For a team with an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament already in its back pocket, these are the oddest days of the season.
Everything builds to March, except there's this big hole in the schedule between the clincher and the end of the regular season - or, if your conference does it wrong, conference tournament. The result is a few days of uncertainty, where coaches have nobody to prepare a scouting report on, players have no idea how they'll match up and, for that matter, teams that have no idea where they'll be playing on their biggest stage.
Such is the case for the Princeton women's basketball team.
Princeton earned the automatic bid last Saturday and wrapped up a 30-0 regular season Tuesday night. And then? There was a six-day wait to see what fate - and the NCAA committee - has in store for the Tigers.
Today marks the halfway point of that wait.
If you had been in Jadwin Gym around noon yesterday, you could have seen a mechanical and aerospace engineering professor named Lex Smits talking with Tiger head coach Courtney Banghart and seniors Blake Dietrick and Alex Rodgers about the science behind a three-point shot, all under the watchful eye and camera of Princeton's athletic video guru John Bullis.
The result was a fun, lighthearted piece that saw Smits interact with the players and coach in an easy-going, glad-to-get-to-meet-you way. It was a great slice of Princeton, the integration of the athletics and engineering, all brought together by a 30-0 basketball team.
In the end, after analyzing how Dietrick and Rodgers shot the ball, Smits took a turn, from the foul line. He airballed his first. Then he got a quick tutorial from Rodgers, which led him to, well, airball his second too.
His third? Swish. Perfect. Nothing but net. It made for a great ending to the video.
The big question around Jadwin, though, isn't how fast to release a basketball or how much arc to put on it.
Nope. The big question is this: When the NCAA women's basketball selections are announced Monday (at 7, on ESPN), will Princeton be playing at home?
TigerBlog says yes. He bases this on potentially flawed logic of course
The Tigers currently have an RPI of 12. There will be 16 home sites in the first and second rounds, and the team with the No. 7 RPI, Louisville, cannot host due to the fact that its facility is unavailable.
Plus, Princeton is the only undefeated team in the country. And the 30-0 Ivy League team has made for a great story that has generated great publicity for women's basketball.
Why wouldn't that be rewarded with a home site, especially with its RPI so high?
Someone who disagrees with TigerBlog is Charlie Creme, who does the women's basketball bracketology for ESPN.com. He has the Tigers as a fifth seed and has them on a plane west, headed to Stanford, to take on the 12th-seeded Miami Hurricanes.
TigerBlog cannot image that the No. 12 RPI team, the lone unbeaten in the country, will be shipped out 3,000 miles. Maybe the Tigers will be. TigerBlog just doesn't think that they will.
Of course, there's no way to know until Monday at 7. It's one of the great parts of the selection show. Nobody knows anything until it's released. Courtney Banghart is in the dark as much as the most casual fan.
The Ivy League men's automatic bid will be decided tomorrow afternoon at 4 at the Palestra, when Harvard and Yale play in a one-game playoff. It'll be the first time in Ivy League history that a playoff game does not involve either Princeton or Penn.
Because Harvard and Yale are considered co-champions regardless of what happens tomorrow, that means that the winter Ivy League seasons are all in the books.
And you know what that means, don't you? The Ivy League's unofficial all-sports points championship.
Harvard ended Princeton's 27-year run last year. This year? It's neck and neck between the two.
As a reminder, teams get eight points for finishing first, seven for second and so on. In a sport like men's lacrosse, say, where only seven schools field a team, the champion still gets eight. In the event of ties, the teams split the points, so two teams who tie for third each gets 5.5 points.
At the end of the winter, Princeton has 128.5 points. Harvard has 125.5. Nobody else has more than 85.
In other words, this figures to be close as the spring gets underway.
But all of that is weeks away.
The NCAA selections are days away.
Today? It's a day for things like videos with engineering professors and speculating on whether or not the Tigers will be at home.
TigerBlog says yes.
Friday, March 13, 2015
Thursday, March 12, 2015
To The Victors
The victors - in all 30 of their games - were enjoying the spoils yesterday, with more and more media waiting to hear them tell their story.
Among those yesterday were ESPN "College Gameday" and National Public Radio.
As the NCAA women's basketball selection show draws closer - the announcement will be Monday at 7 on ESPN - the excitement for the Princeton women's basketball team will continue to grow. And of course there is one huge, unanswerable question right now:
Will Princeton play at home?
Will Princeton be rewarded for its 30-0 season, the one that makes Princeton the only undefeated team in Division I women's basketball, with a chance to bring the NCAA tournament to Jadwin Gym?
Princeton was all over the women's basketball page on ESPN.com, including a big celebration picture that spent most of yesterday afternoon front and center.
Then there was the bracketology. This was about the only thing that wasn't going Princeton's way of late.
According to the current edition of bracketology, Princeton won't be playing at home. Or anywhere near home.
Nope, according to this, Princeton will be about as far from home as it could possibly be, all the way on the other side of the country. The destination is Stanford, at least as far as ESPN.com was concerned yesterday.
It had Princeton as a fifth seed playing 12th seeded Miami (the one in Florida, not the one in Ohio). For what it's worth, no Ivy team has ever been higher than a nine, which Princeton was two years ago.
And, if TigerBlog is right about the location of the 1998 Harvard win over Stanford, then Stanford is the site of the only win ever by an Ivy League team in the NCAA tournament.
Still, TB can't help but think there will be a little benefit of the doubt given to Princeton when the committee makes its ultimate decision. An undefeated Ivy League team? One that has generated a ton of publicity?
Maybe TB is way off the mark here. But send that team 3,000 miles from home?
It seems 1) not right and 2) unlikely.
So the women's basketball team is the biggest winner right now at Princeton. It's not the only winner.
While Princeton waits for some good news in the women's basketball selections, yesterday was a pretty good day for the wrestling team.
Princeton had three automatic qualifiers to the NCAA wrestling championships after last weekend's EIWA championships. Those three were joined yesterday by two at-large selections.
From the release on goprincetontigers.com:
Juniors Abram Ayala (197) and Chris Perez (149) joined sophomore Jorfdan Laster (141) as automatic qualifiers during last weekend's EIWA Championships, when Princeton finished seventh as a team despite having only nine wrestlers in competition. Sophomore Brett Harner (184), who defaulted from the tournament due to injury, and freshman Jonathan Schleifer (165) earned at-large bids because of the quality of their regular season.
The five wrestlers who advanced to the NCAAs - to be held in St. Louis next weekend - tied the program record for the most ever to advance to the championships.
Also from the release:
The group is just the third five-man Princeton squad to qualify for the NCAA Championships in the same year. In 1975, Dennis Underkoffler '76, Kevin Roesch '78, Randy Schutte '75, Bill Miron '78, and Mike Murburg '77 qualified. In 1978, when Princeton won its most recent EIWA Championship, the quintet of Roesch, Steve Grubman '78, John Sefter '78, Keith Ely '79 and Bill Hawley '80 qualified.
Again, it's hard to overstate how much Chris Ayres and his staff have done to rebuild Princeton wrestling. Sending five wrestlers to the NCAA championships? A few years back that didn't seem possible.
Meanwhile, there are some other victors as well.
Harrison Wagner and Corey Okubo earned spots in the NCAA men's swimming and diving championships, which will be held in Iowa City. Wagner, a senior, has the 16th-best time in the 50 free in the country. Okubo, a freshman, has the 23rd-best 400 IM time - as well as the Ivy League record.
Princeton will also compete in the relay events, and it is up to the Princeton staff to decide which four will swim.
On the women's side, diver Caitlin Chambers will also be in the NCAA championships, these to be held in Greensboro. Chambers will compete on the 1-meter and 3-meter and the platform.
And in women's track and field, Megan Curham earned herself a trip to the NCAA championships this weekend in Fayetteville, Ark. She will run in the 5,000 meters tomorrow night at 8:25.
It's March. NCAA championship time.
For some, their travel is already set.
For the women's basketball team, the hope is that there will be no travel at all.
Among those yesterday were ESPN "College Gameday" and National Public Radio.
As the NCAA women's basketball selection show draws closer - the announcement will be Monday at 7 on ESPN - the excitement for the Princeton women's basketball team will continue to grow. And of course there is one huge, unanswerable question right now:
Will Princeton play at home?
Will Princeton be rewarded for its 30-0 season, the one that makes Princeton the only undefeated team in Division I women's basketball, with a chance to bring the NCAA tournament to Jadwin Gym?
Princeton was all over the women's basketball page on ESPN.com, including a big celebration picture that spent most of yesterday afternoon front and center.
Then there was the bracketology. This was about the only thing that wasn't going Princeton's way of late.
According to the current edition of bracketology, Princeton won't be playing at home. Or anywhere near home.
Nope, according to this, Princeton will be about as far from home as it could possibly be, all the way on the other side of the country. The destination is Stanford, at least as far as ESPN.com was concerned yesterday.
It had Princeton as a fifth seed playing 12th seeded Miami (the one in Florida, not the one in Ohio). For what it's worth, no Ivy team has ever been higher than a nine, which Princeton was two years ago.
And, if TigerBlog is right about the location of the 1998 Harvard win over Stanford, then Stanford is the site of the only win ever by an Ivy League team in the NCAA tournament.
Still, TB can't help but think there will be a little benefit of the doubt given to Princeton when the committee makes its ultimate decision. An undefeated Ivy League team? One that has generated a ton of publicity?
Maybe TB is way off the mark here. But send that team 3,000 miles from home?
It seems 1) not right and 2) unlikely.
So the women's basketball team is the biggest winner right now at Princeton. It's not the only winner.
While Princeton waits for some good news in the women's basketball selections, yesterday was a pretty good day for the wrestling team.
Princeton had three automatic qualifiers to the NCAA wrestling championships after last weekend's EIWA championships. Those three were joined yesterday by two at-large selections.
From the release on goprincetontigers.com:
Juniors Abram Ayala (197) and Chris Perez (149) joined sophomore Jorfdan Laster (141) as automatic qualifiers during last weekend's EIWA Championships, when Princeton finished seventh as a team despite having only nine wrestlers in competition. Sophomore Brett Harner (184), who defaulted from the tournament due to injury, and freshman Jonathan Schleifer (165) earned at-large bids because of the quality of their regular season.
The five wrestlers who advanced to the NCAAs - to be held in St. Louis next weekend - tied the program record for the most ever to advance to the championships.
Also from the release:
The group is just the third five-man Princeton squad to qualify for the NCAA Championships in the same year. In 1975, Dennis Underkoffler '76, Kevin Roesch '78, Randy Schutte '75, Bill Miron '78, and Mike Murburg '77 qualified. In 1978, when Princeton won its most recent EIWA Championship, the quintet of Roesch, Steve Grubman '78, John Sefter '78, Keith Ely '79 and Bill Hawley '80 qualified.
Again, it's hard to overstate how much Chris Ayres and his staff have done to rebuild Princeton wrestling. Sending five wrestlers to the NCAA championships? A few years back that didn't seem possible.
Meanwhile, there are some other victors as well.
Harrison Wagner and Corey Okubo earned spots in the NCAA men's swimming and diving championships, which will be held in Iowa City. Wagner, a senior, has the 16th-best time in the 50 free in the country. Okubo, a freshman, has the 23rd-best 400 IM time - as well as the Ivy League record.
Princeton will also compete in the relay events, and it is up to the Princeton staff to decide which four will swim.
On the women's side, diver Caitlin Chambers will also be in the NCAA championships, these to be held in Greensboro. Chambers will compete on the 1-meter and 3-meter and the platform.
And in women's track and field, Megan Curham earned herself a trip to the NCAA championships this weekend in Fayetteville, Ark. She will run in the 5,000 meters tomorrow night at 8:25.
It's March. NCAA championship time.
For some, their travel is already set.
For the women's basketball team, the hope is that there will be no travel at all.
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Just Perfect
TigerBlog doesn't need many words today. He doesn't need any, actually.
He can tell the whole story with just numbers.
30-0.
There you have it.
The Princeton women's basketball team completed an incredible feat yesterday when it knocked off Penn 55-42. The result was a perfect 30-0 regular season with a run of dominance that includes 28 wins by double figures and 20 games in which Princeton led by at least 20 points at some point.
The Tigers did so much to destroy any reasonable expectations that it seemed unusual that the game yesterday stayed close into the second half. Keep in mind, this was a double-figure win over a team with an RPI of 49 that had won nine straight games.
Princeton's 30-0 romp through the 2014-15 regular season included four wins against teams with an RPI in the top 50 and a total of nine wins against teams with an RPI in the top 100.
Oh, and of those nine wins? Eight of them were by double figures.
The question looking forward is whether or not the 30-0 record will bring the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament to Jadwin Gym. Will Princeton get to play at home?
The fact that this is even under discussion shows you how ridiculous Princeton's season has been. An Ivy team with home court in the NCAA?
The women's basketball selections will be announced Monday at 7. Between now and then, it's all speculation.
There will also be a continuation of the media crush that has descended on this team, including some time with ESPN's College GameDay.
And then it'll be time for the NCAA tournament. Only once has an Ivy League women's team won an NCAA tournament game, back in 1998, when Harvard defeated injury-ravaged Stanford.
All of that is still to come.
For today, it's a chance to step back and marvel at a team that went 30-0.
No Ivy League women's basketball had ever won even its first 10 games of the season. The Tigers eclipsed the 28-0 start of the 1971 Penn men for the best start in league history.
It's not just that Princeton is unbeaten. It's that Princeton has annihilated these teams, overwhelmed them often from the opening tip.
It's been extraordinary to watch. It's so beyond the spectrum of what a basketball season is supposed to be. Teams aren't supposed to win 28 games by double figures - and have no team stay within six of them, for that matter.
It's even harder in the Ivy League, TigerBlog supposes, where games are played on Fridays and then Saturdays. Surely one of those Saturday nights would be an off-night, where nothing is falling. Surely there has to be a night or two when it just doesn't go your way - or when an opponent who usually shoots 35% as a team shoots 65%.
But no. Not this team. Not this year.
There was no let up at any point. There was no off-night. Even when pushed - like at Yale or yesterday, when Penn had six possessions in the second half with a chance to take the lead - Princeton responded and executed when needed.
Maybe it's because Princeton is a team of great balance. It can score and defend. It can shoot from the outside and the inside. It can rebound at both ends of the court.
It has an experienced starting five and depth on the bench, and it doesn't need any one or two players to simply carry the team night after night.
TigerBlog is a history guy, and he's been wondering where this 30-0 run ranks all-time in Princeton athletic history.
It's way, way up there.
It's really hard to compare achievements across sports. Is going 30-0 in women's basketball during the regular season better than winning the NCAA field hockey championship or getting to a women's soccer Final Four?
It all depends on your perspective, TB supposes. TigerBlog mentions those two because they are achievements by Princeton teams that, like being 30-0, are unmatched in Ivy League women's history.
TigerBlog supposes that the answer to this question depends on what happens next week in the NCAA tournament.
For now, though, 30-0 stands on its own merit.
Keep in mind this as well: Princeton and Penn were tied for first in the Ivy League's preseason poll. And when Princeton's Class of 2013 - the Niveen Rasheed class - graduated and Penn won last year, it wasn't outrageous to think that the teams were fairly even for 2015.
Instead, Princeton did something historic.
The first person to mention 30-0 to TigerBlog was Andrew Borders, his colleague in the Office of Athletic Communications. Andrew casually said that Princeton would be 30-0 when the team was something like 4-0 or 5-0, before it ever played at Michigan.
When TB heard this, he scoffed. It seemed ridiculous.
30-0? No way. No chance. Impossible.
30-0? As of yesterday, that's Princeton's record.
30-0.
Nothing else really needs to be said.
Well, maybe this:
Princeton women's basketball 2014-15. This is what greatness looks like.
If you saw them play, you know exactly what TigerBlog means.
He can tell the whole story with just numbers.
30-0.
There you have it.
The Princeton women's basketball team completed an incredible feat yesterday when it knocked off Penn 55-42. The result was a perfect 30-0 regular season with a run of dominance that includes 28 wins by double figures and 20 games in which Princeton led by at least 20 points at some point.
The Tigers did so much to destroy any reasonable expectations that it seemed unusual that the game yesterday stayed close into the second half. Keep in mind, this was a double-figure win over a team with an RPI of 49 that had won nine straight games.
Princeton's 30-0 romp through the 2014-15 regular season included four wins against teams with an RPI in the top 50 and a total of nine wins against teams with an RPI in the top 100.
Oh, and of those nine wins? Eight of them were by double figures.
The question looking forward is whether or not the 30-0 record will bring the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament to Jadwin Gym. Will Princeton get to play at home?
The fact that this is even under discussion shows you how ridiculous Princeton's season has been. An Ivy team with home court in the NCAA?
The women's basketball selections will be announced Monday at 7. Between now and then, it's all speculation.
There will also be a continuation of the media crush that has descended on this team, including some time with ESPN's College GameDay.
And then it'll be time for the NCAA tournament. Only once has an Ivy League women's team won an NCAA tournament game, back in 1998, when Harvard defeated injury-ravaged Stanford.
All of that is still to come.
For today, it's a chance to step back and marvel at a team that went 30-0.
No Ivy League women's basketball had ever won even its first 10 games of the season. The Tigers eclipsed the 28-0 start of the 1971 Penn men for the best start in league history.
It's not just that Princeton is unbeaten. It's that Princeton has annihilated these teams, overwhelmed them often from the opening tip.
It's been extraordinary to watch. It's so beyond the spectrum of what a basketball season is supposed to be. Teams aren't supposed to win 28 games by double figures - and have no team stay within six of them, for that matter.
It's even harder in the Ivy League, TigerBlog supposes, where games are played on Fridays and then Saturdays. Surely one of those Saturday nights would be an off-night, where nothing is falling. Surely there has to be a night or two when it just doesn't go your way - or when an opponent who usually shoots 35% as a team shoots 65%.
But no. Not this team. Not this year.
There was no let up at any point. There was no off-night. Even when pushed - like at Yale or yesterday, when Penn had six possessions in the second half with a chance to take the lead - Princeton responded and executed when needed.
Maybe it's because Princeton is a team of great balance. It can score and defend. It can shoot from the outside and the inside. It can rebound at both ends of the court.
It has an experienced starting five and depth on the bench, and it doesn't need any one or two players to simply carry the team night after night.
TigerBlog is a history guy, and he's been wondering where this 30-0 run ranks all-time in Princeton athletic history.
It's way, way up there.
It's really hard to compare achievements across sports. Is going 30-0 in women's basketball during the regular season better than winning the NCAA field hockey championship or getting to a women's soccer Final Four?
It all depends on your perspective, TB supposes. TigerBlog mentions those two because they are achievements by Princeton teams that, like being 30-0, are unmatched in Ivy League women's history.
TigerBlog supposes that the answer to this question depends on what happens next week in the NCAA tournament.
For now, though, 30-0 stands on its own merit.
Keep in mind this as well: Princeton and Penn were tied for first in the Ivy League's preseason poll. And when Princeton's Class of 2013 - the Niveen Rasheed class - graduated and Penn won last year, it wasn't outrageous to think that the teams were fairly even for 2015.
Instead, Princeton did something historic.
The first person to mention 30-0 to TigerBlog was Andrew Borders, his colleague in the Office of Athletic Communications. Andrew casually said that Princeton would be 30-0 when the team was something like 4-0 or 5-0, before it ever played at Michigan.
When TB heard this, he scoffed. It seemed ridiculous.
30-0? No way. No chance. Impossible.
30-0? As of yesterday, that's Princeton's record.
30-0.
Nothing else really needs to be said.
Well, maybe this:
Princeton women's basketball 2014-15. This is what greatness looks like.
If you saw them play, you know exactly what TigerBlog means.
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
29 Straight Vs. 9 Straight
During this current winning streak, only one game has been decided by fewer than 10 points. Most have been over by halftime.
Now that the regular season is ending, the team is looking to win its last one before the postseason, where it hopes to make a little noise and be a tough out.
TigerBlog speaks, of course, about the Penn women's basketball team.
Penn has won nine straight, by an average margin of 16 points per game. No Ivy team in that stretch has really challenged the Quakers, who haven't had a team stay within 10 points of them in nearly a month.
So if you're thinking the Princeton women's basketball team is going to roll the balls out in the Palestra tonight and stomp Penn en route to a 30-0 regular season, well, be careful.
Penn has a lot on its side. It has the pride of the defending champion. It turned a blowout loss to Princeton in its Ivy opener a year ago into a blowout win over Princeton in the regular-season finale. It has an RPI of 49.
And, more than anything else, Penn will be foaming at its collective mouth for the chance to derail the Princeton express.
You don't think Penn is tired of reading about and seeing Princeton all over everywhere for its perfect record?
Princeton is 29-0 as it heads to Philadelphia for a game that tips at 5 p.m. and can be seen on CBS College Sports or heard on WPRB FM 103.3. What seemed ludicrous when it was first thought about a few months ago - the idea of 30-0 - is now just 40 minutes away.
Princeton, too, has a lot on its side. The Tigers know full well that the only thing between them and six Ivy titles and NCAA trips in the last six years was last year's season-finale at Jadwin, an 80-64 win by the Quakers in a winner-take-all showdown, so there is a ton of motivation for this one.
Beyond that, Princeton is playing for history. TigerBlog doesn't have to say anything about what it would mean to go 30-0. And you don't get to 29-0 without having overwhelming talent that plays well together.
Finally, in addition to that, there's the idea of wanting to do well in the NCAA tournament. And that's something that will be aided by a better seed and possibly playing at home, two things that depend on a win tonight.
No matter what happens tonight, Princeton is headed to the NCAA tournament. Penn is headed to the WNIT - though a win over a Top 20 RPI team with Penn's current RPI?
How different it could have been.
Back on Feb. 6 at the Palestra, Penn fell behind Cornell by 18 in the second half, cut it to four and then ultimately lost 60-49.
Were it not for that game, Penn would be 12-1 in the league, and oh what a difference that would have made.
Can you imagine what that would be like? Princeton, at 29-0, still not guaranteed of the league's automatic bid, faced with the prospect of a playoff game if it didn't get to 30-0 just to be assured of a spot in the NCAAs?
It's been exactly two months since Princeton defeated Penn 83-54 at Jadwin in the Ivy opener. The Tigers led by 10 at the half and then blew the game wide open at the start of the second.
Remember, though, that Princeton had an eerily similar 84-53 win over Penn at the Palestra in the 2014 Ivy opener, and remember what happened in the rematch.
Princeton certainly remembers what happened. There's nobody in the Tiger locker room who has gotten past that, the lone blemish on a six-year run of dominance.
It all adds up to what should be an incredibly charged atmosphere in the Palestra this evening.
It's a doubleheader of course, with the Penn-Princeton men at 7:30. It'll be the final game for Jerome Allen as the Quaker head coach. Princeton is locked into third place, behind Yale and Harvard, who tied for the league title and will meet Saturday also at the Palestra for the league's automatic NCAA tournament bid.
Meanwhile, back at the women's game, one long winning streak will end tonight.
Either way, it's going to be a game that is long remembered in Ivy League women's basketball history, really as much as any TigerBlog can remember.
Either Princeton is going to make history by going 30-0, or Penn is going to make history by denying 30-0.
No, it's not what it would have been had Penn not lost to Cornell.
Still, how can you not be excited about this one?
Now that the regular season is ending, the team is looking to win its last one before the postseason, where it hopes to make a little noise and be a tough out.
TigerBlog speaks, of course, about the Penn women's basketball team.
Penn has won nine straight, by an average margin of 16 points per game. No Ivy team in that stretch has really challenged the Quakers, who haven't had a team stay within 10 points of them in nearly a month.
So if you're thinking the Princeton women's basketball team is going to roll the balls out in the Palestra tonight and stomp Penn en route to a 30-0 regular season, well, be careful.
Penn has a lot on its side. It has the pride of the defending champion. It turned a blowout loss to Princeton in its Ivy opener a year ago into a blowout win over Princeton in the regular-season finale. It has an RPI of 49.
And, more than anything else, Penn will be foaming at its collective mouth for the chance to derail the Princeton express.
You don't think Penn is tired of reading about and seeing Princeton all over everywhere for its perfect record?
Princeton is 29-0 as it heads to Philadelphia for a game that tips at 5 p.m. and can be seen on CBS College Sports or heard on WPRB FM 103.3. What seemed ludicrous when it was first thought about a few months ago - the idea of 30-0 - is now just 40 minutes away.
Princeton, too, has a lot on its side. The Tigers know full well that the only thing between them and six Ivy titles and NCAA trips in the last six years was last year's season-finale at Jadwin, an 80-64 win by the Quakers in a winner-take-all showdown, so there is a ton of motivation for this one.
Beyond that, Princeton is playing for history. TigerBlog doesn't have to say anything about what it would mean to go 30-0. And you don't get to 29-0 without having overwhelming talent that plays well together.
Finally, in addition to that, there's the idea of wanting to do well in the NCAA tournament. And that's something that will be aided by a better seed and possibly playing at home, two things that depend on a win tonight.
No matter what happens tonight, Princeton is headed to the NCAA tournament. Penn is headed to the WNIT - though a win over a Top 20 RPI team with Penn's current RPI?
How different it could have been.
Back on Feb. 6 at the Palestra, Penn fell behind Cornell by 18 in the second half, cut it to four and then ultimately lost 60-49.
Were it not for that game, Penn would be 12-1 in the league, and oh what a difference that would have made.
Can you imagine what that would be like? Princeton, at 29-0, still not guaranteed of the league's automatic bid, faced with the prospect of a playoff game if it didn't get to 30-0 just to be assured of a spot in the NCAAs?
It's been exactly two months since Princeton defeated Penn 83-54 at Jadwin in the Ivy opener. The Tigers led by 10 at the half and then blew the game wide open at the start of the second.
Remember, though, that Princeton had an eerily similar 84-53 win over Penn at the Palestra in the 2014 Ivy opener, and remember what happened in the rematch.
Princeton certainly remembers what happened. There's nobody in the Tiger locker room who has gotten past that, the lone blemish on a six-year run of dominance.
It all adds up to what should be an incredibly charged atmosphere in the Palestra this evening.
It's a doubleheader of course, with the Penn-Princeton men at 7:30. It'll be the final game for Jerome Allen as the Quaker head coach. Princeton is locked into third place, behind Yale and Harvard, who tied for the league title and will meet Saturday also at the Palestra for the league's automatic NCAA tournament bid.
Meanwhile, back at the women's game, one long winning streak will end tonight.
Either way, it's going to be a game that is long remembered in Ivy League women's basketball history, really as much as any TigerBlog can remember.
Either Princeton is going to make history by going 30-0, or Penn is going to make history by denying 30-0.
No, it's not what it would have been had Penn not lost to Cornell.
Still, how can you not be excited about this one?
Monday, March 9, 2015
A Wild Saturday Night In Ivy Hoops
The Princeton men's basketball team picked the wrong night to play one of the most exciting games ever played in Jadwin Gym.
TigerBlog was on his way back from the men's lacrosse game at Maryland Saturday, and he wouldn't be able to get to Jadwin in time for the men's basketball game against Columbia. He was able to listen to the first half on WPRB with Derek Jones and Noah Savage - they are really good - and then saw the second half on the Ivy League Digital Network, with Derek and Noah again.
Oh, and before he gets too deep into basketball, TigerBlog can sum up the men's lacrosse game easily enough - it happens. Move on. Lots of season left. Big game Saturday at Penn.
Okay, back at hoops.
The Princeton-Columbia game, an 85-83 Tiger win, at Jadwin Saturday night was epic.
Columbia's Maodo Lo set the Ivy League record with 11 three-pointers and came within three of the building record for points in a game. Lo finished with 37, and he came ridiculously close to tying the record of 40 set by Monmouth's Rahsaan Johnson in 2001.
How close did Lo come? Really, really, really close, as his potential game-winning three-pointer as time expired - a running off-balance try from just in front of his bench - rolled around the rim, hung around awhile, looked like it was going in and then just fell out.
Before that, Princeton had closed on an 11-0 run. Columbia led 83-74 with just over two minutes left, but Princeton got an and-one from Hans Brase, two foul shots from Pete Miller and a three-pointer from Clay Wilson to make it 83-82. Brase then put the Tigers up with a spinning move to the basket, and Wilson made one of two foul shots with 2.4 seconds left, setting up the near-miss from Lo.
It's impossible to overstate how insanely good Lo was. He got on one of those incredible roles shooters get on, to the point where it seems impossible that he's going to miss. He didn't miss often, going 11 for 15 from three-point range.
When it was over, Princeton had swept the weekend and clinched third place in the league.
Ah, but as TB said, these two teams picked the wrong night to play that game.
Why? There was a lot of other things that happened Saturday night.
TigerBlog had the Princeton-Columbia women and the Yale-Dartmouth men on split screen after the Tiger men's game ended. He also had Princeton-Dartmouth hockey going as well.
As for the two basketball games, it was like this. Princeton and Yale needed wins to clinch outright Ivy championships and automatic bids to the NCAA.
That Princeton would win was as close to a certainty as there is in sports, and that's how it came to be. Princeton defeated Columbia 63-44 to improve to 29-0 overall and 13-0 in the league. Penn, at 11-2, cannot catch the Tigers, though the Quakers can ruin Princeton's quest for a perfect regular season when they meet tomorrow night at the Palestra.
Anyway, the Princeton game and Yale-Dartmouth game were on about the same timeline, at least until they got to the final two minutes. Then the Princeton game sprinted to the finish, while Yale crawled and crawled and crawled.
Yale defeated Harvard Friday night in the huge showdown for first place, clinching a tie for the men's championship for the Bulldogs. All that stood between Yale and its first NCAA tournament since 1962 was Dartmouth.
The Big Green, of course, have been hot of late, having won four straight and five of six before taking on the Bulldogs. Yale led throughout but couldn't completely shake the Big Green, but it still looked all the way to the end like it would be a Yale win.
In fact, TigerBlog was watching the two games to see the contrast in championship celebrations. Princeton's women were a lock to win the game. TB didn't figure it would be a massive celebration, and it wasn't.
Yale? TB was sure that this would be one excited group.
Only it never came to that. Dartmouth erased a five-point deficit in the final 35 seconds and four-point deficit in the final 24 seconds and won it with a beautiful out-of-bounds play - after a length-of-the-court pass was knocked out of bounds by Yale, completely changing the dynamic of the final 2.3 seconds.
It was shocking. TigerBlog could hardly believe what he saw.
It was an indescribable loss for Yale. Actually, it made TigerBlog think - on a much, much, much smaller scale - about how the U.S. Olympic hockey team in 1980 still had to beat Finland after beating the Soviets.
Indescribable, but not season-ending. Now it'll be Yale and Harvard in a one-game playoff Saturday at the Palestra for the Ivy League's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
Prevailing wisdom among those TB spoke to yesterday suggested that it's going to be tough for Yale to come back emotionally after having come so close to sewing it up. TigerBlog disagrees. No, it won't be easy. And yes, the mental part is going to be the tough part.
But at least for Yale, it didn't end in Hanover. In fact, if Yale can win Saturday, it'll be better in the long run, since the Bulldogs will have a game between Saturday and the NCAA tournament.
Anyway, it was a wild night in the Ivy League. When it was over, all anyone wanted to talk about was Yale.
That's a shame for Princeton and Maodo Lo, who put on a show like few that have ever been seen in Jadwin Gym.
Just not on the right night.
TigerBlog was on his way back from the men's lacrosse game at Maryland Saturday, and he wouldn't be able to get to Jadwin in time for the men's basketball game against Columbia. He was able to listen to the first half on WPRB with Derek Jones and Noah Savage - they are really good - and then saw the second half on the Ivy League Digital Network, with Derek and Noah again.
Oh, and before he gets too deep into basketball, TigerBlog can sum up the men's lacrosse game easily enough - it happens. Move on. Lots of season left. Big game Saturday at Penn.
Okay, back at hoops.
The Princeton-Columbia game, an 85-83 Tiger win, at Jadwin Saturday night was epic.
Columbia's Maodo Lo set the Ivy League record with 11 three-pointers and came within three of the building record for points in a game. Lo finished with 37, and he came ridiculously close to tying the record of 40 set by Monmouth's Rahsaan Johnson in 2001.
How close did Lo come? Really, really, really close, as his potential game-winning three-pointer as time expired - a running off-balance try from just in front of his bench - rolled around the rim, hung around awhile, looked like it was going in and then just fell out.
Before that, Princeton had closed on an 11-0 run. Columbia led 83-74 with just over two minutes left, but Princeton got an and-one from Hans Brase, two foul shots from Pete Miller and a three-pointer from Clay Wilson to make it 83-82. Brase then put the Tigers up with a spinning move to the basket, and Wilson made one of two foul shots with 2.4 seconds left, setting up the near-miss from Lo.
It's impossible to overstate how insanely good Lo was. He got on one of those incredible roles shooters get on, to the point where it seems impossible that he's going to miss. He didn't miss often, going 11 for 15 from three-point range.
When it was over, Princeton had swept the weekend and clinched third place in the league.
Ah, but as TB said, these two teams picked the wrong night to play that game.
Why? There was a lot of other things that happened Saturday night.
TigerBlog had the Princeton-Columbia women and the Yale-Dartmouth men on split screen after the Tiger men's game ended. He also had Princeton-Dartmouth hockey going as well.
As for the two basketball games, it was like this. Princeton and Yale needed wins to clinch outright Ivy championships and automatic bids to the NCAA.
That Princeton would win was as close to a certainty as there is in sports, and that's how it came to be. Princeton defeated Columbia 63-44 to improve to 29-0 overall and 13-0 in the league. Penn, at 11-2, cannot catch the Tigers, though the Quakers can ruin Princeton's quest for a perfect regular season when they meet tomorrow night at the Palestra.
Anyway, the Princeton game and Yale-Dartmouth game were on about the same timeline, at least until they got to the final two minutes. Then the Princeton game sprinted to the finish, while Yale crawled and crawled and crawled.
Yale defeated Harvard Friday night in the huge showdown for first place, clinching a tie for the men's championship for the Bulldogs. All that stood between Yale and its first NCAA tournament since 1962 was Dartmouth.
The Big Green, of course, have been hot of late, having won four straight and five of six before taking on the Bulldogs. Yale led throughout but couldn't completely shake the Big Green, but it still looked all the way to the end like it would be a Yale win.
In fact, TigerBlog was watching the two games to see the contrast in championship celebrations. Princeton's women were a lock to win the game. TB didn't figure it would be a massive celebration, and it wasn't.
Yale? TB was sure that this would be one excited group.
Only it never came to that. Dartmouth erased a five-point deficit in the final 35 seconds and four-point deficit in the final 24 seconds and won it with a beautiful out-of-bounds play - after a length-of-the-court pass was knocked out of bounds by Yale, completely changing the dynamic of the final 2.3 seconds.
It was shocking. TigerBlog could hardly believe what he saw.
It was an indescribable loss for Yale. Actually, it made TigerBlog think - on a much, much, much smaller scale - about how the U.S. Olympic hockey team in 1980 still had to beat Finland after beating the Soviets.
Indescribable, but not season-ending. Now it'll be Yale and Harvard in a one-game playoff Saturday at the Palestra for the Ivy League's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
Prevailing wisdom among those TB spoke to yesterday suggested that it's going to be tough for Yale to come back emotionally after having come so close to sewing it up. TigerBlog disagrees. No, it won't be easy. And yes, the mental part is going to be the tough part.
But at least for Yale, it didn't end in Hanover. In fact, if Yale can win Saturday, it'll be better in the long run, since the Bulldogs will have a game between Saturday and the NCAA tournament.
Anyway, it was a wild night in the Ivy League. When it was over, all anyone wanted to talk about was Yale.
That's a shame for Princeton and Maodo Lo, who put on a show like few that have ever been seen in Jadwin Gym.
Just not on the right night.
Friday, March 6, 2015
50 Years Later
As TigerBlog mentioned the other day, he's been covering Princeton sports since before any current Princeton athlete was born.
That's a long time. He's seen in a lot in his more than 25 years around here.
And yet, if he can do match correctly, he's been around for about 17% of Princeton's athletic history. That's nearly 26 years out of the 150 since it all started, back with a baseball game in 1864.
Okay, you want to say that most of the first 15 or so of Princeton athletics was pretty hit or miss? And that women didn't start playing until the last 45 years? So maybe TB has been around for closer to 20% or so. Maybe even 25%?
That's a lot of stuff that happened before TB's time.
TigerBlog was a history major. One of the best parts about his job at Princeton has been working in an athletic department so steeped in history.
TB figures he knows more than most about the history of the Tigers, from that first date in 1864 through the present. To him, though, that's all it is, history.
He's seen pictures of Palmer Stadium when it was packed and when the parking lot was jammed - with horses.
Actually, speaking of Palmer Stadium, there are way more people who work in the department who never were in Palmer Stadium than those who were around when the stadium was around. That's pretty freaky.
One person who certainly was around Palmer Stadium is John McPhee. TB loves to talk to him about his experiences as a child, when his father was the Princeton athletics doctor. And as a student. And even after his graduation.
Why the nostalgia?
This month marks the 50th anniversary of the 1965 men's basketball team's appearance in the NCAA Final Four. It remains one of the great signature moments in the history of Princeton athletics.
Princeton went 23-6 and won the Ivy League with a 13-1 record. During the regular season, the Tigers played an epic game against Michigan in the final of the ECAC Holiday Festival, falling 80-78.
They then beat Penn State and North Carolina State to start the NCAA tournament, setting up a game against Providence in the quarterfinals. TigerBlog has heard Gary Walters, the point guard on Princeton's team back then, talk about how Providence cut down the nets after its win over St. Joe's, assuming that a win over Princeton and a Final Four trip was inevitable.
So what happened? Princeton destroyed Providence, winning 109-69, advancing to the Final Four in Portland. Princeton would lose in the semifinal to, of all teams, Michigan, before walloping Wichita State 118-82 in the third-place game, which no longer exists.
TigerBlog will be on Maryland's campus tomorrow, not far from Cole Field House, where the Princeton-Providence game was played. Later in the day, all but two of the members of the 1965 team will be on Carril Court at halftime of the men's games against Cornell, to be honored 50 years later.
TigerBlog's first conversation with Walters, by the way, came when he was still at the newspaper and Walters was still in the business world. TB called him as part of a preview story on the 25th anniversary celebration.
Included in the celebration tomorrow night will be Bill Bradley, who put up 41 against Providence and then 58 against Wichita State. The 58 points are the school record and are still the most ever in a Final Four game.
Maybe it's because Walters spent 20 years as Princeton's AD or because of how successful the team was, but TigerBlog has always marveled at how close it appears that the whole group has been. He could tell this 25 years ago, and it's still true now.
The 50th anniversary celebration got TigerBlog thinking about something. If he could go back to any one moment in Princeton Athletics history, what would it be?
Would it be the 1965 team, and the opportunity to see Bradley play as a Tiger? Or Dick Kazmaier in football? Or even all the way back to Hobey Baker?
Maybe it would be to see what Princeton sports were like in the 1800s. Or the football team of destiny in 1922? Or the first decade of the 1900s, when football began to look a bit more modernized and Princeton's athletic landscape grew with the addition of basketball, hockey, tennis, wrestling, soccer and cross country in a six-year span.
He would love to know what the earliest women's teams were like. He wonders what he would have thought back then about the thought of "girls" teams at Princeton. Would he have been on board with them? Or would he have been rooted in the old days?
The more he thinks about it, he realizes that it's an impossible question to answer.
The 1965 team would have been way, way up there. He knows that much.
For those, like TigerBlog, who missed out on seeing that team, they'll be out there on Carril Court tomorrow night.
Fifty years to the month after one of the greatest accomplishments in Princeton history.
That's a long time. He's seen in a lot in his more than 25 years around here.
And yet, if he can do match correctly, he's been around for about 17% of Princeton's athletic history. That's nearly 26 years out of the 150 since it all started, back with a baseball game in 1864.
Okay, you want to say that most of the first 15 or so of Princeton athletics was pretty hit or miss? And that women didn't start playing until the last 45 years? So maybe TB has been around for closer to 20% or so. Maybe even 25%?
That's a lot of stuff that happened before TB's time.
TigerBlog was a history major. One of the best parts about his job at Princeton has been working in an athletic department so steeped in history.
TB figures he knows more than most about the history of the Tigers, from that first date in 1864 through the present. To him, though, that's all it is, history.
He's seen pictures of Palmer Stadium when it was packed and when the parking lot was jammed - with horses.
Actually, speaking of Palmer Stadium, there are way more people who work in the department who never were in Palmer Stadium than those who were around when the stadium was around. That's pretty freaky.
One person who certainly was around Palmer Stadium is John McPhee. TB loves to talk to him about his experiences as a child, when his father was the Princeton athletics doctor. And as a student. And even after his graduation.
Why the nostalgia?
This month marks the 50th anniversary of the 1965 men's basketball team's appearance in the NCAA Final Four. It remains one of the great signature moments in the history of Princeton athletics.
Princeton went 23-6 and won the Ivy League with a 13-1 record. During the regular season, the Tigers played an epic game against Michigan in the final of the ECAC Holiday Festival, falling 80-78.
They then beat Penn State and North Carolina State to start the NCAA tournament, setting up a game against Providence in the quarterfinals. TigerBlog has heard Gary Walters, the point guard on Princeton's team back then, talk about how Providence cut down the nets after its win over St. Joe's, assuming that a win over Princeton and a Final Four trip was inevitable.
So what happened? Princeton destroyed Providence, winning 109-69, advancing to the Final Four in Portland. Princeton would lose in the semifinal to, of all teams, Michigan, before walloping Wichita State 118-82 in the third-place game, which no longer exists.
TigerBlog will be on Maryland's campus tomorrow, not far from Cole Field House, where the Princeton-Providence game was played. Later in the day, all but two of the members of the 1965 team will be on Carril Court at halftime of the men's games against Cornell, to be honored 50 years later.
TigerBlog's first conversation with Walters, by the way, came when he was still at the newspaper and Walters was still in the business world. TB called him as part of a preview story on the 25th anniversary celebration.
Included in the celebration tomorrow night will be Bill Bradley, who put up 41 against Providence and then 58 against Wichita State. The 58 points are the school record and are still the most ever in a Final Four game.
Maybe it's because Walters spent 20 years as Princeton's AD or because of how successful the team was, but TigerBlog has always marveled at how close it appears that the whole group has been. He could tell this 25 years ago, and it's still true now.
The 50th anniversary celebration got TigerBlog thinking about something. If he could go back to any one moment in Princeton Athletics history, what would it be?
Would it be the 1965 team, and the opportunity to see Bradley play as a Tiger? Or Dick Kazmaier in football? Or even all the way back to Hobey Baker?
Maybe it would be to see what Princeton sports were like in the 1800s. Or the football team of destiny in 1922? Or the first decade of the 1900s, when football began to look a bit more modernized and Princeton's athletic landscape grew with the addition of basketball, hockey, tennis, wrestling, soccer and cross country in a six-year span.
He would love to know what the earliest women's teams were like. He wonders what he would have thought back then about the thought of "girls" teams at Princeton. Would he have been on board with them? Or would he have been rooted in the old days?
The more he thinks about it, he realizes that it's an impossible question to answer.
The 1965 team would have been way, way up there. He knows that much.
For those, like TigerBlog, who missed out on seeing that team, they'll be out there on Carril Court tomorrow night.
Fifty years to the month after one of the greatest accomplishments in Princeton history.
Thursday, March 5, 2015
Weekend Forecast
Snow again? Sigh.
It's enough already. Enough with this winter stuff.
Here's how it's gone around here since Tuesday afternoon. First it started to sleet, which made the ride home really icy. Then it snowed for awhile. Then it sleeted some more as it started to warm up.
Eventually, it got above freezing, so it was just rain. And it rained all day yesterday, on and off at least. Then the temperature fell again, so that snow began.
Of course, every school in the area was cancelled before the snow began. And for awhile, it looked like it might not snow at all. It finally started around 5 AM.
By the time it ends later today, there could be around eight inches on the ground here, though TigerBlog thinks it'll be a little less. And then it's supposed to get cold, record-setting cold single-digit cold.
So, yes. Sigh.
It actually hasn't been that bad of a snow winter around here. Not like it has in Boston, where that city is only two inches away from the all-time record.
There haven't been any complete blizzards in the Princeton area. There's been snow here or there, though never more than five or six inches at once.
What there's been has been cold. Lots of that. It's been below 30 endlessly, for weeks. The normal high right now for Princeton is 47 degrees. The high for this day is 72, in 1991.
Forty-seven? This area hasn't been near that, except for yesterday, when it was in the upper 30s while it rained. Sunshine and a temp in the 40s? Not since December.
Oh well. The 10-day forecast is for a bunch of days like that. Sunshine. 40s. It'll be heavenly.
TigerBlog emailed with his men's lacrosse counterpart at Maryland to tell him that he would be there Saturday. Usual stuff. Media list. Rosters. And parking information.
TB was told that because the Maryland high school wrestling championships will be going on at Cole Field House that he might have to walk a little further than normal. It'll be 43 and sunny? TigerBlog is fine with a little walk.
TigerBlog will be on the road this weekend. So will most of Princeton's athletic events.
The only home events are men's basketball, against Cornell tomorrow night and Columbia Saturday night. And men's volleyball, home with Juniata tomorrow night and NJIT Saturday night. And men's tennis, against Army and Binghamton Sunday in Jadwin Gym.
The men's basketball team is in third place in the Ivy League. Princeton cannot catch Harvard or Yale, who are both 10-2 and tied for first in advance of their showdown tomorrow night in Cambridge.
The Tigers are 6-5 in the league, with the games this weekend and then Tuesday's game at Penn remaining. Cornell, Columbia and Dartmouth are all 5-7. With one win in the last three, Princeton will be no worse than a tie for third.
There are some pretty important events on the road.
The EIWA wrestling championships are at Lehigh this weekend, beginning tomorrow at 10 with first-round matchups; quarterfinal matches and wrestlebacks will start at 12:30. The semifinals will begin Saturday morning at 10, with wrestlebacks scheduled for a 12:30 start. The EIWA Hall of Fame inductions follow, as do the the 1st, 3rd and 5th place matches.
The path to the NCAA championships goes through this event.
It's hard to overstate how solid of a job Chris Ayres has done as head coach of the Princeton wrestling program. Keep in mind, this was a program that struggled to win a single match, and it is in the same league as Cornell, who is to Ivy wrestling what Princeton is to Ivy field hockey (minus the NCAA title).
This season, Princeton finished third in the Ivy League. The program produced Jonathan Schleifer, Princeton's first ever Ivy League Rookie of the Year. As in ever.
And now Princeton heads to the EIWA meet with six All-Ivy selections, the most in Ayres' tenure.
In addition to the wrestling, the NCAA fencing regionals are this weekend. Princeton, the NCAA champ two years ago, will be looking to qualify the maximum 12 fencers for the NCAA finals.
TigerBlog has no idea how it works. He'll leave it at that.
If you're going to be in Hanover, N.H., this weekend, you're in luck. You can see the Princeton men's hockey team play at Dartmouth in the ECAC opening round, a best-of-three with games definitely tomorrow and Saturday at 7.
And, if you're there, the women's lacrosse team will play its Ivy opener at 1, also at Dartmouth. It's a chance to see both teams play without ever leaving the same parking lot.
Princeton's women's lacrosse team is off to a 3-0 start and is ranked 10th nationally. The Tigers and Dartmouth usually have played in April, but the game is now the league opener this season.
If you're going to be at Dartmouth, you'll also see a snow-lined field.
Of course, you can come here and do that. It's even worse now than it was last week.
Stop. Already.
Stupid groundhog. TigerBlog is ready for spring.
It's enough already. Enough with this winter stuff.
Here's how it's gone around here since Tuesday afternoon. First it started to sleet, which made the ride home really icy. Then it snowed for awhile. Then it sleeted some more as it started to warm up.
Eventually, it got above freezing, so it was just rain. And it rained all day yesterday, on and off at least. Then the temperature fell again, so that snow began.
Of course, every school in the area was cancelled before the snow began. And for awhile, it looked like it might not snow at all. It finally started around 5 AM.
By the time it ends later today, there could be around eight inches on the ground here, though TigerBlog thinks it'll be a little less. And then it's supposed to get cold, record-setting cold single-digit cold.
So, yes. Sigh.
It actually hasn't been that bad of a snow winter around here. Not like it has in Boston, where that city is only two inches away from the all-time record.
There haven't been any complete blizzards in the Princeton area. There's been snow here or there, though never more than five or six inches at once.
What there's been has been cold. Lots of that. It's been below 30 endlessly, for weeks. The normal high right now for Princeton is 47 degrees. The high for this day is 72, in 1991.
Forty-seven? This area hasn't been near that, except for yesterday, when it was in the upper 30s while it rained. Sunshine and a temp in the 40s? Not since December.
Oh well. The 10-day forecast is for a bunch of days like that. Sunshine. 40s. It'll be heavenly.
TigerBlog emailed with his men's lacrosse counterpart at Maryland to tell him that he would be there Saturday. Usual stuff. Media list. Rosters. And parking information.
TB was told that because the Maryland high school wrestling championships will be going on at Cole Field House that he might have to walk a little further than normal. It'll be 43 and sunny? TigerBlog is fine with a little walk.
TigerBlog will be on the road this weekend. So will most of Princeton's athletic events.
The only home events are men's basketball, against Cornell tomorrow night and Columbia Saturday night. And men's volleyball, home with Juniata tomorrow night and NJIT Saturday night. And men's tennis, against Army and Binghamton Sunday in Jadwin Gym.
The men's basketball team is in third place in the Ivy League. Princeton cannot catch Harvard or Yale, who are both 10-2 and tied for first in advance of their showdown tomorrow night in Cambridge.
The Tigers are 6-5 in the league, with the games this weekend and then Tuesday's game at Penn remaining. Cornell, Columbia and Dartmouth are all 5-7. With one win in the last three, Princeton will be no worse than a tie for third.
There are some pretty important events on the road.
The EIWA wrestling championships are at Lehigh this weekend, beginning tomorrow at 10 with first-round matchups; quarterfinal matches and wrestlebacks will start at 12:30. The semifinals will begin Saturday morning at 10, with wrestlebacks scheduled for a 12:30 start. The EIWA Hall of Fame inductions follow, as do the the 1st, 3rd and 5th place matches.
The path to the NCAA championships goes through this event.
It's hard to overstate how solid of a job Chris Ayres has done as head coach of the Princeton wrestling program. Keep in mind, this was a program that struggled to win a single match, and it is in the same league as Cornell, who is to Ivy wrestling what Princeton is to Ivy field hockey (minus the NCAA title).
This season, Princeton finished third in the Ivy League. The program produced Jonathan Schleifer, Princeton's first ever Ivy League Rookie of the Year. As in ever.
And now Princeton heads to the EIWA meet with six All-Ivy selections, the most in Ayres' tenure.
In addition to the wrestling, the NCAA fencing regionals are this weekend. Princeton, the NCAA champ two years ago, will be looking to qualify the maximum 12 fencers for the NCAA finals.
TigerBlog has no idea how it works. He'll leave it at that.
If you're going to be in Hanover, N.H., this weekend, you're in luck. You can see the Princeton men's hockey team play at Dartmouth in the ECAC opening round, a best-of-three with games definitely tomorrow and Saturday at 7.
And, if you're there, the women's lacrosse team will play its Ivy opener at 1, also at Dartmouth. It's a chance to see both teams play without ever leaving the same parking lot.
Princeton's women's lacrosse team is off to a 3-0 start and is ranked 10th nationally. The Tigers and Dartmouth usually have played in April, but the game is now the league opener this season.
If you're going to be at Dartmouth, you'll also see a snow-lined field.
Of course, you can come here and do that. It's even worse now than it was last week.
Stop. Already.
Stupid groundhog. TigerBlog is ready for spring.
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
A Look At Lax
Johns Hopkins defeated Princeton 14-5 at Homewood Field in 2004. This game is significant for two reasons.
First, it is the last time the home team won a game in the series. It's not as long a streak as it seems, since the teams played at M&T Bank Stadium from 2007-10. Still, that is still seven straight on-campus games that have gone to the visiting team, which seems pretty interesting at the very least.
And what is the other reason that the 2004 game is significant?
It's the last time Princeton played a men's lacrosse game that TigerBlog was not at. While Hopkins was winning on its home field, TigerBlog was 450 miles north of there, watching Princeton close out the 2004 Ivy League men's basketball championship at Dartmouth.
Since then, TigerBlog has been at every single men's lacrosse game the Tigers have played. That's a streak that reached 159 straight games with last Saturday's game at Johns Hopkins.
Going back before 2004, TigerBlog didn't have a streak quite that long, though he has never missed a game that Princeton has played at Class of 1952 Stadium, dating back to when it opened, in 1997.
In other words, TigerBlog has seen a lot of Princeton lacrosse, going back 26 seasons, to when he first started covering the team. That was 1990, or before any current player was born.
Princeton has played 372 men's lacrosse team since the 1990 season started. TigerBlog figures he's missed, approximately, 25 of those games, meaning that he's seen Princeton play somewhere around 340-350 times.
And he can tell you that, factoring out all historical context and just judging on the game itself, that last Saturday's 16-15 win over Johns Hopkins - keeping the visitors' streak alive - was one of the five best of all of them. Maybe even three best. Maybe even best.
Keep in mind that TB has been around for six NCAA championships, four of which went into overtime. Obviously, all of those games were bigger than last Saturday's.
But just in terms of a game to watch? The game last Saturday trumped everything.
Princeton ran out to a 7-0 lead. Hopkins erased all but one of those goals in a five-minute stretch. Princeton tried to pull away but couldn't. Hopkins went on its own 4-0 run to go up two in the fourth quarter. Princeton tied it. Hopkins went up again. Princeton tied it again - this time with seven seconds left, on a goal by Ryan Ambler, who then appeared to win it in overtime, only to have the goal disallowed by what may or may not have been a good call. Even the replay doesn't make it clear.
Ultimately, it was Gavin McBride who ended it, dropping in a cross-crease feed from Riley Thompson with 1:07 left in the OT.
The game also featured one of the single best individual performances TigerBlog has ever seen by a Princeton men's lacrosse player. Zach Currier, a sophomore middie, was dominant all game, with two goals, three assists, 6 of 8 facing off and eight ground balls. And tenacity and grit and the ability to exert his will over every facet of the game, all of which were more important than any numbers he put up. He was, in one word, incredible.
When it was over, Princeton had done more than just win a lacrosse game. It had won a one-goal lacrosse game, something that was problematic for the Tigers the last two years, when the team went 3-7 in one-goal games. Reverse that, and Princeton would have been in the NCAA tournament both of those years.
Here's one thing TB does not want to hear, and he's heard it and read it already: Do not tell TigerBlog that Princeton is better without Tom Schreiber, the three-time first-team All-America who graduated a year ago. Schreiber is the best Princeton player of the last decade, and he made every player around him better. No, Princeton isn't better off without him.
So where is Princeton after three games? Well, first of all, it's not in Princeton, at least not for too many more games this year. The Tigers have played two of their five home games, and the game last weekend was the first of four straight on the road. Next up? At Maryland.
Right now, Princeton is ranked 10th in the media poll and 11th in the coaches' poll. Maryland is ranked one spot ahead of the Tigers in each.
And ahead of Maryland? Yale and Cornell. And just behind Princeton? Harvard. And a little further back? Penn and Brown. And in the receiving votes group? Future opponents Lehigh and Stony Brook.
In other words, the Ivy League is completely loaded this year and Princeton's schedule is tough.
This is a good thing, not a bad thing. Keep rooting for the league teams as they play non-conference games. Make sure that any league win is a good win. Clearly, Princeton is going to have a shot at some Top 10 and Top 20 wins, which are a huge part of the selections, should the Tigers need to get an at-large bid.
Princeton's offense is clicking, with goal totals of 14, 14 and 16 through three games, even though the temperature hasn't reached 30 yet for one second of those three games. Kip Orban and Mike MacDonald are Major League Lacrosse draftees, and Ambler is a proven veteran scorer. Even without Jake Froccaro - out the last two games due to injury - Princeton has gotten big production from McBride and especially Currier, who has opened up eyes all over the country the last two weeks.
This team shares the ball effortlessly, and it leads Division I in assists per game, which is a good stat in which to be No. 1.
Princeton has been without injured Mark Strabo and Will Reynolds, possibly the team's two best poles, and yet the Tigers have gotten contributions from any number of players on the defensive end, especially goalie Eric Sanschagrin.
And, with Currier and freshman Sam Bonafede, Princeton's face-off percentage has gone from 46% a year ago to 54% this year.
The next challenge is the Terps, who are the top defensive team in the country, allowing little more than five goals per game. And then Penn, the defending Ivy tournament champ, in the league opener. No Ivy game figures to be easy this year.
Still, through three games, there's a lot to like about these Tigers. They have gone from unranked to 20th to 18th to their current perch.
Where will they be at the end? That probably will be determined by how Princeton does in what figures to be several more one- or two-goal games.
That's how college lacrosse is now, with all kinds of parity and depth in Division I. Every game is tough.
The one last weekend certainly was. It was tough. And it was great.
And Princeton got a huge win out of it.
It was a great February for Princeton. March? Five opponents, four of whom are currently ranked.
It won't be easy. It'll definitely be fun.
First, it is the last time the home team won a game in the series. It's not as long a streak as it seems, since the teams played at M&T Bank Stadium from 2007-10. Still, that is still seven straight on-campus games that have gone to the visiting team, which seems pretty interesting at the very least.
And what is the other reason that the 2004 game is significant?
It's the last time Princeton played a men's lacrosse game that TigerBlog was not at. While Hopkins was winning on its home field, TigerBlog was 450 miles north of there, watching Princeton close out the 2004 Ivy League men's basketball championship at Dartmouth.
Since then, TigerBlog has been at every single men's lacrosse game the Tigers have played. That's a streak that reached 159 straight games with last Saturday's game at Johns Hopkins.
Going back before 2004, TigerBlog didn't have a streak quite that long, though he has never missed a game that Princeton has played at Class of 1952 Stadium, dating back to when it opened, in 1997.
In other words, TigerBlog has seen a lot of Princeton lacrosse, going back 26 seasons, to when he first started covering the team. That was 1990, or before any current player was born.
Princeton has played 372 men's lacrosse team since the 1990 season started. TigerBlog figures he's missed, approximately, 25 of those games, meaning that he's seen Princeton play somewhere around 340-350 times.
And he can tell you that, factoring out all historical context and just judging on the game itself, that last Saturday's 16-15 win over Johns Hopkins - keeping the visitors' streak alive - was one of the five best of all of them. Maybe even three best. Maybe even best.
Keep in mind that TB has been around for six NCAA championships, four of which went into overtime. Obviously, all of those games were bigger than last Saturday's.
But just in terms of a game to watch? The game last Saturday trumped everything.
Princeton ran out to a 7-0 lead. Hopkins erased all but one of those goals in a five-minute stretch. Princeton tried to pull away but couldn't. Hopkins went on its own 4-0 run to go up two in the fourth quarter. Princeton tied it. Hopkins went up again. Princeton tied it again - this time with seven seconds left, on a goal by Ryan Ambler, who then appeared to win it in overtime, only to have the goal disallowed by what may or may not have been a good call. Even the replay doesn't make it clear.
Ultimately, it was Gavin McBride who ended it, dropping in a cross-crease feed from Riley Thompson with 1:07 left in the OT.
The game also featured one of the single best individual performances TigerBlog has ever seen by a Princeton men's lacrosse player. Zach Currier, a sophomore middie, was dominant all game, with two goals, three assists, 6 of 8 facing off and eight ground balls. And tenacity and grit and the ability to exert his will over every facet of the game, all of which were more important than any numbers he put up. He was, in one word, incredible.
When it was over, Princeton had done more than just win a lacrosse game. It had won a one-goal lacrosse game, something that was problematic for the Tigers the last two years, when the team went 3-7 in one-goal games. Reverse that, and Princeton would have been in the NCAA tournament both of those years.
Here's one thing TB does not want to hear, and he's heard it and read it already: Do not tell TigerBlog that Princeton is better without Tom Schreiber, the three-time first-team All-America who graduated a year ago. Schreiber is the best Princeton player of the last decade, and he made every player around him better. No, Princeton isn't better off without him.
So where is Princeton after three games? Well, first of all, it's not in Princeton, at least not for too many more games this year. The Tigers have played two of their five home games, and the game last weekend was the first of four straight on the road. Next up? At Maryland.
Right now, Princeton is ranked 10th in the media poll and 11th in the coaches' poll. Maryland is ranked one spot ahead of the Tigers in each.
And ahead of Maryland? Yale and Cornell. And just behind Princeton? Harvard. And a little further back? Penn and Brown. And in the receiving votes group? Future opponents Lehigh and Stony Brook.
In other words, the Ivy League is completely loaded this year and Princeton's schedule is tough.
This is a good thing, not a bad thing. Keep rooting for the league teams as they play non-conference games. Make sure that any league win is a good win. Clearly, Princeton is going to have a shot at some Top 10 and Top 20 wins, which are a huge part of the selections, should the Tigers need to get an at-large bid.
Princeton's offense is clicking, with goal totals of 14, 14 and 16 through three games, even though the temperature hasn't reached 30 yet for one second of those three games. Kip Orban and Mike MacDonald are Major League Lacrosse draftees, and Ambler is a proven veteran scorer. Even without Jake Froccaro - out the last two games due to injury - Princeton has gotten big production from McBride and especially Currier, who has opened up eyes all over the country the last two weeks.
This team shares the ball effortlessly, and it leads Division I in assists per game, which is a good stat in which to be No. 1.
Princeton has been without injured Mark Strabo and Will Reynolds, possibly the team's two best poles, and yet the Tigers have gotten contributions from any number of players on the defensive end, especially goalie Eric Sanschagrin.
And, with Currier and freshman Sam Bonafede, Princeton's face-off percentage has gone from 46% a year ago to 54% this year.
The next challenge is the Terps, who are the top defensive team in the country, allowing little more than five goals per game. And then Penn, the defending Ivy tournament champ, in the league opener. No Ivy game figures to be easy this year.
Still, through three games, there's a lot to like about these Tigers. They have gone from unranked to 20th to 18th to their current perch.
Where will they be at the end? That probably will be determined by how Princeton does in what figures to be several more one- or two-goal games.
That's how college lacrosse is now, with all kinds of parity and depth in Division I. Every game is tough.
The one last weekend certainly was. It was tough. And it was great.
And Princeton got a huge win out of it.
It was a great February for Princeton. March? Five opponents, four of whom are currently ranked.
It won't be easy. It'll definitely be fun.
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
27-0
TigerBlog was walking out of Jadwin Gym yesterday afternoon when he saw what has become as much a part of the building as the statue of that guy all the way in the corner of the lobby.
Another day, another TV camera.
These days, the big story is the Princeton women's basketball team. And why woudn't it be?
The Tigers are now 27-0, just three games away from a perfect 30-0 regular season. Think about that. Three games away from 30-0.
Princeton is the lone undefeated team in Division I women's basketball. The Tigers are currently ranked 13th nationally.
These are unprecedented areas for an Ivy League women's team. A win Friday in Ithaca would tie the 1971 Penn men's team for the best start by an Ivy team; Princeton long ago shattered the women's record.
Were UConn or Notre Dame are undefeated this time of year - though neither one is - it's not abnormal in women's basketball. When it's Princeton?
It's a different story. And the media has embraced it completely.
The onslaught is, as TB has said, the same as it was for the men in 1998. Maybe this speaks to how much the women's game has been embraced in the last nearly 20 years. This kind of media attention would have been unthinkable back then.
Today? This season?
For Princeton's women, this has been a great by-product of this so far perfect season.
Yesterday it was channel 7 from New York, who will feature the Tigers tonight at 6 on the news. There was the familiar sight, a TV camera and reporter.
And the story is a bit different. TigerBlog doesn't like the implication that Princeton does it "right" and everyone else does it "wrong," because that's a bit snobby.
For TB, it's enough to say that Princeton is winning like this without having to in any way compromise its academic standing or the integrity of the institution. And its players? They are an extension of and reflection of the general student population, which is how it should be.
The media aren't the only ones who've noticed and bought in. Attendance at Jadwin from Saturday night's win over Brown was 2,097.
TigerBlog has wondered what Princeton would be ranked and how much media attention it would be getting if it had lost one of its non-league games and was 26-1 instead of 27-0.
Where Princeton is ranked now is 13th in the AP poll. The Tigers overwhelmed Yale 67-49 Friday night, leading 51-19 at one point before Yale closed in garbage time. Yale, as you recall, played Princeton to a six-point game the first time around.
Brown was peskier Saturday night, but Princeton still pulled away to win 79-67 after leading by only five at the half. Princeton has completely destroyed any reasonable expectations by demolishing pretty much every opponent.
About the only downside is ESPN's weekly bracketology, which for the first time in awhile didn't have Princeton at home in the NCAA tournament. Instead it had Princeton as a sixth-seed, playing in Iowa against DePaul.
And yet? TigerBlog will sound his weekly warning.
Standing between Princeton and perfection are Cornell Friday night, Columbia Saturday night and Penn next Tuesday.
The first time around, Princeton won those games by 28, 39 and 29 points. That averages to, well, a lot.
What does this mean for this weekend? Nothing. Before Princeton can worry about playing in the NCAA tournament - at home or anywhere else - it has to get to the tournament. And to do that, it has to win the Ivy League.
And to do that? Princeton would accomplish that with a sweep this weekend, or with a split and a Penn split. The really, really, really bad news would be if Princeton were to lose once this weekend and Penn would sweep, leaving Princeton only a game ahead of the Quakers with the game in Philly next week.
Penn, the defending champion, is having a really good year, with a 18-9 record overall and 9-2 Ivy record, with seven straight years. In a normal year - like last year, for instance, when Penn ended Princeton's four-year championship run - the Quakers would be right there in the mix.
Now? A 60-49 loss to Cornell is haunting Penn, who otherwise would be just a game back of the Tigers.
Princeton plays to finally wrap up the championship this weekend. And, beyond that, there is the at one time unthinkable goal of a perfect regular season.
You can see more about tomorrow on channel 7 in New York. And other places last week, this week - and hopefully next week.
Another day, another TV camera.
These days, the big story is the Princeton women's basketball team. And why woudn't it be?
The Tigers are now 27-0, just three games away from a perfect 30-0 regular season. Think about that. Three games away from 30-0.
Princeton is the lone undefeated team in Division I women's basketball. The Tigers are currently ranked 13th nationally.
These are unprecedented areas for an Ivy League women's team. A win Friday in Ithaca would tie the 1971 Penn men's team for the best start by an Ivy team; Princeton long ago shattered the women's record.
Were UConn or Notre Dame are undefeated this time of year - though neither one is - it's not abnormal in women's basketball. When it's Princeton?
It's a different story. And the media has embraced it completely.
The onslaught is, as TB has said, the same as it was for the men in 1998. Maybe this speaks to how much the women's game has been embraced in the last nearly 20 years. This kind of media attention would have been unthinkable back then.
Today? This season?
For Princeton's women, this has been a great by-product of this so far perfect season.
Yesterday it was channel 7 from New York, who will feature the Tigers tonight at 6 on the news. There was the familiar sight, a TV camera and reporter.
And the story is a bit different. TigerBlog doesn't like the implication that Princeton does it "right" and everyone else does it "wrong," because that's a bit snobby.
For TB, it's enough to say that Princeton is winning like this without having to in any way compromise its academic standing or the integrity of the institution. And its players? They are an extension of and reflection of the general student population, which is how it should be.
The media aren't the only ones who've noticed and bought in. Attendance at Jadwin from Saturday night's win over Brown was 2,097.
TigerBlog has wondered what Princeton would be ranked and how much media attention it would be getting if it had lost one of its non-league games and was 26-1 instead of 27-0.
Where Princeton is ranked now is 13th in the AP poll. The Tigers overwhelmed Yale 67-49 Friday night, leading 51-19 at one point before Yale closed in garbage time. Yale, as you recall, played Princeton to a six-point game the first time around.
Brown was peskier Saturday night, but Princeton still pulled away to win 79-67 after leading by only five at the half. Princeton has completely destroyed any reasonable expectations by demolishing pretty much every opponent.
About the only downside is ESPN's weekly bracketology, which for the first time in awhile didn't have Princeton at home in the NCAA tournament. Instead it had Princeton as a sixth-seed, playing in Iowa against DePaul.
And yet? TigerBlog will sound his weekly warning.
Standing between Princeton and perfection are Cornell Friday night, Columbia Saturday night and Penn next Tuesday.
The first time around, Princeton won those games by 28, 39 and 29 points. That averages to, well, a lot.
What does this mean for this weekend? Nothing. Before Princeton can worry about playing in the NCAA tournament - at home or anywhere else - it has to get to the tournament. And to do that, it has to win the Ivy League.
And to do that? Princeton would accomplish that with a sweep this weekend, or with a split and a Penn split. The really, really, really bad news would be if Princeton were to lose once this weekend and Penn would sweep, leaving Princeton only a game ahead of the Quakers with the game in Philly next week.
Penn, the defending champion, is having a really good year, with a 18-9 record overall and 9-2 Ivy record, with seven straight years. In a normal year - like last year, for instance, when Penn ended Princeton's four-year championship run - the Quakers would be right there in the mix.
Now? A 60-49 loss to Cornell is haunting Penn, who otherwise would be just a game back of the Tigers.
Princeton plays to finally wrap up the championship this weekend. And, beyond that, there is the at one time unthinkable goal of a perfect regular season.
You can see more about tomorrow on channel 7 in New York. And other places last week, this week - and hopefully next week.
Monday, March 2, 2015
More Titles For Fred And Rob
After a weekend that included as good a lacrosse game as he has ever seen, not to mention two more wins for the unbeaten women's basketball team and an incredible opening night performance by the baseball team, TigerBlog begins with two men who have been winning championships at Princeton since before he arrived there.
Wait, before those two guys, there were other things this weekend that stood out, most notably two women's squash players who reached the semifinals of the individual national championships, one of whom, 11th-seeded Nicole Bunyan, defeated third-seeded Danielle Letourneau of Cornell 11-9, 10-12, 11-9, 17-19, 12-10 in an epic quarterfinal.
Still, TigerBlog starts with men's track and field coach Fred Samara and men's swimming and diving coach Rob Orr.
There are only five coaches who predate TigerBlog at Princeton. Fred and Rob are two of them. The others are Susan Teeter (women's swimming and diving), Peter Farrell (women's track and field/cross country) and Chris Sailer (women's lacrosse).
This past weekend, Fred and Rob each added another championship to his respective mantel. Fred led the Tigers to the Ivy League Heptagonal indoor championship, while Rob added another Ivy title of his own. Both championships were blowouts.
Want to guess how many them have between them?
Let's start with this: Between them, they have coached for 74 years at Princeton.
They're very different people, Fred and Rob. If you want TigerBlog to give you one word to describe Fred, it's "strong." He's strong physically - anyone who has seen his workout regimens through the years can attest to that.
Remember, this is a man who competed alongside Bruce Jenner at the 1976 Olympic Games in the decathlon, finishing fifth despite a hamstring injury a few weeks before that kept him from being 100%. Now it's nearly 40 years later, and he looks like he is in the exact same shape he was back then.
He's also strong mentally. He tolerates no BS. He's direct, to the point, even when it means having a difficult conversation about something. TigerBlog has been on the receiving end of a handful of those - not many, but more than one - in his time at Princeton, and he came away with a respect for Fred's ability to be direct and, well, strong in his opinions.
As a result of all of this, Fred runs a strong program, one filled with athletes who reflect his mental toughness, and physical demeanor. Programs like that are ready to go when the times get the toughest.
He's tough, Fred, but he's fair. And he's funny. He can laugh at himself when the moment calls for it, and he has a very subtle sense of humor. He is a great foil for Farrell, in a Butch and Sundance sort of way, minus the bank robbery and such.
As for Rob Orr, if TigerBlog had to pick one word to describe him, it would be, well, TB isn't quite so sure. He asked his OAC colleague Craig Sachson, who knows Orr way better than TB does, to pick out a word, and Sachson came back with "beloved."
As in, beloved by his guys.
TigerBlog knows that Rob is a laid-back guy, one who follows "how are you" with some sort of funny quip as his response. He's a bit eccentric, but not really. He appears like he's not really fazed by anything going on around him and that all of this is one big joke.
Sachson said this about Orr, with whom he's worked for more than a decade: "He doesn't want to be interviewed, but he'll usually throw balls at the people I am interviewing." That's about right.
At the same time, he's definitely serious, especially when it comes to what goes on in his pool.
In that respect, he's a competitive man. TigerBlog has heard speak about issues that are important to him and his program, and, like Fred, he's very direct and strong. It's no wonder his swimmers love him. Like Fred he always has their backs. Like Fred, he's set the standard very high for them.
The final margin of victory for the track and field team was 63 points, which as TB understands is a lot. The final margin for the swimming and diving team was 232.5 points, which similarly is a lot.
These were dominant performances by teams coached by men who has lost nothing off their fastballs in all those years. Each year continues to be its own challenge for them, and year after year they meet that challenge.
In case you were wondering, that's 22 straight years of finishing first or second at the indoor Heps for Fred Samara. The last time Rob Orr didn't finish first or second in the Ivy League? How about never in his 36 seasons.
Oh, and how many championships? That's 18 indoor Heps titles and 36 Heps titles overall for Fred, and that's 22 Ivy titles for Rob.
That's a record of success that is really hard to fathom, for both men.
And so on this busy, successful weekend at Princeton, they're the two who stood out.
This isn't the first time.
Wait, before those two guys, there were other things this weekend that stood out, most notably two women's squash players who reached the semifinals of the individual national championships, one of whom, 11th-seeded Nicole Bunyan, defeated third-seeded Danielle Letourneau of Cornell 11-9, 10-12, 11-9, 17-19, 12-10 in an epic quarterfinal.
Still, TigerBlog starts with men's track and field coach Fred Samara and men's swimming and diving coach Rob Orr.
There are only five coaches who predate TigerBlog at Princeton. Fred and Rob are two of them. The others are Susan Teeter (women's swimming and diving), Peter Farrell (women's track and field/cross country) and Chris Sailer (women's lacrosse).
This past weekend, Fred and Rob each added another championship to his respective mantel. Fred led the Tigers to the Ivy League Heptagonal indoor championship, while Rob added another Ivy title of his own. Both championships were blowouts.
Want to guess how many them have between them?
Let's start with this: Between them, they have coached for 74 years at Princeton.
They're very different people, Fred and Rob. If you want TigerBlog to give you one word to describe Fred, it's "strong." He's strong physically - anyone who has seen his workout regimens through the years can attest to that.
Remember, this is a man who competed alongside Bruce Jenner at the 1976 Olympic Games in the decathlon, finishing fifth despite a hamstring injury a few weeks before that kept him from being 100%. Now it's nearly 40 years later, and he looks like he is in the exact same shape he was back then.
He's also strong mentally. He tolerates no BS. He's direct, to the point, even when it means having a difficult conversation about something. TigerBlog has been on the receiving end of a handful of those - not many, but more than one - in his time at Princeton, and he came away with a respect for Fred's ability to be direct and, well, strong in his opinions.
As a result of all of this, Fred runs a strong program, one filled with athletes who reflect his mental toughness, and physical demeanor. Programs like that are ready to go when the times get the toughest.
He's tough, Fred, but he's fair. And he's funny. He can laugh at himself when the moment calls for it, and he has a very subtle sense of humor. He is a great foil for Farrell, in a Butch and Sundance sort of way, minus the bank robbery and such.
As for Rob Orr, if TigerBlog had to pick one word to describe him, it would be, well, TB isn't quite so sure. He asked his OAC colleague Craig Sachson, who knows Orr way better than TB does, to pick out a word, and Sachson came back with "beloved."
As in, beloved by his guys.
TigerBlog knows that Rob is a laid-back guy, one who follows "how are you" with some sort of funny quip as his response. He's a bit eccentric, but not really. He appears like he's not really fazed by anything going on around him and that all of this is one big joke.
Sachson said this about Orr, with whom he's worked for more than a decade: "He doesn't want to be interviewed, but he'll usually throw balls at the people I am interviewing." That's about right.
At the same time, he's definitely serious, especially when it comes to what goes on in his pool.
In that respect, he's a competitive man. TigerBlog has heard speak about issues that are important to him and his program, and, like Fred, he's very direct and strong. It's no wonder his swimmers love him. Like Fred he always has their backs. Like Fred, he's set the standard very high for them.
The final margin of victory for the track and field team was 63 points, which as TB understands is a lot. The final margin for the swimming and diving team was 232.5 points, which similarly is a lot.
These were dominant performances by teams coached by men who has lost nothing off their fastballs in all those years. Each year continues to be its own challenge for them, and year after year they meet that challenge.
In case you were wondering, that's 22 straight years of finishing first or second at the indoor Heps for Fred Samara. The last time Rob Orr didn't finish first or second in the Ivy League? How about never in his 36 seasons.
Oh, and how many championships? That's 18 indoor Heps titles and 36 Heps titles overall for Fred, and that's 22 Ivy titles for Rob.
That's a record of success that is really hard to fathom, for both men.
And so on this busy, successful weekend at Princeton, they're the two who stood out.
This isn't the first time.
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