Irreverence, With A Modicum Of Responsibility

After a day of being inundated with obviously fake press releases and stories, TigerBlog would like to point out something that he should have mentioned related to April Fools' Day.

The point is not to get someone to believe something plausible. The point is to get someone to believe something completely implausible.  

A school may start a new Division I program in a sport? A popular show was canceled? Where's the creativity?

Do you want to know where the creativity is? It is right HERE.  

Oh, and if you didn't know to do it already, take the first letter of each word in the subhead and see what it spells. 

TigerBlog was right. The more implausible, the better. 

TB hasn't read that piece in a very long time, and yet he remembers back to when it first came out. He and everyone he knew believed every word of it.  

The author was George Plimpton. If you don't know anything about him, he was a pretty fascinating human being, even if he did go to Harvard. 

Plimpton spoke at the Daily Princetonian banquet back in March of 1969, which was 60 years ago and 16 years before the Sidd Finch story. Here is what the newspaper wrote about Plimpton's talk: 

George Plimpton, Paper Lion and graduate of the Harvard Lampoon and the Boston Celtics training camp, told an audience of 90 at last night's 93rd annual Daily Princetonian banquet that "irreverance with a modicum of responsibility" is the key virtue in college publications. Plimpton, looking like a cross between a tall Johnny Carson and a suntanned Ted Kennedy, entertained his audience with anecdotes of his experiences as America's most famous literary "impostor." His best seller, Paper Lion, is an account of his sojourn with the Detroit Lions football team. Currently he is playing with the Boston Celtics to gather information for a book on the pro basketball team. Before joining up with the Celtics, he was coached by Princeton's Bill Bradley. "Bradley is a polite man. Even after a month of practicing with me, he still called me 'Mr. Plimpton.' "When I practiced set shots sometimes he would say 'Very good, Mr. Plimpton,' but most of the time, 'Too bad, Mr. Plimpton.' " 

If you don't get the "Paper Lion" reference, it refers to one of the books that Plimpton wrote about his own athletic exploits. Actually, make that unathletic exploits, since he wasn't a very good athlete. 

That's not something that prevented him from seeing how an average adult would do against the very best in a sport. He started out by pitching to some of the best players in Major League Baseball back in 1960 for what became a book called "Out Of My League." TB had never heard of it until yesterday, and he ordered in on Amazon. He'll let you know how it is.

Meanwhile, a few years later, Plimpton tried out for the Detroit Lions as a quarterback. The book (and movie starring Alan Alda) was called "Paper Lion."

When he was first at Princeton (and a lot younger), he wanted to emulate "Paper Lion" with the Princeton football team during its 1994 training camp. Back then, the players actually slept in Caldwell Field House, but TB was going to draw the line there. 

His hope was to be a running back for one play, to see what it would be like. He had no illusions of breaking one for 50 yards or anything. He wanted a simple hand-off up the middle, just to see what getting hit would be like. 

Then he'd write about it. How simple, right? 

Well, it started out simply. It was okay with the coaches. It was okay with then-equipment manager Hank Towns, who had to actually teach TB had to put on all the gear. And his uniform number? It was to be 42. What else would he wear other than the number that 10 years later would be retired. 

You know who wasn't okay with it? University Risk Management, even though TB said he would sign a waiver. Nope. No go. 

To this day, TB can still remember how he just couldn't get the practice jersey over the shoulder pads. Who knows how to do that if they've never played football? Turns out you had to put the jersey over the pads before putting either over your head. 

Also to this day, TB wonders what would have happened. He is pretty sure that he would have gotten positive yards. 

Ah, but it's okay, for two reasons. First, the reality is that he likely would have broken something. And second, he made that whole thing up. 

See? The more implausible, the better. 

Now that's irreverence, with a modicum of responsibility. 

Happy Anniversary Sidd Finch

It's April 1 — and you know what that means. 

More lame April Fools' jokes. They're like Super Bowl Commercials. There was a time when they were extraordinarily clever, and that time has passed. 

In fact, April Fools' jokes and Super Bowl commercials both peaked in the 1980s. For the commercials, it was the 1984 introduction of Macintosh computer from Apple. 

And for April Fools' jokes? Well, you had to be there.  

TigerBlog was a senior in West Philadelphia when Sidd Finch burst onto the scene on this day in 1985. Finch was the phenom of all phenoms, and he'd just been signed by the New York Mets. There was a big article in Sports Illustrated and everything.

Finch wore one hiking boot when he pitched and was a big fan of Eastern philosophy. His fastball topped out at 168 mph, and he could pitch every day. Baseball was never going to be the same.

TigerBlog believed every word in the story. Everyone did. Why not? It was in Sports Illustrated, for crying out loud. George Plimpton wrote it.

It was only later – days later – that it became known that it was a hoax. The first letter of every word in the subhead (He's a pitcher, part yogi and part recluse. Impressively liberated from our opulent life-style, Sidd's deciding about yoga) spelled out "Happy April Fools Day."

It remains the greatest April Fools Day prank of all-time – and a great learning lesson for TigerBlog. Lesson No. 1, actually. And what is the lesson?

People believe everything they read. It doesn't matter where they read it. It doesn't matter what it says. If it's written someplace where others can read it, it must be true. 

At least at first. Maybe skepticism takes over at some point, but when you first read whatever words you read, you're very likely to believe them.

TigerBlog did some quick research on the origins of April Fools' Day and saw that it somehow related to "The Canterbury Tales." TB didn't think they were funny at all. 

And maybe the fact that the Sidd Finch piece was so good — like the Apple Macintosh commercial a year earlier — has left TB jaded all these decades since. That's possible. Something certainly has (just kidding). 

For years, TigerBlog has wanted to write a great April Fools story that would be a Princeton version of Sidd Finch. He just hasn't hit upon the perfect idea. It has to be so outrageous, so over-the-top, that it defies all logic and yet fits Rule No. 1 — it was written here, so it must be true. 

The closest he came was a reference to the idea that Princeton was changing its school colors from Orange and Black to silver and teal, and yes, he got a few emails from people who hated the idea. That was pretty good.  

And he has a few other ideas as well. You never know when he might hit you with one of them. Maybe even today. 

In the meantime, there are three Princeton teams who compete today. No, really. There are. This isn't the joke. 

The softball team is at Lehigh at 4 this afternoon for a non-league matchup. How has the Ivy season started for the softball team? 

Well, it's just two weeks in and already the Tigers are 6-0 and three games up on the rest of the field. That's pretty hard to do. Fresh off sweeps of Cornell and Columbia, Princeton will be home the next two weekends against Brown and then Penn, two teams who are in a pack of four at 3-3 right now along with Harvard and Dartmouth. 

Keep in mind that the Ivy League champion will host the league's tournament next month for a spot in the NCAA tournament. 

There are also two home events this evening. 

The women's water polo team is home at 6:30 against Wagner and then at Marist tomorrow at 7 before a week off until the CWPA tournament at Michigan. Princeton is currently 20-5 and ranked 12th, in a tie with Michigan actually, one spot behind Harvard and two spots behind Indiana. 

Also, at 6 tonight, the women's lacrosse team will host Stony Brook. If you're traveling day of game from Stony Brook to Princeton or the other way as often happens, your ride can take somewhere between 2.5 and 11 hours. 

Stony Brook comes into the game tonight ranked 14th nationally. Princeton is 21st. 

The Tigers are looking to rebound after the 16-8 loss to Yale Saturday. Next up for Princeton after this one will be Cornell at home Saturday at noon. 

And with that, go enjoy your Wednesday. If you're playing practical jokes, do TigerBlog a favor. Make them really creative. 

Make Sidd Finch proud.  

Tuesday Night Lacrosse

Did you see that shot off the turnover that went in with less than a second to go in the game Sunday? 

No, not the Duke-UConn one — though upon further review, should UConn coach Danny Hurley have been called for a technical foul for getting in the ref's face and bumping him afterwards? Would you have called one there? 

The shot TB is referencing was a few hours earlier, when Rutgers scored with 0.1 seconds left to tie its men's lacrosse game against Johns Hopkins. The play didn't quite get the national attention of the one in basketball, though the result was basically the same. 

Hopkins had the ball up one but turned it over with 12 seconds left. Rutgers was just able to beat the final horn after an incredible clear. Rutgers won the game, this one in overtime. 

Rutgers (No. 13) is one of the four RPI top 20 teams that Princeton has defeated this season. Ironically, Maryland (No. 21 currently) is not one of them. 

The others are No. 1 North Carolina, No. 3 Syracuse and No. 20 Yale. Princeton is No. 2 in the most updated RPI.

Where else are these Tigers ranked? 

Well, they're No. 2 in RPI, No. 3 in USA Lacrosse Magazine, No. 4 by the coaches and No. 5 in the Kane Inside Lacrosse Media Poll. What would you do if you were making a pregame graphic for the team's game tonight against Lehigh. 

Face-off on Sherrerd Field is at 7 tonight. If you're interested in Division I men's lacrosse this weekend, well, guess what? Between the end of the two games Sunday (UNC defeated Harvard 17-7 in the other one) and the Merrimack-Manhattan game Friday, tonight's game is the only one scheduled. 

This is also Princeton's lone midweek game of the 2026 regular season. Back when TigerBlog started covering the team in the early 1990s, there were three or four of them. 

The Ivy League has seven men's lacrosse teams, which means each team gets one in-season Saturday off from a league game. This is Princeton's week; in addition to the game tonight, Princeton will also play at Vermont Saturday. 

For all of the men's lacrosse games TigerBlog has seen, there aren't too many that can rival the statistical oddities that came out of Saturday's 20-14 win at Brown. Consider these little nuggets:

* Princeton had 11 failed clears
* Princeton had one caused turnover
* Princeton allowed six extra man goals despite committing only four penalties (two were full time)

Despite that, Princeton had the lead for the final 55 minutes of a 60-minute game. The Tigers led by at least four from the end of the first quarter through the end and by at least five for all of the final 37 minutes. 

That is not easy to do. 

Princeton senior midfielder John Dunphey had five goals and three assists in the game. That's one fewer goal than he had in the first seven games combined, and the eight points he had Saturday were also one fewer than he'd had all season prior. 

Dunphey's five goals came on five shots and followed a two-goal, two-shot game the week earlier against Cornell.  His seven straight goals on seven shots match what Chad Palumbo (who also had five goals against Brown) did in the NCAA tournament a year ago. 

It's been quite a season to date for the Tigers, who are hoping to improve on last season's excruciating loss to Syracuse in the NCAA quarterfinals. The Princeton resume, with those big non-league early-season wins, pretty much as the team looking good for the NCAA tournament again; if that does happen it would be the Tigers' fifth straight trip. 

After the two games this week, Princeton finishes the regular season with games at home against Penn, at Harvard and home against Dartmouth. Penn is now No. 18 in RPI, and Harvard is No. 5.  

Meanwhile, again, what was once a very busy night on the college lacrosse schedule has only one game on it tonight — and that is on Sherrerd Field at 7, where Princeton and Lehigh will meet for the, well, who knows how many times they've actually met. 

After all, there is this:

The series history between Princeton and Lehigh is somewhat uncertain. The Princeton record book and the Lehigh record book agree that the first game in the series was a 3-1 Princeton win in 1888. They also agree that there were 10 more games through 1933, though they disagree on the final score of the 1933 game - Lehigh has it 8-4 Princeton; Princeton has it 8-1. It gets a little murkier in 1934 and 1935, when Lehigh has games against Princeton but Princeton has games against Lehigh L.C., not Lehigh, like the first 11 games. Then there's 1940 and 1941, when Lehigh has a pair of games against Princeton that Princeton has no record of having been played.  

Winter Wonderland

Well, just when it looked like the current NCAA men's basketball tournament would get all the way to the Final Four without anything remotely interesting happening, along came UConn-Duke. 

It certainly looked like another dull regional final, like the other three had been, after the eight Sweet 16 games weren't exactly memorable either. Duke led by 19 points in the first half and 15 at the half. You could be forgiven if you turned it off and started scrolling X or went to dinner or watched whatever show you were binging.  

In fact, TigerBlog has a friend who was working and wanted to know if the game was worth watching. TB's first response was "no." His second response was "you may want to watch the last few minutes."

What started out as boring and didn't seem like it was going to be any different most of the way ended up being one of the best endings of an NCAA game you'll ever see. It wasn't quite Duke-Kentucky from 1992, another East Regional final, but it was incredible nonetheless. 

And this time, Duke on the losing end, as UConn miraculously pulled out a 73-72 win when Braylon Mullins hit a shot with 0.3 seconds to go from so far beyond the three-point line that it would have made Caitlin Clark envious. The shot came after Duke had 1) led by 19-points in the first-half, 2) led by 15 at the half, 3) had the ball and the lead in the final seconds and 4) turned it over just across midcourt with maybe three seconds to go. 

If you watched it, you probably had some sort of expletive come out of your mouth as Mullins' shot splashed through. 

And now the Final Four is set: Michigan vs. Arizona and UConn vs. Illinois. It'll probably be more of the same that has dominated this tournament, but hey, the Duke-UConn game will be talked about forever.  

The two basketball tournaments and the men's ice hockey tournament will be crowning champions in the next two weeks, and that will be it for the winter college seasons. 

For Princeton, the winter ended on the sports calendar just a few days after it did on the actual calendar, which is always a good sign. The final Tigers to compete were on the men's swimming and diving team, who finished the season this weekend at Georgia Tech. 

Princeton, in fact, finished 22nd as a team there, the program's best finish in 14 years. The team was led by senior Mitchell Schott, who earned first-team All-American honors by finishing seventh in the 200 butterfly and eighth in the 200 freestyle. 

Sophomore Patrick Dinu finished 11th in the 100 free, becoming a second-team All-American. Schott and Dinu teamed with Logan Noguchi and Jake Tararo to finish 16th nationally in the 400 free relay, giving those four honorable mention All-American honors. 

It's always good to have All-Americans. 

And championships. 

Princeton Athletics had plenty of both in the winter season that just ended. 

Princeton won the Ivy League championship in men's swimming and diving. And women's swimming and diving. And men's indoor track and field. And women's indoor track and field. And women's basketball. And women's squash. 

That's six Ivy titles for the winter — which runs the 2025-26 total to 11 after a five-title fall: men's cross country, women's cross country, men's soccer, women's soccer and women's volleyball. 

And that doesn't count the women's hockey team, which was the ECAC regular season champion for the first time ever. Or the men's water polo team from the fall. Or the field hockey team's Ivy tournament championship on the way to the national championship game. 

How many All-Americans have there been? TB lost track awhile ago, but the answer is: "a lot."

Even more than that, think about how many athletes play on the seven teams that won championships. For as long as TB has been at Princeton, he's heard about the goal of providing a "championship experience" to those who compete here. 

Of course, that is never a guarantee. And there are great moments that don't end with championships. TigerBlog referenced this last week, with the men's hockey team's loss in overtime to Dartmouth in the ECAC final and Marc-Anthony McGowan's loss in the NCAA 125-pound wrestling final. 

You want to know something else that's great about this past winter for Princeton Athletics? It's not necessary the best winter Princeton has ever had. 

How many places could win that many championships and have that many All-Americans and still make that statement? 

For TB, winter is his least favorite season, at least weather-wise. This one was still a lot of fun, even with all the snow.  

Time And Other Materials

If you want to see two of the greatest athletes in Princeton history this afternoon, can TigerBlog recommend heading to the campus art museum? 

Amie Knox was an 11-letter winner between field hockey, squash and tennis who graduated in 1977. Martha Russo was a field hockey/lacrosse player who graduated in 1985.

Was she just any field hockey/lacrosse player? Uh, no. Russo is widely considered to be as fine an athlete as there was in the first 20 or so years of women's athletics at Princeton. She was a speed demon — at least until she suffered two devastating knee injuries. 

Instead of competing in the 1984 Olympics with the U.S. field hockey team, Russo's athletic career was over. 

The two athletic legends will be at the Art Museum today at 2 for a screening of the documentary "Time And Other Materials." Russo turned to art after her injuries and today is a highly regarded sculptor. Knox went into a career in television and film production. 

The documentary, according to the website: 
"is a captivating look at what it means to live a life devoted to creativity. Through a series of intimate studio sessions, the documentary film explores the inner worlds and artistic processes of five women artists working in animation, ceramics, installation, large-scale sculpture, and more. Following the screening, Martha Russo ’85, a former student of the artist Toshiko Takaezu and one of the artists featured in the film, will join director Amie Knox ’77 in a discussion moderated by Lecturer in Visual Arts Dani Levine."

For more information, click HERE. 

You can read more about the two in TigerBlog's book on the first 50 years of women's athletics at Princeton, which you can get HERE. 

*

The women's lacrosse team is home tomorrow, which itself is news. The Tigers have played seven games to date, only one of which has been on Sherrerd Field. 

The opponent tomorrow will be Yale, who is ranked No. 9 in the current Kane Inside Lacrosse media poll, the same poll that has Princeton at No. 19. If you go by RPI, the teams are much closer, with Princeton at No. 14 and Yale at No. 15.

Princeton averages 14.29 goals per game, which is about three times as many as Yale, who leads Division I in scoring defense at 5.39, allows. Yale is 2-0 in the league with wins over Columbia and Brown, while Princeton is 1-0, with a win over Harvard. Penn is the only other unbeaten in the league at Dartmouth. 

The opening draw tomorrow is at noon. 

* 

You can see a lot of Princeton-Brown tomorrow in Providence if you happen to be there. 

The men's lacrosse team will be there tomorrow at noon to take on the Bears. About 100 yards away, the Princeton baseball team will be playing a doubleheader, with first pitch tomorrow at 11:30. There will also be a third game (baseball, not lacrosse) Sunday at noon.

The men's lacrosse team will look to rebound from its 13-11 loss to Cornell a week ago, which ended a five-game winning streak and evened the Tigers' Ivy record at 1-1. Princeton has won 11 straight Ivy games against teams other than Cornell but is 0-3 against the Big Red in that same stretch. 

The last Princeton loss to an Ivy team other than Cornell? That would have been the last trip to Brown, where the Bears won 13-12 after jumping out to a 6-0 lead back in 2024.

The baseball team won its first two league games last weekend against Cornell before falling in Game 3. Penn is the only team that swept its opening baseball weekend and so is the lone 3-0 team, while Princeton, Brown and Columbia all went 2-1. 

The top four teams in the league in both sports will reach the Ivy League tournament in May. 

*

Did you see the Grant Hill-Rick Pitino piece on the 1992 Duke-Kentucky game, which is widely considered to be the greatest college basketball game ever? 

TigerBlog covered that game back in his newspaper days and was seated directly behind the Kentucky bench, about five feet away from Pitino. During the final timeout, TB's only memory of the then-Kentucky coach is that he held his hands up and said "no fouls; don't foul" over and over. 

So what did Pitino say when Hill asked him about it? Exactly what TB remembered that he said. 

Vindication is always fun.  

*

As more than one person pointed out to TB yesterday, Carla Berube did promise to do a karaoke duet with him. Now that she's heading to Northwestern, TB resolves to hold her to that some day. 

Meanwhile, again, HERE is the complete weekend schedule. 

And if you can, get over to the art museum today.  

Goodbye Carla

TigerBlog is pretty sure he had the same reaction to the news that Carla Berube is leaving Princeton to become the head women's basketball coach at Northwestern: "Nope. No. No. Won't allow it. La La La La La."

If you are looking for approval ratings, Berube will be leaving with a 100 percent positive one. TigerBlog has never heard anyone who has worked with her ever have a bad word to say about her. 

TB is in that group, certainly. He got to know her during the years when he and Berube did the "Conversations With Carla" podcast, and even though they haven't had as many conversations the last few years, TB can't say enough good things about her. 

There is absolutely nothing phony about her. She is as driven and competitive as any coach Princeton has had during TB's time here, and yet she has never lost the genuine, warm and upbeat qualities that define her personality.

The news was released yesterday afternoon, in conjunction with the announcement from Northwestern. This isn't the first time TigerBlog will have to root for Northwestern Basketball, since it's not the first time the Wildcats have come to Jadwin Gym to find a new head coach.

It was 26 years ago that Bill Carmody was hired away from Princeton to take over the program in Evanston. There are other connections between Princeton Basketball and Northwestern; men's head coach Mitch Henderson was an assistant for 10 years under Carmody, and Ford Family Director of Athletics John Mack was an administrator there as well. 

TB would include Mike Mahoney in that group, though Mahoney has never actually worked at Princeton. Mahoney, who oversees athletic communications at Penn, was the men's basketball contact at Northwestern when Carmody was there.  

And now Carla Berube heads there. 

There really wasn't much more she could do at Princeton. In her six seasons as Tiger head coach, she put together a 147-28 record. That's a mere .840 winning percentage. 

Her record in Ivy games was even more impressive, as in 77-7. That's .917. 

She won five Ivy League championships and four Ivy League tournaments. She took her team to the NCAA tournament every year, including this past one, when her team went 26-4. She has two NCAA tournament wins on her Princeton resume as well.  

Of course winning has followed her wherever she's gone. None of this is new to any Princeton fans, but she was a 1,000-point scorer and NCAA champ as a player at UConn. She coached Tufts for 17 years and went 384-96 overall. Add in her record at Princeton and you have 531-124. 

Insane. 

As TB wrote not that long ago:

Carla Berube is in her 23rd season as a college basketball head coach. Counting this season, she will have lost five games or fewer in 13 of those seasons. Actually, it becomes more incredible when you consider that only two of her first 10 teams at Tufts lost five or fewer, which means means that 11 of her last 13 teams have lost five games or fewer — including four of six at Princeton. Hey, if you want to throw in the four years she played at UConn, where none of those teams lost more than four games in a season, and in her 27 seasons as a player and head coach, she's up to 17 that have lost five or fewer. 

The program she takes over is coming off an 8-21 season, including 2-14 in the Big Ten. The last time the Wildcats had a winning season was 2021-22, when they went 17-12. Each of the last three seasons has seen the team win just two B1G games. 

There are certainly other questions that this move brings out. Can she win there? What does this mean for UConn when that job eventually opens? Who will replace her at Princeton?

None of those really matter right now. 

For today, there is only the appreciation for Carla Berube, the coach and the human being, and all she did during her time here. 

Princeton University is much better off for having her as one of its own — even if that time is now over. 

Even as TB wishes her the best, he, again, speaks for Princeton fans everywhere when he says that he will miss her.  

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.