TigerBlog spent a lot of time in his newspaper days driving to various events with another local sportswriter, Rich Fisher.
TB wrote for the Trenton Times. Fish wrote for, well, anyone who would pay him, but most notably at the time the Trentonian. Those two were big rival papers, but it didn't stop Fish and TigerBlog from carpooling to games to see Rider, or Trenton State College (now The College of New Jersey) or Mercer County College.
TB remembers when Fish had a car that was on its last legs, leaking oil to the point where he had to stop every hour or so to put more in. TB remembers that from a trip to Burlington County College, where they both were headed to cover a basketball game that also included Mercer.
As he types that now, TB can't really recall why it is that he didn't just drive. Why did Fish insist on driving?
Anyway, Fish today is what Fish was all those years ago. He's fun and funny. He's got a big heart. He cares about the people he writes about a lot. He's as close to the most universally well-liked person that TB has ever met.
Oh, and he's also an outstanding writer. Maybe it's a function of how much he cares about the people in his stories?
TB has often joked that Fish is the George Bailey of Mercer County. You know. George Bailey, from "It's A Wonderful Life," the guy who can never get out of Bedford Falls, try as he might.
There can't be too many people, if any, who have written more about high school and youth sports in Mercer County than Fish.
He's also covered his fair share of Princeton sports through the years, and it's always good to see him.
TB stumbled on a story that Fish wrote about Myles Stephens, a senior who just concluded his basketball career at Princeton. You can read the story HERE.
For as much as TB knows about Stephens, there were two things in the story by Fish that he learned.
First, there was the Pete Carril story. TigerBlog hadn't heard that one before.
Then there was the fact that Stephens was a 48 percent shooter for his career. TB would never have guessed that.
Actually, he was a little better than that, shooting .484 for his career (509 for 1,051). He also took 302 three-point shots, making 105, for a .348 percentage from three.
That also means that shot 404 for 749 on two-point shots, or .539.
If you think about Stephens and the two-point shots he took, there were basically three kinds. There were dunks, which are a very high percentage. There were hard drives through the lane, which aren't easy to be able to pull off and easy to miss.
And then, in his case, there were the turnaround floaters that he loved to shoot. As TB often said on the radio, they reminded him of the kinds of shots that Adrian Dantley used to take during his 15 year NBA career that started in the 1970s.
These are not easy shots. Stephens made them look easy, but they're not.
To put all of that together and come away just short of 50 percent is impressive. It's more so considering that Stephens was known as much for defense as he was for offense during his time playing for the Tigers.
Stephens was the Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year as a sophomore and a first-team All-Ivy pick as a sophomore and senior. As his coach, Mitch Henderson, says in Fish's story, a lot was asked of Stephens on both ends of the court.
He finished his career 10th all-time at Princeton with 1,345 points.
TB isn't sure what Stephens' plans are for the future, but he assumes they include professional basketball somewhere. He's not exactly done with Ivy League basketball, as he'll be part of the four-man Ivy League team that competes at the 3X3U national championship tournament at the Final Four, beginning tomorrow.
Stephens is on a team with Cornell's Matt Morgan, Brown's Obi Okolie and Yale's Blake Reynolds. Game 1 for the Ivy team is tomorrow at 8:30 at night, against a team from the Big Ten.
You can read more about the event and get the full schedule HERE.
Stephens played hard every night, and he was a total warrior for the Tigers.
He certainly has earned his place as one of the greats in Princeton men's basketball history, and that's saying a lot.
Thursday, April 4, 2019
Wednesday, April 3, 2019
Being Analytical
TigerBlog regularly likes to check on the analytics to see what the audience for Princeton Athletics clicks on more than anything else.
There's a lot to be learned from these numbers, and rational conclusions can be made about what it is that people want to see. And how they see it.
For instance, what percentage of visitors to goprincetontigers.com since the start of the current academic year have come from a desktop computer versus a mobile device? Guesses?
The number of visitors to the webpage tells you very little. What you really need to know is how they are accessing the site and what they're hoping to find on the site.
That's what the analytics numbers show you.
Anyway, before TB forgets, this academic year, the percentage of people who have viewed the website on a computer is 41.46. That means the percentage who have viewed it on a mobile device is 59.54, which is actually lower than TB would have figured.
One thing that TB can check easily is which bios of which athletes are the most viewed. This is informative and interesting.
For instance, which Princeton athlete would you guess has had his/her bio viewed the most since the start of the academic year? Guesses on this one?
If TigerBlog didn't know better, he'd guess that the two most viewed bios on goprincetontigers would belong to Bella Alarie and John Lovett. Instead, they rank second and fifth.
How about Michael Sowers? Nope. He's ninth.
Jesper Horsted? He's 14th, or 13 spots lower than he is on Princeton's career receptions and receiving touchdowns list.
He was a bit surprised to learn who No. 1 was. And that No. 1 had three other teammates in the top eight.
Does that narrow it down for you at all? Nope? Want to guess the team at least?
Here's a hint - the four athletes in the top eight all competed at the NCAA championships.
Did you guess wrestling?
The No. 1 most-viewed bio this academic year is by far freshman All-America wrestler Patrick Glory. His bio has been viewed 9,199 times so far this academic year. Alarie, in second, is at 7,141.
Matthew Kolodzik, now a three-time All-America, is third. Patrick Brucki, Princeton's third All-America, was sixth, and NCAA qualifier Quincy Monday was eighth.
Who made up the rest of the top 10? A pair of very highly regarded freshmen athletes are in there, with Brevin White in fourth and Jaelin Llewellyn in seventh.
Who is 10th? A men's basketball player. Which one? Ethan Wright.
The second most-viewed women's basketball player's bio is that of freshman Julia Cunningham, who is 12th overall. Cunningham got a lot of attention in the Ivy League championship game on ESPNU.
There are 221 Princeton athletes whose bios have been viewed at least 1,000 times. Maybe five percent of stories that get written for the webpage have that many views. What does this suggest?
By the way, TB can change the date parameters to be able to see any starting point and ending point.
Interestingly, if you go back three years, then the 1-2-3 are Sowers, Alarie and Kolodzik. Glory, despite being a freshman, is still fourth.
If you go back just seven days, then nine of the top 10 are lacrosse players (six men, three women), led by Sowers, Emmet Cordrey and George Baughan. This isn't surprising, since, like Cunningham, those three got a ton of exposure in the nationally televised win over Denver last Tuesday.
Who's the 10th on the list for the current week? You'll probably have the same reaction as TigerBlog's, which was "wait, who? Oh yeah, makes sense."
The answer is Charlie Volker, the running back on the football team. Why Volker now? Because he had a huge performance at Princeton's Pro Day last week.
Among other things, Volker ran a 4.46 40-yard dash, which is really good. TB read some follow up afterwards about how Volker opened some eyes with his performance.
TigerBlog is very interested in how Princeton does at the NFL draft and then in subsequent training camps. He's almost positive at least one of the four guys from the Pro Day will be on an NFL roster next year, maybe more.
Meanwhile, back at the analytics, it's just another sign of where this business has gone since TigerBlog started working here all those years ago.
The key is to understand what it all means and then use that information to provide the best content, packaged and delivered in the best possible way.
There's a lot to be learned from these numbers, and rational conclusions can be made about what it is that people want to see. And how they see it.
For instance, what percentage of visitors to goprincetontigers.com since the start of the current academic year have come from a desktop computer versus a mobile device? Guesses?
The number of visitors to the webpage tells you very little. What you really need to know is how they are accessing the site and what they're hoping to find on the site.
That's what the analytics numbers show you.
Anyway, before TB forgets, this academic year, the percentage of people who have viewed the website on a computer is 41.46. That means the percentage who have viewed it on a mobile device is 59.54, which is actually lower than TB would have figured.
One thing that TB can check easily is which bios of which athletes are the most viewed. This is informative and interesting.
For instance, which Princeton athlete would you guess has had his/her bio viewed the most since the start of the academic year? Guesses on this one?
If TigerBlog didn't know better, he'd guess that the two most viewed bios on goprincetontigers would belong to Bella Alarie and John Lovett. Instead, they rank second and fifth.
How about Michael Sowers? Nope. He's ninth.
Jesper Horsted? He's 14th, or 13 spots lower than he is on Princeton's career receptions and receiving touchdowns list.
He was a bit surprised to learn who No. 1 was. And that No. 1 had three other teammates in the top eight.
Does that narrow it down for you at all? Nope? Want to guess the team at least?
Here's a hint - the four athletes in the top eight all competed at the NCAA championships.
Did you guess wrestling?
The No. 1 most-viewed bio this academic year is by far freshman All-America wrestler Patrick Glory. His bio has been viewed 9,199 times so far this academic year. Alarie, in second, is at 7,141.
Matthew Kolodzik, now a three-time All-America, is third. Patrick Brucki, Princeton's third All-America, was sixth, and NCAA qualifier Quincy Monday was eighth.
Who made up the rest of the top 10? A pair of very highly regarded freshmen athletes are in there, with Brevin White in fourth and Jaelin Llewellyn in seventh.
Who is 10th? A men's basketball player. Which one? Ethan Wright.
The second most-viewed women's basketball player's bio is that of freshman Julia Cunningham, who is 12th overall. Cunningham got a lot of attention in the Ivy League championship game on ESPNU.
There are 221 Princeton athletes whose bios have been viewed at least 1,000 times. Maybe five percent of stories that get written for the webpage have that many views. What does this suggest?
By the way, TB can change the date parameters to be able to see any starting point and ending point.
Interestingly, if you go back three years, then the 1-2-3 are Sowers, Alarie and Kolodzik. Glory, despite being a freshman, is still fourth.
If you go back just seven days, then nine of the top 10 are lacrosse players (six men, three women), led by Sowers, Emmet Cordrey and George Baughan. This isn't surprising, since, like Cunningham, those three got a ton of exposure in the nationally televised win over Denver last Tuesday.
Who's the 10th on the list for the current week? You'll probably have the same reaction as TigerBlog's, which was "wait, who? Oh yeah, makes sense."
The answer is Charlie Volker, the running back on the football team. Why Volker now? Because he had a huge performance at Princeton's Pro Day last week.
Among other things, Volker ran a 4.46 40-yard dash, which is really good. TB read some follow up afterwards about how Volker opened some eyes with his performance.
TigerBlog is very interested in how Princeton does at the NFL draft and then in subsequent training camps. He's almost positive at least one of the four guys from the Pro Day will be on an NFL roster next year, maybe more.
Meanwhile, back at the analytics, it's just another sign of where this business has gone since TigerBlog started working here all those years ago.
The key is to understand what it all means and then use that information to provide the best content, packaged and delivered in the best possible way.
Tuesday, April 2, 2019
An All-Time Great Comes Back
It's game night tonight for the Princeton women's lacrosse team, who hosts Villanova at 7.
Admission? What admission. It's free, as are all regular-season women's lacrosse home games.
Princeton is entering the busiest stretch of its season. After having played just three games in the last 23 days, tonight marks a stretch of seven in 25 days.
Princeton hasn't played on two of the last three Saturdays, which has to be a huge rarity in lacrosse. There was a game last Wednesday at No. 2 Maryland, so the Tigers definitely have an advantage in rest over Villanova, who played Saturday in Milwaukee, defeating Marquette 15-13 in the Big East opener.
The Tigers come into the game having lost two straight. The last time Princeton lost three straight in the same season? It was in 2010, which is a remarkable level of sustained excellence.
Before that? Princeton's last three-game losing streak was in 2003, when the Tigers lost to Loyola, Virginia and Duke to fall to 1-3.
Did that turn out to be a lost season, by the way? Uh, not quite. Princeton then ripped off 15 wins in is next 16 games, defeating Loyola and Virginia in the Final Four to win its second-straight NCAA title and third overall.
The game against Villanova is the third in the series, and Princeton has won both, back in 2012 and 2013. The head coaching matchup in those two games is the same as it will be in tonight's game, as Princeton is led by Chris Sailer and Villanova is led by Julie Young.
Perhaps the name Julie Young doesn't mean much to Princeton fans. Maybe the name Julie Shaner does?
The Villanova women's lacrosse coach was Julie Shaner when she was a soccer player and lacrosse player at Princeton. She was an All-Ivy League selection in both sports four times each, and she played in the NCAA tournament in both as well, including the lacrosse championship game her junior year and semifinal her senior year.
As a senior in lacrosse, she was a Tewaaraton Trophy finalist, making her one of the five best players in the country that year. She graduated in 2001, sharing the C. Otto von Kienbusch Award that year as Princeton's top senior female athlete.
Going down a path TigerBlog has gone down several times before, it's pretty obvious that the three top male athletes in Princeton history are Hobey Baker, Dick Kazmaier and Bill Bradley. You can have about 20 different choices for the next person on the list, but TB is relatively sure that there would be near-unanimous agreement on the top three among those who come to read this every day.
The women, though, have never been as clear-cut, or at least they weren't for a long time. Maybe that changed when Ashleigh Johnson came here to play water polo, and anyone who wants to say she is the greatest female athlete ever to play here will get no argument from TigerBlog.
Julie Shaner Young isn't the best Princeton female athlete ever, but she's in the top 20 for sure, which is quite a statement, considering all the great women who have competed here.
By the way, TB is open to hear your feedback and opinions on this subject.
Speaking of the greatest female athletes in Princeton history, where will Bella Alarie eventually fit into the list?
Alarie yesterday became the third All-America in Princeton women's basketball history, joining Niveen Rasheed and Blake Dietrick in achieving that honor. Alarie's numbers for last season was astonishing, with 22.8 points and 10.6 rebounds, and of course she had her first two career games of more than 40 points with 45 against Columbia and 41 against Dartmouth.
What's most astonishing? She was an All-America despite missing the first nine games of the season with a broken wrist.
Alarie is just a junior. Assuming she stays healthy next year, who knows what numbers she can put up? If Princeton plays 28 games next year, then she'll need to average 13.7 per game to break the school record for career points of 1,683, set by Sandi Bittler Leland, who graduated in 1990.
If she gets there, only Bill Bradley will have ever scored more points in basketball at Princeton.
Alarie also figures to be a high WNBA pick when her Princeton career is over. She has all the tools - size, athletic ability and a very well-rounded game. The idea that she'll be working hard to improve between now and next season is somewhat scary.
When she's done, she'll immediately launch herself into the conversation as one of the very, very best, and maybe best, female athletes Princeton has seen.
Wonder how good she might have been at lacrosse, by the way.
Anyway, it's Princeton-Villanova tonight at 7. Should be a good one.
Admission? What admission. It's free, as are all regular-season women's lacrosse home games.
Princeton is entering the busiest stretch of its season. After having played just three games in the last 23 days, tonight marks a stretch of seven in 25 days.
Princeton hasn't played on two of the last three Saturdays, which has to be a huge rarity in lacrosse. There was a game last Wednesday at No. 2 Maryland, so the Tigers definitely have an advantage in rest over Villanova, who played Saturday in Milwaukee, defeating Marquette 15-13 in the Big East opener.
The Tigers come into the game having lost two straight. The last time Princeton lost three straight in the same season? It was in 2010, which is a remarkable level of sustained excellence.
Before that? Princeton's last three-game losing streak was in 2003, when the Tigers lost to Loyola, Virginia and Duke to fall to 1-3.
Did that turn out to be a lost season, by the way? Uh, not quite. Princeton then ripped off 15 wins in is next 16 games, defeating Loyola and Virginia in the Final Four to win its second-straight NCAA title and third overall.
The game against Villanova is the third in the series, and Princeton has won both, back in 2012 and 2013. The head coaching matchup in those two games is the same as it will be in tonight's game, as Princeton is led by Chris Sailer and Villanova is led by Julie Young.
Perhaps the name Julie Young doesn't mean much to Princeton fans. Maybe the name Julie Shaner does?
The Villanova women's lacrosse coach was Julie Shaner when she was a soccer player and lacrosse player at Princeton. She was an All-Ivy League selection in both sports four times each, and she played in the NCAA tournament in both as well, including the lacrosse championship game her junior year and semifinal her senior year.
As a senior in lacrosse, she was a Tewaaraton Trophy finalist, making her one of the five best players in the country that year. She graduated in 2001, sharing the C. Otto von Kienbusch Award that year as Princeton's top senior female athlete.
Going down a path TigerBlog has gone down several times before, it's pretty obvious that the three top male athletes in Princeton history are Hobey Baker, Dick Kazmaier and Bill Bradley. You can have about 20 different choices for the next person on the list, but TB is relatively sure that there would be near-unanimous agreement on the top three among those who come to read this every day.
The women, though, have never been as clear-cut, or at least they weren't for a long time. Maybe that changed when Ashleigh Johnson came here to play water polo, and anyone who wants to say she is the greatest female athlete ever to play here will get no argument from TigerBlog.
Julie Shaner Young isn't the best Princeton female athlete ever, but she's in the top 20 for sure, which is quite a statement, considering all the great women who have competed here.
By the way, TB is open to hear your feedback and opinions on this subject.
Speaking of the greatest female athletes in Princeton history, where will Bella Alarie eventually fit into the list?
Alarie yesterday became the third All-America in Princeton women's basketball history, joining Niveen Rasheed and Blake Dietrick in achieving that honor. Alarie's numbers for last season was astonishing, with 22.8 points and 10.6 rebounds, and of course she had her first two career games of more than 40 points with 45 against Columbia and 41 against Dartmouth.
What's most astonishing? She was an All-America despite missing the first nine games of the season with a broken wrist.
Alarie is just a junior. Assuming she stays healthy next year, who knows what numbers she can put up? If Princeton plays 28 games next year, then she'll need to average 13.7 per game to break the school record for career points of 1,683, set by Sandi Bittler Leland, who graduated in 1990.
If she gets there, only Bill Bradley will have ever scored more points in basketball at Princeton.
Alarie also figures to be a high WNBA pick when her Princeton career is over. She has all the tools - size, athletic ability and a very well-rounded game. The idea that she'll be working hard to improve between now and next season is somewhat scary.
When she's done, she'll immediately launch herself into the conversation as one of the very, very best, and maybe best, female athletes Princeton has seen.
Wonder how good she might have been at lacrosse, by the way.
Anyway, it's Princeton-Villanova tonight at 7. Should be a good one.
Monday, April 1, 2019
Chasing 58
TigerBlog was rooting hard for Purdue Saturday night in its regional final game against Virginia.
Of course he was. Purdue is the best place he's ever seen a college basketball game, and that doesn't even count the brisket nachos they sell in Mackey Arena.
In the end, this would be a crushing loss for the Boilermakers, who were split seconds away from a win and a spot in the Final Four. And Purdue did exactly the right thing, fouling UVa while up three in the final five seconds. It actually became the first time TB can remember seeing it backfire on a team.
It took a lot to make it happen as well. It took a made foul shot, a missed foul shot, a backtap that started the clock and ultimately a pass from the backcourt to 6-9 Mamadi Diakite, who dropped in a 10-footer at the buzzer to force overtime. Virginia then won the game 80-75, despite the second 42-point game of the tournament by Purdue's Carsen Edwards.
The games this weekend were pretty good, TB will admit. What's really awful are those AT&T commercials with the really annoying guy who is parodying color commentators and failing miserable. Those commercials are just awkwardly bad.
The men's basketball Final Four is set now with Virginia-Auburn (should have been Purdue) and Texas Tech-Michigan State. TigerBlog's pre-tournament pick, as you recall, was Duke; he's happy to be wrong.
Before the four regional final games, TigerBlog was talking to a fan of college basketball and asked this question: "How many players on the eight teams can you name?" Other than the Duke freshmen, the answer was "almost none."
TB could name most of Purdue's roster, since he watched a lot of the Boilermaker games. And everyone knows the Duke freshmen. Beyond that, does anyone know anyone?
Is this a good thing? A bad thing? A telling thing in any way?
When the men's lacrosse quarterfinals roll around, by the way, TigerBlog will probably be able to name about 75 players between the eight teams. He's guessing that's a little out of the ordinary.
When the four teams arrive in Minneapolis, none of them will approach the record for most points in a Final Four game. TB would be shocked if anyone comes within 20 points of the record, and it would take a lot for someone to even get halfway to it.
The record? It's 58 points.
The record-holder? Princeton's own Bill Bradley of course, back in 1965.
Bradley made 22 of 29 shots and 14 of 15 free throws for a school-record 58 points in a 118-82 win over Wichita State that gave the Tigers a national third-place finish.
Bradley’s 177 points in five NCAA tournament games was a record that lasted for 24 seasons, and his 58 points still trails only Notre Dame’s Austin Carr for the best single-game scoring performance in tournament history. No player has ever had more than his 58 in a Final Four game.
As TB has watched this year's tournament, he's wondered what it would have been like if the tournament in 1965 was as big as it is now. Think about it. Princeton and Bradley would have been the dominant story all the way through to the last day.
If you don't know much about Princeton's Final Four run, here's some text from goprincetontigers.com:
First, the Tigers blitzed through their last 10 regular-season games to take the Ivy title with a 13-1 record. Then, the Ivy champs squeaked by Penn State in the NCAA first round at The Palestra, 60-58, to advance to the following weekend’s East Regional at Maryland’s Cole Field House.
From there, Bradley and Princeton put on two basketball exhibitions. The first was a 66-48 win over N.C. State in the regional semifinal that put the Tigers in the regional final against Providence, which had defeated St. Joseph’s in the other regional semifinal.
The next day, March 13, 1965, the Tigers took it one step further against the Friars. Bradley made 14 of his 20 field-goal attempts, and all 13 of his free throws, to score 41 points. Princeton shot 68% from the field and went more than 12 minutes in the second half without missing a shot. The final score was 109-69 Princeton, with the 109 points breaking a school record that had just been set two weeks earlier in a win against Cornell.
Princeton, which never once had made the Associated Press national rankings during the season, suddenly became the story of the tournament after the 40-point win against the No. 4-ranked Friars. The Tigers were also the first Ivy League team to advance to the semifinals in 21 seasons.
The reward for the Tigers was a national semifinal matchup in Portland, Ore., against Michigan, the consensus No. 1-ranked team in the nation and the NCAA championship favorite. The Wolverines’ Cazzie Russell was simply too much for the Tigers to handle in the semifinal, and Michigan advanced to the final with a 93-76 victory.
TigerBlog actually wrote that text about 25 years ago. Since then, he's forgotten that Princeton was never ranked during the season. He does know about the win over Providence and the way the Friars celebrated their win over St. Joe's, assuming they'd beat Princeton to get to the Final Four.
Princeton men's basketball has had some amazing moments since then, and some of their NCAA performances are among the most exciting the tournament has ever seen. Still, reaching the Final Four stands above any of them.
And now, as four teams head to Minneapolis to try to win a title of their own, that record of 58 points is still sitting there.
Prediction - it'll last forever.
Of course he was. Purdue is the best place he's ever seen a college basketball game, and that doesn't even count the brisket nachos they sell in Mackey Arena.
In the end, this would be a crushing loss for the Boilermakers, who were split seconds away from a win and a spot in the Final Four. And Purdue did exactly the right thing, fouling UVa while up three in the final five seconds. It actually became the first time TB can remember seeing it backfire on a team.
It took a lot to make it happen as well. It took a made foul shot, a missed foul shot, a backtap that started the clock and ultimately a pass from the backcourt to 6-9 Mamadi Diakite, who dropped in a 10-footer at the buzzer to force overtime. Virginia then won the game 80-75, despite the second 42-point game of the tournament by Purdue's Carsen Edwards.
The games this weekend were pretty good, TB will admit. What's really awful are those AT&T commercials with the really annoying guy who is parodying color commentators and failing miserable. Those commercials are just awkwardly bad.
The men's basketball Final Four is set now with Virginia-Auburn (should have been Purdue) and Texas Tech-Michigan State. TigerBlog's pre-tournament pick, as you recall, was Duke; he's happy to be wrong.
Before the four regional final games, TigerBlog was talking to a fan of college basketball and asked this question: "How many players on the eight teams can you name?" Other than the Duke freshmen, the answer was "almost none."
TB could name most of Purdue's roster, since he watched a lot of the Boilermaker games. And everyone knows the Duke freshmen. Beyond that, does anyone know anyone?
Is this a good thing? A bad thing? A telling thing in any way?
When the men's lacrosse quarterfinals roll around, by the way, TigerBlog will probably be able to name about 75 players between the eight teams. He's guessing that's a little out of the ordinary.
When the four teams arrive in Minneapolis, none of them will approach the record for most points in a Final Four game. TB would be shocked if anyone comes within 20 points of the record, and it would take a lot for someone to even get halfway to it.
The record? It's 58 points.
The record-holder? Princeton's own Bill Bradley of course, back in 1965.
Bradley made 22 of 29 shots and 14 of 15 free throws for a school-record 58 points in a 118-82 win over Wichita State that gave the Tigers a national third-place finish.
Bradley’s 177 points in five NCAA tournament games was a record that lasted for 24 seasons, and his 58 points still trails only Notre Dame’s Austin Carr for the best single-game scoring performance in tournament history. No player has ever had more than his 58 in a Final Four game.
As TB has watched this year's tournament, he's wondered what it would have been like if the tournament in 1965 was as big as it is now. Think about it. Princeton and Bradley would have been the dominant story all the way through to the last day.
If you don't know much about Princeton's Final Four run, here's some text from goprincetontigers.com:
First, the Tigers blitzed through their last 10 regular-season games to take the Ivy title with a 13-1 record. Then, the Ivy champs squeaked by Penn State in the NCAA first round at The Palestra, 60-58, to advance to the following weekend’s East Regional at Maryland’s Cole Field House.
From there, Bradley and Princeton put on two basketball exhibitions. The first was a 66-48 win over N.C. State in the regional semifinal that put the Tigers in the regional final against Providence, which had defeated St. Joseph’s in the other regional semifinal.
The next day, March 13, 1965, the Tigers took it one step further against the Friars. Bradley made 14 of his 20 field-goal attempts, and all 13 of his free throws, to score 41 points. Princeton shot 68% from the field and went more than 12 minutes in the second half without missing a shot. The final score was 109-69 Princeton, with the 109 points breaking a school record that had just been set two weeks earlier in a win against Cornell.
Princeton, which never once had made the Associated Press national rankings during the season, suddenly became the story of the tournament after the 40-point win against the No. 4-ranked Friars. The Tigers were also the first Ivy League team to advance to the semifinals in 21 seasons.
The reward for the Tigers was a national semifinal matchup in Portland, Ore., against Michigan, the consensus No. 1-ranked team in the nation and the NCAA championship favorite. The Wolverines’ Cazzie Russell was simply too much for the Tigers to handle in the semifinal, and Michigan advanced to the final with a 93-76 victory.
TigerBlog actually wrote that text about 25 years ago. Since then, he's forgotten that Princeton was never ranked during the season. He does know about the win over Providence and the way the Friars celebrated their win over St. Joe's, assuming they'd beat Princeton to get to the Final Four.
Princeton men's basketball has had some amazing moments since then, and some of their NCAA performances are among the most exciting the tournament has ever seen. Still, reaching the Final Four stands above any of them.
And now, as four teams head to Minneapolis to try to win a title of their own, that record of 58 points is still sitting there.
Prediction - it'll last forever.
Friday, March 29, 2019
An Actual Spring Weekend
Allie Reynolds threw 11 innings against Yale last weekend in the Princeton softball team's Ivy League opening series and didn't walk a batter.
Princeton would win two of three, including an 8-0 win in Game 1 in which Reynolds threw a shutout.
For the year, she has pitched 11 times, and she has not walked anyone in six of those games, including each of the last three.
If you want to talk about Reynolds and walks, then you have to change sports, from softball to mountain climbing. You can, however, keep talking about Princeton.
Wait, Princeton doesn't have a varsity mountain climbing team, so what gives here? Reynolds, a sophomore from Littleton, Colo., is the subject of this week's "Beyond The Stripes" series, with the focus on her walking, or more accurately, hiking up 14,204-foot Mt. Princeton in the Rocky Mountains.
You can see it HERE. It's a very nice story, and it features some really impressive video and still pictures of the mountain. It's not quite "Free Solo," but it's impressive nonetheless.
TigerBlog loves stories like this one. It shows the varied interests of Princeton's athletes. It shows how they bring a piece of where they're from with them when they get here. And it shows the incredibly loyalty that Princeton breeds.
It's definitely worth it to check it out.
Princeton softball is home this weekend against Columbia, and the forecast of a rainy Sunday has moved the series up by a day. The Tigers host a single game today now, with first pitch at 3, and then a doubleheader tomorrow starting at 12:30.
On a weekend when the final winter team competes (men's swimming and diving at the NCAA championships), the weather today and tomorrow is certainly screaming springtime. Today's high in Princeton will be 65. It'll be 72 tomorrow.
There are all kinds of events this weekend, and many of them are at home, including racing tomorrow featuring all four rowing teams.
It's also opening weekend for Ivy League tennis, with the men at home against Penn and the women at Penn. The baseball team is at Harvard for three games, one today and two tomorrow.
The complete schedule is HERE.
Unfortunately for the women's lacrosse team, there's no game this weekend. The Tigers played Wednesday at Maryland and are home Tuesday against Villanova, but this is a Saturday off-day. TigerBlog is guessing that had Chris Sailer had an advanced look at the weather forecast, she would have scheduled someone for tomorrow.
There is a home men's lacrosse game, tomorrow at 1 against Brown. It's a huge game for the Tigers, who like last year are 0-2 heading into the game against the Bears.
Unlike last year, Princeton comes into the game off a huge win, a huge one emotionally and physically, over Denver Tuesday night. What effect will that have on this game?
It figures to be high scoring.
Princeton and Brown have played a lot of low-scoring games through the years, including a run of 13 straight years where the teams combined on average 16.38 goals between them. In the three meetings since, the teams have averaged 30.3 goals per game between them.
It's a big game. A year ago, Brown defeated Princeton 14-13 on a goal with 14.3 seconds left. Had Princeton won that game instead of Brown, it would have been the Tigers and not the Bears in the Ivy League tournament, after those two and Penn tied for third.
As a side note, Michael Sowers has 22 points (11 goals, 11 assists) in three games against Brown. He enters the game tied with Jesse Hubbard for fourth place all-time in scoring at Princeton with 211 points, and he is four away from Jon Hess for third, behind only Ryan Boyle (232) and Kevin Lowe (247).
TB has written this before, but it's insane the numbers Sowers has already put up in his career.
Any opportunity to see him play is a big one. To see him play in a big game on a 72 degree day to end the month of March? Even better.
March didn't exactly come in like a lion. It is going out like a lamb.
A lamb with a very busy athletic weekend.
Princeton would win two of three, including an 8-0 win in Game 1 in which Reynolds threw a shutout.
For the year, she has pitched 11 times, and she has not walked anyone in six of those games, including each of the last three.
If you want to talk about Reynolds and walks, then you have to change sports, from softball to mountain climbing. You can, however, keep talking about Princeton.
Wait, Princeton doesn't have a varsity mountain climbing team, so what gives here? Reynolds, a sophomore from Littleton, Colo., is the subject of this week's "Beyond The Stripes" series, with the focus on her walking, or more accurately, hiking up 14,204-foot Mt. Princeton in the Rocky Mountains.
You can see it HERE. It's a very nice story, and it features some really impressive video and still pictures of the mountain. It's not quite "Free Solo," but it's impressive nonetheless.
TigerBlog loves stories like this one. It shows the varied interests of Princeton's athletes. It shows how they bring a piece of where they're from with them when they get here. And it shows the incredibly loyalty that Princeton breeds.
It's definitely worth it to check it out.
Princeton softball is home this weekend against Columbia, and the forecast of a rainy Sunday has moved the series up by a day. The Tigers host a single game today now, with first pitch at 3, and then a doubleheader tomorrow starting at 12:30.
On a weekend when the final winter team competes (men's swimming and diving at the NCAA championships), the weather today and tomorrow is certainly screaming springtime. Today's high in Princeton will be 65. It'll be 72 tomorrow.
There are all kinds of events this weekend, and many of them are at home, including racing tomorrow featuring all four rowing teams.
It's also opening weekend for Ivy League tennis, with the men at home against Penn and the women at Penn. The baseball team is at Harvard for three games, one today and two tomorrow.
The complete schedule is HERE.
Unfortunately for the women's lacrosse team, there's no game this weekend. The Tigers played Wednesday at Maryland and are home Tuesday against Villanova, but this is a Saturday off-day. TigerBlog is guessing that had Chris Sailer had an advanced look at the weather forecast, she would have scheduled someone for tomorrow.
There is a home men's lacrosse game, tomorrow at 1 against Brown. It's a huge game for the Tigers, who like last year are 0-2 heading into the game against the Bears.
Unlike last year, Princeton comes into the game off a huge win, a huge one emotionally and physically, over Denver Tuesday night. What effect will that have on this game?
It figures to be high scoring.
Princeton and Brown have played a lot of low-scoring games through the years, including a run of 13 straight years where the teams combined on average 16.38 goals between them. In the three meetings since, the teams have averaged 30.3 goals per game between them.
It's a big game. A year ago, Brown defeated Princeton 14-13 on a goal with 14.3 seconds left. Had Princeton won that game instead of Brown, it would have been the Tigers and not the Bears in the Ivy League tournament, after those two and Penn tied for third.
As a side note, Michael Sowers has 22 points (11 goals, 11 assists) in three games against Brown. He enters the game tied with Jesse Hubbard for fourth place all-time in scoring at Princeton with 211 points, and he is four away from Jon Hess for third, behind only Ryan Boyle (232) and Kevin Lowe (247).
TB has written this before, but it's insane the numbers Sowers has already put up in his career.
Any opportunity to see him play is a big one. To see him play in a big game on a 72 degree day to end the month of March? Even better.
March didn't exactly come in like a lion. It is going out like a lamb.
A lamb with a very busy athletic weekend.
Thursday, March 28, 2019
An Eight All-American Weekend
Okay, so it's Thursday and TigerBlog still hasn't talked about last weekend's Princeton All-Americans.
Hey, it's been busy, what with women's basketball in the NCAA tournament and then Bill Tierney's return to Princeton. One last thing about Princeton's 14-13 win over Denver - Ryan Boyle has become a fantastic lacrosse color commentator.
Much like Michael Sowers and George Baughan on the field, Boyle was at his best in the game Tuesday night in the booth. TigerBlog could hear what he and play-by-play man Anish Shroff said because they were sitting close to him in the Sherrerd Field press box, though he couldn't hear a thing Quint Kessenich said from the field.
Boyle is a lacrosse genius, and he mixed that high game IQ with a lot of ability and great vision to become the No. 2 leader in assists and points at Princeton (at least, barring something unforeseen, for a few more games). He had a long and wildly successful professional and international career, and now he's gotten into broadcasting, among other things.
By the way, he'd be a great coach.
What Boyle does so well is analyze the game from the perspective of a fan and a player who knows every nuance of the game at the same time. He doesn't overwhelm you with his knowledge as if it's a lacrosse webinar, and he doesn't just cheer for everyone and everything. He takes the best of those two and combines them in a calm way that makes him very effective.
It's like he's sitting there with you just casually watching the game and having a conversation about it.
Okay, one very, very last thing about that game - if you watched that game and think that Sowers and Baughan had extraordinary nights, TB will let you know that they do that basically every game.
Here, watch this clip and listen to what Boyle says:
So now back to the All-Americans.
Princeton had eight athletes earn All-American honors at their NCAA championship events last weekend. That's not a bad weekend.
All eight of them did so based on their individual finishes in their NCAA events. Five of them were fencers who competed at the NCAAs in Cleveland, led by sophomore Daniel Kwak, who was the runner-up in the men's saber, and Tatijana Stewart, who was a women's epee semifinalist.
The other three All-Americans were senior Wesley Johnson, a two-time All-American in the epee, and freshman Mohamed Hamza (foil) and junior Wesley Yuan (epee).
Princeton as a team finished ninth, marking the 27th straight year that the Tigers have finished in the top 10 nationally. In fencing, there is one co-ed team champion, not a separate one for men and a separate one for women.
The other three All-Americans came from the wrestling team, and that's just another sign of the amazing job that has been done with the program by Chris Ayres and his staff.
From the start of the program in 1905 through 2015, Princeton had produced eight All-Americans, who combined to earn the honor a total of 13 All-American honors. Princeton had never had All-Americans in more than two straight years and only once, in 1985, had two Princeton wrestlers become All-Americans in the same year (those two were John Orr and Dave Crisanti).
Then Brett Harner became an All-American in 2016. And then Matthew Kolodzik did it in 2017 and then again in 2018.
This year?
Princeton had three All-Americans - Kolodzik for the third time and Patrick Brucki and Patrick Glory for the first time each. So that's a program-best three All-Americans, and a program-record four straight years with at least one.
Will there be another one next year? All three of this year's are returning.
Those three led Princeton to a 15th-place finish nationally, the third time Princeton has been in the top 15, along with 1951 and 1978. Kolodzik and Brucki were semifinalists this year, and Glory had the best finish any Princeton freshman has ever had (sixth).
And so even a few days later, TigerBlog congratulates the latest Princeton All-Americans. It's not easy to earn that honor obviously.
Ryan Boyle, by the way, knows all about being an All-American.
He did it four times.
Hey, it's been busy, what with women's basketball in the NCAA tournament and then Bill Tierney's return to Princeton. One last thing about Princeton's 14-13 win over Denver - Ryan Boyle has become a fantastic lacrosse color commentator.
Much like Michael Sowers and George Baughan on the field, Boyle was at his best in the game Tuesday night in the booth. TigerBlog could hear what he and play-by-play man Anish Shroff said because they were sitting close to him in the Sherrerd Field press box, though he couldn't hear a thing Quint Kessenich said from the field.
Boyle is a lacrosse genius, and he mixed that high game IQ with a lot of ability and great vision to become the No. 2 leader in assists and points at Princeton (at least, barring something unforeseen, for a few more games). He had a long and wildly successful professional and international career, and now he's gotten into broadcasting, among other things.
By the way, he'd be a great coach.
What Boyle does so well is analyze the game from the perspective of a fan and a player who knows every nuance of the game at the same time. He doesn't overwhelm you with his knowledge as if it's a lacrosse webinar, and he doesn't just cheer for everyone and everything. He takes the best of those two and combines them in a calm way that makes him very effective.
It's like he's sitting there with you just casually watching the game and having a conversation about it.
Okay, one very, very last thing about that game - if you watched that game and think that Sowers and Baughan had extraordinary nights, TB will let you know that they do that basically every game.
Here, watch this clip and listen to what Boyle says:
Michael Sowers breaks out with a fake out for @TigerLacrosse!!! 😳😵#NCAALAX— NCAA Lacrosse (@NCAALAX) March 27, 2019
(via @Inside_Lacrosse)pic.twitter.com/lRKlQef1Zz
So now back to the All-Americans.
Princeton had eight athletes earn All-American honors at their NCAA championship events last weekend. That's not a bad weekend.
All eight of them did so based on their individual finishes in their NCAA events. Five of them were fencers who competed at the NCAAs in Cleveland, led by sophomore Daniel Kwak, who was the runner-up in the men's saber, and Tatijana Stewart, who was a women's epee semifinalist.
The other three All-Americans were senior Wesley Johnson, a two-time All-American in the epee, and freshman Mohamed Hamza (foil) and junior Wesley Yuan (epee).
Princeton as a team finished ninth, marking the 27th straight year that the Tigers have finished in the top 10 nationally. In fencing, there is one co-ed team champion, not a separate one for men and a separate one for women.
The other three All-Americans came from the wrestling team, and that's just another sign of the amazing job that has been done with the program by Chris Ayres and his staff.
From the start of the program in 1905 through 2015, Princeton had produced eight All-Americans, who combined to earn the honor a total of 13 All-American honors. Princeton had never had All-Americans in more than two straight years and only once, in 1985, had two Princeton wrestlers become All-Americans in the same year (those two were John Orr and Dave Crisanti).
Then Brett Harner became an All-American in 2016. And then Matthew Kolodzik did it in 2017 and then again in 2018.
This year?
Princeton had three All-Americans - Kolodzik for the third time and Patrick Brucki and Patrick Glory for the first time each. So that's a program-best three All-Americans, and a program-record four straight years with at least one.
Will there be another one next year? All three of this year's are returning.
Those three led Princeton to a 15th-place finish nationally, the third time Princeton has been in the top 15, along with 1951 and 1978. Kolodzik and Brucki were semifinalists this year, and Glory had the best finish any Princeton freshman has ever had (sixth).
And so even a few days later, TigerBlog congratulates the latest Princeton All-Americans. It's not easy to earn that honor obviously.
Ryan Boyle, by the way, knows all about being an All-American.
He did it four times.
Wednesday, March 27, 2019
A Wild NIght On Sherrerd Field
As TigerBlog stood on Sherrerd Field about 45 minutes before the start of a Princeton men's lacrosse game and talked to Bill Tierney, it dawned on him that this was hardly the first time he'd done that.
In fact, TB has been at every single game Tierney has coached on that field in his career. This time, though, it was different. Tierney was back as the head coach at Denver, playing against Princeton for the first time.
The two talked about all of the things they'd always talked about in the past before a game. How it might go. What he was thinking. All of the usual things. Then TB stopped and said "This is weird," something that made Tierney smile.
A few hours later, TB stood in the Jadwin Gym lobby at the postgame reception for the Pioneers. Again, he had done this many times before, dissecting the recently played game with Tierney.
The main storyline for the game last night was Tierney's return. It was that way from the time the game was scheduled last fall, and why wouldn't it be?
Tierney, after all, built Princeton men's lacrosse into a dynasty, winning 238 games, six NCAA championships and 14 Ivy League championships. And then, in 2009, he left to go Denver, and again, he built a powerhouse where none had been before. In his nine years in Denver he has been to nine NCAA tournaments and five Final Fours, and in 2015 he won his seventh NCAA title.
There is no doubt that Tierney is the greatest lacrosse coach of all time. And here he was, back in Princeton, to take on his old team.
It writes itself.
Until it doesn't.
In between the time TB talked to Tierney on the field and then talked to him in Jadwin Gym, the story shifted from the return of the coach to a showcase of the current Tiger men's lacrosse team.
Playing with a four-game losing streak and in front of a national TV audience, Princeton showed just how good a team it could be, holding off ninth-ranked Denver 14-13 to spoil Tierney's return. It immediately became the best game ever played on Sherrerd Field.
None of the current Princeton players ever played for Tierney, as the roster has turned over several times since he left. But they all know who he is and what he has meant for the program. They play on a field that has six NCAA championship banners hanging on it, and they know who the coach was when those championships were won.
You know what made the game even more special for TB to watch? Princeton won this game because it did what Bill Tierney's Princeton teams always did.
They played hard. They made the tough plays that needed to be made. And they won a one-goal game. Tierney's legend at Princeton was made just that way. Play hard. Play tough. Win close games against the top teams.
Princeton's win was a total team effort. Basically everyone who stepped on the field contributed.
Emmet Cordrey went from having 10 goals and three assists his first three years to have a huge senior year, and he put up three goals and an assist against the Pioneers, giving him 17 goals and 12 assists in seven games. Chris Brown was also great, with three goals and an assist of his own.
There were others. Andrew Song. Phillip Robertson. Erik Peters. Arman Medghalchi. Luc Anderson.
But for TB, there were three who stood out the most.
There was George Baughan, the sophomore defenseman who caused five turnovers. Jon Hess, one of the greatest players of the Tierney years, tweeted that Baughan is a first-team All-America and asked for someone to convince him otherwise.
There are some players who fly under the radar for whatever reason, and Baughan is one of them. Hess is right about Baughan. He is first-team All-America good. He is completely dominant, with a non-stop motor, start to finish, no matter what the score.
Then there was Jake Stevens, a freshman who played mostly on the face-off wings, with some shortstick defensive midfield as well. Stevens is a Canadian from Culver Military Academy, which is not the only reason he makes you think of Zach Currier.
Stevens is like Currier 2.0, a relentless force on ground balls and a disruption to the other team at every turn. His stat line against Denver was something right out of Currier's world - one goal, three caused turnover and nine ground balls. Princeton does not win this game without Stevens.
Lastly, there was Michael Sowers. There is no player in college lacrosse that TigerBlog would take over Sowers, none. TB doesn't care who it is.
Sowers is a mesmerizing player. The only player TB has ever seen whom he would compare to Sowers is Mikey Powell of Syracuse, a 2004 grad whom TB has always said is the best college player he's seen.
Sowers had three goals and three assists against Denver as he showed all the skills he possesses. He now is tied with the great Jesse Hubbard for fourth all-time at Princeton with 211 career points, and he caught Hubbard in just 36 career games, as opposed to the 56 that Hubbard played. Next up is Hess, with 215, and then it'll be just Ryan Boyle (232) and Kevin Lowe (247).
No player in Division I lacrosse in the last 38 years has averaged more points per game than Sowers has. He's extraordinary.
Boyle, by the way, was the color commentator on ESPNU last night. At one point he said of Sowers "there's beating your defender, and then there's leaving him on the other side of the cage."
Denver didn't go quietly. The Pioneers scored twice in the final 1:04 and then had three chances at the end to tie it but couldn't. Princeton had itself a huge win.
As TB said yesterday, it was the first time he would ever root against Bill Tierney, and presumably, the last.
But there were two coaches in this game.
After the on-field celebrations had ended and the facility had emptied, TigerBlog was in the press box writing his story when Princeton head coach Matt Madalon walked across the field. TB called out to him and gave a thumbs up when Madalon turned and looked at him.
Madalon's first move when he became head coach was to call Tierney. He appreciates the importance of what Tierney still means to Princeton lacrosse, and he doens't shy away from that. Hey, he agreed to play Tierney in between Ivy games against Yale and Brown, because he understood what an opportunity this was.
In the end, his team made the most of it, and the young coach had himself a signature win.
It was a great game, and a great night for lacrosse at Princeton.
Bill Tierney, back in a place that has meant so much to him, playing against his former team.
And that team playing the way so many of his had in all those years here.
Nobody hates losing more than Bill Tierney. Even he had to appreciate what had happened on this night.
In fact, TB has been at every single game Tierney has coached on that field in his career. This time, though, it was different. Tierney was back as the head coach at Denver, playing against Princeton for the first time.
The two talked about all of the things they'd always talked about in the past before a game. How it might go. What he was thinking. All of the usual things. Then TB stopped and said "This is weird," something that made Tierney smile.
A few hours later, TB stood in the Jadwin Gym lobby at the postgame reception for the Pioneers. Again, he had done this many times before, dissecting the recently played game with Tierney.
The main storyline for the game last night was Tierney's return. It was that way from the time the game was scheduled last fall, and why wouldn't it be?
Tierney, after all, built Princeton men's lacrosse into a dynasty, winning 238 games, six NCAA championships and 14 Ivy League championships. And then, in 2009, he left to go Denver, and again, he built a powerhouse where none had been before. In his nine years in Denver he has been to nine NCAA tournaments and five Final Fours, and in 2015 he won his seventh NCAA title.
There is no doubt that Tierney is the greatest lacrosse coach of all time. And here he was, back in Princeton, to take on his old team.
It writes itself.
Until it doesn't.
In between the time TB talked to Tierney on the field and then talked to him in Jadwin Gym, the story shifted from the return of the coach to a showcase of the current Tiger men's lacrosse team.
Playing with a four-game losing streak and in front of a national TV audience, Princeton showed just how good a team it could be, holding off ninth-ranked Denver 14-13 to spoil Tierney's return. It immediately became the best game ever played on Sherrerd Field.
None of the current Princeton players ever played for Tierney, as the roster has turned over several times since he left. But they all know who he is and what he has meant for the program. They play on a field that has six NCAA championship banners hanging on it, and they know who the coach was when those championships were won.
You know what made the game even more special for TB to watch? Princeton won this game because it did what Bill Tierney's Princeton teams always did.
They played hard. They made the tough plays that needed to be made. And they won a one-goal game. Tierney's legend at Princeton was made just that way. Play hard. Play tough. Win close games against the top teams.
Princeton's win was a total team effort. Basically everyone who stepped on the field contributed.
Emmet Cordrey went from having 10 goals and three assists his first three years to have a huge senior year, and he put up three goals and an assist against the Pioneers, giving him 17 goals and 12 assists in seven games. Chris Brown was also great, with three goals and an assist of his own.
There were others. Andrew Song. Phillip Robertson. Erik Peters. Arman Medghalchi. Luc Anderson.
But for TB, there were three who stood out the most.
There was George Baughan, the sophomore defenseman who caused five turnovers. Jon Hess, one of the greatest players of the Tierney years, tweeted that Baughan is a first-team All-America and asked for someone to convince him otherwise.
There are some players who fly under the radar for whatever reason, and Baughan is one of them. Hess is right about Baughan. He is first-team All-America good. He is completely dominant, with a non-stop motor, start to finish, no matter what the score.
Then there was Jake Stevens, a freshman who played mostly on the face-off wings, with some shortstick defensive midfield as well. Stevens is a Canadian from Culver Military Academy, which is not the only reason he makes you think of Zach Currier.
Stevens is like Currier 2.0, a relentless force on ground balls and a disruption to the other team at every turn. His stat line against Denver was something right out of Currier's world - one goal, three caused turnover and nine ground balls. Princeton does not win this game without Stevens.
Lastly, there was Michael Sowers. There is no player in college lacrosse that TigerBlog would take over Sowers, none. TB doesn't care who it is.
Sowers is a mesmerizing player. The only player TB has ever seen whom he would compare to Sowers is Mikey Powell of Syracuse, a 2004 grad whom TB has always said is the best college player he's seen.
Sowers had three goals and three assists against Denver as he showed all the skills he possesses. He now is tied with the great Jesse Hubbard for fourth all-time at Princeton with 211 career points, and he caught Hubbard in just 36 career games, as opposed to the 56 that Hubbard played. Next up is Hess, with 215, and then it'll be just Ryan Boyle (232) and Kevin Lowe (247).
No player in Division I lacrosse in the last 38 years has averaged more points per game than Sowers has. He's extraordinary.
Boyle, by the way, was the color commentator on ESPNU last night. At one point he said of Sowers "there's beating your defender, and then there's leaving him on the other side of the cage."
Denver didn't go quietly. The Pioneers scored twice in the final 1:04 and then had three chances at the end to tie it but couldn't. Princeton had itself a huge win.
As TB said yesterday, it was the first time he would ever root against Bill Tierney, and presumably, the last.
But there were two coaches in this game.
After the on-field celebrations had ended and the facility had emptied, TigerBlog was in the press box writing his story when Princeton head coach Matt Madalon walked across the field. TB called out to him and gave a thumbs up when Madalon turned and looked at him.
Madalon's first move when he became head coach was to call Tierney. He appreciates the importance of what Tierney still means to Princeton lacrosse, and he doens't shy away from that. Hey, he agreed to play Tierney in between Ivy games against Yale and Brown, because he understood what an opportunity this was.
In the end, his team made the most of it, and the young coach had himself a signature win.
It was a great game, and a great night for lacrosse at Princeton.
Bill Tierney, back in a place that has meant so much to him, playing against his former team.
And that team playing the way so many of his had in all those years here.
Nobody hates losing more than Bill Tierney. Even he had to appreciate what had happened on this night.
Tuesday, March 26, 2019
Tierney's Return
TigerBlog will be doing something tonight that he's never done before in his entire life.
He's going to root against Bill Tierney.
It's never happened before. Certainly not in all the time that Tierney was the men's lacrosse coach at Princeton. Tierney was here for 22 years, and TigerBlog was with him for 20 of those. Root against him? No way.
Then Tierney left in 2009 to go to Denver. From Day 1, TigerBlog was on the Denver bandwagon.
Tonight, things will be different.
Tierney is back in Princeton, this time as the Denver head coach, bringing his ninth-ranked Pios to Sherrerd Field to take on the Tigers. For TigerBlog, there's no hesitation at all. He hopes Bill Tierney is on the losing end.
Just this once, of course.
The game tonight (face-off at 6, also on ESPNU) is fascinating on a lot of levels, beginning of course with Tierney. TB talked to him yesterday, and Tierney had this to say: "I'd be lying if I said this was just another lacrosse game, because that would be untrue."
He's right.
He's bringing his team to a place where he built one of the greatest lacrosse dynasties ever, with six NCAA championships in the 10 years from 1992-2001. His Princeton resume includes 10 Final Fours and 14 Ivy League championships, and he was inducted into the US Lacrosse Hall of Fame long before he headed West.
Tierney won 238 games in 22 years at Princeton after inheriting a program that had never made an NCAA tournament before and was 20 years removed from its most recent Ivy League championship. He famously told his first recruiting class that they would win an NCAA championship, and not one of them believed them at the time.
He, and they, made it happen though, winning the title in 1992 and then again in 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998 and 2001. He won the last one with his son Trevor in goal and his son Brendan as a Tiger attackman.
Just his presence alone make the game worth seeing. And yet there's so much more.
For starters, there's a little math for you. If Tierney won 238 games at Princeton, 34 at RIT before he came to Princeton and now 127 more at Denver, how many total wins does his have?
Hmm... That would be 399, which he got Saturday in a 7-6 win at Towson. Then his team bused to Princeton, and he takes his first shot at 400, somewhat amazingly, on Sherrerd Field.
The only Division I coach ever with 400 wins is Duke's John Danowski, who got there earlier this year. There are two women in Division I history with 400 career wins, and one of them is Princeton's Chris Sailer, who coached alongside Tierney for all 22 of his years at Princeton. Sailer, who is also in the US Lacrosse Hall of Fame, got to 400 wins earlier this year, on Sherrerd Field as well.
What were the odds that Tierney would come back to Princeton with 399 wins? In fact, it may have taken an act of God, as Denver's game two weeks ago at Ohio State was cancelled due to a massive Colorado snowstorm that grounded the Pioneers. And hey, there's not guarantee Denver would have won that one, as Ohio State is the lone unbeaten in the country, but still.
Tierney back to Princeton, with 399 wins?
Of course, there's a game to play as well. It's a big one for both, a chance for Princeton to knock off a nationally ranked non-league opponent and Denver a chance to build on its win over Towson before it starts its Big East schedule.
Denver is the No. 1 scoring defense team in the country, allowing just 7.7 goals per game. Scoring defense stats go back to 1996 in the NCAA record book, and Princeton was ranked No. 1 in D1 in five of Tierney's final 13 years here.
Princeton averages 13.3 goals per game, tied for 12th with Georgetown, the team Denver plays Saturday in Colorado.
Princeton is led by the remarkable Michael Sowers, who is sixth all-time at Princeton in points in a career with 205. Sowers averages 5.86 points per game for his career, which is sixth in Division I history and the best by any Division I player in the last 38 years.
Sowers, who got to 200 career points 15 games faster than any of the others who have done it (and that list is sort of impressive), needs two points to tie Mike MacDonald for fifth place. The top four - Kevin Lowe (247), Ryan Boyle (232), Jon Hess (219) and Jesse Hubbard (215) - all played for Tierney.
No matter what, tonight is a very special night in Princeton men's lacrosse history. It's the return of the beloved coach, who still, 10 years later, looks a little out of place in Denver red and gray.
There aren't too many people TigerBlog has ever met who have meant more to him or done more for him than Bill Tierney. He has been a positive impact on TB's life in so many ways, and he's also done a lot for both of TB's children.
He's a man of the highest character, who has also touched the lives of so many others, far away from the spotlight. He is fiercely loyal. He's funny. He's welcoming. He's approachable. He's all of those things, not to mention the single greatest coach of any sport that TB has known.
And for all that?
TB hopes he loses tonight.
Just this once.
He's going to root against Bill Tierney.
It's never happened before. Certainly not in all the time that Tierney was the men's lacrosse coach at Princeton. Tierney was here for 22 years, and TigerBlog was with him for 20 of those. Root against him? No way.
Then Tierney left in 2009 to go to Denver. From Day 1, TigerBlog was on the Denver bandwagon.
Tonight, things will be different.
Tierney is back in Princeton, this time as the Denver head coach, bringing his ninth-ranked Pios to Sherrerd Field to take on the Tigers. For TigerBlog, there's no hesitation at all. He hopes Bill Tierney is on the losing end.
Just this once, of course.
The game tonight (face-off at 6, also on ESPNU) is fascinating on a lot of levels, beginning of course with Tierney. TB talked to him yesterday, and Tierney had this to say: "I'd be lying if I said this was just another lacrosse game, because that would be untrue."
He's right.
He's bringing his team to a place where he built one of the greatest lacrosse dynasties ever, with six NCAA championships in the 10 years from 1992-2001. His Princeton resume includes 10 Final Fours and 14 Ivy League championships, and he was inducted into the US Lacrosse Hall of Fame long before he headed West.
Tierney won 238 games in 22 years at Princeton after inheriting a program that had never made an NCAA tournament before and was 20 years removed from its most recent Ivy League championship. He famously told his first recruiting class that they would win an NCAA championship, and not one of them believed them at the time.
He, and they, made it happen though, winning the title in 1992 and then again in 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998 and 2001. He won the last one with his son Trevor in goal and his son Brendan as a Tiger attackman.
Just his presence alone make the game worth seeing. And yet there's so much more.
For starters, there's a little math for you. If Tierney won 238 games at Princeton, 34 at RIT before he came to Princeton and now 127 more at Denver, how many total wins does his have?
Hmm... That would be 399, which he got Saturday in a 7-6 win at Towson. Then his team bused to Princeton, and he takes his first shot at 400, somewhat amazingly, on Sherrerd Field.
The only Division I coach ever with 400 wins is Duke's John Danowski, who got there earlier this year. There are two women in Division I history with 400 career wins, and one of them is Princeton's Chris Sailer, who coached alongside Tierney for all 22 of his years at Princeton. Sailer, who is also in the US Lacrosse Hall of Fame, got to 400 wins earlier this year, on Sherrerd Field as well.
What were the odds that Tierney would come back to Princeton with 399 wins? In fact, it may have taken an act of God, as Denver's game two weeks ago at Ohio State was cancelled due to a massive Colorado snowstorm that grounded the Pioneers. And hey, there's not guarantee Denver would have won that one, as Ohio State is the lone unbeaten in the country, but still.
Tierney back to Princeton, with 399 wins?
Of course, there's a game to play as well. It's a big one for both, a chance for Princeton to knock off a nationally ranked non-league opponent and Denver a chance to build on its win over Towson before it starts its Big East schedule.
Denver is the No. 1 scoring defense team in the country, allowing just 7.7 goals per game. Scoring defense stats go back to 1996 in the NCAA record book, and Princeton was ranked No. 1 in D1 in five of Tierney's final 13 years here.
Princeton averages 13.3 goals per game, tied for 12th with Georgetown, the team Denver plays Saturday in Colorado.
Princeton is led by the remarkable Michael Sowers, who is sixth all-time at Princeton in points in a career with 205. Sowers averages 5.86 points per game for his career, which is sixth in Division I history and the best by any Division I player in the last 38 years.
Sowers, who got to 200 career points 15 games faster than any of the others who have done it (and that list is sort of impressive), needs two points to tie Mike MacDonald for fifth place. The top four - Kevin Lowe (247), Ryan Boyle (232), Jon Hess (219) and Jesse Hubbard (215) - all played for Tierney.
No matter what, tonight is a very special night in Princeton men's lacrosse history. It's the return of the beloved coach, who still, 10 years later, looks a little out of place in Denver red and gray.
There aren't too many people TigerBlog has ever met who have meant more to him or done more for him than Bill Tierney. He has been a positive impact on TB's life in so many ways, and he's also done a lot for both of TB's children.
He's a man of the highest character, who has also touched the lives of so many others, far away from the spotlight. He is fiercely loyal. He's funny. He's welcoming. He's approachable. He's all of those things, not to mention the single greatest coach of any sport that TB has known.
And for all that?
TB hopes he loses tonight.
Just this once.
Monday, March 25, 2019
Another Banner Year
You know what crushes teams more than anything else in college basketball?
Offensive rebounds off of missed foul shots. TigerBlog has seen it a million times. Most recently, it happened in the Duke-Central Florida game.
UCF had the No. 1 team in the country on the ropes before the Blue Devils escaped. And what was the key play? An offensive rebound off a missed foul shot, which gave Duke the game-winning basket with 12 seconds go play.
And yes, the last chance by UCF rolled excruciatingly around the rim and looked all the world like it was going in, only to roll out, making the final score 77-76 Blue Devils.
TB thinks Duke will win the tournament still, though he'd happy to be wrong about this one. He's rooting for Purdue, by the way, who looked great in hammering Villanova Saturday night. TB actually turned that one before the end because of how much the Boilermakers were ahead, and he never actually checked the final score on that one. Since Purdue was up more than 30 at one point, he figures they held on.
Let him check ... yup, Purdue won 87-61. Next up for Purdue is Tennessee, who played a great first round game against Colgate, who got 32 points from Jordan Burns, a sophomore, and led in the second half before falling 77-70. Tennessee then got out to a huge lead against Iowa yesterday before holding on 83-77.
It was a good weekend for NCAA basketball, but, as TB has noted, the best part of the tournament is over. As you know he thinks the tournament is unique in that gets less interesting with each passing round.
As for the Ivy League, its representative to the men's and women's NCAA basketball tournaments for 2019 both lost by five points.
That's close. Both lost to teams ranked in the Top 20 as well.
More specifically, the Princeton women lost to No. 17 Kentucky 82-77. The Yale men lost 79-74 to LSU, a team ranked 12th in the most recent poll.
If you look back at the last two NCAA tournament appearances by the Princeton men's team, they're both two-point losses, to Kentucky in 2011 and Notre Dame in 2017. If you go back further, the Princeton men have lost games in the NCAA tournament by extraordinarily close margins.
The most famous of those games was of course the one 30 years ago, when 16th-seeded Princeton fell to No. 1 Georgetown 50-49 in 1989. The Tigers would lose four straight NCAA games beginning with that one by a combined total of just 15 points.
What does all of this tell you?
It's not easy to win NCAA tournament games. There always seems to come that run, that five-minute stretch, where the Power Conference team pulls away.
In the end, after all of these games, the Ivy League team is left to think the same thing: "We could've had this." But it's just not easy to pull off.
You only get one chance, too. That's what makes it so tough. You did so many good things, and yet it was that one stretch that you couldn't overcome. "We could've had this."
Princeton's loss to Kentucky fit that mode. Princeton played hard. Princeton played well. Princeton did a lot of really good things. And yet Kentucky had the one key run in the third quarter that decided the game.
The Tigers were making their 10th NCAA appearance in the last eight years, and none of those trips are 1) easy and 2) to be taken for granted.
There are some years when the team has just rolled through the Ivy League, like in 2015, when the Tigers were 30-0 in the regular season and beat Wisconsin-Green Bay for the program's only NCAA win (and one of two in Ivy history).
Then there are years like this one, where Princeton has had to deal with adversity at every turn. Like when Bella Alarie broke her wrist in preseason and missed nine games. Or like when the team was 1-7 against a brutal early schedule.
Or, even more challenging, after the Tigers lost their Ivy opener against Penn on Jan. 5 and then had to wait for four weeks to get on the court again. And then again, when Princeton was 2-2, and two games back of Penn in the standings.
After that? There were 10 straight wins to close the league season, then two more in the Ivy tournament. And then the NCAA game.
Alarie came back to have the most amazing season any Princeton women's basketball player has ever had, capping it with 20 points, 15 rebounds and six assists in the loss to Kentucky. She finished the season with 525 points, the second-best total in in program history and just seven points off the single-season record held by Meagan Cowher in 2007-08.
Alarie averaged 22.8 points and 10.6 rebounds, and she still has a year ago.
Gabrielle Rush had a great senior year, and were it not for what Richmond Aririguzoh did on the men's side, TB would say she was the most improved player he's seen in Princeton basketball.
In fact, Rush, who finished her career with 22 points against Kentucky, set the Princeton women's single-season record with 93 made three-pointers. Only Sean Jackson, who had 95 in 1990-91, has ever had more in a season for a Princeton player.
Courtney Banghart always talks about how you need good seniors to win. In addition to Rush, Sydney Jordan had a great final game as well, with 17 points on 7 of 11 shooting. Jordan, by the way, also happened to win the Pyne Prize this year.
Where will the Tigers be next year?
Well, the idea of a ninth NCAA trip in 11 years is not crazy. There will be two returning first-team All-Ivy League players with Alarie and Carlie Littlefield, and then there figures to be a great supporting cast as well.
Nothing is ever taken for granted, as TB said. There are no guarantees of what one year will hold to the next.
For the Princeton women, there can be a lot of optimism for 2020 - as well as a lot of appreciation for what the 2019 season brought.
Another thing Banghart always talks about is hanging banners. The 2019 women's basketball team did just that - and they did so in a way that wasn't the least bit easy.
Offensive rebounds off of missed foul shots. TigerBlog has seen it a million times. Most recently, it happened in the Duke-Central Florida game.
UCF had the No. 1 team in the country on the ropes before the Blue Devils escaped. And what was the key play? An offensive rebound off a missed foul shot, which gave Duke the game-winning basket with 12 seconds go play.
And yes, the last chance by UCF rolled excruciatingly around the rim and looked all the world like it was going in, only to roll out, making the final score 77-76 Blue Devils.
TB thinks Duke will win the tournament still, though he'd happy to be wrong about this one. He's rooting for Purdue, by the way, who looked great in hammering Villanova Saturday night. TB actually turned that one before the end because of how much the Boilermakers were ahead, and he never actually checked the final score on that one. Since Purdue was up more than 30 at one point, he figures they held on.
Let him check ... yup, Purdue won 87-61. Next up for Purdue is Tennessee, who played a great first round game against Colgate, who got 32 points from Jordan Burns, a sophomore, and led in the second half before falling 77-70. Tennessee then got out to a huge lead against Iowa yesterday before holding on 83-77.
It was a good weekend for NCAA basketball, but, as TB has noted, the best part of the tournament is over. As you know he thinks the tournament is unique in that gets less interesting with each passing round.
As for the Ivy League, its representative to the men's and women's NCAA basketball tournaments for 2019 both lost by five points.
That's close. Both lost to teams ranked in the Top 20 as well.
More specifically, the Princeton women lost to No. 17 Kentucky 82-77. The Yale men lost 79-74 to LSU, a team ranked 12th in the most recent poll.
If you look back at the last two NCAA tournament appearances by the Princeton men's team, they're both two-point losses, to Kentucky in 2011 and Notre Dame in 2017. If you go back further, the Princeton men have lost games in the NCAA tournament by extraordinarily close margins.
The most famous of those games was of course the one 30 years ago, when 16th-seeded Princeton fell to No. 1 Georgetown 50-49 in 1989. The Tigers would lose four straight NCAA games beginning with that one by a combined total of just 15 points.
What does all of this tell you?
It's not easy to win NCAA tournament games. There always seems to come that run, that five-minute stretch, where the Power Conference team pulls away.
In the end, after all of these games, the Ivy League team is left to think the same thing: "We could've had this." But it's just not easy to pull off.
You only get one chance, too. That's what makes it so tough. You did so many good things, and yet it was that one stretch that you couldn't overcome. "We could've had this."
Princeton's loss to Kentucky fit that mode. Princeton played hard. Princeton played well. Princeton did a lot of really good things. And yet Kentucky had the one key run in the third quarter that decided the game.
The Tigers were making their 10th NCAA appearance in the last eight years, and none of those trips are 1) easy and 2) to be taken for granted.
There are some years when the team has just rolled through the Ivy League, like in 2015, when the Tigers were 30-0 in the regular season and beat Wisconsin-Green Bay for the program's only NCAA win (and one of two in Ivy history).
Then there are years like this one, where Princeton has had to deal with adversity at every turn. Like when Bella Alarie broke her wrist in preseason and missed nine games. Or like when the team was 1-7 against a brutal early schedule.
Or, even more challenging, after the Tigers lost their Ivy opener against Penn on Jan. 5 and then had to wait for four weeks to get on the court again. And then again, when Princeton was 2-2, and two games back of Penn in the standings.
After that? There were 10 straight wins to close the league season, then two more in the Ivy tournament. And then the NCAA game.
Alarie came back to have the most amazing season any Princeton women's basketball player has ever had, capping it with 20 points, 15 rebounds and six assists in the loss to Kentucky. She finished the season with 525 points, the second-best total in in program history and just seven points off the single-season record held by Meagan Cowher in 2007-08.
Alarie averaged 22.8 points and 10.6 rebounds, and she still has a year ago.
Gabrielle Rush had a great senior year, and were it not for what Richmond Aririguzoh did on the men's side, TB would say she was the most improved player he's seen in Princeton basketball.
In fact, Rush, who finished her career with 22 points against Kentucky, set the Princeton women's single-season record with 93 made three-pointers. Only Sean Jackson, who had 95 in 1990-91, has ever had more in a season for a Princeton player.
Courtney Banghart always talks about how you need good seniors to win. In addition to Rush, Sydney Jordan had a great final game as well, with 17 points on 7 of 11 shooting. Jordan, by the way, also happened to win the Pyne Prize this year.
Where will the Tigers be next year?
Well, the idea of a ninth NCAA trip in 11 years is not crazy. There will be two returning first-team All-Ivy League players with Alarie and Carlie Littlefield, and then there figures to be a great supporting cast as well.
Nothing is ever taken for granted, as TB said. There are no guarantees of what one year will hold to the next.
For the Princeton women, there can be a lot of optimism for 2020 - as well as a lot of appreciation for what the 2019 season brought.
Another thing Banghart always talks about is hanging banners. The 2019 women's basketball team did just that - and they did so in a way that wasn't the least bit easy.
Friday, March 22, 2019
Some Fun Firsts, And An Eighth
TigerBlog watched a lot of the first day of the NCAA men's basketball tournament yesterday.
Here are his basic conclusions:
* Yale played really hard but just dug too big of a hole. Plus, the Bulldogs just didn't make enough three-point shots, the kinds that they usually do. It was a solid effort by the Ivy League representative, but like many that have come before it, there's the inevitable feeling that it was a winnable one that got away.
* the commercials are awful. They're worse than the Super Bowl ones. Every commercial doesn't have to try to parody basketball announcers during the tournament. Stop already.
* TB wanted to see Ja Morant of 12th-seeded Murray State play and he's glad he did, as Morant had a triple double with 17 points, 11 rebounds and an astonishing 16 assists in a win over Marquette. He also seemed to sense that his postgame interview on TV was his first chance to show himself to the majority of the basketball country and he came across as really genuine and mature.
* When a team is down one with the ball and the shot clock off, why do they always let it go below the 10-second mark before starting to go to the basket. Go quickly. Don't worry about giving the other team too much time. Worry about scoring. Belmont - you had it and you let it get away.
* Speaking of Belmont, you don't want to be the guy who gets nationally known because you got your soda spilled all over you, like the radio guy did. And was there nobody from Belmont who could have given him a "Belmont Basketball" shirt to wear? Did he have to have a coke-soaked shirt for the entire game?
* Purdue won, which is good, since TB is rooting for Purdue, but TB fell asleep by halftime.
* Oh, also, he's not as into it as he has been in year's past. In fact, he was much more interested in how Princeton's guys were doing in the NHL.
TB is really happy for Max Veronneau, who scored his first NHL goal, for Ottawa in a 7-4 loss at Vancouver Wednesday night.
There are a lot of best parts to this, not the least of which is that Veronneau seems almost matter-of-fact when the puck goes in, as opposed to any crazy celebrating.
There's also the idea that in three NHL games, Veronneau now has a goal and an assist and has played on Ottawa's top line. It's obvious that he has definite NHL-level ability.
Lastly, his first goal came with one of his Princeton teammates and his Princeton coach in the building. Josh Teves, another Princeton senior, is on the Canucks, and Tiger head coach Ron Fogarty was in the building.
Look at the sheer joy in that picture.
There are other firsts for this weekend, as well, as well as a second. And an eighth.
And some NCAA championships to compete for as well. Starting with that, this weekend features the NCAA events for wrestling, fencing and swimming and diving.n
The baseball and softball teams are home for the first time this season, and it comes in the Ivy opener for both. The baseball team hosts Dartmouth for two games tomorrow and one Sunday, and the softball team does the same with Yale.
It's also opening weekend for rowing, with the lightweight men - a legitimate national championship contender - at home. HERE is the whole schedule for the weekend.
There's also a lacrosse doubleheader, beginning with the women's game against Brown at noon and then the men's game against Yale at 3. It's the second and last home lacrosse doubleheader of the year, though both teams are at Cornell on April 27.
The women surge into the game at 5-1, off a 13-11 win at Florida Tuesday night. The Tigers have been scoring a ton of goals and getting contributions from a lot of players on both ends of the field.
The men's team will have to contend with TD Ierlan, the No. 1 statistical face-off man of all-time in college lacrosse, who transferred from Albany to Yale.
Up next for Princeton's men, by the way, is the return Tuesday to Sherrerd Field of Bill Tierney, who brings his Denver Pioneers back to the field that he built with his success here. Tierney's team is at Towson tomorrow before coming to Princeton; he has 398 career wins, as a subplot. Of those 398, he won 238, and six NCAA titles, at Princeton.
And lastly, TB promised you an eighth, and here it is: Princeton's eighth appearance in the NCAA women's basketball tournament. That comes up tomorrow, when Princeton and Kentucky tip at 11 from Reynolds Coliseum at North Carolina State University.
Kentucky, ranked 17th in the country, is a tough challenge, especially with its pressure defense.
TB has written a lot about that all week, but he can sum it up simply.
It's not easy to win an NCAA tournament game if you're in the Ivy League, but Princeton has done it before, and the chance to make that kind of history again makes the game fascinating.
Here are his basic conclusions:
* Yale played really hard but just dug too big of a hole. Plus, the Bulldogs just didn't make enough three-point shots, the kinds that they usually do. It was a solid effort by the Ivy League representative, but like many that have come before it, there's the inevitable feeling that it was a winnable one that got away.
* the commercials are awful. They're worse than the Super Bowl ones. Every commercial doesn't have to try to parody basketball announcers during the tournament. Stop already.
* TB wanted to see Ja Morant of 12th-seeded Murray State play and he's glad he did, as Morant had a triple double with 17 points, 11 rebounds and an astonishing 16 assists in a win over Marquette. He also seemed to sense that his postgame interview on TV was his first chance to show himself to the majority of the basketball country and he came across as really genuine and mature.
* When a team is down one with the ball and the shot clock off, why do they always let it go below the 10-second mark before starting to go to the basket. Go quickly. Don't worry about giving the other team too much time. Worry about scoring. Belmont - you had it and you let it get away.
* Speaking of Belmont, you don't want to be the guy who gets nationally known because you got your soda spilled all over you, like the radio guy did. And was there nobody from Belmont who could have given him a "Belmont Basketball" shirt to wear? Did he have to have a coke-soaked shirt for the entire game?
* Purdue won, which is good, since TB is rooting for Purdue, but TB fell asleep by halftime.
* Oh, also, he's not as into it as he has been in year's past. In fact, he was much more interested in how Princeton's guys were doing in the NHL.
TB is really happy for Max Veronneau, who scored his first NHL goal, for Ottawa in a 7-4 loss at Vancouver Wednesday night.
— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) March 21, 2019
There are a lot of best parts to this, not the least of which is that Veronneau seems almost matter-of-fact when the puck goes in, as opposed to any crazy celebrating.
There's also the idea that in three NHL games, Veronneau now has a goal and an assist and has played on Ottawa's top line. It's obvious that he has definite NHL-level ability.
Lastly, his first goal came with one of his Princeton teammates and his Princeton coach in the building. Josh Teves, another Princeton senior, is on the Canucks, and Tiger head coach Ron Fogarty was in the building.
Great to see 2 former @princetonhockey teammates together. Congrats Vern on your first NHL goal pic.twitter.com/TfkPl4zsQo— Ron Fogarty (@ronfogarty) March 21, 2019
Look at the sheer joy in that picture.
There are other firsts for this weekend, as well, as well as a second. And an eighth.
And some NCAA championships to compete for as well. Starting with that, this weekend features the NCAA events for wrestling, fencing and swimming and diving.n
The baseball and softball teams are home for the first time this season, and it comes in the Ivy opener for both. The baseball team hosts Dartmouth for two games tomorrow and one Sunday, and the softball team does the same with Yale.
It's also opening weekend for rowing, with the lightweight men - a legitimate national championship contender - at home. HERE is the whole schedule for the weekend.
There's also a lacrosse doubleheader, beginning with the women's game against Brown at noon and then the men's game against Yale at 3. It's the second and last home lacrosse doubleheader of the year, though both teams are at Cornell on April 27.
The women surge into the game at 5-1, off a 13-11 win at Florida Tuesday night. The Tigers have been scoring a ton of goals and getting contributions from a lot of players on both ends of the field.
The men's team will have to contend with TD Ierlan, the No. 1 statistical face-off man of all-time in college lacrosse, who transferred from Albany to Yale.
Up next for Princeton's men, by the way, is the return Tuesday to Sherrerd Field of Bill Tierney, who brings his Denver Pioneers back to the field that he built with his success here. Tierney's team is at Towson tomorrow before coming to Princeton; he has 398 career wins, as a subplot. Of those 398, he won 238, and six NCAA titles, at Princeton.
And lastly, TB promised you an eighth, and here it is: Princeton's eighth appearance in the NCAA women's basketball tournament. That comes up tomorrow, when Princeton and Kentucky tip at 11 from Reynolds Coliseum at North Carolina State University.
Kentucky, ranked 17th in the country, is a tough challenge, especially with its pressure defense.
TB has written a lot about that all week, but he can sum it up simply.
It's not easy to win an NCAA tournament game if you're in the Ivy League, but Princeton has done it before, and the chance to make that kind of history again makes the game fascinating.
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