Let's see.
TigerBlog went to four Princeton athletic events over the weekend. He watched others on the videostream. He followed Twitter to get updates.
He announced. He wrote. He did stats.
It was a fairly full weekend. Of course it was. How could it not be, what with nine different teams who played on campus.
TigerBlog saw four of them live - men's water polo, women's hockey, men's hockey and football. He watched the women's soccer and men's soccer games on videostream. He kept track of Twitter updates for field hockey, sprint football and women's volleyball.
He actually saw a little of the women's hockey game Friday against RIT live. It was 3-0 Tigers - the RIT Tigers - when TB got there and when he left. Then he went to the pool for a little bit of men's water polo. He got back to his office to see the end of the women's hockey comebck on the videostream, including Morgan Sly's pretty overtime goal to win it.
He then had to help out doing stats at men's hockey against Cornell. This is something that TigerBlog has a demonstrated record of doing poorly.
Lacrosse? He can do that all by himself. He doesn't even need a spotter. Hockey is another story.
TB had what would appear to be the easiest job, doing the shot chart. All he had to do was write down the number of the player on each team who took a shot and where on the ice they were. If the shot was a save, he had to underline it twice. A blocked shot was underlined once. A shot that went wide was left alone. A goal was circled.
TigerBlog failed this miserably. First, because he was sitting in the press box at Baker Rink, he was at above and behind one goal. The paper with the chart, of course, had the goals to his left and right, as if he was sitting at center ice.
As a result, he couldn't figure out his left from his right on the chart without turning the paper 90 degrees. And then he couldn't keep straight which side was Cornell and which side was Princeton.
If he kept the paper turned to replicate the ice, then the numbers he wrote down would also be off by 90 degrees.
It was very stressful.
On the other hand, Colton Phinney had a great 40-save performance, with a few "wow" saves, as Princeton won the game 2-1. The Tigers were up 1-0 early, as in 3:14 in, on a goal by Aaron Ave. TigerBlog's shot chart had him shooting it in the other goal, by the way.
The next time either team scored was 56:01 later, when Garrett Skrbich scored into an empty net. Game over, right? Not exactly. Cornell scored with 16 seconds left to keep it interesting, but that would be it.
As for Saturday, he kept checking Twitter for the field hockey score, and Princeton won that one 4-3. By then, Columbia had lost 4-1 to Harvard.
It was the one scenario that would bring Princeton an outright Ivy title and the league's bid to the NCAA tournament. And it worked out perfectly.
Princeton, the Ivy field hockey champ for the 20th time in 21 years, is going to be a tough out come NCAA tournament time.
Then it was time to do PA at football.
The game dragged for nearly 3.5 hours, with 16 TV timeouts and 98 passes. And it wasn't exactly the most artistic game for much of it.
Still, it was exactly what Princeton needed. A win. And so here is where the Tigers are: tied with Yale and Dartmouth - its last two opponents - for second, one game back of Harvard, who play Penn and Yale.
The Tigers need two wins and at least one Harvard loss, but at least they still have a chance. A loss to Penn would have basically ended that hope.
After that, TB watched the second half of men's soccer on the videostream. Princeton was up 3-2 at the half, and that's how it ended.
Dartmouth defeated Columbia, meaning that Princeton and Dartmouth are still tied for first at 4-1-1, with 13 points. Princeton is at Yale (0-5-1); Dartmouth hosts Brown (2-2-2).
Princeton would lose the tiebreaker for the NCAA bid to Dartmouth because of the OT loss on Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium earlier this season. But Princeton also is right in the mix for an at-large NCAA bid either way, and a win over Yale means no worse than a share of the Ivy title.
And with that, TB was able to exhale.
These are the kinds of weekends that TB loves. Lots of teams. Lots of games. Lots to do.
This one was a pretty good one.
Showing posts with label men's water polo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label men's water polo. Show all posts
Monday, November 10, 2014
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Winterizing
TigerBlog Jr. had a lacrosse event Sunday at Lehigh.
As the wind ripped down the mountains and across the fields, TigerBlog added layer after layer, until he had on a longsleeve t shirt, a longsleeve dri-fit, two fleeces and two sweatshirts, as well as gloves and a hat.
At one point, TB asked the assembled parents - with whom he's watched lacrosse for a long, long time - what percentage of the thousands of hours they'd been together featured weather that could be described as "pleasant."
Since these tournaments occur in the summer and late fall, the answer is "almost none." It's either says like Sunday was, or sweltering summer weekends.
This in turn led to a discussion of which was preferable, the oppressively hot or the "lazy wind." You know, the wind that goes smashing through everyone because it's too lazy to go around you.
Almost universally, the answer was the heat.
TigerBlog was in full agreement. He's never been a cold weather person. He doesn't understand what the attraction is.
Even if you like to ski, how does the fact that it's freezing in January in Princeton help you do that? You still have to find someplace to go that has snow and a mountain.
TigerBlog walked outside this morning and found something that he never likes to see - snow. Okay, it was hardly a blizzard, just a few wet flakes.
But it's a nasty sign, one that says that winter is creeping up around here and the last of the days where it is sunny and in the 60s are probably gone until the spring.
Actually, this weekend looks like a pretty good one, with Saturday's high around here supposed to be 57.
The winter season, if not actual winter, arrived a few weeks ago with the start of hockey season, and both basketball teams opened their seasons Sunday.
Fall, though, is still around, at least for a little while longer.
Princeton has nine "fall" sports, not including tennis and golf, which also have fall events but whose championship season is the spring.
Of the nine fall sports, women's soccer and sprint football have completed their seasons. Men's soccer has one game left, this Saturday at home against Yale. Women's volleyball has two matches left, against Yale and Brown at home this weekend.
Both cross country teams will be at the NCAA regionals Friday at Lehigh. The NCAA championships will be Saturday the 23rd in Terre Haute, Ind.
The men's water polo team will compete at the Eastern championships at Brown Nov. 22-24, with a spot in the NCAA Final Four on the line.
The NCAA field hockey tournament begins this weekend, and Princeton, the Ivy League champion for the 19th time in 20 years, plays Penn State at Maryland Saturday in the opening round. Penn State defeated Princeton 4-3 earlier this year on Bedford Field.
For the winner of that game there is in all probability Maryland, who will play the winner of the play-in game between Quinnipiac and American.
Princeton and Maryland have combined to win the last three NCAA titles, including Princeton's win last year.
Lastly, there is the football team.
Princeton is 7-1 overall, 5-0 in the Ivy League, and hosting Yale Saturday in a fairly big game. At stake? A win would bring at least a share of the Ivy title and a bonfire. A loss would mean no bonfire and a tougher road to an Ivy title.
Princeton's final game is at Dartmouth, a team that is currently 3-2 in the league, the same as Yale and Penn. Harvard is 4-1.
Dartmouth and Yale currently rank 1-2 in the league in scoring defense. Princeton has been putting up big numbers all year in the league, and in fact the 38 the Tigers scored against Penn were the fewest they have scored in a league game this year.
Dartmouth has allowed 80 points in five league games. Yale has allowed 100.
And with that, the fall season will be over. It'll be all winter teams after that.
On the one hand, that means the coming of the cold, which TB can't stand.
On the other hand, it means the next outdoor event for Princeton will be three months away.
Feb. 22. Men's lacrosse against Hofstra. Women's lacrosse against Loyola.
That's looking on the bright side.
As the wind ripped down the mountains and across the fields, TigerBlog added layer after layer, until he had on a longsleeve t shirt, a longsleeve dri-fit, two fleeces and two sweatshirts, as well as gloves and a hat.
At one point, TB asked the assembled parents - with whom he's watched lacrosse for a long, long time - what percentage of the thousands of hours they'd been together featured weather that could be described as "pleasant."
Since these tournaments occur in the summer and late fall, the answer is "almost none." It's either says like Sunday was, or sweltering summer weekends.
This in turn led to a discussion of which was preferable, the oppressively hot or the "lazy wind." You know, the wind that goes smashing through everyone because it's too lazy to go around you.
Almost universally, the answer was the heat.
TigerBlog was in full agreement. He's never been a cold weather person. He doesn't understand what the attraction is.
Even if you like to ski, how does the fact that it's freezing in January in Princeton help you do that? You still have to find someplace to go that has snow and a mountain.
TigerBlog walked outside this morning and found something that he never likes to see - snow. Okay, it was hardly a blizzard, just a few wet flakes.
But it's a nasty sign, one that says that winter is creeping up around here and the last of the days where it is sunny and in the 60s are probably gone until the spring.
Actually, this weekend looks like a pretty good one, with Saturday's high around here supposed to be 57.
The winter season, if not actual winter, arrived a few weeks ago with the start of hockey season, and both basketball teams opened their seasons Sunday.
Fall, though, is still around, at least for a little while longer.
Princeton has nine "fall" sports, not including tennis and golf, which also have fall events but whose championship season is the spring.
Of the nine fall sports, women's soccer and sprint football have completed their seasons. Men's soccer has one game left, this Saturday at home against Yale. Women's volleyball has two matches left, against Yale and Brown at home this weekend.
Both cross country teams will be at the NCAA regionals Friday at Lehigh. The NCAA championships will be Saturday the 23rd in Terre Haute, Ind.
The men's water polo team will compete at the Eastern championships at Brown Nov. 22-24, with a spot in the NCAA Final Four on the line.
The NCAA field hockey tournament begins this weekend, and Princeton, the Ivy League champion for the 19th time in 20 years, plays Penn State at Maryland Saturday in the opening round. Penn State defeated Princeton 4-3 earlier this year on Bedford Field.
For the winner of that game there is in all probability Maryland, who will play the winner of the play-in game between Quinnipiac and American.
Princeton and Maryland have combined to win the last three NCAA titles, including Princeton's win last year.
Lastly, there is the football team.
Princeton is 7-1 overall, 5-0 in the Ivy League, and hosting Yale Saturday in a fairly big game. At stake? A win would bring at least a share of the Ivy title and a bonfire. A loss would mean no bonfire and a tougher road to an Ivy title.
Princeton's final game is at Dartmouth, a team that is currently 3-2 in the league, the same as Yale and Penn. Harvard is 4-1.
Dartmouth and Yale currently rank 1-2 in the league in scoring defense. Princeton has been putting up big numbers all year in the league, and in fact the 38 the Tigers scored against Penn were the fewest they have scored in a league game this year.
Dartmouth has allowed 80 points in five league games. Yale has allowed 100.
And with that, the fall season will be over. It'll be all winter teams after that.
On the one hand, that means the coming of the cold, which TB can't stand.
On the other hand, it means the next outdoor event for Princeton will be three months away.
Feb. 22. Men's lacrosse against Hofstra. Women's lacrosse against Loyola.
That's looking on the bright side.
Friday, October 25, 2013
Princeton vs. Harvard x 5
TigerBlog has always tried to get his kids - and other people's kids - to understand how to avoid trouble.
His basic rule is this: If they have to stop and ask themselves if what they're thinking about doing is a good idea, it isn't. When in doubt, don't do it.
He's recently added this corollary: the busier teenage kids are, the less likely they are to get in trouble. It can be sports, music, other extra-curricular activities, schoolwork - every hour they spend doing those things is one hour less that they can be bored and open to bad decisions.
Beyond that, when teenage kids do get in trouble, it usually seems to include one or more of these five things: hanging out with the wrong people, being out after midnight, drugs/alcohol, sex and/or gambling.
The last one isn't something that gets the attention of the others, but it can be just as devastating.
And it's everywhere, especially in the NFL, with its point spreads, over-unders, Super Bowl polls and everything else.
Gambling can become as addicting as drugs, and TB had a friend in college who fell into the pattern of losing and then trying to make it back on the next game, only to dig the hole deeper until it became a huge problem.
Few things pose a bigger threat to the integrity of athletics than gambling, and point-shaving scandals have been hugely devastating. That's part of the reason that the NCAA is so adamant about getting its anti-gambling messages out there.
And if you work at an NCAA school, you can't miss the message. Gambling - any gambling on any sport that the NCAA sponsors - is not permitted. In any form. No matter how small.
The OAC has an NCAA basketball pool each year, but for no money. Even if it was for a $5 or something like that, it would be a very big deal, and people's jobs could be lost over it.
TB and his co-workers are constantly making wager-like comments but never, ever would actually include money as part of the deal.
Wager-like comments?
Like yesterday, for instance, when this was the question:
"If you get two points for a win and one for a tie, who would win Saturday, Princeton or Harvard?"
It's a huge Saturday in Cambridge, as Princeton takes on Harvard - five times.
It starts at noon with field hockey and continues at 1 with football, 4 with men's soccer and women's hockey and 7 with women's soccer.
It's the weekend following midterms, which means that Princeton's teams will be either 1) tired or 2) chomping at the bit.
Princeton is currently in first place or tied for first place in the league in field hockey, football and men's soccer. Harvard is currently in first place or tied for first in football and women's soccer and is very much in the thick of it in men's soccer.
In other words, these games will be huge.
In men's soccer, for instance, Princeton is 2-0-1, tied with Penn and Yale. Harvard is 2-1-0, which leaves the Crimson right there as the league race is at the halfway point.
Of the eight men's soccer teams in the Ivy League, only three are currently over .500 overall.
In women's soccer, all eight schools are at least .500 and seven are over .500. Princeton has had some awful luck in its league games, and the Tigers season shows how hard it is to go 7-0-0, which is what they did a year ago.
Only five teams have ever gone 7-0-0 in Ivy women's soccer. Harvard is currently 4-0-0 and the only Ivy team that has a chance for a perfect league record and is 8-0-1 in its last nine games. Don't think Princeton wants to ruin all that?
The reverse is true in field hockey, where Princeton is alone in first at 4-0 and Harvard is 1-3, tied for sixth. Women's hockey season is just starting out.
And then there's football.
Princeton is 2-0 in the league. So is Harvard. So is Penn, for that matter. Princeton has looked great this year. Harvard is very strong. Penn is the defending champion.
And of course Harvard remembers what happened last year, when Princeton came from 34-10 down with 12 minutes to go to beat the Crimson 39-34.
At the time it seemed miraculous. Now? The idea that Princeton can score 29 points in 12 minutes hardly seems shocking.
The fall/winter overlap is starting, but even with that, the only home events this weekend are in men's water polo. The men's hockey team is close to home, playing at the Prudential Center in Newark in the Liberty Hockey Invitational today at 4 and tomorrow at 7.
The big games are in Cambridge this weekend though.
Princeton vs. Harvard, times five.
His basic rule is this: If they have to stop and ask themselves if what they're thinking about doing is a good idea, it isn't. When in doubt, don't do it.
He's recently added this corollary: the busier teenage kids are, the less likely they are to get in trouble. It can be sports, music, other extra-curricular activities, schoolwork - every hour they spend doing those things is one hour less that they can be bored and open to bad decisions.
Beyond that, when teenage kids do get in trouble, it usually seems to include one or more of these five things: hanging out with the wrong people, being out after midnight, drugs/alcohol, sex and/or gambling.
The last one isn't something that gets the attention of the others, but it can be just as devastating.
And it's everywhere, especially in the NFL, with its point spreads, over-unders, Super Bowl polls and everything else.
Gambling can become as addicting as drugs, and TB had a friend in college who fell into the pattern of losing and then trying to make it back on the next game, only to dig the hole deeper until it became a huge problem.
Few things pose a bigger threat to the integrity of athletics than gambling, and point-shaving scandals have been hugely devastating. That's part of the reason that the NCAA is so adamant about getting its anti-gambling messages out there.
And if you work at an NCAA school, you can't miss the message. Gambling - any gambling on any sport that the NCAA sponsors - is not permitted. In any form. No matter how small.
The OAC has an NCAA basketball pool each year, but for no money. Even if it was for a $5 or something like that, it would be a very big deal, and people's jobs could be lost over it.
TB and his co-workers are constantly making wager-like comments but never, ever would actually include money as part of the deal.
Wager-like comments?
Like yesterday, for instance, when this was the question:
"If you get two points for a win and one for a tie, who would win Saturday, Princeton or Harvard?"
It's a huge Saturday in Cambridge, as Princeton takes on Harvard - five times.
It starts at noon with field hockey and continues at 1 with football, 4 with men's soccer and women's hockey and 7 with women's soccer.
It's the weekend following midterms, which means that Princeton's teams will be either 1) tired or 2) chomping at the bit.
Princeton is currently in first place or tied for first place in the league in field hockey, football and men's soccer. Harvard is currently in first place or tied for first in football and women's soccer and is very much in the thick of it in men's soccer.
In other words, these games will be huge.
In men's soccer, for instance, Princeton is 2-0-1, tied with Penn and Yale. Harvard is 2-1-0, which leaves the Crimson right there as the league race is at the halfway point.
Of the eight men's soccer teams in the Ivy League, only three are currently over .500 overall.
In women's soccer, all eight schools are at least .500 and seven are over .500. Princeton has had some awful luck in its league games, and the Tigers season shows how hard it is to go 7-0-0, which is what they did a year ago.
Only five teams have ever gone 7-0-0 in Ivy women's soccer. Harvard is currently 4-0-0 and the only Ivy team that has a chance for a perfect league record and is 8-0-1 in its last nine games. Don't think Princeton wants to ruin all that?
The reverse is true in field hockey, where Princeton is alone in first at 4-0 and Harvard is 1-3, tied for sixth. Women's hockey season is just starting out.
And then there's football.
Princeton is 2-0 in the league. So is Harvard. So is Penn, for that matter. Princeton has looked great this year. Harvard is very strong. Penn is the defending champion.
And of course Harvard remembers what happened last year, when Princeton came from 34-10 down with 12 minutes to go to beat the Crimson 39-34.
At the time it seemed miraculous. Now? The idea that Princeton can score 29 points in 12 minutes hardly seems shocking.
The fall/winter overlap is starting, but even with that, the only home events this weekend are in men's water polo. The men's hockey team is close to home, playing at the Prudential Center in Newark in the Liberty Hockey Invitational today at 4 and tomorrow at 7.
The big games are in Cambridge this weekend though.
Princeton vs. Harvard, times five.
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Traitors
Andy Reid was lying.
He knew it. The media knew it. Any casual fan paying the remotest attention knew it.
Reid is now the head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs. He spent the last 14 years as head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. The Chiefs play the Eagles, in Philadelphia no less, tomorrow night.
The obvious question for Reid is what it will be like to play against the Eagles. The obvious answer is something like: "I had a great experience there. We did a lot of great things. They fired me last year. I want to beat them badly. I've had this game circled since the schedule came out."
Something like that.
Instead, Reid said all the expected things, how the game is what matters, it's not about him, blah, blah, blah.
What would have been the sin of answering honestly?
Then again, TigerBlog doesn't understand why media people don't call out coaches when they are either lying or are acting as if the media people don't get it when the questioning turns to something other than what they want to say. Why didn't someone say to Reid: "are you honestly saying that you have no special emotions about this game?" or even "hey, Andy, nobody here is buying it."
How about last week, when reporters were asking Alabama's universally loathed football coach Nick Saban about reports of violations. Saban went into "I will talk about the game" mode rather than admitting that he at least understood why someone might have the temerity to ask.
Why didn't someone say: "Hey, Nick, do you get it at all?"
Of course, that would require the backing of the higher ups at whatever publication it was, something that was insanely lacking on the part of one South Carolina newspaper. Did you see this story?
How could any self-respecting reporter work for The State, knowing that the publisher would do that to one of their own? And what does it say about the influence that the football coach can have over a state, not that anything bad could ever come of that, well, er, um, you know what TB is talking about.
Anyway, TB digresses.
Despite Reid's unwillingness to be honest about his emotions in returning to Philadelphia, TigerBlog will still be rooting for the Chiefs in this one.
First, he never roots for the Eagles. Unless they're playing the Yankees, which they don't usually do.
Two, the Chiefs have Mike Catapano, the Princeton alum who is a rookie defensive lineman for the team.
Reid's return to Philadelphia comes a few days before the Princeton women's soccer team hosts William & Mary. That game will be Sunday at 1 and is the only home soccer game of the weekend.
Princeton coach Julie Shackford is a William & Mary alum, which makes it somewhat similar to the Reid vs. the Eagles storyline, except that she didn't play at William & Mary last year or anything like that.
In fact, this will be the fifth time Shackford coaches against her alma mater, though her own college coach, John Daly, is still the Tribe head coach today. That has to make it even more emotional.
As for the rest of the Princeton coaching staff, there are many examples of those who coach against their alma maters. Actually, it happens way more than TigerBlog thought it did before he actually looked into it.
Harvard alum Chris Sailer does it every year in women's lacrosse. United States Naval Academy grad Luis Nicolao does as well in men's water polo.
Courtney Banghart goes head-to-head with Dartmouth, her alma mater, twice each year. Up until this point, she has been coaching against Chris Wielgus, who had been her head coach in college.
Penn alum Fred Samara has coached against the Quakers in track and field and cross country for decades. The men's hockey coach, Bob Prier, is a St. Lawrence grad.
The women's golf team, headed by alum Nicki Cutler, is competing this weekend at Vanderbilt's tournament. Susan Teeter has coached the women's swimming and diving team against Tennessee. Scott Bradley has coached Princeton against North Carolina many times in baseball; Lisa Sweeney coached against Lehigh twice in softball last spring.
TigerBlog isn't sure if he's missed anyone. If he has, he apologizes.
And hey, he can relate to the whole concept of competing against the alma mater.
He's happy to know he's part of a long list of Princeton traitors.
He knew it. The media knew it. Any casual fan paying the remotest attention knew it.
Reid is now the head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs. He spent the last 14 years as head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. The Chiefs play the Eagles, in Philadelphia no less, tomorrow night.
The obvious question for Reid is what it will be like to play against the Eagles. The obvious answer is something like: "I had a great experience there. We did a lot of great things. They fired me last year. I want to beat them badly. I've had this game circled since the schedule came out."
Something like that.
Instead, Reid said all the expected things, how the game is what matters, it's not about him, blah, blah, blah.
What would have been the sin of answering honestly?
Then again, TigerBlog doesn't understand why media people don't call out coaches when they are either lying or are acting as if the media people don't get it when the questioning turns to something other than what they want to say. Why didn't someone say to Reid: "are you honestly saying that you have no special emotions about this game?" or even "hey, Andy, nobody here is buying it."
How about last week, when reporters were asking Alabama's universally loathed football coach Nick Saban about reports of violations. Saban went into "I will talk about the game" mode rather than admitting that he at least understood why someone might have the temerity to ask.
Why didn't someone say: "Hey, Nick, do you get it at all?"
Of course, that would require the backing of the higher ups at whatever publication it was, something that was insanely lacking on the part of one South Carolina newspaper. Did you see this story?
How could any self-respecting reporter work for The State, knowing that the publisher would do that to one of their own? And what does it say about the influence that the football coach can have over a state, not that anything bad could ever come of that, well, er, um, you know what TB is talking about.
Anyway, TB digresses.
Despite Reid's unwillingness to be honest about his emotions in returning to Philadelphia, TigerBlog will still be rooting for the Chiefs in this one.
First, he never roots for the Eagles. Unless they're playing the Yankees, which they don't usually do.
Two, the Chiefs have Mike Catapano, the Princeton alum who is a rookie defensive lineman for the team.
Reid's return to Philadelphia comes a few days before the Princeton women's soccer team hosts William & Mary. That game will be Sunday at 1 and is the only home soccer game of the weekend.
Princeton coach Julie Shackford is a William & Mary alum, which makes it somewhat similar to the Reid vs. the Eagles storyline, except that she didn't play at William & Mary last year or anything like that.
In fact, this will be the fifth time Shackford coaches against her alma mater, though her own college coach, John Daly, is still the Tribe head coach today. That has to make it even more emotional.
As for the rest of the Princeton coaching staff, there are many examples of those who coach against their alma maters. Actually, it happens way more than TigerBlog thought it did before he actually looked into it.
Harvard alum Chris Sailer does it every year in women's lacrosse. United States Naval Academy grad Luis Nicolao does as well in men's water polo.
Courtney Banghart goes head-to-head with Dartmouth, her alma mater, twice each year. Up until this point, she has been coaching against Chris Wielgus, who had been her head coach in college.
Penn alum Fred Samara has coached against the Quakers in track and field and cross country for decades. The men's hockey coach, Bob Prier, is a St. Lawrence grad.
The women's golf team, headed by alum Nicki Cutler, is competing this weekend at Vanderbilt's tournament. Susan Teeter has coached the women's swimming and diving team against Tennessee. Scott Bradley has coached Princeton against North Carolina many times in baseball; Lisa Sweeney coached against Lehigh twice in softball last spring.
TigerBlog isn't sure if he's missed anyone. If he has, he apologizes.
And hey, he can relate to the whole concept of competing against the alma mater.
He's happy to know he's part of a long list of Princeton traitors.
Friday, September 13, 2013
Not Yet
TigerBlog was just procrastinating. He does that sometimes. Actually, he does that a lot.
For instance, even as we speak, TigerBlog has a load of laundry in his dryer that he has not yet folded, though each of the last two mornings he has taken what's he's needed out of the dryer and left the rest, to be folded at another point in time.
That's quality procrastinating.
As for today, Bob Surace came in about 45 minutes ago, did some dance about the Yankees while singing their theme song (the best thing about the Yankees, by the way, is that song) and then used a PG-13 rated word to describe this weekend for an Ivy League football coach.
Ah, but before TB started down the path of agreeing with Surace, he flipped around the web for a little while.
The high point might have been when he read the New York Post headline "Beauty Queen - Miss America 'Fat As Bleep.' " TB didn't read any further; he didn't have to.
The low point was when he found out the Jumble page is under construction and today's puzzle couldn't be played. What does he do about that?
Somewhere in the middle was the story about how Raiders' kicker Sebastian Janikowski was angry because the kicker for the Jaguars said that Janikowski had told him that roots against the A's because the sooner the baseball season ends, the quicker the dirt infield is gone and Janikowski doesn't have to worry about not kicking on grass. Janikowski said he never said that.
The surprising part for TB was the idea that the Raiders and A's are the only football/baseball teams that share a stadium.
When TB was a kid, almost everyone in the NFL shared a stadium with a Major League Baseball team.
The Jets and Mets shared Shea Stadium. The Yankees and Giants shared Yankee Stadium.
The Phillies and Eagles were the Vet. The Steelers and Pirates were at Three Rivers. The Reds and Bengals played at Riverfront. The Orioles and Colts played at Memorial Stadium.
Pick a city. The teams were co-tenants.
Then the whole smaller, baseball-only revolution began, followed by football teams with gigantic stadiums that don't exactly bring cities their money's worth. If they're lucky, they're used 40-50 times a year.
The dirt infield covering the football field was a staple of NFL games in September. These days, that only happens in Oakland.
Football season starts in high school and college in August. The NFL is in Week 2.
The Ivy League? Nope. A week away.
This is always the toughest week for league teams, who are ready to finally get to play someone else but have to wait one more week to get started.
TigerBlog's idea is a great one.
Start this weekend. Play five weeks in a row. Take Week 6 off. Play five more weeks. That's 10 games, 11 weeks, one week for everyone to rest in mid-season.
If it ever came to be that an 11th game was added, then the season could start a week earlier still. The idea of having the whole league off in the middle is perfect for resting and healing.
Not that it isn't a busy weekend for Princeton sports.
Among the highlights:
* women's soccer at Seton Hall tonight after being postponed last night by thunderstorms and then Sunday at Rutgers
* men's soccer at Rutgers tonight and home with Seton Hall Sunday
* field hockey home with Michigan State tonight and Penn State Sunday
* sprint football at Mansfield tomorrow at 7:30, on ESPN3 no less
* men's water polo all weekend, with the 6:30 game tonight against Santa Clara on ESPNU
There's also about 1,000 college football games on television and the NFL weekend, minus last night's horrible Jets-Pats game.
Just no Ivy League football just yet.
They'll get around to that next week.
And TB? He'll get around to folding his laundry at some point.
For instance, even as we speak, TigerBlog has a load of laundry in his dryer that he has not yet folded, though each of the last two mornings he has taken what's he's needed out of the dryer and left the rest, to be folded at another point in time.
That's quality procrastinating.
As for today, Bob Surace came in about 45 minutes ago, did some dance about the Yankees while singing their theme song (the best thing about the Yankees, by the way, is that song) and then used a PG-13 rated word to describe this weekend for an Ivy League football coach.
Ah, but before TB started down the path of agreeing with Surace, he flipped around the web for a little while.
The high point might have been when he read the New York Post headline "Beauty Queen - Miss America 'Fat As Bleep.' " TB didn't read any further; he didn't have to.
The low point was when he found out the Jumble page is under construction and today's puzzle couldn't be played. What does he do about that?
Somewhere in the middle was the story about how Raiders' kicker Sebastian Janikowski was angry because the kicker for the Jaguars said that Janikowski had told him that roots against the A's because the sooner the baseball season ends, the quicker the dirt infield is gone and Janikowski doesn't have to worry about not kicking on grass. Janikowski said he never said that.
The surprising part for TB was the idea that the Raiders and A's are the only football/baseball teams that share a stadium.
When TB was a kid, almost everyone in the NFL shared a stadium with a Major League Baseball team.
The Jets and Mets shared Shea Stadium. The Yankees and Giants shared Yankee Stadium.
The Phillies and Eagles were the Vet. The Steelers and Pirates were at Three Rivers. The Reds and Bengals played at Riverfront. The Orioles and Colts played at Memorial Stadium.
Pick a city. The teams were co-tenants.
Then the whole smaller, baseball-only revolution began, followed by football teams with gigantic stadiums that don't exactly bring cities their money's worth. If they're lucky, they're used 40-50 times a year.
The dirt infield covering the football field was a staple of NFL games in September. These days, that only happens in Oakland.
Football season starts in high school and college in August. The NFL is in Week 2.
The Ivy League? Nope. A week away.
This is always the toughest week for league teams, who are ready to finally get to play someone else but have to wait one more week to get started.
TigerBlog's idea is a great one.
Start this weekend. Play five weeks in a row. Take Week 6 off. Play five more weeks. That's 10 games, 11 weeks, one week for everyone to rest in mid-season.
If it ever came to be that an 11th game was added, then the season could start a week earlier still. The idea of having the whole league off in the middle is perfect for resting and healing.
Not that it isn't a busy weekend for Princeton sports.
Among the highlights:
* women's soccer at Seton Hall tonight after being postponed last night by thunderstorms and then Sunday at Rutgers
* men's soccer at Rutgers tonight and home with Seton Hall Sunday
* field hockey home with Michigan State tonight and Penn State Sunday
* sprint football at Mansfield tomorrow at 7:30, on ESPN3 no less
* men's water polo all weekend, with the 6:30 game tonight against Santa Clara on ESPNU
There's also about 1,000 college football games on television and the NFL weekend, minus last night's horrible Jets-Pats game.
Just no Ivy League football just yet.
They'll get around to that next week.
And TB? He'll get around to folding his laundry at some point.
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Luis Nicolao - Sportsman And Santa
Way back when, there used to be a fan poll on goprincetontigers.com.
Each week or so, TigerBlog would come up with a new poll question, such as "what is your favorite Princeton venue" or "which athlete's performance this weekend was most impressive" or something like that. There'd be a few choices, and fans could vote.
The results would come up immediately, in the form of a bar graph, with different colors and everything.
When former women's basketball coach Richard Barron married former softball coach Maureen Davies, TigerBlog made the fan poll ask "who is getting the best of the Barron-Davies marriage," with the possible responses of "Richard Barron" and "Maureen Davies." TB then voted for Barron, had the bar graph come up with 100% for Barron, printed it out and the instantly had the next question come up.
The bride and groom both laughed.
If you're looking for a reason that the fan poll no longer exists, you can thank the swimming and diving and water polo teams.
The polls were only supposed to allow people to vote once. Somehow, the pool people figured out a way to vote thousands of times, thereby skewing all results.
When TigerBlog read that Luis Nicolao had been voted the College Water Polo Association Sportsman of the Year by fans on the association's webpage, his first thought was back to the fan polls that used to be done on goprincetontigers.com.
Then he quickly dismissed any thought of voter fraud, since there can't be a greater sportsman in the water polo world than Luis.
In fact, TB can't imagine how anyone else could ever win.
Actually, it was a good Princeton haul in the CWPA awards, starting when Yariv Amir and Diana Chamorro shared the athletic communications award.
Alex Gow became the next Princeton winner when he won the Save of the Year vote. If you're not impressed, then you try treading water in a pool that's 12 feet deep there and then making that save.
As for Nicolao, he's an ultra-successful coach, one who has taken both the men's and women's teams routinely into the national Top 20 and to the NCAA tournament.
TB would like to think that the rest of the water polo world recognizes what Nicolao is beyond just wins and losses. After all, when you think of a sportsman, you think of someone with more than just a successful resume.
Nicolao reminds TB a little bit of men's squash coach Bob Callahan. Like Callahan, Nicolao has won a lot more than he's lost and has earned the respect of those in his sport for his team's performance.
But beyond just that, they're both extremely funny men who do not tolerate poor sportsmanship from their teams and who have the greater good of their sport in mind. Squash and water polo aren't exactly mainstream sports, after all, and both coaches are always aware of their responsibility as ambassadors who are charged with helping grow their games.
Nicolao is also in many ways a big kid who loves to have fun, loves to make people laugh and loves to be part of the larger family of Princeton Athletics. Callahan is very similar.
And so there he was at last week's Department of Athletics Christmas party, the CWPA Sportsman of the Year.
He was dressed in a suit, though in this case, it was actually a Santa Claus suit.
Little kids would come to sit on his lap, some in tears, some gazing up at him in complete awe that the Santa was at the party.
It takes a special kind of person to take on that role at the company's party. It has to be someone who is willing to sacrifice his own fun time in the name of making the little kids happy.
It has to be someone with a great sense of humor. Someone with a huge heart.
And that's Luis.
The fact that he's a winning water polo coach isn't what makes him the Sportsman of the Year. Neither is the chance that, TB assumes, the Princeton water poloers rigged the voting.
Doesn't matter if they did anyway.
The right man won.
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
A Fall To Remember
What? No Twinkies? How will life go on?
No Twinkies? No soft yellow cake with the creamy inside? Possibly vanishing from America?
It seemed like a sure thing when TigerBlog read about it over the weekend. Now it appears that there might be hope for one of the most famous snack foods ever created, a 150-calorie, 4.5-fat-gram piece of heaven.
TigerBlog has probably eaten 100 Yodels for every Twinkie he's eaten in his life and probably 50,000 M&Ms for every Twinkie.
Hey, it's not all bad: He's probably eaten 1,000 apples for every Twinkie.
Twinkies to TigerBlog are sort of like the NHL.
He knows millions of people love the NHL and he respects those who do. And TB likes it when he pays attention to it.
At the same time, he doesn't exactly miss the NHL now that it's on strike, and while he definitely likes them, if he goes the rest of his life without eating another Twinkie, he'll figure out a way to get by.
Besides, he'd take the trade-off between no Twinkies for the rest of his life for the fall that Princeton Athletics recently completed.
Princeton has nine teams that compete in the fall as their primary season. Of those nine, seven play in the Ivy League - sprint football and men's water polo are not official Ivy sports.
Of the seven who compete in the Ivy League, three finished in first place, two finished in second and two finished in third.
Their combined Ivy League record? How about 31-9-2.
For the record, the three Ivy League champions were the field hockey team, the women's soccer team and the men's cross country team. Women's cross country and women's volleyball were second, and men's soccer and football were third (and so, for that matter, was men's water polo, who finished third at Easterns).
Looking beyond those two finishes, the men's soccer team still went 4-1-2 in the league, and it's only because of how strong Ivy men's soccer is that one league loss added up to a third-place finish.
And the football team? It went from 1-9 and 1-9 to 5-5 overall and went from 1-13 in the league the last two years to 4-3. The Tigers also beat Harvard in one of the greatest Ivy football games of all time and earned a bonfire by defeating Yale.
Even the sprint football team, which went winless again, had a very, very competitive fall, with almost no blowout losses and with a legitimate chance to win a few games. In fact, the sprint team was left feeling frustrated that it let a few get away, not to mention the heartbreak of falling in overtime to Post.
Princeton has a 13-point lead in the Ivy League's unofficial all-sports points championship standings. A year ago, Princeton was in fifth place after the fall, 5.5 points out of first.
When the final horn sounded at field hockey Sunday, Princeton had extended its streak of having at least one team or individual national champion to 42 straight years. This was the first time in that streak that Princeton produced a national champion in the fall.
The three highlights of the fall came from the league champions.
The men's cross country team came past the finish line the first time at the Heps championships in a bunched field that looked like it would be tough to sort out at the end. When the runners came back around for the final time, it was all Orange and Black, led by individual champion Chris Bendtsen.
The result was a huge party on Princeton's West Windsor Fields, on a day where the women's second-place finish was a strong accomplishment as well. The men went on to an 11th place finish at the NCAA championships for the program's best finish ever.
Then there were the two teams that had perfect Ivy seasons.
The women's soccer team went 7-0-0 in the league, outscoring its opponents 20-7 in the seven games. Princeton, led by Ivy Player of the Year Jen Hoy, had a 12-game winning streak after a 2-3-1 start, with the 12th win by a 2-1 count at West Virginia in the opening round of the NCAA tournament before the run ended in Utah against Marquette.
For head coach Julie Shackford, it was the second-best team in her 18 seasons here, behind only the 2004 Final Four team - and this one was close. It was a perfect blend of a star, some other frontline players, the great depth that was necessary after six players went out with injuries and overwhelming intangibles like great team chemistry and determination.
As for field hockey, what else can be said?
Princeton entered the year with a chance to win the first NCAA championship in program history and did just that, earning it in dramatic fashion this past weekend with wins over Maryland and North Carolina, from (for now) the ACC, which had produced the previous 11 NCAA champs.
The field hockey championship would fittingly be the final event of the fall of 2012 for Princeton Athletics.
It's really hard to ask for much more than Princeton's teams produced.
No Twinkies? No soft yellow cake with the creamy inside? Possibly vanishing from America?
It seemed like a sure thing when TigerBlog read about it over the weekend. Now it appears that there might be hope for one of the most famous snack foods ever created, a 150-calorie, 4.5-fat-gram piece of heaven.
TigerBlog has probably eaten 100 Yodels for every Twinkie he's eaten in his life and probably 50,000 M&Ms for every Twinkie.
Hey, it's not all bad: He's probably eaten 1,000 apples for every Twinkie.
Twinkies to TigerBlog are sort of like the NHL.
He knows millions of people love the NHL and he respects those who do. And TB likes it when he pays attention to it.
At the same time, he doesn't exactly miss the NHL now that it's on strike, and while he definitely likes them, if he goes the rest of his life without eating another Twinkie, he'll figure out a way to get by.
Besides, he'd take the trade-off between no Twinkies for the rest of his life for the fall that Princeton Athletics recently completed.
Princeton has nine teams that compete in the fall as their primary season. Of those nine, seven play in the Ivy League - sprint football and men's water polo are not official Ivy sports.
Of the seven who compete in the Ivy League, three finished in first place, two finished in second and two finished in third.
Their combined Ivy League record? How about 31-9-2.
For the record, the three Ivy League champions were the field hockey team, the women's soccer team and the men's cross country team. Women's cross country and women's volleyball were second, and men's soccer and football were third (and so, for that matter, was men's water polo, who finished third at Easterns).
Looking beyond those two finishes, the men's soccer team still went 4-1-2 in the league, and it's only because of how strong Ivy men's soccer is that one league loss added up to a third-place finish.
And the football team? It went from 1-9 and 1-9 to 5-5 overall and went from 1-13 in the league the last two years to 4-3. The Tigers also beat Harvard in one of the greatest Ivy football games of all time and earned a bonfire by defeating Yale.
Even the sprint football team, which went winless again, had a very, very competitive fall, with almost no blowout losses and with a legitimate chance to win a few games. In fact, the sprint team was left feeling frustrated that it let a few get away, not to mention the heartbreak of falling in overtime to Post.
Princeton has a 13-point lead in the Ivy League's unofficial all-sports points championship standings. A year ago, Princeton was in fifth place after the fall, 5.5 points out of first.
When the final horn sounded at field hockey Sunday, Princeton had extended its streak of having at least one team or individual national champion to 42 straight years. This was the first time in that streak that Princeton produced a national champion in the fall.
The three highlights of the fall came from the league champions.
The men's cross country team came past the finish line the first time at the Heps championships in a bunched field that looked like it would be tough to sort out at the end. When the runners came back around for the final time, it was all Orange and Black, led by individual champion Chris Bendtsen.
The result was a huge party on Princeton's West Windsor Fields, on a day where the women's second-place finish was a strong accomplishment as well. The men went on to an 11th place finish at the NCAA championships for the program's best finish ever.
Then there were the two teams that had perfect Ivy seasons.
The women's soccer team went 7-0-0 in the league, outscoring its opponents 20-7 in the seven games. Princeton, led by Ivy Player of the Year Jen Hoy, had a 12-game winning streak after a 2-3-1 start, with the 12th win by a 2-1 count at West Virginia in the opening round of the NCAA tournament before the run ended in Utah against Marquette.
For head coach Julie Shackford, it was the second-best team in her 18 seasons here, behind only the 2004 Final Four team - and this one was close. It was a perfect blend of a star, some other frontline players, the great depth that was necessary after six players went out with injuries and overwhelming intangibles like great team chemistry and determination.
As for field hockey, what else can be said?
Princeton entered the year with a chance to win the first NCAA championship in program history and did just that, earning it in dramatic fashion this past weekend with wins over Maryland and North Carolina, from (for now) the ACC, which had produced the previous 11 NCAA champs.
The field hockey championship would fittingly be the final event of the fall of 2012 for Princeton Athletics.
It's really hard to ask for much more than Princeton's teams produced.
Friday, October 5, 2012
Toes On The Tape
There's a corner of TigerBlog's office that is used to take head shots of athletes.
The backdrop that hangs on the wall looks like - and may originally have been - a blanket from a hotel room somewhere. There is a piece of tape on the floor that goes on an angle, and if you're getting your picture taken, you put your toes on the tape and square your shoulders.
As TB understands it, this eliminates the shadow in the background.
The person getting the picture doesn't realize the tape is on the floor and always stands directly against the backdrop, leading to the instruction of "toes on the tape." Once, TB saw a Princeton athlete who he believes had a perfect SAT score respond to "toes on the tape" by putting his toes on the tape - and face the backdrop, with the back of his head to the camera.
The actual picture-taking process is always fairly similar.
Whichever team it is has already designated whether it's going to be jerseys, pullovers, jackets/ties - whatever look brings uniformity. Then they bring one or two of those and constantly change, one after the other.
When TB first started working here, head shots were taken with a little office camera that included an obsolete thing called "film," which then had to be taken to a place called a "dark room" to be "developed."
Now, it's all done digitally, which means that the result of the picture is immediately available.
Not to be sexist or anything, but TB would say that about 70% of the women's athletes and about 5% of the men's athletes ask to see the picture after it's taken and/or ask to delete that one and take another one.
These head shots used to be used mostly for media guides and sometimes game programs. Now they're for the webpage.
TB has spent the last week taking men's lacrosse head shots.
For all of the years that TB has been here, the men's lacrosse shots have been taken with jerseys, and the only issue is the white one or the black one. This required going to the equipment room to get two jerseys, which the players would use regardless of what their actual number was.
Recently, the men's lacrosse upperclassmen didn't always want to get a new picture, since their old one was fine.
This year, TB and men's lacrosse coach Chris Bates thought it'd be a good idea to go with jackets and ties, and this has led to the somewhat hilarious sight of having players come in 5-10 at a time and share the same tie, and sometimes the same shirt.
Or, in the case of one, TB had to give a brief tutorial on the art of tying a tie.
The men's lacrosse team is playing in the Play For Parkinson's event at Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Va., tomorrow. TB would love to go watch that, as the Tigers play Georgetown (noon) and Virginia (2).
Of course, there are other events closer to home this weekend.
There's the soccer doubleheader against Brown here (women at 4, men at 7). There's home sprint football, women's volleyball, field hockey and men's water polo as well this weekend.
The women's volleyball team looks to build on its 3-0 league start when it hosts Columbia and Cornell tonight and tomorrow at Dillon Gym.
The field hockey team hosts American Sunday.
Sprint football is home tonight against Post and then next Friday against first-year team Franklin Pierce. Men's water polo hosts Bucknell tomorrow night.
It's all on the all-sports schedule.
And of course, that doesn't count the football game at Lafayette tomorrow at 6.
There are all kinds of choices.
That's what Ivy League athletic weekends are all about.
The backdrop that hangs on the wall looks like - and may originally have been - a blanket from a hotel room somewhere. There is a piece of tape on the floor that goes on an angle, and if you're getting your picture taken, you put your toes on the tape and square your shoulders.
As TB understands it, this eliminates the shadow in the background.
The person getting the picture doesn't realize the tape is on the floor and always stands directly against the backdrop, leading to the instruction of "toes on the tape." Once, TB saw a Princeton athlete who he believes had a perfect SAT score respond to "toes on the tape" by putting his toes on the tape - and face the backdrop, with the back of his head to the camera.
The actual picture-taking process is always fairly similar.
Whichever team it is has already designated whether it's going to be jerseys, pullovers, jackets/ties - whatever look brings uniformity. Then they bring one or two of those and constantly change, one after the other.
When TB first started working here, head shots were taken with a little office camera that included an obsolete thing called "film," which then had to be taken to a place called a "dark room" to be "developed."
Now, it's all done digitally, which means that the result of the picture is immediately available.
Not to be sexist or anything, but TB would say that about 70% of the women's athletes and about 5% of the men's athletes ask to see the picture after it's taken and/or ask to delete that one and take another one.
These head shots used to be used mostly for media guides and sometimes game programs. Now they're for the webpage.
TB has spent the last week taking men's lacrosse head shots.
For all of the years that TB has been here, the men's lacrosse shots have been taken with jerseys, and the only issue is the white one or the black one. This required going to the equipment room to get two jerseys, which the players would use regardless of what their actual number was.
Recently, the men's lacrosse upperclassmen didn't always want to get a new picture, since their old one was fine.
This year, TB and men's lacrosse coach Chris Bates thought it'd be a good idea to go with jackets and ties, and this has led to the somewhat hilarious sight of having players come in 5-10 at a time and share the same tie, and sometimes the same shirt.
Or, in the case of one, TB had to give a brief tutorial on the art of tying a tie.
The men's lacrosse team is playing in the Play For Parkinson's event at Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Va., tomorrow. TB would love to go watch that, as the Tigers play Georgetown (noon) and Virginia (2).
Of course, there are other events closer to home this weekend.
There's the soccer doubleheader against Brown here (women at 4, men at 7). There's home sprint football, women's volleyball, field hockey and men's water polo as well this weekend.
The women's volleyball team looks to build on its 3-0 league start when it hosts Columbia and Cornell tonight and tomorrow at Dillon Gym.
The field hockey team hosts American Sunday.
Sprint football is home tonight against Post and then next Friday against first-year team Franklin Pierce. Men's water polo hosts Bucknell tomorrow night.
It's all on the all-sports schedule.
And of course, that doesn't count the football game at Lafayette tomorrow at 6.
There are all kinds of choices.
That's what Ivy League athletic weekends are all about.
Friday, September 7, 2012
Luis, The Gov And A Busy Weekend
In reality they'd never met until seconds before the picture was snapped. The site was one of the Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band concerts at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia last weekend, and the two men are famously huge fans of the Boss.
One of them is a bit more famous than the other, of course.
The man on the right is New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. The one on the left is Princeton water polo coach Luis Nicolao.
They could be twins, actually.
TigerBlog follows Governor Christie on Twitter, as much for his commentary on his personal interests as his positions on the salient issues for the state.
Not too long ago, Christie tweeted his ten favorite Springsteen songs, a list that featured overlap with TB's own list on maybe four or five songs.
Maybe more than any other current politician, Christie comes across as just another guy from the neighborhood, which probably explains his popularity both nationally and in a state that has gone against Christie's party in the last five Presidential elections.
Christie had his moment on national TV last week when he gave the keynote speech at the Republican National Convention. In the interest of keeping his blog politically neutral, TB will remind everyone that the keynote address at this week's Democratic National Convention was given by Julian Castro.
The other guy in the picture with Christie from the Springsteen concert gets to be on television tonight, though not in the same politically charged way.
Nicolao and his 13th-ranked men's water polo team host third-ranked California at 6 this evening in a game that will televised on ESPNU as the first Princeton event on ESPN this academic year. The next will be the football game against Georgetown in on Sept. 21, followed by men's soccer against Creighton on Oct. 9.
The game against Cal is part of the 12-team Princeton Invitational, which also includes second-ranked UCLA. The event runs from Princeton's game at 1 this afternoon against Cal-Lutheran through Sunday.
This is the first huge home weekend for Princeton Athletics of the 2012-13 academic year, and there are some great events, including the water polo.
There's also the men's soccer game tomorrow at 2 on Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium in a game that will pull Nancy Donigan in two directions.
Who's Nancy Donigan? She works in the compliance office here (she also handles the departmental awards), and she's been here longer than you'd guess possible to look at her. Nancy's husband Joe is a Temple man who also works here at Princeton, and his brother - Nancy's brother-in-law - is Rutgers soccer coach Dan Donigan.
Way back when, TigerBlog covered Dan Donigan when he was a player at Steinert High, and he went on to a great career at UConn. His was the head coach at St. Louis for nine years before taking over at RU a year ago.
The Scarlet Knights are 1-2, with a win over Fordham and losses last week in Nebraska against SIU-Edwardsville and Creighton, who is ranked third nationally. Princeton is 1-1, having beaten Seton Hall and lost to No. 15 St. John's.
Princeton-Rutgers is always a great matchup, no matter what the sport. One note - if you're coming to the game Saturday, you have to park on the football stadium/Jadwin Gym side and walk over (about a five-minute walk; it's good for you) because of student move-in on the other side of campus.
There are three soccer games this weekend at Roberts Stadium, including the women's games tonight (7) against St. Joe's and Sunday at noon against Temple.
And then there's field hockey.
The 3-0 Tigers are ranked fourth, with wins over nationally ranked Duke, Wake Forest and most recently Penn State, 3-2 in overtime last night.
Next up? A game against Richmond Sunday at noon in what will be the first game played on the artificial turf at Bedford Field.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Lug Nuts
TigerBlog was heading down 95 Saturday morning on his way to Baltimore for the women's basketball game at UMBC when he heard a rather unfortunate sound emanating from under his car.
He didn't even need to wait until he pulled off to the side a little past the Philadelphia airport to know that he had a flat tire.
As he thought about it, the issue might have started back by the Walt Whitman Bridge, where he felt the car suddenly jolt a bit. Either way, his right rear tire was destroyed.
TB is not the handiest person who ever lived. Still, he learned a long time ago how to change a flat tire, something that has come in handy a few times in the past. This time, he struggled to get the lug nuts loose, and then it was time to put on the spare.
As is always the case, the spare was one of those smaller tires, not quite the tiny donut tire but not big enough to make it all the way to Baltimore and back. So off TB went to try to find a tire place, and he stumbled upon a Pep Boys, where he learned 1) his old tire wasn't able to be patched and 2) the other tire would probably melt before he made it Baltimore.
So, he had no choice but to get a new tire. This would have been annoying no matter the circumstance; it became even more annoying considering that TB had recently gotten new tires for his car.
Anyway, after about a half-hour, he was back on the road, arriving at UMBC about 30 minutes before tip-off.
He went up to the third floor conference room where there was pregame media food, surprisingly finding some pretty good soup and sandwiches and a great brownie, one with chocolate chips in it.
As he ate his lunch, TB looked at the pictures on the wall, of past UMBC championship teams in a variety of sports. The most interesting part, other than the evolution of hairstyles, was that they were in three different leagues: the Big South, the Northeast and now the America East.
It served as a reminder to TB of how lucky Princeton is, to be in the most stable league in college athletics, the Ivy League.
There's no way a team is going to leave the Ivy League, and there's no way a team is going to come into the Ivy League. There is no other Division I conference that can make the same claim, as recent headlines and the championship pictures in UMBC's conference room show.
And speaking of the Ivy League, Princeton has won the league's unofficial all-sports points championship each of the last 25 years.
The fall season ended officially yesterday, when Princeton defeated UC San Diego 9-7 at Cal in the third-place game at the NCAA men's water polo championships.
For the Princeton men, it was their second national third-place finish in three years, including two years ago, when the championships were held at DeNunzio Pool.
It's a very impressive accomplishment, defeating a California school in California in the national tournament. And to do so one day after falling 17-4 to USC in the semifinal, as was the case two years ago as well, when Princeton rebounded from a one-sided loss to USC to defeat Loyola Marymount.
The end of fall Ivy play actually came a few weeks ago, and men's water polo isn't an Ivy League sport.
And, back at the all-sports points total, Princeton finishes the fall not in first but actually in fourth, as the field is fairly bunched right now.
Yale is actually in first, with 39.5 points, followed by Columbia with 37.5, Dartmouth with 36 and then Princeton with 34.
It was still a pretty strong fall for Princeton, with two Ivy titles (men's cross country, field hockey) and the men's water polo third-place finish (as well as strong showings nationally in men's and women's cross country).
Princeton has trailed at the end of the fall before in the all-sports and even once trailed after the winter (2005) before winning.
And there are more sports in the winter and spring than in the fall.
A year ago, Princeton outscored Yale by 27 points, Columbia by 41.5 points and Dartmouth by 47.5 points in the winter season alone. Should Princeton approach those numbers this year, it'll almost surely be back in first by the end of the winter.
As TB always says, the year will come when Princeton doesn't win the all-sports championship. Still, it's not about being first by the end of November, and there's a long way to go before Princeton's streak is in jeopardy.
He didn't even need to wait until he pulled off to the side a little past the Philadelphia airport to know that he had a flat tire.
As he thought about it, the issue might have started back by the Walt Whitman Bridge, where he felt the car suddenly jolt a bit. Either way, his right rear tire was destroyed.
TB is not the handiest person who ever lived. Still, he learned a long time ago how to change a flat tire, something that has come in handy a few times in the past. This time, he struggled to get the lug nuts loose, and then it was time to put on the spare.
As is always the case, the spare was one of those smaller tires, not quite the tiny donut tire but not big enough to make it all the way to Baltimore and back. So off TB went to try to find a tire place, and he stumbled upon a Pep Boys, where he learned 1) his old tire wasn't able to be patched and 2) the other tire would probably melt before he made it Baltimore.
So, he had no choice but to get a new tire. This would have been annoying no matter the circumstance; it became even more annoying considering that TB had recently gotten new tires for his car.
Anyway, after about a half-hour, he was back on the road, arriving at UMBC about 30 minutes before tip-off.
He went up to the third floor conference room where there was pregame media food, surprisingly finding some pretty good soup and sandwiches and a great brownie, one with chocolate chips in it.
As he ate his lunch, TB looked at the pictures on the wall, of past UMBC championship teams in a variety of sports. The most interesting part, other than the evolution of hairstyles, was that they were in three different leagues: the Big South, the Northeast and now the America East.
It served as a reminder to TB of how lucky Princeton is, to be in the most stable league in college athletics, the Ivy League.
There's no way a team is going to leave the Ivy League, and there's no way a team is going to come into the Ivy League. There is no other Division I conference that can make the same claim, as recent headlines and the championship pictures in UMBC's conference room show.
And speaking of the Ivy League, Princeton has won the league's unofficial all-sports points championship each of the last 25 years.
The fall season ended officially yesterday, when Princeton defeated UC San Diego 9-7 at Cal in the third-place game at the NCAA men's water polo championships.
For the Princeton men, it was their second national third-place finish in three years, including two years ago, when the championships were held at DeNunzio Pool.
It's a very impressive accomplishment, defeating a California school in California in the national tournament. And to do so one day after falling 17-4 to USC in the semifinal, as was the case two years ago as well, when Princeton rebounded from a one-sided loss to USC to defeat Loyola Marymount.
The end of fall Ivy play actually came a few weeks ago, and men's water polo isn't an Ivy League sport.
And, back at the all-sports points total, Princeton finishes the fall not in first but actually in fourth, as the field is fairly bunched right now.
Yale is actually in first, with 39.5 points, followed by Columbia with 37.5, Dartmouth with 36 and then Princeton with 34.
It was still a pretty strong fall for Princeton, with two Ivy titles (men's cross country, field hockey) and the men's water polo third-place finish (as well as strong showings nationally in men's and women's cross country).
Princeton has trailed at the end of the fall before in the all-sports and even once trailed after the winter (2005) before winning.
And there are more sports in the winter and spring than in the fall.
A year ago, Princeton outscored Yale by 27 points, Columbia by 41.5 points and Dartmouth by 47.5 points in the winter season alone. Should Princeton approach those numbers this year, it'll almost surely be back in first by the end of the winter.
As TB always says, the year will come when Princeton doesn't win the all-sports championship. Still, it's not about being first by the end of November, and there's a long way to go before Princeton's streak is in jeopardy.
Monday, November 21, 2011
The Penguin Wins Again
TigerBlog recently had a meeting with one of Princeton's ESPN contacts, and of course at one point the conversation turned to how well Princeton's events that the network televises rate.
Anyone want to guess which sport does the best?
Okay, granted, it's not putting up numbers like the NFL or "American Idol." Still, anyone want to guess?
And speaking of the NFL, if you were watching the Giants-Eagles last night and saw the play where DeSean Jackson wiped out a 50-yard reception by drawing a flag for taunting after tossing the ball to Giants' defensive coordinator Perry Fewell, one of the key pieces of what happened was lost on Al Michaels and Chris Collinsworth, though to his credit, Collinsworth did rip Jackson for acting like an idiot.
No, the key part of the play was that had the Giants not also committed a penalty, then the completion would have stood and it would have been a deadball 15-yard penalty against the Eagles, resulting in a net of 35 yards. Because the Giants were also guilty of a foul, the penalties offset, putting the ball back at the original line of scrimmage, which was the Eagles' three or so.
TigerBlog cannot think of another situation - nor can he remember seeing one - where a team benefited so much by committing a penalty.
And speaking of "American Idol," TigerBlog has never watched it.
Anyway, back to the original question. Which Princeton sport has drawn the best ratings on ESPN?
The answer is ... men's water polo.
In fact, ESPN loves the Princeton men's water polo games, and with good reason.
The games the network does always pit two Top 20 teams, and they fit nicely into a 90-minute block. Plus, there's the "hey, this is something different on TV" factor, where it's not just another football or basketball game.
In fact, this year, the men's soccer game between Princeton and Lafayette also did better than expected, perhaps for similar reasons.
The men's water polo team is coming off a huge weekend after winning the CWPA Eastern championship and earning a bid into the NCAA Final Four. For Princeton, it's the fourth Final Four appearance and second in three years.
The last time, 2009, the NCAA Championships were held at DeNunzio Pool, and that event ranks among the coolest events that TB has seen on Princeton's campus. Princeton would win the consolation game to finish third.
As for this time, Princeton had a stunning win in the semifinals, rallying from three goals down with four minutes to go to tie it with 36 seconds left and then win it in overtime. The championship game wasn't as dramatic, as Princeton knocked off Navy 10-7.
As the Eastern champion, Princeton automatically advances to this year's NCAA championship, to be held at the University of California on Dec. 3/4.
If you've never seen water polo, it's a ridiculously wild sport, played by athletes who are in sick shape. You have to be to play the game, which requires constant treading water and swimming, all while someone is kicking/whacking/punching you under the surface.
The Princeton coach is Luis Nicolao, who coaches the men's team and the women's team and is a huge fan, of among other things, Bruce Springsteen and the Oakland Raiders.
As TB likes to say, his door is always open on the balcony, partly because it gets so hot in his office when the door is closed. Still, Nicolao takes full advantage to come in, talk about what's going on with his teams or with the Boss or anything else, and it's rare that he'll leave here having failed to draw big laughs.
Of course, his sense of humor isn't limited to the OAC. Nicolao once showed up for a Princeton Varsity Club luncheon dressed only in a speedo.
During one of the ESPN telecasts of a Princeton match, one of the people in the TV truck asked which one the Princeton head coach was, and the response was "the one who looks like a penguin."
TB doesn't quite see the resemblance, but hey, it was funny.
So congrats to the Penguin and his team on the big weekend - and another trip to the Final Four.
Anyone want to guess which sport does the best?
Okay, granted, it's not putting up numbers like the NFL or "American Idol." Still, anyone want to guess?
And speaking of the NFL, if you were watching the Giants-Eagles last night and saw the play where DeSean Jackson wiped out a 50-yard reception by drawing a flag for taunting after tossing the ball to Giants' defensive coordinator Perry Fewell, one of the key pieces of what happened was lost on Al Michaels and Chris Collinsworth, though to his credit, Collinsworth did rip Jackson for acting like an idiot.
No, the key part of the play was that had the Giants not also committed a penalty, then the completion would have stood and it would have been a deadball 15-yard penalty against the Eagles, resulting in a net of 35 yards. Because the Giants were also guilty of a foul, the penalties offset, putting the ball back at the original line of scrimmage, which was the Eagles' three or so.
TigerBlog cannot think of another situation - nor can he remember seeing one - where a team benefited so much by committing a penalty.
And speaking of "American Idol," TigerBlog has never watched it.
Anyway, back to the original question. Which Princeton sport has drawn the best ratings on ESPN?
The answer is ... men's water polo.
In fact, ESPN loves the Princeton men's water polo games, and with good reason.
The games the network does always pit two Top 20 teams, and they fit nicely into a 90-minute block. Plus, there's the "hey, this is something different on TV" factor, where it's not just another football or basketball game.
In fact, this year, the men's soccer game between Princeton and Lafayette also did better than expected, perhaps for similar reasons.
The men's water polo team is coming off a huge weekend after winning the CWPA Eastern championship and earning a bid into the NCAA Final Four. For Princeton, it's the fourth Final Four appearance and second in three years.
The last time, 2009, the NCAA Championships were held at DeNunzio Pool, and that event ranks among the coolest events that TB has seen on Princeton's campus. Princeton would win the consolation game to finish third.
As for this time, Princeton had a stunning win in the semifinals, rallying from three goals down with four minutes to go to tie it with 36 seconds left and then win it in overtime. The championship game wasn't as dramatic, as Princeton knocked off Navy 10-7.
As the Eastern champion, Princeton automatically advances to this year's NCAA championship, to be held at the University of California on Dec. 3/4.
If you've never seen water polo, it's a ridiculously wild sport, played by athletes who are in sick shape. You have to be to play the game, which requires constant treading water and swimming, all while someone is kicking/whacking/punching you under the surface.
The Princeton coach is Luis Nicolao, who coaches the men's team and the women's team and is a huge fan, of among other things, Bruce Springsteen and the Oakland Raiders.
As TB likes to say, his door is always open on the balcony, partly because it gets so hot in his office when the door is closed. Still, Nicolao takes full advantage to come in, talk about what's going on with his teams or with the Boss or anything else, and it's rare that he'll leave here having failed to draw big laughs.
Of course, his sense of humor isn't limited to the OAC. Nicolao once showed up for a Princeton Varsity Club luncheon dressed only in a speedo.
During one of the ESPN telecasts of a Princeton match, one of the people in the TV truck asked which one the Princeton head coach was, and the response was "the one who looks like a penguin."
TB doesn't quite see the resemblance, but hey, it was funny.
So congrats to the Penguin and his team on the big weekend - and another trip to the Final Four.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
For the Good of the Sport
It was a surreal image. Watching Princeton play USC and UCLA face Loyola Marymount in the NCAA Water Polo Semifinals at DeNunzio Pool and then looking beyond the pool deck through the windows to the outside where the first snowfall of the season was blanketing the ground and the trees surrounding the pool.
Water polo is a sport centered on the West Coast in California where the teams play outdoors. No team that doesn’t call California home has ever won a national title in water polo and only five times since 1969 has the national champion been crowned in another state. But for three days last weekend, the center of the collegiate water polo world was Princeton, New Jersey, even though three of the competing teams all were from towns within miles of each other in Los Angeles.
One of USC player's admitted concern entering the weekend about the unknowns of actually playing indoors and worried if there would be problems communicated in the noisy environment.
It was a great event by all accounts and thanks and congratulations go out to all the Princeton staff members that put in their time and effort to making the event special.
An overriding theme that struck TigerBlog throughout the weekend felt from all four teams, committee members and others connected to the water polo world was the sport’s awareness of itself, where it fits in to the college sports landscape, and what it needs to do to gain more awareness and grow. Ultimately, that is one of the main reasons why the NCAA committee awarded Princeton the opportunity to host this event several years ago.
This was touched upon throughout the weekend from the championship banquet held on Friday night to USC’s post-game press conference following Sunday’s championship game. The coaches, players, media and fans kept pointing to the importance of the weekend in representing and growing the sport. Sure, it may have been the coaches and student-athletes saying the right things, but it was a theme that kept coming up and seemed very sincere.
Any championship event is the pinnacle of its sport. In water polo, there are the Olympics and then the NCAA Championships. As Princeton’s Mike Merlone mentioned following the team’s win in Sunday’s third-place game, “the NCAA final four is the goal of every age-group, club and high school water polo player in the country.” By bringing this event to the east coast, a new set of eyes was able to see it, and that was an important aspect that was not lost on anyone.
In addition to simply bringing the sport to more people, part of the ‘for the good of the game’ also centered on the importance of the east coast teams to the sport. Of the 41 teams that play men’s water polo, 17 are on the east coast. Obviously the top teams in the sport play on the west coast, but the success Princeton had this weekend and the inroads that Navy and St. Francis have also made in recent years have shown that the east coast teams are getting stronger and showing that they belong.
Princeton head coach Luis Nicolao said just that on Sunday after his team’s win. “We talked about showing that we belong out here and can play with these teams. I think we did just that by beating a very good Loyola Marymount team and getting our program’s first-ever NCAA game.”
That point was not lost on anybody. When asked about it in the championship press conference, USC’s Jordan Thompson, the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, summed it up by saying, “Princeton is a good team. We prepared for them yesterday the exact same way we prepared for UCLA in the championship game, and every other game this season.”
TigerBlog would say that is belonging.
Water polo is a sport centered on the West Coast in California where the teams play outdoors. No team that doesn’t call California home has ever won a national title in water polo and only five times since 1969 has the national champion been crowned in another state. But for three days last weekend, the center of the collegiate water polo world was Princeton, New Jersey, even though three of the competing teams all were from towns within miles of each other in Los Angeles.
One of USC player's admitted concern entering the weekend about the unknowns of actually playing indoors and worried if there would be problems communicated in the noisy environment.
It was a great event by all accounts and thanks and congratulations go out to all the Princeton staff members that put in their time and effort to making the event special.
An overriding theme that struck TigerBlog throughout the weekend felt from all four teams, committee members and others connected to the water polo world was the sport’s awareness of itself, where it fits in to the college sports landscape, and what it needs to do to gain more awareness and grow. Ultimately, that is one of the main reasons why the NCAA committee awarded Princeton the opportunity to host this event several years ago.
This was touched upon throughout the weekend from the championship banquet held on Friday night to USC’s post-game press conference following Sunday’s championship game. The coaches, players, media and fans kept pointing to the importance of the weekend in representing and growing the sport. Sure, it may have been the coaches and student-athletes saying the right things, but it was a theme that kept coming up and seemed very sincere.
Any championship event is the pinnacle of its sport. In water polo, there are the Olympics and then the NCAA Championships. As Princeton’s Mike Merlone mentioned following the team’s win in Sunday’s third-place game, “the NCAA final four is the goal of every age-group, club and high school water polo player in the country.” By bringing this event to the east coast, a new set of eyes was able to see it, and that was an important aspect that was not lost on anyone.
In addition to simply bringing the sport to more people, part of the ‘for the good of the game’ also centered on the importance of the east coast teams to the sport. Of the 41 teams that play men’s water polo, 17 are on the east coast. Obviously the top teams in the sport play on the west coast, but the success Princeton had this weekend and the inroads that Navy and St. Francis have also made in recent years have shown that the east coast teams are getting stronger and showing that they belong.
Princeton head coach Luis Nicolao said just that on Sunday after his team’s win. “We talked about showing that we belong out here and can play with these teams. I think we did just that by beating a very good Loyola Marymount team and getting our program’s first-ever NCAA game.”
That point was not lost on anybody. When asked about it in the championship press conference, USC’s Jordan Thompson, the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, summed it up by saying, “Princeton is a good team. We prepared for them yesterday the exact same way we prepared for UCLA in the championship game, and every other game this season.”
TigerBlog would say that is belonging.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
California Dreamin'
TigerBlog spent a week in Los Angeles back in 1987. It was a trip essentially to visit TB's college friend Paul Glazer, who said that he would be there and that TB and TB's friend Mark Eckel could stay there for the week.
Instead, Paul found out he had to leave on business and had just rented out his extra room to a guy named Ken, who had answered an ad for a roommate the day TB arrived. So, instead of hanging out with an old college friend for a week, TigerBlog instead got to share an apartment with Eckel and a total stranger.
On the last night, Ken took us to a party in Manhattan Beach, and of course Eckel ran into someone who had been a student of his friend (and TB's friend) Ray Clark at Hightstown High years before. Summed up briefly: Eckel goes to California with a friend of his to stay with a friend of his friend's, only that friend isn't there, so they stay with a stranger instead, who takes them to a party at his own friend's house, where Eckel runs into someone who knows his friend from back home.
Small world, no? And this was after Eckel ran into someone he went to grammar school with at Universal Studios.
Anyway, as part of the trip, TB checked out some of the local colleges, including UCLA and USC. For the record, he liked UCLA's campus better but thought Pepperdine was better than both of those – and any other one he's seen since.
TB and Eckel did not go to Loyola Marymount, but even with L.A. traffic, it wasn't that far out of the way.
According to Mapquest, it's 10.84 miles south (mostly on I-405) from UCLA to Loyola Marymount and then another 17.4 miles east (mostly on I-10) from LMU to Southern Cal. Also according to Mapquest, it's another 2,784 miles from USC's campus to Princeton's.
TigerBlog remembers when the idea of hosting the men's water polo Final Four was first brought up, though he can't remember exactly when it was. It was clearly a long time ago, because TB does remember that 2009 seemed so far away at the time.
Now, though, the 2009 men's water polo Final Four is here, and it features Princeton along with the three L.A. schools who are located so close to each other and are getting read to fly across the country to DeNunzio Pool. Maybe the NCAA should have chartered one plane and put all three teams on it.
As an aside, the men's water polo TigerCam video of the team's trip to the Eastern championships two weeks ago is tremendous. Not to beat a dead horse, but nobody can tell me a water polo media guide would have the same impact on anyone.
The event begins Saturday at 3 when Princeton takes on USC, followed by Loyola Marymount and UCLA. The final is Sunday at 2, and there's also a third-place game at noon; tickets are going quickly.
As far as TigerBlog knows, this is the fifth time an NCAA championship event will be held on the Princeton campus. The first was in 1975, when the NCAA wrestling championships were held at Jadwin Gym (Iowa won). Palmer Stadium hosted the men's lacrosse championship in 1981, when a crowd of 13,943 watched North Carolina defeat Johns Hopkins 14-13.
The women's lacrosse Final Four was held at Princeton twice, first in 1990 when Harvard defeated Maryland 8-7 and again in 2004 when Virginia defeated Princeton in the last NCAA final not won by Northwestern.
And now it's water polo's turn. It's a tremendous opportunity for the sport to be showcased far from its Southern California base, and judging by the ticket sales, the response has been great.
College athletics when viewed through the lens of major media outlets is 95% about football and men's basketball. College athletics in reality is about so much more, and that's why the NCAA's marketing campaign of "going pro in something other than sports" is genius.
One of the best parts of being at a school like Princeton is to see so many different sports and to get a feel for the athletes each sports attracts. In the case of water polo, the Princeton team has a roster of 21 players, 13 of whom are from California.
Beyond geography, though, water polo is a sport that requires its athletes be in ridiculous physical shape, and it's an incredibly physical game. Maybe nothing at Princeton (crew? ice hockey?) can equal how hard these athletes have to push themselves physically during the course of a game.
For the uninitiated, the players have to tread water throughout the entire time they're in the pool, and pretty much anything goes under the surface.
Beyond that, it's one of the sports with a small community, so basically everyone knows everyone else.
And if you can't root for Princeton coach Luis Nicolao, who can you root for?
Instead, Paul found out he had to leave on business and had just rented out his extra room to a guy named Ken, who had answered an ad for a roommate the day TB arrived. So, instead of hanging out with an old college friend for a week, TigerBlog instead got to share an apartment with Eckel and a total stranger.
On the last night, Ken took us to a party in Manhattan Beach, and of course Eckel ran into someone who had been a student of his friend (and TB's friend) Ray Clark at Hightstown High years before. Summed up briefly: Eckel goes to California with a friend of his to stay with a friend of his friend's, only that friend isn't there, so they stay with a stranger instead, who takes them to a party at his own friend's house, where Eckel runs into someone who knows his friend from back home.
Small world, no? And this was after Eckel ran into someone he went to grammar school with at Universal Studios.
Anyway, as part of the trip, TB checked out some of the local colleges, including UCLA and USC. For the record, he liked UCLA's campus better but thought Pepperdine was better than both of those – and any other one he's seen since.
TB and Eckel did not go to Loyola Marymount, but even with L.A. traffic, it wasn't that far out of the way.
According to Mapquest, it's 10.84 miles south (mostly on I-405) from UCLA to Loyola Marymount and then another 17.4 miles east (mostly on I-10) from LMU to Southern Cal. Also according to Mapquest, it's another 2,784 miles from USC's campus to Princeton's.
TigerBlog remembers when the idea of hosting the men's water polo Final Four was first brought up, though he can't remember exactly when it was. It was clearly a long time ago, because TB does remember that 2009 seemed so far away at the time.
Now, though, the 2009 men's water polo Final Four is here, and it features Princeton along with the three L.A. schools who are located so close to each other and are getting read to fly across the country to DeNunzio Pool. Maybe the NCAA should have chartered one plane and put all three teams on it.
As an aside, the men's water polo TigerCam video of the team's trip to the Eastern championships two weeks ago is tremendous. Not to beat a dead horse, but nobody can tell me a water polo media guide would have the same impact on anyone.
The event begins Saturday at 3 when Princeton takes on USC, followed by Loyola Marymount and UCLA. The final is Sunday at 2, and there's also a third-place game at noon; tickets are going quickly.
As far as TigerBlog knows, this is the fifth time an NCAA championship event will be held on the Princeton campus. The first was in 1975, when the NCAA wrestling championships were held at Jadwin Gym (Iowa won). Palmer Stadium hosted the men's lacrosse championship in 1981, when a crowd of 13,943 watched North Carolina defeat Johns Hopkins 14-13.
The women's lacrosse Final Four was held at Princeton twice, first in 1990 when Harvard defeated Maryland 8-7 and again in 2004 when Virginia defeated Princeton in the last NCAA final not won by Northwestern.
And now it's water polo's turn. It's a tremendous opportunity for the sport to be showcased far from its Southern California base, and judging by the ticket sales, the response has been great.
College athletics when viewed through the lens of major media outlets is 95% about football and men's basketball. College athletics in reality is about so much more, and that's why the NCAA's marketing campaign of "going pro in something other than sports" is genius.
One of the best parts of being at a school like Princeton is to see so many different sports and to get a feel for the athletes each sports attracts. In the case of water polo, the Princeton team has a roster of 21 players, 13 of whom are from California.
Beyond geography, though, water polo is a sport that requires its athletes be in ridiculous physical shape, and it's an incredibly physical game. Maybe nothing at Princeton (crew? ice hockey?) can equal how hard these athletes have to push themselves physically during the course of a game.
For the uninitiated, the players have to tread water throughout the entire time they're in the pool, and pretty much anything goes under the surface.
Beyond that, it's one of the sports with a small community, so basically everyone knows everyone else.
And if you can't root for Princeton coach Luis Nicolao, who can you root for?
Friday, January 16, 2009
Player To Be Named
Doug Davis, the freshman who is the leading scorer on the Princeton men's basketball team, has let us know that he would prefer to be known by his full name from now on. All future mentions of him will therefore be of Douglas Davis.
Davis is not the first Princeton basketball player who has changed his name from a nickname to a full name. James Mastaglio, for instance, started out his freshman year as "Jamie" before requesting that he be called James, which he was for the remainder of his time with the Tigers.
Besides Davis and Mastaglio, who was known as "Stags" more than Jamie or James, there is former women's hockey player Lizzie Keady, who was Elizabeth Keady as a freshman, Liz Keady as a sophomore and Lizzie as a junior and senior. Also, two field hockey juniors have made changes. Christina Bortz was Tina as a freshman, and Cynthia Wray went by Cindy.
TigerBlog also called men's water polo player Mark Zalewski by the name of Steve Zalewski in his freshman year, obviously scarred by Clarkson's men's hockey player Steve Zalewski's success in games against the Tigers.
And while we're talking pronunciations, former basketball player Ahmed El-Nokali wanted to change his first name from "ACK-med" to "AH-med" for the second half of his senior year, but TigerBlog never bought into it. Former basketball coach Bill Carmody (whose team lost a tough one last night to Purdue on a shaky call at the end) insisted that his big man from Evanston, Ill., was Mason "ROH-kuh" and not Mason "ROCK-uh," but Mason himself said either one was fine.
All of this takes TigerBlog back to its Trenton Times days of covering high school sports. Trenton High had a quarterback who one year was called Spencer Lester, only to correct that the following year by saying his name was actually Lester Spencer.
TigerBlog has been trying to remember other cases of Princeton athletes who asked to have their name changed but has come up empty. Regardless, the freshman guard from Philadelphia by way of the Hun School is now Douglas Davis.
Davis is not the first Princeton basketball player who has changed his name from a nickname to a full name. James Mastaglio, for instance, started out his freshman year as "Jamie" before requesting that he be called James, which he was for the remainder of his time with the Tigers.
Besides Davis and Mastaglio, who was known as "Stags" more than Jamie or James, there is former women's hockey player Lizzie Keady, who was Elizabeth Keady as a freshman, Liz Keady as a sophomore and Lizzie as a junior and senior. Also, two field hockey juniors have made changes. Christina Bortz was Tina as a freshman, and Cynthia Wray went by Cindy.
TigerBlog also called men's water polo player Mark Zalewski by the name of Steve Zalewski in his freshman year, obviously scarred by Clarkson's men's hockey player Steve Zalewski's success in games against the Tigers.
And while we're talking pronunciations, former basketball player Ahmed El-Nokali wanted to change his first name from "ACK-med" to "AH-med" for the second half of his senior year, but TigerBlog never bought into it. Former basketball coach Bill Carmody (whose team lost a tough one last night to Purdue on a shaky call at the end) insisted that his big man from Evanston, Ill., was Mason "ROH-kuh" and not Mason "ROCK-uh," but Mason himself said either one was fine.
All of this takes TigerBlog back to its Trenton Times days of covering high school sports. Trenton High had a quarterback who one year was called Spencer Lester, only to correct that the following year by saying his name was actually Lester Spencer.
TigerBlog has been trying to remember other cases of Princeton athletes who asked to have their name changed but has come up empty. Regardless, the freshman guard from Philadelphia by way of the Hun School is now Douglas Davis.
Friday, December 5, 2008
365 Days and Counting Down
This weekend at Stanford, the NCAA men's water polo championship will be contested between USC, Navy, Loyola Marymount and Stanford, which reminded TigerBlog that exactly a year from now, Princeton's DeNunzio Pool will play host to the championship event.Princeton has appeared in two NCAA tournaments, most recently in 2004 when the championship was also held at Stanford. That year Princeton dropped a pair of heartbreakers, losing to UCLA in overtime in the first game and dropping a one-goal decision to Loyola Marymount in the third-place game. Princeton came within a half of representing the CWPA in this season's tournament, before Navy rallied in the second half of the Eastern championship game.
DeNunzio Pool will become the third Princeton facility to host an NCAA championship event. The 1975 and 1981 NCAA wrestling championships were hosted at Jadwin Gymnasium and were both won by Iowa. Princeton also hosted the NCAA women's lacrosse championship at Princeton Stadium in 2004, which was won by Virginia. Several other facilities at Princeton have hosted early round NCAA tournament events in sports including field hockey, men's and women's lacrosse, men's and women's soccer, softball and cross country. Already this year, Princeton has hosted an NCAA Play-In Game in field hockey and the Mid-Atlantic Regionals for cross country.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Big Night Looming At Princeton
The four Princeton-Harvard showdowns of Saturday will lure far more people to campus than the events of Friday night. Still, the menu for Oct. 24 is a pretty good one.
The big attraction is the 42 retirement dinner in Jadwin Gym beginning at 7, honoring Dick Kazmaier and Bill Bradley and featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning author John McPhee. Tickets can be purchased at the door.
In addition, there s men's water polo next door at DeNunzio Pool as Princeton and Bucknell meet, also at 7. And, at the same time, the sprint football team hosts first-year program Mansfield at Princeton Stadium. While not in the same basic area, the women's volleyball team will be across campus at Dillon Gym taking on Harvard at 7, and the women's hockey team hosts UConn at Baker Rink, also at 7.
Speaking of the 42 dinner, our friend Harvey Yavener of the Trenton Times offered this take this morning: http://www.nj.com/princeton/times/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/12247347489090.xml&coll=5.
The big attraction is the 42 retirement dinner in Jadwin Gym beginning at 7, honoring Dick Kazmaier and Bill Bradley and featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning author John McPhee. Tickets can be purchased at the door.
In addition, there s men's water polo next door at DeNunzio Pool as Princeton and Bucknell meet, also at 7. And, at the same time, the sprint football team hosts first-year program Mansfield at Princeton Stadium. While not in the same basic area, the women's volleyball team will be across campus at Dillon Gym taking on Harvard at 7, and the women's hockey team hosts UConn at Baker Rink, also at 7.
Speaking of the 42 dinner, our friend Harvey Yavener of the Trenton Times offered this take this morning: http://www.nj.com/princeton/times/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/12247347489090.xml&coll=5.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Take Your Pick If You'd Like To Go To The Princeton Invitational
So you want to go to the Princeton Invitational this weekend? Just one question: Which one?
The Princeton campus hosts three events named the "Princeton Invitational" this weekend. In addition to sharing the same name, all three also share the same ticket price: $0.
The men's soccer team hosts doubleheaders Friday and Sunday featuring the Tigers, American, Seton Hall and Penn. The Princeton Invitational for women's tennis is this weekend as well, beginning Friday and running through Sunday. The other Princeton Invitational is in men's water polo, which runs from Friday to Sunday as well; the water polo event features 10 teams, seven of which are ranked nationally and two more of which are receiving votes in the latest poll.
The cross country teams could have made it four Princeton Invitationals but chose instead to call their Saturday event at home "The Old Nassau Run," to be followed in October by their own Princeton Invitational.
The Princeton campus hosts three events named the "Princeton Invitational" this weekend. In addition to sharing the same name, all three also share the same ticket price: $0.
The men's soccer team hosts doubleheaders Friday and Sunday featuring the Tigers, American, Seton Hall and Penn. The Princeton Invitational for women's tennis is this weekend as well, beginning Friday and running through Sunday. The other Princeton Invitational is in men's water polo, which runs from Friday to Sunday as well; the water polo event features 10 teams, seven of which are ranked nationally and two more of which are receiving votes in the latest poll.
The cross country teams could have made it four Princeton Invitationals but chose instead to call their Saturday event at home "The Old Nassau Run," to be followed in October by their own Princeton Invitational.
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