The Princeton football team was picked to finish fifth in the preseason poll that was released Tuesday on Ivy League football media day.
TigerBlog struggles to call that media day. Ivy football media day used to be one of the highlights of TB's annual calendar, along with Ivy League athletic communications meetings, which would be the day before.
Those were the days. Meet at Yale, passionately discussing things that long ago became obsolete, often butting heads with the late Kathy Slattery of Dartmouth, all under the guise of her mantra that she repeated before each meeting: "For the good of the clan."
Then it would be dinner with his colleagues around the league. And then it would be football media day the next day. Followed by golf.
TigerBlog last played golf at one of the Ivy media days, at Yale. He isn't a very good golfer, and actually would play once a year. On the 17th hole on a very humid day, he hit his tee shot to the green on a par 3 but had his 8-iron slip out of his hands and helicopter majestically - into a lake.
He didn't finish the hole, and he hasn't hit a golf ball since.
Oh, and Ivy football media day provided a bit of stress each year to make sure the football media guide was done in time and in Connecticut before the first reporter showed up. This usually came down to the wire.
Nobody liked the media guides more than TB's friend Bruce Wood of Big Green Alert, by the way.
Princeton long ago abandoned printing media guides, and printing most things, for that matter. It took TB a few years to figure out how to speak "printing," with the different paper that could be used, what a "bleed" was, how best to bind things, how the ink worked, all of it. He doesn't miss producing guides, which he thought were outdated a few years before they stopped being produced, but he does miss the whole printing process.
Anyway, Princeton was picked to finish fifth. TigerBlog supposes that's a good thing. The last time Princeton won the championship, it was picked to finish sixth, as TB remembers it.
Still, it's hard to think football right now. Maybe when the Olympics are over, which they most certainly are not.
Today is a huge day for Princeton in Rio.
There are five Princeton rowers who will be competing as they get closer to the finals. Kat Holmes fences for a team medal. Ashleigh Johnson is back for her second water polo match, and the U.S. field hockey team - with three Princeton alums - has a quick turnaround as it continues to establish itself as a legitimate medal threat.
Added up, and that's 10 Princeton athletes who will be competing today. The only ones who aren't in action are Diana Matheson, who will play in the quarterfinals with Canada in women's soccer Friday, and Donn Cabral, whose 3,000-meter steeplechase first round is Monday, and Gevvie Stone, who would have rowed today but had it pushed back until tomorrow by the weather.
The full Olympic schedule and results for Princeton's 13 athletes can be found HERE.
Also, of the 10 Princeton athletes today, almost all of them will be finished by lunch time. Only the field hockey game, against India at 6:30, is later than 12:10.
The rowing and fencing will be streamed live.
You can watch Johnson on NBC at 10:40. The field hockey game will be on NBCSN, with Mike Corey again on for the play-by-play as he continues to master the sport. All announcers should be like Corey, who isn't yelling but is instead calmly telling the story of the game. And he's educating those who don't know field hockey that well either with his knowledge of the rules and the game.
The U.S. will be playing for the second time in two days and fourth time this week. The Americans are now 3-0, and Katie Reinprecht had her second goal of the tournament in the 6-1 win over Japan yesterday. She is one of three Princeton alums, along with Julia Reinprecht and Kat Sharkey (who had two assists yesterday), on the U.S. team.
Princeton has gotten great press out of the field hockey tournament. Even former coach Kristen Holmes-Winn and current coach Carla Tagliente were mentioned on yesterday's broadcast.
The U.S. finished last - 12th out of 12 teams - in London four years ago. Clearly this time is different.
In fact, the U.S. has already clinched a spot in the quarterfinals. So has Great Britain, whom the U.S. will play Saturday in the final group game.
The quarterfinals will be Sunday, where the U.S. is likely to play either China or New Zealand. If they can get through that game, then it'll be playing for medals.
First, though, there is today against India.
Only Kat Holmes can win a medal today. The rest of the Princeton group is not in the finals of any other event - yet.
But it's still a huge day, an exciting one.
Make sure you're watching at work.
Have your boss call TigerBlog; he'll make sure it's okay.
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query 17th hole. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query 17th hole. Sort by date Show all posts
Thursday, August 11, 2016
Tuesday, April 23, 2019
A Pressure-Filled PK And A Pressure-Filled Eagle
You think the 2019 Ivy League men's golf tournament was close?
The Northwestern women's golf team once finished tied for first at the Big Ten tournament three times in four years. At least that's what John Mack - you remember him as a 10-time Heps champ and Roper Trophy winner in 2000 - texted yesterday.
TigerBlog takes his word for it.
He's still fascinated that a three-round, five-player tournament can end up 875-876, the way the league men's tournament did Sunday, when Princeton edged Columbia for the title.
TigerBlog didn't watch any of The Masters - and he can't remember if he ever heard who won, because it didn't seem to get much coverage - but his sense is that the golfers in a tournament like that know exactly where they stand at any given moment. In the Ivy League tournament, it's not as easy to keep track of where the leaderboard is as it evolves TB presumes.
In fact, he remembers the only time he ever covered the Mercer County high school boys' golf tournament, back in his early newspaper days, and one golfer holed out from the fairway on the 18th to win - only he had no idea until about an hour later that he'd won, because nobody had totaled scores yet.
Whether or not the golfers were tracking the live stats over the weekend, they knew they were in a close match. And they had to know every shot mattered.
There were a total of five eagles in the entire three rounds of the tournament. The last one came from Princeton's Jack Roberts, who finished at plus-14, tying him for 26th.
He also had the biggest shot of the tournament, with his eagle on the par-5 17th Sunday. If that's just a birdie, there's a playoff.
Speaking of Jack Roberts, he's now a two-time Ivy League champion this academic year. Roberts is also a member of the men's soccer team, and he was one of the Tigers who made a penalty kick in that epic 14-rounds of PKs in the NCAA tournament loss to Michigan.
That's a pretty amazing double. A pressure-filled PK and a pressure-filled eagle.
As for the rest of it, TigerBlog emailed Will Green, the men's golf coach, with three questions:
He'll let Will have the last word for today:
The Northwestern women's golf team once finished tied for first at the Big Ten tournament three times in four years. At least that's what John Mack - you remember him as a 10-time Heps champ and Roper Trophy winner in 2000 - texted yesterday.
TigerBlog takes his word for it.
He's still fascinated that a three-round, five-player tournament can end up 875-876, the way the league men's tournament did Sunday, when Princeton edged Columbia for the title.
TigerBlog didn't watch any of The Masters - and he can't remember if he ever heard who won, because it didn't seem to get much coverage - but his sense is that the golfers in a tournament like that know exactly where they stand at any given moment. In the Ivy League tournament, it's not as easy to keep track of where the leaderboard is as it evolves TB presumes.
In fact, he remembers the only time he ever covered the Mercer County high school boys' golf tournament, back in his early newspaper days, and one golfer holed out from the fairway on the 18th to win - only he had no idea until about an hour later that he'd won, because nobody had totaled scores yet.
Whether or not the golfers were tracking the live stats over the weekend, they knew they were in a close match. And they had to know every shot mattered.
There were a total of five eagles in the entire three rounds of the tournament. The last one came from Princeton's Jack Roberts, who finished at plus-14, tying him for 26th.
He also had the biggest shot of the tournament, with his eagle on the par-5 17th Sunday. If that's just a birdie, there's a playoff.
Speaking of Jack Roberts, he's now a two-time Ivy League champion this academic year. Roberts is also a member of the men's soccer team, and he was one of the Tigers who made a penalty kick in that epic 14-rounds of PKs in the NCAA tournament loss to Michigan.
That's a pretty amazing double. A pressure-filled PK and a pressure-filled eagle.
As for the rest of it, TigerBlog emailed Will Green, the men's golf coach, with three questions:
1) did you know stroke-by-stroke how close it was?
2) what was the shot that Roberts eagled on 17?
3) did you know you’d won as soon as the last group left the course or was there a delay while they counted the scores?
He'll let Will have the last word for today:
1) I knew as soon as Columbia posted their score that it was going to be really close, but also knew we had the par-5 17th to help us. I wasn’t sure where Yale stood, but had been getting hole-by-hole updates from parents, so I thought we were ahead. Then Yale’s Zinsner birdied 18 and Yale’s Nicholas birdied 17, so I couldn’t be sure any longer. It wasn’t until Sam Clayman (playing in the next to last group) got up-and-down on 18 that I knew we had Columbia beaten, and was kind of sure we had Yale beaten too. Had to get confirmation about where Nicholas stood (playing in the last group) before I could be sure. So, it literally came down to the last group.
2) Jack Roberts birdied 16, which is a really tough par-4, to get to 3-over. At that point, I think our five players were E, +2, +2, +3 and +3. Jack fanned his drive into the right trees (for the third day in a row), so I went down to help talk him through his shot. He had two choices: chip out sideways and try to hit a long iron close, or gamble and try to hit a shot through some small branches in front of him. He was going to have to go under one big limb right in front of him, and then over a tree about 20 yards away. He had 220 yards to the green. He asked me what I thought, and I said that the rest of the team was either right where he was or a little better, so we could take our chances and hope we get lucky, knowing the rest of the team was going to finish strong. Jack pulls 8-iron, thinking he could get the trajectory he wanted so that even if it hit some limbs, they would be small enough that the ball would advance up close to the green and he could just try to get up and down for birdie.
He made an abbreviated swing and follow through, and the ball somehow found its way under the first tree and through the second without touching a thing. From there, it was just a question of how close he could get it to the green. Again, he was 220 yards away. That’s usually a 3- or 4-iron for most people. He hit 8-iron, and somehow it made its way all the way to the green, about 20 feet away from the hole. One of the most incredible shots I’ve ever seen. And, to have the composure to then bury the putt for eagle? So clutch! When the putt fell, Jack let out a “let’s go!!!!” that I’m sure the rest of the team could here.
3) We knew when Sam made his par at 18 that we had beaten Columbia, and we knew that Max Ting’s score wasn’t going to matter. Just needed to know where James Nicholas stood. When we got confirmation that he was 1-over on the 18th tee, we knew we had it won, so we didn’t have to wait.
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Those Were The Days
There was a time when this week would have been among the highest stress weeks of the year.
Of course TigerBlog is referring to the long-gone days of Ivy League sports information meetings, the football media guide and Ivy League football media day. The first preceded the third, for which the second had to be done.
At first, it was at the Lyman Orchards Golf Club in Middlefield, Conn.. TB shot his all-time best with a 91 at Lyman Orchards one year, in a foursome that included Chuck Yrigoyen (then of the Ivy League office), John Veneziano (then of Harvard) and either Kurt Kehl (then of Princeton) or Tim Bennett (then and now of Yale).
TB recalls shooting a 50 on the front nine, which gave him hope that he could break 100. And then he tore it up on the back nine, with a 41, which, granted, isn't quite tearing it up, though he did have an actual birdie.
Media day moved to Yale at some point, where TB's golf career, such as it was, ended one year on the 17th hole. TB has mentioned this story before, but his first shot on the par 3 was with an eight-iron.
Anyway, the day was really hot and humid, and the club flew out of TB's hands, helicoptering into a lake. The ball, on the the other hand, majestically landed on the green, not far from the cup.
Rather than putt, TB simply picked up the ball, and he has not hit another golf shot since. Maybe one day he will. Maybe he won't.
It definitely won't be with that eight-iron, which he never retrieved from the lake. In fact, he wonders if it's still there.
The week always began with the sports information meetings. For yucks, TB will look back every now and then to the minutes from those meetings and marvel at the fact that he used to spend time discussing those things.
Most of that stuff, by the way, technically still are Ivy rules, though nobody in the league follows any of them anymore. Like standardized rosters. Just the words themselves give TB shivers.
For the most part, the Ivy meetings were just a great way to renew relationships with the other people in the league. It was fun to just argue for a day or more over mundane minutia, because hey, everyone there was in it together anyway.
And then it would be football media day. Which meant the media guide, which every year for TB was a last-minute scramble but which was never late. It's one of his proudest accomplishments.
And there are great stories from those media days, like the time the two resident curmudgeons - the late William Wallace of the New York Times and the great Harvey Yavener of the Trenton Times - went at it over, of all things, a lengthy presentation on the new rules for that season by the supervisor of officials. It included Yav's legendary "can you move it along; we have interviews to do" and Wallace's four-letter response.
In all fairness, TB sides with Yav on this one. The explanation of permissible towels to be worn in pants by quarterbacks and centers was a tad excessive.
Anyway, those days, like TB said, are long gone.
Today there are no Ivy League media guides, and football media day has been replaced by a media conference call, which was held yesterday.
The preseason media poll was released as well, and Princeton was picked to finish fifth.
Penn was picked first, followed by Harvard, Brown, Dartmouth, Princeton, Cornell, Yale and Columbia.
It's nice to be picked first, TB supposes. Then again, it doesn't really matter once the games begin.
This year is Princeton's turn to have four league road games, and they happen to be at Penn, Harvard, Brown and Dartmouth, the four teams picked ahead of Princeton.
In other words, moving up higher than fifth will require beating those teams in their buildings.
Princeton made huge progress last year, going from consecutive 1-9 seasons to 5-5, including a gigantic win over Harvard. This year? There's more reason for optimism.
Princeton has depth that it hasn't had in the past, especially at the skill positions. There's more experience now, and playing with juniors and seniors is bigger in football than any other sport.
And there's Caraun Reid, all 6-2, 305 pounds of him, who hopes to follow Mike Catapano into the NFL draft next spring.
Most college teams are just beginning practices. The NFL is beginning exhibition games.
The Ivy League can wait a little while.
It's still early August. Not that long ago, this was a much different week for TigerBlog than it currently is.
Good times. Definitely good times.
Of course TigerBlog is referring to the long-gone days of Ivy League sports information meetings, the football media guide and Ivy League football media day. The first preceded the third, for which the second had to be done.
At first, it was at the Lyman Orchards Golf Club in Middlefield, Conn.. TB shot his all-time best with a 91 at Lyman Orchards one year, in a foursome that included Chuck Yrigoyen (then of the Ivy League office), John Veneziano (then of Harvard) and either Kurt Kehl (then of Princeton) or Tim Bennett (then and now of Yale).
TB recalls shooting a 50 on the front nine, which gave him hope that he could break 100. And then he tore it up on the back nine, with a 41, which, granted, isn't quite tearing it up, though he did have an actual birdie.
Media day moved to Yale at some point, where TB's golf career, such as it was, ended one year on the 17th hole. TB has mentioned this story before, but his first shot on the par 3 was with an eight-iron.
Anyway, the day was really hot and humid, and the club flew out of TB's hands, helicoptering into a lake. The ball, on the the other hand, majestically landed on the green, not far from the cup.
Rather than putt, TB simply picked up the ball, and he has not hit another golf shot since. Maybe one day he will. Maybe he won't.
It definitely won't be with that eight-iron, which he never retrieved from the lake. In fact, he wonders if it's still there.
The week always began with the sports information meetings. For yucks, TB will look back every now and then to the minutes from those meetings and marvel at the fact that he used to spend time discussing those things.
Most of that stuff, by the way, technically still are Ivy rules, though nobody in the league follows any of them anymore. Like standardized rosters. Just the words themselves give TB shivers.
For the most part, the Ivy meetings were just a great way to renew relationships with the other people in the league. It was fun to just argue for a day or more over mundane minutia, because hey, everyone there was in it together anyway.
And then it would be football media day. Which meant the media guide, which every year for TB was a last-minute scramble but which was never late. It's one of his proudest accomplishments.
And there are great stories from those media days, like the time the two resident curmudgeons - the late William Wallace of the New York Times and the great Harvey Yavener of the Trenton Times - went at it over, of all things, a lengthy presentation on the new rules for that season by the supervisor of officials. It included Yav's legendary "can you move it along; we have interviews to do" and Wallace's four-letter response.
In all fairness, TB sides with Yav on this one. The explanation of permissible towels to be worn in pants by quarterbacks and centers was a tad excessive.
Anyway, those days, like TB said, are long gone.
Today there are no Ivy League media guides, and football media day has been replaced by a media conference call, which was held yesterday.
The preseason media poll was released as well, and Princeton was picked to finish fifth.
Penn was picked first, followed by Harvard, Brown, Dartmouth, Princeton, Cornell, Yale and Columbia.
It's nice to be picked first, TB supposes. Then again, it doesn't really matter once the games begin.
This year is Princeton's turn to have four league road games, and they happen to be at Penn, Harvard, Brown and Dartmouth, the four teams picked ahead of Princeton.
In other words, moving up higher than fifth will require beating those teams in their buildings.
Princeton made huge progress last year, going from consecutive 1-9 seasons to 5-5, including a gigantic win over Harvard. This year? There's more reason for optimism.
Princeton has depth that it hasn't had in the past, especially at the skill positions. There's more experience now, and playing with juniors and seniors is bigger in football than any other sport.
And there's Caraun Reid, all 6-2, 305 pounds of him, who hopes to follow Mike Catapano into the NFL draft next spring.
Most college teams are just beginning practices. The NFL is beginning exhibition games.
The Ivy League can wait a little while.
It's still early August. Not that long ago, this was a much different week for TigerBlog than it currently is.
Good times. Definitely good times.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Homecoming
Golf is not TigerBlog's best thing. Or favorite thing, for that matter.
Back in the pre-TigerBlog Jr./Little Miss TigerBlog days, TB used to play at Springdale in the afternoons every now and then. TB is pretty sure that if you were University staff, you could go after 4 on weekdays and play as many holes as you could before dark for something like $14.
Eventually, TB became good enough that he could shoot under 100, though not by much. As an aside, he once played in a foursome in which one of the golfers made a hole-in-one and then remarked: "This is really going to help my score."
Once TBJ and LMTB came along, time and money - the two things you need to be good at golf - became scarcer, or at least redirected. As such, TB hasn't played in years and years.
In fact, the last time he played was at Ivy League football media day, circa 2002, at Yale's golf course. TB's last shot came on, he believes, the 17th, a par three.
It was about a million degrees out, and TB hit an eight-iron. On his follow through, the club flew out of his hands and helicoptered its way to the left, while the ball went, actually, straight.
Simultaneously, the ball landed on the green while the club landed in the lake next to the hole on the left. TB has never hit a golf shot since; he didn't even putt out on that hole or play the 18th.
He's okay with it. Squash? You can play for 45 minutes and have a great workout. Golf? It takes more than four hours and costs a ton of money. Maybe if a course could be four holes, TB would play again.
Anyway, that's TB's background in golf.
He also remembers one time two or three years ago that he went to the Frist Campus Center for lunch and ran into Amy Bond, the women's golf coach, and Bond joined TB for lunch. That was really the only time that TB had an extended conversation with Bond, who left last week to go to Florida State to become the head coach for the Seminoles.
Bond, from the one time eating lunch and the other times of saying "hi, how are you?" at department meetings, seemed like a nice enough person. TB wishes her well.
Certainly you can't blame her for wanting to take the Florida State job. After all, the Seminoles finished 10th at the NCAA championships this past spring, and the school is her alma mater.
And, in the world of college athletics, that happens all the time. Coaches leave one place to return home to coach at their alma mater.
Why, at Princeton it alone, it's happened, well ... never before?
TigerBlog has tried to find another example of when a Princeton head coach has left to take the head coaching job at the school he or she attended. And the answer is? Well, TB can't find or think of one before Bond did so.
He also has the feeling he's wrong and that he's overlooking something obvious.
If it's never happened before, it's because such a large percentage of Princeton head coaches through the years have either 1) attended Princeton or 2) built a program at Princeton that exceeds what they could have done at their alma mater.
Still, it has to have happened at some point, right?
TB thought Fritz Crisler, who went from coaching football at Princeton to Michigan in 1937, might have been an Ann Arbor alum, but he actually went to Chicago. As an aside, he graduated in 1921, which means he did not play in the 1922 Princeton-Chicago game, one of the most famous in school history.
In men's basketball, Princeton's coaching lineage back to the 1940s goes like this: Sydney Johnson (Princeton), Joe Scott (Princeton), John Thompson (Princeton), Bill Carmody (Union), Pete Carril (Lafayette), Butch van Breda Kolff (Princeton), Jake McCandless (Princeton), Cappy Cappon (Michigan). None of the non-Princetontians went to their alma mater - though Cappon came from his, becoming the head coach at Princeton after being an assistant coach and administrator at Michigan.
TB can't be sure of every coach in Princeton history and where he/she went to school. Still, he went sport-by-sport and didn't see any who left here to go back to their alma mater.
Was Amy Bond the first?
Back in the pre-TigerBlog Jr./Little Miss TigerBlog days, TB used to play at Springdale in the afternoons every now and then. TB is pretty sure that if you were University staff, you could go after 4 on weekdays and play as many holes as you could before dark for something like $14.
Eventually, TB became good enough that he could shoot under 100, though not by much. As an aside, he once played in a foursome in which one of the golfers made a hole-in-one and then remarked: "This is really going to help my score."
Once TBJ and LMTB came along, time and money - the two things you need to be good at golf - became scarcer, or at least redirected. As such, TB hasn't played in years and years.
In fact, the last time he played was at Ivy League football media day, circa 2002, at Yale's golf course. TB's last shot came on, he believes, the 17th, a par three.
It was about a million degrees out, and TB hit an eight-iron. On his follow through, the club flew out of his hands and helicoptered its way to the left, while the ball went, actually, straight.
Simultaneously, the ball landed on the green while the club landed in the lake next to the hole on the left. TB has never hit a golf shot since; he didn't even putt out on that hole or play the 18th.
He's okay with it. Squash? You can play for 45 minutes and have a great workout. Golf? It takes more than four hours and costs a ton of money. Maybe if a course could be four holes, TB would play again.
Anyway, that's TB's background in golf.
He also remembers one time two or three years ago that he went to the Frist Campus Center for lunch and ran into Amy Bond, the women's golf coach, and Bond joined TB for lunch. That was really the only time that TB had an extended conversation with Bond, who left last week to go to Florida State to become the head coach for the Seminoles.
Bond, from the one time eating lunch and the other times of saying "hi, how are you?" at department meetings, seemed like a nice enough person. TB wishes her well.
Certainly you can't blame her for wanting to take the Florida State job. After all, the Seminoles finished 10th at the NCAA championships this past spring, and the school is her alma mater.
And, in the world of college athletics, that happens all the time. Coaches leave one place to return home to coach at their alma mater.
Why, at Princeton it alone, it's happened, well ... never before?
TigerBlog has tried to find another example of when a Princeton head coach has left to take the head coaching job at the school he or she attended. And the answer is? Well, TB can't find or think of one before Bond did so.
He also has the feeling he's wrong and that he's overlooking something obvious.
If it's never happened before, it's because such a large percentage of Princeton head coaches through the years have either 1) attended Princeton or 2) built a program at Princeton that exceeds what they could have done at their alma mater.
Still, it has to have happened at some point, right?
TB thought Fritz Crisler, who went from coaching football at Princeton to Michigan in 1937, might have been an Ann Arbor alum, but he actually went to Chicago. As an aside, he graduated in 1921, which means he did not play in the 1922 Princeton-Chicago game, one of the most famous in school history.
In men's basketball, Princeton's coaching lineage back to the 1940s goes like this: Sydney Johnson (Princeton), Joe Scott (Princeton), John Thompson (Princeton), Bill Carmody (Union), Pete Carril (Lafayette), Butch van Breda Kolff (Princeton), Jake McCandless (Princeton), Cappy Cappon (Michigan). None of the non-Princetontians went to their alma mater - though Cappon came from his, becoming the head coach at Princeton after being an assistant coach and administrator at Michigan.
TB can't be sure of every coach in Princeton history and where he/she went to school. Still, he went sport-by-sport and didn't see any who left here to go back to their alma mater.
Was Amy Bond the first?
Tuesday, August 11, 2026
Football Media Day
TigerBlog will get back to Ivy League football media day in a moment.
He'll reminisce about the glory days of the event, held at a Connecticut golf course, with interviews, media, box lunches and golf. It was during one of those media day golf outings back in the 1990s when TB did something for the only time in his life and is pretty sure you never have (and he'll keep you hanging on that one).
First, though, he has to talk about the story he just read about Dickie Bush. You might remember him as the center on Princeton's 2016 Ivy League championship team who then started all 10 games as a senior the next year.
Bush was an operations research and financial engineering major. TigerBlog has a sense of what that actually is, though he'd say the only thing he really knows about it would be that it's really hard. After graduation, Bush went to work for Black Rock in Manhattan.
These days, he's living in Tampa. He's moved on from finance and is now in the, well, it's hard to sum up the business he's in these days. It's his own company, and it has to do with writing every day.
This isn't the kind of writing that TigerBlog does. It's actually a pretty interesting business plan. You can read about it HERE.
Ivy League media day these days consists of video conference calls with the eight head coaches, and that was what the process was yesterday. As a reminder, Princeton has been selected fifth in the Ivy League preseason media poll, for whatever that's worth.
Here is part of what Tiger head coach Bob Surace had to say:
NEXT MAN UP.
— Ivy League (@IvyLeague) August 10, 2026
With a veteran core setting the tone and a next-man-up mentality across the roster, @PrincetonFTBL enters 2026 looking to turn its experience and depth into results. The Tigers open at Bryant on Sept. 19 at 1 p.m. 🌿🏈@TIAA pic.twitter.com/kTPkLFbll2
There was a time when football media day was one of the highlights of the annual Ivy sports calendar. Mostly for TigerBlog, back in the 1990s, it was a race to get the football media guide done in time to have it printed and delivered to the Connecticut golf course before the first coach spoke. That was stressful.
What is that? A question from someone young? What was a "media guide?" Yeah, TB can barely remember those either.
Of course, you couldn't risk being the one out of eight who didn't have a media guide there. That would be horrible.
TB never missed. He did have to drive to print shops on the way to Connecticut to pick up the first 20 of them or so. And what did he have to do as soon as the football guide was finished? The men's basketball one.
The best part of media day wasn't the questions and answers. No, it was the relationships. The Ivy League athletic communications staffs usually had an annual meeting the day before the media day, with a dinner after the meeting.
The Q&A portion of media day was okay, but it was really the lunch and the golf outing that made these days special. It was a chance to meet up with media members, of which there were plenty, and opposing coaches.
And wrapped around it all? The knowledge that it wouldn't be that long until football season would be there.
And that brings TB to what he did at one of those Ivy football media days that he's guessing you never have?
It was on the 17th tee at the Yale golf course, one of the two courses the league used for its media days, with the other Lyman Orchards. It was a Par 3, elevated tee, really humid. TB hit an 8-iron, and what happened next was a bit stunning.
Hole in one? Nope. Close. His ball landed on the green, stopping about 10 feet from the pin.
Hole in one? Maybe. His 8-iron slid out of his hands and helicoptered majestically away from the tee box, splashing down in a lake to the left.
TB never got the club back. He never putted for birdie or played the 18th hole.
Have you ever done that?
He doesn't think so.
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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