By the Slimmest of Margins...

The Princeton softball team stands at 7-11 overall and 2-2 in the Ivy after its first weekend of Ivy League play. While the 7-11 partially represents the Tigers annually getting off to a late start compared to most other teams and challenging themselves by playing schools from warmer climes with much more outdoor practice, standing at 2-2 after splitting doubleheaders with Yale and Brown isn't where the Tigers wanted to be.

Princeton hadn't lost a game to Yale since 2004 and Brown since 2001, teams Princeton has two games against annually. Both came by one run, a theme that has befallen the Tigers all too often this season.

Of the last 16 Princeton softball games, 11 have been decided by a single run. Seven of those games have gone against the Tigers. That's one more hit with runners in scoring position, a ball dropping for a double instead of a single, any number of mini-situations that could have tipped it another way.

There are only a few Princeton teams that know first-hand about having had so many nailbiters in 2008-09. Logically, the soccer teams know about sweating it out; the men's team had 11 of its 17 games (65%) decided by one goal or end in a tie, while the women's team had 13 of 17 decided by one goal or end all square (76%). The hockey teams were up there in total number of one-goal games and ties, with the men having 12 such games (of 35) and the women also 12 (of 31), but that's out of a much greater number of games.

While soccer has long had the criticism that it doesn't have enough offense to keep fans who are used to 100-point basketball and 35-point football games interested, the same kinds of things have been long held about softball. It's all about the pitchers and small-ball, and most of the games end up 1-0 because there's hardly any offense.

Not true.

Last season, softball had 12 one-run games out of 49. At no time in the history of Princeton varsity softball, which began play in 1982, have the Tigers had more than nine one-run games in their first 18 (For completeness' sake, those seasons were in 2000, 1998 and 1992). No preponderance of 1-0 games around here.

The Tigers will return to play Wednesday at Class of 1895 Field for a 4:30 single game against Hofstra, which, for the record, has had six one-run games through 24 this season.

The 2-2 Ivy start can be made up. The 20-game league schedule accounts for that, and Princeton won't necessarily need any help as long as it keeps on winning. Cornell stands at 2-0 with two make-up games later today against Yale, while Penn and Columbia are both 1-3 in the Ivy South. Princeton will have two more each against Harvard and Dartmouth next weekend up in New England, along with four more each at Penn, versus Columbia, and home-and-home against Cornell. There's a long way to go.

Speaking of make-up games, Princeton has none this week. A big note of recognition goes out to the grounds crew, headed for softball by Garfield Brown, who worked early and tirelessly to ready the field after overnight rain for Sunday's doubleheader against Brown (and after overnight rain before Saturday's DH against Yale too). Princeton played Sunday, but the three other sites, to the south and the north, had their games washed out. Good job, Garfield.

Vinko Bogataj And Princeton Athletics

For those older than, say, 40, much of your early television sports viewing was done by watching ABC's Wide World of Sports. For those who never heard of it, Wide World of Sports was a pre-ESPN, pre-24 hours of every sport on tv show that focused on a few different events per weekend, ranging from auto racing to gymnastics to hurling in Ireland to cliff diving in Mexico to anything from anywhere. It was a fast-paced format that showed a few events per show and was enormously popular through the 1960s and ’70s into the mid-’80s. Though it actually ran until the mid-’90s, it wasn't the same after cable came along.

The show began with some video clips over Jim McKay's narration, which is seared into the memory of anyone who ever heard it: "Spanning the globe, to bring you the constant variety of sports. The thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat. The human drama of athletic competition. This is ABC's Wide World of Sports."

The highlight for "the thrill of victory changed often through the years." The highlight for "the agony of defeat" never did. It was always the shot of the ski jumper who fell off the ramp before taking off and smashed end over end underneath it.

The jumper, Vinko Bogataj, was never identified and became an anonymous symbol of "the agony of defeat" for years. Were this today, his highlight would have never been shown if it weren't an ESPN/ABC event or, if it was, then it would have been shown over and over on SportsCenter and on ESPNEWS while hip anchors tried to coin even hipper phrases while talking about it. The event would have been "broken down" on the Sports Reporters, with an ensuing shouting match between panelists over whether he had made it look worse than it was and whether or not it was worse than a crash in another event and ultimately to how Derek Jeter never would have fallen in the same situation. A few weeks later, ol' Vinko would have won an ESPY and would have appeared at the show with Emily Osment or someone from High School Musical or some other Disney property.

Still, you have to love the ESPN empire, because it has taken us to a time where Princeton fans can watch NCAA hockey pretty much anywhere in the country, as was the case Friday night (this doesn't even count watching Princeton women's water polo, which was televised Saturday morning and caused the start of the Syracuse-Loyola men's lacrosse game to be missed; Loyola fans would have prefered missing the end of that one).

And for Princeton, Friday's night hockey game against Minnesota-Deluth certainly qualifies as "the agony of defeat." The details of the game are by now painfully familiar to Tiger fans. For a look at what happened during postgame drug testing, check out the Ultimate Sports Insider.

TigerBlog was asked Saturday if that was the all-time "agony of defeat" for Princeton athetics. It's definitely way up there, was the response, but it might not have been the most "agonizing" in the last five weeks. Certainly the men's squash loss to Trinity in the national final (also by the same 5-4 score, ironically enough, as the hockey game) was equally as painful.

Agonizing losses have to measured not only in the event itself but also in what slipped away. It would have been hard for Princeton, like it was for UM-D, to turn around and beat a very good Miami team the next night, but the chance for the Frozen Four was there. For men's squash, the opportunity to win a national title was coupled with the chance end your biggest rival's 200-match winning streak.

For TigerBlog, the gold standard of crushing losses has always been the 1998 NCAA men's basketball second-round loss to Michigan State. That game stung because of how it got away from Princeton and because a Sweet 16 trip would have put an even greater exclamation point on that epic season.

The 2002 NCAA men's lacrosse championship game hurt as well, but it is softened by six other wins, including one the year before, and the knowledge that Syracuse was probably the better team during all three of those consecutive years (2000-02) that the teams played in the championship game and that Princeton was fortunate to get the one it did (2001).

Football games against Yale in 1995 (ended Princeton's perfect season bid) and 2005 (cost Princeton a share of Ivy title) don't sting as much since Princeton did win the 1995 title anyway and used to the ’05 Yale loss as huge motivation to win the ’06 championship.

Even the 1989 loss to Georgetown in the NCAA tournament did have the consolation prize of being one of the great games in the history of the sport.

On the women's side, maybe the 1998 field hockey loss to Old Dominion in the NCAA final, by a 3-2 score (not 5-4 at least) is the toughest.

TigerBlog could go back in history to many events that fit the "agony of defeat" category. Still, it does stand out that is that Princeton athletic history has way more great moments than crushing moments. Being able to handle the crushing moments is part of the deal when you play and succeed at the top levels. If Princeton didn't have so many great teams through the years, those teams wouldn't be in position to compete for high-intensity championships.

The "thrill of victory" clip on Wide World of Sports that TigerBlog remembers most is the one of the Kirkland, Wash., Little League team after it won the 1982 Little League World Series over the previously unbeatable Taiwanese (were they really 12?).

In other words, Princeton athletics has had way more Cody Webster moments than Vinko Bogataj moments.

Flipping Off, And Other Thoughts

So, for $132, you can change the way you do business as well (and some other thoughts) ...

* If you read the release on goprincetontigers.com about the men's hockey team's practice day at the NCAA tournament, you might have noticed the three embedded youtube clips as well. This is the first Office of Athletic Communications attempt at incorporating our newest purchase into our day-to-day (or week-to-week) offerings on the Website. The video comes courtesy of OAC contact Yariv Amir, who has enveiled the OAC's newest toy, a $132 flip camera. TigerBlog actually got the idea from ESPNU, which sent a flip camera last week to be given to one of the men's lacrosse players (in this case, Greg Seaman) to chronicle his week prior to the Albany game. As the communications business continues to move away from printed materials and more and more to video that can provide a direct connection to the product, the OAC is trying to keep up. The plan now is to give the flip camera to a different athlete to take on the road each weekend and then post what they come back with. We'll see how it goes, but the potential is there for this to be a pretty good way for Princeton fans to really get to know the athletes.

* In other evolving information updates, it's twitter at http://twitter.com/PUTIGERS.

* Speaking of hockey, the NCAA tournament game against Minnesota-Deluth can be heard live on WPRB FM 103.3 and seen live on ESPNU (a viewing party is being held in the Frist Campus Center) at 9 pm tonight (Friday). Should Princeton win, the second round game will be tomorrow night, at nine as well, on the same radio and TV outlets. In addition, the men's lacrosse game against Yale can be heard on WPRB FM 103.3 tomorrow at 1 from Reese Stadium in New Haven. FInally, the women's water polo match against Bucknell tomorrow at 11 (part of a full weekend of water polo) will be televised live on ESPNU; it's the first women's water polo match for ESPNU.

* Unlike today's sunny and 65 degree forecast, the weather for the weekend is iffy for this area. This could make the Ivy League openers for baseball and softball difficult. One of the great parts about lacrosse (and there are many) is that the game in New Haven will be played tomorrow, rain or not (might be delayed if there's lightning). Baseball and softball are at the mercy of the weather. If it cooperates, you have Yale at Princeton tomorrow and Brown at Princeton Sunday for both baseball (beginning at 12) and softball (beginning at 12:30). Admission is free.

* The first Saturday of the rowing season is tomorrow in another sport that will be unaffected by rain. TigerBlog remembers back to his reporter days when then-women's coach Dan Roock took TB out on the launch to watch the races, which is the best way to do it. Still, even though the land-locked can't see much of the boats on the water, there are few events that measure up to a Saturday of rowing. Each team has its followers. There's plenty of food around. The finish line buzzes every time a race is ending. Princeton hosts races pretty much every weekend, beginning with this one.

One In A Million

To define Glenn Nelson only as the winningest coach in Princeton athletics history doesn't even begin to define the man that TigerBlog happily worked with for 18 of his incredible 58 seasons at Princeton. Yes, he won; he won a lot. He probably won more than anybody else ever will.

But to those who had the privilege to get to know him, he was about far more than wins.

TB came to Princeton as an intern in 1998 and was assigned women's volleyball as one of his first sports. Having played on a CYO team in the seventh grade, I at least knew the basic rules of the sport, but had no idea what to expect. I walked up to him before a preseason practice, readying myself for entry into the professional world, and introduced myself.

"Cuz, damn glad to meet you."

That was about it. I was ready to discuss his expectations of a media guide. He wasn't; he didn't want one. He knew where he was recruiting, he had contacts and he knew which tournaments to attend. No 20-page pamphlet was going to compare to his ability to find talent, call them and draw their interest. One of the nation's best liberos in the last five years, Jenny McReynolds, said she was asleep when Nelson first called and was too tired to be interested in talking more volleyball.

She got on the phone, was laughing almost immediately and talked almost no volleyball. A couple years later, she was named the CVO.com National Libero of the Year as a member of the Princeton Tigers.

When Nelson got the talent to Princeton, he knew what to do with it. Unlike most coaches, who pace the sidelines during matches, call out where to serve and what plays to run, Nelson teaches his players at practice and expects them to think on the court. He can sit like a mannequin for 15 minutes, watching play and muttering to himself (and those lucky enough to be within earshot), but when he saw something he didn't like... well, everybody in the building heard it. He would stand, scream and sit. Mannequin time again. (He'll go into retirement with thousands of unused timeouts in his pocket and at least one broken cane in the trash can.)

But the man could coach volleyball. His women won 11 Ivy League titles, including two that TB was lucky enough to cover. The 1999-00 champion was a team that featured an undersized outside hitter named Sabrina King, whose contributions to the program over the last decade can neither be understated or unappreciated. The team was sent to BYU, where the Tigers would face the seventh-seeded Cougars.

Before TB left, he spoke with his then-roommate Matt Ciciarelli, who had covered Penn State women's volleyball and was well aware of what elite NCAA volleyball teams were like. We discussed what reasonable expectations were for Princeton and decided that 14 total points (these were the pre-rally scoring days) was a legitimate goal. Now, if you tell almost any coach that you expect them to lose handily in the NCAA tournament, you're not likely to engender any warm feelings.

There isn't a phony bone in Glenn Nelson's body, though. When TB told him that "goal," Nelson thought it was hysterical that two people even had this conversation. Two days later, in the third game of a match Princeton trailed 15-5, 15-5, 11-3, TB was the only nervous person in the building, hoping to see the Tigers get that 14th point.

It came on a long hit from a BYU player. TB smiled and looked towards the Princeton bench, where the realization that this was going to be a quick loss had long been realized. Yet, there was Nelson, pointing in my direction, standing and pumping his fist like his team had just won an Olympic gold.

It is one of many memorable tales that anybody who was lucky enough to really know the man could share. He spent one summer, inexplicably, with an accent he liked from a movie. At the end of the summer, he got rid of it; obviously, three months is about the shelf life for fake accents. He'd rather be on a golf course than almost anywhere, and despite a missed diagnosis on his hip decades earlier that cost him his ability to move without pain, he is money around the greens. His tennis battles with Pete Carril in the bowels of Jadwin Gym, where the Hall of Fame basketball coach hoped a cigar and a drop shot could undo Nelson, were the stuff of legend.

Oftentimes, his hysterical personality and laid-back demeanor masked his coaching brilliance. His teams didn't win titles every year, and undoubtedly there were players who didn't really "get" him, but each man and woman who played volleyball at Princeton over the last three decades graduated with a true understanding of how to play the game.

He deflects attention from himself -- TB can guarantee that he will NEVER read this blog entry -- and his sport is not one that will garner national attention. That doesn't matter. Talk to somebody who Nelson impacted, and you're guaranteed a steady stream of great stories. Princeton Director of Athletics Gary Walters '67 called Glenn the "face of Princeton volleyball," and he's absolutely right.

But he's also the heart and soul of it, too, and there are hundreds upon hundreds of alumni who will be nostalgic upon hearing the news. Whether they are sad he is leaving or happy that he can spend more time working on his long irons, they will recall their own favorite memories of a man who will likely remain atop the victory mountain at Princeton for many years to come.

Thanks, Glenn. You are one in a million. A great coach, a great friend and a true institution at Princeton athletics, you are irreplaceable and unforgettable.

Hit 'em straight.

(To read the official release of Glenn Nelson's retirement, which details his long list of accomplishments as the head coach of both the men's and women's volleyball teams, please click here.)

Ivy League All-Sports Points Standings

TigerBlog alluded last week to the Ivy League all-sports points standings, an unofficial system that attempts to measure the top overall athletic program in the league in a particular year. The standings are kept by TigerBlog and updated after each season.

Of course, TB wouldn't invest this time if Princeton didn't win it every year, or at least the last 22 years. TB began working at Princeton 15 years ago and as such isn't sure when it was first kept and by whom, though TigerBlog emeritus Kurt Kehl used to refer to it as "the Myslik System," which probably means it had something to do with former AD Bob Myslik.

The standings through the winter this year show Princeton with 130 points, followed by Harvard with 108.5 and then Cornell with 94.5.

It's a simple formula. Teams are awarded eight points for a first-place finish, seven points for second, six for third, etc. Since the Ivy League only breaks ties for purposes of NCAA tournament bids, teams that tie split the points for those spots. In other words, two teams that tie for fourth get 4.5 points each for that sport.

Though Princeton has 38 varsity sports, only 33 sports are recognized by the Ivy League as official league sports (at Princeton that means that men's and women's water polo, women's lightweight rowing, men's volleyball and sprint football are not Ivy League sports). Princeton and Harvard are the only two schools in the league that sponsor all 33 sports; Columbia, with 27, has the fewest.

Most of the other schools are closer to the full 33. Yale, for instance, has 32 (no wrestling in New Haven). Penn, with a great skating rink behind the Palestra, has 31 teams; recreational skaters in West Philly don't have to compete for ice time with the non-existent men's and women's hockey teams.

Teams are awarded eight points and down for sports that have fewer than eight teams, because it wouldn't be correct to penalize the teams that are competing.

The key to Princeton's success is that 1) the Tigers almost always win the most championships and 2) the teams that don't win usually finish in the top three. Through the fall and winter, there are 20 Ivy teams that have already competed. Of those 20 sports, Princeton's team has finished in the top three in the league in 16 of them.

There are many conferences in all divisions that have an official all-sports points standings. At the end of the year, a trophy (often called "the Commissioner's Cup," or something like that) is awarded to the winning school.

The Ivy League office has been very adament in requesting that Princeton use the word "unofficial" when publicizing the standings, and the league itself never mentions the standings anywhere in any fashion. That may change one day, and the Ivy League may have its own official all-around champion, but it won't be before Princeton actually loses one year.

With that in mind, "unofficial" works just fine.

Dr. K

Erin Snyder's last collegiate pitch came on May 20, 2006 at Louisiana State's Tiger Park (not to be confused with the other "tiger park," Class of 1895 Field), closing a career that saw Snyder win two Ivy League Pitcher of the Year awards (2005, 2006), the 2003 Ivy League Rookie of the Year award, three first-team All-Ivy honors and three NCAA tournament berths.

She may never have been more dominant than on the weekend of April 9-10, 2006. That Saturday, she threw a five-inning perfect game while the offense obliterated Yale, 16-0. Snyder got 11 of 15 possible outs via the strikeout, a number that was probably obscured by the 11 runs Princeton's bats put up in just the second inning. The top eight batters in the Princeton lineup each had at least two hits. Clearly, the day belonged to the offense.

Yale's softball sports information director, Tim Bennett, said to TigerBlog that day, "Good luck in the tournament." There were still 10 of 14 Ivy League games left to go.

But Snyder had more the next day, and her efforts are still recognized in the NCAA record book.

The first three Brown batters came up, and all three went down via the K. In the top of the second, same story. In the third, three more Ks. Nine outs, nine Ks.

The bid for 21 Ks ended there, with the first out of the fourth inning ending up in Brianna Moreno's glove in left field. Snyder quickly got back on track, and the next eight outs were Ks.

Entering the last inning, Snyder had 17 strikeouts. TigerBlog remembers joking about how Roger Clemens and Randy Johnson were still in reach with the Major League Baseball record of 20 strikeouts in a game. Of course, they had nine innings to do it.

The first batter of the seventh inning popped up to Cristina Cobb-Adams at shortstop, but the next two were punchouts. The result comes out every year in the record book:

Strikeouts in a Seven-Inning Game
19, Erin Snyder, Princeton vs. Brown, April 10, 2006

That's not the all-time NCAA record, but it's pretty close. Michele Granger from Cal, who went on to pitch Team USA to a gold medal in the 1996 Olympics, got all 21 Creighton Blue Jays swinging in a game in 1991, and all-time NCAA career strikeout leader Monica Abbott from Tennessee, an Olympian in 2008, fanned 20 Liberty batters in 2004. But then there's Snyder, along with Abbott, Angela Tincher from Virginia Tech and Abbott's understudy, Megan Rhodes from Tennessee, with 19 Ks in a game. Tincher pitched in the Women's College World Series, like Abbott's Tennessee team, and also no-hit the U.S. Olympic softball team in an exhibition game. Not bad company.

Yale and Brown haven't been to '95 Field since that weekend. The next year was Princeton's regular return visit to the two schools, and in 2008, the Ivy League opted to make the softball schedule identical to baseball, sending Princeton to Connecticut and Rhode Island again.

There will be no Erin Snyder for Yale and Brown to face this weekend, but the Bulldogs and Bears will have to contend with Michelle Tolfa, who did a remarkable job against No. 4 Stanford last weekend, and a Princeton offense that leads the Ivy League with a .291 average.

Let the Ivy League season begin.

Boog Makes It Big

It was about 20 years ago that TigerBlog rode with Tom McCarthy one Friday night to see Trenton State College open the football season against Southern Connecticut (Trenton State wiped SCSU out). TigerBlog was covering the game for the Trenton Times, and McCarthy was doing the radio for a small Mercer County station.

It was a few years later, when McCarthy was Princeton's football and men's basketball play-by-play man, that TigerBlog brought an out-of-town scoreboard up the rickety old press box steps in Palmer Stadium to the radio/TV booths on the second level and overheard this comment from McCarthy to then-color commentator and now-Philadelphia Channel 6 reporter Walter Perez: "Washington up the middle; gain of three; and Walt, don't even think about eating my cookie."

Then there was Friday, when TB was driving along and put on Westwood One radio's coverage of the first round of the NCAA tournament. And who was the play-by-play man from Miami? Tom McCarthy, of course.

TigerBlog called McCarthy Saturday afternoon, and McCarthy had to cut the conversation short because the Phillies' game was about to start and he had to get on TV, his "day job," as it were.

McCarthy - nicknamed "Boog" a hundred years ago for his resemblence to former Baltimore Oriole first baseman Boog Powell - is on top of the broadcasting world these days. He does the Phils on TV (and is about to receive his World Series ring) and college football and basketball on CBS College Sports. He has previously done radio on WFAN for the New York Mets, a job he left to move to the Phils' TV booth just in time to see the team win its second-ever World Championship.

McCarthy is familiar to Princeton fans for men's basketball and football work for a decade, including two famous calls from 1996: "Gabe Lewullis, off the glass, and the Tigers lead 43-41" and "Bailey sizes up the shot ... his shot is no good, and there will be a new champion in the NCAA."

The Ivy League is unique in many ways, and one of them is a geographical one. Because of the proximity of the schools, no league trip in any sport is done by air. Instead, it's a series of long rides, in the four-six hour range, to and from venues.

TigerBlog spent literally hundreds of hours traveling with McCarthy on Ivy League road trips, not to mention flying all over the country to tournaments in locales including Fresno; Charlotte; El Paso, Texas; Green Bay and Milwaukee (two trips); Ames, Iowa (twice); Bloomington, Ind.; and many others. There was the time when Princeton played at Kansas that then-Jayhawk coach Roy Williams put his arm around McCarthy when his batteries in his tape recorder died during a pregame interview and said "Tom, we've all been there." There was also the time in Honolulu when McCarthy stopped on Waikiki beach and said "hey, that's where the Brady Bunch stayed."

Two months after 9/11, Princeton played at Florida International in Miami. While waiting for the flight in Philadelphia, another passenger went to security to say that a bag had been left unattended. It turned out to be McCarthy's; he was subsequently taken to a special security room before being allowed onboard the plane.

The Ivy League trips usually involved leaving on Friday morning, driving to the site of Friday's game, leaving after the game for the site of the next game, staying over there and leaving Saturday after the game to get home at 2 a.m., 3 a.m. or later.

One night, on the way back from Dartmouth, McCarthy ordered a 20-piece McNugget and McDonaldland cookies, and there were none left upon arriving in Princeton. Another time, McCarthy asked the waitress at Friendly's if there were free refills on the ice cream sundaes.

Then, when his weight peaked at 340 pounds, he did something about. Today, he weighs in the neighborhood of a very healthy 180 pounds, and it's remarkable to see him now versus what he used to look like. With his health, career and wife Meg and four kids, it's all going well for the one known by so many as Boog.

Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

Hockey Tourney Time

The Princeton men’s hockey team entered Saturday’s ECAC Hockey consolation game against St. Lawrence needing only a tie to solidify its positioning for the NCAA tournament. The Tigers got exactly that and finished the pre-NCAA tournament season ranked 12th in the pairwise rankings, which is the raking system used by the NCAA selection committee in choosing the 16 competitors for the NCAA tournament.

All of the games have been played and we now know the 16 teams that will play in the NCAA tournament and based on a few things we do know, there can be some projections made as to what the brackets will look like when the NCAA selection show airs at 11:30 a.m. on ESPN2.

We know that if a regional host makes the tournament, that team has to play at its home site. We know that the committee will do all that it can to avoid an intraconference matchup in the first round. And we know that the tournament is seeded in bands. There are four one-seeds, four twos, and so on. The committee will not make a three-seed a four to make the bracket work.

So what does this mean? TigerBlog tried its hand at field hockey bracketology, but here TigerBlog will just report what a few other bracketologists have already come up with.

First, the 16 teams that are in:

1 seeds: Boston University, Notre Dame, Denver, Michigan
2 seeds: Yale, Northeastern, Minnesota-Duluth, North Dakota
3 seeds: Vermont, New Hampshire, Cornell, Princeton
4 seeds: Miami, Air Force, Ohio State, Bemidji State

We can place Yale in the Bridgeport Regional since the Bulldogs are a host. The same goes for New Hampshire in Manchester. The other two sites are Grand Rapids, Mich., and Minneapolis. Princeton is bound for one of those two sites since it cannot face Yale in the first round, and UNH is already the three seed in Manchester.

Here is CollegeHockeyNews.com’s projection:

Manchester (Saturday-Sunday)
1. Boston University (1) vs. 4. Ohio State (15)
2. North Dakota (8) vs. 3. New Hampshire (10)

Bridgeport (Friday-Saturday)
1. Denver (4) vs. 4. Miami (13)
2. Yale (5) vs. 3. Vermont (9)

Grand Rapids (Saturday-Sunday)
1. Notre Dame (2) vs. 4. Bemidji State (16)
2. Minnesota-Duluth (7) vs. 3. Cornell (11)

Minneapolis (Friday-Saturday)
1. Michigan (3) vs. 4. Air Force (14)
2. Northeastern (6) vs. 3. Princeton (12)

USCHO.com also has a bracket projection that is very similar. The exception is that USCHO puts the Princeton-Northeastern game in Grand Rapids and the Cornell-Minnesota-Duluth game in Minneapolis. The match-ups are all the same though.

We will find out for sure tomorrow morning when the field is announced.

You Call This Spring?

TigerBlog woke up, looked out the window and saw that snow had dared to fall on the first day of spring in Central Jersey. Snow? It's spring. That's one season away from summer. Nobody wants snow.

In keeping with the uncertainty of seasons, TigerBlog offers some thoughts as winter ends and spring begins:

* as Princeton fans, are we supposed to be rooting for or against Cornell in the men's basketball tournament? We'll leave the whole Dartmouth in the women's basketball tournament part alone, because Dartmouth women's basketball has some strong Princeton ties. But how about it? Are you rooting for Cornell. Or is it a provincial "if we can't be there, we don't want anyone else doing well" or an even more Tiger-centric "our history is the only one we want to see every year on the countdown lists of great NCAA tournament moments?" TigerBlog is unsure of what the proper etiquette is. On the one hand, Cornell coach Steve Donahue is certainly a quality person, and the Big Red come across as nice young men. On the other hand, there is something extraordinarily unique about seeing Gabe Lewullis make his layup every March and knowing that no other school in the league (even Penn) has a moment quite like that one. So, for whom will you be rooting?

* while we're talking NCAA tournament, it was good to see Princeton alum Mike Brennan and the American Eagles push Villanova the way they did. TigerBlog was left to wonder what Villanova had done during the season to warrant playing basically at home (it's not as if 'Nova was a No. 1 seed), and there can be no denying that during the crucial point of the game, the Wildcats got a huge lift from the big crowd. Had the game been at the Verizon Center (or someplace neutral), maybe the crowd would have gotten behind the Eagles instead. Clearly, that was the case in Princeton's win over UCLA in Indianapolis in 1996, when the 32,000 in the RCA Dome united behind the Tigers.

* Princeton fans are used to seeing that the Tigers have won the Ivy League all-sports points standings for X number of years in a row. The streak currently stands at 22. TigerBlog will go a little more in depth about this next week, but through the winter season, Princeton is in first place with 130 points, followed by Harvard with 108.5 and Cornell with 94. Points are awarded based on league placing, with eight for first, seven for second, etc. Disclaimer for the Ivy office - this is an unofficial honor. As for number of Ivy titles won this academic year, Princeton has won or shared seven: field hockey, women's soccer, men's cross country, women's cross country, men's swimming and diving, men's squash and women's squash. Harvard is next with five: football, women's soccer, women's hockey, women's fencing and women's swimming and diving.

* Alicia Aemisegger, the three-time Ivy League championships Swimmer of the Meet, has her two strongest events still to come this weekend at the NCAA championships in College Station, Texas. She will compete for the 400 IM title Friday; Aemisegger reached the 400 IM Olympic Trial final last summer and is a former silver medalist at NCAAs in this event. On Saturday, Aemisegger will swim the mile, where she has already qualified for the final swim with the sixth-best time heading into NCAAs.

* Princeton's ESPN contract calls for a minimum number of events each year, and the Department of Athletics always tries to get ESPN to include something unique as part of that. Next Saturday (March 28), Princeton and Bucknell will meet at DeNunzio Pool in the first women's college water polo match ESPNU has ever televised. For Princeton, it's a good showcase for a quality program, and an opportunity to showcase the pool that will host the NCAA men's water polo Final Four this December.

* The current issue of "The New Yorker Magazine" features a story about lacrosse by Pulitzer Prize-winning author John McPhee, an Academic Athletic Fellow for the men's lacrosse team. McPhee accompanied Princeton on its trip to Spain and Ireland last June (and was TigerBlog's roommate in Spain), and the article touches on his experiences in Europe, as well as some general lacrosse thoughts and his experiences as a player back in his prep school days. The story is unavailable online unless you buy a subscription, which to read this issue alone costs $4.99. It's worth every penny. McPhee will also be part of a Q&A on insidelacrosse.com with IL's Jon Brand. Link to follow.

* With the end of spring break, teams will be returning to campus, so home events will begin again. The baseball team plays its home opener Tuesday against Rutgers at Clarke Field and then the baseball and softball teams play home Ivy doubleheaders against Yale Saturday and Brown Sunday. The women's lacrosse team is home Wednesday against Temple, and there is a full morning of rowing next Saturday as well as the women's water polo match. Hey, spring is here. And the snow appears to be mostly melted.

Back to Albany

The Princeton men’s hockey loaded up the bus this morning and made the three-hour drive north to Albany for this weekend’s ECAC Hockey Championships. The third-seeded Tigers will meet second-seeded Cornell Friday night at 7:30 p.m. in the second semifinal while top-seeded Yale hosts fourth-seeded St. Lawrence in the first game tomorrow at 4 p.m.

For Princeton it is the second straight visit to Albany. Prior to that it had been nine years since Princeton last played in the ECAC Championships, then hosted in Lake Placid. TigerBlog wasn’t around in the Lake Placid days, neither were any of the players, coaches and team staff that accompanied Princeton to Albany last year, save athletic trainer John Furtado, who joined the Tigers in the 1996-97 season.

Last season traveling to Albany was a new experience. As the bus pulled into the loading dock, players were looking out the windows at the TimesUnion Center and wondering about the building where the league’s semifinals and championship game would play out. When the team walked into the building, the players needed to be directed to the locker room area and the route to the ice surface had to be pointed out. TigerBlog set out on a journey of the bowels of the TUC, looking for the media room and familiarizing himself with the route needed for postgame interviews.

While it was a new experience and the first time for the Tigers, the team did not let that phase it. Princeton was the top seed and showed why in a semifinal win over Colgate. The Tigers then continued that the following night with a win over Harvard in the title game.

This year as the bus pulled into the loading dock, the tone was different. Last year there were some happy-to-be-here sentiments. The program was continuing to rise and it was the next step in that progression. Obviously Princeton came to Albany to win, but there was some excitement in merely being here. This year the Tigers came to Albany with a job to complete.

As the players walked off the bus and unloaded the equipment, they knew where to enter the building, knew the way to the locker rooms and knew where to set up. Furtado knew where he needed to set up. Equipment manager Mark Mills knew where to set up the skate sharpener and TigerBlog didn’t wander the building. Even Princeton’s bus driver Robin knew exactly where to park and how to maneuver the bus in the tight parking area.

When the team usually pulls into a road arena, one of the first steps is to walk down the tunnel and see the rink. Not today, the primary focus was on practice. The players went right to the locker room to get ready for practice. Less than two hours later, practice was over and it was back on the bus for the two-minute ride to the hotel and an easy afternoon.

Tonight the Tigers will attend the ECAC Hockey Awards banquet where junior goalie Zane Kalemba will receive the ECAC Player of the Year Award and the league’s Ken Dryden Award as top goaltender.

There will be a morning skate tomorrow at noon and the puck drops tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m.