To The Video Review

How long did the last 2.3 seconds of the first half of Sunday's WNBA game between Golden State and Connecticut take? 

Hint - it was longer than 2.3 seconds. 

If you said five minutes, you'd be wrong. If you said seven minutes, eight minutes, even nine minutes, you'd be wrong. No, the correct answer is 10 minutes. 

And that's just ridiculous. 

Why? Because the officials were reviewing whether or not there had been a foul on a three-point attempt by Golden State's Kate Martin. It was a judgement call by the refs, like a million others through the decades in which the sport of basketball has been played. 

In the new world of video review, in the name of "getting it right," this led to a huge delay as the officials poured over the replay to determine if there had been a foul. Keep in mind that the Sun were up by 16 at the time. 

TigerBlog has watched a great deal of the WNBA this summer. He enjoys the games more than he does the NBA games, which have become mostly three-point contests. He especially like the more, if you'll forgive him for using this term, "Princetonian" aspects of the women's game, with its emphasis on moving without the ball and finding the open person. 

He was one of the many who started to watch the league last year, when Caitlin Clark arrived. Now he has continued to watch, even with Clark hurt — partly because of Kaitlyn Chen and partly because of the games themselves. 

Chen is a Princeton alum who is the only three-time Ivy tournament Most Outstanding Player in any sport who went on to win an NCAA title last year with UConn as a grad student. She's now in the WNBA on the Valkyries, and you can see through the TV just how much joy she has to be around the game still. It's the same joy she brought every night as a Tiger. 

Because he's watched so many WNBA games, TB can tell you that the use of replay in the WNBA has gone way off the rails. Earlier in the game — or it might have been the Indiana-Chicago game that followed; there have been so many TB has lost track — there was a long review to see if the shot clock had expired before a foul was committed. 

It's a tough situation, with the idea of, yes, getting calls correct versus the way these replays completely destroy the rhythm of the game. There are too many of them and they take too long. 

And, perhaps worst of all, these long delays often happen on the kinds of plays that have little to no impact on the outcome of the game. The game has endured just fine with a missed call here and there. All games have.  

TigerBlog sees this through the eyes of a fan and through his role on the NCAA men's lacrosse rules committee. He was part of the committee when it first brought review to men's lacrosse, and he can say that there has been as much discussion about video review the last three years than any other subject (other than the face-off).

TB's approach during his time on the committee has always been to consider what rule you'd want in place in overtime of the NCAA championship game and work from there. So yes, you want to be able to use video to make sure that there is no asterisk next to the winner. 

The trickle down, though, is always inevitable. It goes from that — wanting to avoid any illegitimacy to your national champ — to looking for tiny microscopic evidence of something in the middle of the second quarter of a WNBA regular season game. 

Different sports have different challenges, of course. In sports where scoring is at a premium, such as hockey, soccer, and field hockey, calls at any time can be game-changing. 

That's why it doesn't bother TB as much to see delays in those sports, because of how big the impact of adding or deleting one scoring chance can be. In a perfect world, these reviews would be pretty quick, even though that's not usually the case. 

The other issue is judgement calls, like the foul at the end of the first half Sunday. It was a judgement call by the refs. Should that be reviewable? 

That opens a huge can of worms. You don't want to expand the number of replays there are, since they do shut down the game.

On the other hand, what are you supposed to tell the officials? You can see if the ball went out off of Team A but not call the foul that Team B obviously committed in the process? 

TB is sure he'll be having further conversations this coming year as replay in men's college lacrosse continues to evolve. 

As for the WNBA? 

More Kaitlyn Chen. Fewer replays.  

Kerry Grundlingh, 2004-25

TigerBlog woke up yesterday to gray skies — only he didn't realize how gray they actually were. 

That didn't come into focus until the text message from his colleague Chas Dorman. A member of the women's open rowing team had been killed in a cycling accident, with more information to follow.

What? How? And more importantly, why? 

As he thinks about it, the answers to the first two don't really matter, as he thinks about it. The third one? There is no answer, not one that would make any sense anyway.  

Kerry Grundlingh was killed in an accident near her hometown of Johannesburg, South Africa. The rising Princeton junior was just short of two weeks past her 21st birthday. 

Grundlingh was a member of the first varsity 8 that won the Ivy League championship this past spring. She also represented South Africa on its national age-group teams several times. 

"The world has lost an amazing young woman with the passing of Kerry Grundlingh," said head coach Lori Dauphiny. "She was an exceptional rower and student-athlete, and that is just the beginning of who Kerry was as a person. She leaves a legacy of her life lived as a tremendous daughter, sister, friend and teammate who constantly gave the best of herself for the betterment of others in each and every daily interaction. All of us in the Princeton Rowing community send our deepest and heartfelt sympathies to Kerry's parents, Debbie and Francois, as well as her brother, James, and all of her family and friends around the globe." 

There will be a memorial for her on campus this coming fall. 

"This is a shocking tragedy for the Grundlingh family, our Princeton Rowing community and all at Princeton University," said Ford Family Director of Athletics John Mack '00. "Kerry embraced everything that being a Princeton student-athlete entails as she competed on the water and thrived in the classroom. Most importantly, Kerry developed impactful relationships with friends and teammates across campus and around the world. The hearts of everyone associated with Princeton Athletics are with Kerry's family and friends, her teammates and coaches, and everyone who had the honor of knowing Kerry as we all grieve together." 

TigerBlog wrote only last week, with the hiring of Matt Smith as the head men's lightweight coach, about the togetherness and closeness of the rowing programs at the boathouse. That culture has sustained Princeton Rowing for decades, through wins and championships and medals on the intercollegiate and international levels. 

Now it will have to sustain those who knew Kerry, who competed with her, who loved her. It won't be easy, but at least they will have each other. 

TigerBlog never had a chance to meet Kerry. He's read quite a bit about her since he got the news, and he's looked at the photos of her that were posted with the story on goprincetontigers.com (which you can read HERE).

What do they show? 

There are only two kinds of faces that she makes. One is the intensity of competition. The other is smiling. 

This isn't the first time that Princeton has lost a current athlete. Mercifully, the number is quite low. 

Of course, whenever it happens, it's a gut punch. Or whatever is beyond a gut punch. 

TB remembers being called into then Director of Athletics Gary Walters' office in 2004 when Walters told him about the death of swimmer Alan Ebersole. As Gary said the words, TB was struck in a state of disbelief and horror, with a great emptiness that was punctured only by the idea that no, this couldn't be true, not with a young athlete and student in the prime of life. 

It's the same feeling that TB had yesterday when he saw the news about Kerry. 

And that's nothing compared to what her parents and brother and teammates must be going through right now. It's unimaginable. 

What? How? It doesn't matter. 

Why? 

There is no way to even begin to understand. 

Rest in peace Kerry. 

A Summer Friday, With A New Head Coach

Today's "Friday in the summer" entry begins with some reckless driving. 

C'mon pup. Two paws on the wheel. 

She might not be a great driver, though she does crush it when it comes to parallel barking. 

And with that ... 

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Congratulations go out to Matt Smith, who has been named the new head lightweight men's rowing coach at Princeton. 

Want to be impressed? Read this excerpt from the story about his hiring (you can read all of it HERE):

Following his graduation from Wisconsin in 2000, Smith was commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Army where he continued his elite rowing career in the Army’s World Class Athlete Program.

During his time in the military, Smith was promoted twice, eventually earning the rank of Captain, and was awarded the Bronze Star and Meritorious Service Medals for exceptional duty in combat and peacetime operations. He is a graduate of the U.S. Army Ranger School and Airborne School.

A seven-time member of the U.S national rowing team, Smith has won medals at the Pan-American Games, World Championships, and National Championships, while also representing the U.S. in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.

That checks off a lot of boxes, doesn't it? 

Smith replaces Marty Crotty, a legendary figure in Princeton rowing history as an athlete and coach. Smith, though, is no stranger to the Shea Rowing Center, of course.

Over his 11 seasons coaching heavyweight boats at Princeton, Smith has helped guide the Tigers to 27 medals at Sprints and 13 medals at the IRA national championship regatta. Since 2021, 24 of Smith’s rowers have gone on to earn All-America honors.  

The rowing program at Princeton is unlike any of the others. Between the four varsity teams there are more than 200 athletes, a history of intercollegiate and international success and a close-knit culture that feeds all of the success. 

Smith is already an established part of that success. Whenever you're around him, you can't help but be impressed with his passion for the Tiger rowing program and its athletes. He's a perfect fit for his new position, something that Ford Family Director of Athletics John Mack mentioned in the story. 

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Speaking of Princeton rowing and international success, it's been a great start to the World U23 championships in Poznan, Poland. 

There are no fewer than 10 Princeton men's heavyweight rowers who have advanced to the semifinals after Day 1. Those 10 rowers represent five different countries: the USA, Great Britain, Canada, France and Australia. 

You can read more about them HERE. 

There are also three Princeton women who are rowing there who have advanced to the grand finals. HERE is their update. 

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The Pan American Cup field hockey tournament is currently underway in Uruguay and runs through August 3. 

Princeton is represented by three athletes — two Americans and one Canadian. 

Team Canada began the competition yesterday with a 7-0 win over Paraguay. The Canadian captain is Elise Wong, Princeton Class of 2019 and a key member of the 2018 NCAA runner-up. 

As for the Americans, Beth Yeager is now a veteran of the national team, including starting every game in the Olympics a year ago. Team USA opens tonight at 5:30 Eastern against Mexico. 

The other American is Tiger assistant coach Pat Harris, who has been a member of the men's national two for two decades. While men's field hockey is much bigger in Europe and the Far East than it is in America, the team is still looking to make its name on the international stage. 

Game 1 for Harris and the United States is at 7:30 tonight against the host Uruguayans. 

For more information on the tournament, click HERE.  

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Updates from the last two Fridays: the shoe is gone, but the road is still open.  

Opening day for 2025-26? It's four weeks from today, with the women's soccer team home against Rutgers at 5. 

Four weeks? That's only 28 days. Yikes. Where does the summer go? 

In the meantime, have a great weekend. Get outside. Go to the beach. Jump in a pool. Go for a long walk. 

It'll soon be too cold for all of those.  

 

Good Luck, But Not Too Much Good Luck

TigerBlog was walking inside a deli yesterday to get a sandwich for lunch when he noticed a very, very familiar t-shirt out front. 

It was being worn by a young woman who was at a table that faced the front door, which means TB saw it right away. Which t-shirt? It was the Ivy League's "8 Against Hate" t-shirt. 

Of course TB explained that he worked at Princeton and then asked her which Ivy school she attended and what sport she played. It turned out that she and her friend opposite are current Yale women's lacrosse players. 

At that point, TB congratulated them on having a great season and, when they said they were rising juniors, he said "good luck next year — but not too much good luck, especially against Princeton."

They laughed and thanked him for his good wishes.  

Then he went inside and ordered a Thanksgiving sandwich, with turkey and stuffing. It also would have had cranberry sauce, only TB doesn't like cranberry sauce, so he asked for it without. 

The owner of the deli then informed him that their cranberry sauce was homemade, which was nice to know. It doesn't mean TB would like it any more, though, so he stuck with his original order. 

He's glad he did. It was a great sandwich. The cranberry sauce would have ruined it.  

Meanwhile, back at the Yale women's lacrosse players, they could have been any other Ivy League athletes. They could have been Dartmouth tennis players or Brown baseball players or Penn soccer players or anything else, male or female.

The Ivy League office makes a considerable effort to talk about the commonalities of the league and its athletes. Yes, there is great competition within the league, but it has also always stood for more than just wins and losses. 

To state the obvious, it's always been a league that's stressed the value of athletics as an extension of the academic experience. That remains unchanged, even as Ivy teams have so successfully competed on a national level (especially Princeton, of course).  

Take the Yale women's lacrosse players. Princeton defeated Yale in the regular season and won the Ivy championship. Yale defeated Princeton in the Ivy tournament final. Both teams made it to the NCAA quarterfinals. 

That's an intensely competitive rivalry, played out over the course of one season.  

And yet, on a sunny July afternoon outside of a deli, they didn't seem like rivals. They seemed like athletes who were part of the same eight-member club as those who compete for Princeton and the other league schools. 

It made TB wonder if this same feeling exists among other leagues. Maybe it does. Who knows? 

When it comes time to play Yale in any sport this coming athletic year, make no mistake. Both sides will be all in on winning.

But is there a camaraderie among Ivy athletes that is different than other leagues? Maybe TB has just spent so many years in the Ivy League that it's all he really knows. 

Maybe there is something to the fact that as the world of intercollegiate athletics has seen massive conference realignment in recent years, resulting in four superconferences with no regard for traditional rivalries or, for that matter, geography. And then there is everyone else — hoping to find the right seat when the music stops. 

The Ivy League stands as the lone exception. From its inception in the mid-1950s, there have been eight teams, the same eight teams. Nobody has left. Nobody has come in. 

Maybe that explains why there is so much pride in being an "Ivy League" athlete. TigerBlog at least would like to think that's the case. 

Could it be that in a different league, one the Power Four perhaps, the two women's lacrosse players would have simply sneered at TB? 

Right now there are hundreds, thousands actually, of Ivy League athletes who are preparing for whatever the 2025-26 academic year brings. TigerBlog would say the same thing to all of them, from all eight schools. 

It's the same thing he said to the two women yesterday.

Good luck, but not too much good luck — especially when you play Princeton.  

Small World

This is a story about three seemingly unrelated people — with the emphasis on the "seemingly."

At least to TigerBlog, they had absolutely no connection at all, until he recently learned differently. He's since told this story to maybe five people, and they've all had the exact same reaction: "Wow. Crazy."

Okay, back to the three main characters.

The one that you probably already know is named Spencer Weisz. Yes, that Spencer Weisz, the former Princeton basketball player. 

He's actually more than just a former Princeton basketball player. He is, in fact, one of only eight players in Ivy men's basketball history to win the league Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year awards. 

Weisz ranks second all-time at Princeton with 383 career assists and 14th all-time at Princeton with 1,241 career points. He's one of seven Princeton players who have made at least 200 career three-pointers and is the only Princeton player ever with at least 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, 300 assists and 200 threes. You can take away the 200 three pointers from the criteria and only Kit Mueller would then join him with the other three.

As a senior, Weisz was part of the great Princeton team that went 14-0 in the league and then won the first Ivy tournament, going a perfect 16-0 against league opponents. The Tigers then lost 60-58 to Notre Dame in the opening round of the NCAA tournament in a game in which Weisz went all 40 minutes and had 15 points, five rebounds, four assists, two blocked shots, one steal — and zero turnovers. 

He was awarded the 2017 Roper Trophy as the top senior male athlete in his class. That year's banquet also featured a video in which Weisz competed against other Princeton athletes in their sports, with a final product that showcased him as a tremendous all-around athlete and also as having a great personality and sense of humor.  

TigerBlog worked on that video with Weisz. He'd written extensively about him by the time he graduated, and he's followed Weisz during his professional career in Israel. TB got to spend some time with Weisz when he was in Israel in late May for a wedding and was reminded of what a great young man Weisz is — friendly, outgoing, funny, warm, welcoming. You can't say enough good things about him. 

Here is what TB wrote about Weisz after the banquet in 2017: 

He talked about coming to Princeton with doubts. He talked about the honor of wearing "Princeton" across his chest. He talked about how his coach, Mitch Henderson, pushed him to get the very best of him. He talked about his teammates and the other coaches and how much they meant to him. He talked about his parents and all of their support, saying he could literally count on one hand the number of games of his that they'd missed. 

Okay, so Weisz is one of the three people in this story. 

The second person in the story is named Charlie. He was TigerBlog's roommate his senior year at Penn, and the two have stayed great friends for all of the years since. 

TigerBlog doubts that Charlie has ever stepped foot in Jadwin Gym. For that matter, he probably didn't spend too much time in the Palestra either when he was a Penn student. There's no chance he's ever heard of Spencer Weisz. 

Charlie has always been very into Facebook. Last week Charlie decided to start a group of Penn alums and he wanted TB to join, knowing full well that TB didn't have and has never had a Facebook account. Charlie, being the persuasive person he is, managed to convince TB to create one, and so TB did, leaving him 1) in Charlie's new group and 2) with a Facebook page for the first time in his life. 

And what do you do with your new Facebook page? Right, you look up all the people you knew in high school and college. It entertained TB for most of an afternoon, as he checked on friends he hadn't seen (or even thought of) in decades. Then he decided that was enough and deactivated his page. 

This brings the story to its third character, a woman named Genie Prell. Like TB and Charlie, Genie is also a Penn alum. She and TB were friends in college, though TB can't remember exactly where he met her. A class maybe? 

Genie also lived in the same town as TB's aunt and uncle, and he does remember giving her a ride home one holiday. And, she gave him some boxes that he used to store a bunch of books in his aunt and uncle's basement. Years later, when he finally retrieved the books, they were in a box that had "GENIE PRELL" written across the top in black marker. 

TB hadn't seen or thought of Genie in a very, very long time. And then, while he was wasting his time on Facebook, he decided that she would be one of the old friends he'd look up. 

And that's when he found out the truly shocking part of the story:

Genie Prell is now Genie Weisz and ... GENIE PRELL WEISZ IS SPENCER WEISZ' MOTHER.

What? That's crazy, right? 

Yes, it is. TB was certainly stunned. 

TB reached out to Genie on Facebook and sent her a picture of him and Spencer from Israel. She got back to him quickly and was just as stunned. 

TB did ask Genie — whose husband Andy is a Montclair State grad — if she had any trouble rooting against Penn, something TB of course long ago learned how to do. Her response was:

"Once Spencer chose to go to Princeton over UPenn, I only rooted for him and the Tigers! For me it was my kids first! We bleed Blue and Maize [Spencer's older sister Becca went to Michigan] and Orange and Black in our family."

Genie mentioned that she'd read everything TB wrote about her son and never realized it was being written by a friend of hers from her son's biggest rival, someone she herself had been friends with all those years ago. 

Remember what Weisz said at the banquet his senior year? He said he could count on one hand how many games his parents had missed in his years as a Tiger.

How many times did TB walk past his old college friend in Jadwin and not realize who she was? How did he not make that connection? 

What a small world. It was nice to catch up with her. She has certainly raised a great son.

Hey, TB told you it was a great story.  

More Than Half

TigerBlog was walking on the towpath the other day when he heard a familiar sound coming up behind him. 

It was a man on a bicycle. TB could sort of hear the sound of the wheels on the gravel, though it's not always clear at first if it's a bike on the path or a car on the road.

This time, he heard "on your left," which is the heads up call to move to the right. When TB heard it, he turned around, at which point the cyclist again yelled "on your left," to which TB pointed out that, as they were now facing each other, he was technically on his right. 

The man on the bike either didn't hear TB or didn't think it was funny. Either way, he just pedaled by. He could have at least chuckled. 

TB has no reason to share that story with you other than it's just a random Tuesday in late July. What else can he talk about? 

Oh wait. It's not a random Tuesday. It's a significant Tuesday. 

Want to hear something crazy? The first Princeton athletic event of the 2025-26 academic year is one month from today. 

How about that? 

It'll be a women's soccer game, Rutgers at Princeton, at 5. That'll be August 22. It'll be the start of somewhere around 700 events that will last all the way into June of 2026. 

For TigerBlog, this will be the start of his 37th year around Princeton Athletics and 32nd as an official Princeton employee. His first five years covering the Tigers were while he was at the Trenton Times, and that's when he first began to build relationships with the people in the Department of Athletics.

It dawned on him last week that he has now actually spent more than half of his life as a Princeton employee, and that's without counting the time at the newspaper. More than half his life. 

He's had 11 different titles in that time, starting with "Manager of Sports Media Relations" and working his way to "Senior Writer/Historian." When he officially interviewed at Princeton, one of the questions was "where do you see yourself in five years or 10 years?"

TB remembers how he answered: "Here." Yes, it's a standard question on interviews, but TB meant it. 

You know how many other places TB has interviewed since then? Zero, as you might have guessed.  

He was pretty sure that he'd found the right home for him even back then. Nothing that's happened since has changed his mind. 

Do most people spend more than half their life at the same company? It's an interesting question. 

TB knows a handful of people who have but way more who haven't. Moving around often equals moving up. For TB, he couldn't imagine having done anything else than writing about Princeton and its athletes and coaches. 

There are those whom he wrote about when they were at Princeton who have had kids who followed in their footsteps. TB always said that when that happened he'd actually start to feel old, but that really hasn't been the case. 

In fact, being on a college campus all these years has kept him young. He has no doubt about that. 

In some ways, he was very lucky to get the job in the first place. He had no experience in working for a school, only for a newspaper. He didn't know how to use a computer at all. 

He'll always be grateful to American Athletic Conference assistant commissioner Chuck Sullivan, then a Princeton intern, for teaching TB the basics of using a Mac. Included in the tutorial was the lesson of "Command-Z," which erases the most recent entry. 

These days, you can use "Command-Z" multiple times. Back then, on those tiny Macs, it only worked if you went to erase what you had just done, and Chuck said that it "like an appeal play in baseball. It has to be done before anything else."

Then there was the whole no-AD at the time piece. Bob Myslik had left Princeton. Gary Walters had been hired as his replacement but hadn't started yet. As such, there was no AD to sign off on TB's hire, which was made by then Director of Athletic Communications Kurt Kehl. 

It took a few years before Gary came around. At first, he was adamant that he'd never hire a "Penn guy" to work at Princeton.  

And now, as Princeton is one month away from the start of another athletic year, TB is still excited for what is to come. He has Sept. 5 circled as his own opening day, when the field hockey season begins. 

That excitement has never gone away. That's how he's known he's been in the right place. 

You don't spend more than half your life doing something otherwise. 

Silver Times Two

It'll be just past noon today Eastern time when the 56th anniversary of the moment that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin returned to the Command Module Columbia after becoming the first two people to walk on the moon. 

And who was waiting for them there? That would be Michael Collins, the third member of the crew who never considered himself the third member, even if the other two were the ones who actually stepped out onto the lunar surface. 

While they did that, Collins spent a little more than 24 hours all by himself in the Command Module, orbiting the moon 30 times in the process. TigerBlog has read quite a bit about Collins (who passed away four years ago at the age of 90), including the fact that during his time alone in space he had to prepare for the contingency that Armstrong and Aldrin might not have made it off the moon alive and that he'd have to return home by himself. 

Can you imagine what that experience was like? Collins was alone in the space capsule and even more alone every time he passed to the far side of the moon, where he was completely out of radio contact. 

TB can't help but wonder what the two returnees said to Collins after they were reunited. You should have been there? Anything new? We brought you a present?

What did Collins say to them? Can you guys drive this thing while I go take a few steps down there as well?  

For everything that's ever happened in the history of everything, it's hard to imagine that anything has ever surpassed the idea that flight originated in 1903 with the Wright Brothers and then a mere 66 years later ended up on the moon. Each year on the anniversary, TB once again marvels at what all of those people accomplished. 

And that's today's edition of "This Day In History." 

As for current events, Princeton earned its first two medals — both silver — of the current World University Games this past weekend. 

The first came in men's 3x3 basketball, where rising junior Jackson Hicke and his all-Ivy League team of four players reached the final by defeating Chile, Italy, Poland in the quarterfinals and then Czechia in the semifinals. 

The championship game featured the Ivy Leaguers against Lithuania, where the Americans fell 21-16. Still, silver at the World University Games, along with the experience that has come with it, is an amazing accomplishment.

Why has Princeton men's basketball had so much success in 3x3? Kareem Maddox played on the U.S. team a year ago in the Olympic Games. There has been an army of former Tigers who excelled in the game long before it was in the Olympics. 

The answer is that the 3x3 game requires players who can dribble, pass, shoot, play defense and move without the ball. Those are the cornerstones of what Princeton has always espoused.  

The other players on the U.S. team were, by the way, Avery Brown (Columbia), Chandler Piggé (Harvard) and Nick Townsend (Yale). 

The other silver medal came in the pool, where Mitchell Schott came in second in the men's 200 individual medley. Schott won his heat and then his semifinal before finishing a second behind Japan's Takumi Mori, whose 1:57.24 was a meet record. 

TigerBlog went to the stats from the most recent NCAA championships to see how those times compared, only to learn that the American collegiate races are in yards and the World University Games are in meters. As such, TB will say that he's simply impressed with Schott's finish. 

Princeton's Patrick Dinu will swim today in the final of the men's 100 freestyle after also having the fastest times in his heat and semifinal as well. 

Dakota Tucker will swim in the women's 200 IM heats today, while Casey Helm will compete in the men's discus today as well. 

For the complete schedule and results of Princeton's athletes at the event in Germany, click HERE. 

When Is Next Week?

It's a Friday in July. 

Where does the blog content come from on such a day? Well, sometimes you just have to look at the side of the road. 

Last week, it was the shoe at the end of the road, which, by the way, is still there, though the heavy rains of the week actually washed it from one side to the other. This week? It's a street sign about which you could write a philosophy thesis. 

Here is the sign that TigerBlog drives past on a regular basis:

What does this mean? First of all, TB has been driving on this road for more than a week and nothing has changed. It's still open. 

The philosophy part asks the question of whether or not the street will ever be closed. Will it ever be next week? Is it next week now? It can't be. The road is still open. 

And with that:

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Jackson Hicke's start at the World University Games 3x3 event yesterday went perfectly fine, with the emphasis on the "perfectly."

Hicke, playing on the all-Ivy League USA entry, went 2-0 yesterday in Group A, defeating Chile 21-9 and Italy 19-12. As a result, the U.S. team earned a bye into tomorrow's quarterfinal round, bypassing the play-in round. 

A rising junior on the Princeton men's basketball team, Hicke had six points and eight rebounds between the two games.  

Princeton will have three swimmers in the pool today, with Mitchell Schott in the 200 free, Patrick Dinu in the 200 IM and Dakota Tucker in the 400 IM (an event in which she earned second-team All-American honors at the NCAA championships last winter). 

Schott was named the High Point Swimmer of the Meet after winning the 200 IM, 200 butterfly and 200 freestyle and being on the winning 800 freestyle relay to lead Princeton to the Ivy League title this past season. Dinu was also on that winning relay while also taking the 100 freestyle. 

Tucker was the 200 breaststroke champ as the women also won the 2025 Ivy title. 

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The 2025-26 men's hockey schedule was released earlier this week (much more tangible than the hypothetical "next week"), and opening day for the Tigers will be Halloween. 

If you want to come dressed as the mascot of the opponent for that night (and the next night), you'll have to come as a Nanook. In Intuit mythology, a "nanook" is considered "the master of bears." 

These Nanooks will come all the way from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks to Baker Rink. It'll be the first time the Nanooks play in Princeton and the first time the teams play since 1985, when they met in Alaska. 

Of course, there is a connection between Alaska-Fairbanks and Princeton men's hockey: Guy Gadowsky coached the Nanooks from 1999-2004 before he took over the Tigers.

By the way, it is 4,246 miles from the campus of Alaska-Fairbanks to the campus of Princeton and, according to google maps, a 68-hour drive. Be forewarned though: the directions say the route does have tolls. 

For the full Princeton schedule, click HERE. Season tickets go on sale Monday. 

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Much, much closer to this area is Fairfield, Conn., which is the host this weekend for the Premier Lacrosse League. 

There are four games this weekend, and all four have Princeton alums. Here's your schedule:

* tonight at 6:30 — New York Atlas (Jake Stevens) vs. California Redwoods (Sam English)
* tonight at 9 — Utah Archers (Ryan Ambler, Beau Pederson, Tom Schreiber) vs. Carolina Chaos
* tomorrow at 3 — Boston Cannons (Coulter Mackesy, Alexander Vardaro) vs. Denver Outlaws
* tomorrow at 8 — Maryland Whipsnakes vs. Philadelphia Waterdogs (Zach Currier, Michael Sowers)

Sowers continues to lead the league in points (28) and assists (19). 

*

The first athletic event of the 2025-26 athletic year is now only five weeks away, with opening night for the women's soccer team against Rutgers on Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium set for August 22 at 5 pm.

In the meantime, have a great weekend. TigerBlog will be back next week — whatever that means.  

 

 

Princeton At The World University Games

The Opening Ceremonies and first events of the 2028 Summer Olympic Games will begin three years from this week in Los Angeles. 

Did you hear the big news about Los Angeles ’28? No, it's not that the track and field competition will be held the first week of the Games and the swimming competition will be held the second.

The swimming events, by the way, will be held in a pool that will be constructed in SoFi Stadium, the home of the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers. This is similar to the 2024 Olympic Trials, which were held inside Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

The biggest story is, of course, the return of lacrosse to the Games as a medal sport. This will be the first time ever for women and the first time for men since 1908.

It won't be the full-field lacrosse that you see in college. This will be the Sixes version, which is pretty much what it sounds like — smaller sides, smaller field, faster pace, higher scoring. 

The final will be July 29, 2028. It will match the United States and Canada (there are few predictions of which TigerBlog is more certain). 

Will there be Princeton representation? TB isn't as sure about that as he is about the teams who will be in the final, but he'll go with "yes" on that one.  

Squash will also be a medal sport in 2028. Princeton alum Olivia Fiechter Weaver (who is married to former Tiger men's lacrosse player Bobby Weaver) is currently the No. 4 ranked player in the world. 

If you have a great memory, you might remember back to Oct. 19, 2012. What were you doing that day? If you were reading TigerBlog, you saw a guest entry from Julie Cerullo, then a senior on the Princeton women's squash team. 

What did she write about? You guessed — that squash should be an Olympic sport. You can read it HERE. This is part of her story:

On paper, squash meets all the criteria required of an Olympic sport in terms of its history, universality and popularity. It’s good for athletes’ health and would be relatively cheap to integrate. But squash will be competing against five other sports for one open berth in the 2020 games. The other aspirant sports are Karate, wushu (a martial art), roller sports, sport climbing and wake boarding, and it won’t get any easier beyond 2020 as lacrosse and mixed martial arts have announced their plans to seek Olympic status in the future. A possible bid by softball and baseball for reinstatement in 2020 further complicates the decision. 

Princeton figures to be well-represented in Los Angeles, as it seems to be in every Summer Olympic Games. If you recall a year ago from Paris, Princeton athletes won three gold medals (Hannah Scott in rowing, Maia Weintraub in fencing, Nice Mead in rowing) and had 16 competitors in all. 

The World University Games aren't quite the Olympics, but they do provide some pretty diverse competition. They have been contested every other year since 1959 (the winter version began in 1960 and continues to the present), or pretty much every other year since 1959. For some reason, they were held in 1967, 1970 and then 1973 but have been back on the every-other-year schedule since, though the 2023 edition was cancelled after the host country, Russia, invaded Ukraine. 

The Games were held in Moscow in the Soviet Union in 1973. Princeton women's athletic pioneer Cathy Corcione won a gold and a silver there. 

The 2029 version will be held in North Carolina, after a stop in South Korea in 2027. The only time to date that the United States has been the host nation for the summer Games was in 1993, when they were held in Buffalo.  

The current World University Games began yesterday with 12 Tigers from five countries and four sports who are currently competing.

You can see the schedule for the Tigers HERE. 

The first Princetonians to kick things off will probably have already done so by the time you read this. They would be Chloe Fox-Gitomer in women's team saber fencing and Jackson Hicke in men's 3x3 basketball.

Hicke is part of an all-Ivy League team, as Hicke will be joined by Avery Brown (Columbia), Chandler Piggé (Harvard) and Nick Townsend (Yale).

Now That's A Database

It's possible, though unlikely, that the good people who run the ncaa.com website sat around and said "how can we keep TigerBlog busy for a few hours?"

It is one explanation for the genesis of a new feature from the national office of intercollegiate athletics in Indianapolis. What feature? 

It's a database of all-time NCAA champions. You can access it by clicking HERE and scrolling down.

TB already has it bookmarked.  

As you probably know, TigerBlog is fascinated by historical information, especially as it relates to Princeton Athletics. It's in his title, after all — historian. 

This from the introduction: "This interactive database provides a visual overview of high-level information on every NCAA team and individual since 1921. Users can explore details including winners, runners-up, game and event scores, head coaches, season records and site/host information."

How cool is that? 

What's the first thing TB did? He looked up Princeton's NCAA champions, of course. 

You do need to keep in mind that this database only covers officially NCAA-recognized sports and events since 1921. Among the sports where Princeton has won many national championships are men's and women's squash, men's heavyweight and lightweight rowing and women's lightweight rowing, as well as football in the pre-FCS era.

Also, the NCAA list only recognizes men's golf champions from 1939 on. Princeton won national titles in men's golf in 11 times prior to that (and in 1940). 

To that end, Princeton has won 13 NCAA team championships and produced 54 individual NCAA champions. Interestingly, Princeton has four NCAA women's rowing championships, all for winning gold in specific races, and they're all counted under the individual wins. That's one championship per boat, not one for every individual in the boat.

Can you name Princeton's 13 NCAA team titles? TB will give you a few paragraphs to think about it. 

Princeton's 13 team titles ranks second in the Ivy League. First? That would be Columbia with 16 — all in fencing, half of which were from 1951-1971.

The 54 individual champions come from eight different sports. The breakdown is: men's swimming and diving (22), mixed fencing (11), men's indoor track and field (6), men's outdoor track and field (4), women's rowing (4), men's fencing (4), wrestling (2), women's outdoor track and field (1).

Which schools have won the most NCAA titles? How about the top five? It's likely that you will get four of them easily. 

In first place? Stanford, with 136. The next two? UCLA with 123 and USC (the one in Southern California) with 114. TB's colleague Andrew Borders, a UCLA grad, would not be okay if USC was ahead of his Bruins. 

The fifth-place team is Texas, with 60. What school has 62 and is in fourth place? 

Hint — There is a current Princeton head coach who contributed to the total. Hint 2 — That school also has the record for individual champions. Hint 3 — It's a bit of a trick question.

TB will get back to that shortly. First, there's the matter of Princeton's 13 NCAA team championships: 

* six men's lacrosse (1992, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001)
* three women's lacrosse (1994, 2002, 2003)
* one field hockey (2012)
* two fencing (1964, when it was men only, and 2013, when it was mixed)
* men's golf (1940) 

The answer to the other question? That would be Kenyon College. 

The Division III Owls have produced 597 individual NCAA champs. The breakdown by sport? It's one in women's tennis, two in women's track and field, three in men's tennis — and 593 in swimming and diving. 

Princeton head women's swimming and diving coach Abby Brethauer was on three of Kenyon's NCAA championship teams before graduating in 2002. She was also a 13-time All-American. 

Anyway, TigerBlog would like to thank whoever it was who did all the work to put this all together. If there's a way for the NCAA office to monitor who is spending the most time on this site, it's likely that someone there will, in a few weeks, say something like "hey, it's that guy from Princeton again."