One More For Winter

Every time TigerBlog drove, or for that matter walked, over the bridge on Washington Road between December and about two weeks ago, he wondered where the Princeton rowing teams were going to be able to compete this season. 

The lake? It was frozen, presumably solid.  

Every time he looked at the far side of Sherrerd Field, he wondered if Princeton would have a home lacrosse game this season without remnants of the snow bank, the one that at one point stood 14 feet high. During one early season game, TB was asked by a media member why the facility no longer had the men's and women's championship banners along the fence, to which TB pointed out that they were still there, only blocked by the white fortress. 

Then, all of the sudden, the ice was gone from the lake and the snow was (almost completely) gone from the far side. Amazing what rain and a few days near 80 degrees can do.

The oddest part is that TB didn't even notice until it was pointed out to him. "Hey, the snow is gone." And "Hey, the water is back."

And why not?  

It is, after all, officially springtime, or, as Pete Carril would have called it, "the spring of the year."  

The Ivy League baseball and softball seasons opened this past weekend. 

For Princeton, that meant six games against Cornell between the two teams, with five Tiger wins. The softball team won all three of its games, and the baseball team went two for three. 

The Ivy League season opens for both tennis teams this weekend, with the women home against Penn. There is rowing and golf and outdoor track and field and rugby and lacrosse this weekend, all of which are outdoor events. 

HERE is the whole Princeton Athletics schedule. 

Ah, but the winter isn't quite over. Maybe the calendar says it is, but there's still enough chill in the air to suggest otherwise. 

And, there's also still one more winter sports event, at least for Princeton. That would be the NCAA men's swimming and diving championships, which begin today in Atlanta. 

Princeton will be represented there by 10 athletes, three of whom are divers and seven of whom are swimmers. Senior Mitchell Schott and sophomore Patrick Dinu will both be a part of six events, swimming together in the 200, 400 and 800 free relays, against each other in the 200 free and then individually in the 500 free and 200 butterfly (Schott) and 50 and 100 free (Dinu).

Aidan Wang, for his part, will compete in the 1M, 3M and platform diving events. 

The women's event was held in the same pool a week ago. Princeton junior Eleanor Sun finished 14th in the 200 individual medley to earn second-team All-American honors one year after doing so in the 400 IM.

Last weekend also saw Princeton compete at the NCAA fencing championships, where other Tigers became All-Americans as well. 

This year, for the first time, the NCAA fencing national team championship was divided into a men's winner and a women's winner, both of whom happened to be Notre Dame. Before this year, there was one combined, co-ed team champion. 

The individual championships didn't change, with qualifying bouts that earned team points and then sent the top four to the semifinals for each of the three weapons. Tiger junior Hadley Husisian was the runner-up in the epee, giving her three All-American honors in three years of competing (she took off a year while qualifying for the U.S. team at the 2024 Olympics).

Princeton also had three other women become All-Americans: senior Honor Johnson (saber) junior Alexandra Lee (saber, where she reached the semifinals) and freshman Angel Xiao (epee). Princeton finished third in the team standings. 

On the men's side, both senior Brandon Lee (foil) and junior Alec Brooke (epee) were All-Americans, Lee for the third time and Brooke of the second. 

Princeton's men finished ninth overall.  

By the way, a special shout out goes to TB's longtime friend and colleague Andrew Borders, who alerted TB that Princeton's women under the new format would have won the NCAA title in 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2023. The 2013 Tigers did win the combined NCAA championship. 

NCAA Hooping

Well, this has been a fairly dull NCAA men's basketball tournament, hasn't it? 

Perhaps this is the year it actually gets better as it goes along, as opposed to the way it usually is, as TigerBlog has repeatedly said. The biggest upset of the first round was High Point over Wisconsin 83-82.

It was an exciting game and all, and congrats to the Panthers. At the same time, it'll hardly be remembered as one of the great moments in tournament history.  

The most interesting part of the first four days , to TigerBlog at least, was not even a game. It was a graphic. 

It was, specifically, this graphic, which popped up during the Iowa State-Kentucky Round 2 game: 

What you have here are three of the greatest players of all-time and a guy from Kentucky TB had never heard of before. Turns out that he 1) played at Blair Academy in New Jersey and 2) is a transfer from Oklahoma. 

If you're in TB's basic age range, you don't need him to tell you that Oscar Robertson played at Cincinnati and Larry Bird played at Indiana State. Bill Bradley? You better know where he played; if you don't, consult the statue of him in front of Jadwin Gym. 

Assists were not an official college basketball stat until 1974-75, though they sometimes appear on box scores back another 10 years. One of the games that did have assists kept was the 1965 NCAA regional final between Princeton and Providence, the one referenced in the graphic.

In that game, Bradley went for 41 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists — one short of a triple double. Speaking of those triple-doubles, 1) Robertson was the first player ever to average a triple double for a full NBA season, and 2) because assists weren't regularly kept, there's no record of how many such triple doubles Bradley might have had as a Tiger, though TB would guess it would have to be in, well, double figures. 

Imagine having a 41-point, 10-rebound, nine-assist game and it's not your best game ever, or, for that matter, it'snot your best game of that NCAA tournament. That would have been two games later, when Bradley went for 58 points, 17 rebounds and four assists in what was then the consolation game. Those 58 points, by the way, remain the record for a Final Four game. 

Hey, you can add that to the list of records that Bradley set that will almost certainly never be broken. 

Meanwhile, back in the present, the Princeton women's basketball team is back in New Jersey after its 82-68 opening round loss to Oklahoma State in Los Angeles. 

This was an uphill struggle for Princeton the whole way, as OK State got out quickly to lead by 10 after the first quarter and 18 early in the second at 31-13. Princeton would get within four twice and within five at 63-58 in the fourth before a 9-0 Cowgirl run put it away. 

signing out after 96 wins, four NCAA Tournaments and three Ivy League titles.

Thank you, @nat_strose and @taylorrcharless. #GetStops 🐯🏀 pic.twitter.com/NBIMAIU0Qo

— Princeton WBB (@PrincetonWBB) March 22, 2026

Princeton was led by Madison St. Rose, who scored 17 in her Tiger finale. Like Tiger alums like Kaitlyn Chen and Abby Meyers before her, St. Rose will graduate from Princeton and play elsewhere next year after missing almost all of her junior year with a torn ACL.

St. Rose cemented her status as a Princeton all-time great long ago. She finished her career with 1,215 points, and her 13.2 points per game leaves her a hair away from the program's all-time top 10. 

The other senior on this team was Taylor Charles, who had five points and two blocked shots in her final game. Charles was a strong role player during her career, playing in 75 games and being a part of four NCAA tournament teams. '

Skye Belker scored 14 in the game, giving her 1,004 for her career prior to her senior year. Ashley Chea also had 14, and she'll bring 847 points into her senior year. Should she match her assist total from this year next season, she'd vault to No. 2 all-time at Princeton. 

The loss ended the Tigers' season at 26-4, which basically speaks for itself, right? 

If it doesn't, then let TB add this: What Princeton women's basketball has built and sustained is extraordinary. The level of consistent excellence and national success is unmatched in Ivy League women's basketball history.  

The 2025-26 season simply adds to that legacy.  

A 2-1 Two For One

It was a 2-1 two-for-one.

Unfortunately for Princeton, that is. 

Actually, perhaps "unfortunately" is too harsh a word. It has too much of a negative connotation, and, short of the outcome, there was absolutely nothing negative about either of the 2-1s. 

And while it might have been the greatest Saturday for Princeton Athletics, it's important to step back and appreciate the incredible accomplishments that went into the 2-1 two-for-one.

First of all, what does TigerBlog mean by "2-1 two-for-one?"

There were two championship events for Princeton Saturday night. Both ended 2-1. Princeton, in both, had the one. 

One of the the was the ECAC men's hockey final, where Princeton lost to Dartmouth by that 2-1 score, this time in overtime. The other one was the NCAA wrestling 125-pound final, where Princeton's Marc-Anthony McGowan lost 2-1 to Penn State's No. 1 seeded Luke Lilledahl. 

That's two 2-1s. A 2-1 two-for-one.  

So that part is unfortunate. To come so close to a championship like that? It stings. Very much so. And for a very long time. 

It takes TigerBlog back to something that he heard head field hockey coach Carla Tagliente once say in a similar situation. To paraphrase: when you put that much of yourself into something and fall short, it's supposed to hurt; if it doesn't, you're not invested enough. 

Carla is 100 percent correct. Also, so this doesn't get to be too much of a downer, here's a picture of her new dog:

Say hi to "Rocky." That's a great face. 

Okay, back to today's point.

Yes, it's supposed to sting, and it definitely does. TB has been in too many of those lockerrooms through the years not to have learned that (he's fortunate to be in on the other side too).

Still, sometimes just putting yourself in position like that is worth celebrating.  

TB starts with McGowan. A sophomore from Tampa who attended prep wrestling power Blair Academy, McGowan has twice been the Ivy League champion at his weight — and in fact is the only 125-pound champ the Ivy League has ever had, since it's only been two years of the tournament. 

He reached the NCAA tournament a year ago, winning one match and losing two. This year, he entered as the No. 10 seed, which is impressive but isn't exactly the prime spot for making a long run. 

Make a run he did, however, including a quarterfinal win over No. 2 seed Eddie Ventresca of Virginia Tech. Lilledahl, also a sophomore, finished off a 25-0 season by edging out McGowan in a defensive matchup. 

That match took place about an hour after the conclusion of the ECAC men's hockey final. Princeton, picked eighth in the league's preseason poll, ended the regular season in fourth, earning a first-round bye and home ice for the league quarterfinal series, a sweep over Union. 

That advanced the Tigers to this weekend's single-elimination league final four, which began when Dartmouth blanked Clarkson 4-0 Friday in a game that started at 4. Princeton then played shortly after seven, against Cornell, the two-time defending league champion.

The Big Red scored early, as in 2:33 in, but Princeton scored twice in the second period to go up before Cornell tied it at 2-2. That set the stage for the game-winner from Joshua Karnish with 7:55 left in the third. 

Princeton then had to kill off a penalty and a pulled goalie. If you watched, you saw Tigers' flying everywhere in the defensive zone, getting bodies in front of pucks and doing everything possible to keep the Big Red from the tie. 

It was an unrelenting effort, and also a draining one. And now Princeton had to turn around to play the final at 5 Saturday — a little more than 19 hours after the semifinal ended.  

What was on the line? A Princeton would win have meant an NCAA tournament appearance, something that Dartmouth (and Cornell for that matter) already had secured. 

Did Princeton have anything left after the Cornell win? 

Princeton fell behind again, this time on a power play goal midway through the first. It would stay that way until less than nine minutes were left in the third, when again Karnish came up huge, this time to tie it. 

To overtime it went. Princeton seemed to have the best of the chances — but it was Dartmouth who snuck one in after 11 minutes. 

Just like that, it was game over, season over. 

Of course that stings. In a major way.

It's the immediacy of it that hurts the most. You go from maximum effort to having it end on a dime. Your first instinct is "no, there has to be something we can do," and then you realize there isn't. 

Well, there is. You can appreciate the magnitude of what you've done, the effort that you put out, the way there was really nothing left of you that wasn't thrown into competing. You can do all those things. 

You just can't do it in the moment. 

Congrats to McGowan and to the men's hockey team.

It was amazing to watch you.  

Madness And More

The Siena men's basketball team almost beat Duke — and almost tied Bill Carmody. 

In the end, neither happened. 

Siena, a 16-seed, led No. 1 seed Duke by as many as 14 points before the Blue Devils rallied for a 71-65 victory. The Bill Carmody part? 

Well, TigerBlog got a text from his longtime friend and former colleague John Cornell yesterday afternoon that Siena was "going all Bill Carmody on us right here." It took TB a few seconds to realize what he meant. 

If you recall the opening round of the 1999 NIT between Princeton and Georgetown at Jadwin Gym, Carmody — then the Tiger head coach — played only five players the entire way. Five guys. Forty minutes each. 

Princeton won the game 54-47. Can you name the five players who went all 40 minutes? 

As for Siena yesterday, head coach Gerry McNamara went with the same five until he subbed with 10.8 seconds remaining, when he made his only lineup change of the day. He was left with four players who went all 40 and one who went 39:49.2. 

Why did he do this? TB looked at Siena's stats and saw that the Saints had three players average at least 30 minutes this season, with three more over 20 minutes and four more over 10. Also, clearly his five guys were exhausted at the end. 

The Princeton answer, by the way, is Chris Young, Mason Rocca, Brian Earl, Ahmed El-Nokali and Gabe Lewullis.  

The first full day of NCAA tournament games yesterday featured that near upset and a genuine upset, when 12th-seed High Point defeated fifth-seed Wisconsin 83-82. It might seem shocking that the Big South champ could beat a Big 10 team, and in many ways it is. Still, High Point is now 31-4. It doesn't matter what league you're in; when you're used to winning, you know what to do at the end. 

The same, hopefully, will be true for the ninth-seed Princeton women's basketball team, who brings a 26-3 record into its Round 1 game tomorrow night (7:25) against eight-seed Oklahoma State at UCLA. The Cowgirls are 23-9 overall, 12-6 in the Big 12. 

If you want to read a little more about Madison St. Rose, by the way, there was this piece from Emilia Reay in the Asbury Park Press.  

Here's an interesting note about the game: The Princeton women are the only New Jersey team, men's or women's, who reached the Division I tournament. 

Meanwhile, there is more to March than just the Madness. For Princeton, there are also two games against Cornell. 

The Princeton men's hockey team will play the Big Red in the second ECAC semifinal tonight at 7:00 in Lake Placid, after the game between Dartmouth and Clarkson. The final will be tomorrow evening at 5, with an automatic NCAA tournament bid for the winner. 

Princeton and Cornell have split two meetings so far this season, with each on top at home. For Cornell, that meant a 2-1 win in Ithaca on Jan. 16. For Princeton, it was a 4-2 win at Baker Rink Feb. 21.

Princeton went to Lake Placid Wednesday after sweeping Union at home last weekend, winning two games by a 5-2 count. The Tigers in Year 2 under Ben Syer finished in fourth place during the regular season, which meant a first-round bye and home ice last weekend. 

Elsewhere in Princeton-Cornell news, those two will meet tomorrow at noon at Sherrerd Field in men's lacrosse. 

Since the start of last season, Princeton is 18-5, with two of those losses to the Big Red, who happen to be the defending NCAA champion. Princeton's other three losses are to Penn State this year (Princeton won last year) and Maryland and Syracuse last year (both of whom Princeton has defeated this year).

Princeton is ranked third in all three polls (Inside Lacrosse, USILA, USA Lacrosse Magazine) but is No. 1 in the first RPI, which was released this week. The Tigers have won five straight since that opening loss to Penn State, and all five are against RPI Top 20 teams, including two in the top 10). 

Cornell has two losses this season, to Richmond and Penn State. Like Princeton (who won at Yale), Cornell won its Ivy opener last week against Brown. 

If you want to see the full weekend schedule for Princeton's teams, click HERE.  

Let The Games Begin

Welcome to what is the start of the favorite few days of the annual sporting calendar for, oh, quite a few million of you. 

It's the start of the first full day of the NCAA basketball tournaments. There will be wall-to-wall basketball for the next few days, as the 128 teams in Round 1 of the two tournaments get whittled down to the 32 who will remain for the two Sweet 16s.  

You'll hear people bemoan the demise of their brackets. You'll watch the end of more than one upset. You'll fall in love with a player whose name you do not yet know. 

And you'll prove what TigerBlog has always said. 

The NCAA basketball tournaments are unlike any other postseason event in that they get less and less interesting with each passing round. The excitement of the next few days begins to wane, for several reasons — mostly because 1) the sheer quantity of games day and night almost surely will lead to something amazing and 2) all the people who have filled out their own brackets are dialed in to whatever upsets they've chosen. 

Want proof? 

Ask yourself to name as many great first-round games as you can. Then ask yourself to name as many great Sweet 16 games as you can. 

See?

For the teams involved, the time between the Selection Show and opening tip-off is a strange mix of a complete blur and of having time stand still. TigerBlog has been lucky to have traveled with Princeton Basketball teams to the NCAA tournament, and every part of the experience is to be cherished. 

At the same time, there's also a game to play — or hopefully games. Just as the journey is incredible, the destination cannot be overlooked. 

After all, this is your chance to make history, the kind that will be referred to decades after the fact, as those wonderful highlights that pop up this time each year remind everyone. 

Each team gets its day-before practice at the actual venue. Those are more walkthroughs. The actual practicing goes on in some small college gym, or even a local high school gym. 

The Princeton women's basketball team has had to deal with all kinds of logistical challenges once it was announced Sunday that the team would be flying all the way across the country for its NCAA opener at UCLA. If you forgot, the Tigers are the No. 9 seed in their region (Sacramento 2) and will take on No. 8 Oklahoma State Saturday night at 7:30 Eastern time in the first round. 

The winner of that game gets the winner of the game between the top-seeded Bruins and No. 16 Cal-Baptist. 

If you're going to be the lower seed and want to win an NCAA game, logic suggests that the best spot to be is No. 9. If you want to win two games, well, the likely second-round opponent is the No. 1 seed, in this case, a UCLA team that is 31-1 and has a good a chance as anyone to win it all. 

But hey, that's why you play, right? Both Oklahoma State and Princeton would love to have the chance to be the one to make that kind of history. 

Speaking of history, here's something you might not have known about Oklahoma State's teams (this comes from the website visitstillwater.org):

For a decade, students had been fiercely competing in inter-class sports. However, with the formation of the football team, they were encouraged to set aside class rivalries and unite under a common banner. The students chose the Tigers as their mascot and adopted the orange and black colors, inspired by the tradition of Princeton University. This led to Oklahoma A&M being affectionately dubbed the “Princeton of the Prairie.” Despite lacking a paid coach, 14 determined young men made up the Tiger squad for their first season. 

Princeton of the Prairie. How about that? 

The Princeton of the Prairie and the Princeton in New Jersey have never played before. Ok State is 5-0 all-time against the Ivy League, most recently with a win over Harvard in 2022. 

The Cowgirls, as they are known now, do have one Princeton connection: assistant coach Robyne Bostick was an assistant at Princeton in the 2001-02 season. Also, in keeping with the way of the world, the 13-player OSU roster includes eight players who are transfers. 

Lastly, here's an interesting fact for you: Between the two teams, there are 10 players who average in double figures in scoring — and an 11th who averages 9.9.

Let the games begin. Enjoy the next few days. 

It's the best part of the Madness.  

Personal Fowl

Did you hear about the all-turkey basketball team? 

Couldn't win a game. Too many fowls.  

TigerBlog has finally calmed down from what he saw when he opened his door yesterday morning. He even got a picture of the scene to share with all of you. 

Yup. There they are. TB's own personal fowls. They stopped off at his front door, gave a little gobble and kept wandering away to the trees.

His neighbor Linda had a different name for them. She's the one who puts out corn for the turkeys and deer and anyone else who strolls by. Yesterday these two chased her all the way to her front door, gobbling aggressively the whole time. 

What did Linda call them? Ungrateful fowls.

And with that, TB apologizes for the fowl language. 

Meanwhile, you know what always sounds good before an athlete's name? No, not "Ungrateful." How about "First-team All-American."

The NCAA indoor track and field championships were held this past weekend in Fayetteville, Ark., and every Princeton athlete who competed came back as an All-American. That's pretty good, right? 

Georgina Scoot and Alexandra Kelly both leapt their way to first-team status, Scoot in the triple jump and Kelly in the long jump. Scott broke the Ivy League record in the triple jump with a 13.49 while finishing sixth, though you don't have to feel for the previous record holder, since it was Scoot at 13.47. 

In fact, her senior indoor season saw her win the event at the Ivy Heps championships for the fourth straight time, and the record she broke in Arkansas was set at the most recent Heps.

Kelly finished third in the long jump, in a program record 6.54m to earn her own first-team honors. Like Scoot, Kelly is also a senior. She has three indoor Heps long jump titles to her credit. 

From the time the NCAA indoor meet started in 1983 through last year, Princeton had one woman finish in the top three: Cack Ferrell in the 3,000 meters in 2005. Princeton has now had two more in each of the last two years, with Kelly this year and a second-place finish Mena Scratchard in the mile last year. 

This was also the first time Princeton women's track and field had two indoor first-team All-Americans in the same year. 

As for the men, Greg Foster became a first-team All-American in the long jump with his fourth-place finish, one that almost became higher until three jumpers passed him with personal bests at the end. Foster was already the Ivy record holder in the event, and he is also a four-time Heps indoor winner in the long jump.

In addition, this was his second first-team All-American honor and first indoors. 

Joe Licata was another first-team All-American, with his in the shot put. Licata finished sixth overall with a personal best of 65-11, one that puts him second all-time at Princeton.  

Who's first? Funny you should ask. 

First, there's the matter of who was second? That would have been C.J. Licata, at 64-10. The last name seems familiar, right? 

And second, who is still first? That would be Augie Wolf, a 1984 U.S. Olympian whose 66-1.75 at the 1983 NCAA championships has stood for 43 years now. Wolf, by the way, finished fourth at those 1984 Olympic Games. 

Back here in 2026, Princeton's 4x400 relay team of Jonathan York, Xavier Donaldson, Kavon Miller and Joey Gant finished sixth, earning themselves first-team All-American as well. 

Myles Hogan finished 10th in the 5,000, while Connor McCormick finished 13th in the mile. Both became second-team All-Americans. 

Still ahead are the NCAA Championships this weekend in men's and women's fencing (which for the first time will have separate national champs, as opposed to one co-ed winner), wrestling and men's and women's swimming and diving. 

If you're wondering, the fencing will be at Notre Dame, the wrestling will be in Cleveland and the swimming and diving will be in Atlanta.  

Will there be more first-team All-American Tigers after all of that?  

ILT Champs, Again

 

There's absolutely nothing in the world of college athletics like an NCAA Selection Show, regardless of the sport. 

None of the teams know what their seed or opponent will be until everybody finds out. The teams on the bubble don't know if they're in or out any earlier than a casual fan. 

The joy you see from each team's reaction shot on television is 100 percent genuine. In the case of the women's basketball tournament — whose current bids were announced Sunday night — it doesn't matter if you're UConn or the team that has to play UConn. 

That moment when you see your team's name flash across? It freezes in time and stays with every member of the team forever. 

It's a reward for the season to date. It's an acknowledgement of the challenge ahead. 

As the draw is revealed, teams have a sense of where they're going to be slotted. As such, whenever that portion of the bracket comes up, the energy in the room rises and rises — until another team's name is shown. Then you cross off that bracket and that location and start to think about where else you might be headed.  

Unless you see your name quickly, the drama builds and builds and builds. And with that, TigerBlog will pause and get back to the building drama. But first: 

Here's an actual text message that TB received Saturday evening: 

Seriously, Fadima Tall just played one of the greatest basketball games that any Princeton player ever has. 

Yes, that's quite a statement. On the other hand, the sender would know. He's as big a Princeton fan as TigerBlog has ever met — and he's not prone to things like overstatement or recency bias. 

The message came shortly after Princeton defeated Harvard 63-53 in the Ivy League women's tournament final Saturday, taking the championship for the sixth time in the eight years the event has been contested. 

How good was Tall? The 6-1 junior played 38 minutes and scored 20 points on 8 of 12 shooting, with seven rebounds, three assists and four steals. That's a great all-around performance. Deservedly, Tall was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. 

Ah, but the defining quality of this Princeton team is that it doesn't not rely on any one player, or even any two players. On any given night, or really on any given possession, any Tiger on the floor can be the dominant one. 

Consider the last four minutes of the championship game. 

Princeton lead by eight early in the fourth quarter, only to see Harvard come back and tie it at twice, the second time at 51-51 with 4:01 to play. Keep in mind that Princeton was headed to the NCAA tournament no matter what, whether it won the game (automatic bid) or didn't (a lock for an at-large). Harvard, on the other hand, had only one path in — win the last four minutes and the autobid. 

So what happened? Would the momentum of getting back into the game so quickly and the immediacy of needing the win be the difference? No. 

Princeton went on a 12-2 run to close it out. It was a remarkable finishing sprint, one that was spurred by Olivia Hutcherson, who finished with 12 points in the game, of which eight came in those final four minutes. 

In other words, again, this was a team effort. 

It was also a defensive effort. Princeton won its semifinal game 65-51 over Brown (Tall had 11 points and 10 rebounds), which included with the championship meant the Tigers allowed 103 points in the two games, or 51.5. 

For the season, Princeton allowed an average of 60 per game. That number could have been 160 per game. When it comes to the Ivy tournament, Carla Berube's teams always clamp down. 

In fact, Princeton has allowed an average of 56.3 points per game in nine ILT games since Berube became head coach. Not shockingly, Princeton is now 8-1 in those games. 

And now, to get back to the Selection Show, the tournament title left Princeton as the lone Ivy representative. It also left the team knowing that its name would be coming up somewhere along the way.

Where would the Tigers go? And who would be waiting there for them?  

It was fairly obvious that the team was headed to either an 8-9 game or a 7-10 game. Would it would be Storrs? Nope. That came and went without the Tigers. That also meant the team was almost surely getting on a plane.

And that's what happened. In the UCLA pod of the Sacramento 2 Regional, first it was a No. 1 seed UCLA and a No. 16 seed Cal Baptist. Then it was a No. 8, Oklahoma State. Seconds later, Princeton came up as the No. 9. 

With that, one kind of drama ended. 

Another one — the one that includes travel logistics, scouting, game prep, tickets, media appearances and everything that goes into an NCAA tournament game — was just beginning.  

 

Ice Sculpture

TigerBlog finds it amazing that the Princeton men's hockey team has won three ECAC championships — in 1998, 2008 and 2018. 

What are the chances of that? Three titles, all spaced 10 years apart. 

Is there any other team that has the same numerical trajectory?  

And while TB is asking questions, could the current Tigers change that history? Well, they're two games away from doing so. 

Those won't be two easy games. At least the 2025-26 team has a chance to try for the big prize. 

Princeton earned that chance this past weekend, sweeping away Union in the ECAC quarterfinals at Hobey Baker Rink with back-to-back 5-2 wins. Of those 10 goals, six of them came from Kai Daniells and Jake Manfre, who had three apiece in the series. Half of those 10 goals came off assists from David Jacobs.

On the other end of the ice, Arthur Smith made 63 saves in the two games, including 34 Saturday night.  

The series was the first postseason home appearance for Princeton since 2018 and the first home quarterfinal series since 2009. The two wins mean that Princeton finishes the season 14-2-1 at home — and Baker Rink has once again become a very electric venue. 

The two games might have had the same score, but they got there two completely different ways. 

Game 1 Friday night was all Tigers. It was 1-0 after the first period, 3-0 after the second and 4-0 early in the third.  

Game 2 Saturday night? That was a bit different. 

Princeton scored first but then fell behind 2-1 after two periods, the second Union goal a shorthanded one. Would there be a Game 3 in this series? 

Uh, no. Not after the four-goal third period Princeton put up. 

It took three minutes to tie it, on a Jaxson Ezman power play goal. It took four more to take the lead, when Daniells, who had all three of his in Saturday's clincher, finished off a cross-crease backhanded feed from Jacobs. 

What a play!!

Jacobs to Daniells and the Tigs are up 3-2!! @ecachockey | @TeamECH | @NCAAIceHockey pic.twitter.com/k1w5lySyBH

— Princeton Men's Ice Hockey (@princetonhockey) March 15, 2026

It's hard to say which of the 10 goals was the prettiest, but this way up the list. Jacobs' pass laid out perfectly to Daniells' stick, even though there were three, or maybe even four, Union players who were in the vicinity, not counting the goalie. 

Empty net goals don't usually turn up on the list of the prettiest goals, but the two Saturday night certainly did. The first came from Manfre, who outsprinted a Union defender to the loose puck to jam it into the goal. The second came from Daniells, whose shot from the Princeton blue line made its way under the Union goalie as he tried unsuccessfully to get back into the net. 

What's amazing about the streak of one championship every 10 years is that the intervening years were not very kind. Princeton had eight losing seasons between the 1998 and 2008 titles. There were seven losing seasons between 2008 and 2018. 

Since 2018, Princeton has had six losing seasons — out of six seasons played. That included last year, when the Tigers went 12-14-3 in the Ben Syer's first season as head coach.

How do you turn that around so quickly?  

The wins this weekend improved Princeton to 17-12-3. They also vaulted Princeton into the ECAC semifinals, which will take place this coming weekend in Lake Placid. 

Because the tournament is constantly reseeded, it wasn't until yesterday's deciding Game 3 between Cornell and Harvard that the matchups for Lake Placid could be set. Now they are. 

It'll be Dartmouth vs. Clarkson in the first semifinal Friday at 4, followed by Princeton and Cornell Friday at 7. The championship game will be Saturday at 5:30. 

The winner gets an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Can it be Princeton? Why not the Tigers — even if it is two years early.  

Either way, what Syer  and his staff and players have done this season has been remarkable. This past weekend was the end of the games at Baker Rink for 2025-26. The atmosphere there for the two games was amazing.  

And to still be playing this late into March, with a chance to keep it going? 

Who could have asked for more from this team?  

Tip-Off, Face-Off

The current UMass men's basketball season began with a 78-72 loss to Marshall on Nov. 3. 

That was a Monday. What was Justin Lafleur doing that day? He was getting ready for the upcoming Princeton-Dartmouth football game. 

After all, he was the Dartmouth football athletic communications contact at the time. He probably in his wildest imagination couldn't have anticipated that, come March, he'd be the contact for a team that would make the biggest seismic impact on the NCAA men's basketball selections. 

And yet there he was yesterday in Cleveland, in his new role with the UMass men's basketball team, watching his new team take down previously 31-0 Miami 87-83 to advance to the MAC semifinals. UMass had lost six of seven games heading into the tournament.

Will Miami get an at-large bid? Probably. If so, then that also means that the MAC will have more than one team for the first time since 1999, which further means some other team is now on the outside looking in. 

Congrats to Justin, one of the really good guys in college athletic communications. And one of the hardest working. 

Justin's athletic communications counterpart for that football game against Princeton back in November was Warren Croxton, who is also the contact for the women's basketball team. As such, he is in Ithaca for the Ivy League tournament, which begins today at 4:30 when the top-seeded Tigers take on Brown, followed by the second game, between Columbia and Harvard. 

Princeton went 2-0 against Brown this season and allowed 86 points in the two games combined against a team that averages 61 per game. Speaking of defense, the Bears lead the Ivy League, allowing just 56.5 per game; Princeton scored 58 and 69 in the two wins. 

The Tigers, for their part, led the Ivy League in scoring offense, with 73.1 points per game, the highest total in any of Carla Berube's six seasons as head coach. The Tigers start four players who average double figures and a fifth who averages 9.8. 

Brown is led by unanimous first-team All-Ivy selection Grace Arnolie, whose father Anthony was on Penn's basketball team and was a classmate of TigerBlog's, who sought him out at the game this year at Jadwin Gym to say hello and who had to explain that while, yes, in fact, TB was dressed head-to-toe in Princeton gear that he was, in fact, a Penn classmate. Arnolie (Grace) was second in the league in scoring at 17.5 per game and had 14 in each game against Princeton.

As TB said, tip-off will be at 4:30, which means that you can watch that game on ESPN+ and then shift over to the men's hockey game against Union, also on ESPN+.  Opening face-off is at 7 from Hobey Baker Rink. 

The game is the start of a best-of-three ECAC quarterfinal series, with Game 2 tomorrow at 7 and, if necessary, Game 3 Sunday at 4. The winner gets a trip to the ECAC semifinals next weekend in Lake Placid.

Princeton, the fourth seed, is playing a home ECAC quarterfinal series for the first time since 2009 and for the first time in the ECAC playoffs at all since 2018. It's been a remarkable turnaround in Year 2 under head coach Ben Styer, as the Tigers went from a ninth-place finish with 25 points last year to a fourth-place finish with 37 points this season. 

Princeton split its two games against Union this season, with a 5-1 win at Union and a 4-2 loss at Baker Rink. 

Princeton had two All-ECAC selections, with goalie Arthur Smith and forward Kai Daniells both named to the third team. Daniells leads the team with 16 goals and is second with 16 assists (David Jacobs leads the team with 20 assists), which makes Daniells the first Tiger with at least 16 of each in a season since Ryan Kuffner had 22 goals and 22 assists in 2017-18, the last time Princeton reached the NCAA tournament.  

The other quarterfinals have Clarkson at No. 1 Quinnipiac, Colgate at No. 2 Dartmouth and Harvard at No. 3 Cornell. As an aside, two of the other seven remaining teams have Directors of Athletics who used to work at Princeton — Colgate's Yariv Amir and Union's Jim McLaughlin. 

The semifinal matchups will be determined by seedings among the four remaining teams. 

Yeah, No

Today TigerBlog tries something a little different: 

Yeah — The Princeton women's hockey team plays its NCAA tournament opener tonight against UConn, at Penn State's Pegula Ice Arena. Opening face-off is at 7. You can watch it on ESPN+.

No — Princeton was swept by UConn this season in Storrs, with scores of 2-1 and 3-0. 

Yeah — Those games were nearly five months ago. 

Yeah — Princeton is making its fifth NCAA tournament appearance after a season in which the team won its first ECAC regular season title.

Yeah — The winner of the Princeton-UConn game will face the host Nittany Lions Saturday at 2, with the winner to the Frozen Four, which will also be at Penn State. 

No — To get to the Frozen Four, Princeton would have to get past UConn and then a Penn State team coached by longtime friend and former Tiger head coach Jeff Kampersal (who was the first Princeton hockey player TB ever wrote about, back in the early 1990s).

Yeah — The men's hockey team opens its ECAC quarterfinal series tomorrow at 7 at home against Union. Game 2 will be Saturday at 7. Game 3, if necessary, will be Sunday at 4. 

Yeah — If you haven't seen THIS STORY on a group of Princeton Hockey superfans who call themselves "The Hobey Bakers," make sure you read it. 

Yeah — The writer of the piece is Princeton sophomore Emilia Reay, who also writes for the Daily Princetonian and has dived in headfirst to helping TB at men's lacrosse home games. 

No — Emilia does some great Princeton commentaries on her Instagram account but has a limited following. Make sure you give a follow to: emiliareaycametoplay. 

Yeah — The NCAA indoor track and field championships will be held this weekend in Fayetteville, Ark., with four men's individuals, two women's individuals and one men's relay. 

Yeah — Greg Foster is the No. 2 seed in the long jump. 

Yeah — You can read more HERE and HERE. 

Yeah — Princeton men's lacrosse defenseman Jack Stahl added USILA Team of the Week honors to his Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week award after holding Rutgers' Colin Kurdyla to one goal on six shots. Kurdyla then responded with four goals and seven assists in his next game, a 19-4 Scarlet Knights win. 

Yeah — Stahl's performance against Kurdyla plus his performances against Syracuse's Joey Spallina and UNC's Owen Duffy resulted in three All-Americans who combined for two goals and four assists on 20 shots. Those three All-Americans in their following game after facing Stahl combined for seven goals and 13 assists. 

No — The Princeton men's tennis team was ranked 28th last week, when its only match was against No. 27 Pepperdine, a match Princeton won 4-1. This week's rankings? Pepperdine stayed at No. 27. Princeton dropped to No. 29.

Yeah — The men's and women's tennis teams are spending Spring Break in California. The women opened their trip with a 4-0 win over Fresno State and now play at Cal Poly today and then Loyola Marymount Saturday. The men play Memphis today and then San Diego Saturday, with both matches on San Diego's courts. 

No — Like the men, the women also dropped in the rankings, going from No. 37 last week to No. 54 this week. That's a 17-spot drop. And hey, keep in mind that Princeton didn't even play last week. 

Yeah — Speaking of California, the women's water polo team is also there for Spring Break. The 14th ranked Tigers will take on No. 2 UCLA today at 7 Eastern/4 Pacific in Los Angeles, with four more matches at the San Diego State Invitational this weekend. 

No — The women's water polo team will play eight times in all on this trip, but none will be against USC, whose athletic communications contact is former Princeton contact Joanna Dwyer.  

Yeah — It's the home opener for the softball team, who has a doubleheader Saturday and a single game Sunday against Binghamton. 

Yeah — This is Year 2 of the Cynthia Paul Field on the Meadows Campus. If you haven't been to a game there yet, make sure you do so this season; it's a great facility. 

No — A loyal reader, who wishes to remain anonymous, reminded TB that he wrote THIS several years back and Princeton Athletic siblings. In other words, he'd already answered his own question from earlier this week. 

No — TigerBlog is almost finished with "Packed To The Rafters," an Australian show that has 122 episodes in all. If you have Acorn TV, watch it; you'll be glad you did. 

Yeah — The complete weekend schedule is HERE.