A Weekend Yav Would Have Loved

So what do you think of the new website? 

In case you're wondering what the direct link is for TigerBlog, it's this: https://goprincetontigers.com/sports/tigerblog/. If you
have this page bookmarked, then change it to that link. If you're looking for it on the main site, you can find it with the "Quick Links" directly on the right at the top.

TigerBlog will keep posting here and on the goprincetontigers.com site for the next week or so.

Meanwhile, this is the first weekend in Princeton Athletics since the winter teams all finished playing. It's a busy one, with 24 events between today and Sunday.

TigerBlog used to have count those up on the old site. On the new one, the calendar totals how many events there are that day. You simply click on the sport abbreviation to get the full list of events for that day (you have to scroll down to see them all).

There's home rowing in the morning, with a big men's lacrosse game at 1 on Sherrerd Field against Brown. The men's tennis team plays its Ivy opener against Penn in Jadwin Gym. 

There's track and field in three locations. There are Ivy baseball (at Harvard) and softball (at Penn) games that will have a significant impact on the standings. There's men's volleyball in Dillon Gym tomorrow at 5. It's a very busy schedule.

You know who would have loved it?

Harvey Yavener.

If you don't know the name, it likely means that you weren't a big Princeton sports fan before the last 13 years or so. Harvey Yavener — Yav, as everyone knew him — was a legendary sportswriter in Mercer County, one who probably wrote more about Princeton Athletics in a newspaper than anyone else. 

Yav's final Princeton story was on All-American swimmer Alicia Aemesigger, a member of the Class of 2010. Yav may have written about her before her senior year. 

The great sportswriter passed away recently at the age of 93. It was incredibly sad news for TigerBlog, who worked with Yav at the Trenton Times during his first five years on the Princeton beat and then all the way until Yav's retirement once TB came to work here. Since Yav retired, the two stayed close.

If you are one of the hundreds of Princeton athletes or coaches whom Yav interviewed, you know that it was an experience like no other. The average interview is 10-15 minutes. The average "Yav" interview was 45 minutes to an hour.

When he was done,  Yav could tell you almost anything there was that made for a great story about that one particular athlete, and he could tell that story without ever mentioned the athletic piece. He would then go and write a story that was, in newspaper talk, 30 or 35 or 40 column inches, which translated into a whole lot of words.

Of course, when the story ran, it was way too large to fit what had been allocated, and so editing had to be done. Nothing in the world set Yav off more than having his story edited, to which he would say "ah, they cut my story," only he would add four words before "my story." Those four words were always the same, and they were rated R. 

That doesn't even take into account "the wrap," Yav's nightly recap of all the events he couldn't attend. He'd still write about them anyway, again filling up many more column inches than were allocated. He'd often listen to games on the radio to write about them in his wrap, and he'd usually include some commentary that couldn't possibly be gained from just the broadcast, such as calling fouls against the local team "questionable" or "ticky-tack," even though he'd never seen the play. 

He loved Princeton, to be sure, just as he loved the other Mercer County colleges, and Rutgers, especially Rutgers football, which he was sure would be winning the Rose Bowl any year now. 

When news of Yav's passing began to spread, TB heard from someone who knew Yav well who texted those four missing words in tribute. 

And he was far ahead of the curve when it came to covering women's sports. There was times when he was the only one writing about women's college athletics, let alone the only man. It simply wasn't done by male sportswriters at the time. 

He also would never differentiate between events in any way other than the significance of that particular event in the framework of what it meant to that sport. To Yav, a big squash match mattered as much as a big football game — and he wrote about them both with the same zest.

There was more to Yav than sportswriting. He loved jazz. He especially loved food — eating it, cooking it, writing about it. He was as home in the finest restaurants in the country as he was in a press box.

More than anything else, though, he loved his partner of 60-plus years Polly. Where there was Yav, there was Polly. When Polly passed away in 2018, TB thought Yav wouldn't last long without her. Turned out it was nearly five years, and Yav was sharp until the end.

Yav was short and curmudgeonly, but driven with a strong work ethic and high standards for himself and those around him. He grew up poor and worked hard to make his place in the world. Does that remind you of anyone? It's not surprising that Yav and Pete Carril were very, very close.

Were Yav still working, this is how he'd tell you his plans for Saturday: "Yeah, I'm going to check out the boats in the morning and then jump over to the lacrosse game. Then I'll duck in at Rider to catch the end of the baseball there. And then there's a killer wrap."

For the five years that TB worked alongside Yav on the local college beat, they would sit down each week and go through the handwritten daily schedule to decide who goes to what. In 1992, when Duke and Kentucky played in the NCAA men's basketball regional final in Philadelphia, Yav sent TB, because the game was late and because there was a "killer wrap" that night. 

Those days are long gone.  

There are not a lot of people left at Princeton who knew him. Those who did will remember him with fondness.

TB will remember him with much more than that. There aren't too many people in TB's life who have made more of a positive impact on him than Harvey Yavener did. Were it not for Yav, there is absolutely no chance that TB would have succeeded as a sportswriter and now all these years at Princeton. TB owed him a lot for everything he did.

Much as was the case with Carril, TB knew the day was coming when he'd get the news about Yav. Also much like Carril, it was very emotional anyway when it did.

Rest in peace, Yav. Thanks for everything. 

You know how special you were for TB. Give Polly a hug.

Time For A Change

To the person who commented yesterday that the change that TigerBlog had mentioned earlier this week had "an April Fool's vibe" to it, that was laugh out loud funny.

Nope. It's a real change. In fact, here it is:

If you're reading this after mid-morning Eastern time, then you can (hopefully) notice the redesign of the goprincetontigers.com website. Hopefully you like it. 

The website goprincetontigers.com debuted on Oct. 23, 1999. Since that rather simple beginning, this is the seventh iteration in design.

The most recent redesign was back on Oct. 1, 2014. From that day until today, the website has had the look that everyone has long since gotten used to seeing.

What did it look like last time? 

Does that look familiar? That was the look from 2004-2014.

Clearly, these redesigns don't happen all that often.

One of the major differences this time around is that the goprincetontigers.com site will be the place to find TigerBlog every morning. That is big.

TigerBlog has been posted on this site, which is housed by blogspot.com, since it was first created back in 2008. The idea was to use the blog as a supplement to the information on goprincetontigers.com, so that the larger website would be less crowded.

The first post, in fact, was on Aug. 28, 2008, and it mentioned the upcoming media day at the "new" Roberts Stadium. The entire post was one paragraph.

From that beginning, the blog evolved to being used for in-game updating, but that proved impractical for two reasons. First, there were live stats for that. Second, it was impossible to do this for every sport.

As TB has written before, the first few months of the blog saw little to no readership. It wasn't until it started in its present format as a daily column that it began to catch on. That was in 2009, when he figured that to build and maintain the audience, he'd have to do this every day. 

And so he has. There has not been one missed workday since he first started sharing it this way in January 2009. There have been a small handful of special weekend entries, including during the recent NCAA basketball tournament runs by the Princeton men and women.

Since then, TB has been fortunate that three different Directors of Athletics have seen the value in something that is a bit informal by college athletic standards. The result has been a product that has been very well-received, one that has provided TB with a daily challenge to be creative.

Through 3,767 posts and more than 2,000,000 page views, the blog has been here on blogspot. 

Starting tomorrow, you'll find it on goprincetontigers.com.

Actually, you'll still find it on blogspot for at least a little while. TB isn't sure what the best way to do this, since he doesn't want anyone to get lost in the transition.

The new location will have its own dropdown menu, where you'll still be able to access the blogspot archives going back to 2008. It'll also have all of the entries that will now be posted directly to the website available under a "posts" tab.

And that's the change that TB mentioned earlier this week. 

Hey, life is about evolving. For instance, this is how Princeton's baseball team used to power its pitching machine:

1897, mathematics instructor Charles Hinton designed gunpowder-powered baseball pitching machine for Princeton University baseball team's practice. One source claimed it caused several injuries, may have been in part responsible for Hinton's dismissal from Princeton that year. pic.twitter.com/exri7AOUER

— Jim Koenigsberger (@Jimfrombaseball) March 28, 2023

Ol' Charles was a bit out there. He was an Oxford-educated mathematician and science fiction writer, in addition to his invention — not to mention a firm believer in the fourth dimension and a convicted bigamist. He came to Princeton in 1893, four years before his pitching machine. From the Daily Princetonian:

Actually the mechanical pitcher was a muzzle-loading cannon which used a powder charge to propel the baseball. The barrel of the gun was approximately five feet in length and was mounted on a braced platform. As first designed, the mechine was fired from behind the pitchet's mound, usually by Mr. Hinton himself who would measure out the powder charges and trip the firing key without giving the batter more than a few seconds notice. Then around 1898, Mr. Hinton designed a treadle located in the batters box which allowed the hitter to fire the gun whenever he was ready. 

Bill Clarke, the longtime Princeton coach for whom Clarke field is named, is quoted as saying the machine wasn't really all that valuable as a teaching tool and that it was "hazardous" for the batter.

As such, the machine didn't last long with the baseball team. Also from the Prince:

While the gun had only a short life with the baseball team, it was frequently resurrected from its storage place in Mr. Hinton's bathtub and used in demonstrations. To prove that it could really fire a curve ball, the inventor placed a number of paper screens between the muzzle and home plate. The holes made in the screens by the ball would not line up if the gun was adjusted for a curve. When the novelty of the gun wore thin for Princetonians, the owner began renting it to carnivals and concessionaires, who offered handsome prizes for the first young man to hit the bullet-like pitches of the machine. Just where the Hinton gun is today is anybody's guess.

See? Where else can you get stuff like that but from TigerBlog. 

Now you'll just have to reset your bookmarks. The content will still be the same.

Not Yet

So here it is, the day that TigerBlog said there'd be some big changes, and there is ... nothing.

As it turns out, he might have been off by a day or two. He promises you that change is coming. 

If you're one of the people who reached out yesterday to find out what it is, or even if you're not, it's just a redesign of how the content here is presented every day. Nothing is going to change in terms of the content itself. 

And because he doesn't have to talk about the new presentation, he can bring up a few things:

* After its sweep of Dartmouth this past weekend, the Princeton baseball team is the lone 3-0 team in the Ivy League. In doing so, Princeton equaled its Ivy League win total of a year ago.

Yes, that's true. Princeton is 3-0 to start this year one year after going 3-18 while finishing eighth. The Tigers gave a sign early on this year that things were different with some of their out-of-conference performances, and they were definitely ready to go against the Big Green.

It's a small sample size, but Princeton leads the league in pitching and hitting in Ivy games. That's a great combination. It's not surprising that Princeton had the Ivy Player of the Week (Kyle Vinci, who hit three home runs, drove in seven runs and had a 1.077 slugging percentage in the three games) and Pitcher of the Week (Justin Kim, who got the win in Game 1, striking out six in five innings of relief, and then pitching the final inning of the third game).

Princeton is at Harvard this weekend to take on a Crimson team that took two of three against Penn last weekend.

The big change in Ivy League baseball and softball this year is that instead of a best-of-three championship series among the top two teams in the league, there will be a four-team double elimination tournament to determine the league's NCAA bid.

* By the way, Kyle Vinci's high school team at Delbarton in North Jersey was the No. 1 team in the state his junior year. Guess who the team's shortstop was? TB will have the answer for you below. 

* TigerBlog had four favorite athletes as a little kid: Tom Seaver, Joe Namath, Walt Frazier and Willis Reed. Does that sort of give away the general area in which he grew up?

Reed passed away last week at the age of 80. Reed was "The Captain" before anyone else came along, and he was the leader of the Knicks' last two NBA championship teams, earning MVP honors in the 1973 Finals and doing something even better in the 1970 finals (you already know what he did). 

Of course, Reed was a teammate on those Knicks' teams with Princeton's own Bill Bradley. The team actually played an exhibition game in Jadwin Gym, and here is one of TB's favorite photos:

* The women's lacrosse team is at Maryland tonight in a game that can be seen on the Big Ten Network starting at 8. The Tigers come into the game having defeated Cornell 15-11 Saturday in Ithaca behind six goals from Nina Montes, who earned Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week honors. 

Princeton is ranked 17th in this week's IWLCA poll. Maryland is 10th.

Maryland features a familiar name on its defense. Marge Donovan, the Ivy League Defender of the Year lat year with the Tigers, is now playing for the Terps as a grad transfer. Donovan, by the way, was a Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering major at Princeton.

The Tigers do not have a game this weekend and do not play again until Wednesday at St. Joe's.

* Speaking of Princeton grads at Maryland, Abby Meyers and the Terps' women's basketball team lost to South Carolina in the regional final Monday night by a score of 86-75.

Did that score look familiar? It was also the score by which Princeton lost to Creighton in the Sweet 16 Friday night in Loiusville.

As for Meyers, she had 14 points and five rebounds, but she was limited to 26 minutes by foul trouble before eventually fouling out early in the fourth quarter. By the way, the fourth and fifth fouls called on her were awful calls.

*  Meanwhile, back at weekly awards, Princeton softball's Alexis Laudenslager was the Ivy Pitcher of the Week after a no-hitter against Brown to start the Tigers' weekend off on the right foot. Princeton would take two of three in Providence. 

Laudenslager struck out 10 in her no-hitter, which Princeton won 1-0. It was the fourth career no-hitter for Laudenslager, who also no-hit Yale one week earlier.

Most of Ivy softball is a week ahead of baseball, and so Princeton now finds itself 5-1 in the league after sweeping Yale on the first weekend. Princeton is at Penn this weekend. 

Dartmouth is currently 3-0 in the league, as the Big Green and Cornell started a week after everyone else. Princeton, the defending Ivy champion, finishes its regular season against the Big Green in Hanover at the end of April, but Dartmouth will have one more weekend to go after that. Cornell is now 2-1, while Harvard is 4-2. Everyone else has at least four losses.

* Ben Harrington has won his fourth EIVA Offensive Player of the Week award after Princeton defeated George Mason in the league and No. 9 Loyola (Chicago) outside of it.

Harrington currently leads the EIVA in per-set averages in kills (3.57), aces (0.73) and points (4.48). He also ranks third nationally in aces per set and 12th in points per set.

The Tigers host George Mason Saturday at 5 in the only match this weekend. 

* The shortstop? Anthony Volpe, who is now the New York Yankees starting shortstop.

* Yes, the change will be here. Probably tomorrow. 

NCAA Runner-Up

TigerBlog's car was parked next to a clearly classic car yesterday at the supermarket.

As TB got back to his car and the owner of the other car got out of his, a third car pulled up, and a man who appeared to be in his early 20s yelled out the window: "You've got a great car man." Actually, he included an expletive before "car," though TB has chosen to delete the expletive.

Then the young man yelled out "what year?"

Before the man with the fancy car could say anything, TigerBlog said "2015." When the young man gave a quizzical look, TB said "oh, thought you meant this car" as he pointed to his.

As it turns out, he didn't. 

Also as it turns out, the fancy car was a 1968 Ford Thunderbird. TB has no idea if it came with Positraction (and if you don't get the reference, then that's as bad as knowing that Zach Martini of the men's basketball team has never seen "Hoosiers").

TigerBlog's first car was a 1977 Dodge Diplomat. It had an eight-track player. Would that be considered a classic now? 

Seguing back to the world of Princeton Athletics, there was more to NCAA success than just basketball this past week. The Tiger fencing team put up big numbers at its own NCAA Championships this past weekend at Duke.

In fact, Princeton finished second nationally in the co-ed event, behind only NCAA champion Notre Dame, who won 188 bouts to 175 for the Tigers. Princeton finished 19 wins ahead of third-place Columbia. 

This is the fourth time since the event became co-ed in 1990 that Princeton has finished in the top two. The Tigers won the 2013 NCAA title, and they were the runner-up in 2012, 2014 and now 2023.

Once again, were there separate NCAA events for the men and the women, then Princeton's women would have won. The Tigers had 98 points on the women's side, four better than the next-best total of 94 by Notre Dame.

The Princeton men would have finished in third place, two points back of Columbia for second. Of course, it's a co-ed event, for reasons that TB doesn't know. 

It does seem like there is a movement to have separate championships, largely because there is no school in the country that has only a men's team but there are schools who only field a women's team. Because of the combined scoring, a women-only team has no chance at winning a team championship.

There are also individual champions in each weapon. Basically, a school can qualify three fencers per weapon, and there is a round-robin event for team team points are earned. When that is over, the top four in each weapon advance to the individual semifinals.

Princeton did not have an individual champion, but it did have 11 of its 12 fencers earn All-American honors. Princeton also had three individual runners-up: Mohamed Hamza in the men's foil, May Tieu in the women's foil and Jessica Lin in the women's epee. 

Congratulations to the Tiger fencers. That was a wildly impressive weekend.

TigerBlog was once at a James Taylor concert where the singer had just come out with a new album that didn't really sell that well. He began the show by basically saying "If you clap for the new songs, I'll play all the old ones you want to hear."

As TB said yesterday, readership here skyrocketed during the recent NCAA basketball tournament runs for the Princeton men and women. He hopes that you'll stay as he gets back to writing about the entirety of Princeton Athletics.

Princeton is a special place, with teams who regularly have great performances during the year and in the postseason. For proof, go to goprincetontigers.com and check out how many athletes won Player of the Week this week.

If you're new here, hopefully you'll be intrigued by what you learn and want to follow the Tigers.

Also, as this week moves along, there will be major changes coming to this blog. You'll still get the same content you're used to and that TB has brought you since 2009. It's just that the way it's presented is going to change, for the first time in all those years. It'll be an exciting change that TB hopes you'll like.

Stay tuned.

A Little More Hoops

For the last two weeks, other than saluting Patrick Glory's NCAA wrestling title, TigerBlog has been all about basketball. 

Judging by the readership numbers, which skyrocketed by the way, it seems like most of you out there were okay with it. Hey, Princeton Basketball, both the men and the women, captured the imagination of the entire country. 

When a team does extraordinarily well on the national stage, here's always what's come to be known as the "Flutie Factor." It dates back to when Doug Flutie won the Heisman Trophy at Boston College in 1984, and as a result applications to go to school there went way up. TB heard quite a few joking references to this phenomenon with Princeton's success.

And so he starts today talking about ... basketball?

As he assumes most Princeton fans were doing, TB was rooting for Creighton to win it all after knocking out the Tigers Friday night in the Sweet 16. Creighton came really close to getting to the Final Four yesterday, falling 57-56 to San Diego State. 

Yes, that could have been called a foul. No, under absolutely no circumstances should that have been called a foul in that situation. First, the officials didn't call a tight game. Second, you can't decide a trip to the Final Four with that call. It's awful. 

And don't blame the Creighton player. You simply can't make that call in that situation. If there had been blatant, shot-altering contact, then yes. There wasn't any in that situation.

The Final Four is set on the men's side, with Florida Atlantic to play San Diego State and Miami to play UConn. The winners will play for the national championship.

If you're wondering, there are no No. 1 or No. 2 seeds who are left. FAU is a nine. San Diego state is a five. Miami is also a five. UConn is the highest (or is that lowest?) seed left as a No. 4.

When Princeton's Gary Walters was the head of the committee, the Final Four consisted of three No. 1 seeds and a No. 2 seed. TB will have to ask Gary if that's the goal of the committee and if the committee feels like that result makes them seem like they knew what they were doing.

One more basketball note - You can watch Princeton alum Abby Meyers and Maryland play against No. 1 South Carolina tonight at 7 for a trip to the Final Four. Meyers has averaged 12 points per game in Maryland's first three NCAA games this season. 

At Princeton, Meyers played in three NCAA games, averaging 17.7 per, including a 29-point outburst in the win over Kentucky last year. She has 89 points in NCAA tournament games in her career heading into the game tonight. 

Speaking of NCAA tournament points, Princeton's Ryan Langborg had 56 of them in the three games. When was the last time a Princeton player had at least that many points in one NCAA tournament? It's actually happened five times in program history, all of which happened in the 1960s:

1) Bill Bradley - 177 points (1965)
2) Bill Bradley - 86 points (1964)
3) Pete Campbell - 75 points (1961)
4) Joe Heiser - 58 points (1967)
5) Ryan Langborg (2023)/Bob Haarlow (1967) - 56 points 

Princeton has played in a lot of NCAA tournaments since the 1960s. Nobody has exceeded what Langborg did this year. 

Speaking of Princeton's NCAA tournament records, Blake Peters made 11 three-pointers in the tournament, bettering the record held by Brian Earl (1998). Peters is also three away from Earl's career record of 14, and the five Peters made against Missouri in Round 2 tied the single-game record set by Earl twice (he had five against both UNLV and Michigan State in the 1998 tournament).

Of course, Tosan Evbuomwan got in on the record-setting as well. His nine assists against Creighton are a new record, one better than the old record held by Kit Mueller (three times) and Bill Bradley (twice). Evbuomwan's 18 assists in the tournament are also a new record, beating the 14 set by Bradley in 1965 and equaled by Billy Ryan in 1983. 

And TB told you last week that Caden Pierce's 16 rebounds against Missouri were the third-best total a Princeton player has had in an NCAA game. Lastly, Langborg and Keeshawn Kellman both blocked two shots against Arizona, making them the fourth and fifth Princeton players to do so in a game.

With that, TB thinks he's done with basketball, at least for a little while. 

He will say this: The Final Four may be this weekend, but the 2023 men's tournament belonged to Princeton.

How Sweet It Was

From the time his team had finished off Missouri last Saturday to reach the NCAA Sweet 16 until tip-off Friday night in Louisville, Princeton head men's basketball coach Mitch Henderson gave a master class on how to represent an institution. 

He was humble. He gave full credit to his players, to his mentors, to the spirit and pride that define the University. He mentioned the great fan support. He talked about how much the team had changed since his playing days in the 1990s. His love of all things Princeton, and not just basketball, was obvious.

There is no grade Henderson can get other than an A+ for how he handled success. 

He also did a masterful job guiding his team through March. His composure and maturity as a coach were obvious, and his team fed off of that. The Tigers maintained their own poise, soaked up every minute and every experience there was to be had and then went out on the biggest stage in their sport and competed as hard as they could.  

And then? March showed that it could be cruel. With each hurdle cleared, the bar gets raised. With each win, the next one becomes even tougher. Any bad stretch and that's the end of it.

Despite it coming to an end, what a run for @PrincetonMBB 👏 pic.twitter.com/twO7eSzCYA

— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) March 25, 2023

And it doesn't matter if you're the 15 seed who has already won two massive games in the NCAA tournament. When the end comes, you're not ready for it and you don't like it one bit. It leaves you wanting more and wondering what might have been.

The end came for Princeton Friday night in Louisville, where the Tigers fell 86-75 to sixth-seeded Creighton. Princeton had fallen behind early but rallied in the first half to go up 38-34, and at that point, Princeton was dripping with confidence. The team wanted it. The crowd certainly did, especially the Tiger fans who had converged on the KFC Yum! Center from all over.

Princeton was ahead and playing with momentum. San Diego State had already taken down No. 1 Alabama.

Everyone anywhere in Orange and Black had two words floating through their head: Final Four. The only problem is that Creighton had the same thoughts. And Creighton had a 7-1 big man named Ryan Kalkbrenner who was nearly impossible to stop, especially on a night when another Blue Jay, Baylor Scheierman, shot 5 for 7 from three-point range.

Just like that, it was Creighton who was headed to Sunday's Elite Eight game against San Diego State, and it was Princeton who was headed home. That's how this tournament works.

Of course, if you recall, this was the same Princeton team that lost a 19-point lead on its home court against Yale back on Feb. 18. When Princeton walked off the Jadwin Gym floor that night, who saw this coming? 

Who would have imagined that Princeton's next loss would be in the Sweet 16? The Sweet 16, for Pete's sake. 

Ah, and speaking of Pete, Princeton did this in the first year after the passing of Pete Carril, it's Hall of Fame coach. This team didn't play anywhere near the style that Carril's teams did, but they did play with a bow tie patch on their uniforms out of respect for the late coach, a man many of the members of this team got to know and a man who meant so much to so many of the people in the crowd last weekend in Sacramento and on this night in Kentucky.

Carril used to say that he hoped his team would "give a good account of itself." By any metric, this team did.

Amazingly, Princeton built a 19-point lead against Harvard in the game after the loss to Yale and then had to hold on to win 58-56. Then it was a 19-point deficit against Penn in the regular season finale that Princeton overcame to earn a share of the league championship.

The next challenge was getting a third win over Penn, which Princeton did. Then it was to beat its nemesis Yale to get into the NCAA tournament, which it did.

From there, it was the small matter of No. 2 Arizona and No. 7 Missouri, both of whom Princeton sent home last weekend. It was an extraordinary performance by a team that kept getting better and peaked at the absolute right time.

Ryan Langborg, a senior, scored 52 points in three NCAA games, improving from eight to 22 to 26 against Creighton. Tosan Evbuowman, another senior, had 48 points, 22 rebounds and 18 assists in his three NCAA games.

Just typing that is surreal. Three NCAA games. Princeton had three NCAA games. 

It's a 68-team tournament. It ends with a loss for 67 of those teams. When it comes, it stings. 

And when that sting wears off, you're left to remember what you just accomplished, or, if you're a fan, what you just witnessed. And what you saw from the 2022-23 Princeton men's basketball team is one of the greatest accomplishments in the history of Tiger Athletics. 

This is a team that will never be forgotten. 

Thanks for the magical March, Tigers.

Sweet 16 Game Night

From the final buzzer of its win over Missouri last Saturday — actually, make that from around the under-8 media timeout of its win over Missouri — the Princeton men's basketball team has been riding a wave of excitement, attention and celebrity.

Each moment is something extraordinary. Each day has brought another memory that will last forever for all of them. 

Tonight, though, it's all business. It's Princeton against Creighton in Louisville in the Sweet 16. Tip-off is at 9.

The winner of that game plays the winner of tonight's first game at the KFC Yum! Center, between Alabama and San Diego State Sunday for a trip to the Final Four. 

Princeton's run marks the third straight year that a No 15 seed has gotten this far. In fact, it's the second straight year that a No. 15 from New Jersey has gotten to the second weekend, after St. Peter's did a year ago. 

St. Peter's defeated No. 2 Kentucky and No. 7 Murray State and then won a third game, defeating No. 3 Purdue in the Sweet 16 before falling to North Carolina in the regional final. 

The year before, it was Oral Roberts as a 15 seed who reached the Sweet 16, after beating No. 2 Ohio State and No. 7 Florida.  

Before that? The tournament began its current seeding process in 1985. The only other school besides Princeton, St. Peter's and Oral Roberts to get this far was Florida-Gulf Coast, who dunked its way past No. 2 Georgetown and No. 7 San Diego State.

Princeton is also the 36th team seeded No. 9 or lower (or is that higher?) to get this far. Those teams, seeded 9-15, are 12-23 in the Sweet 16. Only five such teams have then won again to reach the Final Four, and all five were 11 seeds: LSU (1986), George Mason (2006), Loyola (2018), UCLA (2021). 

The good part about being a No. 15 who wins its opener is that the first game is against the No. 2, which means that it can't face a higher (or is that lower?) seed until the regional final. Princeton followed up its 59-55 win over No. 2 Arizona by beating No. 7 Missouri 78-63. The 15-point margin was the largest ever by a 15-seed in an NCAA game.

Now it's No. 6 Creighton. The Blue Jays got here by defeating No. 11 North Carolina State 72-63 and then No. 3 Baylor 85-76. They have never gotten any further than this in the NCAA tournament.

There aren't many teams Princeton could play whose career leader in points has more than the Tigers' does, but Creighton is one of them. Doug McDermott, in fact, is the No. 7 all-time leading scorer in Division I history, having scored 3,150 points as a Blue Jay before heading to a long NBA career.

Greg McDermott, Doug's father, is the Creighton head coach, and he's been in his position longer than any other current Big East coach (13 years). Here's what he said about Princeton yesterday:

Offensively, you know, Evbuomwan, he can score, and he can really pass. If you allow him to do both, you're asking for trouble. So we have to figure out a way to slow that down. It's hard to do, and they space the floor with a lot of really good shooters. Then when they miss, you know, the first two games, 30 second-chance points for Princeton and four combined for Arizona and Missouri. So I think that speaks to their discipline defensively on the glass, blocking out, not giving you second opportunities, and then their second effort that they make to get to that offensive glass when they do miss a shot. We have our hands full. This is a really, really good basketball team. It's not a fluke that they're still playing.

Creighton has done something in its first two NCAA games that no team has done since 1997, and that's had two different players score at least 30 points in a game. First it was 7-1 Ryan Kalkbrenner with 31 against NC State, and then it was Ryan Nembhard with 30 against Baylor. 

The most impressive stats for Princeton through two NCAA games involve rebounding. The Tigers have outrebounded their first two NCAA opponents by a combined 82-67. The Tigers have a 30-4 edge in second-chance points through two NCAA games.

Between the two of them, they were a combined 7 for 45 from three-point range in their first games and then 23 for 57 in the next two games combined.

Will the game be decided somewhere in those numbers? Will Princeton be able to defend the 7-1 Kalkbrenner? Will the Tigers be great on the offensive glass? Will the three-pointers fall for one and not the other? 

Or will it be something else? 

No matter what, this is one of the biggest moments in Princeton Basketball history. To get this far is extraordinary.

To go further? Either Princeton or Creighton will know that feeling later tonight.

"I Think You'll Find These Are The Exact Same Measurements At Our Gym Back In Hickory"

TigerBlog was sitting with Zach Martini in Jadwin Gym during Monday's media session for the Princeton men's basketball team when he learned something extraordinary.

TB asked Martini about the experience of being at the tournament last weekend in Sacramento, and he said this:

“I looked around the arena, and my legs were shaking. I didn’t have much control for about 10 seconds. After that, it was a basketball game. It might not have been Jadwin, but it was just another basketball game.”

From that point, this is where the conversation went:

TB: That's like the scene from "Hoosiers."
ZM: I've never seen it.
TB: (with a look of incredulity) You've never seen "Hoosiers?" How is that possible?

Indeed, how is that possible. How can a college basketball player not have seen "Hoosiers?" Is TB that old?

By the way, TB doesn't have to tell you which scene he meant, but if you need a refresher, it's this one.

TigerBlog was speaking with Martini to do a feature on him and another Princeton big man, Keeshawn Kellman. Both were outstanding last week, especially against the size of the Arizona big men.

The two of them spent a great deal of time during the Covid year as workout partners. Actually, you can make that "early morning workout partners." From there, they've become extremely close. 

You can read the feature story HERE.

The two big men and the rest of the Princeton travel party rolled out of the circle by Caldwell Field House around 1 yesterday afternoon, heading to Philadelphia Airport for a charter flight to Louisville. That's where the Tigers will take on Creighton in the NCAA Sweet 16 tomorrow night, with tip-off from the KFC Yum! Center at 9 pm.

It was a huge celebration of a send-off for Princeton. There was a large crowd gathered in front of Caldwell, and as with everything else the team has done the last week, there were television cameras to capture it all.

TB's favorite sign was one held up by members of the band that read "Cinderella Is A Jersey Girl." Now that's genius. 

There were claps and cheers and chants of "Let's Go Tigers. Let's Go Tigers." It was a pretty special moment. It was easy to see that the players were loving it. And why not? They've definitely earned all of this. 

At approximately the same time, but 1,250 miles to the west, Creighton was having a similarly festive send off, though TB isn't sure if Creighton's had free pizza, like Princeton's did. This is what happens when there are only 16 teams that remain in the men's basketball tournament. 

The KFC Yum! Center, by the way, is 702 miles from Jadwin Gym and 690 miles from Creighton's home arena, the CHI Health Center. That's about as neutral a site as you can get.

The NCAA tournament routine is the same for each of its three weekends. There is the travel day. Then the next day, today, would be for media availability, a one-hour walkthrough in the arena and then another gym somewhere for a real practice. The next day is Game Day.

The scene from "Hoosiers" is more than just a classic moment from a classic movie (that Martini needs to see immediately). There's a lot to be learned from that bit of coaching genius.

It is the same 10 feet to the rim as Jadwin. It is the same 15 feet to the foul line. All the dimensions are the same. 

There are multiple challenges here. You have to be ready for all of the attention, and has Princeton ever gotten the attention. Then you have to be able to switch off from the "this is an incredible experience" part to the "we're here to win a basketball game" part. 

First and foremost, you need to believe you can do it. If you don't start with that, then you have no chance. 

Then you have to figure out how. Then you have to go do it.

This Princeton team did just that a week ago in California. Now it's the same task in Louisville. 

TB's advice to the Tigers? 

Give it everything you have. Cherish the experience. 

Actually, that's what he emailed Martini when he sent him the clip from "Hoosiers."

 

The Modern Tigers Head To The Sweet 16

As you probably recall, one of TigerBlog's favorite stories about former Princeton head men's basketball coach Bill Carmody is the time that he was talking to the media after a game far from Jadwin Gym and was asked about how even his center shot three-pointers.

"In our program, everyone shoots the three," he said. Then, pointing to TB, he said "even our SID can make one."

Oh, how the times have changed. Witness this picture:

And just who is that? Well, that's Elliott Carr, the current Princeton men's basketball athletic communications contact. Elliott, by the way, scored 501 points as a player at Clarke University before graduating in 2012. Still being able to dunk in his early 30s? Impressive.

If ever there was a metaphor for the evolution of Princeton men's basketball, it's that picture. Even the SID can dunk now.

For those who have been paying attention, you know that the Princeton men's basketball team that heads to the Sweet 16 to take on Creighton Friday night at 9 in Louisville plays a much different way than the Tigers of the past. If you're one of those people, then you're also probably in the minority.

TB was watching "Pardon the Interruption" Monday to hear what they would have to say about Princeton's sweep of Arizona and Missouri in the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament. Tony Kornheiser went first and spoke about how "Princeton knows who it is" and "Princeton knows its limitations."

All TB could do was shake his head. Then it was Michael Wilbon's turn. He got it right. "I watched them. I saw guys dunking. I saw guys getting offensive rebounds."

Yes, he did. It's partly because of how the game has changed and partly because so much of the basketball world adopted the principles of the "Princeton Offense" after the success of the 1990s. 

Mostly, though, it's because of Mitch Henderson's desire to get his team to where it is this week. Actually, it's his desire to get to this point and then to have it not be a once-in-a-lifetime event.

To do so, he's built a team that is athletic, physical and fast-paced. Princeton had its highest-scoring team ever a year ago, averaging 79.8 points per game. This year's team is just under 76. 

The team that beat UCLA with Henderson as its point guard in 1996? That team averaged 59.1 points per game. The team two years later that reached the top 10 of the national rankings? That team averaged 66.5.

The 1998 team was 306th in Division I in rebounding, averaging 26.6 per game. This year's team ranks ninth, with 39.42 per game.

This hasn't happened accidentally. It's the vision that Henderson and his staff have had.

At the same time, Henderson has not abandoned the intangibles that have always made Princeton special. It's a team that greatly values its history, its alums, its legacy in the sport. 

If you ask TigerBlog, this the by-product of the coaching legacy that he referenced yesterday, how Princeton's men's basketball history is sort of like an ancestry.com account. Can any other program trace its lineage the way Princeton can, going back decades and having its never-broken chain?

Gary Walters has been a huge part of that chain as a player, assistant coach and Director of Athletics. In fact, he was a huge part of it before he even realized it, as he played for Pete Carril at Reading High School before either came to Princeton.

When Gary would be asked about the lineage, he would speak in biblical terms, saying one "begat" the next, who "begat" the next, and so on.

Back at the start of the 1989-90 season, after Princeton had nearly beaten mighty Georgetown in the NCAA tournament to end the previous season, fans would flock to see the unique group who had almost pulled off the miracle. TB used to compare the Tigers to the Harlem Globetrotters. They were almost a novelty as much as a basketball team to the outside world.

Almost all of what casual fans know about Princeton men's basketball was cemented back then. If they haven't been watching, they haven't seen how differently the team plays now.

Ask Arizona and Missouri. They can vouch for what the modern Tigers are all about.

It's why they're one of 16 teams who are still playing. 

Media Day

Mitch Henderson ducked his head into TigerBlog's office yesterday afternoon, said hello, smiled and then said the words that he's said more than any other the last two days or so:

"Can't talk. I have to do an interview in two minutes."

The spoils may belong to the victor. When it comes to the NCAA basketball tournament, the interviews do as well.

Henderson, the Princeton men's basketball coach, has led his team into the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament, where the Tigers will Creighton Friday night at 9 in Louisville. In doing so, everyone in the sports world has wanted to hear from him.

Or from a player. Or an assistant coach. Or even the Director of Operations.

The day started early for Henderson yesterday. He and Tosan Evbuomwan rolled out of Princeton at 6:30 or so to head to New York City to be on the CNN morning show (CNN sent a car for them). This was after they'd already recorded a spot for Good Morning America on Zoom.

NATIONAL NOTICE.

A huge thank you to @CNNThisMorning for having @M_Henderson98 and @Tosan_Evb on today to discuss our run to the Sweet 16!

It was an incredible honor to have the opportunity to tell our story on your platform.#MakeShots 🐯🏀 pic.twitter.com/cTR5uTdPtq

— Princeton Men’s Basketball (@PrincetonMBB) March 20, 2023

It's been an endless parade of requests here since Princeton's history-making wins over Arizona and Missouri propelled the team into the national spotlight. Princeton's men's basketball communications contact Elliott Carr estimated that he'd received more than 100 interview requests just for players, without counting those hoping to speak with the head coach.

It all took TB back to Henderson's playing days, after the Tigers knocked off UCLA in 1996. In the days before cell phones, TB spent all day checking his work voicemail, which would be full after 14 messages. Each time he cleared it and responded to those, there'd be another 14 waiting for him. This went on all day.

Just when he thought it was done, he got back to the hotel to find he had another 50 or so messages there. 

If you look at the history of Princeton Athletics, it's filled with national titles, Olympic medals, professional championships. Where does reaching the NCAA men's basketball Sweet 16 fit in on that list? 

What's harder, reaching the Sweet 16 in men's basketball or winning the NCAA title in, say, field hockey or lacrosse? 

Regardless of the answer, there is no denying two things. First, getting to the Sweet 16 is not easy. To get there out of the Ivy League, you're almost surely going to have to play at least one team in the top 15 or so, if not two.

Second, the media attention that is generated will be enormous. 

It can, in fact, get overwhelming. Back in 1996, after all of the interviews were done and the team was getting ready to go to practice, TB walked in the general direction of Pete Carril, who saw him coming and said "no more interviews."

And that after one NCAA win, not two.

As an aside, TB mentioned it would be with Jerry Izenberg, the longtime Star-Ledger columnist whom TB would say is the greatest sportswriter ever. When TB told Carril that it was with Izenberg, the coach responded with "gotta make time for that guy."

For his part, Henderson has done a great job of using this opportunity to let those who've never met him know what he's all about. He talks about how much he's happy that his players have had this opportunity, how life-changing it is for them. He talks about the great school spirit that embodies Princeton University. He talks about the athletic culture at the school.

You couldn't pay enough for this kind of advertising.

His pride in all of those things is obvious with every word he says. He's also not selling anything. He truly believes all this.

He's obviously a link back to the 1996 season, back to Carril. Henderson is more than that, actually. He's the latest link in the unbroken chain of Princeton basketball that dates back to Cappy Cappon and continued through Butch van Breda Kolff, who coached Carril at Lafayette, and then Gary Walters, who played for Carril at Reading High, and Bill Carmody, who coached with Carril and who was hired by Walters when Walters was AD to replace Carril, to former players John Thompson III, Joe Scott and Sydney Johnson, who all became head coaches, and now to Henderson (who coaches Scott's son Jack, a freshman).

Henderson relishes that history and his place in it, but he is more focused on the present and future. If anything, his tenure will be looked at as the launching of the program into a more modern era, one where his team gets way more offensive rebounds than backdoor layups.

Henderson was able to come back into TB's office and talk for a few minutes. He sat back on the couch in TB's office, which is framed on one side by a poster of Carril, with the saying "What good is being Spanish if you can't chase after windmills," which is TB's favorite Carril quote.

Those days will always matter with Princeton Basketball, and with Henderson. So will these days, these new days, the ones where Henderson has his team in preparation for the Sweet 16.

It wasn't too long before Henderson got up off the couch. 

"I have another interview to do," he said as he walked away.