If you're a Philadelphia 76ers fan, like, say, a certain Charles W. Caldwell Jr. Head Coach of Football at Princeton, then that was one tough way for your season to end.
That's up there with anything TigerBlog has ever seen.
If you missed it, the Sixers and Toronto were in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, with the winner to get Milwaukee. The game was tight and clearly headed down the stretch.
That's when fate ripped the hearts of Philly fans out twice. First, there were the three straight 24-second violations. It almost seemed like the shot clock was starting out at 10.
Then there was the game-winner from Khawi Leonard, after the Sixers had rallied to tie it with four seconds left. Leonard, who scored 41 points in a 92-90 win, took the ball, dribbled until he almost ran out of time and then launched a shot from the deep corner that bounced on the rim and decided it like the view, since it hung there for longer than any shot TB has ever seen do so, and then finally dropped in.
It was excruciating for the Sixers. Tough to process, one might say.
Like most general sports fans, TigerBlog watched the Johns Hopkins-Notre Dame men's lacrosse opening round game and flipped over to the NBA game during commercials. He did stay with the basketball game for the final minute or so, or just long enough to see the heartbreaking end.
During one commercial in the lacrosse game, TB did see Philly's J.J. Reddick make two foul shots, and it got him wondering what Reddick's career numbers are from the line, since TB doesn't think he's ever seen him miss a shot between Duke and the NBA. Turns out, he actually has missed 227 NBA foul shots in the regular season and another 27 in the playoffs.
Of course, he's taken 2,073 regular season free throws and 224 playoff ones, which leaves him just short of 90 percent for both. At Duke he was better than 90 percent for his career, shooting 662 for 726, or .912.
Guess they play better free throw defense in the NBA.
Reddick, of course, is one of TB's two least favorite college players ever, and both of them have gone on to become NBA guys he likes. In the case of the other one, he went from being TB's least favorite college player to one of his five favorite NBA players. Who was it?
Patrick Ewing.
Anyway, after Sunday, the Sixers are finished for this season. You know what else is finished?
Home events at Princeton. Yup. Another year come and gone.
At home at least.
There are still eight Princeton teams who are competing in the 2018-19 academic year, including the men's golf team, who is currently at the NCAA regional in Georgia.
The rest of the calendar includes the NCAA women's lacrosse quarterfinal between seventh-seeded Princeton and second-seeded Boston College Saturday at 1 in Chestnut Hill. Princeton fell 16-10 to BC in last year's NCAA second round.
Boston College is 20-1 by the way, with only a 15-13 loss in the ACC championship game to North Carolina. The Eagles also reached the NCAA championship game a year ago, falling to James Madison.
Beyond that, there are the NCAA track and field regionals and national finals and the IRA and NCAA rowing championships. After that, it'll be the curtain on yet another academic year.
TigerBlog tried to figure out how many home events Princeton has in any given academic year, but there's not way to do it other than to simply count them. He'll guess that number is more around 300 though.
That's a lot of events. And when you consider how many people work to get these events to run smoothly, that's a lot of effort, all coordinated by Associate AD for Events Karen Malec and her assistant Abby Ferguson.
It's not easy. There are so many details that go into every event, and the goal is to have those who come here to watch them - and especially those who compete in them - not notice any of those details.
Princeton's home events provide an opportunity to showcase all of the best parts of Princeton Athletics - the athletes, the facilities, the campus, the Department's values. It's an open invitation to the surrounding community to experience Princeton, with almost every event free.
And now, for another year, there are no more events. It's amazing how fast it goes.
Don't worry.
The time between now and opening day 2019-20 will zoom by as well.
Tuesday, May 14, 2019
Monday, May 13, 2019
Happy Mothers' Day
One day later, TigerBlog would like to wish all the Princeton moms out there a Happy Mothers' Day.
As for his own mom, this was Mothers' Day No. 25 since his passed away. It's also the 25th Mothers' Day since MotherBlog's ashes were scattered on the steps of the United States Capitol, as per her wishes.
MB was a nurse and ultimately a lobbyist, and she hoped having her ashes scattered where they were would be, in her mind, a small reminder to those in power that everyone can have a voice. TigerBlog thought they'd be the first people who ever did this and that all 25 or so people who were there were going to get arrested. Instead, they ran into two other groups who were doing the exact same thing.
Victory, MotherBlog.
She also wrote her own eulogy, which called for raised glasses, not tears. She got both.
TigerBlog thinks about that day at the Capitol in 1995 in Washington, DC, each time Mothers' Day rolls around. Yesterday was no different.
By the way, TB went directly from the U.S. Capitol building to Ivy League sports information meetings, which were held at Dartmouth. So he scattered his mom's ashes, read her eulogy and then drove directly to Hanover, N.H.
Anyway, Happy Mothers' Day to all the mothers out there.
It was a hearty group of Princeton moms who sat through the women's lacrosse game yesterday, not to mention hearty dads and siblings and friends and anyone else who was at Sherrerd Field to see Princeton defeat Loyola 17-13 in the NCAA tournament second round.
Hearty, not because they gave up their Mothers' Day. Hearty because it was weather more suited for March than May, with heavy rain and cold temps that barely reached 50, if they did at all.
Princeton, for the second straight Sunday, showed it can play in the rain. Last week it was in the Ivy League tournament final against Penn, a 13-9 Tiger win, also on a nasty day, that time at Columbia.
In yesterday's game it was the NCAA second round. It was also the second straight Sunday on which Princeton played a team it had already defeated earlier in the season.
Loyola, by the way, hadn't lost since that game against Princeton, having won seven straight since. The Greyhounds sprinted past Richmond Friday night 19-6 in the first game of the weekend on Sherrerd Field, and they were a confident group heading into the game yesterday.
Princeton, for its part, had little trouble with Wagner in the first round, winning 19-7. This was also a confident team, and getting off to a good start seemed like a good idea for either team.
The first time Princeton played Loyola, it was a 14-10 Tiger win in which Princeton scored the first six goals of the game, in 11:36. In the game yesterday, it was Loyola who scored the first two in the first 90 seconds.
The Tigers might have been on the ropes at that point, but they quickly righted themselves, scoring four straight. Loyola would never tie the score again, but it was a one-goal game at halftime.
What happened after that? The perfect Princeton formula, that's what.
Draw control Nonie Andersen. Goal Elizabeth George. Draw control Nonie Andersen. Goal Elizabeth George.
Princeton would actually score the first six of the second half against Loyola. Interestingly, it took 11:46 to score those six, or 10 seconds more than it did to score the first six of the first half of the first game against Loyola.
From there it wasn't exactly game over, but in reality Princeton already more goals than it needed. The lead grew to 17-9 before the Greyhounds scored the last four.
George finished with six goals, giving her 61 on the season. That's the fourth-best season total in program history, or, put another way, the second-best this season, behind Tess D'Orsi's 63, which is the third-best single-season total, one away from Kyla Sears' 64 of a year ago.
And what about Sears? She only has 54 goals this season, though she does have 38 assists, leaving her with 92 points, or the second-best total in program history, behind the 110 Olivia Hompe had in 2017.
For her two seasons, Sears now has 175 points, which leaves her 107 away from Hompe's career record of 282. Should Sears double her total, she'd have 350. That's a big number.
Of course, with the win, Princeton is now guaranteed at least one more game this season. That one won't be easy. It'll be at No. 2 Boston College either Saturday or Sunday, and the winner of that game will head to the Final Four.
For Tiger head coach Chris Sailer, it's the 20th trip to the quarterfinals. year ago, the season ended one round earlier, at BC, 16-10.
Boston College has been ranked either No. 1 or No. 2 nationally all season. This game will be a tough one.
Princeton will bring an 11-game winning streak into the game. And a ton of confidence.
There are only eight teams left who are playing.
It's always good to be one them.
As for his own mom, this was Mothers' Day No. 25 since his passed away. It's also the 25th Mothers' Day since MotherBlog's ashes were scattered on the steps of the United States Capitol, as per her wishes.
MB was a nurse and ultimately a lobbyist, and she hoped having her ashes scattered where they were would be, in her mind, a small reminder to those in power that everyone can have a voice. TigerBlog thought they'd be the first people who ever did this and that all 25 or so people who were there were going to get arrested. Instead, they ran into two other groups who were doing the exact same thing.
Victory, MotherBlog.
She also wrote her own eulogy, which called for raised glasses, not tears. She got both.
TigerBlog thinks about that day at the Capitol in 1995 in Washington, DC, each time Mothers' Day rolls around. Yesterday was no different.
By the way, TB went directly from the U.S. Capitol building to Ivy League sports information meetings, which were held at Dartmouth. So he scattered his mom's ashes, read her eulogy and then drove directly to Hanover, N.H.
Anyway, Happy Mothers' Day to all the mothers out there.
It was a hearty group of Princeton moms who sat through the women's lacrosse game yesterday, not to mention hearty dads and siblings and friends and anyone else who was at Sherrerd Field to see Princeton defeat Loyola 17-13 in the NCAA tournament second round.
Hearty, not because they gave up their Mothers' Day. Hearty because it was weather more suited for March than May, with heavy rain and cold temps that barely reached 50, if they did at all.
Princeton, for the second straight Sunday, showed it can play in the rain. Last week it was in the Ivy League tournament final against Penn, a 13-9 Tiger win, also on a nasty day, that time at Columbia.
In yesterday's game it was the NCAA second round. It was also the second straight Sunday on which Princeton played a team it had already defeated earlier in the season.
Loyola, by the way, hadn't lost since that game against Princeton, having won seven straight since. The Greyhounds sprinted past Richmond Friday night 19-6 in the first game of the weekend on Sherrerd Field, and they were a confident group heading into the game yesterday.
Princeton, for its part, had little trouble with Wagner in the first round, winning 19-7. This was also a confident team, and getting off to a good start seemed like a good idea for either team.
The first time Princeton played Loyola, it was a 14-10 Tiger win in which Princeton scored the first six goals of the game, in 11:36. In the game yesterday, it was Loyola who scored the first two in the first 90 seconds.
The Tigers might have been on the ropes at that point, but they quickly righted themselves, scoring four straight. Loyola would never tie the score again, but it was a one-goal game at halftime.
What happened after that? The perfect Princeton formula, that's what.
Draw control Nonie Andersen. Goal Elizabeth George. Draw control Nonie Andersen. Goal Elizabeth George.
Princeton would actually score the first six of the second half against Loyola. Interestingly, it took 11:46 to score those six, or 10 seconds more than it did to score the first six of the first half of the first game against Loyola.
From there it wasn't exactly game over, but in reality Princeton already more goals than it needed. The lead grew to 17-9 before the Greyhounds scored the last four.
George finished with six goals, giving her 61 on the season. That's the fourth-best season total in program history, or, put another way, the second-best this season, behind Tess D'Orsi's 63, which is the third-best single-season total, one away from Kyla Sears' 64 of a year ago.
And what about Sears? She only has 54 goals this season, though she does have 38 assists, leaving her with 92 points, or the second-best total in program history, behind the 110 Olivia Hompe had in 2017.
For her two seasons, Sears now has 175 points, which leaves her 107 away from Hompe's career record of 282. Should Sears double her total, she'd have 350. That's a big number.
Of course, with the win, Princeton is now guaranteed at least one more game this season. That one won't be easy. It'll be at No. 2 Boston College either Saturday or Sunday, and the winner of that game will head to the Final Four.
For Tiger head coach Chris Sailer, it's the 20th trip to the quarterfinals. year ago, the season ended one round earlier, at BC, 16-10.
Boston College has been ranked either No. 1 or No. 2 nationally all season. This game will be a tough one.
Princeton will bring an 11-game winning streak into the game. And a ton of confidence.
There are only eight teams left who are playing.
It's always good to be one them.
Friday, May 10, 2019
The Finalist
TigerBlog was all set to be annoyed.
He knew the Tewaaraton Foundation was going to be announcing the five finalists for the 2019 award last night, and he figured that if Princeton junior Michael Sowers was to be one of those five, then he would get some sort of advanced noticed. He also figured it would come during the day Wednesday.
But nope. Nothing. Not a peep.
TigerBlog thought it might be held against Sowers that Princeton did not reach the postseason and that Yale's TD Ierlan figured to be a finalist, which would mean two Ivy League players among the final five.
And this was going to leave him less than thrilled.
Why? Because for TB's money, Sowers is the best player in the country. And yes, he'll freely admit that perhaps he's a bit biased, but that doesn't really matter. Sowers is a player who's just on a whole different level.
And if he turned out not to be a Tewaaraton finalist? That would have been a major shame.
He thought about reaching out to his Loyola counterpart Ryan Eigenbrode to see if he'd heard anything, since the Greyhounds' Pat Spencer was a lock for one of the spots, and very likely will be the ultimate winner. Then he decided not to, figuring that when Ryan said he had, then TB's annoyance would start earlier.
Ah, but as it turned out, Ryan texted TB, asking him if he had heard anything yet. This gave him hope.
And then eventually, around 8 Wednesday night, TB got the email saying that Sowers was in fact a finalist.
The Tewaaraton Award finalists were then announced last night. On the men's side, they are Sowers, Ierlan, Spencer, Penn State's Grant Ament and Maryland's Jared Bernhardt.
In reality, there's no doubt that Sowers belongs in this field and there never was.
Sowers finished the season with 90 points on 37 goals and 53 assists, setting the school record for points in a season and breaking the 25-year-old school record for points in a career despite just finishing his junior year. In fact, he has the three highest single-season point totals in program history with 90, 83 and 82, which adds up to 255 and puts him on pace to fairly easily reach the top 10 in Division I history.
He currently is fifth all-time in Division I in both points per game (6.07) and assists per game (3.57), and those numbers are the best by any player in nearly 40 years.
Will he win the award? Probably not. The award has never gone to a player whose team did not reach the NCAA tournament. If TB had to guess, he'd go with either Spencer or Ament, whom TB first saw play in fifth grade, by the way, back when he was a club teammate of TigerBlog Jr.'s.
This weekend is a huge one in lacrosse. There are eight men's NCAA tournament games this weekend, four tomorrow and four Sunday.
There are 17 games in the women's tournament, of which three will be played on Sherrerd Field. It starts at 4 today, when Loyola takes on Richmond, followed by Princeton-Wagner at 7. The winners play Sunday at 1, and one of those four teams will move to the quarterfinals next weekend.
As for the men's tournament, TigerBlog has thought all year that Penn State is by far the best team, Virginia can play with anyone, Yale and Penn are going to be really tough outs and Spencer can carry a pretty balanced team with a strong goalie a long way. On the other hand, Johns Hopkins is playing really well right now too.
Penn and Yale both can't reach the Final Four, because they'd have to play each other in the quarterfinal round. Penn has two wins over Yale, by a goal each, and a face-off guy, Kyle Gallagher, who matches up really well with Ierlan.
On the other hand, beating Yale three times won't be easy. And that's if they both win this weekend.
TigerBlog loves the NCAA lacrosse tournaments. For him, they're way more interesting than the basketball ones, though he recognizes that his opinion might not be shared by the mainstream.
For this year, he'll take Penn State over Virginia (though getting past Towson in Round 2 won't be easy for the Cavs - if Towson can get past Maryland in the first round) in the final. He has no idea what to make out of Penn-Yale III, but he thinks they'll both get through this weekend and that one of them will play Penn State in the semifinals. The fourth team? He'll take Hopkins. They've looked really good lately.
His hope is that Sowers and Princeton will be in the field next year.
In the meantime, he's glad Sowers will have his moment in the sun at the Tewaaraton ceremony on May 30.
Of course, knowing Sowers the way he does, TigerBlog can tell you that he'd trade that to still be playing this weekend in a heartbeat.
He knew the Tewaaraton Foundation was going to be announcing the five finalists for the 2019 award last night, and he figured that if Princeton junior Michael Sowers was to be one of those five, then he would get some sort of advanced noticed. He also figured it would come during the day Wednesday.
But nope. Nothing. Not a peep.
TigerBlog thought it might be held against Sowers that Princeton did not reach the postseason and that Yale's TD Ierlan figured to be a finalist, which would mean two Ivy League players among the final five.
And this was going to leave him less than thrilled.
Why? Because for TB's money, Sowers is the best player in the country. And yes, he'll freely admit that perhaps he's a bit biased, but that doesn't really matter. Sowers is a player who's just on a whole different level.
And if he turned out not to be a Tewaaraton finalist? That would have been a major shame.
He thought about reaching out to his Loyola counterpart Ryan Eigenbrode to see if he'd heard anything, since the Greyhounds' Pat Spencer was a lock for one of the spots, and very likely will be the ultimate winner. Then he decided not to, figuring that when Ryan said he had, then TB's annoyance would start earlier.
Ah, but as it turned out, Ryan texted TB, asking him if he had heard anything yet. This gave him hope.
And then eventually, around 8 Wednesday night, TB got the email saying that Sowers was in fact a finalist.
The Tewaaraton Award finalists were then announced last night. On the men's side, they are Sowers, Ierlan, Spencer, Penn State's Grant Ament and Maryland's Jared Bernhardt.
In reality, there's no doubt that Sowers belongs in this field and there never was.
Sowers finished the season with 90 points on 37 goals and 53 assists, setting the school record for points in a season and breaking the 25-year-old school record for points in a career despite just finishing his junior year. In fact, he has the three highest single-season point totals in program history with 90, 83 and 82, which adds up to 255 and puts him on pace to fairly easily reach the top 10 in Division I history.
He currently is fifth all-time in Division I in both points per game (6.07) and assists per game (3.57), and those numbers are the best by any player in nearly 40 years.
Will he win the award? Probably not. The award has never gone to a player whose team did not reach the NCAA tournament. If TB had to guess, he'd go with either Spencer or Ament, whom TB first saw play in fifth grade, by the way, back when he was a club teammate of TigerBlog Jr.'s.
This weekend is a huge one in lacrosse. There are eight men's NCAA tournament games this weekend, four tomorrow and four Sunday.
There are 17 games in the women's tournament, of which three will be played on Sherrerd Field. It starts at 4 today, when Loyola takes on Richmond, followed by Princeton-Wagner at 7. The winners play Sunday at 1, and one of those four teams will move to the quarterfinals next weekend.
As for the men's tournament, TigerBlog has thought all year that Penn State is by far the best team, Virginia can play with anyone, Yale and Penn are going to be really tough outs and Spencer can carry a pretty balanced team with a strong goalie a long way. On the other hand, Johns Hopkins is playing really well right now too.
Penn and Yale both can't reach the Final Four, because they'd have to play each other in the quarterfinal round. Penn has two wins over Yale, by a goal each, and a face-off guy, Kyle Gallagher, who matches up really well with Ierlan.
On the other hand, beating Yale three times won't be easy. And that's if they both win this weekend.
TigerBlog loves the NCAA lacrosse tournaments. For him, they're way more interesting than the basketball ones, though he recognizes that his opinion might not be shared by the mainstream.
For this year, he'll take Penn State over Virginia (though getting past Towson in Round 2 won't be easy for the Cavs - if Towson can get past Maryland in the first round) in the final. He has no idea what to make out of Penn-Yale III, but he thinks they'll both get through this weekend and that one of them will play Penn State in the semifinals. The fourth team? He'll take Hopkins. They've looked really good lately.
His hope is that Sowers and Princeton will be in the field next year.
In the meantime, he's glad Sowers will have his moment in the sun at the Tewaaraton ceremony on May 30.
Of course, knowing Sowers the way he does, TigerBlog can tell you that he'd trade that to still be playing this weekend in a heartbeat.
Thursday, May 9, 2019
Senior Day II
TigerBlog had a very traumatic experience the other day.
He was going to ride his bike, so he opened the door to take it outside. And what happened? A bird flew inside.
Now what do you do? This isn't like a dog or cat, which you can sort of reason with. Or a spider or something, which you can easily catch.
This is a bird, who is trying to get out, only the way it's trying to do is to fly 1,000 miles an hour randomly all over the place, since it's scared out of its mind. There's no reasoning with it at this point.
Not that TigerBlog didn't try. What do you say to a scared bird? First he tried to whistle. That didn't work. Then he thought about calling his colleague Kim Meszaros, who is a bird expert, not to mention someone who could truly appreciate how freaked out the whole thing was making TigerBlog. Then he figured she'd be laughing too hard to be of any help.
Left to his own, TB was able to follow the bird into the bathroom, where it calmly sat perched on the shower curtain rod. As the bird watched, TB opened the window and took out the screen, only to find a dead wasp, by the way.
Then he slowly backed away from the window and shower, and then the bird took one more look at him, rolled its little bird eyes and flew out to freedom.
Then he rode his bike. Well, after he bleached everything in the bathroom.
Somewhere in there is a good segue into the NCAA women's lacrosse tournament, but TB is still too flustered right now to come up with it.
Instead he'll get right into it.
There's a doubleheader on Sherrerd Field tomorrow, beginning at 4 when Loyola takes on Richmond and then continuing at 7 when Princeton takes on Wagner. The winners meet Sunday at 1 for a trip to the quarterfinals.
Princeton and Wagner have never met. Wagner advanced to this game after defeating Fairfield 15-13 in the opening round Tuesday.
Princeton is making its 27th NCAA tournament appearance. The postseason resume includes 11 Final Fours, seven championship game appearances and three titles - 1994, 2002, 2003.
Princeton last played at home nearly a month ago, when the Tigers hosted Harvard on Senior Day. Princeton won that game 14-12 to run its winning streak to four straight, and now it's continued to grow.
In fact, the Tigers two wins at the Ivy League tournament last weekend - 11-6 over Cornell in the semifinals and 13-9 over Penn in the final - stretched that streak to nine games, the longest by Princeton since the 2008 team won its first 10.
Speaking of Princeton's seniors, this is an extraordinary group of them. There are seven seniors, and all seven of them are major contributors. That's a rarity.
Of those seven, four have started every game this year - Elizabeth George, Nonie Andersen, Alex Argo, Kathryn Hallett. The other three - Julia Haney, Izzy Mangan, Allie Rogers - have all played in every game, with 17 starts, 42 goals and 32 assists between them.
If you add in the other four, the total for the senior class comes to 125 goals and 63 assists, and that includes the fact that Andersen and Argo are defenders.
Princeton actually has a pretty good mix of this level of experience with underclassmen who have made huge contributions. Princeton had four first-team All-Ivy selections - two seniors (George and Andersen) and two sophomores (Kyla Sears and Sam Fish), as well as five Ivy League tournament selections (seniors George and Andersen and sophomores Sears, Fish and Mary Murphy).
It's an entire team of balance, with strengths all over the field, coming from all four classes. As the Ivy League tournament championship game reached its critical point last weekend, tied 6-6 at halftime, it was freshman Lillian Stout who came on to win seven of the last 11 draws after Penn had won 10 of 13 in the first half.
Still, having this kind of a senior class is invaluable.
At one point, Princeton was 5-3, with consecutive losses to Brown and Maryland, and faced with the prospect of having to win out to get a share of the Ivy League title, including four on the road. Having a group that has been through everything before makes navigating something like that easier.
And so now that group gets its reward. It's a chance to play at home again, this time with really high stakes.
It's a Senior Day II, one that has been well-earned.
He was going to ride his bike, so he opened the door to take it outside. And what happened? A bird flew inside.
Now what do you do? This isn't like a dog or cat, which you can sort of reason with. Or a spider or something, which you can easily catch.
This is a bird, who is trying to get out, only the way it's trying to do is to fly 1,000 miles an hour randomly all over the place, since it's scared out of its mind. There's no reasoning with it at this point.
Not that TigerBlog didn't try. What do you say to a scared bird? First he tried to whistle. That didn't work. Then he thought about calling his colleague Kim Meszaros, who is a bird expert, not to mention someone who could truly appreciate how freaked out the whole thing was making TigerBlog. Then he figured she'd be laughing too hard to be of any help.
Left to his own, TB was able to follow the bird into the bathroom, where it calmly sat perched on the shower curtain rod. As the bird watched, TB opened the window and took out the screen, only to find a dead wasp, by the way.
Then he slowly backed away from the window and shower, and then the bird took one more look at him, rolled its little bird eyes and flew out to freedom.
Then he rode his bike. Well, after he bleached everything in the bathroom.
Somewhere in there is a good segue into the NCAA women's lacrosse tournament, but TB is still too flustered right now to come up with it.
Instead he'll get right into it.
There's a doubleheader on Sherrerd Field tomorrow, beginning at 4 when Loyola takes on Richmond and then continuing at 7 when Princeton takes on Wagner. The winners meet Sunday at 1 for a trip to the quarterfinals.
Princeton and Wagner have never met. Wagner advanced to this game after defeating Fairfield 15-13 in the opening round Tuesday.
Princeton is making its 27th NCAA tournament appearance. The postseason resume includes 11 Final Fours, seven championship game appearances and three titles - 1994, 2002, 2003.
Princeton last played at home nearly a month ago, when the Tigers hosted Harvard on Senior Day. Princeton won that game 14-12 to run its winning streak to four straight, and now it's continued to grow.
In fact, the Tigers two wins at the Ivy League tournament last weekend - 11-6 over Cornell in the semifinals and 13-9 over Penn in the final - stretched that streak to nine games, the longest by Princeton since the 2008 team won its first 10.
Speaking of Princeton's seniors, this is an extraordinary group of them. There are seven seniors, and all seven of them are major contributors. That's a rarity.
Of those seven, four have started every game this year - Elizabeth George, Nonie Andersen, Alex Argo, Kathryn Hallett. The other three - Julia Haney, Izzy Mangan, Allie Rogers - have all played in every game, with 17 starts, 42 goals and 32 assists between them.
If you add in the other four, the total for the senior class comes to 125 goals and 63 assists, and that includes the fact that Andersen and Argo are defenders.
Princeton actually has a pretty good mix of this level of experience with underclassmen who have made huge contributions. Princeton had four first-team All-Ivy selections - two seniors (George and Andersen) and two sophomores (Kyla Sears and Sam Fish), as well as five Ivy League tournament selections (seniors George and Andersen and sophomores Sears, Fish and Mary Murphy).
It's an entire team of balance, with strengths all over the field, coming from all four classes. As the Ivy League tournament championship game reached its critical point last weekend, tied 6-6 at halftime, it was freshman Lillian Stout who came on to win seven of the last 11 draws after Penn had won 10 of 13 in the first half.
Still, having this kind of a senior class is invaluable.
At one point, Princeton was 5-3, with consecutive losses to Brown and Maryland, and faced with the prospect of having to win out to get a share of the Ivy League title, including four on the road. Having a group that has been through everything before makes navigating something like that easier.
And so now that group gets its reward. It's a chance to play at home again, this time with really high stakes.
It's a Senior Day II, one that has been well-earned.
Wednesday, May 8, 2019
Horsted To The Bears
Bob Surace is going to be nervous all week.
His Philadelphia 76ers are locked in a tough series with the Toronto Raptors in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Surace is one of the Sixers fans who trusted the process the entire time and is now hoping that the team at least reaches the NBA finals.
TigerBlog has always been a Knicks fans, way back to the two NBA championship teams. He was a Bill Bradley fan long before he realized why he was supposed to be one. These days, though, the team is impossible to root for, as any longtime Knicks fan can verify.
The Sixers are a different. They seem to be easy to root for, and not just because they're much better. There's something endearing about a fan base that stuck with a team for as long as this one did, even when Philadelphia was fielding some of the worst NBA teams ever.
Plus, you either love or hate Joel Embiid, and TB is more the former than the latter.
On top of that, he's a big Surace fan, so why not root for his team in basketball? It balances out that whole Yankees thing.
Surace, of course, is Princeton's head football coach. This past fall he led the Tigers to their first perfect season in 54 years, as Princeton went 10-0 and, for good measure, had the highest scoring offense in Ivy league history.
Another of the stars of that team, Jesper Horsted, signed a free agent contract earlier this week with the Chicago Bears. Horsted is the all-time leader in Princeton history with 196 career receptions and 26 touchdown receptions.
TigerBlog wrote a story about Horsted's signing for goprincetontigers.com, which you can read HERE if you like. When TB was thinking back to the 10-0 season as he was writing it, he remembered two things more than anything else about Horsted.
First was the TAGD video, where he narrated the Grantland Rice poem and then appeared at the end to say "He writes not that you won or lost but how you played the game."
The second was the two catches he made on the 91-yard drive against Dartmouth in Princeton's 14-9 win in one of two games the Tigers played all year that wasn't a blowout. The other was a 29-21 win over Harvard, though the difference was that Princeton trailed for most of that Dartmouth game and never trailed against Harvard.
The 91-yard drive didn't end in points, but it did end with Dartmouth on its heels, though still ahead 9-7. At least until a three-and-out and punt set Princeton up on the Big Green 34, and it took only four plays to put the Tigers up 14-9.
The 91-yard drive is what completely turned the game around. Princeton had battled with awful field position all day while chasing a two-point deficit, and that drive changed it all.
And the two biggest plays were two Horsted catches, especially one on a third-and-eight where Horsted bobbled the ball before controlling it and getting 11. Without that catch it would have been fourth-and-eight from the Tiger 28, which would have meant another punt.
Even better, that catch came one play after Horsted dropped one that might have been a first down.
Next up for him is a shot at making the Bears. Horsted is 6-4 and fast with great hands. These are great qualities to have as he starts down the NFL path.
Horsted was a finalist for the Bushnell Cup as the league's Offensive Player of the Year. The winner was John Lovett, the quarterback who threw him those passes against Dartmouth. Lovett is a two-time winner of the Bushnell Cup, in fact the fifth two-time winner and the first two-time winner from Princeton.
Lovett is currently at minicamp with the Kansas City Chiefs, who already seem to have their quarterback situation solved for the next, oh, forever, with Pat Mahomes. That doesn't mean that Lovett can't make the team, especially since he can play a lot of other places on the field.
TigerBlog enjoyed this quote from Chiefs' head coach Andy Reid:
His Philadelphia 76ers are locked in a tough series with the Toronto Raptors in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Surace is one of the Sixers fans who trusted the process the entire time and is now hoping that the team at least reaches the NBA finals.
TigerBlog has always been a Knicks fans, way back to the two NBA championship teams. He was a Bill Bradley fan long before he realized why he was supposed to be one. These days, though, the team is impossible to root for, as any longtime Knicks fan can verify.
The Sixers are a different. They seem to be easy to root for, and not just because they're much better. There's something endearing about a fan base that stuck with a team for as long as this one did, even when Philadelphia was fielding some of the worst NBA teams ever.
Plus, you either love or hate Joel Embiid, and TB is more the former than the latter.
On top of that, he's a big Surace fan, so why not root for his team in basketball? It balances out that whole Yankees thing.
Surace, of course, is Princeton's head football coach. This past fall he led the Tigers to their first perfect season in 54 years, as Princeton went 10-0 and, for good measure, had the highest scoring offense in Ivy league history.
Another of the stars of that team, Jesper Horsted, signed a free agent contract earlier this week with the Chicago Bears. Horsted is the all-time leader in Princeton history with 196 career receptions and 26 touchdown receptions.
TigerBlog wrote a story about Horsted's signing for goprincetontigers.com, which you can read HERE if you like. When TB was thinking back to the 10-0 season as he was writing it, he remembered two things more than anything else about Horsted.
First was the TAGD video, where he narrated the Grantland Rice poem and then appeared at the end to say "He writes not that you won or lost but how you played the game."
The second was the two catches he made on the 91-yard drive against Dartmouth in Princeton's 14-9 win in one of two games the Tigers played all year that wasn't a blowout. The other was a 29-21 win over Harvard, though the difference was that Princeton trailed for most of that Dartmouth game and never trailed against Harvard.
The 91-yard drive didn't end in points, but it did end with Dartmouth on its heels, though still ahead 9-7. At least until a three-and-out and punt set Princeton up on the Big Green 34, and it took only four plays to put the Tigers up 14-9.
The 91-yard drive is what completely turned the game around. Princeton had battled with awful field position all day while chasing a two-point deficit, and that drive changed it all.
And the two biggest plays were two Horsted catches, especially one on a third-and-eight where Horsted bobbled the ball before controlling it and getting 11. Without that catch it would have been fourth-and-eight from the Tiger 28, which would have meant another punt.
Even better, that catch came one play after Horsted dropped one that might have been a first down.
Next up for him is a shot at making the Bears. Horsted is 6-4 and fast with great hands. These are great qualities to have as he starts down the NFL path.
Horsted was a finalist for the Bushnell Cup as the league's Offensive Player of the Year. The winner was John Lovett, the quarterback who threw him those passes against Dartmouth. Lovett is a two-time winner of the Bushnell Cup, in fact the fifth two-time winner and the first two-time winner from Princeton.
Lovett is currently at minicamp with the Kansas City Chiefs, who already seem to have their quarterback situation solved for the next, oh, forever, with Pat Mahomes. That doesn't mean that Lovett can't make the team, especially since he can play a lot of other places on the field.
TigerBlog enjoyed this quote from Chiefs' head coach Andy Reid:
“I thought he did a nice job. He’s still got a banged-up wrist, so he can’t do contact on the wrist, but it’s healing and he has about another month or so to go with that.
“Extremely smart and we had to kind of tame him down a little bit. For a quarterback, I said, ‘You are a wild man. You have to calm down here just a little bit’. He did a good job.”
As Surace subsequently tweeted, Reid had Lovett completely figured out.
Tuesday, May 7, 2019
Happy Faces
If you happened to visit goprincetontigers.com between Sunday evening and yesterday afternoon, you probably noticed the same thing TigerBlog did.
There were lots of happy faces belonging to Princeton athletes.
The first three stories featured the best kinds of pictures that GPT has. Championship celebration ones.
Those are the best ones. The team has just won a championship, and now they're all together celebrating. It's just raw happiness on the task that has been accomplished, and it comes across very clearly in the photos.
Fortunately, TigerBlog has worked at a place all these years that has earned a lot of these pictures. And every single one of them has been great.
And there they were Sunday, three in a row - women's lightweight rowing, women's lacrosse and men's track and field.
TB wrote about the men's track and field championship yesterday. You can read about it HERE, with way more HERE.
The women's lightweight rowing team won its first Eastern Sprints title since 2011 and seventh overall. The Tigers have now improved from third two years ago to second last year to first this year.
Princeton won by 1.5 seconds over Boston University, who won the championship in two of the last three years and was the defending champion. Next up for the Tigers are the national championships in California June 1.
As for women's lacrosse, the Tigers followed up their Ivy League regular season championship with another Ivy tournament title to earn another photo of happy players.
The Tigers lost to Brown 12-11 in their second Ivy League game back in March, and they followed that with a loss to Maryland in its next game. At that point, TB looked up when Princeton's last three-game losing streak was, and you had to go back to 2010 to find the only three-game losing streak Princeton has had in the last 16 years.
Maybe instead of that, he should have looked up when Princeton's last nine-game winning streak was, because that's how many straight Princeton has now won.
The Tigers ran the Ivy League table, getting a share of their sixth straight league championship and then sweeping past Cornell 11-6 and Penn 13-9 in the Ivy tournament. TB went to look up the last time a team won both of its ILT games by at least four goals, and it turns out that 1) nobody ever had before this weekend and 2) the four-goal win over Penn in the final was the largest margin of victory of any team in an ILT women's final.
Princeton, by the way, has now won two straight and four of six Ivy tournaments. The five won by the Tigers are the most of any program, two better than Penn with three (nobody else has more than one).
Kyla Sears was the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament, and it was really well-deserved. Sears was off-the-charts great in the final, with two goals and five assists and one highlight reel play after another.
She scored one goal where she drew two defenders to her with a stick fake and then split them to get above goal line extended, and she later looked off Penn's entire defense and then made a simple feed on the backside to Julia Haney.
The first one, by the way, ended up as the No. 9 play of the day on SportsCenter.
Princeton, though, got huge performances from basically every player in the game. It was everything a team championship is supposed to be, from the goalie and entire defense that held Penn to just three second-half goals to another dominant performance by Elizabeth George and to freshman Lillian Stout, who come on in the second half to take the draws, finishing with three draw controls and allowing Princeton to win 7 of 11 after the break after winning 3 of 13 in the first half.
The reward for Princeton is a home game, or possibly two, in the NCAA tournament. The Tigers earned the seventh seed, which means the first two rounds will be on Sherrerd Field.
Before the first two rounds will be the opening round, which will be held today. Wagner, the Northeast Conference champ, is at Fairfield, the MAAC winner.
The winner of that game takes on Princeton in the second game of the doubleheader Friday, which starts at 4 as Loyola faces Richmond. Then it's the Princeton game at 7.
The winners of those two will play Sunday for a spot in the quarterfinals, which almost surely will mean a date with No. 2 Boston College, the team that knocked Princeton out a year ago.
In other words, there's not a lot of time for Princeton to celebrate its Ivy League tournament championship.
On the bright side, the pictures will last forever.
There were lots of happy faces belonging to Princeton athletes.
The first three stories featured the best kinds of pictures that GPT has. Championship celebration ones.
Those are the best ones. The team has just won a championship, and now they're all together celebrating. It's just raw happiness on the task that has been accomplished, and it comes across very clearly in the photos.
Fortunately, TigerBlog has worked at a place all these years that has earned a lot of these pictures. And every single one of them has been great.
And there they were Sunday, three in a row - women's lightweight rowing, women's lacrosse and men's track and field.
TB wrote about the men's track and field championship yesterday. You can read about it HERE, with way more HERE.
The women's lightweight rowing team won its first Eastern Sprints title since 2011 and seventh overall. The Tigers have now improved from third two years ago to second last year to first this year.
Princeton won by 1.5 seconds over Boston University, who won the championship in two of the last three years and was the defending champion. Next up for the Tigers are the national championships in California June 1.
As for women's lacrosse, the Tigers followed up their Ivy League regular season championship with another Ivy tournament title to earn another photo of happy players.
The Tigers lost to Brown 12-11 in their second Ivy League game back in March, and they followed that with a loss to Maryland in its next game. At that point, TB looked up when Princeton's last three-game losing streak was, and you had to go back to 2010 to find the only three-game losing streak Princeton has had in the last 16 years.
Maybe instead of that, he should have looked up when Princeton's last nine-game winning streak was, because that's how many straight Princeton has now won.
The Tigers ran the Ivy League table, getting a share of their sixth straight league championship and then sweeping past Cornell 11-6 and Penn 13-9 in the Ivy tournament. TB went to look up the last time a team won both of its ILT games by at least four goals, and it turns out that 1) nobody ever had before this weekend and 2) the four-goal win over Penn in the final was the largest margin of victory of any team in an ILT women's final.
Princeton, by the way, has now won two straight and four of six Ivy tournaments. The five won by the Tigers are the most of any program, two better than Penn with three (nobody else has more than one).
Kyla Sears was the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament, and it was really well-deserved. Sears was off-the-charts great in the final, with two goals and five assists and one highlight reel play after another.
She scored one goal where she drew two defenders to her with a stick fake and then split them to get above goal line extended, and she later looked off Penn's entire defense and then made a simple feed on the backside to Julia Haney.
The first one, by the way, ended up as the No. 9 play of the day on SportsCenter.
Kyla Sears and
Princeton make #SCTop10!
pic.twitter.com/oafw65Wj24
—
Princeton WLAX (@princetonwlax) May
6, 2019
Princeton, though, got huge performances from basically every player in the game. It was everything a team championship is supposed to be, from the goalie and entire defense that held Penn to just three second-half goals to another dominant performance by Elizabeth George and to freshman Lillian Stout, who come on in the second half to take the draws, finishing with three draw controls and allowing Princeton to win 7 of 11 after the break after winning 3 of 13 in the first half.
The reward for Princeton is a home game, or possibly two, in the NCAA tournament. The Tigers earned the seventh seed, which means the first two rounds will be on Sherrerd Field.
Before the first two rounds will be the opening round, which will be held today. Wagner, the Northeast Conference champ, is at Fairfield, the MAAC winner.
The winner of that game takes on Princeton in the second game of the doubleheader Friday, which starts at 4 as Loyola faces Richmond. Then it's the Princeton game at 7.
The winners of those two will play Sunday for a spot in the quarterfinals, which almost surely will mean a date with No. 2 Boston College, the team that knocked Princeton out a year ago.
In other words, there's not a lot of time for Princeton to celebrate its Ivy League tournament championship.
On the bright side, the pictures will last forever.
Monday, May 6, 2019
The Triple Crown
Today's subject is "Triple Crowns."
TigerBlog will start with the four-legged variety. He's not a huge fan of horse racing in general. He's never even bet on a horse race in his life, though he did grow up about five miles from Freehold Raceway.
TB did learn something this past weekend about horse racing though - quarter horses can run a lot faster than thoroughbreads, and there was a time when the All-American Futurity paid the winner more than the three Triple Crown races combined.
As of which, TB couldn't remember the name of the horse that won the Triple Crown a year ago. Turns out it was Justify, who became the 13th Triple Crown winner and second in fourth year, after American Pharaoh in 2015.
TB will watch the Kentucky Derby is nothing else is on, and he didn't pay close attention to the one that was run this past Saturday. He did think "Maximum Security" was a good name for a racehorse.
It made him wonder what he'd name a horse if he had one to name. Guess he'd just go with "HorseBlog."
Anyway, TB noticed that Maximum Security won, news that left him unmoved. It wasn't until after the race ended that it became interesting.
It started on Twitter with some curious comments about drama at the Derby, which got TB to look into it further and see that Maximum Security was disqualified. TB has no idea why or if it happened to be a good call.
He does now that it was a decision that made millions and millions of dollars change hands, over what apparently was a very ticky tack foul.
The winner then became a longshot, Country Kitchen or Country House or something like that. TB senses for no reason that Country House has little chance to win the Preakness, which will take all of the juice out of the Belmont.
Doesn't matter. TB wasn't going to watch anyway.
So that's the four-legged Triple Crown part.
Then there's the two-legged variety.
Princeton won the Ivy League Heptagonal Outdoor Track and Field championship this weekend on Weaver Track, rolling up 182 points to outdistance runner-up Penn, who had 123. There are 22 events at Ivy Heps for men's track and field, and Princeton earned points in an astonishing 21 of them.
Speaking of astonishing, the win at Outdoor Heps gave Princeton a sweep of the three Heps titles this year, for the Ivy Heps version of the Triple Crown.
This was the first time Princeton has won the Triple Crown since ... last year. In fact Princeton has now won eight straight Heps events, sweeping this year and last year and winning the two track and field titles the year before that.
It's also the ninth Triple Crown for Princeton in its history. No other men's team has ever done it even once, and the only women's program to do it is Princeton, who has done it twice.
Adam Kelly, the NCAA runner-up in the weight throw indoors, was named the co-Most Outstanding Field Performer after he won his second-straight hammer throw.
The Tigers really started to take control of the meet in Saturday's last event, the 10,000 meter run. Connor Lundy came from way back to finish second, and the Tigers had 14 points in the event after Viraj Deokar and Matt Grossman followed Lundy in fourth and fifth.
Princeton also scored 55 points between the triple jump, high jump and and long jump. It was more than just one event, though, as Princeton had a dominant weekend.
You can read the entire recap HERE.
As for the Princeton women, they finished fourth. Sophomore Obiageri Amaechi was named the Most Outstanding Field Performer as well, with her Princeton and Ivy record 190-1 discus throw, sixth-best in the NCAA so far this season.
Fellow sophomore Rylie Pease won the javelin. Another sophomore, Alexandra Munson, smashed her previous best to finish second in the pole vault at 12-7.5
Lastly, anytime Princeton wins another Heps, you have to take a step back to once again marvel at the career that Fred Samara has put together as Tiger head coach. Between cross country and indoor and outdoor track and field, that's how many championships for Samara?
Oh yeah. This weekend made 46.
That's a ridiculous amount of winning.
TigerBlog will start with the four-legged variety. He's not a huge fan of horse racing in general. He's never even bet on a horse race in his life, though he did grow up about five miles from Freehold Raceway.
TB did learn something this past weekend about horse racing though - quarter horses can run a lot faster than thoroughbreads, and there was a time when the All-American Futurity paid the winner more than the three Triple Crown races combined.
As of which, TB couldn't remember the name of the horse that won the Triple Crown a year ago. Turns out it was Justify, who became the 13th Triple Crown winner and second in fourth year, after American Pharaoh in 2015.
TB will watch the Kentucky Derby is nothing else is on, and he didn't pay close attention to the one that was run this past Saturday. He did think "Maximum Security" was a good name for a racehorse.
It made him wonder what he'd name a horse if he had one to name. Guess he'd just go with "HorseBlog."
Anyway, TB noticed that Maximum Security won, news that left him unmoved. It wasn't until after the race ended that it became interesting.
It started on Twitter with some curious comments about drama at the Derby, which got TB to look into it further and see that Maximum Security was disqualified. TB has no idea why or if it happened to be a good call.
He does now that it was a decision that made millions and millions of dollars change hands, over what apparently was a very ticky tack foul.
The winner then became a longshot, Country Kitchen or Country House or something like that. TB senses for no reason that Country House has little chance to win the Preakness, which will take all of the juice out of the Belmont.
Doesn't matter. TB wasn't going to watch anyway.
So that's the four-legged Triple Crown part.
Then there's the two-legged variety.
Princeton won the Ivy League Heptagonal Outdoor Track and Field championship this weekend on Weaver Track, rolling up 182 points to outdistance runner-up Penn, who had 123. There are 22 events at Ivy Heps for men's track and field, and Princeton earned points in an astonishing 21 of them.
Speaking of astonishing, the win at Outdoor Heps gave Princeton a sweep of the three Heps titles this year, for the Ivy Heps version of the Triple Crown.
This was the first time Princeton has won the Triple Crown since ... last year. In fact Princeton has now won eight straight Heps events, sweeping this year and last year and winning the two track and field titles the year before that.
It's also the ninth Triple Crown for Princeton in its history. No other men's team has ever done it even once, and the only women's program to do it is Princeton, who has done it twice.
Adam Kelly, the NCAA runner-up in the weight throw indoors, was named the co-Most Outstanding Field Performer after he won his second-straight hammer throw.
The Tigers really started to take control of the meet in Saturday's last event, the 10,000 meter run. Connor Lundy came from way back to finish second, and the Tigers had 14 points in the event after Viraj Deokar and Matt Grossman followed Lundy in fourth and fifth.
Princeton also scored 55 points between the triple jump, high jump and and long jump. It was more than just one event, though, as Princeton had a dominant weekend.
You can read the entire recap HERE.
As for the Princeton women, they finished fourth. Sophomore Obiageri Amaechi was named the Most Outstanding Field Performer as well, with her Princeton and Ivy record 190-1 discus throw, sixth-best in the NCAA so far this season.
Fellow sophomore Rylie Pease won the javelin. Another sophomore, Alexandra Munson, smashed her previous best to finish second in the pole vault at 12-7.5
Lastly, anytime Princeton wins another Heps, you have to take a step back to once again marvel at the career that Fred Samara has put together as Tiger head coach. Between cross country and indoor and outdoor track and field, that's how many championships for Samara?
Oh yeah. This weekend made 46.
That's a ridiculous amount of winning.
Friday, May 3, 2019
Championships At Stake
BrotherBlog is teaching about free speech this afternoon.
Otherwise, he'd be watching Princeton women's tennis in the NCAA tournament at the University of Washington, whose law school happens to be his employer. TigerBlog, thinking about an effective marketing strategy, suggested his brother give the class the day off on the condition they go the tennis match and root for the Tigers.
Hey, it's not even like they're playing against U-Dub.
It's Princeton against Northwestern in the opening round of the NCAA tournament in Seattle. For the Tigers, it's the fifth NCAA appearance in six years and seventh in the last 11.
The other match at that site will feature the host Huskies against Army-West Point. The winners will meet tomorrow afternoon.
Perhaps BB can commit to attending if the Tigers are still playing. It won't be easy.
Northwestern is making its 30th NCAA appearance, including its 24th straight. A year ago Northwestern won two NCAA matches to reach the round of 16.
These Wildcats are ranked 27th in the country. Princeton is ranked 34th. Washington is ranked 10th and is hosting for the first time in 16 years.
Somewhat amazingly, there aren't really all that many athletic events left to the 2018-19 academic year. That's what happens when May rolls around.
There are some huge ones left, and the women's tennis is not the only one with a huge weekend, though they have had to travel the furthest.
The men's and women's track and field teams won't have to travel at all to compete for their Ivy League championships. The Heptagonal outdoor event will be held at Weaver Track and Field Stadium tomorrow and Sunday.
The Princeton men are chasing a second-straight Triple Crown after having won the cross country and indoor track and field championships. In fact, Princeton has won seven straight Heps titles across the three seasons.
This weekend also features the 10th Ivy League men's and women's lacrosse tournaments.
The first eight men's tournaments were held on the campus of the top seed before last year's moved to Columbia. The first nine women's tournaments were also held at the top seed, but this year the women are joining the men in New York City.
Had the old rules still been in place, Princeton would be planning to host the women's tournament, since the Tigers are again the top seed. Instead, it's a chance to experience the neutral site in the big city.
Princeton takes on fourth-seeded Cornell in the second semifinal this afternoon, with the opening draw at 5. Dartmouth and Penn open the tournament at 2; the final is Sunday at 1:30.
The Ivy League tournament determines only the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The 2019 champions will be Princeton and Dartmouth, who both finished at 6-1 in the regular season. Princeton is the top seed by virtue of its win over the Big Green in Hanover.
Realistically, Princeton has nothing to worry about when it comes to being in the NCAA tournament. The Tigers have six wins over Top 25 teams, and two of their three losses are to No. 1 Maryland and No. 6 Virginia.
What's at stake then?
Well, first of all, there's the opportunity to play at home in the NCAAs. The NCAA women's lacrosse committee had Princeton at No. 7 in their rankings a week ago, which would equal a home game and first-round bye. That's a pretty tangible thing on the line.
Then there's what Princeton head coach Chris Sailer said on her weekly podcast with TigerBlog this week. It was something along the line of "when there's a championship to play for, we want to win that championship."
It's a pretty good attitude to have.
To win this championship, Princeton is first going to have to beat a team that it just did six days ago. The Tigers defeated Cornell 18-15 last Saturday in Ithaca, running out to a 12-5 halftime lead and a 14-5 lead in the second half before the Big Red finished strong.
Cornell always plays Princeton tough, and the Big Red are playing to get into the NCAAs. Plus, Cornell figures to have gotten a lot of confidence from the way the second half went last week.
Should Princeton get past Cornell, up next would be two teams whom the Tigers defeated by two goals, snapping tie games in the final three minutes both times.
Winning this tournament won't be easy. Then again, not much about this season has been easy for Princeton, but the Tigers are still Ivy League champions again, for the sixth straight year.
So that's women's tennis far way, men's and women's track and field at home and women's lacrosse not too far but not as close as it otherwise might have been.
Otherwise, he'd be watching Princeton women's tennis in the NCAA tournament at the University of Washington, whose law school happens to be his employer. TigerBlog, thinking about an effective marketing strategy, suggested his brother give the class the day off on the condition they go the tennis match and root for the Tigers.
Hey, it's not even like they're playing against U-Dub.
It's Princeton against Northwestern in the opening round of the NCAA tournament in Seattle. For the Tigers, it's the fifth NCAA appearance in six years and seventh in the last 11.
The other match at that site will feature the host Huskies against Army-West Point. The winners will meet tomorrow afternoon.
Perhaps BB can commit to attending if the Tigers are still playing. It won't be easy.
Northwestern is making its 30th NCAA appearance, including its 24th straight. A year ago Northwestern won two NCAA matches to reach the round of 16.
These Wildcats are ranked 27th in the country. Princeton is ranked 34th. Washington is ranked 10th and is hosting for the first time in 16 years.
Somewhat amazingly, there aren't really all that many athletic events left to the 2018-19 academic year. That's what happens when May rolls around.
There are some huge ones left, and the women's tennis is not the only one with a huge weekend, though they have had to travel the furthest.
The men's and women's track and field teams won't have to travel at all to compete for their Ivy League championships. The Heptagonal outdoor event will be held at Weaver Track and Field Stadium tomorrow and Sunday.
The Princeton men are chasing a second-straight Triple Crown after having won the cross country and indoor track and field championships. In fact, Princeton has won seven straight Heps titles across the three seasons.
This weekend also features the 10th Ivy League men's and women's lacrosse tournaments.
The first eight men's tournaments were held on the campus of the top seed before last year's moved to Columbia. The first nine women's tournaments were also held at the top seed, but this year the women are joining the men in New York City.
Had the old rules still been in place, Princeton would be planning to host the women's tournament, since the Tigers are again the top seed. Instead, it's a chance to experience the neutral site in the big city.
Princeton takes on fourth-seeded Cornell in the second semifinal this afternoon, with the opening draw at 5. Dartmouth and Penn open the tournament at 2; the final is Sunday at 1:30.
The Ivy League tournament determines only the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The 2019 champions will be Princeton and Dartmouth, who both finished at 6-1 in the regular season. Princeton is the top seed by virtue of its win over the Big Green in Hanover.
Realistically, Princeton has nothing to worry about when it comes to being in the NCAA tournament. The Tigers have six wins over Top 25 teams, and two of their three losses are to No. 1 Maryland and No. 6 Virginia.
What's at stake then?
Well, first of all, there's the opportunity to play at home in the NCAAs. The NCAA women's lacrosse committee had Princeton at No. 7 in their rankings a week ago, which would equal a home game and first-round bye. That's a pretty tangible thing on the line.
Then there's what Princeton head coach Chris Sailer said on her weekly podcast with TigerBlog this week. It was something along the line of "when there's a championship to play for, we want to win that championship."
It's a pretty good attitude to have.
To win this championship, Princeton is first going to have to beat a team that it just did six days ago. The Tigers defeated Cornell 18-15 last Saturday in Ithaca, running out to a 12-5 halftime lead and a 14-5 lead in the second half before the Big Red finished strong.
Cornell always plays Princeton tough, and the Big Red are playing to get into the NCAAs. Plus, Cornell figures to have gotten a lot of confidence from the way the second half went last week.
Should Princeton get past Cornell, up next would be two teams whom the Tigers defeated by two goals, snapping tie games in the final three minutes both times.
Winning this tournament won't be easy. Then again, not much about this season has been easy for Princeton, but the Tigers are still Ivy League champions again, for the sixth straight year.
So that's women's tennis far way, men's and women's track and field at home and women's lacrosse not too far but not as close as it otherwise might have been.
Thursday, May 2, 2019
On Sale Now
Click HERE to buy Princeton football season tickets
Click HERE to buy Princeton-Dartmouth tickets for the game at Yankee Stadium
Well, it's May already, which means of course that it's time to talk Princeton football.
The 2018 season, as you recall, ended somewhat perfectly. Actually, you don't need the "somewhat" in there.
Princeton went 10-0 in 2018, winning its third Ivy title in six years and second in three years. The Tigers were unbeaten for the first time in 54 years and had the highest-scoring offense in Ivy League history, with 47 points per game and eight games of at least 40 points.
Princeton also proved it could win when the points weren't coming as easily. The biggest game of the year was in Week 8, when the Tigers defeated Dartmouth 14-9 in what essentially was the Ivy League championship game. Dartmouth finished its season 9-1.
So what's next?
Well, for starters, a history lesson.
Princeton and Rutgers played in the first college football game, back on Nov. 6, 1869, in New Brunswick, on the site where the College Ave. Gym now stands. A week later, the teams met in Princeton.
From the Princeton Companion:
The twenty-five players from each college played in their street clothes, and the several hundred spectators stood around on the side or sat on a wooden fence. There were no coaches, no officials, no programs -- the Rutgers Targum, on which we chiefly depend for the record of the game, tells us that Princeton's first goal was made ``by a well directed kick, from a gentleman whose name we don't know, but who did the best kicking on the Princeton side.'' The Targum is equally silent about the identity of the first wrongway player in American football history, a Rutgers man ``who, in his ardor, forgot which way he was kicking,'' and scored for Princeton instead of Rutgers. By agreement, the home team's style of play was used, and Rutgers won, 6 goals to 4; a week later, Princeton won the return match on its grounds, 8 goals to 0.
The 2019 season will mark the celebration of 150 years of college football, and obviously Princeton will be mentioned often. Perhaps as a way of honoring that first game, TigerBlog should write a similar sentence in a story this year:
"He ran for a touchdown. No idea who it was, but it looked good."
That would go over really well, he's pretty sure.
TB has always wondered what that first game must have looked like. He's seen drawings, but is that how it actually was?
And what if you brought the players from that day back to see what the sport has become in the last 150 years? Or what will it look like 150 years from now?
Meanwhile, back in 2019, Princeton will have five home games this season, and one game at Yankee Stadium. That game, the Nov. 9 game against Dartmouth, will be during the week of the 150th anniversary.
Princeton will open the season Sept. 21 at home against Butler. After that, it's a trip to Bucknell, a place where TB saw one of the two muddiest football games he's ever seen, a 10-6 Bison win in 1996. The other was in 1990, when Trenton State College defeated Ramapo 9-0, by the way.
Princeton is then home on back-to-back Saturdays against Columbia and Lafayette, and then it's six Ivy games to end the year: at Brown, home against Harvard, at Cornell, the game against Dartmouth in Yankee Stadium, home against Yale and at Penn.
As you remember, the Ivy schedule change last year saw the Tigers at Harvard and Yale. This year, both are home.
This happened in 1886 as well. TB will make one prediction for Princeton's 2019 season - the scores against Harvard and Yale will be different than they were that year, when the Tigers defeated Harvard 12-0 and tied Yale 0-0.
Yeah, 1886 was the only other time this has happened, when Princeton played both at home.
Anyway, why talk Princeton football in the earliest days of May?
Because season tickets went on sale yesterday. TB included the link above for season tickets (which are $44 for faculty, staff and children and $59 for alums and the general public) and the link for Yankee Stadium tickets.
It's already well past the halfway point between the end of last year's 10-0 season and the start of the 2019 season. Opening kickoff will be here shortly.
Princeton football 2019. The 150th anniversary season.
Tickets on sale now.
Click HERE to buy Princeton-Dartmouth tickets for the game at Yankee Stadium
Well, it's May already, which means of course that it's time to talk Princeton football.
The 2018 season, as you recall, ended somewhat perfectly. Actually, you don't need the "somewhat" in there.
Princeton went 10-0 in 2018, winning its third Ivy title in six years and second in three years. The Tigers were unbeaten for the first time in 54 years and had the highest-scoring offense in Ivy League history, with 47 points per game and eight games of at least 40 points.
Princeton also proved it could win when the points weren't coming as easily. The biggest game of the year was in Week 8, when the Tigers defeated Dartmouth 14-9 in what essentially was the Ivy League championship game. Dartmouth finished its season 9-1.
So what's next?
Well, for starters, a history lesson.
Princeton and Rutgers played in the first college football game, back on Nov. 6, 1869, in New Brunswick, on the site where the College Ave. Gym now stands. A week later, the teams met in Princeton.
From the Princeton Companion:
The twenty-five players from each college played in their street clothes, and the several hundred spectators stood around on the side or sat on a wooden fence. There were no coaches, no officials, no programs -- the Rutgers Targum, on which we chiefly depend for the record of the game, tells us that Princeton's first goal was made ``by a well directed kick, from a gentleman whose name we don't know, but who did the best kicking on the Princeton side.'' The Targum is equally silent about the identity of the first wrongway player in American football history, a Rutgers man ``who, in his ardor, forgot which way he was kicking,'' and scored for Princeton instead of Rutgers. By agreement, the home team's style of play was used, and Rutgers won, 6 goals to 4; a week later, Princeton won the return match on its grounds, 8 goals to 0.
The 2019 season will mark the celebration of 150 years of college football, and obviously Princeton will be mentioned often. Perhaps as a way of honoring that first game, TigerBlog should write a similar sentence in a story this year:
"He ran for a touchdown. No idea who it was, but it looked good."
That would go over really well, he's pretty sure.
TB has always wondered what that first game must have looked like. He's seen drawings, but is that how it actually was?
And what if you brought the players from that day back to see what the sport has become in the last 150 years? Or what will it look like 150 years from now?
Meanwhile, back in 2019, Princeton will have five home games this season, and one game at Yankee Stadium. That game, the Nov. 9 game against Dartmouth, will be during the week of the 150th anniversary.
Princeton will open the season Sept. 21 at home against Butler. After that, it's a trip to Bucknell, a place where TB saw one of the two muddiest football games he's ever seen, a 10-6 Bison win in 1996. The other was in 1990, when Trenton State College defeated Ramapo 9-0, by the way.
Princeton is then home on back-to-back Saturdays against Columbia and Lafayette, and then it's six Ivy games to end the year: at Brown, home against Harvard, at Cornell, the game against Dartmouth in Yankee Stadium, home against Yale and at Penn.
As you remember, the Ivy schedule change last year saw the Tigers at Harvard and Yale. This year, both are home.
This happened in 1886 as well. TB will make one prediction for Princeton's 2019 season - the scores against Harvard and Yale will be different than they were that year, when the Tigers defeated Harvard 12-0 and tied Yale 0-0.
Yeah, 1886 was the only other time this has happened, when Princeton played both at home.
Anyway, why talk Princeton football in the earliest days of May?
Because season tickets went on sale yesterday. TB included the link above for season tickets (which are $44 for faculty, staff and children and $59 for alums and the general public) and the link for Yankee Stadium tickets.
It's already well past the halfway point between the end of last year's 10-0 season and the start of the 2019 season. Opening kickoff will be here shortly.
Princeton football 2019. The 150th anniversary season.
Tickets on sale now.
Wednesday, May 1, 2019
Good Luck Courtney
TigerBlog remembers his first podcast with Courtney Banghart.
It was also his first podcast ever, so he had no idea what to expect. He told her that if they messed up, they could either start over and keep going and edit it later. He figured it would be a constant starting and stopping, a lot of "oh wait, that sounded dumb, can we fix it?"
Then he and Courtney began talking. And then, 15 minutes later, they were done. Simple.
TB and Courtney repeated this process every week for the last two years. They even came up with a great name for a basketball coach's podcast: "The Court Report."
In all the times they did their podcast together, they never once had to stop because they'd messed up. They had a good chemistry from the start, and their 15 or so minutes each week always seemed to fly by easily.
As TB thinks about those podcasts, though, it's the time before and after them that really resonates now. There would always be a conversation, about anything, everything or nothing, but always a conversation.
And out of those conversations TB really grew to know who Courtney was, and how she thought, and where she eventually saw herself, and what went on in her mind.
Because of that, TB can say two things for certain: 1) when he found out she was leaving Princeton to take over at North Carolina, he wasn't surprised and 2) he knows how hard it is for her to leave this place.
If you think Courtney stepped away easily, you're wrong. She gave a lot to Princeton, building a program from the ground up, to where it is now - a model of success by every conceivable measure.
Along the way, she developed incredible relationships with so many different constituencies. She was a constant presence all over campus and the local area, speaking to any number of groups about basketball and leadership and anything else.
The alumni group, which in women's basketball is extremely close and extremely loyal, embraced her as well as one of their own, even if she was a Dartmouth alum. It didn't matter what decade you had played women's basketball at Princeton; you were on board with Courtney, and she embraced you.
Mostly, she developed really strong ties with her players. She got them to believe in themselves, and she got them to believe that any basketball goal they had was attainable at Princeton.
And then she backed it up.
She took a program that had never been to the NCAA tournament and went there eight times. She won seven Ivy League championships and, beyond that, even got her team in the dance one time as an at-large, something that has never happened any other time in Ivy League basketball, men or women.
She got her team into the Top 25. She won an NCAA tournament game, the second in Ivy history. She sent players to the professional ranks in Europe, and to the WNBA.
And she produced model citizens, ones who won the top awards at this University, including the Pyne Prize this current year for senior Sydney Jordan.
Also, as TB has said many times, she turned her team's games into events. Attendance has skyrocketed. The audience has changed - Banghart created a male audience for her team, something TB would never have imagined when he first started watching the team 30 years ago.
Leaving that was not easy. Courtney wrestled with it.
But as she said to TB many times before or after their podcasts, she had been in the Ivy League since she was 17, first as a player at Dartmouth, and then as an assistant coach. And then, at age 29, the head coach at Princeton.
Her first season was 7-23. Her second was 14-14. Her third was 26-3. There's been no looking back. She won more than 80 percent of her Ivy League games, a figure that goes to just short of 90 percent when you take away the 8-15 record of her first 23 Ivy games.
Since then? How does 129-16 sound.
She was also 5-1 in Ivy League tournament games, with three championship game appearances in the three years of the event and championships the last two years.
Now she's off to North Carolina. It's a name synonymous with basketball, that's for sure.
She'll throw herself into that challenge the way she did into this one, and TB has no doubt that there are great days ahead for UNC women's basketball.
As for Princeton women's basketball, the Tigers are in great shape. They figure to be the preseason favorite in the Ivy League again, and the 2019-20 season will feature Bella Alarie's run for a third straight Ivy Player of the Year award and the program's career record for points.
There are a ton of great young players in the program, and the future is very bright. Courtney is leaving the Tigers in great shape.
What's her legacy from her time at Princeton? Well, it depends on how much you want to hold it against her that she was only here for 12 years. Was that long enough to stamp herself as the greatest women's basketball coach in Ivy League history?
North Carolina made its announcement yesterday morning, complete with a picture of Courtney in Carolina blue. TB thinks it was actually Photoshopped.
It doesn't matter. She's a Tar Heel now.
But she'll always carry Princeton with her. It was here that she learned to be a head coach and then excelled as a head coach. It's here that she touched so many people, won so many championships, played in so many big games, brought in so many great players - and mostly built a program that everyone at Princeton loved.
Leaving that wasn't easy.
Even if it was time.
It was also his first podcast ever, so he had no idea what to expect. He told her that if they messed up, they could either start over and keep going and edit it later. He figured it would be a constant starting and stopping, a lot of "oh wait, that sounded dumb, can we fix it?"
Then he and Courtney began talking. And then, 15 minutes later, they were done. Simple.
TB and Courtney repeated this process every week for the last two years. They even came up with a great name for a basketball coach's podcast: "The Court Report."
In all the times they did their podcast together, they never once had to stop because they'd messed up. They had a good chemistry from the start, and their 15 or so minutes each week always seemed to fly by easily.
As TB thinks about those podcasts, though, it's the time before and after them that really resonates now. There would always be a conversation, about anything, everything or nothing, but always a conversation.
And out of those conversations TB really grew to know who Courtney was, and how she thought, and where she eventually saw herself, and what went on in her mind.
Because of that, TB can say two things for certain: 1) when he found out she was leaving Princeton to take over at North Carolina, he wasn't surprised and 2) he knows how hard it is for her to leave this place.
If you think Courtney stepped away easily, you're wrong. She gave a lot to Princeton, building a program from the ground up, to where it is now - a model of success by every conceivable measure.
Along the way, she developed incredible relationships with so many different constituencies. She was a constant presence all over campus and the local area, speaking to any number of groups about basketball and leadership and anything else.
The alumni group, which in women's basketball is extremely close and extremely loyal, embraced her as well as one of their own, even if she was a Dartmouth alum. It didn't matter what decade you had played women's basketball at Princeton; you were on board with Courtney, and she embraced you.
Mostly, she developed really strong ties with her players. She got them to believe in themselves, and she got them to believe that any basketball goal they had was attainable at Princeton.
And then she backed it up.
She took a program that had never been to the NCAA tournament and went there eight times. She won seven Ivy League championships and, beyond that, even got her team in the dance one time as an at-large, something that has never happened any other time in Ivy League basketball, men or women.
She got her team into the Top 25. She won an NCAA tournament game, the second in Ivy history. She sent players to the professional ranks in Europe, and to the WNBA.
And she produced model citizens, ones who won the top awards at this University, including the Pyne Prize this current year for senior Sydney Jordan.
Also, as TB has said many times, she turned her team's games into events. Attendance has skyrocketed. The audience has changed - Banghart created a male audience for her team, something TB would never have imagined when he first started watching the team 30 years ago.
Leaving that was not easy. Courtney wrestled with it.
But as she said to TB many times before or after their podcasts, she had been in the Ivy League since she was 17, first as a player at Dartmouth, and then as an assistant coach. And then, at age 29, the head coach at Princeton.
Her first season was 7-23. Her second was 14-14. Her third was 26-3. There's been no looking back. She won more than 80 percent of her Ivy League games, a figure that goes to just short of 90 percent when you take away the 8-15 record of her first 23 Ivy games.
Since then? How does 129-16 sound.
She was also 5-1 in Ivy League tournament games, with three championship game appearances in the three years of the event and championships the last two years.
Now she's off to North Carolina. It's a name synonymous with basketball, that's for sure.
She'll throw herself into that challenge the way she did into this one, and TB has no doubt that there are great days ahead for UNC women's basketball.
As for Princeton women's basketball, the Tigers are in great shape. They figure to be the preseason favorite in the Ivy League again, and the 2019-20 season will feature Bella Alarie's run for a third straight Ivy Player of the Year award and the program's career record for points.
There are a ton of great young players in the program, and the future is very bright. Courtney is leaving the Tigers in great shape.
What's her legacy from her time at Princeton? Well, it depends on how much you want to hold it against her that she was only here for 12 years. Was that long enough to stamp herself as the greatest women's basketball coach in Ivy League history?
North Carolina made its announcement yesterday morning, complete with a picture of Courtney in Carolina blue. TB thinks it was actually Photoshopped.
It doesn't matter. She's a Tar Heel now.
But she'll always carry Princeton with her. It was here that she learned to be a head coach and then excelled as a head coach. It's here that she touched so many people, won so many championships, played in so many big games, brought in so many great players - and mostly built a program that everyone at Princeton loved.
Leaving that wasn't easy.
Even if it was time.
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