TigerBlog has been doing The Jumble for as long as he can remember.
You know The Jumble. It's the game where you unscramble four words, two that are five letters and two that are six letters. Each of those four words has a few spaces that are circled, and the letters that go into those circles are then unscrambled to solve a riddle.
The words that have rarer letters like "Q" or "Z" or "X" or "V" are much easier to solve than, say, a word that has all letters like "A," "E," "I," "S," "T," R" and such.
Often what will happen is that TigerBlog will get three of the four words and will get the riddle, which helps to figure out which letters go in the circled spots to help solve the fourth word.
Also, it's often easier to start with the end of the word, rather than the beginning. If there's a "g," "n" and "i" in the jumble, for instance, it's possible that the words end in "ing." Or if there's an "e" with a consonant, it could the word ends with something like "re" or "ve."
Every now and then, one of the four words will be an obscure one that TB doesn't know. For the most part, when he can't get one of the words correct, it's one that he should have gotten, and when he sees the answer, it leads to immediate frustration.
The opposite problem is taking the letters and creating a word that doesn't exist, though it's spelled closely to one that does. That's another frustrating moment.
TB first did The Jumble in the Star-Ledger every morning before school, and he's kept up with it pretty much every day since.
These days, though, the only way to play is online.
The improvements over playing in the newspaper are numerous, including seeing if each word is actually correct and ultimately what each day's time is. TB's personal best for four jumbles and the riddle is 23 seconds.
The Jumble has become a staple in the OAC, with a daily contest to see who can do it fastest. If you want to play today, TB got it in 31 seconds and rates this one as fairly easy.
Yesterday's was easy, at least in terms of the four words. The riddle, though, pushed TB - and the rest of the office - over the one-minute mark.
There are days when it can take upwards of two or three minutes and, on one occasion, it took TB more than six frustrating minutes.
Oh, and you can easily cheat on the online version by clicking on "hint," though it makes a sound that lets the others in the office know just what that person is doing.
Some jumbles are written to confuse the person by appearing to a word. For instance, there could be one that says "tarism," which isn't a word but looks like one and sounds like another one (tourism).
Proper nouns are never used in the actual jumble, but for today's purposes, if TB saw "tarism," he'd probably realize that it probably doesn't start with a vowel and probably ends in a combination, in this case "ist." It wouldn't be hard to get "Marist" out of that.
Marist comes to Jadwin Gym tonight to take on the Princeton men's basketball team. Marist comes into the game with a record of 3-11, but one of those three is a win over Penn a week ago.
Here's another jumble for you: "hotnm." Get this one? Words like this are easy to figure out, since there's only one vowel and clearly the "t" and "h" have to go together. This word is obviously "month."
As in, it's been exactly one month since the Tigers played at home in men's basketball. Today is Jan. 5; the last time Princeton played a game in Jadwin was Dec. 5, when the Tigers looked great in a win over St. Joe's.
Since then, Princeton has played six games in five different states - New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Maryland and Florida.
Being away like that for so long has a strong bonding effect on a team, which gets used to traveling, time away, playing in front of hostile crowds and, most importantly, being together.
In the case of the men's basketball team, it's been even more effective because the team has been winning. Princeton went 5-1 in those six games, with its only loss a close one on the home court of No. 19 Central Florida.
As TB said, words with an "x" are easier, like this one: "xmase."
Yes, it's trying to fool you with the with the "xmas" part, but the "e" goes with the "x," and it wouldn't be hard to get "exams" out of this.
Tonight's game is the last for Princeton before first-semester exams, which means it'll be 18 days off before returning for the Division III game (this year against the College of New Jersey) and 23 days before the first Ivy League game.
Because the break is so long, there's no worry about building momentum from tonight's game. Princeton has sometimes played league games before exam break, and in those games, there's been considerable pressure to go into the break without falling off the pace in the league.
By the time Princeton plays again, the other three travel partners will all have played their home-and-home games. After the TCNJ game, Princeton and the rest of the league will launch into a furious dash to the finish.
And the fourth jumble? Another fairly easy one: "niernw." Again, a word with a "w" and a double letter?
This one is "winner," as in the eventual Ivy League men's basketball winner. In almost ever year that TB has been around the league, which goes back nearly 30 years, there has been a clear favorite, including the last few years with Cornell and almost every year before that with Princeton or Penn.
In fact, Cornell was a prohibitive favorite the last two years. Princeton was in 1990 and 1991, Penn was in 1993, 1994 and 1995, Princeton was in 1997 and 1998, Penn was in 2000, 2002, 2003, 2006 and 2007. That'd be 14 times in the last 20 years that the league race had little drama.
The 2011 season may ultimately have one team that is too strong for the field, but heading into the league, that's certainly not clear. Princeton has to be considered one of the teams with a realistic chance to win the title, but so does half the league.
In fact, with that many teams capable of winning, it means that a 12-2 or even 11-3 record might do it. And that winning - especially on the road - won't be taken for granted on any night.
In other words, eight teams are currently 0-0 in the league, but it won't be long before the race begins to be unscrambled.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Feeling Grand
As Addie Micir enters tonight's game against La Salle with 998 career points, TigerBlog began to think about some pretty good 1,000-point stories - and a cautionary tale.
There are all kinds of individual milestones in sports, and numbers like 300 wins and 500 home runs used to mean automatic Hall-of-Fame inclusion in baseball. As an aside, the 500-home run number was considered to be such a sure thing for Cooperstown that there was a wide-spread conspiracy theory that no Major League team would sign Dave Kingman after the 1986 season, lest he have a shot at 500. Kingman, who finished his career with 442 home runs, had his 35, 30 and 33 home runs in his last three years.
As for the college level, what are the magic numbers? In football, you could say 1,000 rushing yards, but that's a single-season number. For a career, there is no equivalent.
Nor is there one that TB can think of in any other sport, especially a career mark. To TB, 100 goals in lacrosse is a pretty special number that only an elite few have reached, though TB recognizes that the mainstream sporting public doesn't give that number a second thought.
Nope, TigerBlog is pretty sure that in the world of college sports, there's no career milestone quite like 1,000 points in basketball.
At Princeton, there have been 17 women's players and 26 men's players who have gotten there, so it clearly isn't something easily accomplished. Even harder is to reach 2,000 points - only Bill Bradley at Princeton has done so.
TB has always felt it was easier to get to 1,000 points in college than in high school, since the average outstanding player on the college level plays, what, two or three times as many minutes than he/she did in high school. Still, it's not easy to get there.
Chris Mooney, today the head coach at Richmond, was a forward for Princeton who happened to start every game his four years (1990-91 through 1993-94). If TB is correct, Mooney, Kit Mueller and Steve Goodrich are the only players who have ever done this in the program.
Anyway, Mooney scored his 1,000th career point in a game at Yale, and he finished that game with exactly 1,000 points. And what game was that for Mooney's career? No. 100. To TigerBlog, it seemed like Mooney scored 10 points every game, and he in fact finished his career with 1,071 points in 107 games.
Gabe Lewullis reached his 1,000th career point during the 1998 Rainbow Classic in Hawaii. TigerBlog went up to the PA announcer when Lewullis was at 998 or so and mentioned that the next basket would put him at 1,000 and could he perhaps make an announcement at the next timeout.
Lewullis then scored, and when the game reached the next media timeout, the announcement was made. And how did the Hawaiian audience respond? With a prolonged standing ovation that lasted the entire timeout, something that TB was pretty surprised to see.
That ovation occurred on the court at the Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu, which just happens to be the Division I court furthest away from Princeton. After Lewullis, the next two 1,000-point scorers in Princeton history - women's players Kate Thirolf and Maggie Langlas - also reached 1,000 points on that same court. And they did it in the same game, no less.
Seems pretty wild to have two players reach 1,000 points in the same game, no? How often could that happen, right?
Well, for Princeton women's basketball, it happened again, when the next two players got to the milestone, in this case Maureen Lane and Allison Cahill, in the same game as well.
Will Venable was touch-and-go in getting to 1,000 points, and he didn't get there until the final game of his career. With 1,010 points, he has the fewest points of any Princeton 1,000-point scorer male or female; Kim Allen with 1,018 made it by the slimmest margin of any woman.
David Fulcomer, with 985 career points, came closest without reaching the number.
Among current Princeton men's players, Douglas Davis, a junior, currently has 911 career points, while Dan Mavraides, a senior, currently has 844 (with at least 16 games to play, at his current scoring average, Mavraides would score 225 more; if he does reach 1,000, he would have done so while scoring the fewest as a freshman of anyone since freshmen became eligible).
And then there's Sydney Johnson. The current Princeton head coach finished his career with 1,044 points, despite never being known as a scorer. Of course, he reached 1,000 in style in a way that few ever have, TB believes: Sitting on 996 points, Johnson hit a three, was fouled and then made the foul shot to get to 1,000 on a four-point play.
Of course, that might not have been Johnson's best 1,000-point moment. No, that would be a night at Brown, and TB's promised cautionary tale.
That night, Brown's Eric Blackiston, a fine player for the Bears, entered the game against Princeton with 999 career points. Plans were made to stop the game when he reached 1,000 - except, hounded all over the Pizzitola Center by Johnson, Blackiston got shut out that night, and his 1,000th point had to wait until the next night against Penn.
As for Micir, she's been shut out twice in her career, both her freshman year, including in the first game of the season (against Maryland) and then later in the year against Cal (in a game where she had five assists and seven rebounds).
So congrats in advance to Addie Micir, who will be the 18th player in Princeton women's basketball history to reach 1,000 career points.
Probably tonight.
There are all kinds of individual milestones in sports, and numbers like 300 wins and 500 home runs used to mean automatic Hall-of-Fame inclusion in baseball. As an aside, the 500-home run number was considered to be such a sure thing for Cooperstown that there was a wide-spread conspiracy theory that no Major League team would sign Dave Kingman after the 1986 season, lest he have a shot at 500. Kingman, who finished his career with 442 home runs, had his 35, 30 and 33 home runs in his last three years.
As for the college level, what are the magic numbers? In football, you could say 1,000 rushing yards, but that's a single-season number. For a career, there is no equivalent.
Nor is there one that TB can think of in any other sport, especially a career mark. To TB, 100 goals in lacrosse is a pretty special number that only an elite few have reached, though TB recognizes that the mainstream sporting public doesn't give that number a second thought.
Nope, TigerBlog is pretty sure that in the world of college sports, there's no career milestone quite like 1,000 points in basketball.
At Princeton, there have been 17 women's players and 26 men's players who have gotten there, so it clearly isn't something easily accomplished. Even harder is to reach 2,000 points - only Bill Bradley at Princeton has done so.
TB has always felt it was easier to get to 1,000 points in college than in high school, since the average outstanding player on the college level plays, what, two or three times as many minutes than he/she did in high school. Still, it's not easy to get there.
Chris Mooney, today the head coach at Richmond, was a forward for Princeton who happened to start every game his four years (1990-91 through 1993-94). If TB is correct, Mooney, Kit Mueller and Steve Goodrich are the only players who have ever done this in the program.
Anyway, Mooney scored his 1,000th career point in a game at Yale, and he finished that game with exactly 1,000 points. And what game was that for Mooney's career? No. 100. To TigerBlog, it seemed like Mooney scored 10 points every game, and he in fact finished his career with 1,071 points in 107 games.
Gabe Lewullis reached his 1,000th career point during the 1998 Rainbow Classic in Hawaii. TigerBlog went up to the PA announcer when Lewullis was at 998 or so and mentioned that the next basket would put him at 1,000 and could he perhaps make an announcement at the next timeout.
Lewullis then scored, and when the game reached the next media timeout, the announcement was made. And how did the Hawaiian audience respond? With a prolonged standing ovation that lasted the entire timeout, something that TB was pretty surprised to see.
That ovation occurred on the court at the Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu, which just happens to be the Division I court furthest away from Princeton. After Lewullis, the next two 1,000-point scorers in Princeton history - women's players Kate Thirolf and Maggie Langlas - also reached 1,000 points on that same court. And they did it in the same game, no less.
Seems pretty wild to have two players reach 1,000 points in the same game, no? How often could that happen, right?
Well, for Princeton women's basketball, it happened again, when the next two players got to the milestone, in this case Maureen Lane and Allison Cahill, in the same game as well.
Will Venable was touch-and-go in getting to 1,000 points, and he didn't get there until the final game of his career. With 1,010 points, he has the fewest points of any Princeton 1,000-point scorer male or female; Kim Allen with 1,018 made it by the slimmest margin of any woman.
David Fulcomer, with 985 career points, came closest without reaching the number.
Among current Princeton men's players, Douglas Davis, a junior, currently has 911 career points, while Dan Mavraides, a senior, currently has 844 (with at least 16 games to play, at his current scoring average, Mavraides would score 225 more; if he does reach 1,000, he would have done so while scoring the fewest as a freshman of anyone since freshmen became eligible).
And then there's Sydney Johnson. The current Princeton head coach finished his career with 1,044 points, despite never being known as a scorer. Of course, he reached 1,000 in style in a way that few ever have, TB believes: Sitting on 996 points, Johnson hit a three, was fouled and then made the foul shot to get to 1,000 on a four-point play.
Of course, that might not have been Johnson's best 1,000-point moment. No, that would be a night at Brown, and TB's promised cautionary tale.
That night, Brown's Eric Blackiston, a fine player for the Bears, entered the game against Princeton with 999 career points. Plans were made to stop the game when he reached 1,000 - except, hounded all over the Pizzitola Center by Johnson, Blackiston got shut out that night, and his 1,000th point had to wait until the next night against Penn.
As for Micir, she's been shut out twice in her career, both her freshman year, including in the first game of the season (against Maryland) and then later in the year against Cal (in a game where she had five assists and seven rebounds).
So congrats in advance to Addie Micir, who will be the 18th player in Princeton women's basketball history to reach 1,000 career points.
Probably tonight.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Janus, The Two-Headed God
Why, TigerBlog has long wondered, is January the first month of the year?
In many ways, the new year starts in early September, when summer ends, kids go back to school, the new academic year begins and the change of seasons is most felt. Why not have that be the start of the New Year?
As an aside, TigerBlog's people have been on this for years, more than 5,700 to be exact.
TB has always figured that somebody arbitrarily made January the first month on the calendar, perhaps an early printer or someone like that, and it just stuck from there.
TigerBlog did know that the Julian calendar from Julius Caesar's time was 365 days long and had a leap day every fourth year and that that calendar was upgraded by Pope Gregory XIII back in the 16th century to the more modern Gregorian calendar.
The reason for this is that the Earth actually takes 11 minutes less than 365.25 days to make one complete revolution around the sun, and over the years it was starting to affect the equinox, which is what Easter was based on. The Gregorian calendar makes the correction so that there is no leap year in years divisible by 100, except for those divisible by 400, which is why there was a leap day in 2000 but won't be one in 2100.
Okay, TigerBlog knew the first part about the two calendars. He got the second part from Wikipedia.
Still, none of that answered the question of why January was first. A quick search gave some answers, and the one TB liked the most is that the month - which was added to the calendar by Caesar - is named for Janus, a two-headed Roman god who was something of a guard. His two heads faced in different directions, apparently signifying looking backward and ahead, in this case into the new year.
Another answer shows that January 1 officially became New Year's Day in 1622.
Of course, there are all kinds of different calendars, including the Princeton Athletics one, which is radically different than basically any other.
In fact, while the majority of college winter teams are getting ready to head into the heart of their schedules, Princeton is about to enter the oddest portion of its athletic year.
Because of Princeton's exam schedule, which has first semester finals after the holidays, athletics at Princeton will stop for two full weeks after this week. Because there are very few athletic events in late December, there are usually huge gaps in schedules for winter teams.
The most drastic is in squash, which has a 52-day break between its early season matches and the mad dash once the schedule resumes in late January.
For today, let's look at hockey, which just happens to have a doubleheader today at Baker Rink against Quinnipiac as the women play at 1 and the men play at 7.
Princeton's women played their first game on Oct. 22, 10th game on Nov. 19 and 17th game on Dec. 11, which is a stretch of 17 games in 50 days. Since then, a span of 24 days, the Tigers have played just once, on New Year's Eve against Boston College.
Princeton follows its game against Quinnipiac with a trip to St. Lawrence and Clarkson this weekend - and then 20 more days off for exams.
As for the men, they are riding a five-game winning streak, one that saw them win on Dec. 4 against St. Lawrence, sweet UMass-Lowell on consecutive nights a week later, not play for 18 days, win the UConn tournament on consecutive nights and now return home to play Quinnipiac.
After this, it's another home weekend, Friday night against Cornell and Sunday afternoon against Colgate - and then 16 more days off. It'll be, by the way, Princeton's third gap in its schedule of at least 10 days.
The ECAC has the top-ranked women's team (Cornell) and men's team (Yale), and the Princeton men are currently sort of tied for first with the Bulldogs on the men's side with nine points.
Princeton, though, has played nine league games, three more than the Bulldogs. In fact, ECAC teams have played as few as six games or as many as 10, and it's hard to get a real handle on where the standings are until that starts to balance itself out by the end of the month.
Still, Princeton's three pre-break games are huge, as they're all at home against teams who are a combined 6-14-2 in the league. At the same time, Princeton is unlikely to be taking anything for granted, not with its travel partner here followed by perennial powers Cornell and Colgate.
There will be 18 league men's games played while Princeton is on exam break. After that, it's a complete sprint to the finish, not only in men's hockey but in all Princeton sports.
It's just how the calendar works around here. January is the first month of the year, and also the strangest.
In many ways, the new year starts in early September, when summer ends, kids go back to school, the new academic year begins and the change of seasons is most felt. Why not have that be the start of the New Year?
As an aside, TigerBlog's people have been on this for years, more than 5,700 to be exact.
TB has always figured that somebody arbitrarily made January the first month on the calendar, perhaps an early printer or someone like that, and it just stuck from there.
TigerBlog did know that the Julian calendar from Julius Caesar's time was 365 days long and had a leap day every fourth year and that that calendar was upgraded by Pope Gregory XIII back in the 16th century to the more modern Gregorian calendar.
The reason for this is that the Earth actually takes 11 minutes less than 365.25 days to make one complete revolution around the sun, and over the years it was starting to affect the equinox, which is what Easter was based on. The Gregorian calendar makes the correction so that there is no leap year in years divisible by 100, except for those divisible by 400, which is why there was a leap day in 2000 but won't be one in 2100.
Okay, TigerBlog knew the first part about the two calendars. He got the second part from Wikipedia.
Still, none of that answered the question of why January was first. A quick search gave some answers, and the one TB liked the most is that the month - which was added to the calendar by Caesar - is named for Janus, a two-headed Roman god who was something of a guard. His two heads faced in different directions, apparently signifying looking backward and ahead, in this case into the new year.
Another answer shows that January 1 officially became New Year's Day in 1622.
Of course, there are all kinds of different calendars, including the Princeton Athletics one, which is radically different than basically any other.
In fact, while the majority of college winter teams are getting ready to head into the heart of their schedules, Princeton is about to enter the oddest portion of its athletic year.
Because of Princeton's exam schedule, which has first semester finals after the holidays, athletics at Princeton will stop for two full weeks after this week. Because there are very few athletic events in late December, there are usually huge gaps in schedules for winter teams.
The most drastic is in squash, which has a 52-day break between its early season matches and the mad dash once the schedule resumes in late January.
For today, let's look at hockey, which just happens to have a doubleheader today at Baker Rink against Quinnipiac as the women play at 1 and the men play at 7.
Princeton's women played their first game on Oct. 22, 10th game on Nov. 19 and 17th game on Dec. 11, which is a stretch of 17 games in 50 days. Since then, a span of 24 days, the Tigers have played just once, on New Year's Eve against Boston College.
Princeton follows its game against Quinnipiac with a trip to St. Lawrence and Clarkson this weekend - and then 20 more days off for exams.
As for the men, they are riding a five-game winning streak, one that saw them win on Dec. 4 against St. Lawrence, sweet UMass-Lowell on consecutive nights a week later, not play for 18 days, win the UConn tournament on consecutive nights and now return home to play Quinnipiac.
After this, it's another home weekend, Friday night against Cornell and Sunday afternoon against Colgate - and then 16 more days off. It'll be, by the way, Princeton's third gap in its schedule of at least 10 days.
The ECAC has the top-ranked women's team (Cornell) and men's team (Yale), and the Princeton men are currently sort of tied for first with the Bulldogs on the men's side with nine points.
Princeton, though, has played nine league games, three more than the Bulldogs. In fact, ECAC teams have played as few as six games or as many as 10, and it's hard to get a real handle on where the standings are until that starts to balance itself out by the end of the month.
Still, Princeton's three pre-break games are huge, as they're all at home against teams who are a combined 6-14-2 in the league. At the same time, Princeton is unlikely to be taking anything for granted, not with its travel partner here followed by perennial powers Cornell and Colgate.
There will be 18 league men's games played while Princeton is on exam break. After that, it's a complete sprint to the finish, not only in men's hockey but in all Princeton sports.
It's just how the calendar works around here. January is the first month of the year, and also the strangest.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Issue No. 1
The McLaughlin Group first aired back in 1982, and it was an immediate hit with TigerBlog and MotherBlog.
Through the years, the two would often watch the show "together" in different states, arguing with each other on the phone the entire time.
The show is a political roundtable that has found a way to differentiate itself from the others, in several ways. One, since it's nearly 30 years old, it's stood the test of time. Also, there's the panelists themselves, who aren't trying to be outdo each other as the coolest and most outrageous.
Mostly, though, it's about the host, John McLaughlin, whose delivery, personality and subtle humor make him unique on television. The evolving group of panelists has usually been a strong complement, even if some are so rigidly ideological that they become too predictable.
The show airs each Sunday on various channels, and TB tries to watch it each week. If he can't, he usually checks it out on-line afterwards.
The best time of year to see the show is this time, when McLaughlin and the panelists review the previous year and make predictions for the new one.
TB saw Part I of the Year In Review last week, and he's looking forward to Part II this week.
The format of the show normally has McLaughlin lead the group on a discussion of various topics, always starting out with "Issue No. 1" and then getting into it.
For the year in review, McLaughlin instead brings up different categories and asks for an answer from each panelist. Among the questions were top politician, biggest winner, biggest loser, best capitalist, biggest lie, person of the year - stuff like that.
As for the Princeton athletics 2010 year in review, TB can do it McLaughlin style. Keep in mind, none of this is official Princeton stuff, just TB's thoughts:
Top Female Athlete - Alicia Aemisegger, swimming. Aemisegger put the finishing touches on one of the great athletic careers in Princeton history by running her totals to 12 individual Ivy titles and 13 All-America designations.
Top Male Athlete - Donn Cabral, track and field/cross country. Cabral, among other things, was the runner-up outdoors at the NCAA championships in the steeplechase and then ran away from the field to win the Heps cross country title.
Top Female Freshman - Niveen Rasheed, basketball. A unanimous first-team All-Ivy League selection and Ivy Rookie of the Year, Rasheed led Princeton to a 26-3 record and the program's first NCAA tournament berth
Top Male Freshman - Todd Harrity, squash. Harrity was the national individual runner-up, as well as an All-America and Ivy Rookie of the Year, as a freshman.
Best Game - Princeton 10, Cornell 9 (overtime), men's lacrosse Ivy League tournament final. Princeton trailed, as it always seems to, early against Cornell. Unlike previous times, Princeton able to rally, erasing a four-goal deficit to win on Jack McBride's goal with one second left in OT in the first Ivy League tournament championship game.
Toughest Loss - Mansfield 10, Princeton 6, sprint football. The Tigers had their best defensive effort in years but were unable to generate the winning points as neither team scored in the second half.
Toughest Tie - Princeton 0, Penn 0, women's soccer. It wasn't quite winner-take-all, as a tie gave the Ivy title to the Quakers while Princeton needed to win outright. The Tigers got a great effort from No. 3 goalkeeper Claire Pinciaro, who made her first career start when injuries knocked out the first two keepers, but a header from Caitlin Blosser that seemed to be heading in in the final minute of the second OT was deflected off the line by a Penn defender.
Best Moment On Campus By A Non-Princeton Team - The U.S. Men's National Soccer team trained on Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium before going to the World Cup in South Africa. The U.S. coach is Bob Bradley, the former Princeton player and head coach, and bringing his team to Princeton before heading to the biggest sporting event in the world was a great one for the Tigers and the local soccer community.
Stat of the Year - Princeton teams won 14 Ivy League championships in the calendar year of 2010: women's basketball, men's fencing, women's fencing, men's swimming and diving, women's swimming and diving, men's indoor track and field, women's indoor track and field, men's lacrosse, men's lightweight rowing, women's tennis, men's soccer, field hockey, women's cross country, men's cross country.
Best 19-Hour Stretch - Princeton won five of those Ivy titles - the two fencings, two indoor track and fields and women's swimming and diving - in a 19-hour stretch the last weekend of February.
Individual Stat Of The Year - Kareem Maddox of the men's basketball team had two 30-point games, making him the first Princeton men's player in 27 years and eighth all-time to do so.
Under the Radar - The women's tennis team went 7-0 in the league and won every one of those matches either 5-2, 6-1 or 7-0.
Top Accounting Error - The men's lightweight rowing team won the national championship on the final day of the academic year, extending Princeton's streak of having at least one team or individual national champion to what TB thought was 24 years. When he went back to make a list of champions, TB found that Princeton's streak is actually currently at 39 straight years.
Most Heartwarming Story - The return of Jordan Culbreath. As everyone knows, Culbreath was the Ivy League's leading rusher in 2008 and then missed almost all of 2009 with what started as a minor ankle injury and quickly became a life-threatening blood disease. Nobody could have possibly envisioned that he'd ever play football again, but there he was this year, back as the team's leading rusher. In fact, he averaged 5.3 yards per carry this past season, which was only slightly off the 5.7 he averaged in 2008. He also scored the game-winning touchdown against Lafayette in overtime in his first home game after the illness.
Biggest Injuries - There are co-winners here. The field hockey team was undefeated and beat eventual-champion Maryland when its team was at full strength. Katie Reinprecht's broken leg took a huge piece of the puzzle away and kept the Tigers from being full-strength for the NCAA tournament, even when Reinprecht tried to play with the injury in the postseason anyway. Tommy Wornham, the quarterback on the football team, separated his shoulder in Week 5 and missed the rest of the year. A healthy Wornham would have almost surely meant a few more wins, and his injury cost Trey Peacock a shot at several receiving records.
Best Achievement By A Non-Championship Team - Co-winners here as well. The wrestling team went from being the perennial last place team in the Ivy League to a third-place finish. Considering how strong Ivy wrestling is, that's no small feat. The men's volleyball team reached the EIVA final and pushed Goliath Penn State before falling.
Women's Team Of The Year - Basketball. Princeton went a perfect 14-0 in the league and won every game by double figures, becoming the first Ivy women's team ever to accomplish that. As a result of its league championship, Princeton played in the NCAA tournament for the first time in program history. For the calendar year 2010, Princeton went 13-0 at home and is 24-4 heading into tomorrow's game against Wake Forest.
Men's Team Of The Year - Soccer. Princeton started out 1-3-1 and then put together a school-record 12-game winning streak. Along the way, Princeton went a perfect 7-0-0 in the league, making the 2010 Princeton team the first perfect men's soccer team in school history. If you think that there was nothing to it, consider that four Ivy League soccer teams made it to the NCAA tournament and a fifth had been nationall ranked during the season. Princeton, who climbed almost into the national Top 10 along the way, defeated two Sweet 16 teams during the regular season.
Bye-Bye.
Oh, and Happy New Year To All.
Through the years, the two would often watch the show "together" in different states, arguing with each other on the phone the entire time.
The show is a political roundtable that has found a way to differentiate itself from the others, in several ways. One, since it's nearly 30 years old, it's stood the test of time. Also, there's the panelists themselves, who aren't trying to be outdo each other as the coolest and most outrageous.
Mostly, though, it's about the host, John McLaughlin, whose delivery, personality and subtle humor make him unique on television. The evolving group of panelists has usually been a strong complement, even if some are so rigidly ideological that they become too predictable.
The show airs each Sunday on various channels, and TB tries to watch it each week. If he can't, he usually checks it out on-line afterwards.
The best time of year to see the show is this time, when McLaughlin and the panelists review the previous year and make predictions for the new one.
TB saw Part I of the Year In Review last week, and he's looking forward to Part II this week.
The format of the show normally has McLaughlin lead the group on a discussion of various topics, always starting out with "Issue No. 1" and then getting into it.
For the year in review, McLaughlin instead brings up different categories and asks for an answer from each panelist. Among the questions were top politician, biggest winner, biggest loser, best capitalist, biggest lie, person of the year - stuff like that.
As for the Princeton athletics 2010 year in review, TB can do it McLaughlin style. Keep in mind, none of this is official Princeton stuff, just TB's thoughts:
Top Female Athlete - Alicia Aemisegger, swimming. Aemisegger put the finishing touches on one of the great athletic careers in Princeton history by running her totals to 12 individual Ivy titles and 13 All-America designations.
Top Male Athlete - Donn Cabral, track and field/cross country. Cabral, among other things, was the runner-up outdoors at the NCAA championships in the steeplechase and then ran away from the field to win the Heps cross country title.
Top Female Freshman - Niveen Rasheed, basketball. A unanimous first-team All-Ivy League selection and Ivy Rookie of the Year, Rasheed led Princeton to a 26-3 record and the program's first NCAA tournament berth
Top Male Freshman - Todd Harrity, squash. Harrity was the national individual runner-up, as well as an All-America and Ivy Rookie of the Year, as a freshman.
Best Game - Princeton 10, Cornell 9 (overtime), men's lacrosse Ivy League tournament final. Princeton trailed, as it always seems to, early against Cornell. Unlike previous times, Princeton able to rally, erasing a four-goal deficit to win on Jack McBride's goal with one second left in OT in the first Ivy League tournament championship game.
Toughest Loss - Mansfield 10, Princeton 6, sprint football. The Tigers had their best defensive effort in years but were unable to generate the winning points as neither team scored in the second half.
Toughest Tie - Princeton 0, Penn 0, women's soccer. It wasn't quite winner-take-all, as a tie gave the Ivy title to the Quakers while Princeton needed to win outright. The Tigers got a great effort from No. 3 goalkeeper Claire Pinciaro, who made her first career start when injuries knocked out the first two keepers, but a header from Caitlin Blosser that seemed to be heading in in the final minute of the second OT was deflected off the line by a Penn defender.
Best Moment On Campus By A Non-Princeton Team - The U.S. Men's National Soccer team trained on Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium before going to the World Cup in South Africa. The U.S. coach is Bob Bradley, the former Princeton player and head coach, and bringing his team to Princeton before heading to the biggest sporting event in the world was a great one for the Tigers and the local soccer community.
Stat of the Year - Princeton teams won 14 Ivy League championships in the calendar year of 2010: women's basketball, men's fencing, women's fencing, men's swimming and diving, women's swimming and diving, men's indoor track and field, women's indoor track and field, men's lacrosse, men's lightweight rowing, women's tennis, men's soccer, field hockey, women's cross country, men's cross country.
Best 19-Hour Stretch - Princeton won five of those Ivy titles - the two fencings, two indoor track and fields and women's swimming and diving - in a 19-hour stretch the last weekend of February.
Individual Stat Of The Year - Kareem Maddox of the men's basketball team had two 30-point games, making him the first Princeton men's player in 27 years and eighth all-time to do so.
Under the Radar - The women's tennis team went 7-0 in the league and won every one of those matches either 5-2, 6-1 or 7-0.
Top Accounting Error - The men's lightweight rowing team won the national championship on the final day of the academic year, extending Princeton's streak of having at least one team or individual national champion to what TB thought was 24 years. When he went back to make a list of champions, TB found that Princeton's streak is actually currently at 39 straight years.
Most Heartwarming Story - The return of Jordan Culbreath. As everyone knows, Culbreath was the Ivy League's leading rusher in 2008 and then missed almost all of 2009 with what started as a minor ankle injury and quickly became a life-threatening blood disease. Nobody could have possibly envisioned that he'd ever play football again, but there he was this year, back as the team's leading rusher. In fact, he averaged 5.3 yards per carry this past season, which was only slightly off the 5.7 he averaged in 2008. He also scored the game-winning touchdown against Lafayette in overtime in his first home game after the illness.
Biggest Injuries - There are co-winners here. The field hockey team was undefeated and beat eventual-champion Maryland when its team was at full strength. Katie Reinprecht's broken leg took a huge piece of the puzzle away and kept the Tigers from being full-strength for the NCAA tournament, even when Reinprecht tried to play with the injury in the postseason anyway. Tommy Wornham, the quarterback on the football team, separated his shoulder in Week 5 and missed the rest of the year. A healthy Wornham would have almost surely meant a few more wins, and his injury cost Trey Peacock a shot at several receiving records.
Best Achievement By A Non-Championship Team - Co-winners here as well. The wrestling team went from being the perennial last place team in the Ivy League to a third-place finish. Considering how strong Ivy wrestling is, that's no small feat. The men's volleyball team reached the EIVA final and pushed Goliath Penn State before falling.
Women's Team Of The Year - Basketball. Princeton went a perfect 14-0 in the league and won every game by double figures, becoming the first Ivy women's team ever to accomplish that. As a result of its league championship, Princeton played in the NCAA tournament for the first time in program history. For the calendar year 2010, Princeton went 13-0 at home and is 24-4 heading into tomorrow's game against Wake Forest.
Men's Team Of The Year - Soccer. Princeton started out 1-3-1 and then put together a school-record 12-game winning streak. Along the way, Princeton went a perfect 7-0-0 in the league, making the 2010 Princeton team the first perfect men's soccer team in school history. If you think that there was nothing to it, consider that four Ivy League soccer teams made it to the NCAA tournament and a fifth had been nationall ranked during the season. Princeton, who climbed almost into the national Top 10 along the way, defeated two Sweet 16 teams during the regular season.
Bye-Bye.
Oh, and Happy New Year To All.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Bowl Season
Look, there can't be anyone at all who can come up with a solid reason why big-time college football doesn't have a playoff system in place.
Any of the reasons that usually come up in defense of the current bowl system are all hollow, and everyone knows it. In reality, the current system accomplishes all kinds of things that the powers-that-be don't want to mess with, such as 1) giving 70 of 120 FBS coaches the chance to say they reached the postseason and 2) for the most part shutting out the non-BCS conferences, directing the overwhelming percentage of the money to the most powerful leagues.
Think if college basketball worked the same way. How many college basketball coaches from big conferences have lost their jobs because they haven't been able to take their team to the NCAA tournament?
To TigerBlog, there are two completely ridiculous parts of the current system.
First, there are 12 teams that reached bowl games who needed wins to prevent themselves from having a losing record.
Second, the championship game between Oregon and Auburn takes place 37 days after either team last played. Put in NFL terms, the AFC and NFC championship games are set for Jan. 23; if the winners waited as long to have their championship game, then the Super Bowl would be March 1.
Another problem with the current setup is that other than the BCS title game, no other bowls matter.
When TB was a kid, the bowls were much more condensed, because there weren't as many. In 1970, there were only 11 bowl games played; this year there will be 35.
So while most of those 11 games didn't mean much in terms of having a national champion, they did mean something because each one was special in its own right. Eventually, the number more than tripled, and the names of the bowls, with their corporate sponsorship, makes it nearly impossible to distinguish one from another.
This year, even the FCS (TB still prefers the term "I-AA") got in on the silliness. The tournament plays out on the weekends, except that last weekend was Christmas and this one is New Year's. Because of that, the championship game between Delaware and Eastern Washington won't be played until Jan. 7, or three weeks after the teams won their semifinal games.
It's been 39 days since Ivy League football season ended, and it seems like even longer than that.
Again, the more TigerBlog thinks about it, the more he thinks that there's way more to like than not like about the way Ivy League football works. There are 10 weeks with 10 games, no off weeks. It's as much of a sprint as anywhere the sport is played.
Princeton, for instance, played its entire season in a 69-day window.
Oregon, when it takes the field against Auburn, will be finishing its season 128 days after its first game, a 72-0 win over New Mexico on Sept. 4.
At the same time, there are issues facing Ivy League football, some of which are outside of the league's control. The biggest is what direction the Patriot League goes in.
The Patriot presidents recently tabled for two years a proposal to adopt football scholarships across the board. Still, two years isn't a very long time, and it's not hard to envision any number of things happening, not the least of which is the breakup of the league itself, at least for football.
How does this affect the Ivy League? Well, of the 24 non-league games the Ivy teams played this year, 17 were against Patriot teams.
If the Patriot teams go in different directions, the possible opponents for the Ivy League dwindles. If they all go scholarships, that could be even worse for the Ivy League, since it would impact scheduling and probably recruiting.
And of course, any discussion of Ivy League football in the future has to include whether or not there's going to come a day when the league champion plays in the playoffs or if there'll ever be an 11th game.
For TigerBlog, though, the rest of college football could do worse than follow what the Ivy League now has, rather than the other way around.
Any of the reasons that usually come up in defense of the current bowl system are all hollow, and everyone knows it. In reality, the current system accomplishes all kinds of things that the powers-that-be don't want to mess with, such as 1) giving 70 of 120 FBS coaches the chance to say they reached the postseason and 2) for the most part shutting out the non-BCS conferences, directing the overwhelming percentage of the money to the most powerful leagues.
Think if college basketball worked the same way. How many college basketball coaches from big conferences have lost their jobs because they haven't been able to take their team to the NCAA tournament?
To TigerBlog, there are two completely ridiculous parts of the current system.
First, there are 12 teams that reached bowl games who needed wins to prevent themselves from having a losing record.
Second, the championship game between Oregon and Auburn takes place 37 days after either team last played. Put in NFL terms, the AFC and NFC championship games are set for Jan. 23; if the winners waited as long to have their championship game, then the Super Bowl would be March 1.
Another problem with the current setup is that other than the BCS title game, no other bowls matter.
When TB was a kid, the bowls were much more condensed, because there weren't as many. In 1970, there were only 11 bowl games played; this year there will be 35.
So while most of those 11 games didn't mean much in terms of having a national champion, they did mean something because each one was special in its own right. Eventually, the number more than tripled, and the names of the bowls, with their corporate sponsorship, makes it nearly impossible to distinguish one from another.
This year, even the FCS (TB still prefers the term "I-AA") got in on the silliness. The tournament plays out on the weekends, except that last weekend was Christmas and this one is New Year's. Because of that, the championship game between Delaware and Eastern Washington won't be played until Jan. 7, or three weeks after the teams won their semifinal games.
It's been 39 days since Ivy League football season ended, and it seems like even longer than that.
Again, the more TigerBlog thinks about it, the more he thinks that there's way more to like than not like about the way Ivy League football works. There are 10 weeks with 10 games, no off weeks. It's as much of a sprint as anywhere the sport is played.
Princeton, for instance, played its entire season in a 69-day window.
Oregon, when it takes the field against Auburn, will be finishing its season 128 days after its first game, a 72-0 win over New Mexico on Sept. 4.
At the same time, there are issues facing Ivy League football, some of which are outside of the league's control. The biggest is what direction the Patriot League goes in.
The Patriot presidents recently tabled for two years a proposal to adopt football scholarships across the board. Still, two years isn't a very long time, and it's not hard to envision any number of things happening, not the least of which is the breakup of the league itself, at least for football.
How does this affect the Ivy League? Well, of the 24 non-league games the Ivy teams played this year, 17 were against Patriot teams.
If the Patriot teams go in different directions, the possible opponents for the Ivy League dwindles. If they all go scholarships, that could be even worse for the Ivy League, since it would impact scheduling and probably recruiting.
And of course, any discussion of Ivy League football in the future has to include whether or not there's going to come a day when the league champion plays in the playoffs or if there'll ever be an 11th game.
For TigerBlog, though, the rest of college football could do worse than follow what the Ivy League now has, rather than the other way around.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Get On The Bus
Back when TigerBlog played high school tennis, his team once had to play at a neutral site against another team from the same school district.
For reasons that TB never bothered to find out about, the two teams took the same bus to and from the site, stopping first at TB's school and then at the other on the way over and then reversing it on the way back.
It was a bit awkward, two teams that were about to play each other and then ultimately two teams that just had.
Of course, the time that the two teams were together on the bus was about 10 minutes each way, so it wasn't quite the end of the world.
Imagine, then, what it must have been like on the Albany men's basketball bus yesterday.
Did you see this story?
Albany is playing at Xavier tonight, and the Great Danes couldn't get their flight out to Cincinnati because of the blizzard. Instead, Albany decided to take a 10-hour or so bus ride.
That story wouldn't have made national news had it not been for one other piece of the situation. Mark Lyons, Xavier's second-leading scorer, lives in Schenectady, which is 10 minutes from Albany, and he too couldn't get back for the game.
So what happened? Xavier's coach called Albany's coach and asked if Lyons could ride on the Albany bus, a request that was granted.
Xavier's two leading scorers, Lyons and Tu Holloway, were supposed to go with Albany, but Holloway couldn't get from Long Island to Albany for the ride and had to find another way.
And that left Lyons to travel by himself with the team that his team is playing tonight. For 10 hours.
In the often cut-throat world of college athletics, where coaches agonize over every little detail as if changing shootaround times or something will give one team an advantage, it was a really nice story to see how Albany took Lyons with them.
“He was no different than any one of our guys," Albany coach Will Brown said. "The minute he got on the bus, he put his head phones on and whipped out his phone and within an hour he was out cold."
Holloway, by the way, took a bus to Pittsburgh, where a friend drove him the rest of the way.
It'll be interesting to keep an eye on the game, which is tonight at 7.
Another team on a long bus ride is the Princeton women's basketball team, whose early-morning flight to North Carolina this morning was canceled, also because of the storm.
The result for the Princeton women was a 10-hour ride of their own, from Central Jersey to Davidson, N.C., a ride of a mere 600 miles.
Princeton plays Davidson tomorrow night and then at Wake Forest on New Year's Eve. The 8-3 Tigers lost their last game in two overtimes to St. Joe's, but they have had 10 days to get over it. Davidson is 4-4 on the season; Wake is 7-5 before playing Appalachian State tomorrow.
The Princeton men were lucky in two respects.
First, their flight to Orlando for the Central Florida Holiday Classic wasn't canceled. Second, the weather has improved in Florida from where it was over the weekend (in the 30s) to the 60s or low 70s while Princeton is there.
Princeton, at 9-3, plays a 4-6 Northeastern team in the first round, and if the Tigers can get past that one, then the final would probably mean a matchup with the host team.
And, without looking, how good to do you think UCF is right about now?
How many guessed that UCF is currently 11-0 and ranked 19th in one poll and 21st in the other? In other words, a Princeton win tomorrow would set up a very nice game on Thursday.
There are three other Princeton teams who play this week, before the end of 2010.
The men's hockey team is at the UConn tournament, where it plays Bowling Green tomorrow and then either UConn or Holy Cross Thursday. The Tigers will be ending an 18-day layoff with this tournament, which is one of three breaks in the schedule of at least 10 days for the team.
The wrestling team is also in North Carolina (TB isn't sure how the Tigers got there) for the Southern Scuffle in Greensboro tomorrow and Thursday.
The women's hockey team plays the last home event of the calendar year when it faces Boston College on New Year's Eve at noon.
For reasons that TB never bothered to find out about, the two teams took the same bus to and from the site, stopping first at TB's school and then at the other on the way over and then reversing it on the way back.
It was a bit awkward, two teams that were about to play each other and then ultimately two teams that just had.
Of course, the time that the two teams were together on the bus was about 10 minutes each way, so it wasn't quite the end of the world.
Imagine, then, what it must have been like on the Albany men's basketball bus yesterday.
Did you see this story?
Albany is playing at Xavier tonight, and the Great Danes couldn't get their flight out to Cincinnati because of the blizzard. Instead, Albany decided to take a 10-hour or so bus ride.
That story wouldn't have made national news had it not been for one other piece of the situation. Mark Lyons, Xavier's second-leading scorer, lives in Schenectady, which is 10 minutes from Albany, and he too couldn't get back for the game.
So what happened? Xavier's coach called Albany's coach and asked if Lyons could ride on the Albany bus, a request that was granted.
Xavier's two leading scorers, Lyons and Tu Holloway, were supposed to go with Albany, but Holloway couldn't get from Long Island to Albany for the ride and had to find another way.
And that left Lyons to travel by himself with the team that his team is playing tonight. For 10 hours.
In the often cut-throat world of college athletics, where coaches agonize over every little detail as if changing shootaround times or something will give one team an advantage, it was a really nice story to see how Albany took Lyons with them.
“He was no different than any one of our guys," Albany coach Will Brown said. "The minute he got on the bus, he put his head phones on and whipped out his phone and within an hour he was out cold."
Holloway, by the way, took a bus to Pittsburgh, where a friend drove him the rest of the way.
It'll be interesting to keep an eye on the game, which is tonight at 7.
Another team on a long bus ride is the Princeton women's basketball team, whose early-morning flight to North Carolina this morning was canceled, also because of the storm.
The result for the Princeton women was a 10-hour ride of their own, from Central Jersey to Davidson, N.C., a ride of a mere 600 miles.
Princeton plays Davidson tomorrow night and then at Wake Forest on New Year's Eve. The 8-3 Tigers lost their last game in two overtimes to St. Joe's, but they have had 10 days to get over it. Davidson is 4-4 on the season; Wake is 7-5 before playing Appalachian State tomorrow.
The Princeton men were lucky in two respects.
First, their flight to Orlando for the Central Florida Holiday Classic wasn't canceled. Second, the weather has improved in Florida from where it was over the weekend (in the 30s) to the 60s or low 70s while Princeton is there.
Princeton, at 9-3, plays a 4-6 Northeastern team in the first round, and if the Tigers can get past that one, then the final would probably mean a matchup with the host team.
And, without looking, how good to do you think UCF is right about now?
How many guessed that UCF is currently 11-0 and ranked 19th in one poll and 21st in the other? In other words, a Princeton win tomorrow would set up a very nice game on Thursday.
There are three other Princeton teams who play this week, before the end of 2010.
The men's hockey team is at the UConn tournament, where it plays Bowling Green tomorrow and then either UConn or Holy Cross Thursday. The Tigers will be ending an 18-day layoff with this tournament, which is one of three breaks in the schedule of at least 10 days for the team.
The wrestling team is also in North Carolina (TB isn't sure how the Tigers got there) for the Southern Scuffle in Greensboro tomorrow and Thursday.
The women's hockey team plays the last home event of the calendar year when it faces Boston College on New Year's Eve at noon.
Monday, December 27, 2010
Memories Of Waikiki
As the shovel met the snow for the first time this morning, there was only this thought:
TigerBlog was in Hawaii 12 years ago today.
Back when TB was the men's basketball contact, the in-season tournament was a staple of the schedule. Usually twice a season, in mid-December and then again between Christmas and New Year's, Princeton would travel somewhere and play two games in two nights at events with "classic" names like the Spartan Classic, the Illini Classic, the Carrier Classic, the Oneida Nation Classic, the First Bank Classic, the First Merchants Classic, the Otis Spunkmeyer Classic, the Sun Classic and others.
TigerBlog saw some great games through the years, though it usually came with a trade-off.
For instance, there was the time Princeton beat Marquette in a championship game that ended when current head coach Sydney Johnson played center after Steve Goodrich and Jesse Rosenfeld fouled out. Except it was in Milwaukee, where the sun didn't come out the entire time Princeton was there.
The same was true with the tournament in Green Bay (Oneida Nation Classic), where a guy named Jeff Nordgaard lit up the Tigers for 28 points and 15 rebound (or something like that; TB is doing this from memory) and where, again, the sun never came out. The best part of that event might have been that the hotel, the arena and Lambeau Field all shared the same parking lot.
TB's travels took him to Iowa twice, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin twice. Even when the team played in California, it was in Fresno, at the Coors Light Classic.
Oh sure, there were tournaments in Texas and North Carolina and even New Orleans, but never to anything that could be considered tropical - until Bill Carmody said that Princeton would be playing in the 1998 Rainbow Classic, sponsored by Outrigger Hotels and played at the University of Hawaii.
Princeton's first game would be on ESPN, against Florida State, at 7 local time, which was 1 a.m. in Honolulu. After that, the schedule would depend on whether or not Princeton kept winning.
TB and then-radio voice Tom McCarthy traveled separately from the team, which had left on Christmas Day. Instead, TB and TM left from Newark at 3 in the afternoon, on an American Airlines flight to San Francisco, with a connection to Honolulu.
TB and TM sat in the back on the plane to San Fran, with TB in the middle, TM on the aisle and a student from the University of Wisconsin whose ultimate destination was the Rose Bowl at the window.
The plane was completely jammed, and it was also late getting out. By the time it arrived in California, it was already past when the flight to Hawaii was supposed to leave, but the people on the plane insisted that the flight was being held.
When TB and TM got off in San Francisco, they walked one gate over and immediately onto the 747 headed for Honolulu, just in time to hear the pilot as he said "we apologize for the delay, but we're holding the plane for two passengers from Newark." This, in turn, was returned by boos and such, as TB and TM made their way to row 54, where their seats were.
As McCarthy walked down the long aisle, he apologized to each person for holding them up saying things like "I apologize" and "Hi, I'm Tom" and "Hey, nice to see you" and, to one passenger who looked like Jesse Ventura, "Do you shave that every day?"
By the time the two got to Hawaii, it was around 11 at night local time, which was 4 a.m. Eastern time. After walking off the plane, TB was given a shot of rejuvenation when the tropical breeze hit him in the face, as it was an open air gate.
The same was true at the hotel where TB and TM stayed. When they arrived late at night, it was really dark; it wasn't until the morning that TB realized that the lobby was open air as well, giving a clear view of the ocean - and Diamond Head.
McCarthy immediately figured out that this hotel was right next to the one where the Brady Bunch stayed. It was right in the heart of Waikiki, with a path that led directly to the beach.
The Rainbow Classic was an eight-team tournament, with two games on Day 1 (the 27th) and then two more on Day 2, before having four on the 29th and four on the 30th, including the championship game. The last game of each day would televised by ESPN.
In other words, if you kept winning, you kept playing the last game, on TV no less, and that would mean you could go to the beach during the day instead of playing in consolation games.
Among TB's memories:
* Princeton defeated Florida State, Texas and then UNC Charlotte to win the tournament
* TB would get up each morning and go to the athletic communications office at the University of Hawaii to update his notes and then come back to go to the beach. After that, it'd be lunch at Duke's (the macaroni salad and fish of the day each time) before heading to the arena
* C.J. Chapman had a huge game against Charlotte in the final
* TB was walking on the beach and ran into former manager Miles Clark, who had made the trip for the games
* Gabe Lewullis scored his 1,000th career point in one of the games and received a prolonged standing ovation from the crowd when it was announced
* Chris Young outplayed Texas' Chris Mihm, who had a long NBA career
* TB took a picture of the team on the beach and used it on the cover of the next game program
* TB took a great picture of McCarthy and the Rainbow Warrior
* The championship trophy was awarded to Princeton by Hawaii's athletic director, who wore shorts, a flowered shirt and a lei
After the final, TB and McCarthy went straight to the airport and took an overnight flight from Honolulu to Los Angeles, along with the Texas team. From there, it was onto a flight to Newark - and back to the reality of the cold weather.
Of course, the weather that day in Newark was balmy compared to what's going on today.
Snow everywhere, winds blowing it into drifts, a reminder that winter is really just getting warmed up.
And a great chance to think to a place 5,000 miles and 12 years away.
The 1998 Rainbow Classic. Good times, indeed.
TigerBlog was in Hawaii 12 years ago today.
Back when TB was the men's basketball contact, the in-season tournament was a staple of the schedule. Usually twice a season, in mid-December and then again between Christmas and New Year's, Princeton would travel somewhere and play two games in two nights at events with "classic" names like the Spartan Classic, the Illini Classic, the Carrier Classic, the Oneida Nation Classic, the First Bank Classic, the First Merchants Classic, the Otis Spunkmeyer Classic, the Sun Classic and others.
TigerBlog saw some great games through the years, though it usually came with a trade-off.
For instance, there was the time Princeton beat Marquette in a championship game that ended when current head coach Sydney Johnson played center after Steve Goodrich and Jesse Rosenfeld fouled out. Except it was in Milwaukee, where the sun didn't come out the entire time Princeton was there.
The same was true with the tournament in Green Bay (Oneida Nation Classic), where a guy named Jeff Nordgaard lit up the Tigers for 28 points and 15 rebound (or something like that; TB is doing this from memory) and where, again, the sun never came out. The best part of that event might have been that the hotel, the arena and Lambeau Field all shared the same parking lot.
TB's travels took him to Iowa twice, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin twice. Even when the team played in California, it was in Fresno, at the Coors Light Classic.
Oh sure, there were tournaments in Texas and North Carolina and even New Orleans, but never to anything that could be considered tropical - until Bill Carmody said that Princeton would be playing in the 1998 Rainbow Classic, sponsored by Outrigger Hotels and played at the University of Hawaii.
Princeton's first game would be on ESPN, against Florida State, at 7 local time, which was 1 a.m. in Honolulu. After that, the schedule would depend on whether or not Princeton kept winning.
TB and then-radio voice Tom McCarthy traveled separately from the team, which had left on Christmas Day. Instead, TB and TM left from Newark at 3 in the afternoon, on an American Airlines flight to San Francisco, with a connection to Honolulu.
TB and TM sat in the back on the plane to San Fran, with TB in the middle, TM on the aisle and a student from the University of Wisconsin whose ultimate destination was the Rose Bowl at the window.
The plane was completely jammed, and it was also late getting out. By the time it arrived in California, it was already past when the flight to Hawaii was supposed to leave, but the people on the plane insisted that the flight was being held.
When TB and TM got off in San Francisco, they walked one gate over and immediately onto the 747 headed for Honolulu, just in time to hear the pilot as he said "we apologize for the delay, but we're holding the plane for two passengers from Newark." This, in turn, was returned by boos and such, as TB and TM made their way to row 54, where their seats were.
As McCarthy walked down the long aisle, he apologized to each person for holding them up saying things like "I apologize" and "Hi, I'm Tom" and "Hey, nice to see you" and, to one passenger who looked like Jesse Ventura, "Do you shave that every day?"
By the time the two got to Hawaii, it was around 11 at night local time, which was 4 a.m. Eastern time. After walking off the plane, TB was given a shot of rejuvenation when the tropical breeze hit him in the face, as it was an open air gate.
The same was true at the hotel where TB and TM stayed. When they arrived late at night, it was really dark; it wasn't until the morning that TB realized that the lobby was open air as well, giving a clear view of the ocean - and Diamond Head.
McCarthy immediately figured out that this hotel was right next to the one where the Brady Bunch stayed. It was right in the heart of Waikiki, with a path that led directly to the beach.
The Rainbow Classic was an eight-team tournament, with two games on Day 1 (the 27th) and then two more on Day 2, before having four on the 29th and four on the 30th, including the championship game. The last game of each day would televised by ESPN.
In other words, if you kept winning, you kept playing the last game, on TV no less, and that would mean you could go to the beach during the day instead of playing in consolation games.
Among TB's memories:
* Princeton defeated Florida State, Texas and then UNC Charlotte to win the tournament
* TB would get up each morning and go to the athletic communications office at the University of Hawaii to update his notes and then come back to go to the beach. After that, it'd be lunch at Duke's (the macaroni salad and fish of the day each time) before heading to the arena
* C.J. Chapman had a huge game against Charlotte in the final
* TB was walking on the beach and ran into former manager Miles Clark, who had made the trip for the games
* Gabe Lewullis scored his 1,000th career point in one of the games and received a prolonged standing ovation from the crowd when it was announced
* Chris Young outplayed Texas' Chris Mihm, who had a long NBA career
* TB took a picture of the team on the beach and used it on the cover of the next game program
* TB took a great picture of McCarthy and the Rainbow Warrior
* The championship trophy was awarded to Princeton by Hawaii's athletic director, who wore shorts, a flowered shirt and a lei
After the final, TB and McCarthy went straight to the airport and took an overnight flight from Honolulu to Los Angeles, along with the Texas team. From there, it was onto a flight to Newark - and back to the reality of the cold weather.
Of course, the weather that day in Newark was balmy compared to what's going on today.
Snow everywhere, winds blowing it into drifts, a reminder that winter is really just getting warmed up.
And a great chance to think to a place 5,000 miles and 12 years away.
The 1998 Rainbow Classic. Good times, indeed.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
And To All A Good Night
Back when TigerBlog played the trumpet in high school, he had two career solos.
The first was in the marching band, at halftime of football games, to the song "What I Did For Love," from "A Chorus Line."
The other was in the jazz band, part of a song called "Angela." Fans of the old TV show Taxi will recognize it as the song that played in the beginning of the show, when the taxi drives over the bridge and to the garage. The jazz band version took about 15 minutes to play.
Despite having solos in those two songs, though, TigerBlog had another song that he preferred. This one was in the concert band around this time of year 30 years ago.
The song was "O Come All Ye Faithful," which featured a very powerful trumpet part for the main melody. The fact that it was played by an orchestra that was made up as many Jewish kids as Christian kids hardly mattered.
Christmas, as TB realizes, is a religious holiday, celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, something that means way more to Christians than it does to non-Christians. Still, the idea of Christmas can be summed up simply: "Peace On Earth, Goodwill Towards Man." That's not a sentiment that has to be specific to any religion.
Besides, Christmas is a federal holiday as well. And it has such great movies, episodes of TV shows, songs and all the rest that who could possibly be against it?
When Harry Bailey says "to my big brother George, the richest man in town," at the end of "It's A Wonderful Life, does it really matter what your religion is? Or when the Grinch's heart grows three sizes? Or when Charlie Brown gets the wrong tree that turns out to be the right tree?
Or when Ralphie almost shoots his eye out? Or when Judy Garland sings "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" before the Smith family gets to realize that they'll still be able to be met in St. Louis?
Any good TV show worth anything has had a great Christmas episode or two. "The Office" has had a few. So did "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." And "Everybody Loves Raymond." And every other show.
Remember the episode of "All In The Family" where Archie invites his friend for Christmas dinner after his friend's son has been killed in Vietnam, while Michael's draft-dodger friend joins them? That's as good as any Christmas episode of any TV show of all time - or maybe any TV show period.
And of course there are the Christmas songs. TigerBlog is partial to Bruce Springsteen's version of "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town," not to mention The Boss' "Merry Christmas Baby."
And then there's Emmylou Harris' version of "Silent Night," or the orginal "The Christmas Song" by Nat King Cole (that's the one with "Chestnuts roasting on a open fire."
Others?
"The Little St. Nick," by the Beach Boys. "O Holy Night," the version by Martina McBride. Bing Crosby's "White Christmas," of course, and Burl Ive's "Holly Jolly Christmas."
And "Silver Bells," especially when Dean Martin sings it. And any Christmas song by The Carpenters or Frank Sinatra.
And "Carol of the Bells" by Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
TigerBlog could go on all day with his favorite Christmas shows/movies/songs/etc. So could everyone else.
Once upon a time, TigerBlog had memorized "A Visit From St. Nicholas," which starts out "Twas the night before Christmas." TB can still get most of it from memory, but he doesn't quite remember the entire thing, which is a good excuse to go back and read it again.
Princeton Athletics is a secular institution. TigerBlog has been to games on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur (he's fasted, of course), on Easter Sunday, on Ramadan.
Never, though, on Christmas.
In fact, Princeton has no events scheduled between yesterday's men's basketball game against Towson and this coming Tuesday, when women's basketball, wrestling, men's basketball and men's hockey all play.
Princeton doesn't shut down for that long across the board for anything other than exams.
But hey, this isn't like any other time of year.
Merry Christmas To All.
The first was in the marching band, at halftime of football games, to the song "What I Did For Love," from "A Chorus Line."
The other was in the jazz band, part of a song called "Angela." Fans of the old TV show Taxi will recognize it as the song that played in the beginning of the show, when the taxi drives over the bridge and to the garage. The jazz band version took about 15 minutes to play.
Despite having solos in those two songs, though, TigerBlog had another song that he preferred. This one was in the concert band around this time of year 30 years ago.
The song was "O Come All Ye Faithful," which featured a very powerful trumpet part for the main melody. The fact that it was played by an orchestra that was made up as many Jewish kids as Christian kids hardly mattered.
Christmas, as TB realizes, is a religious holiday, celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, something that means way more to Christians than it does to non-Christians. Still, the idea of Christmas can be summed up simply: "Peace On Earth, Goodwill Towards Man." That's not a sentiment that has to be specific to any religion.
Besides, Christmas is a federal holiday as well. And it has such great movies, episodes of TV shows, songs and all the rest that who could possibly be against it?
When Harry Bailey says "to my big brother George, the richest man in town," at the end of "It's A Wonderful Life, does it really matter what your religion is? Or when the Grinch's heart grows three sizes? Or when Charlie Brown gets the wrong tree that turns out to be the right tree?
Or when Ralphie almost shoots his eye out? Or when Judy Garland sings "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" before the Smith family gets to realize that they'll still be able to be met in St. Louis?
Any good TV show worth anything has had a great Christmas episode or two. "The Office" has had a few. So did "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." And "Everybody Loves Raymond." And every other show.
Remember the episode of "All In The Family" where Archie invites his friend for Christmas dinner after his friend's son has been killed in Vietnam, while Michael's draft-dodger friend joins them? That's as good as any Christmas episode of any TV show of all time - or maybe any TV show period.
And of course there are the Christmas songs. TigerBlog is partial to Bruce Springsteen's version of "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town," not to mention The Boss' "Merry Christmas Baby."
And then there's Emmylou Harris' version of "Silent Night," or the orginal "The Christmas Song" by Nat King Cole (that's the one with "Chestnuts roasting on a open fire."
Others?
"The Little St. Nick," by the Beach Boys. "O Holy Night," the version by Martina McBride. Bing Crosby's "White Christmas," of course, and Burl Ive's "Holly Jolly Christmas."
And "Silver Bells," especially when Dean Martin sings it. And any Christmas song by The Carpenters or Frank Sinatra.
And "Carol of the Bells" by Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
TigerBlog could go on all day with his favorite Christmas shows/movies/songs/etc. So could everyone else.
Once upon a time, TigerBlog had memorized "A Visit From St. Nicholas," which starts out "Twas the night before Christmas." TB can still get most of it from memory, but he doesn't quite remember the entire thing, which is a good excuse to go back and read it again.
Princeton Athletics is a secular institution. TigerBlog has been to games on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur (he's fasted, of course), on Easter Sunday, on Ramadan.
Never, though, on Christmas.
In fact, Princeton has no events scheduled between yesterday's men's basketball game against Towson and this coming Tuesday, when women's basketball, wrestling, men's basketball and men's hockey all play.
Princeton doesn't shut down for that long across the board for anything other than exams.
But hey, this isn't like any other time of year.
Merry Christmas To All.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
On The Record
Howie Dickenmann, the Central Connecticut State men's basketball coach, was walking out of the interview room after his team had lost to Princeton 59-57 back on Nov. 11, 2007. Sydney Johnson, who had just coached his first game as the Tiger head man, was about to walk into the room, and the two coaches passed each other in the hallway.
"First of many coach," Dickenmann said.
TigerBlog has always thought of that as a pretty classy gesture on Dickenmann's part. Dickenmann, who played at CCSU and graduated five years before Johnson was born, was welcoming the young coach to the fraternity and wishing him only the best.
Of course, in coaching, there is rarely "only the best." It's a harsh world, coaching, where so many factors - many beyond a coach's control - influence whether or not teams win games. And, in that profession, you can so easily be measured solely by wins and losses, which is always not the fairest way to determine who the best coaches are.
Often, it is the situation that the coach's program is in - or isn't in - that determines how successful a coach can be.
Still, coaches enter this world willingly, and as such, they know that they're going to be judged by their records.
So let's look at two coaches and their records, which in this case reflect something rather remarkable.
Johnson and Princeton women's coach Courtney Banghart started at Princeton at the same time, before the 2007-08 season. Neither had ever been a head coach before. Both were great players in the Ivy League. One (Banghart) wasn't quite 30; the other (Johnson) was barely in his 30s.
The women's team was 13-15 the year before Banghart arrived. The men's team was 11-17, a record that included a 2-12 Ivy finish.
Johnson opened his career with the CCSU win and followed it with a win over Iona and then 12 straight losses.
Banghart lost her first four games and at one point that year stood at 3-12.
By the time the 2007-08 season ended, the two were a combined 13-46, each having lost 23 games.
Banghart's career record actually fell 19 games under .500 after a loss to Lafayette on Jan. 2, 2009. That's actually less than two full years ago.
As for Johnson, his record ended up 23 games under .500, at 8-31, after his own one-point loss at Lafayette, three days before Banghart's game. At that point, Princeton's two young coaches were a combined 19-63, a figure 44 games under .500.
Seems like a long time ago, doesn't it?
Since those two Lafayette losses, Banghart is on a 44-11 run, while Johnson is 41-18. Together, they are 85-29, a figure 56 games over .500.
Banghart reached the .500 mark for the first time in her career last Feb. 12 at Columbia with a 77-55 win. As for Johnson, he was 2-2 to start his career, and he got back to .500 for the first time since in Princeton's last game, a win at Wagner.
It's an extraordinary achievement, especially for two such young coaches who came into such rebuilding situations, to get to .500 so quickly. There are coaches who fall that far behind and never catch up.
Of course, Johnson could go right back below .500 today, when the Tigers play at Towson.
Something tells TigerBlog, though, that Banghart and Johnson are well on their way to being in the black for good. Or is that in the red? TigerBlog has never been sure about that, so whichever one is the good one.
Oh, and there's a certain Princeton coach who went 1-9 in his first year who could very well follow in the path of the two basketball coaches, or at the very least take some comfort from what they've done.
From 44 games under .500 to where Banghart and Johnson are now?
It's quite an accomplishment.
"First of many coach," Dickenmann said.
TigerBlog has always thought of that as a pretty classy gesture on Dickenmann's part. Dickenmann, who played at CCSU and graduated five years before Johnson was born, was welcoming the young coach to the fraternity and wishing him only the best.
Of course, in coaching, there is rarely "only the best." It's a harsh world, coaching, where so many factors - many beyond a coach's control - influence whether or not teams win games. And, in that profession, you can so easily be measured solely by wins and losses, which is always not the fairest way to determine who the best coaches are.
Often, it is the situation that the coach's program is in - or isn't in - that determines how successful a coach can be.
Still, coaches enter this world willingly, and as such, they know that they're going to be judged by their records.
So let's look at two coaches and their records, which in this case reflect something rather remarkable.
Johnson and Princeton women's coach Courtney Banghart started at Princeton at the same time, before the 2007-08 season. Neither had ever been a head coach before. Both were great players in the Ivy League. One (Banghart) wasn't quite 30; the other (Johnson) was barely in his 30s.
The women's team was 13-15 the year before Banghart arrived. The men's team was 11-17, a record that included a 2-12 Ivy finish.
Johnson opened his career with the CCSU win and followed it with a win over Iona and then 12 straight losses.
Banghart lost her first four games and at one point that year stood at 3-12.
By the time the 2007-08 season ended, the two were a combined 13-46, each having lost 23 games.
Banghart's career record actually fell 19 games under .500 after a loss to Lafayette on Jan. 2, 2009. That's actually less than two full years ago.
As for Johnson, his record ended up 23 games under .500, at 8-31, after his own one-point loss at Lafayette, three days before Banghart's game. At that point, Princeton's two young coaches were a combined 19-63, a figure 44 games under .500.
Seems like a long time ago, doesn't it?
Since those two Lafayette losses, Banghart is on a 44-11 run, while Johnson is 41-18. Together, they are 85-29, a figure 56 games over .500.
Banghart reached the .500 mark for the first time in her career last Feb. 12 at Columbia with a 77-55 win. As for Johnson, he was 2-2 to start his career, and he got back to .500 for the first time since in Princeton's last game, a win at Wagner.
It's an extraordinary achievement, especially for two such young coaches who came into such rebuilding situations, to get to .500 so quickly. There are coaches who fall that far behind and never catch up.
Of course, Johnson could go right back below .500 today, when the Tigers play at Towson.
Something tells TigerBlog, though, that Banghart and Johnson are well on their way to being in the black for good. Or is that in the red? TigerBlog has never been sure about that, so whichever one is the good one.
Oh, and there's a certain Princeton coach who went 1-9 in his first year who could very well follow in the path of the two basketball coaches, or at the very least take some comfort from what they've done.
From 44 games under .500 to where Banghart and Johnson are now?
It's quite an accomplishment.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Geno's And Geno
Mention the intersection of 9th, Wharton and Passyunk (pronounced "PASH-yunk," not "PASS-ee-unk") to anyone who has spent a great deal of time in Philadelphia, and they'll immediately have one thought and one question.
The thought? Cheesesteaks.
The question? Pat's or Geno's?
In the case of TigerBlog and his college friends, they were all Geno's people. TB has great memories of heading for late-night cheesesteaks, often in the freezing cold, often on nights when Frohman would eat the really, really hot peppers, often on nights when Mikus would eat, oh, four or five with. If you've ever been there, you know what "with" means.
If you haven't, it means "with onions."
Anyway, the Geno's in South Philly is easy to love. The Geno who coaches UConn women's basketball? Not always as easy.
There was Geno Auriemma Sunday, after his team defeated Ohio State 81-50 to win its 88th straight game, saying some interesting things about the state of women's college basketball and the chase for 88 straight.
The 88 straight wins equal the all-time men's Division I record, set by UCLA from 1971-1974. The Bruins' streak ended with a 71-70 loss at Notre Dame in a game that 1) UCLA led 70-59 with less than four minutes left and 2) TB watched at his Aunt Regina and Uncle Larry's house in Fair Lawn.
UConn's women go for No. 89 tonight against Florida State, a team that was ranked 14th before losing to a 2-8 Yale team Saturday and dropping to 22nd.
As an aside, ticket manager Stephanie Sutton and her daughter Mary attended the UConn-Ohio State game Sunday at Madison Square Garden, and that information led to having everyone in the Department of Athletics' weekly event meeting make a prediction for the game. TigerBlog predicted 81-52 UConn; the only person to pick Ohio State was event manager Steve Kanaby.
Anyway, after the game, Auriemma met with what was a much larger than normal media contingent and made some pointed comments:
"I just know there wouldn't be this many people in the room if we were chasing a woman's record. The reason everybody is having a heart attack the last four or five days is a bunch of women are threatening to break a men's record, and everybody is all up in arms about it.
"All the women are happy as hell and they can't wait to come in here and ask questions. All the guys that loved women's basketball are all excited, and all the miserable bastards that follow men's basketball and don't want us to break the record are all here because they're pissed. That's just the way it is.
"Because we're breaking a men's record, we've got a lot of people paying attention," If we were breaking a women's record, everybody would go, 'Aren't those girls nice, let's give them two paragraphs in USA Today, you know, give them one line on the bottom of ESPN and then let's send them back where they belong, in the kitchen.'"
Except for referring to the average male college basketball writers as "miserable bastards" and throwing out an unfortunate stereotype about the kitchen, Auriemma's comments are pretty close to right on the money.
And one point he might have missed is that it was John Wooden's record his team had just tied; he some obscure coach from the 1930s won 88 straight, it wouldn't have been as big a deal. Because of Wooden, the 88 straight wins became a number embedded in American sports history.
Contrast that with the people who last week said that you can't compare what UConn is doing now with what UCLA did back then, which TB couldn't disagree with more.
Actually, what UConn's women have done is in many ways similar to what UCLA did when it had its record win streak and when UCLA won 10 championships in 12 years between the 1960s and ’70s.
UCLA, at the time, was the place where the dominant players went, and that was it. If you wanted to win the NCAA championship, you went to UCLA.
It's the same in women's basketball today. If you want to win an NCAA championship, where are you going to go? UConn. Maybe Stanford or Baylor? Tennessee isn't what it used to be.
See, that's how Division I men's basketball used to be. There was one team that won every year (UCLA) and a few others who mounted a challenge.
Back then, it was largely because of how the NCAA tournament worked. UCLA won four games in 1964 to win its first NCAA title, knocking off Seattle, San Francisco, Kansas State and then Duke in the final. Also, the regionals were truly regional, so UCLA only had to deal with Western teams until the Final Four.
Even in 1975, in Wooden's last year, UCLA still only had to win five games, including wins over Montana and Arizona State.
Before that year of 1975, only one team per conference could go to the NCAA tournament, and there were many examples of great teams with great records who were bumped off by another great team in the conference tournament and therefore missed the NCAAs.
In short, for almost all of the time UCLA was winning the championship under Wooden, it was competing against the weaker teams in the West and had to play four or five games in the tournament.
Don't forget the impact of television either. Back then, there were a handful of games on TV on Saturdays, and almost all of them involved UCLA. To be on TV meant going to UCLA or one of the other elite schools chasing the Bruins.
It wasn't until TV began to mushroom and the tournament began to expand that more and more teams became legitimate contenders for the NCAA title. A cynic might point out that the money involved motivated many of the schools as well.
Today in women's basketball, UConn is what UCLA was. It's the school that's on TV and the school that wins the tournament every year. What great player wouldn't want to go there? It's a perpetuating model, and, as was the case at UCLA, it might continue until the coach goes elsewhere.
But that's not the complete crux of what Auriemma was talking about. Basically, what he was saying is that the hard-core sports fan doesn't care about women's basketball (and, if you read between his lines, mocks women's basketball).
Certainly there is truth to that. Television ratings for men's games dwarf women's games, and there can be no debating that the popularity of men's sports far exceeds that of women's sports.
This is in no way a statement about the value of women's sports or athletes. It's just making the point that to the general sporting public, women's sports have not caught on.
TigerBlog was already giving this issue some thought long before Auriemma's comments.
The Princeton women's basketball team went 26-3 a year ago and is off to another strong start this year. The Princeton men's team is building on its postseason success of a year ago and is off to its own excellent start this year.
Both teams are clearly worth watching and, for Auriemma's purposes, worth covering.
And yet the attendance and coverage for the men is on average three to four times what it is for the women.
Why is this? Why do so many more people come to watch and cover the men's team? What does it say about American sports, and American culture, for that matter?
It says, TB supposes, that it takes a long time for change in habits to come. Men's sports are working on a 100 or so - or longer - year head start on women's sports. Long before women played sports on a large scale, men's sports had already become widespread staples on the national psyche.
It's not just a gender thing. TigerBlog, for instance, is amazed that millions of people still go watch Major League Baseball every year. Why do they do it? It's part of the psyche, put their long before TB or anyone around now showed up.
Maybe it'll be radically different 25 or 50 years from now. On some levels, American sport bears no resemblance to what it was 25 or50 years ago.
Still, on other levels, not much has changed in a country where pro and college football and pro baseball still rule the landscape.
UConn has zero chance of losing tonight. When the Huskies pass UCLA with their 89th striaght win, a large segment of the American sporting public and media will shrug it off, largely because they don't care about women's sports.
Hey, TigerBlog was like that before he started working at the paper and later at Princeton, before he was exposed to people who taught him the worth of women's athletics, before he saw up close how serious women's athletes are.
A large portion of the rest of the world hasn't caught up yet. That's how it is. Today.
In the future? Who knows.
Maybe a few trips to Jadwin to see the Princeton women play would help the cause.
The thought? Cheesesteaks.
The question? Pat's or Geno's?
In the case of TigerBlog and his college friends, they were all Geno's people. TB has great memories of heading for late-night cheesesteaks, often in the freezing cold, often on nights when Frohman would eat the really, really hot peppers, often on nights when Mikus would eat, oh, four or five with. If you've ever been there, you know what "with" means.
If you haven't, it means "with onions."
Anyway, the Geno's in South Philly is easy to love. The Geno who coaches UConn women's basketball? Not always as easy.
There was Geno Auriemma Sunday, after his team defeated Ohio State 81-50 to win its 88th straight game, saying some interesting things about the state of women's college basketball and the chase for 88 straight.
The 88 straight wins equal the all-time men's Division I record, set by UCLA from 1971-1974. The Bruins' streak ended with a 71-70 loss at Notre Dame in a game that 1) UCLA led 70-59 with less than four minutes left and 2) TB watched at his Aunt Regina and Uncle Larry's house in Fair Lawn.
UConn's women go for No. 89 tonight against Florida State, a team that was ranked 14th before losing to a 2-8 Yale team Saturday and dropping to 22nd.
As an aside, ticket manager Stephanie Sutton and her daughter Mary attended the UConn-Ohio State game Sunday at Madison Square Garden, and that information led to having everyone in the Department of Athletics' weekly event meeting make a prediction for the game. TigerBlog predicted 81-52 UConn; the only person to pick Ohio State was event manager Steve Kanaby.
Anyway, after the game, Auriemma met with what was a much larger than normal media contingent and made some pointed comments:
"I just know there wouldn't be this many people in the room if we were chasing a woman's record. The reason everybody is having a heart attack the last four or five days is a bunch of women are threatening to break a men's record, and everybody is all up in arms about it.
"All the women are happy as hell and they can't wait to come in here and ask questions. All the guys that loved women's basketball are all excited, and all the miserable bastards that follow men's basketball and don't want us to break the record are all here because they're pissed. That's just the way it is.
"Because we're breaking a men's record, we've got a lot of people paying attention," If we were breaking a women's record, everybody would go, 'Aren't those girls nice, let's give them two paragraphs in USA Today, you know, give them one line on the bottom of ESPN and then let's send them back where they belong, in the kitchen.'"
Except for referring to the average male college basketball writers as "miserable bastards" and throwing out an unfortunate stereotype about the kitchen, Auriemma's comments are pretty close to right on the money.
And one point he might have missed is that it was John Wooden's record his team had just tied; he some obscure coach from the 1930s won 88 straight, it wouldn't have been as big a deal. Because of Wooden, the 88 straight wins became a number embedded in American sports history.
Contrast that with the people who last week said that you can't compare what UConn is doing now with what UCLA did back then, which TB couldn't disagree with more.
Actually, what UConn's women have done is in many ways similar to what UCLA did when it had its record win streak and when UCLA won 10 championships in 12 years between the 1960s and ’70s.
UCLA, at the time, was the place where the dominant players went, and that was it. If you wanted to win the NCAA championship, you went to UCLA.
It's the same in women's basketball today. If you want to win an NCAA championship, where are you going to go? UConn. Maybe Stanford or Baylor? Tennessee isn't what it used to be.
See, that's how Division I men's basketball used to be. There was one team that won every year (UCLA) and a few others who mounted a challenge.
Back then, it was largely because of how the NCAA tournament worked. UCLA won four games in 1964 to win its first NCAA title, knocking off Seattle, San Francisco, Kansas State and then Duke in the final. Also, the regionals were truly regional, so UCLA only had to deal with Western teams until the Final Four.
Even in 1975, in Wooden's last year, UCLA still only had to win five games, including wins over Montana and Arizona State.
Before that year of 1975, only one team per conference could go to the NCAA tournament, and there were many examples of great teams with great records who were bumped off by another great team in the conference tournament and therefore missed the NCAAs.
In short, for almost all of the time UCLA was winning the championship under Wooden, it was competing against the weaker teams in the West and had to play four or five games in the tournament.
Don't forget the impact of television either. Back then, there were a handful of games on TV on Saturdays, and almost all of them involved UCLA. To be on TV meant going to UCLA or one of the other elite schools chasing the Bruins.
It wasn't until TV began to mushroom and the tournament began to expand that more and more teams became legitimate contenders for the NCAA title. A cynic might point out that the money involved motivated many of the schools as well.
Today in women's basketball, UConn is what UCLA was. It's the school that's on TV and the school that wins the tournament every year. What great player wouldn't want to go there? It's a perpetuating model, and, as was the case at UCLA, it might continue until the coach goes elsewhere.
But that's not the complete crux of what Auriemma was talking about. Basically, what he was saying is that the hard-core sports fan doesn't care about women's basketball (and, if you read between his lines, mocks women's basketball).
Certainly there is truth to that. Television ratings for men's games dwarf women's games, and there can be no debating that the popularity of men's sports far exceeds that of women's sports.
This is in no way a statement about the value of women's sports or athletes. It's just making the point that to the general sporting public, women's sports have not caught on.
TigerBlog was already giving this issue some thought long before Auriemma's comments.
The Princeton women's basketball team went 26-3 a year ago and is off to another strong start this year. The Princeton men's team is building on its postseason success of a year ago and is off to its own excellent start this year.
Both teams are clearly worth watching and, for Auriemma's purposes, worth covering.
And yet the attendance and coverage for the men is on average three to four times what it is for the women.
Why is this? Why do so many more people come to watch and cover the men's team? What does it say about American sports, and American culture, for that matter?
It says, TB supposes, that it takes a long time for change in habits to come. Men's sports are working on a 100 or so - or longer - year head start on women's sports. Long before women played sports on a large scale, men's sports had already become widespread staples on the national psyche.
It's not just a gender thing. TigerBlog, for instance, is amazed that millions of people still go watch Major League Baseball every year. Why do they do it? It's part of the psyche, put their long before TB or anyone around now showed up.
Maybe it'll be radically different 25 or 50 years from now. On some levels, American sport bears no resemblance to what it was 25 or50 years ago.
Still, on other levels, not much has changed in a country where pro and college football and pro baseball still rule the landscape.
UConn has zero chance of losing tonight. When the Huskies pass UCLA with their 89th striaght win, a large segment of the American sporting public and media will shrug it off, largely because they don't care about women's sports.
Hey, TigerBlog was like that before he started working at the paper and later at Princeton, before he was exposed to people who taught him the worth of women's athletics, before he saw up close how serious women's athletes are.
A large portion of the rest of the world hasn't caught up yet. That's how it is. Today.
In the future? Who knows.
Maybe a few trips to Jadwin to see the Princeton women play would help the cause.
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