Ivy Hockey

You may have noticed that the Ivy League recently announced its year-end awards for the 2008-09 men’s hockey season. You also may have noticed that Yale won the 2009 Ivy League championship in men’s hockey with a 9-1 record. Then again, you may not have.

Ivy League hockey has long been one of the things that TigerBlog just hasn’t completely gotten its hands around. Sure, there’s a lot of tradition. An Ivy League champion has been awarded to the top men’s team since 1934 and the top women’s team since 1976. But these days, what does winning an Ivy League championship mean?

The answer is not much, other than bragging rights, a trophy and a banner. While it is nice add the Ivy League Championship feather to any seasons cap, it is hard to given credence to a championship that is awarded based on a subset of games that occur within another league’s season. All six Ivy League teams that compete in hockey are also members of the ECAC, a 12-team conference that also includes Clarkson, Colgate, Quinnipiac, Rensselaer, St. Lawrence and Union.

The last couple of years, it has worked out. This year, Yale was the ECAC Champion and the Ivy League Champion. Last year, Princeton was second in the ECAC and the Ivy League champion. But look at the 2006-07 season. Yale went 6-3-1 in Ivy games to win the Ivy championship, but was 8-13-1 in the ECAC and finished 10th. Conversely Princeton was fifth in the Ivy League with a 3-5-2 record, but sixth in the ECAC at 10-10-2. Also, lets' look at Princeton this year and last. Both year's the Tigers were 14-8 in the ECAC, but last year Princeton was 9-1 in the Ivy League, this year the Tigers were 5-5.

A league championship is something that you fight for throughout the league season. Ask any player and they know exactly where they sit in the ECAC standings as the playoffs approach. They know how many points they need to clinch a first-round bye and they know what they need to clinch home ice. Do they know what they need to do in the Ivy race, other than just win? That’s a good question. All TigerBlog knows is that while it pours over the ECAC standings almost daily, it hasn’t checked the Ivy League standings once this year, except to write this entry.

The same goes for the Ivy League individual awards. TigerBlog knows where to find them, but finding the Ivy only stats of which the Ivy year-end awards are based on isn’t exactly easy. If you go to the Ivy League website to find, them it links you to the stats maintained by the ECAC.

Over the years, TigerBlog has seen some interesting things in the final weekend of the season. One year TigerBlog witnessed Union pull its goalie in overtime of a tie game in the final game of the season. The reason, a win would put them in the final home ice playoff spot, while a tie would not.

Now here’s the problem. Would a coach pull his goalie in overtime of a tie game to clinch a bye in the ECAC playoffs assuming the loss wouldn’t hurt them? Yes. Would a coach pull his goalie in overtime of a tie game to get the final home ice playoff spot for the first round assuming the loss wouldn’t hurt them? Yes. Would a coach pull his goalie in overtime of a tie game to win the Ivy League title assuming the loss wouldn’t hurt them? Yes. But would a coach pull his goalie in overtime of a tie game to win the Ivy League title assuming the loss could hurt his team’s ECAC playoff positioning? No.

How a team does in the ECAC season determines how the teams are seeded for the playoffs and the ECAC tournament is what determines the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. While its true at this point that three Ivy League teams are in position for at-large bids if the season ended today, simply winning the Ivy League doesn’t translate into the postseason, while winning the ECAC does.

All that said, congrats to Yale on its 2009 Ivy League championship. Congrats to Princeton goalie Zane Kalemba on being named the Ivy League Player of the Year, and congrats to Jody Pederson and Brett Wilson for receiving all-league honors.

Also the ECAC playoffs are going on this weekend with three of the series already over. #12 Brown swept #5 Harvard with wins of 1-0 and 2-0, #11 RPI swept #6 Dartmouth with a 3-2 overtime win and a 3-1 win in regulation, and #8 Union swept #9 Clarkson with wins of 5-3 and 7-2.

#7 Quinnipiac and #10 Colgate are knotted up a 1-1 with a third game scheduled for Sunday night. If Quinnipiac wins, Princeton will host Union in next weekend's ECAC quarterfinal series at Hobey Baker Rink. Should Colgate win, the Tigers would host the Raiders.

Live From Baltimore, It's Friday Night

Final 6-5
UMBC made it interesting.

7:49 in fourth
UMBC got one back, so it's 6-3 Tigers. UMBC possession is a huge one, as another goal will make it interesting.

12:20 left in fourth
Still 6-2 Tigers. Princeton with 14 shots in the third quarter after 12 shots in the first half.

End 3
Princeton 6, UMBC 2
Tigers scored the only five goals of the third quarter. Fiorito with nine saves. Barnes 11 for 11 on face-offs.

8:30 left in third
Princeton 5, UMBC 2
The Tigers came out in the third like they did in the first against Hopkins a week ago. McBride started it, and Rich Sgalardi, Jack McBride and Kovler have all followed. Paul Barnes is 10 for 10 on face-offs; remember, TigerBlog said that UMBC has struggled on face-offs this season.

Early third
Princeton 2, UMBC 2. Chris McBride.

Halftime in men's lax
UMBC 2, Princeton 1
A pair of extra-man goals for UMBC have put Princeton down at the half. Without Fiorito, it could have been way worse. Fiorito has made six saves, several of them of the spectacular kind.
Kovler's goal for Princeton is the only score for the Tigers. Princeton did not score for the fina 22:29 of the first half. The Tigers scored 14 goals in each of the first two games.

Final score in men's bball - 58-44 Columbia.

Princeton women win 68-63.

Cornell up 22 on Penn in second half. Ivy title to Big Red.

8 in second quarter in lax ... still 1-0
1 min left in basketball ... Columb

ia up 10.
Going to radio shortly.

12 min in half in lax
Still 1-0. Both goalies playing well. Fiorito has been spectacular.

End first in lacrosse
1-0 Tigers.
Just seven shots for Princeton, who has averaged twice that many per quarter in its first games.
Basketball game is 46-36 Columbia at the under four timeout of the second half. Cornell is on the verge of the Ivy basketball title.

6 min left in bball
Columbia led is double figures at 44-33.
Still 1-0 in lacrosse, as Tyler Fiorito has made three amazing saves.

7:30 to go in second half in bball
Columbia up 41-33.
Still 1-0 in men's lacrosse.
Cornell is pulling away from Penn in basketball.

midway through first quarter in lacrosse
1-0 Princeton.
Mark Kovler scores the goal for the Tigers. Hard shot from up top.

10 min left in second in bball
Princeton back within four.
Men's lacrosse is scoreless after six minutes. Media timeout. Tyler Fiorito made one strong save and was helped by a pipe on another shot.

12 min timeout
Columbia 34-25.
No score in lacrosse.

15 min in second
Columbia run is nine. Lions, 29-24.
Ready for face-off.
Denver has beaten Penn. Brown has beaten Quinnipiac. Those are lacrosse scores.

Early second
Columbia scores a quick five to start the second half to retake the lead.
Princeton is wearing orange in lacrosse; UMBC is in white.
UMBC is ranked sixth in the coaches' poll and eighth in the media poll, though the Retrievers lost earlier this week to Hopkins. Princeton is ranked fifth in both.
UMBC has played in the last three NCAA tournaments. A year ago, the Retrievers ralled from an 11-2 deficit to win the America East title game 14-13 over Albany.

More while waiting on second half
Dartmouth and Harvard women both winning big. The Big Green leads the Crimson by a game; they finish the season with a head-to-head matchup Tuesday.
On the men's side, Yale is up 14 over Dartmouth at the half. Cornell is up five over Penn at the half. If Cornell wins, Yale is eliminated, leaving only Princeton and Cornell.

Still waiting on second half
Women's basketball at half: Columbia 33, Princeton 25.
PA announcements for men's lacrosse just beginning. Face-off is 8:06.

Updated half
Princeton 24, Columbia 20
Princeton beat Columbia by 28 the first time around; this one will be tougher.
Penn still with a slim lead over Cornell late in the first.
More lacrosse info: this is UMBC's third game in six days. The Retrievers, who opened the season with wins over Delaware and Rutgers, beat Colgate here last weekend and then saw their 15-game home winning streak end against Johns Hopkins Tuesday night. UMBC is 20-2 in its last 22 games here; both losses have been to the Hop.

Updated 2 min in first
Princeton up four. Eight for Davis; five for Dan Mavraides.
Men's lacrosse about a half-hour away from face-off. Speaking of face-offs, Princeton's Paul Barnes has won better than 50% of his draws and scored twice against Johns Hopkins. For UMBC, face-offs have been a problem.

Updated 4 min left in first
TigerBlog has maintained all season that eight wins in the Ivy League would represent great progress. Still, if you want to dream big, it's Princeton up five on Columbia and Penn up four on Cornell.
Back here in Baltimore, UMBC Stadium has field turf and stands on just one side of the field. On the far side is a new locker complex for all of UMBC's outdoor teams. Temperatures have to be near 60 still.

Updated 8 min left in first of basketball
Princeton 17, Columbia 15
Tigers take first lead. Douglas Davis with five points to lead balanced group.
UMBC's leading scorer is Peet Poillon, which is actually spelled correctly there. He is an Ohio State graduate who had an extra year of eligibility. There are not many teams that have their leading scorer be a midfielder; UMBC's top three scorers are middies.


Updated 12 min left in first of basketball
Columbia 10, Princeton 9
Meanwhile, here in Baltimore, Princeton will be starting its same lineup as its first two games. This includes leading scorer Jack McBride, who spent three days throwing up and who has not practiced this week.
As for UMBC, it is a very high scoring team, one led by a group of small but sharp-shooting middies. The Retrievers also have one of the nation's top goalies in senior Jeremy Blevins.

TigerBlog welcomes you to UMBC Stadium. The men's lacrosse game against UMBC is about an hour away, while men's basketball is about to tip off in New York against Columbia.

WPRB FM 103.3 (and goprincetontigers.com) will have the men's basketball game until its conclusion (or until it's very, very obvious what that conclusion will be) and then switch immediately to the lacrosse game.

In the meantime, TigerBlog will keep you updated on both, plus the women's basketball game on Carril Court. TB will take you at least until it's time to do radio for men's lacrosse. After that, we'll try to do the double duty, with no guarantees.

The Quiet Foundation

Unless you're on that island in LOST, you can't just experience a flash of light and be whisked into the future. (OK, apparently you can only get whisked into the past on LOST ... TigerBlog admits to spending one confused hour per week trying to figure it out).

Anyway, if head wrestling coach Chris Ayres could get that opportunity, he believes that he'd see a far more formidable Tiger squad on the horizon. After two winless seasons to start his first head coaching tenure, Ayres has guided Princeton to a pair of wins this season, despite forfeiting two weight classes most of the time.

While two wins won't turn many heads, a closer look at the program does reveal hope. Of the eight wrestlers who will compete for Princeton in this weekend's EIWA championships at The Palestra, four are freshmen. One of those freshmen, Kurt Brendel, could earn an eighth-seed after an impressive first year. Another freshman, Daniel Kolodzik, spent about two months, ranging from preseason through mid-December, trying to compete at a weight that really didn't work for him. Since moving to 149, he has begun to show the promise that Ayres believes could make him a potential NCAA qualifier in years to come.

This wouldn't be the first year that Princeton has had multiple freshmen experience success. Last season, 174-pounder Travis Erdman became the first All-Ivy honoree at Princeton since 2005, and 125-pounder Tony Comunale was possibly one turned ankle away from earning an NCAA appearance in his first year. Comunale missed all of this season with injury, so he still has three more years to help rebuild this program.

You can't see the structure of the upcoming wrestling teams yet. With another solid class coming in and the much-needed combination of determination and optimism, Ayres can only imagine what it might look like in 2011 or 2012.

But he can see the foundation. His name is Marty Everin.

Whatever becomes of this program during Ayres' tenure, Everin's contributions must never be overlooked or forgotten. He came to Princeton from Ann Arbor Pioneer High School with a career record of 149-31. He was once one of the bright freshmen, but he sufferered through some dark times: A coaching change. Winless seasons. Injury upon injury. Attrition.

The attrition has occurred gradually and consistently over the last three years, and is why this team started most of its dual matches in an immediate 12-0 hole. Because Princeton couldn't field wrestlers at the 133- and 141-pound weight classes, there was little to no hope that the Tigers could really contend against some of the big boys in the EIWA.

Everin knew that. He knew this team was at the beginning of a rebuilding process when Ayres came prior to the 2006-07 season, but he prepared himself for the best possible season and was elected team captain. He knew it before last season, when an offseason knee injury cost him the year. He could have stayed in school, earned his degree and been finished with the collegiate wrestler's lifestyle (which does not end when practice concludes, because of the consistent weight requirements). Instead, he withdrew and rehabbed so he could give it one final go.

His final go came this season, when he was named captain once again.

"He is the most changed wrestler, for the better, that I've ever worked with in my life," Ayres says. "That includes my time at Lehigh. He listened to us, and then he walked the walk. Sometimes we have to tell guys 100 times before they really hear it. With Marty, we told him once what it would take. He did the rest."

That walk led to a 16-win season and a potential sixth seed at this weekend's EIWA championships. Again, that may not move mountains at schools like Cornell and Lehigh, but it matters here. He was already a leader off the mat and in practice, but now he was showing the talented youth in the locker room that the hard work and dedication Ayres preaches leads to the one thing they all want.

Wins.

Everin wrestles in a weight class with both the defending NCAA champion, Cornell's Jordan Leen, and a potential NCAA champion in Harvard's J.P. O'Connor. The odds of Everin becoming Princeton's first EIWA champion since Greg Parker '03 are significant. But he could have a run in him, and an upset or two could land him in the NCAA Championships, which would be a Princeton first under Ayres.

Regardless of Everin's outcome this weekend, his greatest contribution to the program has already been planted. If this program continues an upward march over the next three years, names like Brendel, Comunale, Kolodzik and Erdman will be the familiar ones.

And within all of them, the example of Marty Everin will be the guiding force.

In a Little-Known Corner of C-Level in Jadwin...

Third-year fencing coach Zoltan Dudas picked up the TigerBlog line yesterday seeking some results of the Princeton-Penn women’s fencing matches from the recent past.

There’s a trophy that alternates between the winners, Dudas said, and the engraving on the front hadn’t been updated in several years, from 2004 forward.

TigerBlog had no knowledge of this trophy, and for good reason. It hasn’t been in Jadwin Gym since it left in 2004, instead making a home for itself in Penn’s Hutchinson Gym.

In 2004, Penn won 18-9. In 2005, Penn won 20-7. In 2006, it was Penn 16, Princeton 11. In 2007, Penn 18, Princeton 9. Last season, Penn 20, Princeton 7.

In 2009, Princeton 15, Penn 12.

With everything that goes on this time of year, spring sports beginning and winter sports winding toward their conclusions, such impressive achievements sometimes slip by in everything that goes into keeping the news around a 38-sport varsity program up to date. But the fencers have earned a nod for their achievements this season, and it’s a notably youthful cast turning around history like the Princeton-Penn series.

Less than two weeks ago, the men’s and women’s teams each posted third-place finishes at the Ivy League round-robin event. The women hadn’t finished third since 2004 and the men since 2006. There is still work to be done, as the women haven’t won an Ivy League title since 2001 and the men since 2000, but it’s moving in the right direction.

Five Tigers, all freshmen, earned All-Ivy honors. (There’s only one All-Ivy team in fencing, no second team as in other sports.) That’s the most since 2005.

Even more impressive news came this week, when Princeton earned the maximum 24 bids for the NCAA Regional, to be held this Saturday at Drew University in Madison, N.J. With the records available, TigerBlog isn’t sure of the last time that happened, but it’s quite high compared to recent years.

Last season, 15 Tigers went to the NCAA Regional. It was 15 as well in 2007 after 13 in 2006.

The 2009 regional group counts 10 freshmen, six sophomores, seven juniors and just one senior, which looks to give the Tigers some staying power as the improvement continues. The lone senior is Jasjit Bhinder, a four-time NCAA Regional participant who has earned NCAA Championship bids in each of the past two seasons.

There are 12 schools in the Mid-Atlantic/South region that will send fencers (some as many as Princeton's 24) to Saturday’s meet, and of those, five to seven individual fencers from each of the six weapons will earn bids to the NCAA national meet at Penn State in two weeks.

Princeton has had individual success almost annually at the national meet in recent years. Graham Wicas won a bronze medal in the épée as a freshman last season. Ben Solomon ’06 did the same as a senior, the same year Jacqueline Leahy ’06 won silver in the foil.

But the NCAA Championships are decided on points based on the total finish of everyone at the championships from a particular school, men’s and women’s combined. Last season’s champion, Ohio State, had the maximum 12 fencers (two per weapon) qualified for the national final, which is a good place to start if a team has designs on the national title. Princeton finished 10th and had six fencers in the national event.

Since the NCAA began sponsoring a national championship in 1990, Princeton has qualified fencers every year since 1992 with a high team finish of fourth in 1994, 1996 and 1999.

It remains to be seen whether and by how much Princeton’s finish will improve at the final this season. But as they say in the sport, en garde!

I Am Woman

This Saturday will mark the final women's basketball home game of the season, as well as one of the highlights of the Princeton athletic calendar: National Girls and Women in Sports Day.

The event begins at 4:30 with an interactive sports clinic featuring coaches and athletes from several Princeton women's teams. There are few events at Princeton that are done better or are better received. If you are in Jadwin Gym for the clinic, head up to the balcony and see the wide-angle view; it's Americana at its finest.

It's also something that would never have happened not that long ago, at least in Princeton athletic history terms, and something for which the current generation owes a great deal of thanks to the early Princeton athletes, many of whom they've never met.

Thanks to them, athletic opportunities for girls are pretty much equal to those for boys. On the high school level, there were 295,000 girls who played sports in 1971; there are more than 3,000,000 today. The numbers on the youth level are even more extraordinary. Intercollegiately, participation among women athletes is up nearly 500% since 1971.

Today, Princeton - or any other school - would never dream of having the men's teams get all the prefered practice times and make the women practice around them. There's no thought of having athletic training or sports information or out-of-region travel or league championships only for the men.

It hasn't always been that way. Princeton's earliest women's lacrosse teams wore cheerleading uniforms to compete. As recently as the 1980s there was still three times as many men's teams as women's teams.

Yes, the 1970s was when the revolution began. There's was the women's movement in general ("women's lib") and Helen Reddy singing "I Am Woman" and of course the federal legislation known as "Title IX." Still, progress didn't come quickly for women's athletics.

"In a lot of ways, it's taken the women who had a chance to play to have daughters and want them not to have to go through what they went through," says women's lacrosse coach Chris Sailer, whose career at Harvard came about just after women started to get greater acceptance as athletes.

Through the years, TigerBlog has gotten an opportunity to talk to several of the early pioneers from the 1970s, women like Susan Mooney, the Gengler sisters, Emily Goodfellow, Cathy Corcionne, Janet Morrison Clarke and others. Some of have spoken very bitterly about what they had to endure as young athletes, but they have also been universally grateful for the progress that has been made.

TigerBlog believes - or at least hopes - that womens' athletics would have evolved to their current state without the Title IX legislation, but there's not way to know that. Any way, it doesn't matter much.

What's important is that events like National Girls and Women In Sports Day at Princeton feature an army of little girls who already have had the opportunity and encouragement to play sports.

Check it out Saturday. Bring the girls - and the boys. It's sociology and history, all wrapped around sports.

And a lot of fun.

Putting The 'I' In Champion

You know the phrase: there is no I in team.

TigerBlog married into the swimming community. Despite the inability to competently swim a lane or two, regardless of the countless lessons in his younger days (money well spent, Mom), TigerBlog is well aware of just how close your typical swim/dive team is. Mrs. Blog talks about the hours spent together, through morning and afternoon workouts, long meets, etc., and how it forms this chemistry on a swim/dive team that is often unmatched.

In 2006 and 2007, the Princeton men's swimming and diving team used that ultimate team-first philosophy to win the EISL (now the Ivy League, as Navy has moved to the Patriot League) titles. The former year, no Princeton competitors won a single individual or relay event. The latter, only Doug Lennox won (100 fly).

Last season, Princeton finished second to Harvard. Lennox won another individual event, the 200 fly, and qualified for the Puerto Rican Olympic team. He earned All-America honors and reached an NCAA championship final. And he came back this season talking only about a team goal -- regaining the league title. It seems to be the culture of the program, where the team goal far supersedes that of the individual.

But that doesn't mean one can't happen without the other.

Each competitor is allowed to compete in three individual events over the weekend, as well as four relays. Teams don't have to announce who will swim in what events during the week, so TigerBlog can only speculate. Lennox will certainly be a favorite in his events, especially both fly events, where he brings the best times this season into both the 100 and 200 events.

But Lennox has two titles to his name, so let's move to his two fellow tri-captains. Robert Griest and Will Schaffer (pictured) have done more than provide leadership throughout their years at Princeton. They've scored points. Quite a few, to be honest.

Griest is a distance specialist who has scored 220 individual points in his career (you get 32 points for first, 28 for second, 27 for third, etc.; there are also different point totals for making the consolation finals of the C-level finals). He has three second-, one third- and two fourth-place finishes in his career.

Schaffer is just behind Griest with 219 career points. In the last two years alone, he has finished (in order of event) second, fourth, fourth, second, third and second.

Depending on who swims in what events, both could enter the weekend with the top time in their respective event. Griest swam the fastest 1000 in the league (9:14.74) during the opening weekend of the season, while Schaffer's 200 IM of 1:48.39 would be the league's best if Lennox doesn't compete in the event. That certainly doesn't assure either of winning a title, but it doesn't hurt either.

Schaffer has had the unfortunate luck of swimming in the same events as 2008 Harvard graduate Geoff Rathgeber over the last three years; in each of Schaffer's trio of second-place finishes, it was Rathgeber who touched the wall first. Swimming is different than many sports, where you actually have a chance to defend the opposing team's best player; if swimmer A is faster than swimmer B and they both swim their best race, there is no box-and-one, cover two or left-wing lock defense to throw out there. Swimmer A will win.

TigerBlog feels confident that Griest and Schaffer, along with a host of talented classmates that include Easton Chen and Mike Carter, will be plenty happy to just end their careers with a third team title. No Princeton men's swimming or diving graduate has been able to say that since the Class of 1997.

But for competitors who have quietly given so much to a highly successful program, it would be nice to see them be Swimmer A on Team A during Year D.

The 2009 Ivy League Championships will be held this Thursday through Saturday at Princeton's DeNunzio Pool. All championship sessions will begin at 6 p.m.

If You Have To Play Way Too Early, You Might As Well Take Advantage

In case you haven't noticed, the weather in the Northeast hasn't exactly been warm the last few weeks. All you have to do is take one glance out the window here at TigerBlog HQ for a snowy reminder of how spring isn't quite here yet.

Still, men's lacrosse season is here, and is actually almost a month old already for some teams. And few teams have taken advantage of the early season the way Princeton has. In fact, Princeton has done more in its first two weeks this season to help itself than it did all of last season.

There was a time when March 1 was the earliest teams would play college lacrosse games. A variety of factors have changed that, including television, conference tournaments and the elimination of many weekday games. As a result, the first games this year were actually played on Feb. 7.

The problem - or in Princeton's case, the benefit - of this is that when it comes time to select the NCAA tournament field, games that predate the actual start of spring, often played in frozen temperatures, count just as much as ones played in late April or early May.

Going back six quarters and 11 days, Princeton trailed Canisius 3-2 at halftime of the opener. Since then, Princeton has outscored its two opponents 26-12 and rung up amazing numbers of shots. Along the way, Princeton also hammered Johns Hopkins 14-8 in the Konica Minolta Face-Off Classic at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.

Princeton's next game is Friday night at UMBC in a game that replaces Virginia on the Tiger schedule for the first time in two decades. It was a move intended to help Princeton in terms of the NCAA tournament, and it's turned out to be sheer brilliance.

A win over UMBC would give Princeton two wins over Top 10 teams, something no other team could claim at that point (though Virginia could match it with a win over Cornell Sunday). A loss to UMBC wouldn't hurt Princeton all that much either, as it would pump up Hopkins' RPI (Hopkins defeated UMBC 14-11 last night), making Princeton's win over Hopkins that much better.

Princeton a year ago did defeat Cornell, but the Tigers' next best win was either Harvard, Hofstra or Canisius, none of whom were Top 15 teams. As a result, the Tigers chances for an at-large bid faded against teams with two or three wins against Top 15 teams. Princeton did have losses to Virginia, Syracuse and Hopkins, meaning that the schedule had been a tough one, but tournament bids are decided on quality wins.

This time around, Princeton already has one huge win and a shot at six others, who are listed here with their current Inside Lacrosse rankings: Syracuse (No. 2), Cornell (No. 4), UMBC (No. 8), Hofstra (No. 10), Harvard (No. 12) and Brown (No. 15).

Getting the win over Hopkins was big many reasons. It showed that the freshmen could play on the big stage of M&T Bank Stadium. It showed that the offense is improved. It gave the team confidence.

But most of all, it started to position Princeton for the postseason, something last year's schedule couldn't do.

Hey, if you have to be out there playing games before the temperature gets above 45 or so, you might as well make it work for yourself.

The Team That Never Was

Douglas Davis enters the final three games of this season with 297 points, which gives him a pretty good shot to become the fifth Princeton men's basketball player to reach the 300-point mark as a freshman. He also has a reasonable chance to finish second on the all-time freshman scoring list.

Here are the four who reached the 300-point mark as Tiger freshmen:
Chris Young - 387 - 1998-99
Spencer Gloger - 336 in 1999-2000
Kit Mueller - 329 in 1987-88
John Smyth - 319 in 1982-83

You might notice that only two of the players on that list played together, and that was for one season. Chris Young was a sophomore during the 1999-2000 season, Spencer Gloger's freshman year, which ended with an NIT loss to Penn State.

The best Princeton team of the last 30 years was the 1997-98 team, which went 27-2, had the best record in Division I and reached as high as No. 7 in the polls. TigerBlog's longstanding contention is that the Tigers of 2001-02 would have been better had Young and Gloger stayed together for the following two years.

By now, the stories of Young and Gloger in Princeton basketball are painfully familiar. Young signed a professional baseball contract after his sophomore year (a draft he was only eligible for because he'd turned 21 six days before the deadline), and now that he has pitched in the Major League Baseball all-star game and has made tens of millions of dollars, it's hard to argue with his decision. Gloger became caught up in the revolving door of his Princeton/UCLA dilemmas, and when he finally did return to Princeton, he ran into an academic issue that essentially ended his eligibility. TigerBlog, as an aside, has long respected Gloger for the way he returned to Princeton, outside the spotlight, and finished his degree and graduated with the Class of 2005.

Gloger left Princeton to return to UCLA after Young signed his contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Bill Carmody left for Northwestern after four years as Princeton head coach, and John Thompson came in to sort everything out. The result was a Cinderella Ivy League championship in 2001 and a three-way tie in 2002 between the Tigers, Penn and Yale.

Had Princeton had Young and Gloger together in 2000-01 and 2001-02, there is no Ivy League team since Penn's 1979 Final Four team that would have matched up with them. Forget for a minute that a team of players like Ahmed El-Nokali, Mike Bechtold, Andre Logan, Ed Persia, Kyle Wente and Ray Robins did just fine in the league in their own right. Add the other two, with Thompson as coach, and Princeton would have been unstoppable.

In Gloger, Princeton would have had a three-point shooter who in all probability would have beaten Brian Earl's Princeton and Ivy League record of 281 career three-pointers. Gloger, in addition to being a shooter, could defend, pass, handle the ball and rebound. In a full four-year career, he would have been a three-time first-team All-Ivy selection and have been around 1,500 career points.

In Young, Princeton would have had basically the Shaq of the Ivy League. Assuming no injuries, the big man would have finished his career second all-time at Princeton in points (and would have passed the 2,000 mark easily), rebounds and assists and first in blocked shots. By his senior year, he could have legitimately been a 20/10 player and ultimately a lottery pick in the NBA draft.

Princeton, led by those two, would quite possibly have been 14-0 in the league in 00-01 and 01-02 and would have been a very highly ranked team nationally. Who knows what might have been possible in the NCAA tournament? Certainly being outmatched physically wasn't going to be a concern.

TigerBlog remembers that 00-01 season as one of the great ones since TB has been around Princeton basketball, largely because it was a team of unknowns with an unknown coach who exceeded expectations.

Had the fates been a little different, that year – and the one that followed – might have been remembered for a whole different set of reasons.

When Can You Start To Believe?

For those who watched the recent Academy Awards and thought "wow those people are cool," may TigerBlog refer you back to an era when cool really was cool and invite you to watch an old Paul Newman movie.

Any one he made will do, though for our purposes today, how about "The Sting," which won best picture in 1973. Today's question involves this exchange between Newman and Robert Redford, when Redford's up-and-coming grifter character questions the ruthlessness of the mark from New York City to the wise veteran Newman:

Redford: "He ain't as tough as he thinks."
Newman: "Neither are we."

That logic applies to any number of situations in life, and it is particularly relevant for two Princeton teams coming off of this week: the men's basketball and men's lacrosse team.

And it begs the question: "When is it okay to believe in your team?"

The men's basketball team is climbing out of a deep hole, one that saw the Tigers finish last twice in the Ivy League and win just six games a year ago. Predicted to be the worst team in the Ivy League again this year, Sydney Johnson's team has begun to right its ship. Now, gearing up for the final three games-in-five days stretch of the season, Princeton amazingly is in a position to win at least a share of the league championship by simply winning out.

"Simply" might not be the right word. First Princeton has to win Friday night at Columbia, a team that the Tigers thumped the first time around and thus a team that will be looking for a bit of payback. Should Princeton win that one, it would set up a showdown Saturday night at Cornell, who leads Princeton by one in the loss column. Finally, there is a game next Tuesday at Penn, a team that is having a rough year but one that has had success against Princeton already this year and would love nothing more than to derail the Tigers if given the opportunity.

For the record, a Cornell win and Princeton loss Friday ends the race before Princeton gets to Ithaca. A Cornell win over Princeton Saturday regardless of anything else also takes care of things. Additionally, Dartmouth and Yale are still mathematically alive to be one-third of an unlikely three-way tie at 9-5.

As for the men's lacrosse team, the season is just starting, rather than winding down. Still, the mostly online lacrosse media is filled with stories proclaiming that "Princeton is back" after the Tigers' dominant showing against Johns Hopkins Saturday in the Konica Minolta Face-Off Classic at M&T Bank Stadium in the Blue Jays' backyard.

Yes, it was a great game for Princeton, but the Tigers still have four more games against teams currently ranked in the coaches' Top 10, beginning Friday night at No. 6 UMBC (Princeton is ranked fifth in the coaches and media poll).

So again, when can you start to believe? When the men's basketball team started the Ivy season 4-0 and everyone was talking about brackets and play-in games and how Princeton matched up with Alabama A&M, TigerBlog went on the radio and cautioned that 8-6 in the league this year would be viewed as tremendous progress. Now, though, any Tiger fan wants to dream big, and with just three weekends left, why not?

As for lacrosse, it's easy to look ahead and say Princeton wil be 8-0 heading into its Syracuse game or is a good bet to get back to the NCAA Final Four, but that wasn't the message from Bill Tierney after the game Saturday, when he was urging anyone who would listen to go slowly before anointing his team.

Fans want to take one game or one good stretch and turn it into a cause for great optimism. To be honest, the men's basketball and men's lacrosse teams are positioned much better for the long run than for the short run. Still, there's no rule that says either one of them or both can't have great runs this year as well.

So watch the next few weeks and cheer and hope and see what happens. Just don't be disappointed. What the two teams have already accomplished is pretty good.

March Begins Meaningful for Men's Basketball

The Princeton men's basketball team will be playing meaningful games in March. There are no more "ifs" about that.

Last night's win over Yale, coupled with Cornell's improbable 71-70 loss at Harvard, has made this much true for the Tigers. Keep winning, and the Ivy League championship is theirs.

But before we break down all the "ifs" around this weekend's trip to New York, remember how unexpected it is for the Tigers to be in the Ivy League title chase in college basketball's most sacred month.

Five Ivy League wins between 2007 and 2008, and seven already this season. Picked last in the preseason poll, and alone in second place heading into the final weekend. From a team that went 6-23 overall and 3-11 in the Ivy in 2007-08, 58% of Princeton's scoring from last season wasn't in uniform for this one, leaving the field wide open for someone, and ideally several someones, to step up and fill the gap.

Junior Zach Finley, the leading returning rebounder from last season, leads in that category again. He was also the leading scorer in points per game last season, and thanks to major growth from his teammates, is fifth this season.

Dan Mavraides, who scored 11 points as a freshman, is averaging almost that much (10.5) per game as a sophomore. Douglas Davis (12.4 ppg) leads the team and is an Ivy League Rookie of the Year possibility. Pawel Buczak has had some breakout games in his junior season as he eased into the starting center role, none more impressive than the 15 points he scored to help Princeton to a 20-point win over Cornell February 6.

Speaking of that date, the 61-41 win opened the door to thoughts that this team might somehow challenge for an Ivy League crown much sooner than expected. Princeton followed it the next night with a 28-point win over Columbia. At 4-0, already with a decided victory over a team that went 14-0 in the Ivy last season, who could blame the dreamers?

But those who might have peeked at their mid-March calendars were soon pulled back to earth. There was a 12-point loss at Yale in which the Tigers couldn't match the physicality of the Bulldogs, who outrebounded Princeton by 20. The next night, Princeton lost by 18 at Brown to give the Bears their first Ivy League win of the season and hand the Tigers their worst loss in Providence since Americans were getting ready to choose between Vice President Nixon and a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts named Kennedy to succeed Ike in the White House.

Then came an overtime loss to Penn, and Princeton's 4-3 record seemed much further than 11 days from its 4-0 Ivy start.

But then came a little help. As Princeton was gutting out a win over Harvard Feb. 20, Yale was handling Cornell. The deficit in the Ivy standings was 1 1/2 games and could be made up if Princeton won out, even if Cornell didn't lose again.

Again, the Tigers couldn't keep their fate in their hands. The next night, Princeton led by 13 points in the first half against Dartmouth on an evening when the playing floor at Jadwin Gym was to be renamed for Princeton's 29-season former head coach, Pete Carril. The lead slipped away and eventually so did the game. With it, or so it seemed, was another shot the Ivy title.

Entering Jadwin Gym the following weekend were the Brown team that humiliated the Tigers just two weeks ago, followed by the Yale club that outmuscled a then-Ivy undefeated Princeton team.

With seemingly nothing to play for, at least in terms of the Ivy race, Princeton showed its moxie. It held on for a less-than-pretty win over Brown. It ran out to a 14-0 lead against Yale, lost most of it, and held on once again. And wouldn't you know it, Cornell stumbled.

So here we are, the calendar on March, and a few wins separating the Princeton basketball team from its 26th Ivy title.

In the first 24 games, the Tigers showed they can learn from lessons. They had lost leads, like the 13-point one they had at St. Bonaventure back in December, and lost games. They won when few expected them to, like last month against Cornell, but lost at Brown and Yale after some of those non-believers started to come around. After the Harvard win, what had been lost was at least partially regained, only to be lost again after Dartmouth won in Carril Court's debut.

The loss stung -- head coach Sydney Johnson referenced it Saturday night following the rematch win over Yale -- and the Tigers responded with wins over two teams that knocked them around in their first meeting.

One last time, the Tigers have their Ivy fate in their hands. The task is huge, with three wins on the road likely needed to touch the Ivy crown. It may happen, it may not. But once again, after some too-lean years, Princeton basketball matters again in March.