Old Rivals

The Princeton men's basketball team hosts Yale tomorrow, with tipoff at 2 in Jadwin Gym. 

The women, now ranked 24th in the country, will also play Yale tomorrow, also at 2. That game also tips at 2. 

Both Princeton teams won their Ivy openers this past week against Penn, both in close games. Olivia Hutcherson earned her first Ivy League Player of the Week award after she scored a career-high 20 in the 74-68 win at the Palestra. 

It's the men's game from the other night that TigerBlog would like to talk about today, however. Princeton won that one 78-76 Monday night after playing the most perfect basketball you can play in the first 11 minutes of the second half (this included making the first 16 shots after intermission). It's a win that gave Princeton the all-time series lead (127-126) for the first time ever. 

The end was dramatic too, as a Penn three-point attempt that would have won the game didn't fall. TigerBlog, though, starts when the opening tip was about 90 minutes away. 

Fans had not yet entered the building. Various players from both teams were milling around, getting some shots up, stretching, doing what players do before a game. 

Those working at the game were busy setting up — television, table personnel, game management. It was very much what you'd see prior to any college basketball game anywhere. Nothing was out of the ordinary. 

Over in what are the VIP seats opposite the Princeton bench sat two people, one in a blue Penn Basketball pullover and the other in a black Princeton Basketball pullover. They were talking like old friends who hadn't seen each other in a long time, and, well, that's exactly what they were. 

The Penn guy was head men's basketball coach Fran McCaffery. The Princeton guy was Roger Gordon,  who has no title, though if he did it would be something along the line of "guy who has done pretty every single thing you can do for the program and has done so for six decades now."

Here they are together:

They are both Philly guys, even if Roger has been a Princeton guy since the 1970s and Fran has had coaching stops at Lehigh, Siena and Iowa. TB wasn't sure how long it's been since they'd seen each other when he pointed them to each other Monday night, but however many years it had been melted away in the moment. 

"I tried to recruit this guy," Roger said laughing as they hugged.  

Then there was another picture that was taken at the game Monday. This one also mixed the two teams and the rivalry that has meant so much to so many. 

You know what's in this picture? 

That's 3,234 college points. That's seven All-Ivy League selections. That's seven Ivy League championships. 

And now, 40-something years later, that's a lot of smiles. 

Who are they? 

Well, you probably recognize Howard Levy in the middle. Howard, Princeton Class of 1985, was an assistant coach at Princeton under Bill Carmody, John Thompson and Joe Scott before becoming the head coach at Mercer County Community College. 

The other two guys? Those are also Penn guys. 

On the left is Bruce Lefkowitz, Class of 1987. On the right is Paul Little, Class of 1983. Little was the 1980 Ivy Rookie of the Year and 1983 Player of the Year. All three were All-Ivy League selections. All three played in the NCAA tournament. 

And all three were big parts of the Princeton-Penn rivalry.  

TigerBlog talks all the time about the bond that comes from being teammates and how it endures forever. That is certainly the case.

There is also, though, a different kind of bond, the one between rivals. Maybe it doesn't start out as being friendly, but it softens as the years (and decades) go by. Respect grows. Memories fade just enough that the exact way the game played out isn't exactly remembered the same by everyone. 

And what are you left with? Old rivals, smiling together, while the rivalry that brought them together plays out another classic in front of them.  

It's another special part about college athletics.  

And it was on full display at Jadwin Monday night.