TigerBlog would like to start today by taking you back to the 1997-98 season, when the Princeton men's basketball team began the season unranked and then climbed as high as eighth in the rankings.
Princeton would have the best record in Division I that year at 27-2 and would knock off UNLV in the first round of the NCAA tournament before falling to Michigan State in a game that was tied with a minute to go.
If you've forgotten that Michigan State game, then 1) the Spartans had four players who would start two years later when they won the NCAA title and 2) it still bothers TB that Princeton lost and missed out on getting North Carolina at Rupp Arena in the Sweet 16.
Anyway, of Princeton's seven Ivy home games in 1996-97 - all of which the Tigers won as they went 14-0 in the league - four drew 3,500 or fewer fans and two others drew in the 4,000s. This was a year before the huge year.
Moving ahead a season, Princeton then drew 3,021 fans to its game against UNC-Wilmington on Dec. 3, 1997, in its first game since moving into the rankings (at No. 25). The next game, against Lafayette three days later, drew 4,010.
Princeton's next home game that year wasn't until Jan. 3, 1998, against Manhattan. The crowd that night totaled 6,230; TB's biggest memory of that game was the opening tip, which Steve Goodrich won to Mitch Henderson, who got it to James Mastaglio, who dunked five seconds into what became a 77-48 win.
From that point, Princeton played eight more home games - seven Ivy games and a Division III game against the College of New Jersey. Of those eight games, six drew at least 6,000 and two drew at least 7,000.
In other words, it looks like it went like this: the team was good in 1996-97 but wasn't what it was a year later, when attendance skyrocketed. But it didn't skyrocket right away.
It took a little while for attendance to catch up to what the team was doing. It's also clear that once it became obvious that that team was something special, people wanted to see it play.
What's the point of all of this?
TigerBlog brings this up because he's wondering what women's basketball attendance will be this weekend at Jadwin Gym.
Princeton's women's basketball team is 19-0 and ranked 18th by the AP. It is the highest ranking ever for a women's basketball team in Ivy League history.
The Tigers have started to get all kinds of national attention, and deservedly so. There are only three undefeated teams in Division I basketball - the Kentucky men and the South Carolina and Princeton women. The other two are the No. 1 ranked teams in the country.
So what will it mean for a team that is currently averaging 724 fans per game?
Princeton's women have played just five home games so far this year and hasn't played at home since Jan. 10, when it defeated Penn.
The Tigers attendance so far is this:
568 for Drexel on Nov. 19
769 for Georgetown on Dec. 6
558 for Binghamton on Dec. 13
645 for Portland State on Dec. 19
1,081 for Penn on Jan. 10
And this weekend?
It'll be Columbia here Friday night at 7 and Cornell Saturday night at 6. What's your guess?
TigerBlog isn't sure. He doesn't expect lines around the block, but he thinks attendance is going to be in the 1,500-2,000 range. This would be two or three times what the first four figures for the year were.
Who knows? Maybe he's underestimating things. Maybe the crowds will top 3,000.
He does know this. If you see this team once you'll want to see it again. And, if 1998 is an indicator, a nationally ranked team is a huge attendance lift.
TigerBlog would love to see a huge turnout of men and boys too, showing that there is an appreciation for what this team is, which is fast-paced, exciting and easy to root for, rather than a sexist scorn for the women's team.
If you want to dismiss this team as "the girls' team," as TB has actually heard this year, then hopefully your cave has good internet and you can watch the game online to see for yourself. Then you'll come to the next game.
Anyway, TB can't wait to see what the numbers are.
It's part of what is great about having an incredible season, like the one Princeton's women are currently having.
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Deep Breath
TigerBlog has two more thoughts about the Super Bowl.
First, Katy Perry was pretty good, even if she's not TB's favorite singer. TigerBlog isn't a huge fan of the over-the-top Super Bowl halftime show - now copied by just about every one of the top sporting events in the country except the NCAA men's lacrosse final - though he gets that it's not going away anytime soon. And Perry was fine.
Second, back to that last call. TigerBlog firmly believes that the two biggest downfalls of most coaches on that level are 1) ego and 2) credit vs. blame.
If Seattle gave the ball to Marshawn Lynch and he ran it in (or if he tried twice and couldn't get in and Seattle lost), then nobody is going to say a word about the play call. It'll be all about the defense of the Patriots.
If the slant pass is complete for the winning touchdown, then what is the narrative? What a genius Pete Carroll is. He threw it when everyone was expecting the run. Pete Carroll. Super genius.
The more that TB thinks about it, the more he thinks that was what Carroll was actually thinking when he gave away a Super Bowl.
Okay, enough about that.
Let's talk about the weekend in Ivy League basketball.
And let's start with the women.
If you go to the women's basketball page on ESPN.com right now, you'll see a rather familiar place - Jadwin Gym. Yup, there is Jadwin, with the story "The Princeton Predicament."
The story basically wonders what seed a 30-0 Princeton team would get and if that 30-0 team would be able to play at home in the NCAA tournament.
The accompanying "bracketology" has Princeton at home, right here in Jadwin Gym. It has the Tigers as a sixth seed, hosting No. 11 Northwestern, with Albany and Louisville also here.
So let's all close our eyes and imagine Jadwin Gym with those four teams here for the NCAA tournament next month. How cool would that be?
It makes TigerBlog wonder how many people would be here. Would it fill the building? Unlikely. But still, it would be one of the best events Princeton would have hosted in all the time he's been around.
Okay, now let's all open our eyes and take a deep breath.
Right now, Princeton is 3-0 in the Ivy League and 19-0 overall. The Tigers are ranked 18th in the AP poll and 21st in the coaches' poll, and they came off of a 20-day exam break to beat Harvard by 50 and Dartmouth by 18.
They are clearly putting together something special here.
On the other hand, here's the deep breath part. Right now, Princeton is 3-0 in the Ivy League. Yale is 4-0. Penn is 3-1 - but the Quakers are the defending champion and a team that turned a 31-point loss to Princeton in the Ivy opener last year into an 16-point win over Princeton in the season finale. Cornell - here Saturday after Columbia comes to Jadwin Friday - only has one loss in the league as well.
Yes, Princeton will be favored in every game the rest of the way. But there are a lot of nights left, including, in all probability, one or two on which shots won't be falling. Then what?
And how about this? Even if Princeton thumps everyone between now and March 10, what if Penn does the same? What if that last game is a 13-0 Princeton team against a 12-1 Penn team? That would be extraordinary.
TigerBlog's point is that it's a bit too early to stamp 30-0 and home for the NCAA tournament in stone. On the other hand, it's not too early to enjoy what this team is doing and how it's doing it.
So get to Jadwin this weekend and see it for yourself.
Then there's the men's race.
Yale is also 4-0 on the men's side, followed by 3-1 Harvard and 2-1 Princeton. Columbia and Cornell, who host Princeton this weekend, are both 2-2.
Princeton had a frustrating 75-72 loss to Harvard Friday night in a game that seemed like it was between three and eight points the whole way. Princeton spent the whole night, as TigerBlog thought during the game, "pushing the rock up the hill," or, as Ben Hazel said after, "chasing its tail."
Watching the game Friday night, TigerBlog couldn't help but think about how young Princeton is (with a freshman, three sophomores and a junior in the starting lineup and more freshmen and sophomores who have played key roles at times. TB does want to say that Hazel, a senior whose playing time was limited in the beginning of the year, has really come on strong of late.
Harvard's starting five against Princeton included two seniors and two juniors, and it would have had another senior had Kenyatta Smith not been hurt. That's a big plus.
TigerBlog is interested in the Harvard-Yale score Saturday night in New Haven. A Yale win would be huge, as Harvard would suddenly be two back and in need of help to get back in the race. A Harvard win restamps the Crimson as the favorite.
And Princeton? What Princeton can do now is sweep this weekend on the road and be part of a three-team pack at the top as the league race nears the midway point.
There's a long way to go in both races. It's not too early to talk about 30-0, but it is too early to expect that it will definitely happen. On the other hand, it's too early to say that men's race is just Harvard and Yale.
Deep breaths, everyone.
First, Katy Perry was pretty good, even if she's not TB's favorite singer. TigerBlog isn't a huge fan of the over-the-top Super Bowl halftime show - now copied by just about every one of the top sporting events in the country except the NCAA men's lacrosse final - though he gets that it's not going away anytime soon. And Perry was fine.
Second, back to that last call. TigerBlog firmly believes that the two biggest downfalls of most coaches on that level are 1) ego and 2) credit vs. blame.
If Seattle gave the ball to Marshawn Lynch and he ran it in (or if he tried twice and couldn't get in and Seattle lost), then nobody is going to say a word about the play call. It'll be all about the defense of the Patriots.
If the slant pass is complete for the winning touchdown, then what is the narrative? What a genius Pete Carroll is. He threw it when everyone was expecting the run. Pete Carroll. Super genius.
The more that TB thinks about it, the more he thinks that was what Carroll was actually thinking when he gave away a Super Bowl.
Okay, enough about that.
Let's talk about the weekend in Ivy League basketball.
And let's start with the women.
If you go to the women's basketball page on ESPN.com right now, you'll see a rather familiar place - Jadwin Gym. Yup, there is Jadwin, with the story "The Princeton Predicament."
The story basically wonders what seed a 30-0 Princeton team would get and if that 30-0 team would be able to play at home in the NCAA tournament.
The accompanying "bracketology" has Princeton at home, right here in Jadwin Gym. It has the Tigers as a sixth seed, hosting No. 11 Northwestern, with Albany and Louisville also here.
So let's all close our eyes and imagine Jadwin Gym with those four teams here for the NCAA tournament next month. How cool would that be?
It makes TigerBlog wonder how many people would be here. Would it fill the building? Unlikely. But still, it would be one of the best events Princeton would have hosted in all the time he's been around.
Okay, now let's all open our eyes and take a deep breath.
Right now, Princeton is 3-0 in the Ivy League and 19-0 overall. The Tigers are ranked 18th in the AP poll and 21st in the coaches' poll, and they came off of a 20-day exam break to beat Harvard by 50 and Dartmouth by 18.
They are clearly putting together something special here.
On the other hand, here's the deep breath part. Right now, Princeton is 3-0 in the Ivy League. Yale is 4-0. Penn is 3-1 - but the Quakers are the defending champion and a team that turned a 31-point loss to Princeton in the Ivy opener last year into an 16-point win over Princeton in the season finale. Cornell - here Saturday after Columbia comes to Jadwin Friday - only has one loss in the league as well.
Yes, Princeton will be favored in every game the rest of the way. But there are a lot of nights left, including, in all probability, one or two on which shots won't be falling. Then what?
And how about this? Even if Princeton thumps everyone between now and March 10, what if Penn does the same? What if that last game is a 13-0 Princeton team against a 12-1 Penn team? That would be extraordinary.
TigerBlog's point is that it's a bit too early to stamp 30-0 and home for the NCAA tournament in stone. On the other hand, it's not too early to enjoy what this team is doing and how it's doing it.
So get to Jadwin this weekend and see it for yourself.
Then there's the men's race.
Yale is also 4-0 on the men's side, followed by 3-1 Harvard and 2-1 Princeton. Columbia and Cornell, who host Princeton this weekend, are both 2-2.
Princeton had a frustrating 75-72 loss to Harvard Friday night in a game that seemed like it was between three and eight points the whole way. Princeton spent the whole night, as TigerBlog thought during the game, "pushing the rock up the hill," or, as Ben Hazel said after, "chasing its tail."
Watching the game Friday night, TigerBlog couldn't help but think about how young Princeton is (with a freshman, three sophomores and a junior in the starting lineup and more freshmen and sophomores who have played key roles at times. TB does want to say that Hazel, a senior whose playing time was limited in the beginning of the year, has really come on strong of late.
Harvard's starting five against Princeton included two seniors and two juniors, and it would have had another senior had Kenyatta Smith not been hurt. That's a big plus.
TigerBlog is interested in the Harvard-Yale score Saturday night in New Haven. A Yale win would be huge, as Harvard would suddenly be two back and in need of help to get back in the race. A Harvard win restamps the Crimson as the favorite.
And Princeton? What Princeton can do now is sweep this weekend on the road and be part of a three-team pack at the top as the league race nears the midway point.
There's a long way to go in both races. It's not too early to talk about 30-0, but it is too early to expect that it will definitely happen. On the other hand, it's too early to say that men's race is just Harvard and Yale.
Deep breaths, everyone.
Monday, February 2, 2015
Give The Ball To Marshawn? Nah.
Maybe, just maybe, Pete Carroll was thinking that if Marshawn Lynch runs the ball in from inside the 1 with 30 seconds left in the Super Bowl that then he'd have to go answer questions from reporters and he wouldn't want to and why would he need to deal with that when he could score any number of other ways?
Is that possible?
Nothing else makes sense.
If you had to get less than a yard to win the Super Bowl and could choose any running back of the last, oh, 25 years to do it, who else would you want besides Lynch? Maybe there'd be someone else, but Lynch would be as good a choice as any.
So what did Carroll do? Well, he did more than just give away a Super Bowl.
For starters, he took all of the heat off of Bill Belichick, who for some inexplicable reason did not call timeout prior to the play where Seattle threw the interception. Had Lynch actually carried the ball in like he should have, Belichick's decision not to call timeout there would have cost New England about 25-30 crucial seconds, and he would have been crucified for it.
What other Super thoughts does TigerBlog have this morning?
* the commercials were for the most part tame. The best ones were the one in the beginning when it looked like the TV had gone out (it was a car commercial) and the very best one, the one where the Fiat accidentally gets a Viagra pill in its gas tank. And, shockingly, the Kim Kardashian one was not bad.
* the worst commercial, perhaps ever, was the Nationwide one about the little boy who couldn't do anything in his life because he died in his bathtub. Who in the world thought this was a good way to get the message across? And what exactly was the message? TigerBlog read a story that said Nationwide was flooded with complaints from parents who said their children were sobbing uncontrollably after seeing it. The one funny part was a tweet TB saw later on that had a picture of the boy in the commercial with text that said "I would have told Pete Carroll to give it to Marshawn Lynch but I died."
* TigerBlog usually is glad to see an Ivy Leaguer get a Super Bowl ring. In this case, the Ivy Leaguer is Brown's Jimmy Develin, whom TB met when he was a middle school kid and the best friend of his nephew Keith (who went on to be a football captain at Lehigh). TB is happy for Jimmy, who played a lot in the Super Bowl and who was in the right place at the right time to hug Tom Brady as soon as the game ended.
* this isn't the first time and won't be the last time that cheaters didn't have to face the music.
* TigerBlog Jr. can eat a lot of chicken wings.
* Julian Edelman picked the wrong Super Bowl to make the game-winning catch with a minute left, as nobody is talking about him today. And Seattle's Jermaine Kearse? His catch was incredible, and he will forever be remembered like David Tyree, with the catch that set up the game-winning Super Bowl touchdown. Oh wait. Scratch that.
* Eli Manning wouldn't have thrown an interception in the final 30 seconds to lose the Super Bowl.
* About halfway through the fourth quarter, TigerBlog's pregame prediction of Seattle 24, New England 14 was looking pretty good. Then the Seattle defense melted down. The call at the end took a lot of heat off the Seahawks' defense, just like it did Belichick. Oh, and Seattle seemed to lose its composure a tad after the interception.
TigerBlog was more appalled by how the Super Bowl ended than any game he can ever remember. Not disappointed. Appalled.
Anyway, with the Super Bowl behind him, TigerBlog can now talk about what was probably the best win of the weekend by a Princeton team.
It came Saturday night, when Princeton knocked off Harvard 1-0 in women's hockey.
First of all, the women's hockey team seems like it has a lot of fun. At least that's how it comes across in its videos, such as the most recent one, entitled "who is the most stylish."
Beyond that, the Tigers are having a pretty good season, the highlight of which was Saturday. Harvard came into Baker Rink ranked fourth in the country and after an OT win over Quinnipiac Friday night.
Ice hockey around these parts is an interesting animal in a world of its own, in that the teams compete for both the ECAC and Ivy League championships, with 95% of the focus on the ECAC. The games double count in the standings, so it's not like there are separate games for the ECAC and Ivy League.
Princeton has next to no chance of winning the ECAC title. The Tigers are in sixth place, seven points back of first-place Quinnipiac. Given who has to play whom the rest of the way, it's possible that Princeton mathematically can't jump over all the teams in its way.
In ECAC women's hockey, the point is to be in the top eight to make the playoffs and, even better, top four to get a quarterfinal home series. With six games to go (beginning this weekend against Colgate and Cornell in the final home weekend of the regular season), Princeton is five points ahead nine-place Colgate but three points behind the three teams - St. Lawrence, Clarkson and Cornell - who are tied for third.
In other words, Princeton has a way better chance of getting into the top four than it does of not getting into the playoffs. Princeton still has its trip to Clarkson and St. Lawrence, and should the Tigers not get to the top four, its likely there'd be another trip to either one of those or Cornell for the quarterfinals.
And the Ivy race, as it were?
Its win over Harvard puts the Tigers in first place. Princeton has 11 points (5-1-1 in the league), while Cornell and Harvard are both 5-2-0 for 10 points.
Princeton still has games with Cornell and then Yale and Brown, who are both below .500. Harvard and Cornell still meet.
The ECAC race is more important than the Ivy race, but the Ivy situation could provide a nice consolation prize. The Cornell game Friday at Baker is huge for both.
For now, TigerBlog is left to wonder what goes through some people's minds. Like Nationwide and Pete Carroll.
Sometimes, you overthink things and miss the obvious.
Is that possible?
Nothing else makes sense.
If you had to get less than a yard to win the Super Bowl and could choose any running back of the last, oh, 25 years to do it, who else would you want besides Lynch? Maybe there'd be someone else, but Lynch would be as good a choice as any.
So what did Carroll do? Well, he did more than just give away a Super Bowl.
For starters, he took all of the heat off of Bill Belichick, who for some inexplicable reason did not call timeout prior to the play where Seattle threw the interception. Had Lynch actually carried the ball in like he should have, Belichick's decision not to call timeout there would have cost New England about 25-30 crucial seconds, and he would have been crucified for it.
What other Super thoughts does TigerBlog have this morning?
* the commercials were for the most part tame. The best ones were the one in the beginning when it looked like the TV had gone out (it was a car commercial) and the very best one, the one where the Fiat accidentally gets a Viagra pill in its gas tank. And, shockingly, the Kim Kardashian one was not bad.
* the worst commercial, perhaps ever, was the Nationwide one about the little boy who couldn't do anything in his life because he died in his bathtub. Who in the world thought this was a good way to get the message across? And what exactly was the message? TigerBlog read a story that said Nationwide was flooded with complaints from parents who said their children were sobbing uncontrollably after seeing it. The one funny part was a tweet TB saw later on that had a picture of the boy in the commercial with text that said "I would have told Pete Carroll to give it to Marshawn Lynch but I died."
* TigerBlog usually is glad to see an Ivy Leaguer get a Super Bowl ring. In this case, the Ivy Leaguer is Brown's Jimmy Develin, whom TB met when he was a middle school kid and the best friend of his nephew Keith (who went on to be a football captain at Lehigh). TB is happy for Jimmy, who played a lot in the Super Bowl and who was in the right place at the right time to hug Tom Brady as soon as the game ended.
* this isn't the first time and won't be the last time that cheaters didn't have to face the music.
* TigerBlog Jr. can eat a lot of chicken wings.
* Julian Edelman picked the wrong Super Bowl to make the game-winning catch with a minute left, as nobody is talking about him today. And Seattle's Jermaine Kearse? His catch was incredible, and he will forever be remembered like David Tyree, with the catch that set up the game-winning Super Bowl touchdown. Oh wait. Scratch that.
* Eli Manning wouldn't have thrown an interception in the final 30 seconds to lose the Super Bowl.
* About halfway through the fourth quarter, TigerBlog's pregame prediction of Seattle 24, New England 14 was looking pretty good. Then the Seattle defense melted down. The call at the end took a lot of heat off the Seahawks' defense, just like it did Belichick. Oh, and Seattle seemed to lose its composure a tad after the interception.
TigerBlog was more appalled by how the Super Bowl ended than any game he can ever remember. Not disappointed. Appalled.
Anyway, with the Super Bowl behind him, TigerBlog can now talk about what was probably the best win of the weekend by a Princeton team.
It came Saturday night, when Princeton knocked off Harvard 1-0 in women's hockey.
First of all, the women's hockey team seems like it has a lot of fun. At least that's how it comes across in its videos, such as the most recent one, entitled "who is the most stylish."
Beyond that, the Tigers are having a pretty good season, the highlight of which was Saturday. Harvard came into Baker Rink ranked fourth in the country and after an OT win over Quinnipiac Friday night.
Ice hockey around these parts is an interesting animal in a world of its own, in that the teams compete for both the ECAC and Ivy League championships, with 95% of the focus on the ECAC. The games double count in the standings, so it's not like there are separate games for the ECAC and Ivy League.
Princeton has next to no chance of winning the ECAC title. The Tigers are in sixth place, seven points back of first-place Quinnipiac. Given who has to play whom the rest of the way, it's possible that Princeton mathematically can't jump over all the teams in its way.
In ECAC women's hockey, the point is to be in the top eight to make the playoffs and, even better, top four to get a quarterfinal home series. With six games to go (beginning this weekend against Colgate and Cornell in the final home weekend of the regular season), Princeton is five points ahead nine-place Colgate but three points behind the three teams - St. Lawrence, Clarkson and Cornell - who are tied for third.
In other words, Princeton has a way better chance of getting into the top four than it does of not getting into the playoffs. Princeton still has its trip to Clarkson and St. Lawrence, and should the Tigers not get to the top four, its likely there'd be another trip to either one of those or Cornell for the quarterfinals.
And the Ivy race, as it were?
Its win over Harvard puts the Tigers in first place. Princeton has 11 points (5-1-1 in the league), while Cornell and Harvard are both 5-2-0 for 10 points.
Princeton still has games with Cornell and then Yale and Brown, who are both below .500. Harvard and Cornell still meet.
The ECAC race is more important than the Ivy race, but the Ivy situation could provide a nice consolation prize. The Cornell game Friday at Baker is huge for both.
For now, TigerBlog is left to wonder what goes through some people's minds. Like Nationwide and Pete Carroll.
Sometimes, you overthink things and miss the obvious.
Friday, January 30, 2015
Seahawks 24, Cheaters 14
TigerBlog doesn't need an investigation about deflated footballs.
There aren't too many possible conclusions based on these three facts: 1) the referee of the AFC championship game certified that 2.5 hours before kickoff that the balls that the Patriots were going to be using were properly inflated; 2) at the half 11 of the 12 balls weren't; and 3) all 12 of the balls the Colts used were still properly inflated.
Because the balls for the Colts were still at the regulation weight, then no environmental factors caused the deflation.
So what can be concluded?
Either the ref is lying and the balls weren't properly inflated the first time (which is unlikely) or someone who had access to the balls for the Patriots deflated them. One of those two. That's it.
And if it's the second? Well, sorry, but TigerBlog will never believe that head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady didn't know about it. Any other conclusion is ridiculous.
So where does that leave the Super Bowl for Sunday, between the Patriots and the Seahawks? Well, it leaves TigerBlog to root for Seattle.
On the one hand, that's fairly easy. BrotherBlog lives in Seattle. He's rooting for the Seahawks, even if he's not quite a huge Xs and Os guy.
On the other hand? Seattle has some guys who make it easy not to root for them.
Take Marshawn Lynch. TigerBlog isn't quite sure what to make out of this situation, of one of the key members of a Super Bowl team who so openly mocks the media and, to be honest, embarrasses himself in the process by constantly repeating "I'm just here so I don't get fined" and then giving a rambling two-minute diatribe.
TigerBlog thinks Lynch is being a jerk. He's coming across as a typical spoiled athlete who feels no obligation either to the fans or to the media, who have clearly played a role in getting him where he is today.
On the other hand, it's better than listening to one of those "blah blah blah" press conferences where every comment is measured and nothing is actually said.
As for the on-field game, TigerBlog thinks the Seahawks will do enough to slow down New England and Russell Wilson will do enough to put some points on the board. He figures it'll be 24-14 Seattle.
Unless New England does something else to cheat.
In the meantime, another New England team is a bigger focus for TigerBlog this weekend. That would be Harvard.
Princeton takes on Harvard in men's and women's basketball tonight (men at home, women on the road). The men tip at 6 on Carril Court; ESPNU will televise it.
The women will wait an extra hour to tip-off in Cambridge. Hey, they've waited 20 days; what's another hour?
Both teams finish their weekends by playing Dartmouth at 6. By tomorrow around 8, then, there will be a lot more known about the Ivy basketball races.
Start with the women.
Princeton is 17-0, 1-0 in the league after dismantling Penn in the Ivy opener three weekends ago. Since then, Princeton has not played.
The Tigers are ranked 19th in the country, the highest ranking ever in Ivy women's basketball. They are also one of only two teams in Division I who remain unbeaten, along with No. 1 South Carolina.
None of that matters at all tonight.
Harvard is 1-1 in the league, having split with Dartmouth. A year ago, Princeton fell behind Harvard early, tried to come back and ultimately couldn't.
Did being off for 20 days factor into it? Who knows.
Princeton was playing so well before the break. Can that momentum be sustained or reestablished? Check the score after 14 minutes. In the game a year ago after break, Harvard led Princeton by 18.
If Princeton sweeps this weekend, it'll be, among other things, two games clear of Harvard. It'll possibly be two games clear of Penn as well, with two wins and a Harvard win over Penn.
On the other hand, a loss in either game changes everything. Princeton would still be the league favorite, but it won't be the prohibitive favorite that it is now.
In fact, a loss by the Princeton women will have the same effect that Harvard's loss to Dartmouth in men's basketball had last weekend. Harvard is probably still the favorite in the league race, but it's not going to be a cakewalk.
Right now, Yale is undefeated at 2-0, with Princeton at 1-0. Everyone else has at least one loss.
Is the men's race wide open, or was the stumble by Harvard last weekend a slight hiccup?
It starts to get sorted out more this weekend.
As for Princeton, preseason predictions and who may or may not still be the favorite aren't the issue tonight. For Princeton, tonight is about being in the perfect position to make its own statement.
The Tigers are at home. They are fresh after exams and the Division III tuneup win over Rowan Sunday afternoon. It's a great opportunity.
Right now, Princeton has played just one league game. Nobody has played more than two.
Clearly, nobody is going to win the league championship this weekend, on the men's side or the women's side. This weekend isn't about that.
It's about starting to shape the dynamic of the race.
In that regard, this weekend is huge.
There aren't too many possible conclusions based on these three facts: 1) the referee of the AFC championship game certified that 2.5 hours before kickoff that the balls that the Patriots were going to be using were properly inflated; 2) at the half 11 of the 12 balls weren't; and 3) all 12 of the balls the Colts used were still properly inflated.
Because the balls for the Colts were still at the regulation weight, then no environmental factors caused the deflation.
So what can be concluded?
Either the ref is lying and the balls weren't properly inflated the first time (which is unlikely) or someone who had access to the balls for the Patriots deflated them. One of those two. That's it.
And if it's the second? Well, sorry, but TigerBlog will never believe that head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady didn't know about it. Any other conclusion is ridiculous.
So where does that leave the Super Bowl for Sunday, between the Patriots and the Seahawks? Well, it leaves TigerBlog to root for Seattle.
On the one hand, that's fairly easy. BrotherBlog lives in Seattle. He's rooting for the Seahawks, even if he's not quite a huge Xs and Os guy.
On the other hand? Seattle has some guys who make it easy not to root for them.
Take Marshawn Lynch. TigerBlog isn't quite sure what to make out of this situation, of one of the key members of a Super Bowl team who so openly mocks the media and, to be honest, embarrasses himself in the process by constantly repeating "I'm just here so I don't get fined" and then giving a rambling two-minute diatribe.
TigerBlog thinks Lynch is being a jerk. He's coming across as a typical spoiled athlete who feels no obligation either to the fans or to the media, who have clearly played a role in getting him where he is today.
On the other hand, it's better than listening to one of those "blah blah blah" press conferences where every comment is measured and nothing is actually said.
As for the on-field game, TigerBlog thinks the Seahawks will do enough to slow down New England and Russell Wilson will do enough to put some points on the board. He figures it'll be 24-14 Seattle.
Unless New England does something else to cheat.
In the meantime, another New England team is a bigger focus for TigerBlog this weekend. That would be Harvard.
Princeton takes on Harvard in men's and women's basketball tonight (men at home, women on the road). The men tip at 6 on Carril Court; ESPNU will televise it.
The women will wait an extra hour to tip-off in Cambridge. Hey, they've waited 20 days; what's another hour?
Both teams finish their weekends by playing Dartmouth at 6. By tomorrow around 8, then, there will be a lot more known about the Ivy basketball races.
Start with the women.
Princeton is 17-0, 1-0 in the league after dismantling Penn in the Ivy opener three weekends ago. Since then, Princeton has not played.
The Tigers are ranked 19th in the country, the highest ranking ever in Ivy women's basketball. They are also one of only two teams in Division I who remain unbeaten, along with No. 1 South Carolina.
None of that matters at all tonight.
Harvard is 1-1 in the league, having split with Dartmouth. A year ago, Princeton fell behind Harvard early, tried to come back and ultimately couldn't.
Did being off for 20 days factor into it? Who knows.
Princeton was playing so well before the break. Can that momentum be sustained or reestablished? Check the score after 14 minutes. In the game a year ago after break, Harvard led Princeton by 18.
If Princeton sweeps this weekend, it'll be, among other things, two games clear of Harvard. It'll possibly be two games clear of Penn as well, with two wins and a Harvard win over Penn.
On the other hand, a loss in either game changes everything. Princeton would still be the league favorite, but it won't be the prohibitive favorite that it is now.
In fact, a loss by the Princeton women will have the same effect that Harvard's loss to Dartmouth in men's basketball had last weekend. Harvard is probably still the favorite in the league race, but it's not going to be a cakewalk.
Right now, Yale is undefeated at 2-0, with Princeton at 1-0. Everyone else has at least one loss.
Is the men's race wide open, or was the stumble by Harvard last weekend a slight hiccup?
It starts to get sorted out more this weekend.
As for Princeton, preseason predictions and who may or may not still be the favorite aren't the issue tonight. For Princeton, tonight is about being in the perfect position to make its own statement.
The Tigers are at home. They are fresh after exams and the Division III tuneup win over Rowan Sunday afternoon. It's a great opportunity.
Right now, Princeton has played just one league game. Nobody has played more than two.
Clearly, nobody is going to win the league championship this weekend, on the men's side or the women's side. This weekend isn't about that.
It's about starting to shape the dynamic of the race.
In that regard, this weekend is huge.
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Overrated Juno, Underrated Orban
TigerBlog couldn't help but laugh at the apologetic tweets of meteorologists in this area after they overestimated the coming snowfalls - dubbed Winter Storm Juno - by about 20 inches or so.
The forecast that originally was for a few inches ballooned Sunday to calls of up to 30 or more, eventually settling on about 18-24 for this area.
What happened? TigerBlog says there was about three or four inches.
Of course, the entire "the next storm of the century is coming" - or should that be "the sky is falling" - mode was triggered. This meant a run on the supermarkets and endless wall-to-wall television coverage, even when there was nothing to report.
Oh, and school closings. Based on the forecast, every school in the area announced it would be closed Monday afternoon or evening at the latest.
So what happened? It snowed a bit.
It wasn't a dusting or anything. It was a few inches, and it was definitely the most snow that's fallen around here so far this winter.
It just wasn't epic.
The ferocity of the storm missed this area and instead walloped New England. Boston, for instance, got a ton of snow.
Because the weather people got the forecast so wrong, there were more than just school closings. The New York City subway system was shut down. Driving on any New Jersey roads was banned.
These are big decisions that cost millions of dollars. And they were made based on the forecasts.
There was a great tweet from the Finnish embassy that showed a man sitting on a swing surrounded by snow everywhere, piled up over his head. He's wearing an undershirt with no coat.
What TigerBlog doesn't understand is why all of the meteorologists needed to say they were sorry. It's not like they tried to make a mistake.
As TB understands it, the difference between getting pounded by the blizzard and having it just miss was very subtle. It's not like the forecasts were for sunny and 45 degrees.
Of course, people jumped all over the incorrect weather people with their own tweets.
And why? It's because people love to jump on the mistakes others make. Hey, TigerBlog makes mistakes all the time. And people jump all over them.
Hey, it's part of putting something out there in the public domain.
So it's okay meteorologists. No biggie. Better safe than sorry.
And so now, for the first time all winter, there is noticeable snow covering the ground. This is when TB really hates winter, when he can't see the grass through the snow and when the snow turns black in the roads.
The snow arrived just a few days before the start of spring practices at Princeton. In fact, the first regular season men's lacrosse game is Sunday, when Delaware is at High Point.
Princeton opens its season against Manhattan two weeks from Saturday. This would appear to be fairly nuts.
Princeton will enter the 2015 season with two Major League Lacrosse draftees. The first is Kip Orban, the 2015 captain, who went in the third round to Charlotte; the other is Mike MacDonald, who went to Rochester in the sixth round.
It's TigerBlog's contention that Orban is as underrated a player as there is Division I lacrosse this year and, along with Sean Hartofilis of the Class of 2003, one of the two most underrated players he's seen at Princeton.
Of course, since TB is in charge of publicity for the men's lacrosse team, can the case be made that it's his fault that Orban is so underrated?
Orban was not a first-team, second-team or honorable mention All-Ivy League selection last spring. Of the 23 offensive midfielders on the Inside Lacrosse preseason All-America team, none of them are Kip Orban. He was not on IL's preseason All-Ivy League team.
On the other hand, guess who enters 2015 with the longest streak of consecutive games with at least one goal in Division I? Kip Orban, who has at least one in 26 straight.
There are only four players (three attackmen and Orban) in Division I who enter 2015 with at least goal in 16 or more games and only two (Orban and Yale's Conrad Oberbeck) who have at least one in more than 17 straight, which basically means that only four returning players had at least one goal in every one of his team's games last year.
Why is Orban so underrated? It's because he played on the same midfield line with Tom Schreiber and Jake Froccaro the last two years. Schreiber is one of the great college midfielders ever; Froccaro put up 10 goals in one game a year ago.
Orban? He's steady, solid, tough, effective, reliable. Just not high profile.
Even the draft pointed that out.
Orban was picked in the third round, the eighth offensive middie taken. With his size and strong outside shot, he could be an effective two-point shooter in MLL. The team he joins finished last in the league in scoring a year ago, so he has a chance to help right away.
Of course, when it came time for the Major League Lacrosse website to track the draft, one pick was omitted. Orban was selected right after Cornell's Matt Donovan, but, Orban's name never appears. It still doesn't, most of a week later.
Right. Of course it doesn't.
That's the kind of thing that happens when you're this underrated.
The forecast that originally was for a few inches ballooned Sunday to calls of up to 30 or more, eventually settling on about 18-24 for this area.
What happened? TigerBlog says there was about three or four inches.
Of course, the entire "the next storm of the century is coming" - or should that be "the sky is falling" - mode was triggered. This meant a run on the supermarkets and endless wall-to-wall television coverage, even when there was nothing to report.
Oh, and school closings. Based on the forecast, every school in the area announced it would be closed Monday afternoon or evening at the latest.
So what happened? It snowed a bit.
It wasn't a dusting or anything. It was a few inches, and it was definitely the most snow that's fallen around here so far this winter.
It just wasn't epic.
The ferocity of the storm missed this area and instead walloped New England. Boston, for instance, got a ton of snow.
Because the weather people got the forecast so wrong, there were more than just school closings. The New York City subway system was shut down. Driving on any New Jersey roads was banned.
These are big decisions that cost millions of dollars. And they were made based on the forecasts.
There was a great tweet from the Finnish embassy that showed a man sitting on a swing surrounded by snow everywhere, piled up over his head. He's wearing an undershirt with no coat.
What TigerBlog doesn't understand is why all of the meteorologists needed to say they were sorry. It's not like they tried to make a mistake.
As TB understands it, the difference between getting pounded by the blizzard and having it just miss was very subtle. It's not like the forecasts were for sunny and 45 degrees.
Of course, people jumped all over the incorrect weather people with their own tweets.
And why? It's because people love to jump on the mistakes others make. Hey, TigerBlog makes mistakes all the time. And people jump all over them.
Hey, it's part of putting something out there in the public domain.
So it's okay meteorologists. No biggie. Better safe than sorry.
And so now, for the first time all winter, there is noticeable snow covering the ground. This is when TB really hates winter, when he can't see the grass through the snow and when the snow turns black in the roads.
The snow arrived just a few days before the start of spring practices at Princeton. In fact, the first regular season men's lacrosse game is Sunday, when Delaware is at High Point.
Princeton opens its season against Manhattan two weeks from Saturday. This would appear to be fairly nuts.
Princeton will enter the 2015 season with two Major League Lacrosse draftees. The first is Kip Orban, the 2015 captain, who went in the third round to Charlotte; the other is Mike MacDonald, who went to Rochester in the sixth round.
It's TigerBlog's contention that Orban is as underrated a player as there is Division I lacrosse this year and, along with Sean Hartofilis of the Class of 2003, one of the two most underrated players he's seen at Princeton.
Of course, since TB is in charge of publicity for the men's lacrosse team, can the case be made that it's his fault that Orban is so underrated?
Orban was not a first-team, second-team or honorable mention All-Ivy League selection last spring. Of the 23 offensive midfielders on the Inside Lacrosse preseason All-America team, none of them are Kip Orban. He was not on IL's preseason All-Ivy League team.
On the other hand, guess who enters 2015 with the longest streak of consecutive games with at least one goal in Division I? Kip Orban, who has at least one in 26 straight.
There are only four players (three attackmen and Orban) in Division I who enter 2015 with at least goal in 16 or more games and only two (Orban and Yale's Conrad Oberbeck) who have at least one in more than 17 straight, which basically means that only four returning players had at least one goal in every one of his team's games last year.
Why is Orban so underrated? It's because he played on the same midfield line with Tom Schreiber and Jake Froccaro the last two years. Schreiber is one of the great college midfielders ever; Froccaro put up 10 goals in one game a year ago.
Orban? He's steady, solid, tough, effective, reliable. Just not high profile.
Even the draft pointed that out.
Orban was picked in the third round, the eighth offensive middie taken. With his size and strong outside shot, he could be an effective two-point shooter in MLL. The team he joins finished last in the league in scoring a year ago, so he has a chance to help right away.
Of course, when it came time for the Major League Lacrosse website to track the draft, one pick was omitted. Orban was selected right after Cornell's Matt Donovan, but, Orban's name never appears. It still doesn't, most of a week later.
Right. Of course it doesn't.
That's the kind of thing that happens when you're this underrated.
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Rest In Peace, Bob Callahan
Why?
That's TigerBlog's question. Why did Bob Callahan, of all people, have to be taken away so young, knocked down in his prime by a vicious form of brain cancer, one that he fought hard til the end, which finally came yesterday, long after it was supposed to.
There are no answers to this, of course. TigerBlog has asked this question before, about many others, including his own mother.
Why? Why would someone like Bob Callahan not be given the gift of longevity? Certainly he deserved it.
TigerBlog can't overstate enough just how great of a man Bob Callahan was, as a coach, a family man, an opponent, a co-worker, a friend - however someone knew him.
Bob Callahan was the men's squash coach at Princeton for more than 30 years. Before that, he played squash at Princeton, as an All-America and captain of a national championship team, before he graduated in 1977, which made him a fixture in Jadwin Gym for as long as anyone.
He was a man of courage, grace, humility, humor and strength. He was a man of class, dignity, honor.
He fought this disease hard, harder than anyone could be expected to, long after it was obvious that he would not be the winner in this fight.
Back in the summer, Kim Meszaros, the assistant to the Director of Athletics, sent out an email asking members of the department to sign up to go see Bob on mornings when Bob's wife Kristen had to work at her job as a teacher at Mercer County College.
TigerBlog signed up for the first shift on the first day. It was Tuesday, Sept. 30. As it turned out, it was Bob and Kristen's anniversary. Their 36th.
Kristen explained to TigerBlog that morning that they had married young, at 23.
Bob's birthday was July 4. That made him 59 years old at the time of his death.
That morning back in September, Kristen explained that the doctors had given him two to seven more weeks to live. That was nearly four months ago.
That's toughness.
When TigerBlog was there that morning, Kristen warned him that Bob was in and out of it and that he'd probably sleep the whole time. Instead, he was the same Bob Callahan he'd always been - funny, alert, attentive, welcoming, considerate.
He remembered little details about TigerBlog's kids that TB couldn't believe he would. He joked with TB in that same, subtle, understated humor that he always did. He talked about the future with great anticipation.
Yes, his body was ravaged by then. He couldn't get out of bed. His voice was soft.
He was still Bob Callahan.
When TigerBlog left, he was sure it would be the last time he'd ever see Bob Callahan. As it turned out, it was.
In some ways, that's good, that TB's last memories of Bob mirror so much his earliest ones, going back a few decades.
Make no mistake, the man was a ferocious competitor. He won Ivy championships, national team championships. He coached individual champions.
TigerBlog remembers most the epic national final in 2012, when Princeton ended the 13-year run of national titles by Trinity in one of the greatest sporting events in Princeton athletic history.
Beyond the wins and the losses, Bob won every sportsmanship award there was. When he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in Philadelphia in 2012, the genuine respect and affection that was afforded to him by those he'd coached against was obvious.
It was in between those two events, the national championship in the winter of 2012 and the Hall of Fame induction in October, that Bob found out about his illness. He poo-poohed it at first, making it seem like he had a small health issue, like a cold that wouldn't go away or something.
He actually sat in TigerBlog's office and described the radiation treatments he was receiving as "nice," as in how nice all the people there were. Nice? The man had just found out that his life had been shortened by decades, and he used words like "nice" to describe the situation.
TigerBlog knew the end was coming, but it was still a jolt last night to see the email that announced it. TigerBlog read the words that Kristen wrote and couldn't help but admire her too, her own grace and courage and toughness.
Mostly, TigerBlog couldn''t help but smile when he thought about Bob, walking around Jadwin, stopping in to joke about something, asking how TB was and genuinely caring about what the response was.
That's how Bob would want it. TigerBlog knows that's a cliche, but in this case it's true. He'd want people to smile and laugh when they think about his life.
His passing is unexplainable. It's unfair.
TigerBlog goes back to his original question. Why?
What forces in the universe could allow someone like him to not reach 60 years old? Or at the very least, how are those who knew him to ever make sense of it?
Besides Bob's family, the one who was probably closest to him was Gail Ramsay, the longtime Princeton women's squash coach.
It was back maybe 12 or so years ago that TigerBlog took up playing squash, encouraged by Bob and Gail.
TigerBlog's favorite memories of Bob are the ones in the middle of workdays on C level of Jadwin Gym, when TigerBlog would stand in the hallway outside of the two adjoining squash offices and either go over the pre-match strategy or report on what went right or wrong after the match.
Both coaches would laugh at TB and his lack of squash fundamentals. Hold the racket tight and hit the ball as hard as possible. That's about all TB knew.
But they both encouraged him. They both loved to hear all about it.
That's how Gail is. And it's how Bob was.
TigerBlog, when he closes his eyes, can see Bob, in his short white tennis shorts and windbreaker. He can hear that soothing voice. He can see his smile and still feel the warmth that accompanied him when he'd walk into the office.
Now he's gone. It's unfair.
He will always be one of the greatest people TigerBlog ever met and one of the finest who ever set foot in Jadwin Gym or represented Princeton Athletics.
He wouldn't want it or be happy to know it, but TigerBlog shed a few tears when he saw his friend was gone. He couldn't help it, and those tears were replaced by the flood of happy memories, of happy times they shared, up until the last time TigerBlog ever saw him.
He was a beautiful, wonderful man.
That's TigerBlog's question. Why did Bob Callahan, of all people, have to be taken away so young, knocked down in his prime by a vicious form of brain cancer, one that he fought hard til the end, which finally came yesterday, long after it was supposed to.
There are no answers to this, of course. TigerBlog has asked this question before, about many others, including his own mother.
Why? Why would someone like Bob Callahan not be given the gift of longevity? Certainly he deserved it.
TigerBlog can't overstate enough just how great of a man Bob Callahan was, as a coach, a family man, an opponent, a co-worker, a friend - however someone knew him.
Bob Callahan was the men's squash coach at Princeton for more than 30 years. Before that, he played squash at Princeton, as an All-America and captain of a national championship team, before he graduated in 1977, which made him a fixture in Jadwin Gym for as long as anyone.
He was a man of courage, grace, humility, humor and strength. He was a man of class, dignity, honor.
He fought this disease hard, harder than anyone could be expected to, long after it was obvious that he would not be the winner in this fight.
Back in the summer, Kim Meszaros, the assistant to the Director of Athletics, sent out an email asking members of the department to sign up to go see Bob on mornings when Bob's wife Kristen had to work at her job as a teacher at Mercer County College.
TigerBlog signed up for the first shift on the first day. It was Tuesday, Sept. 30. As it turned out, it was Bob and Kristen's anniversary. Their 36th.
Kristen explained to TigerBlog that morning that they had married young, at 23.
Bob's birthday was July 4. That made him 59 years old at the time of his death.
That morning back in September, Kristen explained that the doctors had given him two to seven more weeks to live. That was nearly four months ago.
That's toughness.
When TigerBlog was there that morning, Kristen warned him that Bob was in and out of it and that he'd probably sleep the whole time. Instead, he was the same Bob Callahan he'd always been - funny, alert, attentive, welcoming, considerate.
He remembered little details about TigerBlog's kids that TB couldn't believe he would. He joked with TB in that same, subtle, understated humor that he always did. He talked about the future with great anticipation.
Yes, his body was ravaged by then. He couldn't get out of bed. His voice was soft.
He was still Bob Callahan.
When TigerBlog left, he was sure it would be the last time he'd ever see Bob Callahan. As it turned out, it was.
In some ways, that's good, that TB's last memories of Bob mirror so much his earliest ones, going back a few decades.
Make no mistake, the man was a ferocious competitor. He won Ivy championships, national team championships. He coached individual champions.
TigerBlog remembers most the epic national final in 2012, when Princeton ended the 13-year run of national titles by Trinity in one of the greatest sporting events in Princeton athletic history.
Beyond the wins and the losses, Bob won every sportsmanship award there was. When he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in Philadelphia in 2012, the genuine respect and affection that was afforded to him by those he'd coached against was obvious.
It was in between those two events, the national championship in the winter of 2012 and the Hall of Fame induction in October, that Bob found out about his illness. He poo-poohed it at first, making it seem like he had a small health issue, like a cold that wouldn't go away or something.
He actually sat in TigerBlog's office and described the radiation treatments he was receiving as "nice," as in how nice all the people there were. Nice? The man had just found out that his life had been shortened by decades, and he used words like "nice" to describe the situation.
TigerBlog knew the end was coming, but it was still a jolt last night to see the email that announced it. TigerBlog read the words that Kristen wrote and couldn't help but admire her too, her own grace and courage and toughness.
Mostly, TigerBlog couldn''t help but smile when he thought about Bob, walking around Jadwin, stopping in to joke about something, asking how TB was and genuinely caring about what the response was.
That's how Bob would want it. TigerBlog knows that's a cliche, but in this case it's true. He'd want people to smile and laugh when they think about his life.
His passing is unexplainable. It's unfair.
TigerBlog goes back to his original question. Why?
What forces in the universe could allow someone like him to not reach 60 years old? Or at the very least, how are those who knew him to ever make sense of it?
Besides Bob's family, the one who was probably closest to him was Gail Ramsay, the longtime Princeton women's squash coach.
It was back maybe 12 or so years ago that TigerBlog took up playing squash, encouraged by Bob and Gail.
TigerBlog's favorite memories of Bob are the ones in the middle of workdays on C level of Jadwin Gym, when TigerBlog would stand in the hallway outside of the two adjoining squash offices and either go over the pre-match strategy or report on what went right or wrong after the match.
Both coaches would laugh at TB and his lack of squash fundamentals. Hold the racket tight and hit the ball as hard as possible. That's about all TB knew.
But they both encouraged him. They both loved to hear all about it.
That's how Gail is. And it's how Bob was.
TigerBlog, when he closes his eyes, can see Bob, in his short white tennis shorts and windbreaker. He can hear that soothing voice. He can see his smile and still feel the warmth that accompanied him when he'd walk into the office.
Now he's gone. It's unfair.
He will always be one of the greatest people TigerBlog ever met and one of the finest who ever set foot in Jadwin Gym or represented Princeton Athletics.
He wouldn't want it or be happy to know it, but TigerBlog shed a few tears when he saw his friend was gone. He couldn't help it, and those tears were replaced by the flood of happy memories, of happy times they shared, up until the last time TigerBlog ever saw him.
He was a beautiful, wonderful man.
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Snowballs and Basketballs
If, like TigerBlog, you have an iPhone, you know that your weather app can be a bit frustrating.
First of all, the temperature rarely is what the app says it's going to be. Second, it doesn't give any details to a forecast.
There have been about 20 times, or maybe even more, this season that TigerBlog's app has shown a little snowflake for the forecast. At various times, it's meant anything from a few flurries to a few inches to nothing at all.
In fact, for the entire winter of 2014-15 to date, the greater Princeton metropolitan area has seen very little in the way of snow, which is how TB likes it. He's definitely a summer guy.
A year ago, there were endless snowstorms and bitter, bitter cold throughout. This year? It's been cold but rarely horribly so, and there's been almost no snow.
Because of that, TigerBlog didn't take it all that seriously when he first saw a snowflake next to yesterday and today on his iPhone weather app. Even as late as Sunday afternoon, it didn't seem like it was going to be all that big a deal.
The forecast was calling for 1-3 inches. TB can handle that.
Then, late Sunday afternoon, it all changed. Dramatically.
In the span of about 10 minutes, the forecast went from 1-3 inches to 10-14 to "one of the worst storms in history," with forecasts for as much as 30 inches.
TigerBlog has been through some bad snowstorms, and he can remember a few with at least 30 inches. That's a lot of snow.
He remembers shoveling out from one storm and then walking through the rest of it down the street to a huge feast at a neighbor's house and wearing shorts while doing so.
He remembers as a kid when a storm wiped out an entire week of school.
TigerBlog hates shoveling snow, so he likes winters without much snow. He often wonders why he doesn't live in Florida.
Ah, but he lives here. And apparently "here" has dodged the worst of this one.
There is another little snowflake on his weather app for Friday, which would be a real shame, since Friday figures to bring the biggest crowd of the year to Jadwin Gym.
Princeton hosts Harvard in men's basketball, and to say this is a huge game for both teams might not be quite correct, given that Princeton has 13 Ivy games to play and Harvard has 12.
Still, there is a lot on the line for that game, even more so after what happened over the weekend.
Harvard is the preseason favorite and three-time defending league champion. The Crimson were close, if not in, the national rankings in the preseason.
When Harvard arrives at Jadwin Friday, it'll be doing so after having lost its last game to Dartmouth 70-61, done in by a 26-2 run by the Big Green. Using another app, TigerBlog saw the Crimson up by 11 in the second half and assumed it was over - and then he saw Dartmouth pull away to win.
Yale survived Brown Saturday, and Cornell beat Columbia. Penn, for its part, beat St. Joe's.
And even Princeton played, doubling up Rowan 96-48 in its return game after first-semester exams.
So where does it leave the Ivy League?
Well, right now, Yale in in first place at 2-0. Princeton is 1-0. No other team is unbeaten.
Harvard is 1-1, as are Columbia, Dartmouth and Cornell. Penn is 0-1. Brown is 0-2.
And what does that mean for Friday night?
It means a lot.
Harvard will come to Jadwin looking to reestablish itself. Princeton would be looking to deal the Crimson another setback, which would really change the shape of the race.
How many wins will it take to win the league? Will it be 11 or 12? If it's 12, then a 1-2 Harvard team would have no margin for error.
And Yale? The Bulldogs are 13-6 overall, with a win over UConn and a really close loss at Vanderbilt - and losses to Albany and NJIT. Yale needed to come back to beat Brown, and the Bulldogs held off the Bears 69-65.
Princeton has had moments of struggle and moments where it's looked really good so far this year. None of it matters now.
Now the Tigers are 1-0 with a 13-game sprint to the finish about to start. And it starts against a team that is in desperate need of a victory.
Yes, Princeton and Harvard have combined to play three of their 28 league games between them. But yes, it's a big game Friday night.
Hopefully that little snowflake goes away on the app.
A big game deserves a big crowd.
First of all, the temperature rarely is what the app says it's going to be. Second, it doesn't give any details to a forecast.
There have been about 20 times, or maybe even more, this season that TigerBlog's app has shown a little snowflake for the forecast. At various times, it's meant anything from a few flurries to a few inches to nothing at all.
In fact, for the entire winter of 2014-15 to date, the greater Princeton metropolitan area has seen very little in the way of snow, which is how TB likes it. He's definitely a summer guy.
A year ago, there were endless snowstorms and bitter, bitter cold throughout. This year? It's been cold but rarely horribly so, and there's been almost no snow.
Because of that, TigerBlog didn't take it all that seriously when he first saw a snowflake next to yesterday and today on his iPhone weather app. Even as late as Sunday afternoon, it didn't seem like it was going to be all that big a deal.
The forecast was calling for 1-3 inches. TB can handle that.
Then, late Sunday afternoon, it all changed. Dramatically.
In the span of about 10 minutes, the forecast went from 1-3 inches to 10-14 to "one of the worst storms in history," with forecasts for as much as 30 inches.
TigerBlog has been through some bad snowstorms, and he can remember a few with at least 30 inches. That's a lot of snow.
He remembers shoveling out from one storm and then walking through the rest of it down the street to a huge feast at a neighbor's house and wearing shorts while doing so.
He remembers as a kid when a storm wiped out an entire week of school.
TigerBlog hates shoveling snow, so he likes winters without much snow. He often wonders why he doesn't live in Florida.
Ah, but he lives here. And apparently "here" has dodged the worst of this one.
There is another little snowflake on his weather app for Friday, which would be a real shame, since Friday figures to bring the biggest crowd of the year to Jadwin Gym.
Princeton hosts Harvard in men's basketball, and to say this is a huge game for both teams might not be quite correct, given that Princeton has 13 Ivy games to play and Harvard has 12.
Still, there is a lot on the line for that game, even more so after what happened over the weekend.
Harvard is the preseason favorite and three-time defending league champion. The Crimson were close, if not in, the national rankings in the preseason.
When Harvard arrives at Jadwin Friday, it'll be doing so after having lost its last game to Dartmouth 70-61, done in by a 26-2 run by the Big Green. Using another app, TigerBlog saw the Crimson up by 11 in the second half and assumed it was over - and then he saw Dartmouth pull away to win.
Yale survived Brown Saturday, and Cornell beat Columbia. Penn, for its part, beat St. Joe's.
And even Princeton played, doubling up Rowan 96-48 in its return game after first-semester exams.
So where does it leave the Ivy League?
Well, right now, Yale in in first place at 2-0. Princeton is 1-0. No other team is unbeaten.
Harvard is 1-1, as are Columbia, Dartmouth and Cornell. Penn is 0-1. Brown is 0-2.
And what does that mean for Friday night?
It means a lot.
Harvard will come to Jadwin looking to reestablish itself. Princeton would be looking to deal the Crimson another setback, which would really change the shape of the race.
How many wins will it take to win the league? Will it be 11 or 12? If it's 12, then a 1-2 Harvard team would have no margin for error.
And Yale? The Bulldogs are 13-6 overall, with a win over UConn and a really close loss at Vanderbilt - and losses to Albany and NJIT. Yale needed to come back to beat Brown, and the Bulldogs held off the Bears 69-65.
Princeton has had moments of struggle and moments where it's looked really good so far this year. None of it matters now.
Now the Tigers are 1-0 with a 13-game sprint to the finish about to start. And it starts against a team that is in desperate need of a victory.
Yes, Princeton and Harvard have combined to play three of their 28 league games between them. But yes, it's a big game Friday night.
Hopefully that little snowflake goes away on the app.
A big game deserves a big crowd.
Monday, January 26, 2015
Back On The Ice
TigerBlog saw the video on goprincetontigers.com from the women's hockey team, where several members of the team answer the question of who would play them in a movie?
It's fun stuff, as the players chuckle their way through their answers. And the video includes a picture of the actress - or in one case, animated figure - who would play each player.
When Princeton Athletics went away from printing media guides in favor of video, this was the kind of thing that TigerBlog had in mind. It's simple, and yet it gives such a great look into the athletes and what they're really like.
Oh, and before he goes too much further, TigerBlog would like to answer the question for himself.
He feels like Albert Brooks would be a good choice, though he's a little older than TB. Maybe John Cusack, who is closer, though a little younger.
No, let's stay with Albert Brooks. He has TB's subtler humor and sarcasm down. It'll be up to him to figure out how to be younger. He can do it.
Speaking of the young Albert Brooks, there he was Friday night on "The Odd Couple," which is on MeTV Friday's at 10 and 10:30. The show is among TB's very, very favorites.
The second episode Friday night was the "Mandar Cologne" episode, in which Brooks plays an advertising man who forces Felix to use Oscar as a model. It doesn't go well. Felix, frustrated, ends up informing Brooks that "Mandar Cologne smells like a World War II undershirt."
And while he's on the subject, TB would also like to throw out there that he doubts the new "Odd Couple" will be any good.
With that out of the way, TigerBlog is back to the women's hockey team.
The Princeton women are on a two-game winning streak, the momentum of which vanished after the Tigers took two weeks off for first semester exams.
Princeton's opponent in its return from exams is also on a winning streak, one that is 10 times longer than Princeton's. The Tigers will be at Boston College this afternoon at 1, and if the challenge of playing after 16 days off isn't enough, well, how about when the opponent is the No. 1 team in the country?
Boston College is 23-0-1 on the year and the winner of 20 straight. It's only blemish is a 2-2 tie against St. Lawrence back on Oct. 11, which just happened to be the same day that Princeton played Colgate - in football.
After the game against BC, Princeton will have four more ECAC weekends left, with two straight at home and then two more on the road.
It begins this weekend, when the Tigers host Dartmouth and Harvard. Colgate and Cornell are at Baker Rink next weekend.
Then it's trips to Clarkson and St. Lawrence and Yale and Brown to end the regular season.
Princeton has already played all eight of those teams once this season and went 5-3-0 in those eight games.
Unlike the men's side of the ECAC, only the top eight of 12 teams among the women get into the playoffs. Princeton is currently in sixth place, and the Tigers are comfortably ahead of ninth-place RPI (seven points) for a playoff spot.
The goal, though, is to get to the top four and host a quarterfinal series. Right now, St. Lawrence and Cornell are tied for fourth, with 18 points, leaving Princeton on the doorstep and with some huge games to play down the stretch.
Admission for all regular-season women's hockey games is free, so that's four free women's hockey games in the next two weeks.
Of course, there's also the little matter of the game today. The one against No. 1.
And the video. Make sure you check that one out too.
That was something fun for the players during their 16-day break.
Now it's time to get back to work.
It's fun stuff, as the players chuckle their way through their answers. And the video includes a picture of the actress - or in one case, animated figure - who would play each player.
When Princeton Athletics went away from printing media guides in favor of video, this was the kind of thing that TigerBlog had in mind. It's simple, and yet it gives such a great look into the athletes and what they're really like.
Oh, and before he goes too much further, TigerBlog would like to answer the question for himself.
He feels like Albert Brooks would be a good choice, though he's a little older than TB. Maybe John Cusack, who is closer, though a little younger.
No, let's stay with Albert Brooks. He has TB's subtler humor and sarcasm down. It'll be up to him to figure out how to be younger. He can do it.
Speaking of the young Albert Brooks, there he was Friday night on "The Odd Couple," which is on MeTV Friday's at 10 and 10:30. The show is among TB's very, very favorites.
The second episode Friday night was the "Mandar Cologne" episode, in which Brooks plays an advertising man who forces Felix to use Oscar as a model. It doesn't go well. Felix, frustrated, ends up informing Brooks that "Mandar Cologne smells like a World War II undershirt."
And while he's on the subject, TB would also like to throw out there that he doubts the new "Odd Couple" will be any good.
With that out of the way, TigerBlog is back to the women's hockey team.
The Princeton women are on a two-game winning streak, the momentum of which vanished after the Tigers took two weeks off for first semester exams.
Princeton's opponent in its return from exams is also on a winning streak, one that is 10 times longer than Princeton's. The Tigers will be at Boston College this afternoon at 1, and if the challenge of playing after 16 days off isn't enough, well, how about when the opponent is the No. 1 team in the country?
Boston College is 23-0-1 on the year and the winner of 20 straight. It's only blemish is a 2-2 tie against St. Lawrence back on Oct. 11, which just happened to be the same day that Princeton played Colgate - in football.
After the game against BC, Princeton will have four more ECAC weekends left, with two straight at home and then two more on the road.
It begins this weekend, when the Tigers host Dartmouth and Harvard. Colgate and Cornell are at Baker Rink next weekend.
Then it's trips to Clarkson and St. Lawrence and Yale and Brown to end the regular season.
Princeton has already played all eight of those teams once this season and went 5-3-0 in those eight games.
Unlike the men's side of the ECAC, only the top eight of 12 teams among the women get into the playoffs. Princeton is currently in sixth place, and the Tigers are comfortably ahead of ninth-place RPI (seven points) for a playoff spot.
The goal, though, is to get to the top four and host a quarterfinal series. Right now, St. Lawrence and Cornell are tied for fourth, with 18 points, leaving Princeton on the doorstep and with some huge games to play down the stretch.
Admission for all regular-season women's hockey games is free, so that's four free women's hockey games in the next two weeks.
Of course, there's also the little matter of the game today. The one against No. 1.
And the video. Make sure you check that one out too.
That was something fun for the players during their 16-day break.
Now it's time to get back to work.
Friday, January 23, 2015
More On The Cheaters
Tom Brady thinks TigerBlog is stupid.
It's okay. TB isn't offended.
After all, Brady thinks you're stupid too.
In fact, he thinks everyone who listened to him yesterday try to "aw shucks" his way through his press conference is stupid. Brady might as well have stood up there and said he didn't realize the footballs were brown or that there even were footballs, for as much as it seemed like he was telling the truth.
Basically, this is what TigerBlog thinks happened:
Brady at some point (last week, five years ago, who knows?) mentioned to his head coach Bill Belichick that he can throw better with a slightly deflated ball and wouldn't it be funny if they took some of the air out. Then there was silence. Then they smiled at each other. Then they did it.
TigerBlog also thinks that they did the same thing against the Ravens two weeks ago, when New England won 35-31 and every edge mattered. And they figured why take a chance on another close game last week against Indianapolis, and so what if it ended up 45-7? They were ready if it was close.
TigerBlog thinks they're both cheaters. Arrogant ones at that.
Can he prove it? No.
TigerBlog saw a lot of references to "A Few Good Men," with Belichick as Colonel Jessup, ordering the code red and all, on Twitter yesterday. While we're talking about "A Few Good Men," remember a much-less famous scene, where they're practicing the interrogation and Tom Cruise goes one question too far and asks if there was any indication of anything wrong and Kevin Pollak, pretending he's the witness, says something like "other than the dead body?"
It's the same thing here. Oh, nobody got killed or anything. Brady mentioned that. He said this isn't ISIS and nobody's getting killed.
That part, by the way, gets translated this way: "can everyone please stop talking about this and move on so I don't have to be bothered by this anymore?" In fairness, Brady did play to his strength, which was to try to charm and smile his way through it.
Anyway, TB's point about the movie quote is that just like something killed Santiago, in this case somebody let the air out of the balls.
To hear them yesterday, neither Belichick nor Brady would even acknowledge knowing anything was amiss. To TB, that's not the point.
The point is that if they truly didn't do anything, they'd be angry about it. Not deflective or dancing around it. Angry. As in: "Hey, I had nothing to do with this and I demand the NFL find out what happened. When I found out who did this, I'm going to punch their lights out."
Something like that.
There is no way TigerBlog will ever believe that a ballboy or someone else took it upon himself to do this and never said a word about it. Sorry. And TB doubts too many others believe it too.
TigerBlog is willing even to make this trade-off: Patriots lose big next Sunday and the Yankees win the next World Series. That's much he's rooting against the Pats.
In fact, what if you are a Pats fan? How does all this make you feel? Can you blindly root for your team, knowing that they've been caught cheating multiple times?
TigerBlog didn't even want to talk about this again after yesterday. He figured one day was enough, and he could spend today talking about something better, like Princeton vs. Rowan basketball or something.
First semester exams are ending here, and Princeton's winter teams can return to competition beginning tomorrow.
The winter season is an odd one around here. There are games earlier and earlier in November, which leads to long stretches of no games in December and especially in January.
Then? It's a full out sprint.
For instance, there were 18 Princeton athletic events played from Jan. 1 through the start of exams. There will now be 46 more played between tomorrow and a week from Sunday.
The basketball teams play Harvard (men home, women away) a week from today. Those games mark a stretch in which the two will pack their remaining 13 league games into a 40-day run.
The next men's basketball game is Sunday, when the Tigers take on Rowan at 2 at Jadwin. Princeton has never lost in 26 games against a Division III team immediately following exam break, and only one of those games - against the College of New Jersey in 1998 - was closer than 10 points. Most have been complete blowouts.
Rowan is traditionally a strong D3 team, and the Profs are 12-4 before their game against Ramapo tomorrow. For the record, TigerBlog has covered games at Rowan (which is in Glassboro and used to be called Glassboro State) and at Ramapo, which is in north/west New Jersey.
There will be home men's hockey Tuesday against Army in another return-from-exams game.
The women's basketball team is one of two undefeated teams in Division I, along with No.1 South Carolina. In men's basketball, there are two undefeateds as well, No. 1 Kentucky and No. 2 Virginia.
The Tiger women don't have a game to ease back into things and get their legs back. They'll jump into it at Harvard and Dartmouth after 20 days off.
Soon it'll be February, the shortest month of the year but one that is as busy as it gets in Princeton Athletics.
And also the month for the Super Bowl.
Hopefully the cheaters lose.
It's okay. TB isn't offended.
After all, Brady thinks you're stupid too.
In fact, he thinks everyone who listened to him yesterday try to "aw shucks" his way through his press conference is stupid. Brady might as well have stood up there and said he didn't realize the footballs were brown or that there even were footballs, for as much as it seemed like he was telling the truth.
Basically, this is what TigerBlog thinks happened:
Brady at some point (last week, five years ago, who knows?) mentioned to his head coach Bill Belichick that he can throw better with a slightly deflated ball and wouldn't it be funny if they took some of the air out. Then there was silence. Then they smiled at each other. Then they did it.
TigerBlog also thinks that they did the same thing against the Ravens two weeks ago, when New England won 35-31 and every edge mattered. And they figured why take a chance on another close game last week against Indianapolis, and so what if it ended up 45-7? They were ready if it was close.
TigerBlog thinks they're both cheaters. Arrogant ones at that.
Can he prove it? No.
TigerBlog saw a lot of references to "A Few Good Men," with Belichick as Colonel Jessup, ordering the code red and all, on Twitter yesterday. While we're talking about "A Few Good Men," remember a much-less famous scene, where they're practicing the interrogation and Tom Cruise goes one question too far and asks if there was any indication of anything wrong and Kevin Pollak, pretending he's the witness, says something like "other than the dead body?"
It's the same thing here. Oh, nobody got killed or anything. Brady mentioned that. He said this isn't ISIS and nobody's getting killed.
That part, by the way, gets translated this way: "can everyone please stop talking about this and move on so I don't have to be bothered by this anymore?" In fairness, Brady did play to his strength, which was to try to charm and smile his way through it.
Anyway, TB's point about the movie quote is that just like something killed Santiago, in this case somebody let the air out of the balls.
To hear them yesterday, neither Belichick nor Brady would even acknowledge knowing anything was amiss. To TB, that's not the point.
The point is that if they truly didn't do anything, they'd be angry about it. Not deflective or dancing around it. Angry. As in: "Hey, I had nothing to do with this and I demand the NFL find out what happened. When I found out who did this, I'm going to punch their lights out."
Something like that.
There is no way TigerBlog will ever believe that a ballboy or someone else took it upon himself to do this and never said a word about it. Sorry. And TB doubts too many others believe it too.
TigerBlog is willing even to make this trade-off: Patriots lose big next Sunday and the Yankees win the next World Series. That's much he's rooting against the Pats.
In fact, what if you are a Pats fan? How does all this make you feel? Can you blindly root for your team, knowing that they've been caught cheating multiple times?
TigerBlog didn't even want to talk about this again after yesterday. He figured one day was enough, and he could spend today talking about something better, like Princeton vs. Rowan basketball or something.
First semester exams are ending here, and Princeton's winter teams can return to competition beginning tomorrow.
The winter season is an odd one around here. There are games earlier and earlier in November, which leads to long stretches of no games in December and especially in January.
Then? It's a full out sprint.
For instance, there were 18 Princeton athletic events played from Jan. 1 through the start of exams. There will now be 46 more played between tomorrow and a week from Sunday.
The basketball teams play Harvard (men home, women away) a week from today. Those games mark a stretch in which the two will pack their remaining 13 league games into a 40-day run.
The next men's basketball game is Sunday, when the Tigers take on Rowan at 2 at Jadwin. Princeton has never lost in 26 games against a Division III team immediately following exam break, and only one of those games - against the College of New Jersey in 1998 - was closer than 10 points. Most have been complete blowouts.
Rowan is traditionally a strong D3 team, and the Profs are 12-4 before their game against Ramapo tomorrow. For the record, TigerBlog has covered games at Rowan (which is in Glassboro and used to be called Glassboro State) and at Ramapo, which is in north/west New Jersey.
There will be home men's hockey Tuesday against Army in another return-from-exams game.
The women's basketball team is one of two undefeated teams in Division I, along with No.1 South Carolina. In men's basketball, there are two undefeateds as well, No. 1 Kentucky and No. 2 Virginia.
The Tiger women don't have a game to ease back into things and get their legs back. They'll jump into it at Harvard and Dartmouth after 20 days off.
Soon it'll be February, the shortest month of the year but one that is as busy as it gets in Princeton Athletics.
And also the month for the Super Bowl.
Hopefully the cheaters lose.
Thursday, January 22, 2015
Deflated
Raise your hand if you're shocked by any of the following:
1) that the Patriots might have cheated
2) that Bill Belichick now claims he didn't know that the footballs in the AFC championship game were deflated
3) that Bill Belichick made Pete Carroll and Richard Sherman into the sentimental favorites for the Super Bowl
Here's what TigerBlog thinks:
Bill Belichick should be banned from the NFL for a year - starting with the Super Bowl next week - and the continued specter of cheating that has hovered over him and quarterback Tom Brady for the entirety of their time together should keep them out of the Hall of Fame in the same way that it has kept out the baseball players who were linked to steroids but who never failed a drug test.
Yes, TigerBlog believes that. Hey, if you can ban a coach in New Orleans for the bounties placed on opposing players, you can ban Belichick for again threatening the integrity of the game.
He also would guess that Belichick is lying through his teeth when he says he had no knowledge that the balls were deflated. He further would guess that last Sunday wasn't the first time this had happened, and he thinks this taints every single thing Brady has accomplished, as it does for a baseball player like A-Rod.
In fact, he can't help but wonder how else these two have cheated through the years. What would surprise you? Anything?
And the idea that the Patriots creamed the Colts anyway doesn't matter. The Patriots didn't set out to cheat with the idea that the game would be a blowout anyway; they did it to get any possible edge in the event the game was close.
Does Belichick think that the rest of the world is so dumb as to believe that he knew nothing about this? He can't be allowed to simply say that and then go on and prepare for the game, as if this is no big deal.
What this is is the latest in a long run of allegations, mostly proven, that suggest that the Patriots and especially their head coach and quarterback feel that the rules do not apply to them, that they can do whatever they want to gain advantage.
To TigerBog, that makes everything they've accomplished no longer matter, as every piece of those accomplishments can be called into question. And to those who say that everyone does it, who else has gotten caught? Anyone?
This is the NFL's worst nightmare. It's the one team with the one coach and the one quarterback that the NFL would least want to see in this situation.
Now it's going to be all about this subject for an entire week prior to the game. With a league already dealing with serious issues related to domestic violence and the physical well-being of its current and former players, now all of the sudden comes another Super Bowl that will be wall-to-wall Patriots cheating.
Let's see how much courage the league has now to drop the hammer on Belichick.
Is he a great coach? In the NFL, you can't be a great coach without a great quarterback, and Belichick never started to win like this until he had Brady. Now fans are left to wonder how much of Brady's edge has come outside the rules.
Belichick, if you recall, bolted from the Jets after being hired as their head coach in 1999. How long did he last? One day. Then he fled for the Pats.
Had Belichick stayed with the Jets, would all of this success have come his way? Hah. Hardly. Now with the litany of quarterbacks that the Jets coaches have been saddled with all these years.
So all of this leaves any casual football fan, like TigerBlog, with two choices come Super Sunday. Root for the Seahawks, who themselves are not easy to root for, or don't watch.
There is still a week until the Super Bowl.
There are still a few more exams to be taken at Princeton, but the winter teams will be returning to play soon enough after what will ultimately be a 13-day break.
It begins with men's and women's track and field here Saturday, as well as women's tennis in Alabama this weekend.
When Princeton was last in Alabama, it was for the NCAA tournament last spring. Princeton, if you recall, defeated Arizona State in the first round and then barely lost to Alabama, the No. 2 team in the country.
This came on the heels of a 7-0 Ivy League season, something that isn't easy to do in women's tennis. It also came without a senior in the lineup.
The event in Alabama is something a four-team kickoff tournament, with Princeton, Alabama, Syracuse and Virginia Tech. Alabama is ranked seventh, while Princeton is 35th. Va. Tech and Syracuse are 56th and 57th.
As an aside, TigerBlog is not a fan of the word "respectively" inserted into obvious situations in sentences like the one he just wrote. It's obvious that Virginia Tech is 56 and Syracuse is 57. He doesn't need to add "respectively." In fact, it's among his least favorite words.
Anyway, the women's tennis team is clearly worth keeping an eye on this spring. The Tigers will play one home match in the next two-plus months, and that is in Jadwin Gym on Feb. 17 against Rutgers. The Ivy League schedule doesn't start until the final day of March at Penn, followed by a home weekend April 3 and 4 against Yale and Brown.
In the meantime, there's the matter of the rest of the winter sports season, which eases back into it this weekend and then begins the all-out sprint to the Ivy title finish line next weekend.
And then there's the Super Bowl.
Go Seahawks.
1) that the Patriots might have cheated
2) that Bill Belichick now claims he didn't know that the footballs in the AFC championship game were deflated
3) that Bill Belichick made Pete Carroll and Richard Sherman into the sentimental favorites for the Super Bowl
Here's what TigerBlog thinks:
Bill Belichick should be banned from the NFL for a year - starting with the Super Bowl next week - and the continued specter of cheating that has hovered over him and quarterback Tom Brady for the entirety of their time together should keep them out of the Hall of Fame in the same way that it has kept out the baseball players who were linked to steroids but who never failed a drug test.
Yes, TigerBlog believes that. Hey, if you can ban a coach in New Orleans for the bounties placed on opposing players, you can ban Belichick for again threatening the integrity of the game.
He also would guess that Belichick is lying through his teeth when he says he had no knowledge that the balls were deflated. He further would guess that last Sunday wasn't the first time this had happened, and he thinks this taints every single thing Brady has accomplished, as it does for a baseball player like A-Rod.
In fact, he can't help but wonder how else these two have cheated through the years. What would surprise you? Anything?
And the idea that the Patriots creamed the Colts anyway doesn't matter. The Patriots didn't set out to cheat with the idea that the game would be a blowout anyway; they did it to get any possible edge in the event the game was close.
Does Belichick think that the rest of the world is so dumb as to believe that he knew nothing about this? He can't be allowed to simply say that and then go on and prepare for the game, as if this is no big deal.
What this is is the latest in a long run of allegations, mostly proven, that suggest that the Patriots and especially their head coach and quarterback feel that the rules do not apply to them, that they can do whatever they want to gain advantage.
To TigerBog, that makes everything they've accomplished no longer matter, as every piece of those accomplishments can be called into question. And to those who say that everyone does it, who else has gotten caught? Anyone?
This is the NFL's worst nightmare. It's the one team with the one coach and the one quarterback that the NFL would least want to see in this situation.
Now it's going to be all about this subject for an entire week prior to the game. With a league already dealing with serious issues related to domestic violence and the physical well-being of its current and former players, now all of the sudden comes another Super Bowl that will be wall-to-wall Patriots cheating.
Let's see how much courage the league has now to drop the hammer on Belichick.
Is he a great coach? In the NFL, you can't be a great coach without a great quarterback, and Belichick never started to win like this until he had Brady. Now fans are left to wonder how much of Brady's edge has come outside the rules.
Belichick, if you recall, bolted from the Jets after being hired as their head coach in 1999. How long did he last? One day. Then he fled for the Pats.
Had Belichick stayed with the Jets, would all of this success have come his way? Hah. Hardly. Now with the litany of quarterbacks that the Jets coaches have been saddled with all these years.
So all of this leaves any casual football fan, like TigerBlog, with two choices come Super Sunday. Root for the Seahawks, who themselves are not easy to root for, or don't watch.
There is still a week until the Super Bowl.
There are still a few more exams to be taken at Princeton, but the winter teams will be returning to play soon enough after what will ultimately be a 13-day break.
It begins with men's and women's track and field here Saturday, as well as women's tennis in Alabama this weekend.
When Princeton was last in Alabama, it was for the NCAA tournament last spring. Princeton, if you recall, defeated Arizona State in the first round and then barely lost to Alabama, the No. 2 team in the country.
This came on the heels of a 7-0 Ivy League season, something that isn't easy to do in women's tennis. It also came without a senior in the lineup.
The event in Alabama is something a four-team kickoff tournament, with Princeton, Alabama, Syracuse and Virginia Tech. Alabama is ranked seventh, while Princeton is 35th. Va. Tech and Syracuse are 56th and 57th.
As an aside, TigerBlog is not a fan of the word "respectively" inserted into obvious situations in sentences like the one he just wrote. It's obvious that Virginia Tech is 56 and Syracuse is 57. He doesn't need to add "respectively." In fact, it's among his least favorite words.
Anyway, the women's tennis team is clearly worth keeping an eye on this spring. The Tigers will play one home match in the next two-plus months, and that is in Jadwin Gym on Feb. 17 against Rutgers. The Ivy League schedule doesn't start until the final day of March at Penn, followed by a home weekend April 3 and 4 against Yale and Brown.
In the meantime, there's the matter of the rest of the winter sports season, which eases back into it this weekend and then begins the all-out sprint to the Ivy title finish line next weekend.
And then there's the Super Bowl.
Go Seahawks.
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