To The Final Four, In A Second

TigerBlog is driving his old car these days. It's sort of a long story.

Well, actually not really. He needs to take the old car in to get inspected in November, so he gave TigerBlog Jr. his other car to drive until Thanksgiving.

TBJ's car has more than 200,000 miles on it. Thankfully, it still runs well, though it is showing its age.

For starters, there are a few dents on it. And some scratches. And a hole in the floorboard on the driver's side. And some other things.

Like the radio. It doesn't work anymore. Sometimes it does for a few minutes, but then it switches over to another frequency, makes a bit of a bang and then stops working completely.

As a result, TB listens to music off his iPhone in the car.

Yesterday he got into the car, put on his music and hit the "shuffle" button. The first song that came on was "America," by Simon and Garfunkel.

It's not his favorite song by the duo. Nope, not with "The Sounds of Silence" and "Bridge Over Troubled Water."

Still, it's a good song. And it gives a mention to TigerBlog's favorite superhighway, when they sing "counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike; they've all come to look for America."

Ah, the New Jersey Turnpike.

It's highway of beauty and character, just like the state of New Jersey itself, with something for everyone. It reaches from the Delaware Memorial Bridge in the south to the George Washington Bridge in the north, all in the span of just 18 exits.

It runs the gamut of sites to be seen, including a major international airport, the site of a Super Bowl, farmland, commercial centers, industrial centers, educational centers, a major seaport, oil refineries and some of the most spectacular views of Manhattan anyway.

By going one way off an exit, you can connect directly to the Jersey Shore. By going the other way, you can be in Princeton in 10 minutes.

When TigerBlog was in college, anytime he'd say he was from New Jersey, the question was "what exit?" It wasn't original or funny or anything, and TB didn't really know how to answer anyway.

Coming from one direction? Exit 11. Coming from another? Exit 8.

It's a much-maligned highway. It has millions of cars on it at all time, and it can have way more than its share of traffic. People who aren't from New Jersey point to some of its miles, especially those that go past those oil refineries, as a sign that the Garden State isn't so pretty.

To them, TB says "you're not seeing it the way TB is." The Turnpike? It's a symbol of beauty.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike is also mentioned in a song. Billy Joel has a song from his early days called "You're My Home," which says "home can be the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Indiana's early morning dew. High up in the hills of California. Home is just another word for you."

Yeah, it's got nothing on Simon and Garfunkel.

Princeton teams spend hours and hours each year on the New Jersey Turnpike. They're rarely on the Pennsylvania counterpart, since no Ivy League school is located as you head west from the Philadelphia area.

There is one school that you need to head out on the Pennsylvania Turnpike to reach, and that's Penn State. If you happened to see a bus with Princeton athletes on it on its way back from there yesterday, well, chances are there was some celebrating going on inside.

The Princeton field hockey team spent the weekend at Penn State and had an amazing time. The Tigers, the 14th-ranked team in the country and unseeded in the NCAA tournament, took out the host Nittany Lions Saturday and then Virginia yesterday.

The end of the game yesterday was particularly dramatic, as Sophia Tornetta scored in the final second for the game-winner. Here are the highlights:



As a result, Princeton is one of the last four teams standing in the NCAA field hockey tournament.

Getting this far is hardly new for the Tiger field hockey program. This will be the seventh time Princeton has reached the Final Four, and it's only been four years since Princeton won the championship.

This one, though, is a bit unlikely. For starters, Princeton didn't win the Ivy League this year, so the team needed an at-large bid just to get into the tournament in the first place. Also, Princeton had already lost to both Penn State (4-2) and Virginia (2-0) in the regular season.

Also, this is Year 1 under new head coach Carla Tagliente and her top assistant, Dina Rizzo. And it's a young team, one that lost Tornetta to injury in midseason for eight games.

And despite that, the Tigers are still playing.

Princeton's next opponent will be Delaware, whom Princeton beat 4-2 back in the fourth game of the year. Of course, the Tigers have seen so far what regular season results mean in the postseason.

The Princeton-Delaware game will be Friday at 4:45 at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va. The other semifinal will match UConn and North Carolina.

It's a great story for Princeton, reaching the Final Four this way. This is definitely the hard way.

As an at-large team. With less than a second to spare.

Yes. That had to be one happy bus ride back, regardless of which Turnpike it was.

A Thank You To The Veterans

Today is Veterans' Day, a day about which TigerBlog once wrote this:

Take a minute to think about what the significance of today is. Veterans' Day lacks the family feel of Thanksgiving and Christmas. It doesn't conjure up the start of summer like Memorial Day or make you think of a barbecue in the backyard and watching fireworks like the Fourth of July.
Mostly, it's just another day for many people, a day to go about business as usual. Except that we do it in a country that is free, and because today salutes those who made it that way and continue to make it that way, it's nothing short of the most important day of the year.

And this:

TigerBlog woke up this morning like he does every other morning: free. It's certainly not through his own doing, and it's certainly something he takes for granted. TigerBlog is free to do what he wants. Go to work. Not go to work. Work here. Quit today. Live here. Pick up and move 3,000 miles away. Whatever he wants. Why? Because that's how it works in America, and it works that way because of the sacrifice that hundreds of thousands of American soldiers have made in various wars during the last 240 years. Today is Veterans' Day, obviously. For those who weren't paying attention in school, Veterans' Day is usually Nov. 11 (it can be moved if it falls on the weekend) in honor of the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I on Nov. 11, 1918. TigerBlog can't imagine the horror of fighting in a war, and he saves his greatest respect for those who have. His uncle Herbie fought in Europe and the Pacific in World War II. His uncle Larry fought in Korea and never spoke a word about his experiences there until the day more than 50 years later when he died.

And this:
MotherBlog, at one point, worked for the Paralyzed Veterans of America, at a time when each wheelchair was home to someone who left part of himself in Vietnam. She was involved in a tangential way with the construction of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C., and if you've ever been there and haven't shed a tear, well, then you're as much made of stone as the monument itself.

All of that still stands. Some days shouldn't be taken for granted, even if they are every year.

So before TigerBlog looks ahead at the weekend in Princeton sports, he wants to say "thank you" to all of the veterans out there, to anyone who has ever had the courage to serve in uniform to defend this country.

As for the games this weekend, well, this is big-time crossover season.

Between today and Monday, there are 21 Princeton athletic events. As for coming attractions, there are 25 next weekend, including a remarkable 16 a week from tomorrow alone.

In true crossover fashion, there are championship events mixed with season-opening events this weekend.

Princeton will be well-represented at Penn State, where it will take on the Nittany Lions in the NCAA field hockey tournament tomorrow morning at 11:30 and also compete in the men's and women's NCAA cross country regionals. The field hockey team is there with an at-large bid, something that speaks volumes about the challenging schedule Princeton plays each year.

Closer to home, the women's volleyball team will be in Dillon Gym tonight at 7 against Cornell and tomorrow at 5 against Cornell as it goes for the Ivy League championship. Right now Princeton is 11-1, followed by Yale at 10-2. Everyone else has been mathematically eliminated.

Assuming Yale sweeps, Princeton needs one win for a tie for the championship and two for an outright championship.

Tonight is also opening night for the women's basketball team. Princeton received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament a year ago, a first for an Ivy League basketball team of either gender.

For Princeton it was the sixth NCAA trip in seven years, which means that Courtney Banghart and top assistant Milena Flores have shown they can turn the program over and still win big. That is this year's challenge, as the Tigers have graduated four starters, including Annie Tarakchian, Michelle Miller and Alex Wheatley.

This year's team is going to be young, obviously. The opener is tonight, also at 7, at home against Rider.

As for hockey, a quick update on Mike Condon - he finally gave up his first goal of the 2016-17 season Wednesday night. Still, he did make 31 saves and win 2-1 in the shootout for his new team, Ottawa, over the Buffalo Sabres. Condon, the Princeton grad, has now played 145 minutes and allowed just one goal.

Speaking of Princeton hockey, the men will be home this weekend against Harvard tonight and Dartmouth tomorrow night, both at 7. There is also home men's and women's swimming and diving today and tomorrow.

Speaking of Princeton in the pros, Seth DeValve caught his first NFL touchdown pass last night for the Cleveland Browns. Caraun Reid, another Princeton alum, tweeted his congrats but pointed out that he, a defensive lineman, still has the lead, with two NFL touchdowns.

I'm still in the lead...for now https://t.co/DveznWwSlz

— Caraun Akinó Reid (@ChopReid) November 11, 2016

And of course, there is a football game this weekend, as Princeton heads to New Haven for the 139th meeting with Yale. Only Lafayette and Lehigh have played more in Division I football.

Before that game ever kicks off (which will be at noon tomorrow), there's another football game of importance tonight, when Penn hosts Harvard. Princeton fans, repeat after TigerBlog: "Let's go Penn. Let's go Penn."

If you're a Princeton person, you've never loved Penn more than you do right now.

Princeton is currently 4-1 in the Ivy League football race after last weekend's 28-0 win over the Quakers. Penn is also 4-1. Harvard is 5-0. Obviously Princeton cannot get back into the championship picture unless Harvard loses a game.

So say it again: "Let's go Penn. Let's go Penn."

And of course Princeton has to take care of its own business.

Let's go Penn. Hmmm. When was the last time Princeton people needed to root this hard for Penn?

Hello Jen, Goodbye Yurko

Jen Cross didn't need to tell TigerBlog to be nice to her, even though she did.

TigerBlog can't remember the last time he saw Jen, the wife of Mike Cross, who used to be the No. 2 person in the Princeton Department of Athletics. It had been years, though, enough years that somehow her two little boys are now in 9th and 8th grades.

Jen was one of the first people TB saw when he walked in to the annual meeting of the College Athletic Administrators of New Jersey, an organization for which TB once served as president. Jen was there to give a presentation on the dreaded Millennials and how college athletic administrators can better understand them, advise them, coach them, motivate them.

She asked if TB was going to write about this. When TB said yes, that's when Jen asked him to be nice.

Mike Cross is one of TigerBlog's all-time favorite co-workers. It started from the very first day TB met Mike. There are just some people you meet that you're immediately drawn to, right?

TigerBlog and Mike Cross spent a lot of time together, working on any number of projects. They laughed more than anything else, especially when, no matter what the issue of the day was on the table, Mike would reassure TB that they had "never been closer" to have it resolved.

Mike is a member of the lunchtime basketball Hall of Fame, or would be if there happened to be such a thing. He started out overseeing compliance, and he ended up overseeing intercollegiate programming. Back when Gary Walters, then the Princeton Director of Athletics, was the chair of the Division I men's basketball committee, Mike was basically in charge at Princeton for a full year. 

Mike left Princeton to become the Director of Athletics at Bradley. These days, he's a senior administrator at Penn State.

Jen is a consultant. Her presentation yesterday was a good one. She's polished, with a lot of energy and funny quips mixed in with the points she makes about her subject. She kept her audience engaged and interested, and the 90 minutes or so during which she spoke flew by.

The CAANJ event always has a speaker who tries to address a subject that is germane to athletic administrators from schools from Division I through junior colleges. As someone who has helped put some of these together, TB can tell you it's not always easy to do.
Jen's talk managed to accomplish that. Plus it was good to see her.

There. That was nice. And she didn't have to ask.

The second part of the CAANJ meeting is the awards luncheon.

Princeton won both of the Division I/II student-athlete of the year awards. Emily de la Bruyere, from women's track and cross country, was the women's winner, though she wasn't able to be there, as she is studying in France this year.

The men's winner was Chad Powers, the Ivy League Pitcher of the Year in baseball and one of the main reasons that Princeton went from seven wins in 2015 to the Ivy League championship and NCAA tournament in 2016. Powers pitched a great game in the NCAA regional at Louisiana-Lafayette, a game Princeton ultimately lost 5-3.

Princeton also won the CAANJ Cup as the top athletic program in Divisions I/II in New Jersey. There are also team winners from Division III (Stevens Tech) and junior college (Rowan College of Gloucester).

TigerBlog accepted the CAANJ Cup for Princeton and as such had to make a few short remarks. He spoke about how fortunate Princeton is to have the resources it does and how he respects everyone in the room for their own commitments to the values that Princeton calls "Education Through Athletics."

Then he gave the Cup, a rather heavy trophy, to Ryan Yurko, the Associate Athletic Director for Finance and Administration. And what did Yurko do?

He broke it.

About 30 seconds after TB gave the trophy to Yurko, the base was on the floor while the glass cup was still in Yurko's hands.

Destroying the trophy will be one of the last things Yurko ever does at Princeton. He is leaving, heading back to his native Indiana, having taken a job with the Indiana Pacers.

It would be hard to find someone at Princeton who doesn't like Yurko. Certainly TigerBlog does.

Yurko is a Midwestern boy, through and through. He's nice and polite, and he has a great work ethic. He's spent seven years at Princeton, and yet somehow he still looks like he's about 16 or 17. Maybe 18 tops.

Yurko is always smiling. He will help anyone do anything at any time. He is completely focused on what his responsibilities are, and he'll give a hand to anyone in the department who needs one. Yeah, he always say, I can help you. No problem .

When TB spoke while accepting the Cup, he mentioned how fortunate he is to work at a place with such a great group of people.

Now one of those great people is moving on. TB is happy for him. He's moving back home, and he'll be working for an NBA team.

It's part of how it is at Princeton. People come and go. They move on to other jobs, move up in their careers.

Ryan is just the latest to do so.

TigerBlog wants to thank him for everything he's done, whether it's been something specific from the business office or just for making Princeton Athletics a fun place to work.

And say that he will miss Ryan Yurko. 

Just like he misses Mike and Jen Cross.

Let's Go Ottawa

The last pitch of the 2016 World Series that TigerBlog would see was in Kennedy Airport before he got on his flight to Portugal.

That was Game 4, which the Cleveland Indians won to go up 3-1 in the Series. They wouldn't win another game. TigerBlog had to get on the plane in the eighth inning. He saw a little of the game on one of the TV's at the gate.

Game 5 would start after 11 in Portugal. the last two games would start after midnight. There was no coverage of any of those games where TB was, and even if there had been, the games wouldn't have ended until well past 3 in the morning. The best way to figure out who won was to simply check the score online in the morning.

And so that's how TB figured out that the Cubs had won the World Series for the first time in 108 years. Theo Epstein has now ended two of the most infamous droughts in sports history, the long championship-less runs of the Red Sox and Cubs.

When Princeton men's lacrosse team was in a restaurant last Monday in the Algarve region, a replay of the Eagles-Cowboys Sunday night game came on the TV that was on. TigerBlog saw the first few plays before the team left.

Other than that, it was soccer, soccer, soccer, soccer and a little tennis on Portugese sports TV. Anywhere there was a television on, there was almost always a soccer game showing, from Portugal or somewhere else in Europe.

There was nothing American, other than the replay of that one football game.

It's actually been three full weekends since TigerBlog has seen a down of NFL football on television live. He watched a little of the Sixers opener so far this NBA season, and he watched almost no baseball on TV again this year.

Why is that? Why has TigerBlog lost almost all interest in professional sports? He's not really sure.

He's certainly watched a lot of them in his life. Some of his earliest memories were of watching games on a little black and white TV that was in his room and on another TV that was downstairs in the house where he grew up.

He watched ABA games at one time. He watched almost every New York Mets game that was on, with Bob Murphy, Lindsey Nelson and Ralph Kiner as the broadcasters. He watched the Knicks and Rangers on channel 9 in New York, before there was cable, back when Bill Bradley was a Knick. There were years when he didn't miss a Giants game on TV.

Now? He can take it or leave it. Mostly leave it.

Why is that? He'll have to think about it and get back to you.

In the meantime, he's definitely on the Ottawa Senators bandwagon. As of yesterday, that is.

It wasn't until then that he realized that Princeton's Mike Condon was now on Ottawa. The former Tiger goalie started his first game last Thursday and made 27 saves in a 1-0 win over the Vancouver Canucks.

Condon had an interesting time before that game.

He started his career last year with the Canadiens, and he did a very good job as the fill-in starter after Carey Price missed most of the year with an injury. Montreal was TB's favorite team last year. Now he's down on the Canadiens for giving up on Condon and for giving him so little offensive support last year, even if the team has the best record in the NHL now.

Condon ended up on the Pittsburgh Penguins to start this season. He was on the ice when the team had its opening-night banner-raising ceremony to celebrate last year's Stanley Cup.

Condon would play one period for the Penguins and not allow a goal on the seven shots he saw. Eventually, he was traded to Ottawa for a fifth-round pick.

To join his new team, Condon had to fly to from Los Angeles, where the Penguins were going to play Anaheim, to Toronto and then Ottawa, arriving at 3 in the morning. With almost no sleep, he practiced with his new team and then shut out the Canucks.

So yeah, TB is all over the Senators' bandwagon.

Condon's college team has played three games so far this year, none of which has been all that close to Princeton (at Michigan State and then at Clarkson and St. Lawrence). That changes this weekend, when the Tigers play their home openers against Harvard Friday and Dartmouth Saturday.

The games this weekend will be the only two home games for the men's hockey team this month.

Next weekend, the Tigers will head up to Colgate and Cornell, which means the first chance to play in Colgate's brand-new Class of 1965 Arena. Beyond that is a trip over Thanksgiving to Bemidji State. That's in Minnesota.

Baker Rink could be the best place at Princeton to see a game. Basically anyone that TigerBlog knows who has been to a game there loves it. The seats are right on the ice. The games are fast. The atmosphere is great. Princeton will be home six times in December. 

And twice this weekend.

Ottawa, on the other hand, is in Buffalo tonight after playing in Nashville last night. TigerBlog is up on his Senators.

Selection Day

Today, as you may have heard, is Election Day.

TigerBlog will endorse ... voting. He'll simply say that a lot of people have died throughout this country's history to give you that particular right.

And he'll leave it at that.

TigerBlog also wanted to say one more thing about his Portugal trip. His packing was great. He was away for eight days, and he wore everything he brought except one pair of socks and two shirts. That's pretty good.

Lisbon, if you remember, was where the plane went in the movie "Casablanca," with passage to America from there. Lisbon was also renowned for its World War II spies, and there are those who credit the Allies success on D-Day to the misinformation that was spread in the city.

And that, friends, is the last TigerBlog will mention of Portugal for awhile.

Wait. Wait. Not so fast.

TB found that one of the best ways to get information out during the trip was through Instagram. This was something completely different than on his previous international trips with men's lacrosse, to Spain and Ireland in 2008 and Costa Rica in 2012.

TigerBlog posted some short videos to the Princetonlax Instagram feed, and then he would be amazed by the number of views they would get.

He posted one from one of the practices, a play that ended with a goal by Drew O'Connell, and it got more than 3,000 views. This was topped by a video from a drill from the joint practice with the English team; it had nearly 5,000.

TB isn't sure if Instagram offers better exposure than Twitter or if it just counts views easier. Either way, he used Twitter as well, largely for short videos.

One of the better ones was the one of assistant coaches Jesse Bernhardt and Justin Tuma as they interviewed the tour guide, Francisco. That one reached 2,000 on the lacrosse account and then got 700 more on the regular athletic account when TB reposted.

He didn't want to repost - using the app "Repost," by the way - everything, so he just picked a few.

Halftime of the game against England Sunday morning was about 9:15 in Lisbon, which made it 4:15 in the eastern United States. TigerBlog posted a picture on Twitter and gave the halftime score. It had retweets in no time.

TB still wrote a story and blog each day. And the blog got big numbers (thanks, everyone). But the social media piece is the real difference-maker, he thinks.

There's another Instagram video that TigerBlog couldn't help but like. It was of the field hockey team as it watched the NCAA selections the other night.

That one was just pure, undeniable joy.

Princeton didn't win the Ivy League championship this season, but that didn't keep the team out of the NCAA tournament. Princeton earned an at-large bid and will travel Saturday to take on No. 6 Penn State.

The Tigers are regulars in the NCAA tournament and will be there for the 12th straight time and 21st time overall. Princeton has made 14 quarterfinal appearances and reached four Final Fours. The 2012 team won the NCAA title.

Princeton was on the bubble this time. That didn't matter when the show came on and the team saw its name called, and the result is obvious on the Instagram video.

All selection show has drama with them. Even if you have an automatic bid, there are still the great unknowns of where and whom.

When you're the bubble team? Then you react like Princeton did.

Princeton has played Penn State 10 times already in the NCAA tournament. That's the most Princeton has played against any opponent.

It's also the first year for head coach Carla Tagliente, and it's great to see her continue the team's tradition of playing in the postseason.

This is a good cross-over weekend, with the end of men's soccer season, the second-to-last football game, the NCAA cross country regionals and the end of women's volleyball's regular season with women's basketball's opener and men's and women's hockey.

And so what was already a busy weekend for Princeton Athletics has added another event. A big one.

And you can watch the celebration for yourself on Instagram.

Insta. Like Instant. Like "see for yourself in an instant."

It's part of the new world in athletic communications. TigerBlog couldn't have imagined it 10 years ago.

Or actually four years ago, when he was in Costa Rica.

Obrigado, Portugal

The Lisbon airport is a monument to commercialism.

Departing passengers go through check-in and security and then are immediately greeted by stores and restaurants on both sides of them, completely surrounding and enveloping them as they attempt to reach their gate. TigerBlog has never seen anything quite like it, though he thinks it's pretty smart.

Plus, it gave him a chance to do a few things, including finally being able to find a hat for Sporting Club of Portugal, the team in the Portugese Liga NOS, the country's first division. It's the favorite team of Francisco, the tour guide for Princeton men's lacrosse during its eight days in the country that ended yesterday, when the team flew home.

The walk through the airport also enabled TB to get his second croissant of the day, a ham and cheese one that was pretty good.

Earlier Sunday he had a chocolate croissant at the cafe at the National Sports Center, where Princeton was playing its third and final game of the tour against the English national team. Princeton and England split the first two games, and Princeton then won 13-5 yesterday.

The National Sports Center features a 30,000-seat soccer stadium, which serves as the host for the final of the Portugal Cup.

Beyond that, it has field after field lined for sport after sport. There are grass fields and turf fields, tennis courts, a pool and even a golf course. There are soccer fields, of course, and fields lined for field hockey, team handball and rugby, not to mention one grass field that for the past few days has been lined for men's lacrosse.

There is a paved walkway that circles the park, with bridges that go back and forth over the stream that goes down one side. Each time Princeton was at this park, there were joggers, walkers and bike riders, many of whom would stop, watch the lacrosse for a few minutes and then move on.

When Princeton and England were practicing together Saturday, TigerBlog wandered around and saw a rugby game. It had to be have been some sort of high-level league. TigerBlog could tell that by watching, even if he doesn't know the rules.

When he got back to where the lacrosse field was, he could also see a field hockey game between two men's teams. They were also playing very seriously.

The practice started at 3:30 local time, which meant 11:30 Princeton time, which meant just about start time for Princeton-Penn football. TigerBlog followed the game on Twitter, checking in just in time for the blocked punt that started Princeton on the way to a convincing 28-0 win, for its first shutout win over Penn since 1978.

Each time TigerBlog refreshed the Princeton football Twitter feed, it was good news for Princeton, starting with the blocked punt for the touchdown and going from there. Even when Princeton wasn't scoring, it was getting stop after stop on defense.

TigerBlog got to his hotel room in time to see the end of the game on the Ivy League Digital Network. By then it was 21-0 and essentially over. 

It was a little weird, being 3,500 miles away, knowing that he would be returning to where the stadium was in a little more than 24 hours. One of TB's first thoughts when he put the game on the ILDN was about how his car was in the parking lot there.

It looked like it might be the perfect day for Princeton when Harvard trailed Columbia at the half before the Crimson rallied to win. The Tigers need Harvard to lose one of its last two, either at Penn or home against Yale, while Princeton needs to win out against Yale and Dartmouth to get at least a share of the title. 
Francisco has seen only one American football game and didn't like it. He did love what he saw of lacrosse. He tried to learn how to throw and catch, though he was slowed by a bad ankle, injured playing volleyball.

It doesn't seem like a more than a week has gone by since Francisco met the Tigers at the same overcommercialized airport when the trip began. 

The last night of any long trip, especially an international one, is always bittersweet. You want to enjoy, but your mind is also on packing, airports, check-ins, flights, logistics, that sort of stuff.

For their last dinner in Portugal for this trip, Francisco recommended a restaurant near the beach area, about a five-minute cab ride from the hotel (and about three minutes back, thanks to a cabbie who should be driving for a NASCAR team). There was a group of 11 that made its way to the restaurant, which opened out to the ocean.

Before they could order, they were deluged by food - empanadas, different breads, prosciutto, cheeses, things TB already forgot. Then it was a shrimp appetizer. Then it was the main dish.

The main dishes were huge. They're meant for two people, though three can make due easily. There was fish. Meat. Chicken. Rice. Potatoes. TigerBlog saw - and ate - the biggest mussels he's ever seen.

It was a total feast - and a nice final night in the country.

The trip to Portugal was a great one. It's a magnificent place to visit. The weather was nearly perfect, especially for Western Europe in November. The team got to see two very distinct parts of the country, the Algarve coastal region in the southeastern part of Portugal and then Lisbon, a quaint, charming city.

TigerBlog asked a few people on the trip what city Lisbon reminded them of the most. For TB, the answer was none. He's never been to a city quite like Lisbon. It doesn't really have a classic city design, with wide streets crisscrossing each other under huge skyscrapers.

It's a whole city of narrow streets, little shops, charming neighborhoods, pastries on every corner.

It was great there. The whole week was great. Portugal rocks. TB recommends it highly.

When Princeton's flight took off yesterday, it swept over the city, showing off those little neighborhoods once again. From his window seat on the left, TigerBlog could see the 25th of April Bridge, the one that the team bus had passed over each time it had to come back into the city from its hotel. The bridge is modeled after the Golden Gate Bridge and looks just like it.

Off beyond the bridge was the area where Princeton stayed. TigerBlog could see the ocean reach the point a bit to the right of where the hotel is, and he could pretty much see exactly where they had eaten dinner the night before.

Within maybe seven minutes the plane had cleared land and was out over the ocean, with the rest of the seven-hour flight in front of them and the memories of their week in Portugal behind them. 

TigerBlog only had his window seat because he switched with sophomore Dawson McKenzie. In the three games with England, McKenzie - whom they call "Daws" - had scored three goals and had seven ground balls.

His biggest lacrosse contribution, though, might have been Saturday before the practice with the English, back when the Tigers visited a school that at one time would have been described as an orphanage. TigreBlog asked Francisco about it, and he said the school has a good reputation for getting good educations for kids from that tough beginning.

It was on the field there that McKenzie and Strib Walker spent about 15 minutes with a little girl who looked to be about 12 or so. They taught her to throw and catch, though she spoke no English. She was pretty good. Then they showed her how to throw behind-the-back.

Who knows what her back story is. If she was at that school, TigerBlog's sense is it isn't good.

And here were Walker and McKenzie, making her smile and laugh and showing her the sport that they play at one of the greatest universities in the world. It was great to watch.

Shortly after that, it started to rain fairly hard, the only time all week it actually did rain on the Tigers. Some of the kids hid under some stone bleachers to get away from the water that cascaded down, and the Princeton players milled around near where the opening was.

TigerBlog took a lot of pictures in Portugal. His favorite is the one he took during that rain. It's of Sam Bonafede, a Long Island kid and Princeton junior who has the world at his fingertips. "Bono," as they call him, could be the perfect Princeton ambassador, always upbeat, always supportive. He's the kind of kid you look at and know that he's going to make a real difference in the decades to come.

And, in this case, on a rainy Saturday in Lisbon.

In the picture, he's next to one of the little girls, who is wearing a slightly oversized Princeton Lacrosse t shirt. He's kneeling down, arm around her. They're both smiling.

It's an amazing picture. They're two people separated by an ocean, and not just the literal one. And here they were, together, in a moment they'll both remember for a long, long time.

Yeah. Those are the kinds of kids you want to spend a week internationally with - and Portugal is as good a country as you can find to spend that week.

Thanks, Francisco

The last time TigerBlog saw Francisco, the tour guide for the Princeton men's lacrosse team during the current trip to Portugal, he was doing something that TB wouldn't have guessed he could.

He was making assistant coach Jesse Bernhardt look foolish at ping pong.

There's a table it the basement of Princeton's hotel outside of Lisbon, in a game room that connects the stairs and elevator to the room where the Tigers eat. It was after dinner last night that Jesse and his girlfriend Erin started to play, when Francisco jumped in and grabbed the paddle.

When he served, Jesse couldn't return it. Not because of the power. Because of the spin. Francisco was like a magician on his serves. They would bounce and take off in some random direction at some random speed.

Who would have guessed that about Francisco?

A few hours earlier, Francisco was being interviewed, as it were, by Jesse and fellow assistant coach Justin Tuma. Francisco had just seen his first lacrosse game, Princeton's 15-5 win over the English national team, and now the two coaches were asking him about it.

Eventually, Francisco pointed out what every first time observer of the sport says. He couldn't believe how much they whack each other with their sticks.

If you haven't seen the interview, it's on Princeton men's lacrosse Instagram and Twitter. It's definitely worth checking out.  

What did Francisco, the team's guide, think of his first lacrosse game? He's interviewed by coaches Bernhardt and Tuma pic.twitter.com/waol9yGN5h

— Princeton Lacrosse (@TigerLacrosse) November 3, 2016

It was all in good fun. So was the ping pong. So is everything about Francisco.

To pull off a trip like the one Princeton is currently on, you need someone who can keep everyone organized and on schedule and most importantly who can read his audience. You need someone who laughs and makes the group laugh. You need someone who can teach you about the country without making it seem like you're in a classroom.

Francisco is great at all of that.

He's low-key. Nothing seems to bother him. He's just a nice guy.

When Princeton was at the field for the game yesterday, Francisco asked how many chairs he needed to get for the makeshift scorer's area. When TB offered to help, Francisco simply shrugged and said he was on top of it. Then he came back carrying five plastic chairs at one time.

More than the organizational piece, you need someone who has a genuine love for the country and who wants to share that with the strangers who have never been here before and may never be back after this week. TigerBlog had that with the guide in Costa Rica four years ago, a man named Diego, who was largely responsible for why TB had such a great experience there.

Francisco is different than Diego. For every 100 words Diego said, Francisco says maybe one. Diego narrated Costa Rica to the group. Francisco is the Portugese cousin who has his large family in town for a week and is showing them around.

He rarely speaks into the microphone on the bus, and when he does it's usually to make fun of someone or something. He's figured out the personalities on the team quickly. He had an instant rapport with head coach Matt Madalon, and the two of them work together seamlessly.

Francisco is 31. He grew up not far from where the team is staying. He is a season ticket holder for one of the soccer teams in the Portugese first division, though TB doesn't remember which one. He speaks five languages and toggles back and forth between English and Portugese like it's nothing. Actually, Portugese is an interesting language. TigerBlog expected it to sound like Spanish, but it sounds more like Italian or even Russian than anything else.

As for Francisco, he has made a real difference in this trip, in ways you can't see and ways you can. It's been great to see him embrace a sport like lacrosse that he had never seen before, and the group of lacrosse players who have wandered into his world.

Francisco does this all the time. It's his job. TigerBlog has the sense that the tour guide will miss this group a little more than the others, though maybe that's just the sign of a great tour guide, that he leaves you with that sense.

Princeton has two more games against the English, this morning and Sunday morning before the flight home.
Meanwhile, because there is more going on in the sporting world than just Princeton's trip to Portugal (by the way, nobody here seemed interested in the World Series), TigerBlog would like to mention two events this weekend involving Princeton teams.

The first is the women's volleyball match tonight in New Haven against Yale. Should Princeton win that match, it would clinch at least a tie for the Ivy League championship with three matches left. Should Yale win, Princeton's lead over the Bulldogs would shrink to one match with those same three to play.

The other event is the football game tomorrow at home against Penn.

Right now the Tigers are 3-1, one game back of both Penn and Harvard, who are both 4-0 and who play next week in Cambridge. The Ivy League race changes in a major way depending on who wins the game tomorrow at Princeton (kickoff is at 1).

TigerBlog hasn't asked Francisco about American football yet. He's running out of time to do so.

TigerBlog told Coach Madalon that at the end of a trip like this, you want to know that you have a good feel for what the country is all about. TB will leave Portugal in two days knowing that he has had that, and grateful for what Francisco did to make that happen.

Zip It

TigerBlog was oozing confidence throughout the crisp Portugese morning.

He had this. No problem. No problem at all.

Francisco, the Princeton men's lacrosse team's guide, explained that by getting on the ferry and crossing the Rio Guadiana from Portugal to Spain, you were committing yourself to doing the zipline. There would be no turning back. When the ferry came, TigerBlog was the first one on.

No problem.

Francisco said that the top speed on the zipline was 45-50 miles per hour. So what, TigerBlog thought. That's nothing. 

Then it was time to put on the harness. He was still good to go.

Next up? The Jeep ride to the top of the hill, overlooking the river. Again, TB wasn't nervous at all, except for maybe when the Jeep got a little close to the edge of the road and threatened to tumble over. Nah, even that didn't bother him.

He was focused. There it was. The launching point. He'd seen videos of it from the safety of his desk in Jadwin Gym and thought "no chance," but here he was, in person, walking down to the wood structure, ready, courageous.

Then he was on the deck. He saw Jesse Bernhardt, Princeton's defensive coordinator, sail off, and now it was going to be his turn, second off the zipline.

And still he was fine.

First, a little context.

TigerBlog is not a fan of open heights. They actually scare the bejeezus out of him. It doesn't have to be that high either. Looking down, even off a balcony, makes him uneasy. Dizzy. Unbalanced.

He couldn't even consider doing the zipline when he was in Costa Rica four years ago with the men's lacrosse team. It wasn't something he even remotely considered when he was in the Poconos earlier this summer, when every member of Miss TigerBlog's high school field hockey team had no problems zipping.

And here he was, hooked up and ready to zipline.

And this wasn't just any zipline. This was a zipline in Spain that would take him 720 meters - nearly 2,300 feet - back into Portugal. And beyond that, it was going to take him from one time zone back to another, an hour earlier.

When TB was still on the Portugese side of the river, it became 10 in the morning. In the distance, a bell in a tower on the other side of the river chimed 11 times.

The man who was running the operation wasn't Portugese or Spanish. He was British, clearly, but he'd been doing this for years. He was the one who drove the Jeep almost off the road.

He's also the one who tried to reassure everyone that it was completely safe, saying that he'd never lost a client. How long had he been doing this, he was asked? Two days, he said, drawing laughs.

When TB got to the shack from which he'd be hurled out into the open air hundreds of feet in the air, he looked out across the scene in front of him. It was gorgeous, no doubt. The towns were like mirror images, with mostly white structures set off from the surrounding greens, all while separated by a river, a time zone and an international boundary.

TigerBlog turned back and watched as Jesse was readied for his run. And it was at that moment that all of the courage vanished from TigerBlog.

Now he was nervous. And scared. His palms were sweaty. He envisioned how they'd slip off the metal pully, sending him plunging hundreds of feet down.

He couldn't look. He couldn't breathe.

Now he was up next. He couldn't back out at this point. He'd never be able to face anyone who was there again. He pictured himself as he walked away, back to the Jeep, back down the hill, back to the ferry.

He'd have to go straight to the nearest airport and head home, tail between his cowardly legs.

Well, maybe he could keep his eyes closed. Yeah, just don't look up. Or down. Or to the side.

Now he was being shown what to do. Lean back. Pull your legs up, until you're out the door. Was that it? Or was it keep your legs up the whole time? What did he say? TigerBlog couldn't focus.

TB was wearing a white Princeton Athletics pullover. He figures he looked way whiter than that.

They couldn't let him go until after they got the all clear over the radio from below. It seemed like it was taking hours, days - just hanging there, ready, but quivering. 

Now they were opening the little hatch to send him out. Noooooooooooo. Stoppppppppp. Ahhhhhhhhhh.

There is no way, he thought to himself, that he was going out that door.

And then? He was off.

And in the first instance, all of the fear vanished. He looked down. He looked around.

It was majestic. It was magical. It was awesome.

The height didn't bother him. The speed wasn't a problem.

He looked straight down and saw Spain as it flew past him. Then he was over the river. How deep was it, he thought? Could you drop off and splash into it without a problem? Has anyone ever done that?

Then he was back into Portugal. The only rough part was stopping. He was going pretty fast, and he slammed into the piece that slowed him down harder than he might have wanted.

Not to sound like an episode of "The Wonder Years" or anything, but TigerBlog learned something important on the zipline.

He learned that there's a reason that people cling to what makes them feel safe, and that's okay. But there's also a time to step out of that comfort zone, to feel uncomfortable, and push yourself in a direction that you otherwise would have never allowed yourself to go and see what the world looks like from that vantage point. It may be scary, but it's also liberating.

TigerBlog did that yesterday morning.

When it was over, the only emotion he had was disappointment.

He wanted to do it again. And again.

He wanted to feel himself fly through the Iberian morning, no fears, no cares, nothing except pure exhilaration.

Feeling uncomfortable felt great.

The Original Four Ride Again

When George O'Neil mentioned the "original four," he was talking about the four members of the Princeton men's lacrosse travel party who have been on each of the last three international trips the program has taken.

They were together in Spain and Ireland in 2008. They were together in Costa Rica in 2012. They're together this week in Portugal.

The four are O'Neil, who is the athletic trainer for the team. There is Bryce Chase, who is, well, he's just Brycie. He's been around the program since it began in 1882, or it least that's just how it seems.
There's John McPhee, the author and writing instructor at Princeton.

And TigerBlog of course. That's it. Only those four have been to each of the last three trips.

One constant of each trip has been a bicycle ride. 

In Dublin, Ireland, it was through Phoenix Park, the largest urban park in all of Europe. In Costa Rica, it was on the side of a hill as the sun rose over the ocean, a quiet, picturesque scene whose stillness was broken by a bit of Bryce's standard profanity when the chain came off his bike.

And the tradition continued with this trip yesterday, when those four, plus George's 12-year-old son Kieran and Princeton men's lacrosse Fellows Patrick Moran (who was featured HERE on goprincetontigers.com yesterday) and John Barbour rented bikes next to the hotel and headed out for about two hours.

It's hard to imagine a more perfect weather day than the one yesterday on the coast in southeastern Portugal. There was a slight chill in the morning for the team's practice from 9-11 at the local stadium and sports complex, so TB went with a light jacket and shorts.

By mid-day, the jacket wasn't necessary. TB went to lunch on a place right on the beach with Bryce, his saintly wife Phyllis, John McPhee and Pat Moran. It was there that TB had his first-ever pizza with shrimp on it, and he has to say, it was outstanding.

In fact, here's what it looked like:

Pretty good, right?

It was at lunch that TigerBlog learned something about Bryce that he never knew. Bryce's father was wounded twice during the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II. In fact, of the 55 people in his company there, a staggering 54 of them were either killed or wounded.

Bryce is an interesting person. He is a member of the Class of 1963, and he was a midfielder on the lacrosse team. He was in the U.S. Marine Corps, which is presumably where he learned to curse the way he often does, and he is also a graduate of the University of Minnesota Law School.

He has been around the program for so many years in so many capacities. The bottom line on him is that everyone in the program knows him and loves him, and they know there isn't anyone more loyal or dependable when an issue arises than Bryce. He is the one you want on your side.

He likes to play the tough guy, and in many ways he is a tough guy. But not that far underneath, he's got a pretty soft spot for the guys who come through the program, to go with a pretty big heart that he'd probably never admit to possessing.

None of that, though, stops him from being one of the biggest - can TB say this? -  ball-busters he's ever met. It's endless, and it's usually hilarious.

Bryce picked up the check at lunch. That's how he is. TigerBlog tried to buy him ice cream later on, and Bryce wouldn't hear of it.

After lunch, it was over to the bike place, which was basically across the street from the restaurant and the beach. It was seven Euros each to rent the bike for one day, which means it was less than the pizza.

The ride went past the stadium where the team practiced, and it continued down that road until it reached the Rio Guadiana, which was maybe two miles or so away.

Across the river was Spain.

TigerBlog drives across the New Jersey/Pennsylvania state line about 100 times in an average week, so he's not exactly sure why it was so fascinating to look across the river and see another country. It was just as fascinating to know that on that other side, it was an hour later. 

The group tried to find a place to ride across to the other side. There was a bridge in the distance, but the more the group rode, the further away the bridge seemed to get. There was a ferry across, but the timing of the rides back and forth didn't quite work for everyone.

Oh well.

There's always today.

While the bicycle group was off doing its thing, the players and coaches were about 45 minutes away, go-carting. The race was 90 minutes, and there were teams of three, as the players took turns driving.

And who won? The Canadians, as TB predicted yesterday. Zach Currier, Riley Thompson and Dawson McKenzie were first.

The racing was one of two thrill-ride-ish type events on this trip. The other comes up today.

The Princeton travel party will check out of its hotel in the Algarve early and then make the three-hour ride back to Lisbon. Before that, though, there will be one last stop in this region.

This time, the team will make its way across the river into Spain. The return trip to Portugal will be via zipline.

TigerBlog is pretty petrified of open heights. He's not sure how he's going to work up the courage to do this, but he knows that he has to take advantage of the chance to zipline from one country to another.

He didn't do it in Costa Rica. He didn't even do it in the Poconos this summer at the team bonding event for Miss TigerBlog's field hockey team.

But this morning, he's going to do it. Spain, back to Portugal.

Count on it.

Or maybe he'll chicken out at the end.

You'll have to read tomorrow to find out. And if there is nothing here to read tomorrow, well, then you'll know TB did it - and it didn't exactly go well.

Game, Set, Match To Ponta da Piedade

For about an hour yesterday afternoon, the walkway along the seawall out towards the lighthouse in Lagos was TigerBlog's favorite spot in Portugal.

Then he saw what was going on at the top of Ponta da Piedade. It was game, set, match to the Point.

It was Day 2 for the men's lacrosse team in Portugal yesterday.

Time, when you travel, starts to lose all meaning. It happens in the airport when you leave, especially if you're going really early in the morning or really late at night. It continues when you throw in some time zone changes.

Hey, TigerBlog couldn't sleep on the plane on the trip over. When the flight attendants came by serving dinner, he ate his. He's not even sure why. He wasn't all that hungry, and it happened to be 1:30 am or so Eastern time, which made it 5:30 am Portugal time.

With that in mind, it wasn't all that surprising that the Princeton travel party had already gotten up, had breakfast and made a 90-minute bus ride east to west along the Algarve coast to the ancient city of Silves and really couldn't fathom that it hadn't even been 24 hours yet since they'd been in this country.

Silves was the first of three stops on the day.

Francisco, the regular tour guide, was joined by Helena, who took the team through the narrow streets of the city and told of how it had been conquered and reconquered almost 1,000 years ago. And then how it was destroyed in a major earthquake in 1755.

There was a walk basically straight uphill to the castle at the top of the city. Then it was back down, and on to the next stop, Lagos, which is right on the Atlantic Ocean.

Oh, and there were about 20 women dressed as witches. It was Halloween, after all, and Francisco and Helena pointed out that 1) Halloween isn't that big in Portugal and 2) it's getting a little bigger as people realize there's money to be made from the holiday.

Like Silves, the second stop featured a town whose own history plays into that of the entire country. Because of its location on the coast and good weather, Portugal has always been an important strategic spot in Europe.

When TigerBlog travels outside the U.S., he likes to learn as much as he can about the country he's in. He got a really good feel for the entire country of Costa Rica four years ago, when Princeton did more than just go to the usual tourist resort spots.

Portugal isn't huge - Pennsylvania has about 1.5 times as many square miles - but the Princeton team won't be able to see it all. There's the first half of the trip in the Algarve, and the second half in Portugal. Still, that should be enough to get a real sense of so many different parts of the country, including its landscape, geography, people and of course history.

TigerBlog loves that kind of stuff, and he so he hung on pretty much every word Helena was saying. And he learned a lot, which is good.

He also loves the ocean, though. He gets that from his Jersey Shore roots, he supposes.

And so Lagos was a very good spot for him. Helena took the team through the town squares, crammed with shops and restaurants. TigerBlog checked out most of the menus he saw, trying to figure what he would eat if he stopped in. He possibly gets that from FatherBlog.

The Princeton group stopped off in one of the restaurants for lunch. It was, well, leisurely. The food was very good, especially the prosciutto and melon course, and TB had the swordfish, which was also very good.

After that, it was some free time in the town. TigerBlog, along with John McPhee, went the opposite way of everyone else, as they headed back to the square. TB and McPhee? They went to the seawall.

As you know, TigerBlog has never caught a fish in his life. As you know, Mr. McPhee has caught an ocean full.

The ocean comes into Lagos and is split by two walls that are separated by a longer distance than it looks. The side opposite where they were then goes off the public beach, which on this Monday afternoon was pretty busy.

Oh, TB should mention the weather. In a word, it was "perfect."

Anyway, there were a few fishermen on the side where TB and McPhee were. As the two walked, the conversation turned to fishing, and Mr. McPhee asked TB if he knew how to cast a line.

TB's response? He said that he knew what he was doing. It was the fish that John needed to talk to.

TB and McPhee spent about an hour looking out at the ocean. TB walked out on a concrete ledge towards a lighthouse. They sat on the wall. It was very quiet there, very peaceful. It was a great spot, and the views out at the ocean were very scenic. There was a gentle breeze and the great smell of the sea.

Eventually they saw a few players who came by to wait for the bus. Then it was back on the bus, presumably to go back to the hotel.

But wait a minute. Not yet. First, there would be an additional stop. At the top of the point.

It was sort of like the 2008 trip, when the walk to the Upper Lake at Glendalough, Ireland, didn't give away what was waiting for you when you finally got there. TigerBlog recently wrote about that one HERE.

This time, the bus backed into a spot, and it was off into a dusty parking lot. Then it was up a little hill - and then it was pretty much the same feeling as in 2008.

The wind whipped off the ocean and smacked you in the face, not in a way that chilled you but in a way that got your attention and made you focus on the enormity of what nature produces.

And what was there to focus on? The view. It was unreal. TB still will give a slight edge to Glendalough, but this was really, really close.

It was sheer beauty in every direction. The players continued to go up and out, to the very top of the point and down to where the ocean crashed in.

After that it was back to the hotel. There is practice this morning in advance of the coming three games against the English national team later this week in Lisbon, and there will be go cart racing in the afternoon. The players split up into teams of three. If there's a competition of some sort, TB will take the Canadians - Zach Currier, Riley Thompson and Dawson McKenzie.

Even a few hours later, though, TB was still thinking about the Point and what it was like. 

It was very similar to 2008, in that everyone took a picture with everyone else, in every direction. The only difference is that this time it was mostly with iPhones and selfie sticks.

TigerBlog stood back and watched it. He didn't need to go all the way up and out. He could see just fine from where he was, and he knew that this was his favorite spot in Portugal.

And one of his favorite anywhere in the world.