Saturday Hoops

Back when TigerBlog was the Princeton men's basketball contact, one of the best parts of any year was seeing the schedule for the first time. 

This would be in the fall, well before the season began. Where was the team traveling? Anyplace good? Flights? Warm weather? 

It was with the Princeton men's basketball team that TB got to travel from here to there and pretty much everywhere around the country. He really appreciates the stops he made along the way in those years, places he might never have had the chance to see.

To name a few: El Paso, Texas. East Lansing, Michigan. Lawrence, Kansas. New Orleans (twice). Honolulu. Green Bay. Milwaukee. Champaign, Illinois. Fresno. Ames, Iowa (twice). Muncie, Indiana.

This was back when this time of year was dominated by holiday tournaments that no longer exist, usually four-team events both before and after Christmas. It was always a big deal to win the first game and avoid the dreaded "consolation" game, something Princeton was very good at doing. 

Ah, those were the days. All-tournament teams. MVPs. It reminds TigerBlog of one of his favorite Pete Carril moments, after one of those events. 

TB asked Carril what he thought about one of his players who had made the all-tournament team. Carril's response: "So did the guy he was guarding." 

Even all these years later, TB still laughed out loud as he typed that.

For all of those experiences, he can't imagine what the Vermont women's basketball team members thought when the 2024-25 schedule came across their phones. A trip to Minneapolis for the second game of the year? That was nothing compared to what was to follow. 

Vermont made the 4,256-mile trip to Anchorage, Alaska, for games Nov. 22 and 23. Next up? Two more games five and six days later in Cancun. Distance from Burlington? This one was only 3,656 miles. 

Or did the team go straight from Anchorage to Cancun? That's 5,775 miles. 

That is an incredible 10-day stretch for any team. Has any college basketball team ever had a four-game stretch with the first two in Alaska and the next two in Mexico? 

Vermont's next game is also on the road, though this trip is nothing quite like the other two. In fact, it's in Jadwin Gym, where the Catamounts will tip off at noon tomorrow against Princeton. 

It's a big Saturday tomorrow for Princeton Basketball, with the women's game at home and the men's game at the Prudential Center in Newark against Rutgers, also at noon tomorrow. It's a return to the court for the teams after first semester exams after they last played on Dec. 10 (the men) and Dec. 11 (the women).

The Vermont women will come to Jadwin on short rest, after they played yesterday at Buffalo, where they dropped a tough 70-68 decision to a Bulls team that is now 10-0. 

The Catamounts are 5-8 on the year with all the travel and the tough opponents. Their record the last three years combined was 70-30 (that's around a 70 percent winning percentage, right?) with an NCAA tournament appearance two years ago and a run to the WNIT semifinals last year. 

Princeton defeated Vermont 67-47 a year ago in Burlington. The leading scorer in that game was Madison St. Rose, who put up 23.

St. Rose, of course, is out injured. Without her, Princeton has gone 4-2, with wins over Rutgers, Seton Hall, Temple and Rhode Island and losses at Portland (who is still unbeaten) and Utah. 

As for the Princeton-Rutgers men's game, as TB wrote Monday, this is a chance for the Tigers to go up against the phenomenal Scarlet Knights duo of Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey, who rank first and third in Division I in points per game among freshman, with more than 40 per game between them. 

What does Harper have in common with Bill Bradley, at least through 11 career games (as opposed to the 83 Bradley played)? They both have a career-low of 14 points. Harper has had at least 20 points nine times in those 11 games, with games of 36 against Notre Dame and 37 against Alabama in back-to-back outings. 

Rutgers also has former Tiger Zach Martini, a key member of Princeton's Sweet 16 team of two years ago. 

Whether you're in Jadwin or Newark, or in front of your TV or computer, make sure you take advantage of your Saturday hoops. 

The wrapping presents can wait until later.

To The Playoffs

So, it's finals week at Princeton. 

Christmas is next week. The schedule across all eight teams is light. Things are slow in the Ivy League right now, right?

Yeah, no.

TigerBlog has to say that he was not expecting the announcement yesterday of a major change in Ivy League policy. Beginning in 2025, the Ivy football champion will play in the FCS playoffs. 

If you haven't seen the release, you can read it HERE.

This is the first sentence: Following a year-long process initiated by the Ivy League's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), the Ivy League Council of Presidents has approved a proposal to participate in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) playoffs beginning next season.

Yale's Mason Shipp caught 39 passes 431 yards and two touchdowns, both of which came against Brown, this past season. That's not an All-Ivy League resume, but it is a solid senior season, obviously.

More than that, though, Shipp will be remembered for his role in what is among the top three changes that TigerBlog has witnessed in all his time in the league (along with freshman eligibility in football and the adoption of Ivy League tournaments in most team sports but especially basketball).

"It's a monumental day in the Ivy League and a special day to be an Ivy League student-athlete," said Mason Shipp, a senior football student-athlete at Yale who serves as the Ivy League SAAC chair and penned the proposal. "Thank you to the Presidents for listening and responding to the voices of your students. For the future generations that are fortunate enough to represent the Ivy League in the FCS playoffs, go win us some hardware!"

The vote of the Ivy presidents to adopt the proposal that Shipp put forward reminds TB of another athlete, Curt Flood, a pretty good Major League Baseball player in the 1950s and 1960s. Back then, the Major Leagues operated under the Reserve Clause, which meant that the players were obligated to their teams until they were traded or released. 

It was Flood who refused to accept a 1969 trade, leading to a series of legal dominoes that ended with the first free agency four years later. Extra credit goes to those who knew that the first Major League free agent was pitcher Andy Messersmith.

So what does this mean for Ivy football? 

It's certainly a game-changing move. If you go back to 1945, you'll see the first Ivy Group agreement, one that was amended in September 1952. This is from the Daily Princetonian in 1952:

A new Presidents' Agreement governing football has been signed by the Presidents of Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Pennsylvania, Princeton and Yale. It revises the original agreement of November 1945 and formulates an association "to be known as the 'Ivy Group.'" Among the points changed is the rule regarding the abolition of spring football practice, football clinics and post-season games.

With that as a background, the Ivy League first contested an official football championship in 1956. The Division I-AA tournament — the forerunner to the FCS tournament — began in 1978, when Florida A&M was the first winner. Either North Dakota State or South Dakota State has won 11 of the last 13 championships, and one of them is guaranteed to be in this year's championship game, since they play Saturday in the semifinals (Montana and South Dakota play in the other). 

There have been two finalists from teams currently in the Patriot League, Lehigh in 1979 and Colgate in 2003. Lehigh was this year's Patriot League representative, and the Mountain Hawks won their first round game against Richmond before falling to Idaho. 

Have there been Ivy League teams since 1978 who would have made strong runs through the tournament? Probably. Were Princeton teams among them? Certainly — especially 2018. 

The Ivy League is still working out all of the tiebreakers to determine who would get its automatic bid in the event of multiple champions. The last two years have seen back-to-back tri-champions; there have been five teams who have won at least a share of the title in the last four years (including Princeton in 2021). 

In other words, it's obviously a league of great balance and competitiveness. Having its champion advance to the NCAA playoffs will make it even more so, with so much to play for each week. You don't want to leave things up to the tiebreakers, right? 

The biggest part of the story to TB, though, goes beyond anything that happens on the football field. It's that the Ivy League allowed its Student Athlete Advisory Committee to initiate a major policy change. 

It's a sign that the league puts on the value of intercollegiate athletics and how they are an important part of the experience — and the education — of those who compete here.

This was extraordinarily good news on so many levels.

First-Team All-American

Beth Yeager began her season as an American Olympian and ended it as a first-team All-American. 

When the NFHCA announced its All-American teams yesterday, there was Yeager, not shockingly as a first-team selection. TigerBlog then went to make a graphic for the honor, his original version brought back a suggestion from Gracie McGowan, Yeager's teammate and the Princeton field hockey social media leader: Why not use a picture of Beth with an American flag?

Now that was a great idea. 

There have been 28 Ivy League field hockey players who have earned first-team All-American honors at least once. 

Of those 28, how many played at Princeton? The answer is 23. That's pretty impressive. 

In other words, Princeton field hockey has produced 82 percent of the Ivy League's first-team All-Americans. It's fitting for a program that has won more than half of the league's championships, including the most recent one, in which Princeton went 7-0 to win the title for the 28th time. 

Are there any other sports in which one school has produced 82 percent of the Ivy League's first-team All-Americans? For that matter, how many teams in any league have done so.

TigerBlog would ask ChatGPT, except the last time he did, the answer was "Jarron Rosa," a reference that would make you chuckle if you'd read what TB wrote about it last week. In fact, he'd like to see ChatGPT answer "Jarron Rosa" to every question he ever asks it. 

The list of those 28 first-team All-Americans in Ivy field hockey history consists of anyone who has been honored even once. There are only three Ivy players who have been first-team All-American three times, and all three of those are Princetonians. 

That list would be four, all Princetonians, had Martha Russo not destroyed her knee twice in the early 1980s. She'd already been a two-time first-team All-American by that point and would have been a lock for her senior year, which would have been after she played in the 1984 Summer Olympic Games. 

Instead she'd never play an organized sport again. Her "replacement sport" became art, and today is she is a well-respected and well-known sculptor in Colorado. 

The first two who did in fact earn three first-team All-American honors were Katie Reinprect and Kat Sharkey, teammates on Princeton's 2012 NCAA championship team. Yeager became the third with yesterday's announcement.

Should Yeager repeat the honor next year, she would become the first ever four-time Ivy League first-team All-American in field hockey. It got TB to thinking about any Princeton athletes who would have been named first-team All-American four times. 

He limited this to sports where the honor is voted on, not won by finishes in what could be considered individual sports — such as in swimming and driving, track and field, fencing, golf and squash. 

So is there anyone in "team" sports (understanding that the individual sports are very much team sports on the collegiate level)? If there is someone, TB didn't find that person.

If Yeager does manage to be a four-time first-team All-American, she will be truly deserving. You only need to watch her for a few seconds to see just how skilled she is, and if you watch her for 60 minutes, you'll see how fit she is. She elevates everyone around her, even as she is the focal point of every opponent. 

If you've never seen field hockey, you need to see her play next year. She will give you a quick education on what a fairly perfect player in the sport looks like. 

When TB first saw the All-American list, he was confident that Yeager would be first team after the season she had. It wasn't a lock just because she was an Olympian though — there were five U.S. Olympians who played college field hockey this year and not all of them were first-team All-American. 

At the same time, TB was disappointed that Princeton sophomore Ella Cashman was not named to any of the three teams. Cashman played at an All-American level all season, and even with Yeager's greatness, Princeton would not have had the season it did had Cashman not made the jump she did from freshman year to this year. 

Cashman has two more chances to be honored. Yeager has one more to make history.

Playing Foosball With Momo

TigerBlog has a Foosball strategy: Always keep your left hand on the back line.

Use your right hand for the other three lines. Just keep your left hand on your goalie. That way, no matter what happens you're always ready for wherever the ball comes from as you defend your net. 

It had been a very, very long time since TB had actually had to use that strategy. He can't remember the last time he played the game — until yesterday, that is.

He found himself in Yeh College for the first time, the guest of Momo Wolapaye, the Director of Student Life for Whitman College. Momo had invited TB to join him for lunch one day, and "one day" became yesterday.

There aren't many bigger Princeton sports fans than Momo Wolapaye. He's a Princeton Athletic Fellow for the football and men's basketball teams, and he's probably at some point seen every team play. 

TB and Momo ate in the Yeh cafeteria. TB has always loved eating in dining halls, where 1) there is a huge selection, 2) you can eat as much as you like, 3) you don't have to make it and 4) you don't have to clean it up. 

As TB sat there, it dawned on him that, while he has lived his entire life in a 50 mile or so radius of the Princeton campus, it was a much different road for Momo. How many Princeton sports fans grew up in Liberia, left the country and was a refugee around Africa during the Liberian civil war, went to college in Iowa, went to grad school in Ohio and worked at Dartmouth before he came to Princeton?

This week is, of course, final exam week at Princeton. The cafeteria was filled with students who were studying, eating, preparing. 

TigerBlog saw a lot of familiar faces. There were two groups of men's lacrosse players. There were athletes from many other teams, identifiable by their shirts, coats or backpacks. It's always good to see them on the "student" side of "student-athlete," since it reinforces that Princeton Athletics is first and foremost and educational venture.

He also saw Keyan Vojdani, a freshman who covered field hockey for the Daily Princetonian and is now covering men's hockey. This was one of those situations where it takes a second to realize who that person is because you're seeing that person completely out of any context you've ever had. 

TB wished Keyan luck on his finals. When you first go through it, as he is as a freshman, it can be a bit overwhleming, though he seemed fine. In fact, he seemed fine even though he said he had one in three hours. 

TB also saw Claire Pinciaro, Assistant Dean of Student Life at Yeh. Claire was also a second-team All-Ivy League goalkeeper for Princeton in 2012, when she helped the women's soccer team to the Ivy title and an NCAA tournament win.

Mostly, though, he spoke with Momo, someone he's seen at countless games but never really had a chance to really get to know. TB can tell you that Momo is exactly the kind of person you want in his role. He's someone who is definitely committed to the student experience and to doing whatever he can to make that experience the best it can be. 

Momo gave TB a tour of the new buildings, since it was TB's first time inside them. When they finished eating, TB asked if he had to get back to work immediately, and TB then asked him if he wanted to play Foosball, after they had walked past the table on their way towards the cafeteria. 

And so, for the first time in who knows how long, TB has his left hand on the goalie and moved his right hand to the other three positions. The game was played to three, and, well, TB won 3-0. 

In the interest of full disclosure, all three of his goals were just luck. 

Anyway, this wasn't about winning or losing. This was about spending an hour or so with one of the brightest stars on the Princeton campus (Momo, not TB). 

Princeton is a very big place. There are a lot of different departments and offices and silos. The chance to reach out and connect outside of your building and your silo should always be taken advantage of if possible. 

TB enjoyed his lunch yesterday, and for more reasons than he didn't have to make it or clean it up. When he left, he thanked his host, wished him a happy holiday season — and told him that they should have lunch again. 

He'll make sure he follows up on that.

A Weekend Off

Remember last week, when TigerBlog mentioned the billboard he saw from the law firm, saying to call them if "Grandma got run over by a reindeer?"

Well, this week on 295 TB saw another holiday-themed message. This wasn't a billboard but one of those messages that implores you to drive safely.

This one said: "Texting and Driving? That automatically puts you on the naughty list."

That's not bad. This is, after all the time of year when parents can get little kids to do almost anything by simply pointing out that "Santa is watching" and that they're going to end up on the naughty list. 

Anyway, so what did you do this weekend? 

TigerBlog knows what you didn't do. You didn't watch any Princeton teams play.

Because of first semester exams, this is essentially the midpoint of a 10-day stretch with no Princeton Athletic events. This past weekend was, in fact, the first weekend since Aug. 23 without any Princeton team who was competing. 

There were teams who are going to be playing against Princeton soon who did compete.

One of those was the Rutgers men's basketball team, who beat Seton Hall 66-63 on freshman Dylan Harper's buzzer-beating three-pointer. Harper and fellow five-star Ace Bailey combined for 45 of Rutgers' 66 points. 

For the season, those two are averaging 41.4 points per game, so the game Saturday against the Pirates wasn't all that out of the ordinary. The two are both projected as top five NBA draft picks this coming year, if they leave after one year.

Their next game will be Saturday at noon at the Prudential Center in Newark. The opponent? Princeton.

Tickets can be purchased HERE.

Of course, if you're a Princeton fan, you're as interested in seeing No. 99 for the Scarlet Knights play as much as you are the two freshmen. That No. 99 is Zach Martini, the Princeton alum and a key figure on the Tigers' 2023 Sweet 16 team. 

Martini is averaging 4.5 points per game for Rutgers. He is 16 for 32 from the field, of which 10 of 24 is from three-point range, which makes Martini 6 for 8 on two-point shots. 

Rutgers is currently 3-0 against New Jersey opponents, having defeated St. Peter's and Monmouth in addition to Seton Hall. Princeton is 1-0 against the Garden State, with a win of its own over Monmouth.

By the way, Harper was named the MVP of the game against Seton Hall and as such was given the Joe Calabrese Trophy. Joe Calabrese was a longtime New Jersey sportswriter who covered a lot of college sports, including at Princeton.

TigerBlog spent quite a few hours driving to and from Princeton games with Joe Calabrese when he'd cover the Tigers on the road. He was part of something of a golden age in New Jersey college sportswriting, not to mention an extraordinarily nice person. He'd be thrilled to know that his name is on a trophy for that game.

Princeton and Rutgers first played basketball against each other in 1917, and Princeton holds a 76-45 edge in the series. That first game, by the way, was 48 years after Rutgers and Princeton played in the first college football game ever. 

The game Saturday will be the fifth between the teams to be played at a neutral site. One of those was last year, when Princeton defeated Rutgers at the Cure Arena in Trenton. Another was the heartbreaking 54-53 Tiger loss in the 1976 NCAA tournament in Providence, in a year when the Scarlet Knights were unbeaten and reached the Final Four. 

The teams also played at Madison Square Garden in 1972 and 2000. 

And then there will be the game Saturday in Newark. It's a chance to see an old friend and the two new superstars — and to do so in a beautiful arena. What could be better than that, especially after all this time away?

Until then, it's still first semester exams. 

From there, it'll be June before there's another Tiger-less weekend.

The Great Jarron Rosa And More

So what would you like to talk about today, with first semester exams underway and no games for more than a week? 

*

What was the response of Jon Mozes to TigerBlog's mentioning the line that Mozes used after Parker Hill's late blocked shot against Rhode Island Wednesday night? 

If you forgot, Mozes said "Usually rams are good at climbing hills." The timing was perfect. 

With a day to consider the comment, Mozes had this to say:

Honestly, it was some of my best work. Ever.

By the way, Jon Mozes is a very humble person, so don't ascribe anything boastful to what he said. He also has a very good sense of humor. 

*

Xaivian Lee's triple-double against Saint Joseph's included the 16th time a Princeton player has reached double figures in assists (Lee had 10 in that game). Those first 15 double-figure assist nights were accomplished by only six players. Can you name them? The answer is below.

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Bill Belichick, as you may have heard, is now the head football coach at the University of North Carolina. While it may seem like an odd move for the longtime NFL coach, it certainly will be shining a spotlight on Tar Heel football as it moves forward.

Before the story became official, TigerBlog saw a headline in the New York Post sports section that said: "Bill Belichick would be the 'worst college coach I could imagine': ex-NFLer Ross Tucker."

Here is a quote from Tucker, who was speaking on a radio station:

“I mean the idea of the guy that I was around, recruiting, or like going into the living room of a 17-year-old — I want this to happen so bad I can taste it. I mean, if they do it, they’ve gotta have cameras everywhere. The guy, when I was in New England, was like 100 percent negative reinforcement. I would love to just see how quickly those kids go into the transfer portal.”

Ross Tucker, of course, is a Princeton alum, Class of 2001, who then played seven seasons in the National Football League as an offensive lineman. Today he is a hugely successful sports media personality, and he is a huge presence in any room he is in, literally and figuratively. 

*

Speaking of Xaivian Lee, he is currently averaging 15.8 points, 6.0 rebounds and 5.6 assists per game. Who was the last Princeton men's basketball player to achieve those numbers? 

It wasn't Jarron Rosa, TB is pretty sure. For starters, Princeton has never had a Jarron Rosa. So who is he? Well, ol' Jarron is the person that ChatGPT suggested is the answer to TB's question. Here is what it had to say:

The last Princeton University men's basketball player to average at least 15.8 points, 5.6 assists, and 6.0 rebounds per game was Jarron Rosa. He accomplished this remarkable feat during the 2000-2001 season. Rosa was known for his all-around game, combining scoring, playmaking, and rebounding to make a significant impact on the court. He was one of the best players in the Ivy League during his time at Princeton and remains one of the program's standout performers in terms of versatility and production.

TB even did a search for "Jarron Rosa Basketball" and it turned up nothing. If you go back to the 2001-01 Princeton season, you'll find that — despite the fact that the Tigers won the Ivy title — that no player averaged 15.8 points OR 5.6 assists OR 6.0 rebounds. Oh well.

The actual answer is "nobody." Who came closest? Tosan Evbuomwan, who averaged 15.1 points, 6.3 rebounds and 5.0 assists for the Sweet Sixteen team of two years ago.

*

And the answer is: Billy Ryan (five), Kit Mueller (four), John Thompson III (two), T.J. Bray (two), Spencer Weisz (one), John Lewis (one).  

*

Have a great weekend — and if you're a Princeton student, study well.

Usually Rams Are Good At Climbing Hills

TigerBlog is glad he left the ESPN+ broadcast of the women's basketball game against Rhode Island on until the final buzzer last night.

Why's that? Well, had he turned it off before the final minute, he would have missed this gem by play-by-play man Jon Mozes, after Parker Hill emphatically blocked a shot:

"Usually Rams are good at climbing hills." 

TB will have to ask Mozes if he had that planned the whole time or if that just came out, spur of the moment. Dei Lynam, who was doing the game with Mozes, sighed and said "oh, if only I had thought of that."

Hmmm. TigerBlog has done hundreds of games on the radio in his career. He's trying to remember if he ever said anything like that. He must have, maybe even accidentally.

Oh, it was the perfect delivery. Great work, Jon.  

By the way, TigerBlog went onto youtube to try to find a video of a ram as it ran up a hill. Guess what he found instead? Yup, videos of pickup trucks that were driving up steep hills.

Like the Princeton men the night before against Monmouth, the Princeton women bounced back from some well-played, hard-fought but ultimately unsuccessful outings over the weekend to get a 66-54 win over Rhode Island. 

Also like the Princeton men, the Princeton women can take the momentum of a win into what is now a long break due to first semester exams. Next up for both teams will be games Dec. 21, which is a week from Saturday, when the women will be at Jadwin against Vermont and the men will be at the Prudential Center in Newark against Rutgers. 

Fadima Tall was the ESPN+ Player of the Game last night, after she had a 13-point, seven-rebound, five-assist effort. For Tall, the 13 points tied her career high, something she's now done three times, including in back-to-back games. 

The sophomore averaged 3.3 points per game in the first 18 games of her career, which consisted of 15 games last year and the first three this year. Since then? She has put up 72 more points in the last seven games. That's an average of 10.3 per game.

Ashley Chea also continues to make a jump in her own sophomore year. Chea, who had an 18-point, six-assist night against the Rams, has 80 points in the six games since Madison St. Rose was injured, an average of 13.3 per game. She also had her first 20-point game in the win over Rutgers.

Chea averaged six points per game a year ago, when she played in all 30 games. She averaged 11.3 per game for the first four this season. 

Another sophomore is Skye Belker, who averaged 8.5 per game last year and who is now averaging 13.5 per game this year. Belker shot just under 30 percent from three-point range last year; she's at 43.5 percent so far this season. 

Tabitha Amanze is a junior, but her entire freshman season was wiped out by injury. She didn't have any double figure scoring games a year ago or in the first four games this year. 

Since then? She's had four double figure games in the last six, including a career-high 14 last night. Those 14 points came in only 14 minutes.

It's great to see progress like that. 

And with the final buzzer came the start of exam break. If you look at the composite schedule on the webpage, you'll see that there are a lot of empty boxes in the coming days. 

It's fascinating to TB that there are no longer any students at Princeton who ever had first semester exams in the New Year. After all, that was the University policy for, well, TB has no idea how long. 

Relegated to the history of Princeton University is the post-holiday exam period. It was always a long two weeks in January with no sports, and now it feels like nostalgia. 

At least both basketball teams went into exams with wins. It certainly makes the studying easier. 

An NCAA Title, A Home WBB Game — And Bones Writes Another Great Story

There have been 43 NCAA women's soccer tournaments to date. The University of North Carolina has won 22 of them. 

TigerBlog, being the math guy he is, knew instantly that such numbers mean that the Tar Heels have won more than half of the titles. The most recent one came Monday night, when UNC beat Wake Forest in the championship game, 1-0.

You have to feel for Wake. The Demon Deacons were making their second appearance in the NCAA final, and who was waiting there for them? Their biggest nemesis. 

The win improved UNC to 36-2-3 all-time in the series, outscoring Wake 121-15 in that time. That's a rough one. 

UNC is now 153-18-5 in the NCAA tournament (if you're wondering about the five ties, NCAA games that go to penalty kicks are entered as ties officially in the all-time records). Of course, one of those 18 losses came in 2017 to your very own Princeton Tigers, who knocked off UNC 2-1 in overtime on an Abby Givens goal.

Princeton was represented on the current UNC team, as Tiger alum Aria Nagai started all 27 games this year for the Heels as a grad student, finishing with three goals and three assists. She was a three-time All-Ivy League selection at Princeton, including a first-team honor as a senior in 2023. She was also a two-time CSC Academic All-District selection.

Her Princeton coaches were there Monday night to cheer her on:

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Another current Princeton alum who is in her grad season is Kaitlyn Chen, who has started all eight games for UConn as its point guard. Chen, who was the Ivy League tournament Most Outstanding Player three times, is second on the team in assists as the Huskies have won all eight games. 

Could she make it a second Princeton alum with an NCAA title this academic year? 

Chen's former team is home tonight at 7 against Rhode Island. The Rams are an uncharacteristic 4-7 on the year, though they are one year removed from a 21-14 season that took them to the Atlantic 10 final, with a win at home against Princeton early that season. 

Princeton is back on Carril Court after a western swing that saw the Tigers lose at Portland and Utah, though both games could have gone either way. Those two teams, by the way, are now 17-2 between them on the year. 

Today is Dec. 11. When is the next time Princeton will play an away game?

That would be Jan. 20, when the Tigers are at Columbia. 

Between now and then, there will be seven straight home games, beginning with the game tonight and continuing after exams with games against Vermont (Dec. 21) and Middle Tennessee (Dec. 29) before the New Year. After that will be the first three Ivy games, against Cornell, Harvard and Dartmouth. 

Meanwhile, speaking of women's basketball, there is the matter of the Time Magazine story for its 2024 Athlete of the Year. The winner? Who else could it have been other than Caitlin Clark. 

You can read the story HERE.

TigerBlog would have read the story no matter what. When he saw that it was written by Sean Gregory, he was definitely going to read every word — which he did.

Sean Gregory — "Bones," as he was known as a Princeton basketball player on the great teams of the mid- to late-1990s — is a phenomenal writer. 

As you probably know, TigerBlog likes to write long feature pieces. In an impatient world like this one, the audience of readers who have the attention span to go through the whole story can be somewhat limited, though it is definitely worth it.

The story that Sean has written has a notation that it would take 34 minutes to read. It's time well spent. 

Tackling the Caitlin Clark subject is not easy, because of all of the obvious storylines that followed her around during her last two years at Iowa and then her rookie year with the Indiana Fever in the WNBA. Gregory does a great job of presenting all of the sides to her story, without pushing an agenda in any way. 

TB was in Indianapolis in the summer, and he bought a Caitlin Clark jersey in the team store in the Gainbridge Fieldhouse. He wrote about this earlier, but the saleswoman said that upwards of 80 percent of everything sold in that store, which includes the NBA's Indiana Pacers as well as the Fever, was Caitlin Clark stuff.

TB also wrote that the only athlete he can think of who transcended their sport the way that Clark did was Tiger Woods. It is incredible what she has done. It's also a statement on contemporary society the reactions she's drawn. 

And so, to sum up for your Wednesday: 

* congratulations to Aria Nagai
* go UConn
* check out the women's basketball game tonight at 7
* read Sean's story

And there you have it.

Hi Rip

Remember Nutmeg, the dog TigerBlog saw in the lobby of the hotel before the Princeton field hockey team played at Harvard this past season? 

Here he is. What a great face, right? TB doesn't need that good of a reason to bring back Nutmeg.

What did people do before they could simply take a picture on a phone and have it immediately? Or a video for that matter? 

For those too young to know this, there was a time when you had to have an actual camera and load it with actual film and then take it to an actual photo shop (not PhotoShop). They used to have one-hour photo places, though the majority of places you'd take your film to be processed used to take a few days. 

Can you imagine that, young people? You'd take a picture and then you couldn't see it for several days? Or longer, actually, since there were 24 or 36 pictures on a roll of film and you had to take all the pictures before any could be developed.

On the one hand, it's been a great addition to life to be able to immediately document moments that are gone in a blink. On the other hand, how many times do you see something interesting happening and instead of enjoying the moment, every observer has a phone out, filming?

TB will leave it to the philosophers and poets to decipher that.

Meanwhile, TB offers you a picture of another dog, one he saw yesterday: 

And what is this guy's name? It's "Rip." This was the conversation that TB and the owner had:

The Owner: "This is Rip."
TigerBlog: "Rip? Like the guy ..."
The Owner: "... the guy from Yellowstone, yes."

If you have watched the show, then you can understand why someone would want to name a dog Rip. TB did suggest to the woman who was walking the dog that her Rip needed to get a doggie-sized cowboy hat and dark shades to complete the look.

If you haven't been watching Yellowstone, you need to go back and binge. And, if you didn't already know, the character of Beth is played by Kelly Reilly, who is married to former Princeton men's lacrosse player Kyle Baugher, Class of 2002. 

And, given that tonight is the last night in the calendar year of 2024 that there are two home Princeton events and that after tonight there will only be three more events in the next 19 days, you'll have plenty of time to catch up on Yellowstone.

There are two games tonight at Princeton, as the women's hockey team hosts LIU at 6 and the men's basketball team hosts Monmouth at 7. 

As TB wrote yesterday, the two Princeton hockey teams are on a good roll. So too is the women's team at LIU.

The Princeton women have won four straight and seven of eight. The LIU women are 10-5-2 and are 5-0-1 in their last six and 7-1-1 in their last nine, with the only loss during that time a 1-0 setback to the same Quinnipiac team Princeton beat 2-1 in overtime this weekend. 

Monmouth comes to Jadwin Gym tonight with a record of 1-9. Against whom is the lone win? How about Seton Hall? 

The Princeton men's basketball team is back from South Carolina after its 69-63 loss at Furman Saturday. Despite the loss, it was still a big week for Xaivian Lee, who had the first official triple-double in Princeton men's basketball history in the win over Saint Joseph's a week ago tonight with an 18-point, 13-rebound 10-assist outing and who averaged 17.0 points, 10.0 rebounds, 7.5 assists and 1.5 steals for the two games. 

As a result? He was the Ivy League Player of the Week. 

TB's natural curiosity led him to wonder who the last Princeton player was to average those numbers across two games. For the first time in his entire life, therefore, he consulted ChatGPT, and this is what he found out:

The last time a Princeton men's basketball player averaged 17.0 points, 10.0 rebounds, 7.5 assists, and 1.5 steals across two games was Tosan Evbuomwan during the 2022-2023 season. In back-to-back games on March 18 and 19, 2023, in the NIT Tournament, Evbuomwan put up impressive all-around numbers in wins over Kent State and UNC Greensboro.

This performance helped highlight Evbuomwan's versatility and his pivotal role in Princeton's success that season. He was a dynamic force, contributing not just as a scorer, but also as a playmaker and defender. Would you like to dive deeper into those games or discuss another player from Princeton's history?

Well, that's certainly not what TB was expecting. He really, really, really doesn't want to get too into the AI world and would never use it to write anything, but maybe, just maybe, this will help with research. Hey, it took TB a long time until he got his own smartphone — and now he's going around taking pictures of dogs.

Is that progress?

Tis The Princeton Hockey Season

Your week on TigerBlog starts with great moments in advertising.

TigerBlog was driving down the highway the other day when he saw an epic billboard. It had a picture of a guy dressed up like Santa Claus, with huge letters that spelled out the following: 

"Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer? Call The Law Office Of So-and-So and So-and-So." 

Now that's funny. 

Tis the season and all. What kind of season will this end up being for Princeton Hockey? Well, it was a pretty good weekend for the Tiger men and women.

The two combined for a 3-0 weekend, with a huge overtime win for the women over No. 7 Quinnipiac and a sweep of Union and RPI for the men. 

How did the game against Quinnipiac go? Here's the first sentence from the story on goprincetontigers.com, by TB's colleague Chas Dorman:

The nation's No. 2-ranked offense (Princeton) and No. 2-ranked defense (Quinnipiac) did battle at Hobey Baker Rink in a crucial ECAC contest, and ultimately Princeton had Sarah Paul and the Bobcats didn't in a 2-1 overtime win for the Tigers.

Paul, if you haven't figured it out, scored both Princeton goals in the game. 

Princeton has the nation's top power play unit, and Paul's first goal of the game added to that. It came with 13:33 left in the third period, after Quinnipiac had gone up 1-0 with a goal in the second. 

Paul's second won it 2:06 into the overtime, with her goal set up beautifully by Jane Kuehl, who pounced on a loose puck, carried it around the goalie and fed it to the backside to a wide-open Paul.

2:54 (OT) TIGERS WIN!

Sarah Paul Times Two!

Her 2nd of the day picks up another Top-10 win for Princeton!@ecachockey | @NCAAIceHockey | @IvyLeague pic.twitter.com/jAMB4QQojq

— Princeton Women's Ice Hockey (@PWIH) December 7, 2024

The women have now won four straight and seven of their last eight. In addition to the win over Quinnipiac, Princeton also owns an 8-1 win over Boston University, who was ranked No. 13 at the time, and a 4-3 win over No. 5 Colgate.

Princeton has one more game left in the calendar year, and that's tomorrow at 6 against LIU at Hobey Baker Rink, before first semester exams begin. After that, the next game isn't until Jan. 4 — and the next home game isn't until Jan. 24. 

As for the men, it was only 10 days ago that Princeton was 1-4-1 after being swept at Colgate and Cornell. Since then? Princeton is 4-0, first with a sweep of then-No. 12 Ohio State last weekend and then an ECAC sweep of Union (2-1) and RPI (6-2) this past weekend.

All four games were at Baker Rink.

TB wrote this last Thursday: 

It'll be interesting to see how much momentum and confidence the Tigers take into those games after taking down the Buckeyes. 

As it turned out, the answer was "a lot."

All three goals Friday night came in the second period, the two from Princeton by Luc Pelletier and Noah de la Durantaye. Arthur Smith did the rest, making 27 saves. 

He made 24 more Saturday night, when Princeton found itself with much more margin of error, as five different Tigers had multiple-point nights. 

Getting back to Smith, he has been in goal for all four Princeton wins in a nine-day stretch. His numbers for those games? How about 118 saves and four goals against?

Is that good? It certainly sounds good. 

Suddenly, Princeton finds itself in fifth place in the ECAC standings, tied with Cornell and just two points out of fourth.

Like the women, the men now have a big break, first for exams and then for Christmas. In fact, it'll be 21 days between games for the men, who play again at Army on Dec. 28.

Hey, if you're not going to play for three weeks — if you're studying for exams for the first half of that time — you might as well be able to enjoy how things went going to the break. 

For Princeton's two hockey teams, that's certainly the case. 

And if Grandma got run over by a reindeer? You know whom to call.