada-Las Vegas." Carril called it "Las Vegas, Nevada." TB isn't sure why he found that funny, but he always did. f t TigerBlog remembered those three games. That is, he searched his own personal database. 

This came after he asked three different AI sites this question: "What was Jerry Tarkanian's record against Princeton?" None of the three got the correct answer, including ChatGPT, which offered this: 

I could not find any record of a game between one of Tarkanian's teams and Princeton during those years. In fact, modern head-to-head databases list no prior meetings between Princeton and UNLV before their 2024 NIT game, which occurred long after Tarkanian's coaching career ended. So Tarkanian's record against Princeton was: 0–0 (never met).

If you're wondering who had the big game in the NCAA tournament, that would be Howard Levy. TigerBlog will never miss a chance to refer to his good friend Howard. 

The other three Princeton players who went all 40 minutes? Billy Ryan, who had a team-best seven assists, Kevin (Moon) Mullin, who had 18 points, and John Smyth. 

Ryan, to this day, is still Princeton's career leader in assists with 413, which would be 30 more than second-place Spencer Weisz.  

Howard also is a Princeton career record holder still, with a .647 shooting percentage. Only three Princeton players have ever been at least .600 — Richmond Aririguzoh (.636) and Alan Williams (.614). Had Richmond made six shots that he missed, the record would be his. 

Anyway, thanks to Super 70s Sports, which is one of the funniest sites you'll visit (again, the disclaimer is you have to have experienced 70s pop culture). 

And don't trust everything AI tells you.  

On The Ice

You know how you can tell if a World Cup soccer player is actually hurt or is flopping? 

Count the number of times he rolls over. If it's more than a half, then he's flopping. Nobody but nobody rolls over multiple times after an actual injury, especially a leg injury. 

Watch any (American) football game. What you'll see: someone get hurt. What you won't see: that player roll over and over and over. 

This phenomenon was on clear display yesterday in the France-Iraq game, when an Iraqi player was actually hurt. He fell, grabbed his ankle and didn't roll. That equals an actual injury. 

TigerBlog has two favorite games so far in the tournament. 

The first was a 0-0 tie between Ecuador and Curacao, a game in which Curacao goalkeeper Eloy Room set a World Cup record for most saves in a 90-minute game with 15 of them — many of which should have been goals. The second was another draw, this one a 2-2 game between Uruguay and Cape Verde. 

Why did TB like this one so much? First, it's that he's definitely on the Cape Verde bandwagon, especially after the 0-0 tie against Spain in the first game. Next up is Saudi Arabia Friday, where a win and a Uruguay tie or loss to Spain would vault Cape Verde into the knockout stage (as would any number of other scenarios).

Second, it's because the referee applied the "rolling over and over means no foul needs to be called" and let the game go on. What happened? The player who was agonizingly writhing on the field somehow got up and got right back into the play. Genius. 

Canada, by the way, finishes its three games of the group stage with a game tomorrow against Switzerland. The Canadians, coached by Princeton alum Jesse Marsch, have never reached the knockout stage and have not yet clinched a spot, though they almost certainly will, even with a loss.

The top two teams in each of the 12 groups will advance to the round of 32, as will the eight best third-place finishers. The tiebreakers are 1) points, 2) goal differential and 3) goals scored. Canada cannot finish last in its group and already has a plus-6 goal differential. 

Oh, and did you see Kylian Mbappe's first goal yesterday for France in the 3-0 win over Iraq? It was the most impressive one TB has seen so far in this World Cup. It was also Mbappe's first of two; he also had two in France's opener. He seems pretty good.  

Anyway, moving on to a different sport where the goal is to, well, score goals, Princeton had three women's hockey players chosen in the recent Professional Women's Hockey League draft. It's not shocking, given that Princeton won the ECAC regular season championship and reached the NCAA tournament under first-year head coach Courtney Kessel.

From Princeton to the pros. Congrats to Issy Wunder, Jane Kuehl, and Emerson O'Leary on being selected in the 2026 PWHL Draft! 🐯🏒https://t.co/kNBD4OlOUD

— Princeton Women's Ice Hockey (@PWIH) June 18, 2026

You can read about the three in the story on goprincetontigers.com that is linked in the post. 

In addition to posting about the three draftees, the Princeton women's ice hockey account has also announced its 2026-27 captains and ECAC schedule. As far as the captains go, they'll be Maggie Johnson, Rosie Klein, Gabby Kim and Uma Corniea. 

The opening face-off for the ECAC season is exactly four months from today, when the Tigers will be at RPI. 

In a typical year, the season starts the weekend before that, no? Last year, there were two with UConn a week earlier than the ECAC began; it was the same UConn team that Princeton would play in the NCAA tournament at season's end. There was a nearly five-month gap between the first two games and the NCAA game. 

Also, TB isn't sure if writing "2026-27" seems futuristic or not. He was talking about that very thing with a friend the other day, about what it was like when they were kids and thought the Year 2000 seemed so far away. 

Then again, four months from today seems so far away for right now. It'll be here soon, of course — but not too soon. It's not quite time for ice.  

Welcome To Summer

Well, it's officially summer. 

The Summer Solstice was yesterday, which was the longest day of the year. Do you recognize this?:

“In two weeks it’ll be the longest day in the year. Do you always watch for the longest day of the year and then miss it? I always watch for the longest day of the year and then miss it.”  

TigerBlog will give you a few paragraphs for that one. 

Meanwhile, what are your summer plans? Vacations? The beach? Kids to summer camp? Kids to summer tournaments? 

TigerBlog spent six summers at sleepaway camp, the first five at a camp called Camp Toledo and then the final one at Camp Echo after Toledo closed. They were both in the Catskills. 

At the time, they seemed so far away from home, even if they were only three hours or so. TB's first summer was when he was six — that was eight weeks away when he was only six years old. Despite that, all of TB's memories of his time at camp are really good ones. 

TB also spent a lot of time at summer tournaments, not his own, since they didn't exist back then. Nope. These were his kids' tournaments, with lots of summer weekends spent on very hot sidelines watching lacrosse. Again, TB's memories of those are all really good ones, with the friendships that were made by his kids with their teammates and by TB with the other parents. 

And the passage above? That comes from "The Great Gatsby" and is spoken by Daisy, whom Fitzgerald later describes as, along with her husband Tom, "careless people." What else would you expect from a wife whose depth extends to giving serious thought to missing the solstice and a husband who went to Yale? 

This is the 18th summer for TigerBlog — the actual blog, not the person. He's a bit older than that. In fact, given the choice between being the age he is and being 18 again, he'd choose his current age. 

When he first started doing this, TigerBlog (the person this time) wasn't sure what he'd do when the summer rolled around, what with no Princeton Athletic events to write about. As it turns out, he's learned that there is no shortage ever of topics in Princeton Athletics to chronicle here. That's a testament to the Tigers, both current and historical. 

Back in the summer of 2009, though, he had no idea what to expect. And so he wrote this: 

When TigerBlog first started writing this every day, he wasn't quite sure what he was going to do in the summers. After all, there are no athletic events, obviously. He has learned through the years that there is always something he can come up with, but back then he was uncertain. So what did he figure he'd do? When in doubt, write funny Pete Carril stories. 

TB certainly has no shortage of those to share. 

For the first full day of summer 2026, TigerBlog will honor that original idea with two stories from the late Hall of Fame Princeton men's basketball coach, who passed away nearly four years ago already. 

Story No. 1:

Princeton played in the Coors Light Classic in Fresno in December 1994. The day prior to the tournament, there was a luncheon for the teams involved. TB walked with Carril towards the building where the event would take place, and Carril had a lit cigar with him. As they got close to the entry, the tournament host pointed out that smoking was not permitted in the building. 

Carril then proceeded to take the cigar, snuff it out and put it under the handrail that led up the stairs. Two hours later, after the luncheon, he walked out of the building, picked up his cigar and lit it back up.  

Story No. 2:

Princeton was flying to play in a tournament. TB was seated behind Carril, who was in the middle of three seats. To Carril's left was his longtime assistant and ultimate replacement Bill Carmody. To his right was an older gentleman with no connection to Princeton. 

Carril was doing a crossword puzzle, and the older gentleman was looking over his shoulder. At one point, he said "14 down is such-and-such" and "21 across is so-and-so." When he opened his mouth again, Carril cut him off, saying "Yo, Pops, when I want your help I'll ask for it."

Anyway, welcome to the Summer of 2026. Make it a great one.  

Jesse And Will

TigerBlog offers a look at two Princeton alums who are coaching, and succeeding, on their biggest stages these days. 

And he also offers a thank you to two other Princeton alums for calling this to his attention.  

First, there is Jesse Marsch, a men's soccer player who graduated in the Class of 1994. Not too many alums can say that they've taken a path anywhere close to the one Marsch has. 

Carol Brown, one of the greatest athletes Princeton has ever had as a swimmer and rower (she was the first Princeton woman athlete ever to win an Olympic medal, with a rowing bronze in 1976), sent THIS STORY from the Toronto Star TB's way earlier this week. It chronicles the road Marsch has taken from Princeton to his current position as the head coach for the Canadian national team at the World Cup. 

The crux of the story is one that you're probably familiar with as a Princeton fan — the enduring friendship between Marsch and Tiger head men's basketball coach Mitch Henderson. The two are certainly close; Marsch is even the godfather of one of Henderson's children. 

The story also does a great job of showing what the coaching life can be, especially in a sport like soccer on the international level, with its quick triggers of moving on from one coach to another. It's impacted Marsch several times, in contrast with how Henderson has been at Princeton for the last 15 years. 

TB isn't nearly as close to Marsch as Henderson is, though he does know him well enough to know that he is one of those people that you meet and immediately like. And immediately want to see succeed. Marsch is a person of great depth and a genuine nature, very much like his head coach at Princeton, Bob Bradley. 

Canada does not have a great World Cup history. In fact, prior to the current edition, Canada had scored only a single goal in its entire World Cup past. 

The Canadians were also 0-6 in World Cup games prior to this go-around, with three losses in 1986 and then three more losses in 2022. The current team tied its first game 1-1 against Bosnia-Herzegovina and then exploded past Qatar 6-0 yesterday afternoon. 

The tournament this time has expanded to 48 teams, with 12 groups of four. There will be a 32-team knockout stage, featuring the top two in each group plus the eight best third-place teams. The win yesterday almost certainly will advance Marsh's team to the knockout stage for the first time.

Next up will be a the final group stage game against Switzerland Wednesday in Vancouver. The Swiss are also 1-0-1 in the tournament, with a 4-1 win over Bosnia-Herzegovina and a 1-1 tie against Qatar. 

Meanwhile, there is Will Venable, Class of 2005. 

Howard Levy, a 1985 graduate and still Princeton's career leader in field goal percentage in men's basketball, sent along a picture from Yankee Stadium earlier this week. That's Howard on the left, his son Lior on the right and Will in the middle. 

Venable, as you know, was a two-sport star at Princeton in basketball (a 1,000-point scorer and one of the best defenders the program has ever had) and baseball (a longtime Major League career).   

TB once wrote this about Venable: 

Venable wasn't the character that his fellow 1,000-point teammate Judson Wallace was, and he didn't have the big Texas personality of another teammate, Ed Persia. He was somewhat quiet, with a smile that often said more than he did. He was polite and engaging and easy to work with, and he was a ferocious competitor who was at his best in the biggest moments. 

As a coach, Venable won a World Series ring with the Texas Rangers (as did another Princeton basketball/baseball alum, Chris Young, the Texas general manager). He got his first shot as a Major League manager a year ago with the Chicago White Sox, who were coming off a 41-win season the year before he took over. 

Venable improved the Sox to 60 wins in his first season, even if the team did finish last. Chicago already has 39 wins through just 73 games far this season after last night's 5-1 win over the Yankees. That has the team tied for first in the American League Central with Cleveland. 

Taking over a team that won 41 for an entire season and within two years having that team headed to eclipsing that total before the end of June? That's crazy impressive. 

What A Racket

Guess what Princeton head coach TigerBlog met Tuesday morning? 

That would be brand-new women's rugby coach Karameli Fa'ae'e. It was outside her office at the Meadows campus. TB recognized her immediately from her pictures when she was hired back in May. 

TB spent about five minutes chatting with Fa'ae'e. She's definitely excited for the coming season and for her new job. You could tell that in way fewer than five minutes. 

You know what else you could tell in fewer than five minutes? That she has a really cool New Zealand accent. 

It was only a quick "hi, how are you" conversation, but that was all it took to know that you can add Fa'ae'e to the list of people for whom it easy to root. Make sure you get out there to watch the Tigers this fall. And say hello to the coach. She's certainly very approachable. 

Why was TigerBlog at the Meadows campus? Why else? To play tennis. Duh. 

TigerBlog played high school tennis a very long time ago. He played a little bit of tennis through the next few decades, playing lunchtime basketball in Jadwin Gym before finding the squash courts on D level. Those were his exercise home for 15 years or so, with epic matches usually five days a week against his longtime friend and colleague Craig Sachson. 

There was a time during those 15 years when TB tried to play tennis. Have you ever done that after you've played a lot of squash? No? 

Well, this is how it goes. In squash, you never have to worry about hitting the ball out past the baseline, because there isn't one. In tennis, you need a bit more touch on the ball. The first TB tried to hit a tennis ball after all that squash, he launched it over the fence. 

Sadly, all of that squash took its toll — two knee surgeries and a shoulder labrum tear (small one) later, his squash career ended and his bicycling career began. And with that, he went on pedaling. 

Fast forwarding to this past April 19, TB found himself at the indoor courts at Brown, ahead of Princeton's Ivy championship clincher over the Bears. As he waited for the players to come out to warm up, he decided to hit a few balls with head coach Elizabeth Johnson. Suddenly, he wanted to pick up a racket again.

In fact, he got one from men's head coach Billy Pate. And, Tuesday morning, he finally was able to use it. 

The catalyst for this was TB's friend Pattie Friend, the Princeton Athletics superfan and, like TB, an honorary member of the Class of 1965 (her late husband Lloyd was an actual class member). She met Coach Fa'ae'e at the same time as TB, and there is no doubt that 1) Pattie will attend more than the two rugby matches she did this past year and 2) she and the coach will become friends. That's just how she rolls. 

In addition to being a superfan, Pattie is also a longtime tennis player. She told TB that she would hit with him, and so off they went to the Si Qin Family Indoor Tennis Center. 

Pattie, as you might expect, is a very consistent player. TigerBlog? He was all over the place. Also, because of his shoulder issue, it's hard for him to serve or hit overheads, so he had to serve underhand. 

Back when he first hurt his shoulder in squash, he began to hit only forehands — righthanded on the right side of the court and lefthanded on the left side. He started to do that on the tennis court, including when men's head coach Billy Pate wandered out to watch. 

A few minutes later, it was a 10-point doubles tiebreaker, with TB and Pate against Pattie and assistant coach Ethan Nittolo. When it came to returning serve, TB asked Pate what side he should be on, and Pate said "if you're hitting lefthanded returns, you should probably take the right side."

If you're wondering, TB and Pate went up 7-4 before Nittolo and Pattie ripped off six straight to win it. Still, just being out on the court was a lot of fun.  

TB hit just enough good shots to make him think he could end up being good again. The odds of that aren't quite as high as the odds that he hurts his shoulder or knees again, but hey, why not, right?  

The End Of The Race

TigerBlog starts today again with the New York Knicks and with all of the analysis that suggests that Jalen Brunson s the greatest player in franchise history. 

TB has two thoughts: 1) he isn't and 2) this is where sports commentary is these days. He's surprised he hasn't seen a "Mount Rushmore" of Knicks the last few days. Maybe it's out there and he just missed it.

For everyone who thinks Brunson is the team's best player ever, consider that this is a franchise that has had 25 players inducted into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame (including TigerBlog h'65's classmate Bill Bradley). There were also nine Knicks on the NBA's 75th Anniversary Top 75 team, of whom Willis Reed, Patrick Ewing, Walt Frazier, Dave DeBusschere, Earl Monroe and Jerry Lucas were known more for their time with the Knicks than with any other team (Bob McAdoo, Jason Kidd and Carmelo Anthony were the other three).  

Maybe Brunson will end up as the greatest Knick ever, but he's not there yet. Keep in mind, Reed, Frazier and DeBusschere won two NBA titles each in New York. 

Okay, now that he's written about the two Princetonians who've won professional championships this week — McKayla Tyrrell with the Knicks in the NBA and Eric Robinson with the Carolina Hurricanes of the NHL — TigerBlog can finally get around to the final Princeton Athletics event of the 2025-26 season. 

The NCAA track and field championships concluded this past weekend in Oregon, and with that, another athletic year has come and gone. Of course, like most of the rest of 2025-26, the last event was a wildly successful one for Princeton. 

There were by TB's count 17 Princeton athletes who qualified for the finals. Also by TB's count, there were 14 who came back as All-Americans. 

TigerBlog watched quite a bit of the championships, including the men's 5,000 meter final. Remember yesterday when he admitted that he didn't know that Cape Verde was a country? The same is true for Eritrea, which turns out to be the home country of Habtom Samuel, the winner of the race. 

Samuel seemed to be in complete control of the race, even when he somewhere in the middle of the pack. In fact, TB thought he might have watched the race on tape delay, since the broadcast seemed to focus on him the whole way. Princeton was represented in that race by Myles Hogan, who finished in 12th, earning second-team All-American honors.  

Oh, and if you're wondering, Eritrea is in East Africa. It is 46,000 square miles, which makes it smaller than New York State. 

Earlier in the evening Friday, Princeton's Connor McCormick ran a fantastic race in the 1,500, finishing in fourth to become a first-team All-American. The race was won by Oregon's Simon Birnbaum, who sprinted away on the last lap to win in 3:36.05; the next three were separated by only 0.09 seconds. It's amazing the small differences that decide races and places. 

Princeton was represented by seven women, all in field events, all of whom finished as All-Americans. The first five did so Thursday, including four honorable mention winners: Alexandra Kelly and Georgina Scoot in the long jump, Angela McAuslan Kelly in the hammer and Tessa Mudd in the pole vault.

The other All-American was Shea Greene, who came in seventh in the javelin to earn first-team honors. Have you ever tried to throw a javelin? TigerBlog has. He can't imagine having it go 180 inches, let alone the 180 feet that Greene's did.  

Scoot came back to finish seventh in the triple jump Saturday, adding a first-team All-American honor. Layla Giordano went 186-10 to take sixth place in the discus. It's fairly fascinating to TB that a javelin and a discus can go basically the same distance, given that a javelin weighs about half as much as a discus. 

In fact, the winning javelin throw was 200 feet. The winning discus throw was 216 feet. That's reasonably close — and the heavier one went further. 

Alysa Carrigan finished 11th in the high jump with a Princeton record 6-0.5. That was good for second-team All-American. 

And with that, the schedule was suddenly completed, after nearly 700 athletic events with nearly 1,000 Princeton varsity athletes. The next Princeton Athletic event will be Aug. 20, when the women's soccer team opens its season at home against Loyola. 

What will you be doing between now and then? That's a little more than two months. Make sure you enjoy the summer. 

TigerBlog will still be here every day. 

There will always be something Princetonian to write about. 

Happy Birthday Eric Robinson

TigerBlog was watching the Georgia-Oklahoma Men's College World Series game last night while he was reading a story about how the Uruguayan team had major travel issues in getting into the United States before its World Cup opener. 

Uruguay, who was training in Cancun, didn't get to fly to Miami for Game 1 (against Saudi Arabia) until 24 hours before kickoff due to paperwork issues with the plane it was using. After reading that, TB saw on the ESPN crawl that Uruguay was down 1-0 in the 79th minute. 

Figuring he'd check in to see if the team showed any obvious sign of being affected by the late arrival, TB switched over to see the end of the soccer game. It was still 1-0 Saudi Arabia when he did; it was 1-1 within five seconds of when he started watching. Actually, it might have been less than five seconds. 

At first, TB thought it was a replay from earlier, but nope. He just timed it well. 

The game was the opposite of what you might have expected. Uruguay and Saudi Arabia had five shots each in the first half, including the Saudi goal in the 41st minute. In the second? Would Uruguay fold? Well, shots were 23-2 in favor of Uruguay, but the game ended in a 1-1 tie. 

There are 48 countries in this expanded World Cup field. There are 47 that TB had heard of before — the lone exception is Cape Verde, who had a shocking 0-0 tie with Spain yesterday. TB would not have been able to identify Cape Verde as a country off the African coast near the Canary Islands, even though he's been to the Canary Islands. 

The World Cup is part of a very busy sports June in this country. The NBA Finals just concluded, with, as you may have heard, a championship for the New York Knicks. 

Also, the Stanley Cup playoffs ended Sunday night, one night after the Knicks took care of the Spurs. This time, it was the Carolina Hurricanes who closed out the final series, beating Vegas 3-0 to lift the Cup four games to two. 

Among the Hurricanes who get to have their names etched on the Stanley Cup will be Eric Robinson, who was the captain of Princeton's 2018 ECAC championship team. Robinson has established himself as a very steady, consistent NHL veteran, and the game Sunday night ended with him on the ice. 

Oh, and all of this happened on his 31st birthday. That's not a bad way to celebrate.

Pretty good birthday present for Robby pic.twitter.com/5ZUI7dvdB0

— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) June 15, 2026

Robinson joins George Parros (Anaheim Ducks in 2007) and Kevin Westgarth (Los Angeles Kings in (2012) as Princeton alums who have won the Stanley Cup as players. Jeff Halpern has won two as an assistant coach with the Tampa Bay Lightning. 

There's another short list that Robinson has joined as well, one that includes six others, one of whom is Parros. Any guesses? 

Hint - think about where Princeton is. TB will give you until the end. 

Robinson has played in 455 career NHL games, with 66 goals and 75 assists. Like TB said, he's a very solid veteran winger.  

The last time TB mentioned Robinson here was this past January, when he recalled how Robinson had scored the tying goal just ahead of the final horn in Game 2 of the 2017 ECAC tournament opening round. Princeton would then score in overtime to tie the series and then win Game 3 to advance.

This is what TB wrote the following Monday:

There was Game 2 Saturday night, which was one of the very best Princeton athletic events TigerBlog has ever seen. Yes, he knows how many games that's taking into account. Yes, he's not prone to hyberbole. This was a great game, start to finish.   

Now nine years later, TB stands by that. If you were there, you agree with him. It was crazy. So was Robinson's tying goal, an incredible individual effort that saw him come out of seemingly nowhere to just beat the clock. 

And now he's a Stanley Cup champion. TB sends his congrats.  

And the answer: Robinson became the seventh New Jersey high school hockey player to win the Stanley Cup. Robinson grew up in Bellmawr, outside of Philadelphia, and went to Gloucester Catholic. Parros grew up in Randolph in North Jersey and went to the Delbarton School. 

Congrats McKayla

TigerBlog's Rule No. 1 in sports is that if you don't believe you can win, you won't.

You have to get off the bus knowing you'll win. Otherwise, don't get on the bus in the first place. 

Close behind is Rule No. 2, which states: "Never do what the other team wants you to do." You should never make a move after which the other team says "yes, that's perfect for us."

Had the San Antonio Spurs followed Rule No. 2, then they would be celebrating an NBA championship right now. Actually, they would have celebrated it a few days ago, since they would have won the series in four games, instead of losing in five to the New York Knicks, who ended the series Saturday night with a 94-90 win to win their first title in 53 years. 

What was the practical application of Rule No. 2 in this series? Every time Victor Wembanyama launched a three-point shot, every New York Knick said "yes, that's perfect for us."  

In the five games of the Finals, the 7-4 Wembanyama was 44 for 103 from the field. Broken down by kind of shots he took, he was 9 for 33 from three-point range (27.3 percent) and 35 for 70 from two-point range. Nearly one-third of his shots were threes. 

It's worse in the four games the Knicks won, where Wemby was 7 for 29 from three (24.1). Did you watch the games? He was nearly unstoppable around the basket and way more "miss" than "hit" from outside the arc. Also, when he was that far from the basket, he took himself completely out of position for any offensive rebounds. 

Given that the Knicks won their four games by 10, one, one and four — and that the Knicks trailed by double figures in every game — San Antonio would have rolled had it traded a few of those three attempts by Wemby for, TigerBlog might suggest, a post-up every now and then? Maybe a few more drives to the hoop? 

But no. Not in the way the NBA is played these days. For the five games, there were 859 field goals attempted, of which 386 were threes. That's 45 percent of all shots attempted. 

Of course, there was the otherworldly Game 5 effort from New York's Jalen Brunson, who scored 45 of his team's points Saturday night. Everyone else combined for 49 points. Brunson was unstoppable as he willed his team back from another huge second-half deficit to close out the series. 

If you heard him speak afterwards, you could see how genuine his emotions were, especially with his father Rick as a Knick assistant coach. It was heartwarming. 

If you watched the broadcast from the start, you saw a familiar face holding her phone and following the team around. That person was McKayla Tyrrell, who is the Knicks' manager of digital content. 

Why is she familiar? Because of her time as a student manager for the Princeton men's basketball team before graduating in 2020. 

From student manager to working for the champs. 🏆

Congratulations to @nyknicks Manager of Digital Content McKayla Tyrrell '20 on providing championship level coverage for the 2025-26 NBA champions all season long!

The Tigers have known how talented, creative and dedicated she… pic.twitter.com/zITJj0ihep

— Princeton Men’s Basketball (@PrincetonMBB) June 14, 2026

This graphic went up shortly after the game ended. Even as it was being posted, you could see MyKayla as she ran around the court and the stage that was set up, capturing content for the team. 

You could also see her before the game ever started, when she followed the team onto the court. Just as the three-pointer has embedded itself in the NBA game like never before, so too has the need for exactly what it is that McKayla does — digital content creation. 

When the NBA championship rings are given out, there will be one with the name "Tyrrell" on it. Just as there should be. She's certainly earned hers. She's been there with the team, home and away, game days and off days, chronicling it all. 

Her payoff, like everyone else in the organization, came courtesy of Jalen Brunson — and the Spurs failure to follow Rule No. 2. 

Congrats to McKayla. It's always great to see Princeton Athletics be part of something like what the Knicks just accomplished.  

Knick Of Time

Can anyone tell TigerBlog who the following people are: Jacob Evans, Dzanan Musa, Omari Spellman, Elie Okobo and Jevon Carter? 

That's right. They're the five players selected in the 2018 NBA Draft directly before Jalen Brunson, who was the 33rd overall selection that year. Those five combined have 4,003 career NBA points. 

Brunson? He has 2,195 — in just his playoff games. In the regular season? Brunson has 10,748. 

Do you know who Deandre Ayton is? It's likely you've heard of him. He's had a solid NBA career, with 7,426 career points. Of course, he was the No. 1 overall pick in 2018, or 32 spots before Brunson. 

You can go through the entire 2018 draft and not find more than three players who have had the impact in their NBA careers that Brunson has had. So how do they keep missing, in the NBA and the NFL? Who knows. 

Even when Brunson misses it can come up roses. Did you see how his New York Knicks won Game 4 of the NBA Finals Wednesday night? Brunson, who finished with 36 points, missed a potential game-winning three in the final seconds, only to have OG Anunoby make one of the greatest plays you'll ever see with a follow tip-in that, well, can hardly be described:

AN ALL-TIME CLASSIC!

THE FINAL MINUTES OF SPURS-KNICKS GAME 4 🔥 pic.twitter.com/My5dHDiQ64

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) June 11, 2026

Understanding recency bias and all, TigerBlog has to say that 1) this was quite possibly the greatest NBA Finals game ever played and 2) this immediately vaults to one of the two greatest Knick moments in Madison Square Garden history. The other? Hint - it happened before a game even started. 

If you're looking for the other absolute greatest Finals games, you have the Magic Johnson 42-point night as a center Game 6 in 1980, Michael Jordan's "flu game" in Game 5 in 1997, Jerry West's three-quarter court heave to force overtime in Game 3 in 1970 and, in the only other game that can rival the other night, Game 5 in 1976, when the Celtics beat the Suns 128-126 in three OTs. 

As for this year's Game 4, TigerBlog was going to call it a night when the Knicks were down by 29. Or in the early fourth quarter, when they were still down by 18. Instead, he figured he'd ride it out, mostly because he was too lazy to get off the couch. 

The fact that he stayed with it to the end enabled him to keep, well, track of how Princeton was doing at the NCAA track and field championships in Oregon, which started Wednesday night. 

The first day saw three second-team All-American performances by Princeton men — Jackson Shorten and Brian Boler in the steeplechase and Joey Gant in the 400. Gant finished 0.04 seconds out of qualifying for the final; that is literally less time than the blink of an eye. 

The two biggest stories of the first night were from Greg Foster, who finished fourth in the long jump to earn first-team All-American honors, and Connor McCormick, who ran the 1,500 in a school record 3:35.81. 

McCormick advanced to run in tonight's final, which starts at 8:12 Eastern. McCormick will be one of 12 runners in the race, and his qualifying time Wednesday was the fastest. Princeton's Miles Hogan will run tonight as well, in the 5,000 meter final at 9:55. 

The Princeton women began their competition last night. There were seven Tigers who reached the finals, all in field events. In fact, Princeton qualified in more field events than any other school in Division I. 

Princeton had five athletes who were in finals last night: Angela McAuslan-Kelly (hammer), Tessa Mudd (pole vault), Shea Greene (javelin) and Alexandra Kelly and Georgina Scott in the long jump. 

The championships — and, for that matter, the 2025-26 Princeton Athletic year, conclude tomorrow, with Layla Giordano in the discus, Alysa Carrigan in the high jump and Georgina Scott in the triple jump. 

Three Goodbyes

Today's theme is, unfortunately, "goodbye" — three of them, to be exact. 

TigerBlog starts on Nassau Street, where he attended the retirement party of his longtime friend and colleague Dan Day. There had been a request made of attendees to mirror Dan's typical outfit, which is hat and bow tie. TB obliged, as you can see. 

Who is Dan Day? He's been one of the great additions to so many areas of the Princeton campus for the last 14 years, after a long career in the newspaper business (not to mention an athletic fellow for the baseball team). This is from his official bio: 

Day has served in a variety of roles at Princeton, including director of news and editorial services, assistant vice president for communications, director of operations for communications and public affairs, and director of special projects in Communications. He is chair of the University Copyright Committee and is a member of the Trademark Committee. 

Then again, so is this:

He and his wife live in Lawrence Township with their pet guinea pig, Millard Fillmore. 

That's a great name for a guinea pig, naming it for one of the more obscure Presidents ever. If you've forgotten, Filmore was the 13th President, taking office when Zachary Taylor died in 1850 and finishing his term. Filmore's biggest claim to fame is that he was a member of the Whig party, which makes him the last President who was not a Republican or Democrat. 

Back at Dan Day, he was celebrated yesterday with speeches and acknowledgements of what he brought to Princeton all these years. TigerBlog didn't speak, but if he had, he would have said something along the lines of "it's been an honor to know him and to be his friend all this time. Princeton has one fewer great person on its campus."

The second goodbye goes to Jade Hennessy, whom TigerBlog got to know during her time as the athletic trainer for the Princeton field hockey team. Make no mistake — without Jade, there would have been no trip to the NCAA championship game last fall for the Tigers. 

The season began with a broken hand for Beth Yeager. It ended with a torn ACL for Ella Cashman. Those two were the team's two All-Americans. 

Somehow, Jade worked with them to get them both back on the field. Beth didn't miss a game. Cash missed two but returned to play in the Final Four just two weeks after the injury. 

Add to that all of the wear and tear that comes along with a long season and all of the players who come into the training room every day, and Jade became one of the team MVPs. She is leaving college athletics and heading into the next phase of her career, and TB is happy for her — though he speaks for the whole field hockey team in saying that she will be missed. 

And that brings TB to the third goodbye from yesterday. 

As it turns out, yesterday was the final day of the 39-year Princeton career of Nancy Donigan. TB has written about her before, including this back in April when she announced her retirement after working in the compliance office: 

When TB thinks about what to write about Nancy, he comes back to two words: warmth, and smile. Nancy exudes the first and almost always has the second. TigerBlog has had his share of ups and downs during his time at Princeton. Through it all, Nancy has been a constant as a friend whose support, compassion, humor and kindness have helped sustain TB through those downs. 

Nancy walked out of Jadwin Gym yesterday for the final time as a Princeton employee around 4 yesterday afternoon. She left the building as about 30 of her co-workers formed a gauntlet for her. She didn't say a word. She merely walked out as if it had been just another day in those 39 years. 

It was only after she was out the door that she turned around and waved. She told TB that had she stopped, she would have started bawling.  

That Tracks

So this picture was taken outside TigerBlog's front door the other night. 

What are those two dots in the sky? The one on the left is Jupiter. The one on the right is Venus. 

To give you a sense of the vastness of space, Jupiter is actually 14 times larger than Venus, though it appears smaller in the picture because of how far away it is. Venus is 25 million miles away from TigerBlog's front door. Jupiter is 460 million. 

While the subject is interesting Venus/Jupiter facts, here is one: It takes Venus 243 days for one full rotation (in other words, a day), while it takes Jupiter less than 11 hours. 

Okay, one more about Venus: It takes Venus 225 days to orbit the sun, which means that a year on Venus takes less time than a day. 

That must really mess with the ability of teams on Venus to make their schedules. What? There are no teams on Venus? 

That must be because of the fact that on the surface of Venus it is 700 degrees and rains sulfuric acid. Actually, even that weather wouldn't be as challenging as having to schedule games on a planet where a day is longer than a year. 

Meanwhile, back on this planet, it's finally time for the final Princeton events of the 2025-26 athletic year. The NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships begin today in Eugene, Ore., and Princeton will be well-represented after its showing on the men's and women's sides at the regional in Kentucky. 

TigerBlog has never been to Hayward Field, the site of the event, but he'd love to go one of these years. It is, according to anyone he's known who has attended, a can't-miss good time with great competition. 

Hayward Field opened in 1919, five years after Princeton's Palmer Stadium opened, as was the home of Oregon track and field and football until 1966. It was perfect for track and field; it was awful for football, with a capacity of 9,000 that was the smallest in Division I at the time. Once Oregon football moved to Autzen Stadium, Hayward Field became track and field only and is now, according to its website, "magic."

Princeton has won two NCAA titles in the facility — Julia Ratcliffe in the 2014 hammer and Sondre Guttormsen in the 2022 pole vault.  

The 2026 championships start today with a full schedule of men's events. The women will begin tomorrow. It all wraps up Saturday. 

The Princeton men are represented in seven individual events and in the 4x400 relay. The women will have seven athletes in Oregon; all seven are competing in field events, which is the most of any school in Division I. 

Added together that's 17 Princetonians in Oregon (Joey Gant will run the 400 and on the 4x400 relay).  

Connor McCormick will be the first Tiger on the track when he runs in the 1,500 semifinals at 8:21 Eastern this evening. Within the next three hours, there will be five other Princeton athletes who will compete in individual events and four who will run the relay semifinal. 

You can watch tonight on ESPN and ESPN2 and then on ESPN2 for the rest of the championships.  

Here is the schedule for today (Eastern times): 

Connor McCormick, 1500m (Semifinal, 8:21 PM)
Brian Boler/Jackson Shorten, 3000 meter steeplechase (Semifinal, 8:38 PM) 
Greg Foster, Long Jump (Final 9:40 PM)
Joey Gant, 400 (Semifinal, 9:41 PM)
Jacob Nenow 10,000m (Final, 10:56 PM)
4x400 Relay of Gant, Xavier Donaldson, Kavon Miller, Jonathan York (Semifinal, 11:36 PM) 

Miles Hogan will run Friday in the 5,000 final. Hopefully he won't be the only Princetonian to run in that session, after the qualifying events today. 

As for the women, as TB said, there are seven of them, all in the field events. Here is their schedule:

Angela McAuslan-Kelly, Hammer (Final tomorrow 5:30 PM)
Tessa Mudd, Pole Vault (Final tomorrow 8:35 PM)
Shea Greene, Javelin (Final tomorrow 9:15 PM)
Alexandra Kelly/Georgina Scoot, Long Jump (Final tomorrow 9:40 PM)
Layla Giordano, Discus (Final Saturday 2:30 PM)
Alysa Carrigan, High Jump (Final Saturday 7:30 PM)
Scoot, Triple Jump (Final Saturday 8:10 PM) 

HERE is the entire schedule for the NCAA outdoor track and field championships. 

Making The Rules

Well, it's been a week since one of the great moments of self-control TigerBlog has ever had. 

It was at a Brazilian steakhouse in Indianapolis. Have you ever been to one of these restaurants? They keep bringing perfectly cooked meat right to your table and slice it right there for you. 

You're given a coaster that has a green side and a red side. If you've had enough, you put it on the red side. If you want more, you put it on the green side. Not that it matters. It's pretty much impossible to turn it down when you see it. 

And yet? TigerBlog did not overeat. He didn't under-eat or anything like that. It's just that he tasted all the ones he wanted and then flipped over to red. It wasn't easy or anything but he did it. 

TigerBlog was there as part of a celebration dinner at the NCAA men's lacrosse rules committee meetings. The main honoree was Willie Scroggs, the outgoing Secretary-Rules Editor, who was completing 12 years of service. 

Scroggs is a Hall of Fame former coach who led North Carolina to three NCAA championships, in 1981, 1982 and 1986. That 1981 championship came at Palmer Stadium, with a crowd of 14,000 in attendance. 

You can also add the three titles Scroggs won as a player at Johns Hopkins and the two he won as a Hopkins assistant and that still doesn't come to the number of NCAA championships his wife Karen Shelton won in field hockey as the UNC coach. That would be 10.

Willie Scroggs is someone TB certainly knew about but had never met prior to TB's time on the rules committee. Now he knows him as Willie the person, not just Coach Scroggs, the one who did so much to help grow the sport. 

Willie has a dry sense of humor and a warm, welcoming personality. He brought a lot to the meetings, both for his historical perspective and knowledge of the rulebook and for the way he made everyone in the room feel valued. 

Like Willie, TigerBlog's time on the committee is ending. His four-year term — the last two of which have been spent as the committee chair — comes to a close officially on August 31. The meetings last week in Indy were his last real opportunity to have an official impact on the rules of the game. 

TB came onto the committee at a time where the game had recently undergone major changes, including a shot clock, a goal mouth, continued refinements of the face-off rules. Those changes had done wonders for the pace of play and for consistency, which meant that it was important that the committee in TB's four years not overhaul the book just for the sake of doing so. 

That's not to say there weren't major challenges. TB's focus was always on three areas: first and foremost player safety, along with a balance between offense and defense and making the game as easy as possible on the officials. Also, when considering the need to make a change, think about what you'd want the outcome to be if this occurred in overtime of the national championship game. 

Probably the biggest change during TB's time was the advent and expansion of video review to men's college lacrosse. There have been growing pains, to be sure, but the basic premise remains the same: be able to make corrections in some specific situations, do not "re-ref" every call and keep the review time to a minimum. 

The meetings last week also included, among other items, a change to the way overtime works, going from four-minute sudden-death to 15-minute sudden-death. Oh, and the color of the ball will be evolving to a florescent yellow or green. 

What didn't happen was the one rule TB wanted to see changed. If he could have simply waved his hand to make it happen, then the ability to call live-ball timeouts would have vanished from the game. Alas, it wasn't meant to be. 

There were massive NCAA structural changes this year as the rules committee was split into two: Division I and Division II/III. Unlike the past, the rules that TB's committee put forth this year will need to be approved by the new Division I oversight committee, as opposed to the former process of the Playing Rules Oversight Panel (which still exists for Division II/III). 

Also this year, the Division I rules sub-committee was joined by a current player (in a non-voting capacity). In this case it was Notre Dame's Shawn Lyght, who became the first defenseman to win the Tewaaraton Award. Lyght was also on the team that Princeton defeated 16-9 on Memorial Day to win the NCAA title. 

TB had never met Lyght in person prior to saying hello in Charlottesville at the Final Four. He got to spend a good deal of time with him in Indianapolis, and he can say that 1) Lyght is a very impressive person, 2) he brought a great perspective to the meetings and 3) TB never mentioned who won the NCAA final. For that matter, he didn't even wear Princeton stuff to the meetings. And he especially didn't let Lyght see his phone, where his wallpaper is now a picture of TB with the championship trophy. 

Once the approval process plays out this summer, that'll be it for TB with this experience. He's not sure that anyone has ever had this opportunity from a background in communications, and he'd like to thank everyone who helped him get on in the first place and then made him feel so welcome from Day 1. 

He doesn't want to shortchange anyone, but he does need to offer some thank-yous by name besides Willie: Maryland head coach John Tillman (the chair for TB's first two years), former VMI head coach James Purpura and Grove City head coach Alec Jernstedt (on the committee TB's first three years), Michigan head coach Kevin Conry (no meeting that he is in will ever be boring), Montevallo head coach Jason Lange, and Big East administrator James Green and Gwynedd Mercy administrator Dana Lindstrom (who came onto the committee when TB did). Lindstrom gets a special recognition for being the first-ever chair of the Division II/III committee. 

Also, there was Supervisor of Officials Tom Abbott and incoming Secretary-Rules Editor Dave Seidman, as well as Ryan Tressel, Will Hopkins, Greg Johnson and Dante Jones of the NCAA and especially Andy Supergan and Connor Lancashire, the NCAA's liaison's to the rules committee.

It was a great four years. A quick four years, but a great four years. 

And, TB likes to think, the rules of the game have been changed for the better in those four years. 

For TB? It was one of the great honors of his career. 

He'll certainly miss it — the rules, and especially the people.