The Princeton men's track and field team won the outdoor Heps championship this past weekend, as you probably know by now.
Fred Samara, the men's track and field coach, led his team to the "triple crown" of championships in cross country and then indoor and outdoor Heps for the seventh time. No other men's program has ever done it, not even once.
Princeton's women have done it, twice actually. No other women's program has ever done it.
For Princeton, the men's outdoor title was the 11th Ivy League championship of the academic year. Harvard won the women's Heps, giving the Crimson 10 Ivy titles.
For Princeton, it's the 22nd time reaching double figures in Ivy titles in an academic year. For Harvard, it's the eighth time.
No other school has ever done so. Princeton, by the way, holds the record, with 15 in 2010-11.
This would be the fourth time Princeton and Harvard have both reached double figures in the same year. The other three were 1982-83, 1988-89 and 2011-12.
Princeton won six Ivy titles in 2013-14. The last time Princeton went consecutive academic years without reaching double figures? That would be 1991-92 and 1992-93.
Princeton has now reached double figures eight of the last nine years.
The Ivy League crowns a champion in 33 sports, and 30 of those champions - plus co-champions, in some cases - have already been won.
There are three remaining, and all three will be contested this weekend, all on the water, for that matter.
It's Sprints week for men's rowing and Ivy League championship week for women's rowing.
There is one prohibitive favorite in the three races, and that is the same team as last year - Brown's open women. Of course, a year ago, Brown didn't win as the prohibitive favorite.
No, a year ago, Princeton's women won and won fairly handily for that matter. Don't think that's escaped Brown's attention, by the way.
The top-seeded Bears already own an eight-second win over Princeton, the second-seed. The regular-season margin last year was three seconds, and Princeton then won at the Ivy championships by more than four seconds, so that was more than a seven-second turnaround.
On the men's side, the lightweight favorites are Cornell and Columbia, followed by Princeton.
The men's heavyweights? That field is the most wide-open, with Yale as the top seed, followed by Princeton and Harvard, with a Brown team that is lurking.
TigerBlog doesn't really know much about rowing. His colleague Craig Sachson does. Here are his previews:
Click here for women's open
Click here for men's heavyweight
Click here for men's lightweight
The end of the Ivy League sports season will also see the end of the chase for the Ivy League's unofficial all-sports points championship. This championship is not recognized officially by the league, and it awards points depend on finish in either the Ivy standings or championship competition, depending on how the league crowns its champ, depending on the sport.
There are eight points for first, seven for second and so on. In the case of ties, points are split, so two teams that tie for second both get 6.5.
Depending on whether you're Princeton or Harvard, you can word the history of the all-sports championship differently.
For Princeton, you can say your school has won 27 of the last 28. For Harvard, you can say your school won last year and is the defending champion.
Relax, Princeton fans. The Tigers have essentially locked up the 2014-15 championship.
Essentially, but not mathematically.
Princeton has a 12.5-point lead over Harvard entering the rowing championships. That means that Harvard can win all three boats and have Princeton finish fifth in all three and the Tigers would still win the overall points title.
How? Because Harvard would get eight points for first and Princeton would get four points for fifth. Multiple it by three, and Harvard would get 24 points to 12 for Princeton, a 12-point swing that would leave the Tigers still up by a half-point.
Of course, TigerBlog doesn't want to jinx anything.
On the other hand, it's not a real thing anyway.
Meanwhile, TB will go back to dealing with the idea that the 2014-15 Ivy League sports year is about to end, about 10 minutes after it seems like it began.
Thursday, May 14, 2015
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
Athletic Mortality
On a night that tugged at his emotional core, TigerBlog remembered back to the first time he ever used his GPS.
It wasn't that long ago. At least, looking back on it this morning, it doesn't seem that long ago.
It was March of 2012. He was headed to Kennett Square, outside of Philly, to see TigerBlog Jr.'s first high school lacrosse game. The GPS took him this way and that way, on one country road after another, until TB was sure he was completely lost and would miss the game.
Then, there it was, on his left. The field.
TB remembers the day. It was cold, but not freezing. Mostly what it was was windy. Very, very windy. He remembers a wind that whipped at him from right to left across the field. TigerBlog wore Princeton Lacrosse sweats and a Princeton Lacrosse jacket, and the home fans thought he was a coach there to scout a player.
He remembers the game too. TBJ was small at the time, about 10 inches shorter and 40 or 50 pounds lighter than he is now. He was a kid still, playing on a team with a big senior class. A boy goalie on a team of men.
The first quarter didn't start out too well. The first shot went in. So did the second and the third. His team trailed 5-2 at the end of the quarter, and he had made two saves.
He settled down, though. He would allow only three more goals the rest of the way and finish with 11 saves, including one in the final seconds to preserve a 9-8 win.
After he made the last save, he hurled the ball down the field as time expired. He was mobbed by the rest of his team, and TB has a video clip of the play, right down to the massive fist pump TBJ gave.
Yeah, it seems like yesterday.
It actually was yesterday when TBJ's high school career ended, with a 10-5 loss in the district tournament.
He made 15 saves last night, giving him 901 for his career. His 901st might have been his best, as he sprinted back to the crease after a turnover and dove fully extended to slap the ball away just in time.
TBJ played 3,470 minutes in goal for his high school team. That's more than 57 hours. He allowed 545 goals and made the 901 saves. He was lucky - he never got hurt, and his team won a lot more than it lost.
And then it was over. In a blink, he went from a boy to a man (all 6-1, 190 pounds of him), from a freshman to a senior about to graduate.
Gary Walters, the former Ford Family Director of Athletics, used the term "athletic mortality" on numerous occasions. TigerBlog isn't a huge fan of the word "mortality" in this situation, because of its connotations of death.
At the same time, he's never come up with a better one.
TBJ is one of the lucky ones. He'll be playing in college next year, at Sacred Heart University, or, as TB likes to call it now, "America's Team." Hopefully his college experience will leave him as fulfilled as his high school experience was.
Fulfillment, though, is something that needs to be digested over time. Last night was not about feeling fulfilled. It was about feeling the end of something.
It was a night for tears, actually. From the seniors. From some of the parents (for the record, TB did not cry).
TigerBlog has seen this phenomenon at Princeton for more than a quarter of a century. Of all the dynamics he has seen here, this might be the one that sticks with him the most.
He's seen it so many times. Princeton athletes, playing in their final game, knowing they'll never put the uniform on again.
He's seen tears. He's heard curses from some whose last game didn't go the way they would have hoped. He's seen Princeton athletes meet the media with great composure and say all the right things. He's seen slammed lockers and broken equipment and long hugs from teammates who know they will never again compete for Princeton.
He's been there for celebrations too. Of championships won. Not league championships, which usually are followed by competing in the postseason. TB is talking about NCAA championships.
The worst is being in the locker room with the responsibility of having to get someone to talk to the media after a career-ending loss. One of the toughest male athletes TigerBlog has known at Princeton asked him if his eyes still looked too red from crying.
You'd think the best is being in the locker room after a national championship. Even then, though, there is the finality of it for the seniors.
TigerBlog remembers those seniors from Princeton's NCAA men's lacrosse championship teams. They too were wrestling with their athletic mortality, knowing that no matter what, their time as a Princeton athlete was behind them.
It's even worse because very, very, very few seniors end their careers with national championships. Almost every college athlete loses the last game in a postseason championship tournament - or never makes it to the postseason.
For all of these athletes - except for the tiny percentage who go on to play professionally - it's the end of a lifetime spent playing a competitive team sport. Yes, many will play again on a club team or a rec team or in unlimited or pickup games, but it'll never be the same.
It's not easy to handle all at once, this athletic mortality.
For athletes, and for their parents, who have spent the majority of their kids' lives taking them to and from games and watching them develop into athletic and academic studs who could then play at a school like Princeton. For them, the end brings a different kind of void.
As for last night, TigerBlog Jr.'s team had a huge senior class. At one point in the game, all 10 players on the field were seniors - with others who played a lot not on the field at that moment.
For all of those seniors, four are going to play in college - Grant Toller at NJIT, Michael Major at St. Joe's and Andre Puleo at Cabrini, in addition to TBJ. And that's a lot. For the rest, last night was the end of their competitive lacrosse careers, though one - Michael Kirby - will play Division III soccer at DeSales.
TigerBlog focused on TBJ during the final seconds, the game hopelessly lost by then. The ball was on the far side of the field. TBJ looked straight down for the last 20 seconds. When the final horn sounded, he went to the ground, sitting, taking in the unforgiving nature of the final horn.
When the game ended, TBJ told TB that the bus from school had dropped them off but not stayed and that he needed a ride back.
The two got into TB's car, just as they have been doing after lacrosse games since TBJ was in second grade and TB was his coach, just as they did when TBJ first volunteered to play goalie at the end of that year, just as they did when he became a full-time goalie in third grade.
They've spent hours driving back after lacrosse games. Ironically, TBJ's youth career - and TB's coaching career - had ended on the same field exactly four years earlier.
This ride was different. For one, TB was driving his son back to school to get his car, where he'd parked it earlier.
Life is about taking a series of steps, clearing a series of hurdles. Once they're cleared, it's on to the next. As the hurdle is cleared, focus shifts to the next one.
Every now and then, though, there are hurdles that make you look back on them even as you're crossing them.
Last night, for TBJ, was one of those. He's lucky. He is not yet facing his athletic mortality, as Gary always said, as so many Princeton seniors now are, as so many generations of Tiger athletes have as TigerBlog watched and wondered what it was like, what was going through their minds.
Now he has a pretty good understanding of it. Maybe not exactly, but close.
This was it for TBJ's high school days. There's always been an innocence to all of this - "little kids playing ball," TB's friend Jack has always called it - and now that's gone.
TigerBlog knew it. TigerBlog Jr. knew it. Neither really said anything about it. TigerBlog thought about the right words, but they escaped him.
In the end, all he said to his son was that he was proud of him.
It wasn't that long ago. At least, looking back on it this morning, it doesn't seem that long ago.
It was March of 2012. He was headed to Kennett Square, outside of Philly, to see TigerBlog Jr.'s first high school lacrosse game. The GPS took him this way and that way, on one country road after another, until TB was sure he was completely lost and would miss the game.
Then, there it was, on his left. The field.
TB remembers the day. It was cold, but not freezing. Mostly what it was was windy. Very, very windy. He remembers a wind that whipped at him from right to left across the field. TigerBlog wore Princeton Lacrosse sweats and a Princeton Lacrosse jacket, and the home fans thought he was a coach there to scout a player.
He remembers the game too. TBJ was small at the time, about 10 inches shorter and 40 or 50 pounds lighter than he is now. He was a kid still, playing on a team with a big senior class. A boy goalie on a team of men.
The first quarter didn't start out too well. The first shot went in. So did the second and the third. His team trailed 5-2 at the end of the quarter, and he had made two saves.
He settled down, though. He would allow only three more goals the rest of the way and finish with 11 saves, including one in the final seconds to preserve a 9-8 win.
After he made the last save, he hurled the ball down the field as time expired. He was mobbed by the rest of his team, and TB has a video clip of the play, right down to the massive fist pump TBJ gave.
Yeah, it seems like yesterday.
It actually was yesterday when TBJ's high school career ended, with a 10-5 loss in the district tournament.
He made 15 saves last night, giving him 901 for his career. His 901st might have been his best, as he sprinted back to the crease after a turnover and dove fully extended to slap the ball away just in time.
TBJ played 3,470 minutes in goal for his high school team. That's more than 57 hours. He allowed 545 goals and made the 901 saves. He was lucky - he never got hurt, and his team won a lot more than it lost.
And then it was over. In a blink, he went from a boy to a man (all 6-1, 190 pounds of him), from a freshman to a senior about to graduate.
Gary Walters, the former Ford Family Director of Athletics, used the term "athletic mortality" on numerous occasions. TigerBlog isn't a huge fan of the word "mortality" in this situation, because of its connotations of death.
At the same time, he's never come up with a better one.
TBJ is one of the lucky ones. He'll be playing in college next year, at Sacred Heart University, or, as TB likes to call it now, "America's Team." Hopefully his college experience will leave him as fulfilled as his high school experience was.
Fulfillment, though, is something that needs to be digested over time. Last night was not about feeling fulfilled. It was about feeling the end of something.
It was a night for tears, actually. From the seniors. From some of the parents (for the record, TB did not cry).
TigerBlog has seen this phenomenon at Princeton for more than a quarter of a century. Of all the dynamics he has seen here, this might be the one that sticks with him the most.
He's seen it so many times. Princeton athletes, playing in their final game, knowing they'll never put the uniform on again.
He's seen tears. He's heard curses from some whose last game didn't go the way they would have hoped. He's seen Princeton athletes meet the media with great composure and say all the right things. He's seen slammed lockers and broken equipment and long hugs from teammates who know they will never again compete for Princeton.
He's been there for celebrations too. Of championships won. Not league championships, which usually are followed by competing in the postseason. TB is talking about NCAA championships.
The worst is being in the locker room with the responsibility of having to get someone to talk to the media after a career-ending loss. One of the toughest male athletes TigerBlog has known at Princeton asked him if his eyes still looked too red from crying.
You'd think the best is being in the locker room after a national championship. Even then, though, there is the finality of it for the seniors.
TigerBlog remembers those seniors from Princeton's NCAA men's lacrosse championship teams. They too were wrestling with their athletic mortality, knowing that no matter what, their time as a Princeton athlete was behind them.
It's even worse because very, very, very few seniors end their careers with national championships. Almost every college athlete loses the last game in a postseason championship tournament - or never makes it to the postseason.
For all of these athletes - except for the tiny percentage who go on to play professionally - it's the end of a lifetime spent playing a competitive team sport. Yes, many will play again on a club team or a rec team or in unlimited or pickup games, but it'll never be the same.
It's not easy to handle all at once, this athletic mortality.
For athletes, and for their parents, who have spent the majority of their kids' lives taking them to and from games and watching them develop into athletic and academic studs who could then play at a school like Princeton. For them, the end brings a different kind of void.
As for last night, TigerBlog Jr.'s team had a huge senior class. At one point in the game, all 10 players on the field were seniors - with others who played a lot not on the field at that moment.
For all of those seniors, four are going to play in college - Grant Toller at NJIT, Michael Major at St. Joe's and Andre Puleo at Cabrini, in addition to TBJ. And that's a lot. For the rest, last night was the end of their competitive lacrosse careers, though one - Michael Kirby - will play Division III soccer at DeSales.
TigerBlog focused on TBJ during the final seconds, the game hopelessly lost by then. The ball was on the far side of the field. TBJ looked straight down for the last 20 seconds. When the final horn sounded, he went to the ground, sitting, taking in the unforgiving nature of the final horn.
When the game ended, TBJ told TB that the bus from school had dropped them off but not stayed and that he needed a ride back.
The two got into TB's car, just as they have been doing after lacrosse games since TBJ was in second grade and TB was his coach, just as they did when TBJ first volunteered to play goalie at the end of that year, just as they did when he became a full-time goalie in third grade.
They've spent hours driving back after lacrosse games. Ironically, TBJ's youth career - and TB's coaching career - had ended on the same field exactly four years earlier.
This ride was different. For one, TB was driving his son back to school to get his car, where he'd parked it earlier.
Life is about taking a series of steps, clearing a series of hurdles. Once they're cleared, it's on to the next. As the hurdle is cleared, focus shifts to the next one.
Every now and then, though, there are hurdles that make you look back on them even as you're crossing them.
Last night, for TBJ, was one of those. He's lucky. He is not yet facing his athletic mortality, as Gary always said, as so many Princeton seniors now are, as so many generations of Tiger athletes have as TigerBlog watched and wondered what it was like, what was going through their minds.
Now he has a pretty good understanding of it. Maybe not exactly, but close.
This was it for TBJ's high school days. There's always been an innocence to all of this - "little kids playing ball," TB's friend Jack has always called it - and now that's gone.
TigerBlog knew it. TigerBlog Jr. knew it. Neither really said anything about it. TigerBlog thought about the right words, but they escaped him.
In the end, all he said to his son was that he was proud of him.
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Recapping Round 1 Of A Tournament Without Princeton
TigerBlog was midway through the North Carolina-Colgate men's lacrosse game Sunday when he finally drew the line.
It was, after all, his seventh NCAA lacrosse game of the weekend. All on TV. None in person, which is where he'd rather have been, had Princeton been in the tournament.
So where to start with the eight games that made up the first round of TigerBlog's favorite NCAA tournament?
Let's start with the Ivy League, which went 0-3 in the first round as Cornell lost to Albany, Yale lost to Maryland and Brown lost to Denver.
The performance of the league has led some to question whether or not there should have been three Ivies in the tournament or if the Ivy League should have had multiple bids this year after a similar 0-3 record a year ago. TigerBlog finds this thinking ridiculous.
First of all, saying the Ivy League didn't deserve the three teams it had in the tournament means that there was another team that should have been there. In this case, the next team in the tournament would have been Princeton, another Ivy team.
Performance in the tournament does not equate to a justification of getting a bid. It's about who else should have had one.
An even bigger reason to TigerBlog why the Ivy League shouldn't be looked down on in this tournament is that he thought from the first time he saw the draw that it should have been done differently. And this isn't about Princeton's exclusion.
If TigerBlog had to take the teams that were selected and seed them and match them up, he would have changed the bottom three seeds. The first five were fine - No. 1 Notre Dame and No. 2 Syracuse could have been in either order, followed by Carolina, Denver and Duke.
From there, TigerBlog would have had Albany six, Yale seven and Maryland eight. Cornell wouldn't have been seeded.
Why? Because TigerBlog believes a team's overall body of work, to use the committee chair's words, should count more than head-to-head results from February. Yes, those games matter, but they shouldn't matter nearly as much as they do.
Cornell's win over Albany - in an ice storm in Dallas on Feb. 28 - was what got the Big Red a home game. By the end of the season, Albany, winner of nine straight, was playing as well as anyone.
So, in the matchups, Cornell would have been at Albany. The result would probably have been the same, but it wouldn't make it look like the seeded team lost and that it was an upset.
And a side note on Albany-Cornell: the goal by Great Danes' goalie Blaze Riorden was extraordinary on a lot of levels, not the least of which was the velocity he had on his shot. Didn't see it? Click HERE.
As for the rest of the matchups, Virginia should have been at Denver. Brown should have been at Maryland. Hopkins should have been at Yale.
Brown and Yale? Those would both have been 50-50 games.
Oh, and speaking of Virginia, the Cavs were run off their home field by Hopkins, losing 19-7 in a game that wasn't nearly that close.
As a reminder, Virginia was 0-4 in the ACC and unbeaten outside of it prior to the Hopkins game. Of UVa's 10 non-league wins, seven were: Loyola, Drexel, St. Joe's, VMI, Richmond, Rutgers, Georgetown. That's one top 20 win - Georgetown.
The other three were: Hopkins 16-15 in OT, Cornell 15-14 and Penn 12-6.
Princeton, who didn't get in, had a 16 -15 win over Hopkins in OT, a four-goal win over Cornell (and a five-goal loss) and a six-goal win over Penn. Princeton had one more top 10 win than UVa did, with its wins over Cornell and Yale.
Princeton and Virginia had very, very similar resumes. Princeton didn't get in. Virginia got in - and was a seed who played at home.
Why? Because UVa is in the ACC.
Speaking of the ACC, Virginia lost big at home and Duke lost big at home. The top three seeds all won, but they aren't going to be judged by getting past Round 1.
If all three remaining ACC teams making it to Philadelphia for the Final Four, then the league will have solidified its claim to being by far the best league in lacrosse. To do so, it will require Syracuse to beat sizzling Johns Hopkins, Notre Dame to beat even more sizzling Albany and Carolina to beat a Maryland team that can throw a blanket over anyone and who already owns a win over the Tar Heels.
Oh, and one more thing about Round 1.
Yale lost 8-7 to Maryland and may or may not have tied it on a shot from Michael Keasey that may or may not have gone in in the final 20 seconds.
Keasey's shot beat Terps goalie Kyle Bernlohr and hit the pipe, dropping either into the goal or just outside of it. The officials said it was no goal.
It was close.
In college lacrosse, there is no replay except in the NCAA tournament and only to determine if a shot was out of a player's stick prior to the end of a quarter. TigerBlog wants to keep it that way.
First of all, if there had been replay in the Yale-Maryland game, it wouldn't have changed that call, because it was so microscopic one way or another. And if replay were to be introduced, it would be like college basketball, where the flow of games are completely destroyed by replay reviews.
Besides, TB doesn't want to see replay unless it can be used to review judgement calls as well, like the one that gave Yale possession after a Conrad Oberbeck shot on the possession that led Keasey's shot.
So there you have Round 1. TigerBlog is looking forward to this weekend to see how it shakes out and of course the Final Four next weekend.
And the 2016 tournament. Hopefully with Princeton in it.
It was, after all, his seventh NCAA lacrosse game of the weekend. All on TV. None in person, which is where he'd rather have been, had Princeton been in the tournament.
So where to start with the eight games that made up the first round of TigerBlog's favorite NCAA tournament?
Let's start with the Ivy League, which went 0-3 in the first round as Cornell lost to Albany, Yale lost to Maryland and Brown lost to Denver.
The performance of the league has led some to question whether or not there should have been three Ivies in the tournament or if the Ivy League should have had multiple bids this year after a similar 0-3 record a year ago. TigerBlog finds this thinking ridiculous.
First of all, saying the Ivy League didn't deserve the three teams it had in the tournament means that there was another team that should have been there. In this case, the next team in the tournament would have been Princeton, another Ivy team.
Performance in the tournament does not equate to a justification of getting a bid. It's about who else should have had one.
An even bigger reason to TigerBlog why the Ivy League shouldn't be looked down on in this tournament is that he thought from the first time he saw the draw that it should have been done differently. And this isn't about Princeton's exclusion.
If TigerBlog had to take the teams that were selected and seed them and match them up, he would have changed the bottom three seeds. The first five were fine - No. 1 Notre Dame and No. 2 Syracuse could have been in either order, followed by Carolina, Denver and Duke.
From there, TigerBlog would have had Albany six, Yale seven and Maryland eight. Cornell wouldn't have been seeded.
Why? Because TigerBlog believes a team's overall body of work, to use the committee chair's words, should count more than head-to-head results from February. Yes, those games matter, but they shouldn't matter nearly as much as they do.
Cornell's win over Albany - in an ice storm in Dallas on Feb. 28 - was what got the Big Red a home game. By the end of the season, Albany, winner of nine straight, was playing as well as anyone.
So, in the matchups, Cornell would have been at Albany. The result would probably have been the same, but it wouldn't make it look like the seeded team lost and that it was an upset.
And a side note on Albany-Cornell: the goal by Great Danes' goalie Blaze Riorden was extraordinary on a lot of levels, not the least of which was the velocity he had on his shot. Didn't see it? Click HERE.
As for the rest of the matchups, Virginia should have been at Denver. Brown should have been at Maryland. Hopkins should have been at Yale.
Brown and Yale? Those would both have been 50-50 games.
Oh, and speaking of Virginia, the Cavs were run off their home field by Hopkins, losing 19-7 in a game that wasn't nearly that close.
As a reminder, Virginia was 0-4 in the ACC and unbeaten outside of it prior to the Hopkins game. Of UVa's 10 non-league wins, seven were: Loyola, Drexel, St. Joe's, VMI, Richmond, Rutgers, Georgetown. That's one top 20 win - Georgetown.
The other three were: Hopkins 16-15 in OT, Cornell 15-14 and Penn 12-6.
Princeton, who didn't get in, had a 16 -15 win over Hopkins in OT, a four-goal win over Cornell (and a five-goal loss) and a six-goal win over Penn. Princeton had one more top 10 win than UVa did, with its wins over Cornell and Yale.
Princeton and Virginia had very, very similar resumes. Princeton didn't get in. Virginia got in - and was a seed who played at home.
Why? Because UVa is in the ACC.
Speaking of the ACC, Virginia lost big at home and Duke lost big at home. The top three seeds all won, but they aren't going to be judged by getting past Round 1.
If all three remaining ACC teams making it to Philadelphia for the Final Four, then the league will have solidified its claim to being by far the best league in lacrosse. To do so, it will require Syracuse to beat sizzling Johns Hopkins, Notre Dame to beat even more sizzling Albany and Carolina to beat a Maryland team that can throw a blanket over anyone and who already owns a win over the Tar Heels.
Oh, and one more thing about Round 1.
Yale lost 8-7 to Maryland and may or may not have tied it on a shot from Michael Keasey that may or may not have gone in in the final 20 seconds.
Keasey's shot beat Terps goalie Kyle Bernlohr and hit the pipe, dropping either into the goal or just outside of it. The officials said it was no goal.
It was close.
In college lacrosse, there is no replay except in the NCAA tournament and only to determine if a shot was out of a player's stick prior to the end of a quarter. TigerBlog wants to keep it that way.
First of all, if there had been replay in the Yale-Maryland game, it wouldn't have changed that call, because it was so microscopic one way or another. And if replay were to be introduced, it would be like college basketball, where the flow of games are completely destroyed by replay reviews.
Besides, TB doesn't want to see replay unless it can be used to review judgement calls as well, like the one that gave Yale possession after a Conrad Oberbeck shot on the possession that led Keasey's shot.
So there you have Round 1. TigerBlog is looking forward to this weekend to see how it shakes out and of course the Final Four next weekend.
And the 2016 tournament. Hopefully with Princeton in it.
Monday, May 11, 2015
Sunday's Best
Princeton's top athlete yesterday was, well, TigerBlog isn't quite sure.
Where to start? How about on Long Island.
TigerBlog thought the Princeton-Stony Brook women's lacrosse game was at 1, not noon yesterday.
When he put the video for the game on, there were six minutes to play. Guess what TB never saw? If your answer was "the ball in a Stony Brook stick," you'd be correct.
Princeton defeated Stony Brook 8-4 in the second round of the NCAA tournament, advancing to the quarterfinals this coming weekend against Duke.
The Princeton-Stony Brook game was even at the half at 3-3 before the Tigers scored the first three of the second half. When TB turned the game on, Princeton was up 6-4 and had possession with six minutes to go.
And then with five. And four. And three. And two. And one.
Never in that time did Stony Brook get possession, though the ball was on the ground a few times.
Women's lacrosse does not have the timing rules that men's lacrosse has. It doesn't have any timing rules, for that matter.
You can argue whether or not the sport needs it. What you can't argue is that Princeton was surgically efficient in killing the clock.
Princeton has several opportunities to go to the goal but instead chose to maintain possession. Eventually, in the final 30 seconds, Princeton did score - and then scored again.
Hey, if you can possess it the way Princeton did, why shoot? In that case, shooting is going to bring about a few outcomes, most of which weren't better than simply having the ball and keeping the clock running.
A miss? A save? Stony Brook could get the ball back.
A goal? There'd be a draw control, and Stony Brook could again get it back. The Seawolves, for that matter, would have taken that in a heartbeat, down 7-4, three or four minutes left, draw control.
So Princeton held it. And held it. And ran out the clock on a team that had beaten Northwestern and Florida, had been 18-1 and was the sixth seed in the tournament.
Princeton's usual suspects on offense are Erin Slifer, Erin McMunn and Olivia Hompe. In the game yesterday, the Tigers instead got four goals - half of their offense - from freshman Abby Finkelston.
Before yesterday, by the way, Finkelston had five goals for the year.
Surely Finkelston was Princeton's top performer yesterday, no?
Well, not so fast.
Stephen Soerens was so fast, fast enough to give the men's track and field team the Ivy League Heptagonal championship, by a razor-thin margin.
Soerens won the decathlon, sprinting to the win in the 1,500 to put him over the top. It also put Princeton over the top.
The Tigers were supposed to win, but Cornell had some other ideas. In fact, the Big Red led by as much as 22.5 points with eight events to go.
Cornell still had the lead after the 4x400 relay. That left only the 1,500 for the decathlon, and Soerens needed to win it to get the 10 points that Princeton would need.
Soerens and Bryan Oslin went 1-3 in the 1,500 and finished 1-4 in the decathlon. The two gave Princeton 14 points for the event, six better than the eight Cornell got from Austin Jamerson's second-place finish.
The Tigers would win by 3.5 points - 163.5-159. Had Soerens not won the decathlon, then the points in that event would instead have been 12-10 for Princeton, and the final score of the entire competition would have been 161-159.5 in favor of Cornell.
So surely Soerens was the top Tiger Sunday, no?
Well, not so fast.
Yes, Soerens and Finkelston won. And yes, Ashleigh Johnson did not.
But how much better could someone be than Johnson, the goalie for the women's water polo team?
Johnson made 22 saves in Princeton's 6-5 loss to UC-Irvine in the fifth-place game at the NCAA championships.
Twenty-two saves? Is that a lot?
Well, it ties her own program record and bettered the old NCAA tournament single-game record of 18.
And for the three-game tournament? Johnson made 50 saves, an NCAA record.
The old record? Well, it was 40. Johnson destroyed that.
So who was the top Princeton performer of Sunday?
TB isn't sure.
How about a three-way tie for first?
Where to start? How about on Long Island.
TigerBlog thought the Princeton-Stony Brook women's lacrosse game was at 1, not noon yesterday.
When he put the video for the game on, there were six minutes to play. Guess what TB never saw? If your answer was "the ball in a Stony Brook stick," you'd be correct.
Princeton defeated Stony Brook 8-4 in the second round of the NCAA tournament, advancing to the quarterfinals this coming weekend against Duke.
The Princeton-Stony Brook game was even at the half at 3-3 before the Tigers scored the first three of the second half. When TB turned the game on, Princeton was up 6-4 and had possession with six minutes to go.
And then with five. And four. And three. And two. And one.
Never in that time did Stony Brook get possession, though the ball was on the ground a few times.
Women's lacrosse does not have the timing rules that men's lacrosse has. It doesn't have any timing rules, for that matter.
You can argue whether or not the sport needs it. What you can't argue is that Princeton was surgically efficient in killing the clock.
Princeton has several opportunities to go to the goal but instead chose to maintain possession. Eventually, in the final 30 seconds, Princeton did score - and then scored again.
Hey, if you can possess it the way Princeton did, why shoot? In that case, shooting is going to bring about a few outcomes, most of which weren't better than simply having the ball and keeping the clock running.
A miss? A save? Stony Brook could get the ball back.
A goal? There'd be a draw control, and Stony Brook could again get it back. The Seawolves, for that matter, would have taken that in a heartbeat, down 7-4, three or four minutes left, draw control.
So Princeton held it. And held it. And ran out the clock on a team that had beaten Northwestern and Florida, had been 18-1 and was the sixth seed in the tournament.
Princeton's usual suspects on offense are Erin Slifer, Erin McMunn and Olivia Hompe. In the game yesterday, the Tigers instead got four goals - half of their offense - from freshman Abby Finkelston.
Before yesterday, by the way, Finkelston had five goals for the year.
Surely Finkelston was Princeton's top performer yesterday, no?
Well, not so fast.
Stephen Soerens was so fast, fast enough to give the men's track and field team the Ivy League Heptagonal championship, by a razor-thin margin.
Soerens won the decathlon, sprinting to the win in the 1,500 to put him over the top. It also put Princeton over the top.
The Tigers were supposed to win, but Cornell had some other ideas. In fact, the Big Red led by as much as 22.5 points with eight events to go.
Cornell still had the lead after the 4x400 relay. That left only the 1,500 for the decathlon, and Soerens needed to win it to get the 10 points that Princeton would need.
Soerens and Bryan Oslin went 1-3 in the 1,500 and finished 1-4 in the decathlon. The two gave Princeton 14 points for the event, six better than the eight Cornell got from Austin Jamerson's second-place finish.
The Tigers would win by 3.5 points - 163.5-159. Had Soerens not won the decathlon, then the points in that event would instead have been 12-10 for Princeton, and the final score of the entire competition would have been 161-159.5 in favor of Cornell.
So surely Soerens was the top Tiger Sunday, no?
Well, not so fast.
Yes, Soerens and Finkelston won. And yes, Ashleigh Johnson did not.
But how much better could someone be than Johnson, the goalie for the women's water polo team?
Johnson made 22 saves in Princeton's 6-5 loss to UC-Irvine in the fifth-place game at the NCAA championships.
Twenty-two saves? Is that a lot?
Well, it ties her own program record and bettered the old NCAA tournament single-game record of 18.
And for the three-game tournament? Johnson made 50 saves, an NCAA record.
The old record? Well, it was 40. Johnson destroyed that.
So who was the top Princeton performer of Sunday?
TB isn't sure.
How about a three-way tie for first?
Friday, May 8, 2015
Tournament Time
It is TigerBlog's belief that some multinational tribunal/conglomerate is responsible for the fact that Princeton isn't in the NCAA lacrosse tournament.
It had to be some sort of conspiracy.
It's been a rough week for TigerBlog, who thought the Tigers had a legitimate shot at playing this weekend. To be honest, he'd rather be in Durham or Denver or Charlottesville right now, getting ready for the tournament.
Princeton was done in by Johns Hopkins' win over Ohio State in the Big 10 final, not to mention its loss to Yale in the Ivy final. And its regular season loss to Brown.
And so it was that the stars didn't align for Princeton the way TB had hoped.
He'll be at Lincoln Financial Field in two weeks for the NCAA championships. It'll be his 11th straight Final Four as the official scorer and the 21st Final Four in 24 years.
Who will be there with him?
He'll go with Denver, Albany, Syracuse and North Carolina. He'll take a Denver-Syracuse final and a Denver championship.
Meanwhile, there are still all kinds of Princeton athletic events that remain in the 2014-15 athletic year. This is a big weekend for the Tigers, though none of it is home. In fact, the only remaining home events are next weekend, with the IC4A and ECAC track and field championships.
This weekend starts today with three NCAA tournament events, in three different states and two different time zones.
The first one is at 10 this morning, when the men's tennis team takes on Minnesota in Charlottesville in the first round of the NCAAs. For Princeton, it is its first NCAA match since 1998.
The winner of the Princeton-Minnesota match will take on the winner of St. John's-Virginia tomorrow at 3. Princeton is ranked 36th in Division I; Minnesota is No. 25.
Here's an interesting fact about Princeton: Minnesota will be the 18th ranked opponent Princeton has faced this season. The Tigers are 9-7 against ranked opponents this season and have been as ranked as high as 23rd in late February and early March. That ranking was Princeton's highest on record since 1980.
Princeton has an at-large bid in the tournament. That alone is impressive.
Next to get started will be the women's water polo team, which plays Stanford at Stanford at 3 Eastern time.
Princeton is guaranteed three games in California in the NCAA championships. Princeton is appearing for the third time in the last four years and is 4-3 overall after defeating Wagner 12-2 in the play-in game last weekend.
There are eight teams in the field. One is Princeton. One is Hawaii. The other six are from California.
Princeton is led by junior goalie Ashleigh Johnson, who already holds the program record with 1,012 career saves.
The women's lacrosse team opens the NCAA tournament at 7 at Stony Brook against MAAC champion Fairfield. The winner of that game takes on Stony Brook Sunday at 1.
Princeton will be dealing with one of the top defenses in Division I with the Stags, whom Princeton has never met. Fairfield actually ranks fourth in Division I, allowing 6.83 goals per game.
The Tigers, on the other hand, score nearly 12 goals per game.
Those three teams compete today in the NCAA tournament.
There will definitely be a Princeton tennis team that plays in the NCAA tournament at UVa tomorrow. The question is whether there will be two.
The women take on South Carolina tomorrow morning at 9. The winner gets the winner of UVa-VCU, Sunday at noon.
Princeton made national waves a year ago when it knocked off Arizona State in the first round of the NCAA tournament and nearly took out No. 2 Alabama. Princeton is making its sixth NCAA appearance in women's tennis.
So that's four teams who will be in the NCAA tournament this weekend. That's a lot, by the way.
There is also the little matter of the Ivy League Heptagonal track and field championships at Penn.
The Princeton men and the Harvard women are the favorites.
And that's a pretty full weekend.
Oh, and one more thing before TB leaves you til Monday.
He was talking to someone yesterday who told him that they had read that a lot of the facts on Snapple caps aren't true. This is very disconcerting to TB.
For instance, yesterday TB read that cats have two separate sets of vocal cords, one for purring and one for meowing.
Who would make that stuff up?
Have a great weekend. Go Tigers.
It had to be some sort of conspiracy.
It's been a rough week for TigerBlog, who thought the Tigers had a legitimate shot at playing this weekend. To be honest, he'd rather be in Durham or Denver or Charlottesville right now, getting ready for the tournament.
Princeton was done in by Johns Hopkins' win over Ohio State in the Big 10 final, not to mention its loss to Yale in the Ivy final. And its regular season loss to Brown.
And so it was that the stars didn't align for Princeton the way TB had hoped.
He'll be at Lincoln Financial Field in two weeks for the NCAA championships. It'll be his 11th straight Final Four as the official scorer and the 21st Final Four in 24 years.
Who will be there with him?
He'll go with Denver, Albany, Syracuse and North Carolina. He'll take a Denver-Syracuse final and a Denver championship.
Meanwhile, there are still all kinds of Princeton athletic events that remain in the 2014-15 athletic year. This is a big weekend for the Tigers, though none of it is home. In fact, the only remaining home events are next weekend, with the IC4A and ECAC track and field championships.
This weekend starts today with three NCAA tournament events, in three different states and two different time zones.
The first one is at 10 this morning, when the men's tennis team takes on Minnesota in Charlottesville in the first round of the NCAAs. For Princeton, it is its first NCAA match since 1998.
The winner of the Princeton-Minnesota match will take on the winner of St. John's-Virginia tomorrow at 3. Princeton is ranked 36th in Division I; Minnesota is No. 25.
Here's an interesting fact about Princeton: Minnesota will be the 18th ranked opponent Princeton has faced this season. The Tigers are 9-7 against ranked opponents this season and have been as ranked as high as 23rd in late February and early March. That ranking was Princeton's highest on record since 1980.
Princeton has an at-large bid in the tournament. That alone is impressive.
Next to get started will be the women's water polo team, which plays Stanford at Stanford at 3 Eastern time.
Princeton is guaranteed three games in California in the NCAA championships. Princeton is appearing for the third time in the last four years and is 4-3 overall after defeating Wagner 12-2 in the play-in game last weekend.
There are eight teams in the field. One is Princeton. One is Hawaii. The other six are from California.
Princeton is led by junior goalie Ashleigh Johnson, who already holds the program record with 1,012 career saves.
The women's lacrosse team opens the NCAA tournament at 7 at Stony Brook against MAAC champion Fairfield. The winner of that game takes on Stony Brook Sunday at 1.
Princeton will be dealing with one of the top defenses in Division I with the Stags, whom Princeton has never met. Fairfield actually ranks fourth in Division I, allowing 6.83 goals per game.
The Tigers, on the other hand, score nearly 12 goals per game.
Those three teams compete today in the NCAA tournament.
There will definitely be a Princeton tennis team that plays in the NCAA tournament at UVa tomorrow. The question is whether there will be two.
The women take on South Carolina tomorrow morning at 9. The winner gets the winner of UVa-VCU, Sunday at noon.
Princeton made national waves a year ago when it knocked off Arizona State in the first round of the NCAA tournament and nearly took out No. 2 Alabama. Princeton is making its sixth NCAA appearance in women's tennis.
So that's four teams who will be in the NCAA tournament this weekend. That's a lot, by the way.
There is also the little matter of the Ivy League Heptagonal track and field championships at Penn.
The Princeton men and the Harvard women are the favorites.
And that's a pretty full weekend.
Oh, and one more thing before TB leaves you til Monday.
He was talking to someone yesterday who told him that they had read that a lot of the facts on Snapple caps aren't true. This is very disconcerting to TB.
For instance, yesterday TB read that cats have two separate sets of vocal cords, one for purring and one for meowing.
Who would make that stuff up?
Have a great weekend. Go Tigers.
Thursday, May 7, 2015
Do You Believe In Miracles?
So the eagerly awaited answer to last week's trivia question about the uniqueness of the turf on Powers Field at Princeton Stadium turned out to be this:
The 50-yard-line logo on Powers Field at Princeton Stadium is the university's shield. Each end zone bears a tiger head logo and the word "Tigers." Taken together, the painted field markings at Princeton are different from those at any other Division I football stadium and have held that distinction for one season, after Notre Dame changed the logo on its field in 2014. What is that difference?Answer: Princeton has the only on-campus football field in Division I whose painted markings include neither the name of the school nor its first initial. Until 2014, Notre Dame's field design was even more spare, with no logo at midfield and only diagonal lines in the end zones. Last season, the Fighting Irish switched from natural grass to FieldTurf and, in doing so, added their monogram "ND" at midfield.
And there you have it. Who knew?
You want to know what the most incredible thing about this is? It's that TigerBlog believes it, without question, even though it came without an documentation from a person who posted it anonymously.
It could be anyone who posted that. It could be true. It might not be true at all. Who knows?
It doesn't matter. TigerBlog believes it.
One of TigerBlog's firmest beliefs is that people believe what they read. It's like Matthew Broderick said in the movie "Biloxi Blues," people figure it must be true, or why else would someone go to the trouble to write it down?
There is a corollary of course. That is that certain people believe nothing they read and will do anything to disprove what they read.
TigerBlog has been known to be cynical at times. In this case, he figures this has to be true. Who would make this up?
So there you have it. Princeton Stadium is the only Division I football stadium where neither the school name nor the initial appears on the field.
Probably.
Anyway, speaking of football and cynicism, it was a field day yesterday for those who may have had a doubt or two about Tom Brady's veracity when it came to deflating footballs.
The NFL released it findings yesterday, and they were not flattering to Brady or the Patriots, who nevertheless acted as if they were being persecuted.
As TigerBlog said at the time: guilty, guilty, guilty.
Oh, for those who want to point out that the Patriots crushed the Colts in the game, TB reminds them that there was no guarantee beforehand, when the balls were being deflated, that this was going to be a blowout. And, as TB also said at the time, he does not believe that this was the first time New England did this, just the first time the team was caught.
So what should the punishment be?
Simple. Brady should be banned for a year. This is cheating of the highest order, way up there with PEDs.
And his career accomplishments? To TigerBlog, they're all completely tainted after this. Who knows how many times they've done this before? Who knows how many other rules have been broken?
Anyway, where can TigerBlog go today for something genuine?
The heavyweight rowing video that was on goprincetontigers.com of course.
Princeton was rowing against Brown for the Content Cup, and the Tigers were seven seats back with 500 meters to go. By the end, Princeton had caught the Bears, winning by 0.7 seconds.
There are two great parts of the video.
The first is the commentary at the end. That is genuine, genuine excitement - complete with the, uh, borrowing, of the most famous line in American sportscasting history.
The second is the reaction of the Brown coxswain. That too is genuine. Genuine frustration at having come so close to a big win and falling just short. It's also an acknowledgement that, on this day at least, the team's best was just a little too short. TigerBlog has a lot of respect for that kind of genuine physical and emotional commitment.
The men's heavyweight rowing team is one of five teams that has not yet competed for the Ivy League championship this academic year. The five remaining championships are in men's and women's outdoor track and field (this weekend at Penn) and then the rowing championships next weekend.
Princeton's heavyweight men have one loss this year, to Yale. Brown, obviously, is a contender, at least according to the video. And Harvard is also right there.
The final at Eastern Sprints, which determines the Ivy champ, could be a great one. It'll have to be to match the emotion from the Princeton-Brown race.
Do you believe in miracles.
That was great.
The 50-yard-line logo on Powers Field at Princeton Stadium is the university's shield. Each end zone bears a tiger head logo and the word "Tigers." Taken together, the painted field markings at Princeton are different from those at any other Division I football stadium and have held that distinction for one season, after Notre Dame changed the logo on its field in 2014. What is that difference?Answer: Princeton has the only on-campus football field in Division I whose painted markings include neither the name of the school nor its first initial. Until 2014, Notre Dame's field design was even more spare, with no logo at midfield and only diagonal lines in the end zones. Last season, the Fighting Irish switched from natural grass to FieldTurf and, in doing so, added their monogram "ND" at midfield.
And there you have it. Who knew?
You want to know what the most incredible thing about this is? It's that TigerBlog believes it, without question, even though it came without an documentation from a person who posted it anonymously.
It could be anyone who posted that. It could be true. It might not be true at all. Who knows?
It doesn't matter. TigerBlog believes it.
One of TigerBlog's firmest beliefs is that people believe what they read. It's like Matthew Broderick said in the movie "Biloxi Blues," people figure it must be true, or why else would someone go to the trouble to write it down?
There is a corollary of course. That is that certain people believe nothing they read and will do anything to disprove what they read.
TigerBlog has been known to be cynical at times. In this case, he figures this has to be true. Who would make this up?
So there you have it. Princeton Stadium is the only Division I football stadium where neither the school name nor the initial appears on the field.
Probably.
Anyway, speaking of football and cynicism, it was a field day yesterday for those who may have had a doubt or two about Tom Brady's veracity when it came to deflating footballs.
The NFL released it findings yesterday, and they were not flattering to Brady or the Patriots, who nevertheless acted as if they were being persecuted.
As TigerBlog said at the time: guilty, guilty, guilty.
Oh, for those who want to point out that the Patriots crushed the Colts in the game, TB reminds them that there was no guarantee beforehand, when the balls were being deflated, that this was going to be a blowout. And, as TB also said at the time, he does not believe that this was the first time New England did this, just the first time the team was caught.
So what should the punishment be?
Simple. Brady should be banned for a year. This is cheating of the highest order, way up there with PEDs.
And his career accomplishments? To TigerBlog, they're all completely tainted after this. Who knows how many times they've done this before? Who knows how many other rules have been broken?
Anyway, where can TigerBlog go today for something genuine?
The heavyweight rowing video that was on goprincetontigers.com of course.
Princeton was rowing against Brown for the Content Cup, and the Tigers were seven seats back with 500 meters to go. By the end, Princeton had caught the Bears, winning by 0.7 seconds.
There are two great parts of the video.
The first is the commentary at the end. That is genuine, genuine excitement - complete with the, uh, borrowing, of the most famous line in American sportscasting history.
The second is the reaction of the Brown coxswain. That too is genuine. Genuine frustration at having come so close to a big win and falling just short. It's also an acknowledgement that, on this day at least, the team's best was just a little too short. TigerBlog has a lot of respect for that kind of genuine physical and emotional commitment.
The men's heavyweight rowing team is one of five teams that has not yet competed for the Ivy League championship this academic year. The five remaining championships are in men's and women's outdoor track and field (this weekend at Penn) and then the rowing championships next weekend.
Princeton's heavyweight men have one loss this year, to Yale. Brown, obviously, is a contender, at least according to the video. And Harvard is also right there.
The final at Eastern Sprints, which determines the Ivy champ, could be a great one. It'll have to be to match the emotion from the Princeton-Brown race.
Do you believe in miracles.
That was great.
Wednesday, May 6, 2015
Princetoniana
It's easy, TigerBlog knows all too well, to take for granted the uniqueness and special nature of Princeton University.
When you go there every day, like TB does, then it's easy to forget that you're on a campus with a history and beauty that a very, very few in the entire world can match.
Every now and then when he least expects it, TigerBlog gets a subtle reminder. One such reminder came yesterday, in the form of an email from Dan Day, his colleague in the University's communications office.
Dan's email included a link - this one, to be exact - that took TB to the Princetonian section of the princeton.edu website.
TigerBlog was actually asked two weeks ago or so to put together some pictures of Princeton's spring athletic teams for the Princetoniana site. In all honesty, he'd forgotten about it until Dan's email.
TB had never been on the Princetoniana site before that email. Now? He could spend hours and hours on that site and check out every corner of it.
If you're a history fan and a Princeton fan, then there aren't too many better intersections.
The word "Princetoniana" conjures up images of what TB was trying to express about the beauty and uniqueness of this place. The site itself is endless reinforcement of that.
The first place TB ended up was on Princeton's oldest newreel footage, dating back more than 100 years, to the inauguration of Princeton president John Hibben. Among those in the video are U.S. President William Howard Taft and the man who would take over for Taft, former Princeton president Woodrow Wilson.
Then there was the "Princeton postcards" section. These were actual postcards of Princeton campus scenes through the years.
Many of the places that are featured still stand in pretty much the same exact manner as they did back then. It's not always easy to place them, though, as so many other surrounding landmarks weren't there yet.
TigerBlog's favorite is No. 14 - the boathouse, with water that winds around in front of it.
Anyway, the site is incredible, especially for someone like TB, who appreciates stuff like this.
Then there's the newest section, the one with the pictures from Princeton athletics. The request TB got was for a mix of old and new pictures, and that's certainly what the final project reflects.
There are 35 pictures in the slideshow, and they aren't labeled. The first one is of an 1800s baseball team. The last one is of the 1992 men's lacrosse team as it celebrates the NCAA championship.
Picture No. 4 appears to be Emily Goodfellow, a 12-letter winner and an early women's sports pioneer here, as she cradles her stick in lacrosse in only one hand. Yeah. That's Emily. She looks the same now.
Picture No. 5 got TB wondering if the high jumper clears the bar. Picture No. 10, is that in Palmer Stadium?
Picture No. 24 is a modern-day men's rowing team. Picture No. 25 is the same team, decades and decades ago.
Picture No. 30 is Julia Ratcliffe, a wide-angle view from the ground up in the hammer circle. No. 33 is Ashleigh Johnson, who is effortlessly deflecting a shot before it reaches the top corner of the goal. There aren't many water polo goalies in the world who could have made that save.
There are a handful of pictures that fit the profile of what is known as "jubo," or jubilation.
For sheer unbridled jubo, though, it's hard to beat a picture that wasn't part of the Princetoniana website.
No, this one was a picture of Charlie Weaver, the younger brother of Princeton shortstick defensive middie Bobby Weaver. It's a screen shot of the ESPN3 broadcast of the Tigers' 11-7 win over Cornell in the Ivy League tournament semifinals this past Friday.
TigerBlog saw Charlie during the game. He was hard to miss. He wore a Princeton lacrosse t-shirt - shortsleeve, on a chilly evening - and a Princeton lacrosse hat, with Princeton sweats.
He knew every Princeton fan, and they all knew him. He was by far the most excited person in the facility when Princeton scored. He even high-fived TigerBlog.
It was yesterday afternoon when Princeton men's lacrosse coach Chris Bates sent the picture to TigerBlog, and TB couldn't help but smile at the sheer joy and love that Charlie reflects as the final seconds tick away.
It might not be part of the website display, but that's Princetoniana.
At its finest, actually.
When you go there every day, like TB does, then it's easy to forget that you're on a campus with a history and beauty that a very, very few in the entire world can match.
Every now and then when he least expects it, TigerBlog gets a subtle reminder. One such reminder came yesterday, in the form of an email from Dan Day, his colleague in the University's communications office.
Dan's email included a link - this one, to be exact - that took TB to the Princetonian section of the princeton.edu website.
TigerBlog was actually asked two weeks ago or so to put together some pictures of Princeton's spring athletic teams for the Princetoniana site. In all honesty, he'd forgotten about it until Dan's email.
TB had never been on the Princetoniana site before that email. Now? He could spend hours and hours on that site and check out every corner of it.
If you're a history fan and a Princeton fan, then there aren't too many better intersections.
The word "Princetoniana" conjures up images of what TB was trying to express about the beauty and uniqueness of this place. The site itself is endless reinforcement of that.
The first place TB ended up was on Princeton's oldest newreel footage, dating back more than 100 years, to the inauguration of Princeton president John Hibben. Among those in the video are U.S. President William Howard Taft and the man who would take over for Taft, former Princeton president Woodrow Wilson.
Then there was the "Princeton postcards" section. These were actual postcards of Princeton campus scenes through the years.
Many of the places that are featured still stand in pretty much the same exact manner as they did back then. It's not always easy to place them, though, as so many other surrounding landmarks weren't there yet.
TigerBlog's favorite is No. 14 - the boathouse, with water that winds around in front of it.
Anyway, the site is incredible, especially for someone like TB, who appreciates stuff like this.
Then there's the newest section, the one with the pictures from Princeton athletics. The request TB got was for a mix of old and new pictures, and that's certainly what the final project reflects.
There are 35 pictures in the slideshow, and they aren't labeled. The first one is of an 1800s baseball team. The last one is of the 1992 men's lacrosse team as it celebrates the NCAA championship.
Picture No. 4 appears to be Emily Goodfellow, a 12-letter winner and an early women's sports pioneer here, as she cradles her stick in lacrosse in only one hand. Yeah. That's Emily. She looks the same now.
Picture No. 5 got TB wondering if the high jumper clears the bar. Picture No. 10, is that in Palmer Stadium?
Picture No. 24 is a modern-day men's rowing team. Picture No. 25 is the same team, decades and decades ago.
Picture No. 30 is Julia Ratcliffe, a wide-angle view from the ground up in the hammer circle. No. 33 is Ashleigh Johnson, who is effortlessly deflecting a shot before it reaches the top corner of the goal. There aren't many water polo goalies in the world who could have made that save.
There are a handful of pictures that fit the profile of what is known as "jubo," or jubilation.
For sheer unbridled jubo, though, it's hard to beat a picture that wasn't part of the Princetoniana website.
No, this one was a picture of Charlie Weaver, the younger brother of Princeton shortstick defensive middie Bobby Weaver. It's a screen shot of the ESPN3 broadcast of the Tigers' 11-7 win over Cornell in the Ivy League tournament semifinals this past Friday.
TigerBlog saw Charlie during the game. He was hard to miss. He wore a Princeton lacrosse t-shirt - shortsleeve, on a chilly evening - and a Princeton lacrosse hat, with Princeton sweats.
He knew every Princeton fan, and they all knew him. He was by far the most excited person in the facility when Princeton scored. He even high-fived TigerBlog.
It was yesterday afternoon when Princeton men's lacrosse coach Chris Bates sent the picture to TigerBlog, and TB couldn't help but smile at the sheer joy and love that Charlie reflects as the final seconds tick away.
It might not be part of the website display, but that's Princetoniana.
At its finest, actually.
Tuesday, May 5, 2015
Back For The 23rd Time
TigerBlog was folding the laundry last night when it dawned on him that everything he was folding he'd worn at the Ivy League men's lacrosse tournament.
This included a sweatshirt, a fleece and multiple long-sleeve t-shirts. It was in the 40s Friday night in Providence, with a nice little breeze that made it feel like it was way worse than that. As for Sunday, it was a nice spring day, temps in the low 60s.
And now? It was near 90 yesterday, and the five-day forecast here has the temperature in the 80s all week.
TigerBlog used to love spring. The weather, he means. Nice spring days. There aren't too many of them anymore.
It's been an entire spring of very, very cold days. Now it's in the 80s.
Of course, guess what isn't working for TigerBlog? His air conditioning.
Turned it on. Nothing.
So, he'll be waiting for the AC man to come by this morning and fix it. Just in time for the first really prolonged hot streak of the year.
TB spent much of yesterday reading about and talking to lacrosse people about how Princeton didn't get into the NCAA tournament in men's lacrosse.
He's said enough about it, and he'll add only this today: The NCAA selection process is broken. It either needs to be strictly based on numbers, like hockey - except that lacrosse doesn't have enough games to reach the statistical significance of just numbers - or it has to be subjective, with a committee whose charge is to pick the eight best teams remaining for at-large bids.
It can't be what it's become, which is no rhyme or reason from one year to the next as to what is valued by the committee. And it can't draw huge conclusions based on a win in the snow in February.
Look, if someone from the committee wants to say that Brown and Ohio State are better than Princeton after watching all year, TigerBlog is fine with that. It's just that it never comes down to that.
And with that TB will move from the men to the women.
The Princeton women had none of the men's angst Sunday night for their selection show. Nope.
Princeton knew it was in the NCAA tournament after winning the Ivy League tournament, and the Tigers would have been in even had their lost the final to Penn. Princeton was clearly the dominant team in Ivy women's lacrosse this year, going 7-0 in the league and then winning the tournament.
In the six-year history of the Ivy League tournament, there have been 12 tournaments, between the men and women. Only four times has a team gone undefeated in the league during the regular season and then won the tournament, as Princeton's women just did.
Penn's women did it twice. Cornell's men did it once. That's it.
The 2015 Princeton women are now on the list. Not that there will be time to celebrate that or anything.
Up next for Princeton is the NCAA tournament, which begins Friday against Fairfield at Stony Brook. The winner of that game gets the host team Sunday in the second round.
Looking down the road, the Princeton-Fairfield-Stony Brook winner figures to get Duke in the quarterfinals.
The Princeton men played at Stony Brook this year, and it was the first time TB had ever been there. The women's game will be played at LaValle Stadium, which is a beautiful place to see a game. There is a huge parking lot in front, so parking is a non-issue.
When Princeton's men played there, it was the opening game of a doubleheader, followed by Stony Brook-Albany women. As it turned out, Stony Brook's women were unbeaten on the year at that point. The only loss for the Seawolves came in their next game, against Johns Hopkins.
Princeton is an NCAA tournament veteran. Fairfield is not.
Princeton will be in the field for the 23rd time, all with Chris Sailer as head coach. Fairfield, whose staff includes former Sailer player Laura Field, is making its second NCAA appearance.
Fairfield is 14-4. Princeton is 14-3. The teams have no common opponents.
Princeton's Olivia Hompe and Erin Slifer both have 63 points, tied for team-best. Hompe, the Ivy tournament MVP, has a team-best 48 goals.
The forecast for Friday at Stony Brook is 78 degrees and sunny.
It would be on the fringes of a springish day.
This included a sweatshirt, a fleece and multiple long-sleeve t-shirts. It was in the 40s Friday night in Providence, with a nice little breeze that made it feel like it was way worse than that. As for Sunday, it was a nice spring day, temps in the low 60s.
And now? It was near 90 yesterday, and the five-day forecast here has the temperature in the 80s all week.
TigerBlog used to love spring. The weather, he means. Nice spring days. There aren't too many of them anymore.
It's been an entire spring of very, very cold days. Now it's in the 80s.
Of course, guess what isn't working for TigerBlog? His air conditioning.
Turned it on. Nothing.
So, he'll be waiting for the AC man to come by this morning and fix it. Just in time for the first really prolonged hot streak of the year.
TB spent much of yesterday reading about and talking to lacrosse people about how Princeton didn't get into the NCAA tournament in men's lacrosse.
He's said enough about it, and he'll add only this today: The NCAA selection process is broken. It either needs to be strictly based on numbers, like hockey - except that lacrosse doesn't have enough games to reach the statistical significance of just numbers - or it has to be subjective, with a committee whose charge is to pick the eight best teams remaining for at-large bids.
It can't be what it's become, which is no rhyme or reason from one year to the next as to what is valued by the committee. And it can't draw huge conclusions based on a win in the snow in February.
Look, if someone from the committee wants to say that Brown and Ohio State are better than Princeton after watching all year, TigerBlog is fine with that. It's just that it never comes down to that.
And with that TB will move from the men to the women.
The Princeton women had none of the men's angst Sunday night for their selection show. Nope.
Princeton knew it was in the NCAA tournament after winning the Ivy League tournament, and the Tigers would have been in even had their lost the final to Penn. Princeton was clearly the dominant team in Ivy women's lacrosse this year, going 7-0 in the league and then winning the tournament.
In the six-year history of the Ivy League tournament, there have been 12 tournaments, between the men and women. Only four times has a team gone undefeated in the league during the regular season and then won the tournament, as Princeton's women just did.
Penn's women did it twice. Cornell's men did it once. That's it.
The 2015 Princeton women are now on the list. Not that there will be time to celebrate that or anything.
Up next for Princeton is the NCAA tournament, which begins Friday against Fairfield at Stony Brook. The winner of that game gets the host team Sunday in the second round.
Looking down the road, the Princeton-Fairfield-Stony Brook winner figures to get Duke in the quarterfinals.
The Princeton men played at Stony Brook this year, and it was the first time TB had ever been there. The women's game will be played at LaValle Stadium, which is a beautiful place to see a game. There is a huge parking lot in front, so parking is a non-issue.
When Princeton's men played there, it was the opening game of a doubleheader, followed by Stony Brook-Albany women. As it turned out, Stony Brook's women were unbeaten on the year at that point. The only loss for the Seawolves came in their next game, against Johns Hopkins.
Princeton is an NCAA tournament veteran. Fairfield is not.
Princeton will be in the field for the 23rd time, all with Chris Sailer as head coach. Fairfield, whose staff includes former Sailer player Laura Field, is making its second NCAA appearance.
Fairfield is 14-4. Princeton is 14-3. The teams have no common opponents.
Princeton's Olivia Hompe and Erin Slifer both have 63 points, tied for team-best. Hompe, the Ivy tournament MVP, has a team-best 48 goals.
The forecast for Friday at Stony Brook is 78 degrees and sunny.
It would be on the fringes of a springish day.
Monday, May 4, 2015
Outside Looking In
The sun rose in the east yesterday morning, and the glare nearly blinded TigerBlog as he drove up route 1 on his way to Providence.
The glare was pretty bad as the sun set as well, perhaps not quite as bad as it had been in the morning but still nasty, as TB made his way back.
It was a long day for TigerBlog, one that began with such great promise and then transformed into one of frustration, a fading hope and then ultimately greater frustration and then just sadness.
TigerBlog went to Providence for the championship game of the Ivy League tournament between Princeton and Yale. The winner of the game was guaranteed an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament; the losing team figured to be in a group of four teams for three at-large spots.
It would have been four teams for four at-large spots had Johns Hopkins cooperated by losing to Ohio State Saturday night in the Big 10 final. Instead, Hopkins won that game.
The result? A bid stolen, as Hopkins would have been out with a loss.
There are eight at-large NCAA tournament bids and 10 automatic bids in men's lacrosse. Of the eight at-large bids, four were guaranteed to ACC teams - even Virginia, who was 0-4 in the league and didn't reach the ACC tournament.
Maryland was a lock for one as well, even after Ohio State defeated the Terps in the B1G semifinals.
So that left three spots, for four teams - Cornell, Brown, Ohio State and the Ivy tournament runner-up. And someone had to be on the outside looking in.
Unfortunately, that turned out to be the Tigers. There wasn't much that separated Princeton from Yale on this day, or on the first time they met. Princeton defeated Yale 11-10 in the regular season, and Yale won 11-10 yesterday.
The Ivy final again was a showcase of the ridiculous, sublime skills of Princeton's Zach Currier. Again his numbers - one goal, eight ground balls, one cause turnover, 11 for 25 facing off - don't begin to explain the impact he had on the game. He was everywhere, with his rabid tenacity and insistence on making every loose ball a personal challenge.
Princeton, for all of its great players in the 26 years TB has been watching, has not had another player quite like Currier.
It was Currier who got Princeton the ball back after Mike MacDonald's goal with 27 seconds left, giving the Tigers one last chance to tie. Unfortunately, there would be no equalizer.
As TigerBlog said a few times on the radio during the game, there was a case to be made for and against each of the four.
Ohio State? Great wins over Denver and Maryland but awful losses to Detroit and Rutgers.
Cornell? Wins over Albany and Yale but didn't reach the Ivy final and was 1-2 in its last two.
Brown? A win over Cornell and Princeton, but a very low strength of schedule.
Princeton? Wins over Cornell, Yale (regular season) and Johns Hopkins but losses to Brown, as well as Lehigh and Stony Brook.
When the selections came out, Princeton was the odd team out.
The selection show didn't get off to a good start when Notre Dame got the top seed over Syracuse. That meant head-to-head was playing a role. When Cornell got the eighth seed and a home game and Ohio State got the trip to Duke, that left only one more at-large spot - for either Brown or Princeton.
The opponent would be Denver. The bracket revealed ... Brown.
TigerBlog was extremely disappointed. He can't imagine how the players and coaches felt.
The committee chair is Heather Lyke, who went from Ohio State to become the Director of Athletics at Eastern Michigan two years ago. She was on the selection show for a post-bracket interview, and she said the committee weighed head-to-head strongest.
She also, though, said Cornell got a home game for the entirety of its body of work.
So did Princeton get shafted?
Yes, the Tigers lost to Brown, on March 29, 10-8, at home.
If head-to-head was all that matter, then yes, Brown should have been in over Princeton.
But how about Princeton and Cornell? Each with a win over the other, Princeton on a neutral field. If head to head mattered, Brown destroyed Cornell 15-6. Perhaps Brown should have been above the Big Red?
No, the entire body of Cornell's work included a win over Albany (in February in an ice storm in Dallas), as well as a win over Yale. So in that case, more than just head-to-head was involved.
Then there was the case of Team A vs. Team B.
Team A had a four-goal win over Cornell, a 16-15 win OT win over Johns Hopkins and a six-goal win over Penn.
Team B had a one-goal win over Cornell, a 16-15 OT win over Johns Hopkins and a six-goal win over Penn.
Team A? Princeton. Team B? Virginia, winless-in-its-league Virginia, by the way.
It's not easy to pick an NCAA tournament field.
TigerBlog would have had more respect for the outcome if Lyke had gone on TV and said "hey, the committee had it come down to Princeton and Brown and we thought Brown was the better team after watching both all year."
That's not how it works, though. The criteria is what is in play. Some years it's quality wins. Some years it's RPI. This year, it was head-to-head.
Maybe it's all sour grapes. As TB said, there were four teams for three spots and someone had to be on the outside looking in. TB didn't want it to be Princeton, of course.
He wanted to see Mike MacDonald and Kip Orban get a shot at ending their spectacular careers in the NCAA tournament.
He wanted to see the Tigers play at Denver, or Duke, or Carolina.
It wasn't to be.
TigerBlog thought Princeton was an NCAA team. The committee thought otherwise.
Only their vote mattered.
The glare was pretty bad as the sun set as well, perhaps not quite as bad as it had been in the morning but still nasty, as TB made his way back.
It was a long day for TigerBlog, one that began with such great promise and then transformed into one of frustration, a fading hope and then ultimately greater frustration and then just sadness.
TigerBlog went to Providence for the championship game of the Ivy League tournament between Princeton and Yale. The winner of the game was guaranteed an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament; the losing team figured to be in a group of four teams for three at-large spots.
It would have been four teams for four at-large spots had Johns Hopkins cooperated by losing to Ohio State Saturday night in the Big 10 final. Instead, Hopkins won that game.
The result? A bid stolen, as Hopkins would have been out with a loss.
There are eight at-large NCAA tournament bids and 10 automatic bids in men's lacrosse. Of the eight at-large bids, four were guaranteed to ACC teams - even Virginia, who was 0-4 in the league and didn't reach the ACC tournament.
Maryland was a lock for one as well, even after Ohio State defeated the Terps in the B1G semifinals.
So that left three spots, for four teams - Cornell, Brown, Ohio State and the Ivy tournament runner-up. And someone had to be on the outside looking in.
Unfortunately, that turned out to be the Tigers. There wasn't much that separated Princeton from Yale on this day, or on the first time they met. Princeton defeated Yale 11-10 in the regular season, and Yale won 11-10 yesterday.
The Ivy final again was a showcase of the ridiculous, sublime skills of Princeton's Zach Currier. Again his numbers - one goal, eight ground balls, one cause turnover, 11 for 25 facing off - don't begin to explain the impact he had on the game. He was everywhere, with his rabid tenacity and insistence on making every loose ball a personal challenge.
Princeton, for all of its great players in the 26 years TB has been watching, has not had another player quite like Currier.
It was Currier who got Princeton the ball back after Mike MacDonald's goal with 27 seconds left, giving the Tigers one last chance to tie. Unfortunately, there would be no equalizer.
As TigerBlog said a few times on the radio during the game, there was a case to be made for and against each of the four.
Ohio State? Great wins over Denver and Maryland but awful losses to Detroit and Rutgers.
Cornell? Wins over Albany and Yale but didn't reach the Ivy final and was 1-2 in its last two.
Brown? A win over Cornell and Princeton, but a very low strength of schedule.
Princeton? Wins over Cornell, Yale (regular season) and Johns Hopkins but losses to Brown, as well as Lehigh and Stony Brook.
When the selections came out, Princeton was the odd team out.
The selection show didn't get off to a good start when Notre Dame got the top seed over Syracuse. That meant head-to-head was playing a role. When Cornell got the eighth seed and a home game and Ohio State got the trip to Duke, that left only one more at-large spot - for either Brown or Princeton.
The opponent would be Denver. The bracket revealed ... Brown.
TigerBlog was extremely disappointed. He can't imagine how the players and coaches felt.
The committee chair is Heather Lyke, who went from Ohio State to become the Director of Athletics at Eastern Michigan two years ago. She was on the selection show for a post-bracket interview, and she said the committee weighed head-to-head strongest.
She also, though, said Cornell got a home game for the entirety of its body of work.
So did Princeton get shafted?
Yes, the Tigers lost to Brown, on March 29, 10-8, at home.
If head-to-head was all that matter, then yes, Brown should have been in over Princeton.
But how about Princeton and Cornell? Each with a win over the other, Princeton on a neutral field. If head to head mattered, Brown destroyed Cornell 15-6. Perhaps Brown should have been above the Big Red?
No, the entire body of Cornell's work included a win over Albany (in February in an ice storm in Dallas), as well as a win over Yale. So in that case, more than just head-to-head was involved.
Then there was the case of Team A vs. Team B.
Team A had a four-goal win over Cornell, a 16-15 win OT win over Johns Hopkins and a six-goal win over Penn.
Team B had a one-goal win over Cornell, a 16-15 OT win over Johns Hopkins and a six-goal win over Penn.
Team A? Princeton. Team B? Virginia, winless-in-its-league Virginia, by the way.
It's not easy to pick an NCAA tournament field.
TigerBlog would have had more respect for the outcome if Lyke had gone on TV and said "hey, the committee had it come down to Princeton and Brown and we thought Brown was the better team after watching both all year."
That's not how it works, though. The criteria is what is in play. Some years it's quality wins. Some years it's RPI. This year, it was head-to-head.
Maybe it's all sour grapes. As TB said, there were four teams for three spots and someone had to be on the outside looking in. TB didn't want it to be Princeton, of course.
He wanted to see Mike MacDonald and Kip Orban get a shot at ending their spectacular careers in the NCAA tournament.
He wanted to see the Tigers play at Denver, or Duke, or Carolina.
It wasn't to be.
TigerBlog thought Princeton was an NCAA team. The committee thought otherwise.
Only their vote mattered.
Friday, May 1, 2015
Tournaments And Trivia
Okay, TigerBlog is looking forward to next week.
Why? Because he gets the answer to this trivia question, that came through here yesterday, anonymously at that.
Here it is:
Here's a random trivia question prompted by your comments yesterday about FieldTurf and tigers having their stripes painted on, not sewn on.What makes the 50-yard-line and end zone logos painted on the surface of Powers Field at Princeton Stadium different than the on-field paint markings of every other Division I football stadium? Bonus clue: Until last year, Princeton Stadium shared this odd distinction with Notre Dame Stadium. However, as of the 2014 season, now Princeton Stadium stands alone.
Answer next week.
TigerBlog has no idea. None.
Anyone know?
Actually, before TigerBlog gets the answer, he's also looking forward to this weekend.
Why?
The Ivy League lacrosse tournaments.
TigerBlog will be in Providence this afternoon for the men's semifinal game between Princeton and Cornell, which faces off at 5. The second game will match Yale and Brown.
The women's tournament will be on Sherrerd Field. Princeton will play the second game, beginning at 7, against Harvard, after Cornell and Penn open the tournament at 4.
The men's final will be Sunday at noon. The women's final will be Sunday at 11 a.m.
The winner of each tournament gets an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The tournament does not determine the Ivy League champion; those were decided by the regular season.
For the record, Princeton's women won the outright Ivy League championship. The Princeton men shared the championship with Brown and Cornell.
Heading into the tournament, TigerBlog is wondering who has the advantage, the team that won the first game or the team that lost the first game.
This is the sixth year of Ivy League tournaments. That means that each tournament has had 15 games played to date.
TigerBlog added it up, and he found that on the men's side the team that won the regular season game is 8-7 in the tournament rematch games. On the women's side, the regular season winner is 11-4.
One of those four losses, though, was Princeton's 9-6 loss to Penn in the Ivy final a year ago, after Princeton had beaten Penn in the regular season.
TigerBlog brings this up because Princeton is playing Cornell in men's lacrosse for the second time in six days, after falling 15-10 in Ithaca last Saturday in a rather odd game. Odd? Well, Princeton led 5-0 after one quarter and trailed 9-5 at halftime, which meant that the first 14 goals of the game were all scored on the same side of the field.
Take the 5-0 start away, and it was 15-5 Cornell. Take away the second quarter and it was 10-6 Princeton.
The last time the Tigers and Big Red did this was two years ago, when Cornell beat Princeton 17-11 in the regular season finale. Princeton then won the rematch six days later 14-13 in overtime, getting seven goals from Mike MacDonald and the game-winner from Kip Orban.
Should Princeton win today, let's just say that those two will probably be a large part of why.
As for the women, Princeton has won 13 straight Ivy League regular season games, but as TB said, the Tigers lost in the final a year ago to Penn.
This time, Princeton plays a Harvard team it defeated 17-12 on March 21. The Crimson needed a win last week against Yale to even get into the tournament, and they more than got it, steamrolling the Bulldogs 15-4.
In other words, Princeton's women need the dominant trend on the women's side to continue, with the regular-season winner again victorious in the tournament.
The men? They need the regular-season losing teams to get to .500 in the tournament.
As for the whole tournament concept, TB loves it.
Wait, isn't this the same TB who hates the idea of a men's basketball tournament? Yes.
It's a combination of the doubler round-robin versus the single round-robin and the fact that the Ivy League will get multiple NCAA tournament bids in both men's and women's lacrosse pretty much every year.
The Ivy tournament has changed the dynamic of the regular season, without cheapening the regular season championship.
Either way, TB is excited for 5 this afternoon. Princeton-Cornell is always special. With so much on the line it is even more so.
Fittingly, it'll be unseasonably cold in Providence today. That's how it's been basically the entire way this season.
But it's May, as of this morning.
May is when it really matters in college lacrosse. Both Princeton teams hope to keep playing for awhile this month.
They'll find out this weekend whether that will happen or not.
Why? Because he gets the answer to this trivia question, that came through here yesterday, anonymously at that.
Here it is:
Here's a random trivia question prompted by your comments yesterday about FieldTurf and tigers having their stripes painted on, not sewn on.What makes the 50-yard-line and end zone logos painted on the surface of Powers Field at Princeton Stadium different than the on-field paint markings of every other Division I football stadium? Bonus clue: Until last year, Princeton Stadium shared this odd distinction with Notre Dame Stadium. However, as of the 2014 season, now Princeton Stadium stands alone.
Answer next week.
TigerBlog has no idea. None.
Anyone know?
Actually, before TigerBlog gets the answer, he's also looking forward to this weekend.
Why?
The Ivy League lacrosse tournaments.
TigerBlog will be in Providence this afternoon for the men's semifinal game between Princeton and Cornell, which faces off at 5. The second game will match Yale and Brown.
The women's tournament will be on Sherrerd Field. Princeton will play the second game, beginning at 7, against Harvard, after Cornell and Penn open the tournament at 4.
The men's final will be Sunday at noon. The women's final will be Sunday at 11 a.m.
The winner of each tournament gets an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The tournament does not determine the Ivy League champion; those were decided by the regular season.
For the record, Princeton's women won the outright Ivy League championship. The Princeton men shared the championship with Brown and Cornell.
Heading into the tournament, TigerBlog is wondering who has the advantage, the team that won the first game or the team that lost the first game.
This is the sixth year of Ivy League tournaments. That means that each tournament has had 15 games played to date.
TigerBlog added it up, and he found that on the men's side the team that won the regular season game is 8-7 in the tournament rematch games. On the women's side, the regular season winner is 11-4.
One of those four losses, though, was Princeton's 9-6 loss to Penn in the Ivy final a year ago, after Princeton had beaten Penn in the regular season.
TigerBlog brings this up because Princeton is playing Cornell in men's lacrosse for the second time in six days, after falling 15-10 in Ithaca last Saturday in a rather odd game. Odd? Well, Princeton led 5-0 after one quarter and trailed 9-5 at halftime, which meant that the first 14 goals of the game were all scored on the same side of the field.
Take the 5-0 start away, and it was 15-5 Cornell. Take away the second quarter and it was 10-6 Princeton.
The last time the Tigers and Big Red did this was two years ago, when Cornell beat Princeton 17-11 in the regular season finale. Princeton then won the rematch six days later 14-13 in overtime, getting seven goals from Mike MacDonald and the game-winner from Kip Orban.
Should Princeton win today, let's just say that those two will probably be a large part of why.
As for the women, Princeton has won 13 straight Ivy League regular season games, but as TB said, the Tigers lost in the final a year ago to Penn.
This time, Princeton plays a Harvard team it defeated 17-12 on March 21. The Crimson needed a win last week against Yale to even get into the tournament, and they more than got it, steamrolling the Bulldogs 15-4.
In other words, Princeton's women need the dominant trend on the women's side to continue, with the regular-season winner again victorious in the tournament.
The men? They need the regular-season losing teams to get to .500 in the tournament.
As for the whole tournament concept, TB loves it.
Wait, isn't this the same TB who hates the idea of a men's basketball tournament? Yes.
It's a combination of the doubler round-robin versus the single round-robin and the fact that the Ivy League will get multiple NCAA tournament bids in both men's and women's lacrosse pretty much every year.
The Ivy tournament has changed the dynamic of the regular season, without cheapening the regular season championship.
Either way, TB is excited for 5 this afternoon. Princeton-Cornell is always special. With so much on the line it is even more so.
Fittingly, it'll be unseasonably cold in Providence today. That's how it's been basically the entire way this season.
But it's May, as of this morning.
May is when it really matters in college lacrosse. Both Princeton teams hope to keep playing for awhile this month.
They'll find out this weekend whether that will happen or not.
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