Miss TigerBlog's friend Sonali is the nicest kid you'll ever want to meet.
She's also among the smartest. Like MTB, Sonali is a top all-around student.
More than English or social studies, though, MTB and Sonali are math/science kids, which is always good to see among girls, who traditionally have been steered away from those areas. In fact, TigerBlog could see either one of them ultimately as a doctor or an engineer, like Sonali's dad, an engineering professor at Penn.
Of course, regardless of intelligence, every now and then everyone says something that doesn't come out right. Even TB does it, as hard as that might be to fathom.
Last Saturday night, TB was taking the two girls to Princeton to see the men's basketball game against Cornell. Along the way, they were talking about books they were reading and later would have to read, and TB mentioned "A Catcher In The Rye," which neither had even heard of yet.
This started the conversation down the path of other books that they'd come across in high school, and Sonali offered up this classic of literature: "How To Kill A Mockingbird."
As she said it, she knew there was something wrong. TB pointed out that there is no "How" in the title, and that it's a riveting story about race, not a hunter's guide.
MTB offered up her take on "How To Kill A Mockingbird" with this: "Chapter 1. Get a gun."
Anyway, Sonali is way smarter than TB ever was or will be. And she good-naturedly played along with her little editing of Harper Lee's title.
They are fairly typical middle school girls, Sonali and MTB. They love to go to the movies. They are tethered to their phones, especially Instagram. Everything to them is an inside joke.
And of course they don't want TB sitting anywhere near them at a basketball game. That's okay. TB gets it.
Princeton beat Cornell 69-48 last Saturday night, and the highlight of the game was a behind-the-back dribble/layup move by freshman Steven Cook, who came to Princeton from New Trier High School in Winnetka, Ill. Can you name the Princeton All-Ivy men's basketball player who also went to New Trier?
Princeton's win over Cornell was interesting in that more than half (35 of 69) of the team's points came from freshmen. Cook had 13, Spencer Weisz had a team-best 18, and Pete Miller had four.
Unfortunately for the Tigers, the game the night before didn't go as well, as Columbia rallied with two late three-pointers to defeat the Tigers by one.
This weekend, Princeton was able to get out ahead of the storm and head to New England, where they will take on Brown tonight and Yale tomorrow night.
At the same time that Princeton was beating Cornell, Yale changed the entire face of the Ivy League race with its 74-67 win at Harvard. Suddenly, instead of an undefeated Crimson team that was two games clear of the field, now there are four teams with one or two league losses.
Harvard and Yale are both 5-1, while Brown is at 4-2 and Penn 3-2.
Yale has six games between now and when it plays Harvard again on March 7. Should Yale lose a game to Harvard between now and then, it'll likely be faced with the prospect of having to beat Harvard in New Haven and then again on a neutral court in a playoff, meaning it would have to go 3-0 against the Crimson to get to the NCAA tournament.
This means that the pressure is on Yale every night, with two games against Princeton and Penn and one against Columbia and Cornell before it plays Harvard again. This is why TB loves the fact that there is no Ivy League tournament, because these games would be fairly meaningless if all that mattered was a three-day run in early March.
And yes, TB gets it that Princeton is probably out of it, with a 1-4 record, and yet would have as good a chance as anyone if there was a tournament. Still, TB loves the way the regular season means everything, rather than nothing.
Look at American, coached by Princeton alum Mike Brennan, whose assistant is fellow alum Scott Greenman. The Eagles are 11-2 in the Patriot League, tied with Boston University for first. And does it matter? Nope. Whoever wins the tournament is in the NCAA tournament. Whoever doesn't isn't. Regular season champion? So what.
By the way, neither of those two went to New Trier High School. That Princeton basketball alum is actually Rick Hielscher, a two-time first-team All-Ivy pick.
On the women's side, there is essentially a three-way tie for first, as Harvard, Princeton and Penn have one loss each (Harvard has one more win, having swept its travel partner). Yale, whom Princeton hosts tomorrow after taking on Brown tonight, has two league losses.
All three teams at the top have played each other once, and each is 1-1 against the other two. The average scoring margin of those three games, by the way, was 23.3 points.
The three go head-to-head again next weekend, when Penn is at Harvard a week from tonight and Princeton is Harvard a week from tomorrow night. Princeton ends the regular season March 11, when it again hosts Penn.
This weekend is big for a different reason, in that none of the three can afford a slip up along the way. Harvard, who beat Yale 58-57 last weekend, hosts Columbia and Cornell this weekend.
Again, the lack of a tournament makes it much better, at least for TigerBlog.
Think about how little these games would matter if it was all about seedings for a tournament.
Instead, you get incredibly important games, incredibly important possessions, every weekend.
Nobody will win an Ivy League basketball championship this weekend. It's possible someone will lose one.
Friday, February 14, 2014
Thursday, February 13, 2014
25 For 25
TigerBlog finds himself in the rather odd position of being jealous of the weather at the Winter Olympics.
While the temperature in Sochi - which is basically a summer resort on the Black Sea - has routinely made it in to the 50s during the first few days of the Winter Games, here in the Princeton metropolitan area there is yet another snowstorm falling all around.
What has possibly been the worst winter that TB can ever remember continues its hold over the area. In fact, in the last six weeks or so, the only two nice days have been the day before the Super Bowl and the Super Bowl.
Since then, it's been snow, followed by snow and ice, followed by temperatures that haven't made it much above 20 at any point. And now is the No. 1 snowfall of the season, with as many as 14 inches making their way down all over the place.
TigerBlog, of course, always has lacrosse season on his mind, and that's even more true now than usual, even with the terrible winter.
So let it snow all it wants. Princeton lacrosse starts in nine days.
The men will open their season at home against Hofstra a week from Saturday, at 11 a.m., on ESPNU. As is often the case for the opener, there figures to be stacked up snow on the sidelines.
TB looks forward to every lacrosse season. He's especially excited about this one.
For starters, it's the last chance to see Tom Schreiber in a Princeton uniform. For another, Princeton should be a pretty exciting - and pretty good - team, something that is a good combination.
The 2014 season will be TB's 25th with the men's lacrosse program. It doesn't really seem like it's been that long, until he mentions that it's a quarter-century. Then it seems like it's been a long time.
In advance of this season and after he realized that it's been a quarter-century, TB decided to put together a list of the 25 best Princeton men's lacrosse players of the last 25 years. It was his list, so anyone was free to disagree.
He released his list in five parts, with five players a week for five weeks.
He actually had 26 players on his top 25, with a wildcard to start (not to mention 18 honorable mention picks). That wildcard was Matt Striebel, who played his way from being a very good college player to a likely Hall-of-Famer with his professional and international career.
When it got to the top 10, it could have gone in many different directions, something that became clear to TB with the feedback he got from former players who were speculating.
Finally, got to the top five. And then the top three, which could really have gone in any order.
Ultimately, he had it down to Kevin Lowe, Scott Bacigalupo and Jesse Hubbard. All three are in the lacrosse Hall of Fame. Between them they were first-team All-America six times, first-team All-Ivy nine times and NCAA champion seven times.
Lowe is the leading scorer of all time at Princeton, with 247 career points, and all-time Princeton leader in assists, with 174. Nobody is really all that close to those numbers.
Bacigalupo is Princeton's career leader in saves, with 732, or 112 more than the next-best total.
Hubbard is Princeton's career leader in goal scored with 163. The next-best total is 146. The one after that is 126.
Ultimately, TB went Hubbard-Bacigalupo-Lowe. Why did he go with Jesse as No. 1?
It's because when he thought hard about the best player he's seen here, he came up with Hubbard. It was simple.
Hubbard's game was power. He could shoot it with anyone, and even the best goalies struggled to catch up to his shot. He had more games in his career with three or more goals than he did with fewer than three. Think about that for a second.
The entire exercise was fun, and a nice way to remember his quarter-century watching the Tigers playing lacrosse. And to get ready for this year. And to get some debate going.
TB also though about the team that Princeton would put on the field if it went with the highest ranked players at each position from the list. Doing it that way, this would be Princeton's starting lineup:
attack - Jesse Hubbard, Kevin Lowe, Ryan Boyle
midfield - Tom Schreiber, Josh Sims, Scott Reinhardt
defense - David Morrow, Ryan Mollet, Chad Wiedmaier
goalie - Scott Bacigalupo
No offense to any other teams for the last 25 years, but that's quite a collection of talent.
Ultimately, it was a chance to remember the great players and great people who have been part of Princeton lacrosse for the last 25 years. TB has been very, very fortunate to have his vantage point to see it all during that time.
He's not sure he has another 25 years of Princeton lacrosse in him. Maybe he does. Of course, that would put him in his 70s.
Still, a top 50 of 50 years would be fun, no?
Anyway, like he said, he's ready for his 25th season.
And for the snow to stop. Lacrosse is a spring sport, after all.
While the temperature in Sochi - which is basically a summer resort on the Black Sea - has routinely made it in to the 50s during the first few days of the Winter Games, here in the Princeton metropolitan area there is yet another snowstorm falling all around.
What has possibly been the worst winter that TB can ever remember continues its hold over the area. In fact, in the last six weeks or so, the only two nice days have been the day before the Super Bowl and the Super Bowl.
Since then, it's been snow, followed by snow and ice, followed by temperatures that haven't made it much above 20 at any point. And now is the No. 1 snowfall of the season, with as many as 14 inches making their way down all over the place.
TigerBlog, of course, always has lacrosse season on his mind, and that's even more true now than usual, even with the terrible winter.
So let it snow all it wants. Princeton lacrosse starts in nine days.
The men will open their season at home against Hofstra a week from Saturday, at 11 a.m., on ESPNU. As is often the case for the opener, there figures to be stacked up snow on the sidelines.
TB looks forward to every lacrosse season. He's especially excited about this one.
For starters, it's the last chance to see Tom Schreiber in a Princeton uniform. For another, Princeton should be a pretty exciting - and pretty good - team, something that is a good combination.
The 2014 season will be TB's 25th with the men's lacrosse program. It doesn't really seem like it's been that long, until he mentions that it's a quarter-century. Then it seems like it's been a long time.
In advance of this season and after he realized that it's been a quarter-century, TB decided to put together a list of the 25 best Princeton men's lacrosse players of the last 25 years. It was his list, so anyone was free to disagree.
He released his list in five parts, with five players a week for five weeks.
He actually had 26 players on his top 25, with a wildcard to start (not to mention 18 honorable mention picks). That wildcard was Matt Striebel, who played his way from being a very good college player to a likely Hall-of-Famer with his professional and international career.
When it got to the top 10, it could have gone in many different directions, something that became clear to TB with the feedback he got from former players who were speculating.
Finally, got to the top five. And then the top three, which could really have gone in any order.
Ultimately, he had it down to Kevin Lowe, Scott Bacigalupo and Jesse Hubbard. All three are in the lacrosse Hall of Fame. Between them they were first-team All-America six times, first-team All-Ivy nine times and NCAA champion seven times.
Lowe is the leading scorer of all time at Princeton, with 247 career points, and all-time Princeton leader in assists, with 174. Nobody is really all that close to those numbers.
Bacigalupo is Princeton's career leader in saves, with 732, or 112 more than the next-best total.
Hubbard is Princeton's career leader in goal scored with 163. The next-best total is 146. The one after that is 126.
Ultimately, TB went Hubbard-Bacigalupo-Lowe. Why did he go with Jesse as No. 1?
It's because when he thought hard about the best player he's seen here, he came up with Hubbard. It was simple.
Hubbard's game was power. He could shoot it with anyone, and even the best goalies struggled to catch up to his shot. He had more games in his career with three or more goals than he did with fewer than three. Think about that for a second.
The entire exercise was fun, and a nice way to remember his quarter-century watching the Tigers playing lacrosse. And to get ready for this year. And to get some debate going.
TB also though about the team that Princeton would put on the field if it went with the highest ranked players at each position from the list. Doing it that way, this would be Princeton's starting lineup:
attack - Jesse Hubbard, Kevin Lowe, Ryan Boyle
midfield - Tom Schreiber, Josh Sims, Scott Reinhardt
defense - David Morrow, Ryan Mollet, Chad Wiedmaier
goalie - Scott Bacigalupo
No offense to any other teams for the last 25 years, but that's quite a collection of talent.
Ultimately, it was a chance to remember the great players and great people who have been part of Princeton lacrosse for the last 25 years. TB has been very, very fortunate to have his vantage point to see it all during that time.
He's not sure he has another 25 years of Princeton lacrosse in him. Maybe he does. Of course, that would put him in his 70s.
Still, a top 50 of 50 years would be fun, no?
Anyway, like he said, he's ready for his 25th season.
And for the snow to stop. Lacrosse is a spring sport, after all.
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Lorin's Sad Anniversary
TigerBlog's Aunt Edee smoked and never exercised. Her idea of sport was going to Atlantic City or to the senior center in Brooklyn to play cards.
She lived to the age of 85 before passing away last month.
To honor his aunt, TB would share the last joke she ever told him, except he can't, because it's about a guy who opens a bar under a whorehouse and the punchline has a strategically placed f-bomb. Yes, that was the last joke an 85-year-old woman told him.
It was hardly the first time that she had told her nephew such a joke. It was her MO.
In her 85 years, she had her share of tragedy, probably more than her share, actually. Still, for TB, when he thinks back to his aunt, he'll remember the dirty jokes, the laughing, the loyalty, the way she never forgot an occasion, the way she made him feel like she would be there for him whenever he needed her.
And mostly he'll remember that she was happy. That's what she was. A happy person.
TB knew another happy person, one who died five years ago today.
Her name was Lorin Maurer, and she was an athletic fundraiser/Friends' group coordinator here at Princeton. She was killed along with 49 other people in a senseless plane crash near Buffalo.
Lorin was on her way to meet up with her boyfriend Kevin to attend his brother's wedding. She had just turned 30.
Lorin was rail-thin and worked out every day. She was young and healthy, in addition to happy.
One woman smokes and doesn't exercise and lives to be 85. Another is in top shape and dies at 30.
There's no way to answer the question of why that is. Why do some people live a long time while others don't. It's just part of the randomness of the universe, TB supposes.
He's always wondered why Lorin, ever since he woke up five years ago today to an email that said she had died. It made no sense then, and it makes no sense now.
TB didn't believe it at first. How in the world could she be gone?
Lorin and TB were in a meeting the day of her death. Sometimes when you're in a meeting, you can tell when someone else there has to be someplace else and needs for this particular meeting to end. Hey, TB has been the "gotta-run" person many times himself.
It's those meetings that seem to drag on interminably. At this one, clearly Lorin had to be get out of there, TB remembers. She had a plane to catch.
He's pretty sure she excused herself a few seconds before it ended - or the fact that she had to go forced the end of the meeting. A few minutes later, when TB got back to his office, Lorin walked by, looked in, smiled and kept going.
It's what she did a lot. She would sometimes stop in to say hi, but usually she would stop, smile and keep going to whatever meeting or task was calling her.
And that's what happened on the last day of her life. She smiled the smile she always had and was off.
The last thing in the world TB ever would have dreamed of is what happened the next morning, with an email that Lorin had been killed. And then TB numbingly turned on the television to see the coverage of the plane crash, on approach to Buffalo, in bad winter weather, with apparently an inexperienced flight crew at the controls.
As the day went along, pictures of the other who were killed started to appear on TV and online. They were young and older, heading from Newark to Buffalo for all kinds of reasons, and then suddenly all gone.
As TB said, he can't begin to answer the question of why them. Why did his aunt live to be 85 and Lorin only 30? The answer is that there is no answer.
All TB can do is tell you about Lorin Maurer, so that she's never forgotten around here.
Lorin Maurer, as TB said, was a happy person.
She worked hard, and she was great at dealing with all of the different constituents who demanded her time. It's not an easy job, dealing with people who donate money and those who rely on that money to keep their programs going. There are endless events, endless details, endless people who want to know that their need is being taken seriously.
TB remembers a squash event, for instance, where he walked in to see Lorin as she was putting table cloths on the tables, since someone who was supposed to do it hadn't shown up. And he saved the last email he ever got from her, shortly before her death, which was basically one member of one Friends' group who was venting to her about seemingly little things.
Lorin had a lot of friends and was extremely well-liked, and likeable. She laughed easily. She loved her family and had found love with Kevin.
She had been a swimmer in college, at Rowan, where she was also an Academic All-America. She was starting to make her name in the profession, and she was committed to her professional development. By all indications, she was a rising star.
Beyond all of that, she was simply a nice young woman whose life was heading in the right direction.
She was funny and nice and personable and well-meaning.
And happy.
More than anything else, she was always happy.
Even now, five years later, there are still pictures of Lorin that hang in Jadwin Gym. She smiles in all of them, and it's easy to imagine her in the moment.
In one, she and Gary Walters are at a Princeton baseball game. In another, she and Kevin are at Yankee Stadium.
It was all part of her life, her happy life.
It's one that was extinguished way too soon, for reasons that nobody can ever know. It ended five years ago today, and for those who worked with her at Princeton, it's no easier to deal with now.
The best anyone can do is promise to remember her as she was and for who she was.
Lorin Maurer died five years ago today. TB will never forget her. Neither will anyone else who worked with her here.
She lived to the age of 85 before passing away last month.
To honor his aunt, TB would share the last joke she ever told him, except he can't, because it's about a guy who opens a bar under a whorehouse and the punchline has a strategically placed f-bomb. Yes, that was the last joke an 85-year-old woman told him.
It was hardly the first time that she had told her nephew such a joke. It was her MO.
In her 85 years, she had her share of tragedy, probably more than her share, actually. Still, for TB, when he thinks back to his aunt, he'll remember the dirty jokes, the laughing, the loyalty, the way she never forgot an occasion, the way she made him feel like she would be there for him whenever he needed her.
And mostly he'll remember that she was happy. That's what she was. A happy person.
TB knew another happy person, one who died five years ago today.
Her name was Lorin Maurer, and she was an athletic fundraiser/Friends' group coordinator here at Princeton. She was killed along with 49 other people in a senseless plane crash near Buffalo.
Lorin was on her way to meet up with her boyfriend Kevin to attend his brother's wedding. She had just turned 30.
Lorin was rail-thin and worked out every day. She was young and healthy, in addition to happy.
One woman smokes and doesn't exercise and lives to be 85. Another is in top shape and dies at 30.
There's no way to answer the question of why that is. Why do some people live a long time while others don't. It's just part of the randomness of the universe, TB supposes.
He's always wondered why Lorin, ever since he woke up five years ago today to an email that said she had died. It made no sense then, and it makes no sense now.
TB didn't believe it at first. How in the world could she be gone?
Lorin and TB were in a meeting the day of her death. Sometimes when you're in a meeting, you can tell when someone else there has to be someplace else and needs for this particular meeting to end. Hey, TB has been the "gotta-run" person many times himself.
It's those meetings that seem to drag on interminably. At this one, clearly Lorin had to be get out of there, TB remembers. She had a plane to catch.
He's pretty sure she excused herself a few seconds before it ended - or the fact that she had to go forced the end of the meeting. A few minutes later, when TB got back to his office, Lorin walked by, looked in, smiled and kept going.
It's what she did a lot. She would sometimes stop in to say hi, but usually she would stop, smile and keep going to whatever meeting or task was calling her.
And that's what happened on the last day of her life. She smiled the smile she always had and was off.
The last thing in the world TB ever would have dreamed of is what happened the next morning, with an email that Lorin had been killed. And then TB numbingly turned on the television to see the coverage of the plane crash, on approach to Buffalo, in bad winter weather, with apparently an inexperienced flight crew at the controls.
As the day went along, pictures of the other who were killed started to appear on TV and online. They were young and older, heading from Newark to Buffalo for all kinds of reasons, and then suddenly all gone.
As TB said, he can't begin to answer the question of why them. Why did his aunt live to be 85 and Lorin only 30? The answer is that there is no answer.
All TB can do is tell you about Lorin Maurer, so that she's never forgotten around here.
Lorin Maurer, as TB said, was a happy person.
She worked hard, and she was great at dealing with all of the different constituents who demanded her time. It's not an easy job, dealing with people who donate money and those who rely on that money to keep their programs going. There are endless events, endless details, endless people who want to know that their need is being taken seriously.
TB remembers a squash event, for instance, where he walked in to see Lorin as she was putting table cloths on the tables, since someone who was supposed to do it hadn't shown up. And he saved the last email he ever got from her, shortly before her death, which was basically one member of one Friends' group who was venting to her about seemingly little things.
Lorin had a lot of friends and was extremely well-liked, and likeable. She laughed easily. She loved her family and had found love with Kevin.
She had been a swimmer in college, at Rowan, where she was also an Academic All-America. She was starting to make her name in the profession, and she was committed to her professional development. By all indications, she was a rising star.
Beyond all of that, she was simply a nice young woman whose life was heading in the right direction.
She was funny and nice and personable and well-meaning.
And happy.
More than anything else, she was always happy.
Even now, five years later, there are still pictures of Lorin that hang in Jadwin Gym. She smiles in all of them, and it's easy to imagine her in the moment.
In one, she and Gary Walters are at a Princeton baseball game. In another, she and Kevin are at Yankee Stadium.
It was all part of her life, her happy life.
It's one that was extinguished way too soon, for reasons that nobody can ever know. It ended five years ago today, and for those who worked with her at Princeton, it's no easier to deal with now.
The best anyone can do is promise to remember her as she was and for who she was.
Lorin Maurer died five years ago today. TB will never forget her. Neither will anyone else who worked with her here.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Coming Out
The last wedding TigerBlog went to had no bride and two grooms, one of whom was BrotherBlog.
TigerBlog was one of nearly 100 people who attended, including 30 or so who flew 3,000 miles to be there. It was basically like every other wedding TB has ever been to in his life, nicer than most, actually, with its picturesque setting on the Puget Sound.
Like many, TB was the best man at his brother's wedding. When it came time to give the toast, TB talked about what his brother had gone through as a teenager and a young man, when the reality of being gay set in for him.
TigerBlog Jr. and Miss TigerBlog were there too, along with the entire family. TB referenced his own teenage son, who is going through all of the things that society throws at teenage boys. How it's all about being the best athlete, finding the hottest girls, being cool, not being overly emotional. TB looks at his son and his friends, he said, and realizes that they have an extraordinary amount of pressure on them to be what society wants them to be, all while trying to learn how to be themselves.
It's hard enough being a straight teenage boy, TB said to the group.
Then he contrasted that with what his brother went through at the same time of his life, when he started to realize that he wasn't going to be what society wanted him to be, how lonely that feeling had to have been.
And then TB talked about the event they had all gathered for, how normal it was - and how neither of the grooms probably ever would have dreamed such a thing would one day be possible for them back when they first started to figure out who they really were.
This country is in a state of acceptance of gays that TB never imagined he would see. As someone who has gone more than 30 years since his only sibling told him of his orientation, TigerBlog has had a heightened sense of gay issues and societal tolerance.
It hasn't always been easy. TB didn't want to accept that fact that he had a gay brother at first, and he went out of his way never to talk about it to anyone else for years and years. When people would ask if his brother was married or had children, TB would always say he was "single."
TB isn't sure when exactly he reached the stage where he no longer cared what people thought, but it took awhile. Even today, when TB is in that situation, he still finds it a little unnerving to say that his brother is gay, because he never knows the response he is going to get.
Still, there's no doubting that the world has changed radically in recent years. TB remembers the way gays were portrayed on television and in the movies back in the ’70s and ’80s, as almost less than human caricatures or as predators, versus today, when gay characters are very much mainstream.
For all of this, the willingness of high profile professional athletes to admit they are gay is still lagging. It's easy to understand - lockerrooms are notoriously brutal places.
Michael Sam is going to find out how ready the NFL is for an openly gay player. The SEC Defensive Player of the Year from Missouri announced to his teammates before the season that he was gay, and he announced it to the world this past weekend, a few months before the NFL draft.
How will he be affected by this? By all estimates, Sam was expected to go in the third or fourth round. Will he still go that high, or will teams be afraid to select him for fear of adding an openly gay player to the lockerroom?
One thing that's obvious is that nobody will ever know if a specific team passed on him because he was gay, because they'd never admit it. But would they pass up a genuine speed-rusher because he's gay? Or do they only care if he can help them win or not?
TB isn't naive. He knows that homosexuality still frightens a lot of people, even with all the progress. And there are real anti-gay attitudes in NFL lockerrooms, with some players who will never accept an openly gay teammate, who would never use the showers at the same time as an openly gay teammate, who routinely use gay slurs in their workplace.
Sam's decision was national news, and it was debated everywhere on TV and radio yesterday. By all accounts, his teammates at Missouri didn't care if he was gay, and the highlights of Sam show that the other players embraced him - literally after some sacks and tackles.
TB also has no doubt that Princeton has its share of gay athletes. He could care less who they are and what teams they are on.
What he cares about is that they feel that they can be themselves while having their Princeton athletic experience.
TB has seen some of the "If You Can Play, You Can Play" public service announcements that some schools have been doing, including this one from Princeton's women's hockey team. They're all basically the same, with a montage of athletes, coaches and administrators making the point that it only matters how good an athlete someone is. If you can play well, they're saying, then you can play here with the rest of us.
Sam's announcement made TB think back to Dartmouth's men's lacrosse team in 2003 and All-America goalie Andrew Goldstein, who also came out to his teammates and then the world and was universally accepted.
TB hopes that if a similar situation happened here, the result would be the same. Of course, it didn't hurt that Goldstein was the best player on the team and led Dartmouth to its only NCAA tournament appearance that season.
What about the athlete who isn't a star? What about the athlete who is still struggling to come to terms with who he or she is? What about the athlete who is terrified that someone will find out?
Again, TB isn't naive. And he's seen from his brother the struggles that go along with with being gay.
Princeton's responsibility isn't to change other people's attitudes. It's to provide a safe, healthy environment of tolerance for everyone's uniqueness on all 38 of its teams.
For all TigerBlog knows, there are openly gay Princeton athletes who have had these conversations with their teammates and then had it become a non-issue.
Or, he fears, there are gay athletes who are afraid to have the conversation. To them, TB would say, be who you are. And if you think you can't, talk to your coach, talk to an administrator, talk to TigerBlog. You're not alone here. Don't be overwhelmed by a fear of not being accepted.
In 2014, not accepting is unacceptable.
If you can play, you can play, right?
TigerBlog was one of nearly 100 people who attended, including 30 or so who flew 3,000 miles to be there. It was basically like every other wedding TB has ever been to in his life, nicer than most, actually, with its picturesque setting on the Puget Sound.
Like many, TB was the best man at his brother's wedding. When it came time to give the toast, TB talked about what his brother had gone through as a teenager and a young man, when the reality of being gay set in for him.
TigerBlog Jr. and Miss TigerBlog were there too, along with the entire family. TB referenced his own teenage son, who is going through all of the things that society throws at teenage boys. How it's all about being the best athlete, finding the hottest girls, being cool, not being overly emotional. TB looks at his son and his friends, he said, and realizes that they have an extraordinary amount of pressure on them to be what society wants them to be, all while trying to learn how to be themselves.
It's hard enough being a straight teenage boy, TB said to the group.
Then he contrasted that with what his brother went through at the same time of his life, when he started to realize that he wasn't going to be what society wanted him to be, how lonely that feeling had to have been.
And then TB talked about the event they had all gathered for, how normal it was - and how neither of the grooms probably ever would have dreamed such a thing would one day be possible for them back when they first started to figure out who they really were.
This country is in a state of acceptance of gays that TB never imagined he would see. As someone who has gone more than 30 years since his only sibling told him of his orientation, TigerBlog has had a heightened sense of gay issues and societal tolerance.
It hasn't always been easy. TB didn't want to accept that fact that he had a gay brother at first, and he went out of his way never to talk about it to anyone else for years and years. When people would ask if his brother was married or had children, TB would always say he was "single."
TB isn't sure when exactly he reached the stage where he no longer cared what people thought, but it took awhile. Even today, when TB is in that situation, he still finds it a little unnerving to say that his brother is gay, because he never knows the response he is going to get.
Still, there's no doubting that the world has changed radically in recent years. TB remembers the way gays were portrayed on television and in the movies back in the ’70s and ’80s, as almost less than human caricatures or as predators, versus today, when gay characters are very much mainstream.
For all of this, the willingness of high profile professional athletes to admit they are gay is still lagging. It's easy to understand - lockerrooms are notoriously brutal places.
Michael Sam is going to find out how ready the NFL is for an openly gay player. The SEC Defensive Player of the Year from Missouri announced to his teammates before the season that he was gay, and he announced it to the world this past weekend, a few months before the NFL draft.
How will he be affected by this? By all estimates, Sam was expected to go in the third or fourth round. Will he still go that high, or will teams be afraid to select him for fear of adding an openly gay player to the lockerroom?
One thing that's obvious is that nobody will ever know if a specific team passed on him because he was gay, because they'd never admit it. But would they pass up a genuine speed-rusher because he's gay? Or do they only care if he can help them win or not?
TB isn't naive. He knows that homosexuality still frightens a lot of people, even with all the progress. And there are real anti-gay attitudes in NFL lockerrooms, with some players who will never accept an openly gay teammate, who would never use the showers at the same time as an openly gay teammate, who routinely use gay slurs in their workplace.
Sam's decision was national news, and it was debated everywhere on TV and radio yesterday. By all accounts, his teammates at Missouri didn't care if he was gay, and the highlights of Sam show that the other players embraced him - literally after some sacks and tackles.
TB also has no doubt that Princeton has its share of gay athletes. He could care less who they are and what teams they are on.
What he cares about is that they feel that they can be themselves while having their Princeton athletic experience.
TB has seen some of the "If You Can Play, You Can Play" public service announcements that some schools have been doing, including this one from Princeton's women's hockey team. They're all basically the same, with a montage of athletes, coaches and administrators making the point that it only matters how good an athlete someone is. If you can play well, they're saying, then you can play here with the rest of us.
Sam's announcement made TB think back to Dartmouth's men's lacrosse team in 2003 and All-America goalie Andrew Goldstein, who also came out to his teammates and then the world and was universally accepted.
TB hopes that if a similar situation happened here, the result would be the same. Of course, it didn't hurt that Goldstein was the best player on the team and led Dartmouth to its only NCAA tournament appearance that season.
What about the athlete who isn't a star? What about the athlete who is still struggling to come to terms with who he or she is? What about the athlete who is terrified that someone will find out?
Again, TB isn't naive. And he's seen from his brother the struggles that go along with with being gay.
Princeton's responsibility isn't to change other people's attitudes. It's to provide a safe, healthy environment of tolerance for everyone's uniqueness on all 38 of its teams.
For all TigerBlog knows, there are openly gay Princeton athletes who have had these conversations with their teammates and then had it become a non-issue.
Or, he fears, there are gay athletes who are afraid to have the conversation. To them, TB would say, be who you are. And if you think you can't, talk to your coach, talk to an administrator, talk to TigerBlog. You're not alone here. Don't be overwhelmed by a fear of not being accepted.
In 2014, not accepting is unacceptable.
If you can play, you can play, right?
Monday, February 10, 2014
Not So Smart
TigerBlog can't figure out what makes one person a better ski jumper than another person, other than the aerodynamic makeup of one's body.
They all sit on the same little bench. They all go down the same hill and fly off at the same angle. Where's the athleticism?
To TB, this falls under the heading of "daredevil," not "sport." Brave, fearless daredevils to be sure. Just not athletes.
Don't get TB wrong. He loves the ski jumping. It's one of his favorite parts of the Winter Olympics. And there is no way that TB would ever be able to do it. No chance. No way. The word "terrifying" doesn't do it justice.
Back in 1976, TB was in Oslo for a summer vacation when he visited the Holmenkollen ski jump, and it's dizzying just to look out from the top, let alone actually put on skis and head down. The people who willingly fly off the hill are completely fearless.
It reminds TB of his college friend Paul, who once went bungee jumping and had this actual conversation with TB about the experience:
TB: "Was it scary?"
Paul: "Did you ever go up to the top of a really high bridge?"
TB: "Yes."
Paul: "Did you ever look over the side and see how far down it was?"
TB: "Yes."
Paul: "Did you ever jump off?"
TB is a little let down by the Olympics so far. It's a little too made-for-TV.
The fact that the U.S. won the gold in both slopestyles sort of proves TB's point that those events - no matter how cool they are - were added by NBC to up the American medal count. And the team figure skating was created simply to add more figure skating, which always is ratings gold.
Plus, some of the color analysts are a tad, uh, excitable. TB isn't sure if they're doing these events live or are adding commentary after the fact on tape, but can they stop screaming, especially at the midway point of a cross country ski race?
Another fascinating thing about the Olympics is how much it's being ignored by ESPN. TB would think ESPN would go out of its way to get the winners out there, in an effort to get people not to want to watch it in primetime on tape delay, as Sochi is nine hours ahead of the Eastern time zone of the United States.
Mostly ESPN hasn't played the Games up at all.
This weekend, the network was handed two stories in college athletics that made for an easy diversion from the Olympics. TB will look at one of these stories today and the other tomorrow, especially in the context of the way they could possibly play out at Princeton.
Tomorrow TB will take about Missouri defensive end Michael Sam, the SEC Defensive Player of the Year, who announced yesterday that he is gay.
Today TB will talk about Marcus Smart and how he shoved a fan during Oklahoma State's basketball game at Texas Tech Saturday night.
A long time ago, there was a pretty good high school baseball pitcher from the next town over from Princeton whose name was Scott Lord. Any time he won a game, the local papers would have a headline that played off his last name, like "Praise the Lord" or "Lord Saves the Day" or things like that.
TB thought about that when he started to see the Marcus Smart headlines, which included "Not So Smart" and "That Was Dumb" and others.
If you don't know who Marcus Smart is, he's one of the top players in college basketball and presumably one of the top players in the coming NBA draft, which could be as deep as any draft ever. Smart's Cowboys were trailing Texas Tech by two late in the game when Tech forced a turnover. Smart had to foul, and he ended up crashing into some people under the basket.
A second later, Smart ends up shoving one of the Texas Tech fans, who clearly had said something to him. Smart was given a technical foul but not ejected, and he was suspended by the Big 12 yesterday for three games.
Smart has a reputation for being a bit of a hothead, which doesn't help his situation.
The fan in question was identified as a Jeff Orr, an air traffic controller and Texas Tech superfan. Smart claimed that Orr made a racial slur; Orr and Texas Tech said that he didn't make any such comment, just that he called Smart a "piece of crap."
The most amazing part of all this to TB is that Texas Tech released a statement - that was the No. 1 story on its website - from Orr. Is this the responsibility of the athletic department?
Okay, let's start at the beginning. Calling someone a "piece of crap" at a game isn't exactly nice, but in 2014 it's pretty tame.
Also, even if Orr had dropped the N-word in there 10 times, it still doesn't make it in any way okay for Smart to shove him. He simply cannot touch a fan at a game.
What Smart should have done - the "smart" thing, as it were - would have been to immediately tell the officials, his coach or game officials that a fan had made a racial slur, if in fact Orr had. Either way, he just has to walk away from Orr.
TB gets that it's not always easy for college athletes to do that. Especially on the road in the final seconds, as the game has just essentially slipped away.
But it doesn't matter. Every athlete has to have enough self-control and poise to walk away. As a result, Smart is 100% culpable, and the punishment is a pretty fair one.
And what about Orr? Maybe he's a bit over the top in his demeanor as a fan. Maybe. Maybe not. TB finds him pretty much par for the course these days. Actually, "piece of crap" is a little below par.
You want to get rid of Jeff Orr? Fine. Get rid of every fan at every venue who says something to a player on another team. Here's where you can start - in the student section at Duke.
Orr didn't curse. He didn't use a slur. There's video and audio to support his claim.
This issue is an important one to TB.
He wants Princeton to be a place known for being classy, from the way its coaches and athletes carry themselves to the way the fans behave and to the way the event staff handles instances when fan behavior becomes an issue.
At the same time, TB wants Princeton to be a tough place to play. Loud, enthusiastic fans - especially students - can be a big part of making it tough for opponents to get comfortable.
So the question then becomes what's acceptable and what isn't. Is it okay for a Princeton fan to call an opponent a "piece of crap?" Is it okay for a Princeton fan to get the game program, see the first name of the opposing players and taunt them?
Does not cursing or using language that is generally recognized as offensive - racial, sexual, religious, orientation - mean that anything goes? Can you insult the opposing team's goalie's mother, as long as you don't do it using the above-mentioned language?
It's an especially tough question here because so many of the fans who attend games here are families with little kids. If they are offended by what they see and hear, they won't come back.
And really, what can an athletic department do? If Princeton tells the students not to do something, they're likely to do it. If a 50-something fan calls an opponent a "piece of crap," what can the department do to prevent that from happening?
TB hates situations where degrees of acceptable are debated. It's okay to say "piece of crap" but not piece of something else?
There's a fine line between creating a tough atmosphere and being classless. TB knows it when he sees it.
And to be honest, it's been crossed more than once here. The department does what it can to deal with those situations, but it's can be really, really tough to address.
None of that really matters though.
No athlete can ever touch a fan.
End of story.
They all sit on the same little bench. They all go down the same hill and fly off at the same angle. Where's the athleticism?
To TB, this falls under the heading of "daredevil," not "sport." Brave, fearless daredevils to be sure. Just not athletes.
Don't get TB wrong. He loves the ski jumping. It's one of his favorite parts of the Winter Olympics. And there is no way that TB would ever be able to do it. No chance. No way. The word "terrifying" doesn't do it justice.
Back in 1976, TB was in Oslo for a summer vacation when he visited the Holmenkollen ski jump, and it's dizzying just to look out from the top, let alone actually put on skis and head down. The people who willingly fly off the hill are completely fearless.
It reminds TB of his college friend Paul, who once went bungee jumping and had this actual conversation with TB about the experience:
TB: "Was it scary?"
Paul: "Did you ever go up to the top of a really high bridge?"
TB: "Yes."
Paul: "Did you ever look over the side and see how far down it was?"
TB: "Yes."
Paul: "Did you ever jump off?"
TB is a little let down by the Olympics so far. It's a little too made-for-TV.
The fact that the U.S. won the gold in both slopestyles sort of proves TB's point that those events - no matter how cool they are - were added by NBC to up the American medal count. And the team figure skating was created simply to add more figure skating, which always is ratings gold.
Plus, some of the color analysts are a tad, uh, excitable. TB isn't sure if they're doing these events live or are adding commentary after the fact on tape, but can they stop screaming, especially at the midway point of a cross country ski race?
Another fascinating thing about the Olympics is how much it's being ignored by ESPN. TB would think ESPN would go out of its way to get the winners out there, in an effort to get people not to want to watch it in primetime on tape delay, as Sochi is nine hours ahead of the Eastern time zone of the United States.
Mostly ESPN hasn't played the Games up at all.
This weekend, the network was handed two stories in college athletics that made for an easy diversion from the Olympics. TB will look at one of these stories today and the other tomorrow, especially in the context of the way they could possibly play out at Princeton.
Tomorrow TB will take about Missouri defensive end Michael Sam, the SEC Defensive Player of the Year, who announced yesterday that he is gay.
Today TB will talk about Marcus Smart and how he shoved a fan during Oklahoma State's basketball game at Texas Tech Saturday night.
A long time ago, there was a pretty good high school baseball pitcher from the next town over from Princeton whose name was Scott Lord. Any time he won a game, the local papers would have a headline that played off his last name, like "Praise the Lord" or "Lord Saves the Day" or things like that.
TB thought about that when he started to see the Marcus Smart headlines, which included "Not So Smart" and "That Was Dumb" and others.
If you don't know who Marcus Smart is, he's one of the top players in college basketball and presumably one of the top players in the coming NBA draft, which could be as deep as any draft ever. Smart's Cowboys were trailing Texas Tech by two late in the game when Tech forced a turnover. Smart had to foul, and he ended up crashing into some people under the basket.
A second later, Smart ends up shoving one of the Texas Tech fans, who clearly had said something to him. Smart was given a technical foul but not ejected, and he was suspended by the Big 12 yesterday for three games.
Smart has a reputation for being a bit of a hothead, which doesn't help his situation.
The fan in question was identified as a Jeff Orr, an air traffic controller and Texas Tech superfan. Smart claimed that Orr made a racial slur; Orr and Texas Tech said that he didn't make any such comment, just that he called Smart a "piece of crap."
The most amazing part of all this to TB is that Texas Tech released a statement - that was the No. 1 story on its website - from Orr. Is this the responsibility of the athletic department?
Okay, let's start at the beginning. Calling someone a "piece of crap" at a game isn't exactly nice, but in 2014 it's pretty tame.
Also, even if Orr had dropped the N-word in there 10 times, it still doesn't make it in any way okay for Smart to shove him. He simply cannot touch a fan at a game.
What Smart should have done - the "smart" thing, as it were - would have been to immediately tell the officials, his coach or game officials that a fan had made a racial slur, if in fact Orr had. Either way, he just has to walk away from Orr.
TB gets that it's not always easy for college athletes to do that. Especially on the road in the final seconds, as the game has just essentially slipped away.
But it doesn't matter. Every athlete has to have enough self-control and poise to walk away. As a result, Smart is 100% culpable, and the punishment is a pretty fair one.
And what about Orr? Maybe he's a bit over the top in his demeanor as a fan. Maybe. Maybe not. TB finds him pretty much par for the course these days. Actually, "piece of crap" is a little below par.
You want to get rid of Jeff Orr? Fine. Get rid of every fan at every venue who says something to a player on another team. Here's where you can start - in the student section at Duke.
Orr didn't curse. He didn't use a slur. There's video and audio to support his claim.
This issue is an important one to TB.
He wants Princeton to be a place known for being classy, from the way its coaches and athletes carry themselves to the way the fans behave and to the way the event staff handles instances when fan behavior becomes an issue.
At the same time, TB wants Princeton to be a tough place to play. Loud, enthusiastic fans - especially students - can be a big part of making it tough for opponents to get comfortable.
So the question then becomes what's acceptable and what isn't. Is it okay for a Princeton fan to call an opponent a "piece of crap?" Is it okay for a Princeton fan to get the game program, see the first name of the opposing players and taunt them?
Does not cursing or using language that is generally recognized as offensive - racial, sexual, religious, orientation - mean that anything goes? Can you insult the opposing team's goalie's mother, as long as you don't do it using the above-mentioned language?
It's an especially tough question here because so many of the fans who attend games here are families with little kids. If they are offended by what they see and hear, they won't come back.
And really, what can an athletic department do? If Princeton tells the students not to do something, they're likely to do it. If a 50-something fan calls an opponent a "piece of crap," what can the department do to prevent that from happening?
TB hates situations where degrees of acceptable are debated. It's okay to say "piece of crap" but not piece of something else?
There's a fine line between creating a tough atmosphere and being classless. TB knows it when he sees it.
And to be honest, it's been crossed more than once here. The department does what it can to deal with those situations, but it's can be really, really tough to address.
None of that really matters though.
No athlete can ever touch a fan.
End of story.
Friday, February 7, 2014
Home, Finally
It's possible that the best collegiate men's lacrosse game of the 2014 season has been played before the Princeton men's basketball team has played an Ivy League home game.
Think about how nuts that is.
Last night in Charlottesville, Loyola and Virginia played what very well may end up being the game of the year in college lacrosse. Tonight at Jadwin Gym, Princeton plays its first home league game.
TigerBlog doesn't even have to look it up. He's not even going to bother. He knows that Princeton has to be the last team in Division I to play a league home game.
Let's go back to last night first, though.
Virginia missed the NCAA tournament a year ago and is looking to bounce back. Loyola won the NCAA title two years ago and lost in the opening round of the tournament last year.
UVa led 12-4 at the end of the third quarter, only to see Loyola go on an epic run. Every time TB checked the score on Twitter, Loyola had scored again. It got to 12-8, 12-10, 12-11 and then finally 12-12.
And then, with 17 seconds left, Loyola went ahead, 13-12. Game ends on a 9-0 fourth quarter run, right?
Wrong.
Virginia won the face-off, and just when it looked like the Cavs weren't going to get a shot off, Ryan Tucker buried one from the outside. The refs got together and ruled that it counted - they even put one-tenth of a second back on the clock.
As an aside, there was no instant replay in the game, so the refs had to make their best decision. It's possible that the shot didn't cross the goal line (not leave Tucker's stick) before all zeroes on the clock and that Loyola got robbed, but hey, isn't it wonderful not to have replay and as a result force good, decisive officiating?
Now even at 13-13, the game went to overtime, where UVa won it, this time on a goal by James Pannell, the younger brother of the former Cornell player. It was a great comeback.
It's hard to imagine a better game than that. Maybe there will be one.
Of course, this game could have huge implications come NCAA selection time. Loyola is the favorite in the Patriot League and figures to be a quality win at the end of the year, maybe top 10 or even top 5. When the selections are made, it'll be that "Virginia has a win over Loyola," not "Virginia has a win over Loyola at home in overtime on Feb. 6."
TB can't believe Princeton lacrosse starts in two weeks. Maybe it's because the weather has been so awful. It's even nuttier that Division I lacrosse games have already been played, beginning with the two last weekend.
The temperature at face-off in Charlottesville last night was 36 degrees. It got colder as the game went on. That is weather that suggests inside games, not outside ones.
Oh well. That's the new calendar in lacrosse. Outdoors in February.
As for Princeton men's basketball, the Tigers will be indoors tonight against Columbia (7) and tomorrow night against Cornell (6). As the most casual Princeton men's basketball fan knows, the Ivy season hasn't gotten off to a great start for the Tigers.
Princeton looked great for much of its pre-league schedule, including an amazing comeback win against Penn State during an eight-game winning streak. The Tigers were 11-2 heading into the Ivy opener against Penn, at the Palestra, against a Penn team that had been struggling mightily.
So what happened?
Princeton got off to a bad start in that one. Penn played way better than it has at any point of this season and built a big lead. Princeton made a run. Penn held the Tigers off at the end.
And just like that, 11-2 became 0-1. For three weeks, as the Tigers had to sit on that loss through first semester exams and then the Division III win over Kean.
That set up a huge game last Friday night at Harvard, the prohibitive Ivy favorite. This was supposed to be a matchup of the top two teams in the league, the ones who had generated talk of two Ivy NCAA tournament bids back in December.
The problem for Princeton is that when Harvard held on 82-76, the Tigers were now 2.5 games back of the Crimson. And that became 3.5 the next night, when Princeton fell at Dartmouth.
It's all very understandable. The loss to Penn dug an early hole. The game against Harvard was a chance to get out of it. The game against Dartmouth was 22 hours later.
The schedule didn't do Princeton any favors, with a return from exam break at Harvard. And no home league games until the second weekend of February.
So now what for Princeton?
There is still a lot for the Tigers in 2014. There's a chance to win as many games as possible. A chance to get on another roll. A chance to beat Harvard in the rematch.
Maybe it's too much to ask for Harvard to lose three of its final 10 league games, but hey, if the Crimson go 11-3, the Tigers would be kicking themselves if they weren't also 11-3.
And if the Ivy championship might be far-fetched, there's still second place and a possible NIT berth, which would mean quality postseason games in March.
And if nothing else, there's pride.
Princeton is way better than an 0-3 team in the league, and everyone affiliated with the program knows it. Maybe confidence is down a bit right now, but this is a very good team.
TB would be stunned if the Tigers didn't play really hard this weekend as they try to turn their season back around. Hey, they still have seven home league games to go.
The best lacrosse game of 2014 might already have been played, but it doesn't mean that basketball season is anywhere near over.
Think about how nuts that is.
Last night in Charlottesville, Loyola and Virginia played what very well may end up being the game of the year in college lacrosse. Tonight at Jadwin Gym, Princeton plays its first home league game.
TigerBlog doesn't even have to look it up. He's not even going to bother. He knows that Princeton has to be the last team in Division I to play a league home game.
Let's go back to last night first, though.
Virginia missed the NCAA tournament a year ago and is looking to bounce back. Loyola won the NCAA title two years ago and lost in the opening round of the tournament last year.
UVa led 12-4 at the end of the third quarter, only to see Loyola go on an epic run. Every time TB checked the score on Twitter, Loyola had scored again. It got to 12-8, 12-10, 12-11 and then finally 12-12.
And then, with 17 seconds left, Loyola went ahead, 13-12. Game ends on a 9-0 fourth quarter run, right?
Wrong.
Virginia won the face-off, and just when it looked like the Cavs weren't going to get a shot off, Ryan Tucker buried one from the outside. The refs got together and ruled that it counted - they even put one-tenth of a second back on the clock.
As an aside, there was no instant replay in the game, so the refs had to make their best decision. It's possible that the shot didn't cross the goal line (not leave Tucker's stick) before all zeroes on the clock and that Loyola got robbed, but hey, isn't it wonderful not to have replay and as a result force good, decisive officiating?
Now even at 13-13, the game went to overtime, where UVa won it, this time on a goal by James Pannell, the younger brother of the former Cornell player. It was a great comeback.
It's hard to imagine a better game than that. Maybe there will be one.
Of course, this game could have huge implications come NCAA selection time. Loyola is the favorite in the Patriot League and figures to be a quality win at the end of the year, maybe top 10 or even top 5. When the selections are made, it'll be that "Virginia has a win over Loyola," not "Virginia has a win over Loyola at home in overtime on Feb. 6."
TB can't believe Princeton lacrosse starts in two weeks. Maybe it's because the weather has been so awful. It's even nuttier that Division I lacrosse games have already been played, beginning with the two last weekend.
The temperature at face-off in Charlottesville last night was 36 degrees. It got colder as the game went on. That is weather that suggests inside games, not outside ones.
Oh well. That's the new calendar in lacrosse. Outdoors in February.
As for Princeton men's basketball, the Tigers will be indoors tonight against Columbia (7) and tomorrow night against Cornell (6). As the most casual Princeton men's basketball fan knows, the Ivy season hasn't gotten off to a great start for the Tigers.
Princeton looked great for much of its pre-league schedule, including an amazing comeback win against Penn State during an eight-game winning streak. The Tigers were 11-2 heading into the Ivy opener against Penn, at the Palestra, against a Penn team that had been struggling mightily.
So what happened?
Princeton got off to a bad start in that one. Penn played way better than it has at any point of this season and built a big lead. Princeton made a run. Penn held the Tigers off at the end.
And just like that, 11-2 became 0-1. For three weeks, as the Tigers had to sit on that loss through first semester exams and then the Division III win over Kean.
That set up a huge game last Friday night at Harvard, the prohibitive Ivy favorite. This was supposed to be a matchup of the top two teams in the league, the ones who had generated talk of two Ivy NCAA tournament bids back in December.
The problem for Princeton is that when Harvard held on 82-76, the Tigers were now 2.5 games back of the Crimson. And that became 3.5 the next night, when Princeton fell at Dartmouth.
It's all very understandable. The loss to Penn dug an early hole. The game against Harvard was a chance to get out of it. The game against Dartmouth was 22 hours later.
The schedule didn't do Princeton any favors, with a return from exam break at Harvard. And no home league games until the second weekend of February.
So now what for Princeton?
There is still a lot for the Tigers in 2014. There's a chance to win as many games as possible. A chance to get on another roll. A chance to beat Harvard in the rematch.
Maybe it's too much to ask for Harvard to lose three of its final 10 league games, but hey, if the Crimson go 11-3, the Tigers would be kicking themselves if they weren't also 11-3.
And if the Ivy championship might be far-fetched, there's still second place and a possible NIT berth, which would mean quality postseason games in March.
And if nothing else, there's pride.
Princeton is way better than an 0-3 team in the league, and everyone affiliated with the program knows it. Maybe confidence is down a bit right now, but this is a very good team.
TB would be stunned if the Tigers didn't play really hard this weekend as they try to turn their season back around. Hey, they still have seven home league games to go.
The best lacrosse game of 2014 might already have been played, but it doesn't mean that basketball season is anywhere near over.
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Going For Gold
The Winter Olympics from Sochi are underway.
The men's slopestyle qualifying kicked off the two weeks of the Games in the Russian resort town, which may or may not be ready for the crush. The answer to that would be not ready if you were to read the stories by reporters who are telling tales of showers with no curtains, toilets placed side-by-side (and with signs saying not to flush the toilet paper next to them), exhortations not to put the tap water on one's face due to their rather corrosive elements and other harrowing stories.
TigerBlog's prevailing theory is that sportswriters will always complain about a lack of amenities. Hey, he's seen them complain about free food for years.
And TB assumes that the average person's take on complaining sports media types is something along the lines of "shut up." The media is an easy target, with its free admission to events (often in the best seats), availability of prime parking and transportation and inside access to the athletes.
Still, this goes beyond the usual griping about cramped hotel rooms or spotty internet access. This could be an ominous sign for the Games, if the key infrastructure simply isn't ready.
That, of course, doesn't even take into account hovering threat of a terrorist attack, something that has scared off more than one visitor.
The Russians, too, are easy to blame. If there is a problem, then it must be because Putin did something to give his own athletes an advantage.
TigerBlog won't have to worry about any logistical problems for the 2014 Winter Olympics, other than more winter storms that bring more power outages. Yesterday, for instance, he was on his couch enjoying the ice storm by watching "Analyze That" when the power went out, and TB never found out what happened to Robert DeNiro and Billy Crystal at the end, though he assumes they lived happily ever after.
TB absolutely loved the Olympics as a kid. And anyone within a few years of TB's age or older knows they will never see another sporting event to rival the Miracle on Ice from the 1980 Winter Olympics.
He went through a phase were he wasn't that into it, and now he's back. He watched a ton of the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver and even more of the 2012 Summer Games in London, and he assumes he will watch a lot the next two weeks.
Of course, it's not his favorite international sporting event of 2014. That would be the World Cup. Or maybe the World Lacrosse Championships. Nah, the World Cup.
As for the sports at the Winter Olympics themselves, TB doesn't like any events that are judged, rather than those that have a score or a time to determine the winner. This means that he's never been into the figure skating, and he doesn't like any of the X-Games-type events that 1) have an element of judging to them and 2) were added, he thinks, at the insistence of NBC to boost American medal totals and ratings (he has absolutely no proof of this and just thinks it's the case).
So what does he like?
He loves the downhill. He loves the snowboard cross, which he concedes is an added X-Games event but is just a wild scene. He'll be into the hockey. He is a big fan of the bobsled, luge and sledding events, and he'll be rooting for LoLo Jones.
He's not wild about the speed skating. He likes the giant slalom more than the slalom. He likes regular speed skating more than the short track kind.
Still, he'll watch most anything during the next two weeks, with the real exception of the figure skating. He's always struggled with that, as it's the most-watched event every Winter Olympics, which means there will be a lot of it on, and he just doesn't like it.
He's always liked the Summer Olympics better than the Winter Olympics, and he always chuckles at how important some of the events will be the next two weeks, only to be completely forgotten for four years after that. Like the downhill.
Princeton has no athletes in the Winter Olympics.
Princeton had 16 athletes in the 2012 Summer Olympics, and seven of them won medals.
Of those seven, one is still an active Princeton athlete.
Susannah Scanlan won a bronze medal in fencing at the Olympics two years ago. This weekend, she'll be at Brown along with the rest of the Princeton fencing team to compete in the Ivy League championships.
When Ivy fans talk about the best sport in the league, the one that makes the biggest splash nationally, fencing rarely comes up, probably because it's not exactly high profile.
Then again, in what other Ivy sport is every single league team among the men and women either ranked in the top 10 or receiving votes in the national poll? Fencing can make that claim.
The way the Ivy League awards its championship is fascinating, as each team will compete in a dual match against each of the other Ivy schools in a two-day stretch at the same venue. At the end of the weekend, the teams in first place will be the champions.
Princeton is the defending NCAA champion in fencing, which is also pretty unique, in that it's a combined men's and women's team championship, rather than a men's champion and a women's champion. Were that the case, then Princeton's women would be the two-time defending NCAA champion.
Princeton is the four-time defending Ivy women's champion and is riding a 41-match winning streak. The Tiger women are ranked No. 1 nationally.
The men are ranked third nationally, behind No. 1 Columbia in the Ivy League.
Don't carve Princeton's name on the trophy for the women so fast though. Princeton may be No. 1 in the poll, but Harvard is No. 2. On the men's side, Harvard is No. 5.
If you've never seen fencing, it's incredibly fast-paced and physical, and it'll be a challenging weekend for whichever teams win.
The Princeton-Harvard matches will be Saturday at 1:15. The Princeton-Columbia matches will be the final matches on Sunday (1:45).
When it comes to attention and public interest, fencing isn't quite the downhill or hockey or even figure skating. It's more like the nordic combined or something like that.
It doesn't mean that it's not intense, and it doesn't make whoever wins the gold this weekend any less deserving.
The men's slopestyle qualifying kicked off the two weeks of the Games in the Russian resort town, which may or may not be ready for the crush. The answer to that would be not ready if you were to read the stories by reporters who are telling tales of showers with no curtains, toilets placed side-by-side (and with signs saying not to flush the toilet paper next to them), exhortations not to put the tap water on one's face due to their rather corrosive elements and other harrowing stories.
TigerBlog's prevailing theory is that sportswriters will always complain about a lack of amenities. Hey, he's seen them complain about free food for years.
And TB assumes that the average person's take on complaining sports media types is something along the lines of "shut up." The media is an easy target, with its free admission to events (often in the best seats), availability of prime parking and transportation and inside access to the athletes.
Still, this goes beyond the usual griping about cramped hotel rooms or spotty internet access. This could be an ominous sign for the Games, if the key infrastructure simply isn't ready.
That, of course, doesn't even take into account hovering threat of a terrorist attack, something that has scared off more than one visitor.
The Russians, too, are easy to blame. If there is a problem, then it must be because Putin did something to give his own athletes an advantage.
TigerBlog won't have to worry about any logistical problems for the 2014 Winter Olympics, other than more winter storms that bring more power outages. Yesterday, for instance, he was on his couch enjoying the ice storm by watching "Analyze That" when the power went out, and TB never found out what happened to Robert DeNiro and Billy Crystal at the end, though he assumes they lived happily ever after.
TB absolutely loved the Olympics as a kid. And anyone within a few years of TB's age or older knows they will never see another sporting event to rival the Miracle on Ice from the 1980 Winter Olympics.
He went through a phase were he wasn't that into it, and now he's back. He watched a ton of the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver and even more of the 2012 Summer Games in London, and he assumes he will watch a lot the next two weeks.
Of course, it's not his favorite international sporting event of 2014. That would be the World Cup. Or maybe the World Lacrosse Championships. Nah, the World Cup.
As for the sports at the Winter Olympics themselves, TB doesn't like any events that are judged, rather than those that have a score or a time to determine the winner. This means that he's never been into the figure skating, and he doesn't like any of the X-Games-type events that 1) have an element of judging to them and 2) were added, he thinks, at the insistence of NBC to boost American medal totals and ratings (he has absolutely no proof of this and just thinks it's the case).
So what does he like?
He loves the downhill. He loves the snowboard cross, which he concedes is an added X-Games event but is just a wild scene. He'll be into the hockey. He is a big fan of the bobsled, luge and sledding events, and he'll be rooting for LoLo Jones.
He's not wild about the speed skating. He likes the giant slalom more than the slalom. He likes regular speed skating more than the short track kind.
Still, he'll watch most anything during the next two weeks, with the real exception of the figure skating. He's always struggled with that, as it's the most-watched event every Winter Olympics, which means there will be a lot of it on, and he just doesn't like it.
He's always liked the Summer Olympics better than the Winter Olympics, and he always chuckles at how important some of the events will be the next two weeks, only to be completely forgotten for four years after that. Like the downhill.
Princeton has no athletes in the Winter Olympics.
Princeton had 16 athletes in the 2012 Summer Olympics, and seven of them won medals.
Of those seven, one is still an active Princeton athlete.
Susannah Scanlan won a bronze medal in fencing at the Olympics two years ago. This weekend, she'll be at Brown along with the rest of the Princeton fencing team to compete in the Ivy League championships.
When Ivy fans talk about the best sport in the league, the one that makes the biggest splash nationally, fencing rarely comes up, probably because it's not exactly high profile.
Then again, in what other Ivy sport is every single league team among the men and women either ranked in the top 10 or receiving votes in the national poll? Fencing can make that claim.
The way the Ivy League awards its championship is fascinating, as each team will compete in a dual match against each of the other Ivy schools in a two-day stretch at the same venue. At the end of the weekend, the teams in first place will be the champions.
Princeton is the defending NCAA champion in fencing, which is also pretty unique, in that it's a combined men's and women's team championship, rather than a men's champion and a women's champion. Were that the case, then Princeton's women would be the two-time defending NCAA champion.
Princeton is the four-time defending Ivy women's champion and is riding a 41-match winning streak. The Tiger women are ranked No. 1 nationally.
The men are ranked third nationally, behind No. 1 Columbia in the Ivy League.
Don't carve Princeton's name on the trophy for the women so fast though. Princeton may be No. 1 in the poll, but Harvard is No. 2. On the men's side, Harvard is No. 5.
If you've never seen fencing, it's incredibly fast-paced and physical, and it'll be a challenging weekend for whichever teams win.
The Princeton-Harvard matches will be Saturday at 1:15. The Princeton-Columbia matches will be the final matches on Sunday (1:45).
When it comes to attention and public interest, fencing isn't quite the downhill or hockey or even figure skating. It's more like the nordic combined or something like that.
It doesn't mean that it's not intense, and it doesn't make whoever wins the gold this weekend any less deserving.
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Sprint Football Coach Sean Morey
Okay, indulge TigerBlog for two more minutes as he talks weather and the Super Bowl.
TigerBlog can attest to the fact that for the last four weeks, it has either snowed around here or been below 20 degrees basically the entire time, except for one 48-hour stretch this past weekend when it was in the 50s during the day and basically pleasant at night.
And that just so happened to overlap with the first ever outdoor cold weather Super Bowl.
The four weeks before it featured some of the coldest weather this area has ever seen. The 24 hours after it featured about eight inches of snow. The game itself? Not a problem at all.
In fact, there have been many more World Series games played on colder nights than the Super Bowl was. It's likely that there will be another outdoor cold weather game in the future, largely because of how much the weather cooperated for this one.
It's really insane to think about how bad the weather has been this winter, and this could be the worst week of all. The eight inches that fell Monday were to be followed up by today's mess of snow and then ice. And all that is to be followed up Sunday by another storm, which TB hears may bring more than two feet of snow somewhere around here, though possibly a little north or south.
The winter two years ago featured no measurable snowfall. In fact it was pretty warm out the entire time, and as TB recalls, he only wore his really, really heavy Princeton Athletics winter coat once.
This year he's needed that coat basically every day. And he's had to shovel and shovel and shovel again.
It's actually a great way to spend time with your neighbors. Ordinarily, it's just a wave or something. When you're out shoveling at the same time, it does promote neighborly socialization.
Of course, TB would prefer the waving and not having to shovel.
And still he can't get over the whole Super Bowl weather deal, with its small window of nice weather in the middle of a wild five weeks of winter. Is this a fluke, or does the NFL actually control the weather?
There is one person who works in the Department of Athletics who has a Super Bowl ring, and that is Sean Morey. In fact, Morey played in two Super Bowls, winning one with the Steelers and losing one with the Cardinals. He also went to a Pro Bowl as a special teams player.
Going way back, Morey was one of the great wide receivers in Ivy League history, back when he wan an undergrad at Brown. He also has the distinction of scoring the first touchdown in Princeton Stadium history.
He was the 1997 Ivy League Player of the Year, and his career totals at Brown were 251 receptions for an Ivy-record 3,850 yards and 40 touchdowns.
Morey then carved out a nice pro career for a decade, not as a wide receiver but as a fearless special teams weapon. He caught 11 passes as a pro, and he made his living busting wedges, making big hits on kick coverages, blocking those who tried to make big hits on his own guys.
He also blocked a punt in overtime for a touchdown, something unique in NFL history. That came for the Cardinals, against the Cowboys.
Morey was in the news twice this week.
The first was for a story that ran on npr.org about Morey's struggles with the after-effects of his time in the NFL.
TB didn't have to read the story to know that Morey has his struggles. Morey has told TB about them many times, about how he had more than 20 concussions, how there are days when he can't function due to the migraines.
Here's the key quote from Morey:
Sean says there's no question these symptoms are related to brain trauma sustained playing football. "You cannot have that kind of pain and have it not be related to brain damage," he says. "The dysfunction, the pain, the misery, the confusion, the desperation, the depression. ... There were instances in my life that would never have existed had I not damaged my brain."
It's heart-wrenching stuff, and it's something that's not common to Morey about his peers. Morey is involved with the players' association, working with former players, looking into the effects and possible treatment of all the years of getting pounded.
Morey was also on the main athletics website yesterday, accepting the position as head coach of the sprint football team.
The Princeton sprint football team hasn't won a CSFL game in more than a decade, with a losing streak that has passed 80 games. TB has seen coaches with different backgrounds and different philosophies come to coach the team, and that elusive win has not been there to be had.
Now it's Sean Morey's turn. Can he win a game with the program?
If he doesn't, it won't be for a lack of optimism.
As he deals with all of what he's dealing with, Sean Morey hasn't lost one bit of his positive attitude. He's one of those people who is always upbeat, always willing to help, always wanting to be of assistance, no task too small.
Before taking the sprint position, Morey has worked at Princeton for two years in general athletic administration. During that time, he's been dealing with the effects of his football career, and yet he always, always seems to be in a good mood.
Now he'll be coaching the sprint team. TB has been to a bunch of sprint games through the years, hoping to see a win, wanting to see the reaction. They're come close a few times and not close at all many many more times.
It'll be interesting to see what Morey can do with them.
As is the case every Tuesday, TB went to the event meeting yesterday. As he sat there, waiting for it to start, someone came up behind him and tapped him on the arm.
When he turned around, he saw Sean Morey, with his omnipresent smile and another friendly, heartfelt greeting.
Yes, he is battling things that TB can't even imagine.
While he does it, though, he remains a marvel of positivity.
If attitude means anything, he'll be fine in the long run.
TB hopes it does.
After all, Sean Morey is one of the good guys. It's always good to have guys like that around.
TigerBlog can attest to the fact that for the last four weeks, it has either snowed around here or been below 20 degrees basically the entire time, except for one 48-hour stretch this past weekend when it was in the 50s during the day and basically pleasant at night.
And that just so happened to overlap with the first ever outdoor cold weather Super Bowl.
The four weeks before it featured some of the coldest weather this area has ever seen. The 24 hours after it featured about eight inches of snow. The game itself? Not a problem at all.
In fact, there have been many more World Series games played on colder nights than the Super Bowl was. It's likely that there will be another outdoor cold weather game in the future, largely because of how much the weather cooperated for this one.
It's really insane to think about how bad the weather has been this winter, and this could be the worst week of all. The eight inches that fell Monday were to be followed up by today's mess of snow and then ice. And all that is to be followed up Sunday by another storm, which TB hears may bring more than two feet of snow somewhere around here, though possibly a little north or south.
The winter two years ago featured no measurable snowfall. In fact it was pretty warm out the entire time, and as TB recalls, he only wore his really, really heavy Princeton Athletics winter coat once.
This year he's needed that coat basically every day. And he's had to shovel and shovel and shovel again.
It's actually a great way to spend time with your neighbors. Ordinarily, it's just a wave or something. When you're out shoveling at the same time, it does promote neighborly socialization.
Of course, TB would prefer the waving and not having to shovel.
And still he can't get over the whole Super Bowl weather deal, with its small window of nice weather in the middle of a wild five weeks of winter. Is this a fluke, or does the NFL actually control the weather?
There is one person who works in the Department of Athletics who has a Super Bowl ring, and that is Sean Morey. In fact, Morey played in two Super Bowls, winning one with the Steelers and losing one with the Cardinals. He also went to a Pro Bowl as a special teams player.
Going way back, Morey was one of the great wide receivers in Ivy League history, back when he wan an undergrad at Brown. He also has the distinction of scoring the first touchdown in Princeton Stadium history.
He was the 1997 Ivy League Player of the Year, and his career totals at Brown were 251 receptions for an Ivy-record 3,850 yards and 40 touchdowns.
Morey then carved out a nice pro career for a decade, not as a wide receiver but as a fearless special teams weapon. He caught 11 passes as a pro, and he made his living busting wedges, making big hits on kick coverages, blocking those who tried to make big hits on his own guys.
He also blocked a punt in overtime for a touchdown, something unique in NFL history. That came for the Cardinals, against the Cowboys.
Morey was in the news twice this week.
The first was for a story that ran on npr.org about Morey's struggles with the after-effects of his time in the NFL.
TB didn't have to read the story to know that Morey has his struggles. Morey has told TB about them many times, about how he had more than 20 concussions, how there are days when he can't function due to the migraines.
Here's the key quote from Morey:
Sean says there's no question these symptoms are related to brain trauma sustained playing football. "You cannot have that kind of pain and have it not be related to brain damage," he says. "The dysfunction, the pain, the misery, the confusion, the desperation, the depression. ... There were instances in my life that would never have existed had I not damaged my brain."
It's heart-wrenching stuff, and it's something that's not common to Morey about his peers. Morey is involved with the players' association, working with former players, looking into the effects and possible treatment of all the years of getting pounded.
Morey was also on the main athletics website yesterday, accepting the position as head coach of the sprint football team.
The Princeton sprint football team hasn't won a CSFL game in more than a decade, with a losing streak that has passed 80 games. TB has seen coaches with different backgrounds and different philosophies come to coach the team, and that elusive win has not been there to be had.
Now it's Sean Morey's turn. Can he win a game with the program?
If he doesn't, it won't be for a lack of optimism.
As he deals with all of what he's dealing with, Sean Morey hasn't lost one bit of his positive attitude. He's one of those people who is always upbeat, always willing to help, always wanting to be of assistance, no task too small.
Before taking the sprint position, Morey has worked at Princeton for two years in general athletic administration. During that time, he's been dealing with the effects of his football career, and yet he always, always seems to be in a good mood.
Now he'll be coaching the sprint team. TB has been to a bunch of sprint games through the years, hoping to see a win, wanting to see the reaction. They're come close a few times and not close at all many many more times.
It'll be interesting to see what Morey can do with them.
As is the case every Tuesday, TB went to the event meeting yesterday. As he sat there, waiting for it to start, someone came up behind him and tapped him on the arm.
When he turned around, he saw Sean Morey, with his omnipresent smile and another friendly, heartfelt greeting.
Yes, he is battling things that TB can't even imagine.
While he does it, though, he remains a marvel of positivity.
If attitude means anything, he'll be fine in the long run.
TB hopes it does.
After all, Sean Morey is one of the good guys. It's always good to have guys like that around.
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Defense And Bad Commercials
Here's what TigerBlog doesn't understand about the Super Bowl commercials: Do the companies that produce them look at the final product and realize how awful they are?
If anything is trying too hard, it's Super Bowl commercials. TB couldn't help but laugh at the stories yesterday about the top five commercials from Sunday's game, because there weren't five good ones.
Look, adorable puppies + Clydesdales horses will always = big winner. So the one with the puppy who keeps coming back to his horse friend was a good one.
And the one with the returning veteran was very well done.
Interestingly, both of those ads were by Anheuser-Busch.
The rest were all awful. They weren't just average or okay. They were awful. Some made no sense. Others were just silly.
Oh, and "Seinfeld" - the most overrated show in TV history, with four great seasons and five terrible ones - proved TB's point again, that it lost it after Season 4 and never got it back.
TB just doesn't get why these commercials miss the mark by so much. Is being creative and clever that hard these days? Apparently it is.
The Radio Shack commercial with the 80s throwback people was on the right path but could have been much better. The Bruce Willis one could have been great, had it not hedged its bet with a stupid attempt at being funny that flopped.
TigerBlog's prediction on the game itself was Denver 31, Seattle 21. He shortchanged Seattle by three touchdowns and gave Denver 23 points too many. In other words, it ranks among the worst predictions he's ever made.
He's left wondering why it is that people are so down on Peyton Manning, as if what happened the other day had anything to do with whether or not he's a great quarterback. Clearly, he's an all-time great, up there with anyone who has ever played the game, even if he only has one Super Bowl win, compared to his brother's two.
The knock on Dan Marino's career has always been that he never won a Super Bowl and in fact only played in one. This has clearly hurt his legacy, since anyone who ever saw him play realizes that nobody has ever thrown the ball better than he has. John Elway won two Super Bowls, though none until he had a good defense and Terrell Davis to run the ball, and so his legacy is as one of the great clutch quarterbacks ever.
And Peyton Manning? He might very well be the best quarterback ever. Certainly he's won five MVPs, something nobody else has. And he has won a Super Bowl; it's not like he's never won one.
And honestly, how many times has he had the best supporting cast? Rarely.
Certainly the better team won the other day. The Broncos got behind on the first snap and never got into their rhythm. It had nothing to do with Manning.
TigerBlog heard a stat yesterday that the top defense (measured by scoring defense) has been to the Super Bowl 16 times and is 13-3 in those games. TB heard last week that this was the sixth time that the No. 1 scoring offense played the No. 1 scoring defense in a Super Bowl, and defense is now 5-1.
Defense, they say, wins championships.
Is that how it works in Ivy League football?
This past year, the No. 1 offense belonged to Princeton, who won the league championship. Well, shared it with Harvard, who had the No. 2 offense.
Oh, and TB is using scoring offense and scoring defense in league games only for his purposes, since adding non-league games would mean having to factor in strength of schedule. League games only evens the playing field.
Of course, on the other hand, the No. 1 defense in 2013 belonged to Dartmouth, who handed Princeton its only loss.
In the last 20 years, the No. 1 scoring offense in the league won the Ivy title 12 times. The No. 1 scoring defense did so nine times.
There have been five times in those 20 years that the No. 1 scoring offense and No. 1 scoring defense came from the same place, and in all five of those years, that team won the championship.
The team with the No. 1 scoring offense has won 12 championships and finished second five times and third three times in the last 20 years. During that same time frame, the top scoring defense has won nine championships and finished second four times, third three times and fourth and fifth twice each.
The numbers suggest that the Ivy League values offense slightly more than defense. In other words, having the best scoring offense gives you a 60% chance of winning the championship, compared to 45% if you have the top scoring defense.
And only four times in 20 years has the top scoring defense won the league championship without also have the top scoring offense (though TB concedes that that sentence can also read that only seven times has the top scoring offense won without the top scoring defense).
Still, it seems like the league favors offense a bit.
Is that because there's a conscious effort to emphasize offense? Do coaches put their best athletes on the offensive side of the ball?
Is TB reading too much into this?
The trend in the NFL is for wide-open offenses that throw the ball all over the place and put up huge passing yardage totals. The Seahawks are the one team that seemed to go against that, and the result was a convincing Super Bowl title.
Princeton, on the other hand, had the league's best statistical offense of all time and won a league title last fall. The key to this offense was a commitment to playing multiple people at all skill positions.
Then again, the top defense was the only one to slow Princeton down. Then again, it did snow that day.
TB isn't really sure what to conclude here.
He's positive the Super Bowl commercials were awful.
If anything is trying too hard, it's Super Bowl commercials. TB couldn't help but laugh at the stories yesterday about the top five commercials from Sunday's game, because there weren't five good ones.
Look, adorable puppies + Clydesdales horses will always = big winner. So the one with the puppy who keeps coming back to his horse friend was a good one.
And the one with the returning veteran was very well done.
Interestingly, both of those ads were by Anheuser-Busch.
The rest were all awful. They weren't just average or okay. They were awful. Some made no sense. Others were just silly.
Oh, and "Seinfeld" - the most overrated show in TV history, with four great seasons and five terrible ones - proved TB's point again, that it lost it after Season 4 and never got it back.
TB just doesn't get why these commercials miss the mark by so much. Is being creative and clever that hard these days? Apparently it is.
The Radio Shack commercial with the 80s throwback people was on the right path but could have been much better. The Bruce Willis one could have been great, had it not hedged its bet with a stupid attempt at being funny that flopped.
TigerBlog's prediction on the game itself was Denver 31, Seattle 21. He shortchanged Seattle by three touchdowns and gave Denver 23 points too many. In other words, it ranks among the worst predictions he's ever made.
He's left wondering why it is that people are so down on Peyton Manning, as if what happened the other day had anything to do with whether or not he's a great quarterback. Clearly, he's an all-time great, up there with anyone who has ever played the game, even if he only has one Super Bowl win, compared to his brother's two.
The knock on Dan Marino's career has always been that he never won a Super Bowl and in fact only played in one. This has clearly hurt his legacy, since anyone who ever saw him play realizes that nobody has ever thrown the ball better than he has. John Elway won two Super Bowls, though none until he had a good defense and Terrell Davis to run the ball, and so his legacy is as one of the great clutch quarterbacks ever.
And Peyton Manning? He might very well be the best quarterback ever. Certainly he's won five MVPs, something nobody else has. And he has won a Super Bowl; it's not like he's never won one.
And honestly, how many times has he had the best supporting cast? Rarely.
Certainly the better team won the other day. The Broncos got behind on the first snap and never got into their rhythm. It had nothing to do with Manning.
TigerBlog heard a stat yesterday that the top defense (measured by scoring defense) has been to the Super Bowl 16 times and is 13-3 in those games. TB heard last week that this was the sixth time that the No. 1 scoring offense played the No. 1 scoring defense in a Super Bowl, and defense is now 5-1.
Defense, they say, wins championships.
Is that how it works in Ivy League football?
This past year, the No. 1 offense belonged to Princeton, who won the league championship. Well, shared it with Harvard, who had the No. 2 offense.
Oh, and TB is using scoring offense and scoring defense in league games only for his purposes, since adding non-league games would mean having to factor in strength of schedule. League games only evens the playing field.
Of course, on the other hand, the No. 1 defense in 2013 belonged to Dartmouth, who handed Princeton its only loss.
In the last 20 years, the No. 1 scoring offense in the league won the Ivy title 12 times. The No. 1 scoring defense did so nine times.
There have been five times in those 20 years that the No. 1 scoring offense and No. 1 scoring defense came from the same place, and in all five of those years, that team won the championship.
The team with the No. 1 scoring offense has won 12 championships and finished second five times and third three times in the last 20 years. During that same time frame, the top scoring defense has won nine championships and finished second four times, third three times and fourth and fifth twice each.
The numbers suggest that the Ivy League values offense slightly more than defense. In other words, having the best scoring offense gives you a 60% chance of winning the championship, compared to 45% if you have the top scoring defense.
And only four times in 20 years has the top scoring defense won the league championship without also have the top scoring offense (though TB concedes that that sentence can also read that only seven times has the top scoring offense won without the top scoring defense).
Still, it seems like the league favors offense a bit.
Is that because there's a conscious effort to emphasize offense? Do coaches put their best athletes on the offensive side of the ball?
Is TB reading too much into this?
The trend in the NFL is for wide-open offenses that throw the ball all over the place and put up huge passing yardage totals. The Seahawks are the one team that seemed to go against that, and the result was a convincing Super Bowl title.
Princeton, on the other hand, had the league's best statistical offense of all time and won a league title last fall. The key to this offense was a commitment to playing multiple people at all skill positions.
Then again, the top defense was the only one to slow Princeton down. Then again, it did snow that day.
TB isn't really sure what to conclude here.
He's positive the Super Bowl commercials were awful.
Monday, February 3, 2014
A League Touched By Tragedy
Back in October of 2012, Princeton had a Saturday where it beat Harvard in field hockey, football, men's soccer and women's soccer.
After that Princeton sweep, TigerBlog knew that there would be day when the other shoe would fall.
He cautioned about it, even citing one of his favorite movie moments ever, the one at the end of "Patton," when George C. Scott walks on a field in post-war Germany, chest stuck out, all while he voices the warning, that "all glory is fleeting."
The shoe dropped Friday, when Harvard paid Princeton back with a 4-0 night, with Crimson wins in men's and women's basketball and men's and women's hockey.
The women's basketball race is a big mess right now, at least in the early going of the league season. After last weekend, there are five teams with one loss each - Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Penn and Cornell. Harvard plays Yale this weekend, while Princeton and Penn both play Cornell, so it'll all start to sort itself out.
It seemed like Harvard had made a big early statement Friday night at Jadwin, when it defeated Princeton 78-68, handing the Tigers their first home Ivy loss since 2009. Princeton, who hadn't played in three weeks for first semester exams, came out cold and fell behind by as many as 18 before cutting it to one. Harvard then made all the plays it needed down the stretch.
Then, 24 hours later, the race changed back. Penn, whom Princeton had beaten by 31, turned around and beat Harvard by 29, the final 68-39.
So now what?
Well, Princeton lost to Harvard in the first meeting between the teams last year and in 2011 and went 13-1 both times. On the other hand, both of those losses were in Cambridge, where Princeton will play Feb. 22.
By then, it doesn't figure to be a five-team race. Whoever is left then, TB will be surprised if the list doesn't include Harvard and Princeton, the four-time defending champ.
TB was at the two women's basketball games this weekend.
The game Saturday was against Dartmouth, and it began with a recognition after the starting lineups for Addie Micir, the 2011 Ivy League Player of the Year for Princeton who is now an assistant coach for the Big Green. It was a nice moment, as Micir had her Princeton uniform presented to her by Tiger head coach Courtney Banghart (herself a Dartmouth alum) and Ford Family Director of Athletics Gary Walters.
Princeton would win the game 76-53. Coming up this weekend is a trip to Columbia and Cornell, as the league gets into its full swing.
For any fans, the hope is to have more days like the one in 2012 than the one Friday night. For Princeton fans, there is the consolation of knowing that there have indeed been many more days of winning through the years.
This weekend in Ivy League athletics, though, was not about winning and losing.
It was about a tragedy.
Dartmouth cross country skier Torin Tucker, a junior from Idaho, passed away during a competition in Vermont.
TigerBlog heard about Tucker's death shortly before the women's basketball game against Dartmouth. He wondered if the Big Green players had heard the news, if Tucker had any friends on the women's basketball team.
When TB went to Dartmouth's website, he saw Tucker's picture. He's smiling and wearing his green Dartmouth skiing jacket.
It made TB think to when it was taken. There was a time for all of the skiers to get their pictures taken, and they all wore the green jacket. At least that's what TB assumes.
That's certainly how it works at Princeton. The athletes gather. They laugh. They talk about how their picture on the website is a big deal, "GPT" is what they all call it.
There's an innocence about such moments. They're brought there by being on the same team, and the growing team bond of that moment is calculable, as TB watches it from his office. It doesn't matter which team.
It doesn't matter what their record was the previous season or what it will be the coming season. For that moment, they're teammates, in the prime of their lives, with such glorious futures theirs for the taking.
The last thing that TB or anyone would even consider is that one of the faces in one of these pictures would have it all yanked away so quickly, so randomly. It makes the news that came out about Tucker Saturday so unfathomable, so unbelieveable.
TB can't even begin to imagine what his family is going through right now. What his teammates think. He's experienced the death of student-athletes here - mercifully it hasn't happened often - and it's just a numbing experience.
Ivy League athletics are ultra-competitive. That's the point of them.
Some weekends you win. Sometimes you lose.
Beyond the winning and losing, though, there is a respect for the competition. And a camaraderie that the late Dartmouth SID Kathy Slattery always described as "for the good of the clan."
And that's why this weekend for all of Ivy athletics was about Torin Tucker's tragic passing. It doesn't matter what sport you play, or for what school in the league you play it, or if your team was a winner or loser on the field this weekend.
This tragedy touches everyone in the Ivy League.
Some things are way bigger than the final score.
Along with all of Princeton, TigerBlog wishes the entire Dartmouth community and the Tucker family the best.
After that Princeton sweep, TigerBlog knew that there would be day when the other shoe would fall.
He cautioned about it, even citing one of his favorite movie moments ever, the one at the end of "Patton," when George C. Scott walks on a field in post-war Germany, chest stuck out, all while he voices the warning, that "all glory is fleeting."
The shoe dropped Friday, when Harvard paid Princeton back with a 4-0 night, with Crimson wins in men's and women's basketball and men's and women's hockey.
The women's basketball race is a big mess right now, at least in the early going of the league season. After last weekend, there are five teams with one loss each - Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Penn and Cornell. Harvard plays Yale this weekend, while Princeton and Penn both play Cornell, so it'll all start to sort itself out.
It seemed like Harvard had made a big early statement Friday night at Jadwin, when it defeated Princeton 78-68, handing the Tigers their first home Ivy loss since 2009. Princeton, who hadn't played in three weeks for first semester exams, came out cold and fell behind by as many as 18 before cutting it to one. Harvard then made all the plays it needed down the stretch.
Then, 24 hours later, the race changed back. Penn, whom Princeton had beaten by 31, turned around and beat Harvard by 29, the final 68-39.
So now what?
Well, Princeton lost to Harvard in the first meeting between the teams last year and in 2011 and went 13-1 both times. On the other hand, both of those losses were in Cambridge, where Princeton will play Feb. 22.
By then, it doesn't figure to be a five-team race. Whoever is left then, TB will be surprised if the list doesn't include Harvard and Princeton, the four-time defending champ.
TB was at the two women's basketball games this weekend.
The game Saturday was against Dartmouth, and it began with a recognition after the starting lineups for Addie Micir, the 2011 Ivy League Player of the Year for Princeton who is now an assistant coach for the Big Green. It was a nice moment, as Micir had her Princeton uniform presented to her by Tiger head coach Courtney Banghart (herself a Dartmouth alum) and Ford Family Director of Athletics Gary Walters.
Princeton would win the game 76-53. Coming up this weekend is a trip to Columbia and Cornell, as the league gets into its full swing.
For any fans, the hope is to have more days like the one in 2012 than the one Friday night. For Princeton fans, there is the consolation of knowing that there have indeed been many more days of winning through the years.
This weekend in Ivy League athletics, though, was not about winning and losing.
It was about a tragedy.
Dartmouth cross country skier Torin Tucker, a junior from Idaho, passed away during a competition in Vermont.
TigerBlog heard about Tucker's death shortly before the women's basketball game against Dartmouth. He wondered if the Big Green players had heard the news, if Tucker had any friends on the women's basketball team.
When TB went to Dartmouth's website, he saw Tucker's picture. He's smiling and wearing his green Dartmouth skiing jacket.
It made TB think to when it was taken. There was a time for all of the skiers to get their pictures taken, and they all wore the green jacket. At least that's what TB assumes.
That's certainly how it works at Princeton. The athletes gather. They laugh. They talk about how their picture on the website is a big deal, "GPT" is what they all call it.
There's an innocence about such moments. They're brought there by being on the same team, and the growing team bond of that moment is calculable, as TB watches it from his office. It doesn't matter which team.
It doesn't matter what their record was the previous season or what it will be the coming season. For that moment, they're teammates, in the prime of their lives, with such glorious futures theirs for the taking.
The last thing that TB or anyone would even consider is that one of the faces in one of these pictures would have it all yanked away so quickly, so randomly. It makes the news that came out about Tucker Saturday so unfathomable, so unbelieveable.
TB can't even begin to imagine what his family is going through right now. What his teammates think. He's experienced the death of student-athletes here - mercifully it hasn't happened often - and it's just a numbing experience.
Ivy League athletics are ultra-competitive. That's the point of them.
Some weekends you win. Sometimes you lose.
Beyond the winning and losing, though, there is a respect for the competition. And a camaraderie that the late Dartmouth SID Kathy Slattery always described as "for the good of the clan."
And that's why this weekend for all of Ivy athletics was about Torin Tucker's tragic passing. It doesn't matter what sport you play, or for what school in the league you play it, or if your team was a winner or loser on the field this weekend.
This tragedy touches everyone in the Ivy League.
Some things are way bigger than the final score.
Along with all of Princeton, TigerBlog wishes the entire Dartmouth community and the Tucker family the best.
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