The Sagacity Of It All

Ah, the sagacity of it all. 

TigerBlog stumbled upon the word yesterday and had no idea what it meant. Vocabulary isn't always his strong suit. Or maybe that's spelling. Or fixing stuff around the house. 

When he went to look it up, this is what he found: 

"Sagacity: the quality of being sagacious."  

Okay, how does that help anyone? Now you have to know what "sagacious" means before you can figure out what "sagacity" means. Pretty much anyone looking up "sagacity" now has to go look up "sagacious" as well? What, the good people at Merriam-Webster are in it for the clicks? 

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Among the stories that have been cycling through goprincetontigers.com the last few weeks are the ones introducing the incoming classes for various teams. 

TigerBlog always checks these stories to see if there are any newcomers who went to his high school (Manalapan, in Monmouth County) or the high schools of his kids. It's rare that he finds anyone who has. 

Even Kayla Wong, the rising senior on the women's soccer team, attended Freehold Township High School, though her hometown is listed as Manalapan. Here's a fun fact: Manalapan and Freehold Township were built in the same year from the same exact floor plan, which means that if you walk into either school, the layout is identical. It's a bit freaky if you attend one and then go the other. At least it was in the 1970s. 

The other thing TB checks for when looking at the incoming stories would be relatives of current or former Princeton athletes. To that end, he couldn't help but notice an incoming women's track and field athlete named Lux Burgin, from Bronxville, N.Y.

Hmmm. She has to be the sister of Princeton rising senior men's lacrosse player Wilder Burgin, right? When TB texted Wilder, he confirmed it: 

"That is indeed my sister coming in…she couldn’t be more excited!"

Welcome to Princeton, Lux. And at some point, TB will do a deeper dive into Wilder Burgin and how he ended up with the role with the NCAA champions that he has — hint, see the picture:

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While the subject is NCAA champions and trophies, a very belated congratulations to TB's former colleague Joanna Dwyer, who left Princeton to become the water polo and swimming contact at USC. Here she is with the NCAA water polo championship trophy the USC women won this past spring:

It goes without saying that the people who work in athletic communications work hard and do almost everything they do behind the scenes. It's great to see pictures like this, with the big smile and the obvious joy that goes along with them. It's not something a high percentage of TB's colleagues throughout the country will get to experience, and it's never something that should be taken for granted. 

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Congratulations go out to Nika Kukharchuk, who is leaving her role as an assistant coach with the Princeton women's tennis team to become the head men's coach at Fordham. You can read more about that HERE.

There all kinds of examples of men who are the head coach of Division I women's teams. Are there many examples of women who are the head coach of Division I men's teams? TigerBlog doesn't think there are. 

He does know of one at Princeton. Susanah Occhi was the men's volleyball head coach in the 1970s, as well as the first head coach of the women's volleyball team. In fact, she and Penny Hinckley (who coached field hockey, basketball and women's lacrosse) were the first two paid women coaches in Princeton history.

TigerBlog has always thought there have been quite a few women coaches at Princeton who would have been great coaches for corresponding men's teams. 

Anyway, as TB texted Nika: "Go Rams!!" 

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Finally, if you were wondering what "sagacious" means, here you go: 

Having or showing an ability to understand difficult ideas and situations and to make good decisions : marked by keen and farsighted understanding and judgment : discerning, wise

This could be TigerBlog's new favorite word. He's always told his kids to "make good decisions." If you read his novel (okay, you can buy it HERE), the dedication says just that. 

Now he can shorten that to "be sagacious." Saves one word. 

Enjoy your summer weekend everyone. 

Fresh Oil And Chips

Pretty much every road near TigerBlog's house needed repaving after the winter and its accompanying potholes. 

Okay, so now it's July and it's all being done, which is fine. Better late than never at all. 

The potholes were pretty big. If you drove straight through most of them, for instance, you'd definitely need the services of Ron, the official mechanic of TigerBlog. Ron, by the way, fixed the destroyed sideview mirror on TB's car, if you were wondering from last week. 

You can see for yourself with the before and after: 

Well done, Ron. TB is pretty sure Ron, armed with a book and YouTube video, could perform open-heart surgery. 

Anyway, the roads have all been repaved, though not yet relined, which creates its own issues. You'd never guess that removing every marker on a road would cause so many problems, like the one where a car coming toward TB veered perilously close to requiring yet another new sideview mirror. 

Oh, And a bunch of these "Fresh Chips and Oil" signs have sprung up all around. 

Fresh Chips and Oil? It sounds like something on the menu at an English pub. 

"I'll have the Yorkshire Pudding."
"Okay, love. Would you like fresh oil and chips with that?"  
"A pint would go great with that, wouldn't it?"

Anyway, another Thursday has rolled around, and suddenly the start of the 2026-27 athletic year at Princeton is now just four weeks away. Once again, it begins with women's soccer, who will be home against Loyola on Aug. 20. 

That'll actually be the third game of the season for the Greyhounds. Loyola's opener? That would be Aug. 12 — 20 days from now — at home against William & Mary and former Tiger head coach Julie Shackford. Game 2 will be the 16th, also at home, against Arkansas. 

Loyola, by the way, had the rather different record a year ago of 5-5-8. Its Patriot League record was 2-2-5, meaning the team had more ties than wins and losses combined in its conference games. 

Princeton women's soccer, by the way, has never had a season where it had more ties than wins or losses. 

The Tigers will dive right into their schedule, with four games in 11 days to start: Loyola, followed by a game at Syracuse and home games against West Virginia and James Madison. Princeton plays 16 regular season games, half of which are in the summer in this "fall" sport. It's sort of the opposite of lacrosse season, where the team plays half its games in the winter of this "spring sport."

In other Princeton women's soccer news, Pietra Tordin, a Princeton alum, is having a big season in the National Women's Soccer League. A two-time first-team All-Ivy League selection and the 2024 Ivy Offensive Player of the Year, she was also the leading scorer for the U.S. at the 2024 U-23 World Cup as the Americans won the bronze medal. 

Tordin is in Year 2 with the Portland, and she has made a nice jump from a year ago. Here is the year-by-year comparison:

2025 — 26 games, four goals, 31 shots, no assists
2026 — 16 games to date, four goals, 20 shots, six assists

Those six assists, by the way, are tied for the league lead. 

As for the Thorns, they are currently in fourth place in the 16-team league. Next up is a home game tomorrow night against second place Gotham. 

The regular season runs through Nov. 1. A week later, the Princeton women's soccer regular season will end with a home game against Brown. 

Both of those will be here soon enough. 

What Did You Say?

As you may know, TigerBlog is a big fan of puzzles. 

His daily routine includes all of the following: Wordle, Connections, Sports Connections, Strands, Letter Boxed, Spelling Bee and all three New York Times crosswords (mini, midi and daily). In fact, he heard from Mark Bernstein of the Princeton Alumni Weekly about a story he's doing on people who do puzzles every day. 

The daily crossword yesterday included this clue: "Said ______ Ever." Five letters. 

"Said No One Ever." 

Inspired by that, TigerBlog decided to go back in the archives to see what some people actually did say after some big Princeton moments through the years. Here are a few he stumbled upon (and by the way, this took him way longer than simply writing 700 or so words would have): 

"Right now Kaz gets a great deal more publicity than Milton Berle." — Bob Lovell's commentary about Dick Kazmaier after his huge 1951 game against Cornell, shortly before Kazmaier won the Heisman Trophy.

"You can't dwell on the past. In two or three years, we're going to be a winning team. I know the tradition has been great here, even though the last few years have been bad," he said. "I hope to bring us back to that level." — Bill Tierney after being hired as Princeton head men's lacrosse coach in 1987. How'd that work out? He was right. In three years he had a winning record. Oh, and then he won six of Princeton's seven NCAA championships. 

"Two Princeton coeds, Marjorie Gengler and Helena Novakova, made a stunning debut in the Eastern College Women's Tennis Tournament this weekend by capturing first and third places from a field of 99 of the East's finest women tennis players." — Daily Princetonian blurb of Oct. 20, 1970, after Princeton's first varsity intercollegiate athletic event for women three days prior. 

"I think my teammates just have all the confidence in the world in me and I knew that if I missed that shot, they were getting good offensive rebounds. So it’s really hard not to shoot with confidence when you have teammates like mine.” — Grace Stone after she drained the game-winning three-pointer to beat North Carolina State 64-63 in the 2023 NCAA tournament opening round. Stone is now back at Princeton as Director of Women's Basketball Operations. 

"While countless Americans spent the Friday after Thanksgiving doling out exorbitant sums of paper, metal and plastic money in preparation for the holiday season, the women’s soccer team used a less tangible sort of currency namely, cohesiveness on both sides of the ball to buy themselves a trip to the Final Four." — Karl Micka Foos in the Daily Princetonian after Princeton's 3-1 win over Washington in the 2004 NCAA quarterfinals. 

"I was there for three years. I started at $500 and more than tripled my salary by the end. I made $1,700 my last year." — Cindy Cohen about her first college softball coaching job. She'd go on to put together a record of 560-277-3 at Princeton, with 12 Ivy League championships and back-to-back Women's College World Series appearances.

"When I heard that final buzzer, I threw off my helmet and my arm pads, and I just started sprinting toward my team. It was like a dream; it was the most incredible feeling I’ve ever felt. It was awesome.” — Goalie Christina Maida after Princeton's 3-2 win over North Carolina in the 2012 NCAA field hockey championship game. 

"When I was 15 I was hanging out in Exeter, New Hampshire, with the townies, smoking cigarettes." — Anne Marden, Princeton's only four-time Olympian, who won two medals in rowing.

"Picture Shaquille O'Neal (or Chris Young on his tip-toes). Now add four inches. That's how high Princeton senior Tora Harris soared Friday night to win his first NCAA indoor championship. Competing in Fayetteville, Ark., seven-time Heptagonal champion Harris entered the meet with a No. 1 seed, along with Adam Shunk of the University of North Carolina, both having cleared 2.25 meters (seven feet, 4.5 inches). In championship action, Harris improved his Princeton record to 2.26 m (7-5"), while Shunk faltered slightly in clearing 2.23 m to place second." — Daily Princetonian story of March 11, 2002. Two bonus facts: 1) the story was written by Emily Kroshus, herself an All-American track and field athlete at Princeton, and 2) Harris' 7-7 to win the outdoor NCAA title that spring is still the Ivy League record. 

 

Welcome To Princeton

Whether or not the World Cup final was a thing of beauty (it wasn't) to a more neutral observer, to your average Spaniard it couldn't have been prettier. 

TigerBlog doesn't know too many average Spaniards. He does know one who is hardly average — Princeton women's tennis No. 1 singles player Alice Ferlito. 

A rising senior, Ferlito was the top-ranked singles player in the ITF Northeast Regional rankings and a first-team All-Ivy League selection this past season. Ferlito, who played No. 3 doubles as well, helped Princeton to the Ivy League championship. 

Her hometown is Barcelona, and TB reached out to her to see if she was there for the game. This was the response: 

Yes I was in Barcelona jajaja. It was insane!!! The atmosphere was electric jajaja everyone was on the streets celebrating all night and it was so beatiful❤️❤️🇪🇸🇪🇸. It was so well deserved so it was such a special moment😆😆😆😆. I loved it and had so much fun celebrating it was one of the best days!!!! 

Here are some pictures she sent from the celebration, along with one from her Instagram:

Hey, Spain has now won the World Cup twice. There are no guarantees that it'll ever happen again, so you have to celebrate, right? 

TigerBlog was at Brown on a Sunday afternoon back in April when it poured heavily as Princeton won the women's tennis Ivy championship. He had been at Harvard the day before for men's lacrosse and the field hockey banquet in Princeton the day before that. 

If you remember, TB wrote about being at the hotel the night before the Harvard game with six other college teams in addition to Tiger men's lacrosse. One of those other teams was Duke baseball, in town to play Boston College. 

TB had no idea who was good in ACC baseball, so he looked it up. What did he find? It turned out that BC was ranked in the Top 25. 

BC would sweep three games from the Blue Devils that weekend, allowing only nine runs in the three games combined, on its way to the NCAA tournament. The 17 ACC wins were the most BC has ever had. 

TigerBlog thought back to BC baseball when he saw the news that Ryan Forrest has been hired as the new head coach at Princeton. Baseball at Princeton goes back, way back, in fact, all the way to the beginning of intercollegiate sports here. The first baseball game was also the first Princeton game, on Nov. 22, 1864, when the Tigers defeated Williams College 27-16. 

For decades, one of the best Princeton traditions was the baseball game against Yale on Commencement Day, something that began in the 19th century and lasted all the way through 1966. 

Forrest comes to Princeton after being the Eagles' pitching coach the last three seasons. Before that, he was the pitching coach at Air Force, where among the players he coached was Paul Skenes, the same Paul Skenes who transferred to LSU and is now one of the best pitchers in Major League Baseball.  

Forrest's own playing career saw him pitch at Maine and Creighton. He has a master's degree in sport management from West Virginia, and he got his bachelor's degree from Maine. His major? Journalism. Not bad. 

Here is part of one of Forrest's quotes from the release about his hiring, which you can read HERE.

I am grateful for the opportunity to lead the baseball program in one of the most respected and prestigious departments in college athletics and to become part of such an extraordinary institution. Princeton is truly a special place, one that is committed to excellence in everything it does. That pursuit of excellence extends beyond the classroom and playing field, shaping leaders of character who are prepared to make an impact long after graduation. It is a privilege to join a community with such a rich tradition and a bold vision for the future.  

That says it all. 

Welcome to Princeton, Ryan Forrest. Hopefully your experience will be a great one as well.  

Everybody Breathe

Well, it's clear that somebody high up in FIFA controls the weather. 

How else to explain what happened for the World Cup final yesterday? After three days of barely being able to go outside and breathe in New Jersey, let alone play a sport, and then one day of ridiculous rain and thunderstorms all day, suddenly the heavens cleared, the sun shone brightly and the World Cup final was played at MetLife Stadium in as perfect as weather conditions get in New Jersey in July. 

So yeah, there has to be some connection between FIFA and the weather. Or maybe Fox Sports. Yeah, that's more likely. 

As much as TigerBlog hates to admit this, yesterday's World Cup final was essentially everything that American non-soccer fans don't like about the sport. Flopping. Scoreless tie into the second extra time, despite one team (Spain) that outshot the other (Argentina) 20-0 at one point. Microscopic offsides calls. Cards handed out that didn't necessarily seem to fit the moment. More flopping. 

Even ardent soccer fans might have to admit that the game, won by Spain 1-0, was a bit dull for the most part. There was so much on the line, and yet it never really seemed that the tension of the moment built. This had the same feel as a really boring Super Bowl. 

Meanwhile, what is there to make of the third-place game from Saturday, which was about the most entertaining soccer game ever played. Or the most meaningless. Or maybe both at the same time? 

The final was England 6, France 4. The 10 goals were the most scored in a World Cup game since 1982. 

The game had the vibe of either a pick-up game or an all-star game. Defense was optional. The goalies were left hanging out to dry time and time again. 

England went up 1-0 in the first two minutes and led 4-0 at halftime. France cut it to 4-3 and had several chances to tie it that left TigerBlog wondering how they could have missed. There was one spectacular goal after another. 

And yet it didn't really matter who won. When it ended, the players on the field, most of whom play with or against each other during their league seasons, acted like they'd just been to an awards ceremony or a party. Everyone smiled. 

It was great. Only it didn't really matter, which meant it really couldn't be great. Maybe it was more entertaining than great? With way, it was completely fascinating — Alexi Lalas pretty much said all of this on the Fox postgame show. 

So which game was better? The one that meant everything or the one that meant nothing? That's up to you to decide.

TB reached out to two people in England to see what they thought of the third-place game and if it mattered to them much. The first response, from saintly Aunt Mo, who had this to say: 

Everyone who watched it was thrilled but we are all asking why the manager changed tactics half way through the semi final.  The team players did not deserve that! 

Then there was field hockey rising sophomore Caitlin Thompson, one of the many Englanders who had been crushed by her country's 2-1 loss to Argentina in the semifinal. Here was her response to the question of did the people there care about the third-place game:

They didn’t before it started being that exciting 🤣 

The World Cup may be over, but there is still soccer to be played. Kevin O'Toole, the 2022 Roper Trophy winner as Princeton's top male senior athlete, signed a contract extension with New York City FC of Major League Soccer. His contract now runs through 2029, with an option for 2030. 

You can read more about Kevin HERE. Also, as a side note, Kevin's mother Nancy is the only parent of a Princeton athlete to attend high school with TigerBlog. 

Meanwhile, there's also this little tidbit of information. Today is July 20. The first Princeton Athletic event of the 2026-27 year is exactly one month from today. 

One month? That's correct. It'll be a women's soccer game, one month from today, between Princeton and Loyola. That's just 31 days away.

No more Wimbledon. No more World Cup. Princeton sports one month away.

And that's your Monday.  

  

Play Of The Day

TigerBlog went to SportsCenter yesterday to see if a former Princeton women's basketball player made the Top 10 Plays of the Day.

Turns out, nobody made it. They didn't have a Top 10 yesterday. Well not the regular kind at least. 

Instead, in honor of the All-Star break, ESPN went with the Top 10 plays in Major League Baseball to date this season. It was a series of home runs that were robbed, with a mixture of infield grounders that resulted in further robberies. 

The No. 1 spot went all the back to April 5, when Los Angeles Angels outfielder Jo Adell stole three separate home runs in one game against Seattle. The Angels lost 1-0, though it would have been worse had it not been for Adell's three gems. The last was the best, as he went completely over the fence and held on to the ball — and then celebrated with the fans in rightfield.

See for yourself:

There were many who posted that this was the greatest defensive game in baseball history. Most of those people never saw Ozzie Smith play shortstop or Brooks Robinson play third or Dwight Evans play rightfield and all, but yes, it was  really, really impressive. 

Still, where were the top plays for Wednesday? A few of them were in Atlanta, where Argentina defeated England 2-1 in the World Cup semifinals. 

What did the English coach have to say about playing in the third-place game tomorrow?

"None of our players and none of the French players want to play this match," Tuchel told reporters following the defeat. "They want to play the final. We gave everything to achieve that. Everyone plays to win the World Cup, but that’s how it is. We have one less day of recovery than France, but we will do it with professionalism." 

TB was right, it appears. 

Had ESPN wanted to do a Top 10 for yesterday, there were at least nine plays from that game in Atlanta that would have fit the bill, especially the two assists from Lionel Messi and a few of the saves from England goalie Jordan Pickford. 

The 10th? That was in Indiana. 

It came from Princeton alum Kaitlyn Chen, who had a wild game for the Golden State Valkyries in an 88-75 win over the Fever. To TB, Chen will always be a Princeton alum, even if she won an NCAA championship as a graduate student at UConn two seasons ago. 

Did anyone go into the game thinking that Chen would outscore Caitlin Clark? She did, 14-13. 

What's even more amazing is that Chen's 14 points came in just 10 minutes on the court. That's, hmmm, somewhere around 1.4 points per minute. 

There were three WNBA games Wednesday night. Chen was the only player in any of those games who scored more points than she minutes she played. 

Chen played the last two minutes of the second quarter without scoring. She was on the bench when the second half started. Then she came back into the game and went off. 

She'd score 12 of her points in the third quarter, with a layup early in the fourth to bring her to 14. It was her drive to the hoop as time ran down in the third, though, that would have easily been a Top 10 selection.

KC closing off the 3rd quarter on a 12 point tear 🔥 pic.twitter.com/deryJ55DHH

— Golden State Valkyries (@valkyries) July 16, 2026

As TB watched, he thought she was going to run out of time. Then he thought "at least she drew the foul." Then the shot went in.

Through it all, she was typical Kaitlyn Chen, a big smile the entire time. It was just another big moment in her young WNBA career, of which this is a breakout second year for both her and her team. Golden State was an expansion team a year ago, when it went 23-21 and earned a playoff spot as the No. 8 seed.

This season, Golden State is now 18-7, a game back of Minnesota for the best record in the league. The win Wednesday night was the team's eighth straight, and Golden State became the second team in WNBA history to have an unbeaten road trip of at least five games. 

The fifth of those wins was the one in Indiana. It came about largely because of Chen, who was 5 for 5 from the field and 4 for 5 from the line, along with three assists and a steal in just those 10 minutes. She continues to be a microwave off the Valkyrie bench, doing whatever is necessary to help the team win. 

And Wednesday night, that would have included a Play of the Day, had there been one.  

The Other Pitch

TigerBlog was in the deli the other day when he noticed the stuffed tiger in the Claw machine. 

You know. It's the machine where Woody and Buzz got stuck before Sid won both of them in "Toy Story." It's one of the best scenes:

"Who's in charge here?" "The clawwwwwwww. The claw decides who will stay and who will go." 

TB wrote that paragraph back in October, after witnessing the field hockey team's interaction with a Claw machine on a rest stop on I-95. Izzy Morgan was able to win a stuffed animal out of the machine, with guidance from Pru Lindsey. 

Ah, but those two were nowhere to be found in the deli this week. TB knew he had no chance at doing this, but he did see a mother with two 10 or so year olds who were about to try their luck. He offered them $20 if they could get the Tiger. Try as they might, they couldn't — but they did get one of those green things and seemed pretty happy about that. 

Oh well. The tiger must still be there. 

The Princeton field hockey team reached the NCAA championship game a year ago before falling to Northwestern 2-1 in two overtimes. You know all about Beth Yeager, who graduated this past spring after putting together a resume that included being a four-time first-team All-American, a U.S. Olympian and a von Kienbusch Award winner. 

Because of her graduation and the huge hole it leaves, it's easy to forget that Yeager was the only senior who started in the NCAA final for Princeton. In fact, Princeton started four freshmen and four sophomores against Northwestern last November. 

The TFH (Tiger Field Hockey, as the group likes to go by) begins its season in seven weeks (and one day), when the Tigers will be in Chapel Hill for the Conference Crossover. It'll begin against Old Dominion on Friday, Sept. 4, and then conclude with a game against North Carolina two days later, while Penn plays the opposite schedule. 

Princeton will play six of its first seven games on the road, a run that ends Sept. 26 at Harvard for the annual showdown between the teams that have dominated Ivy field hockey of late. A year ago the teams met three times, with Harvard the winner in the regular season and then Princeton the winner in the Ivy tournament final and NCAA semifinal. 

There will be plenty of time to talk about TFH once the season rolls around. For today, TB sends out his best wishes to the eight players on the team who are from a sad place right now — England. 

If you watched the World Cup semifinal yesterday, then you know to what TigerBlog refers. England, looking for its first final berth since the 1966 championship team and second final berth ever, was up 1-0 with fewer than 10 minutes plus stoppage time to go. Argentina, though, was swarming. Could the English hold up? 

As it turned out, the answer was no. From the time England scored early in the second half until just past the 80-minute mark, TB was planning ahead. He'd get quotes from all eight of the English players, pictures of them with friends and family as they celebrated. 

And then? Argentina tied it. And then? Argentina won it. The game never even made it to extra time. 

TB did text with Caitlin Thompson, a rising sophomore. Caitlin doesn't know this, ut she was going to be one TB would have asked to coordinate all of the texts and photos. She did say there was a lot of chatter on a group text. 

When England went up 1-0, TB texted her that he was confident. Caitlin responded with an emoji that suggested nervousness. After it ended, she sent this:

😔

It'll be Argentina and Spain Sunday in the final from the Meadowlands. France and England will play Saturday in Miami in the third-place game. TigerBlog stays with his original thought from last week that the game offers little consolation to the teams who will be competing. 

Or to their fans.  

Leveling Up

TigerBlog had his six-month dental checkup yesterday. 

Remember what Rodney Dangerfield said about going to his dentist? 

"I said to the dentist 'my teeth are turning yellow; what should I do?' He said 'wear a brown necktie.'" 

Going to the dentist doesn't stress TB out or anything. He likes his dentist. He went to her house for Thanksgiving once. 

Remember that story? He asked her for floss after they ate. 

The dental hygienist, on the other hand, was brand-new. She seemed like she knew what she was doing, though she has a job TigerBlog would not want. Ick. 

Every hygienist always says the same thing: "Floss more." It's almost like you have personally let them down, so much so that TB felt the need to apologize. 

When it was time to go, Lindsey, the affable office manager, asked TB if he wanted to schedule his next six-month checkup, to which TB said he would. Then she asked him which was better, Jan. 19 at 9 am or Jan. 20 at 10 am. He went with Jan. 19, so now he has his first thing on his schedule for 2027. Lindsey is very efficient, though the idea of scheduling something into next year made TB wonder how many patients do so and how many call back in another four months or so.

The trip to the dentist was one of yesterday's peaks. There was also the matter of the first World Cup semifinal, in which Spain defeated France 2-0. It was never really in doubt for the Spaniards, even if TB thought France would ride Kylian Mbappe all the way to the Cup. 

Today is semifinal No. 2, between England and Argentina. If England can win, then the final would match two countries making their second appearances in the finals. 

Oh, and here's a little reminder for American writers and broadcasters: the name of a country is singular, not plural, so it's "Spain advances to the final," not "Spain advance to the final." 

Princeton is an "it." Tigers are a "they." 

While today's subject is soccer, TigerBlog stumbled on the story on the main Princeton website about men's soccer alum Gabriel Duchovny. You can read it HERE. 

Duchovny graduated this past spring after being a big part of Princeton's run to an Ivy League championship, Ivy tournament and the No. 3 seed in the NCAA tournament a year ago. He also scored Top Drawer Soccer's 2024 Goal of the Year for the game-winner in the 2024 win at Columbia. 

IT HAD TO BE THE MAN FROM NEW YORK! 🗽

Gabe Duchovny with a ROCKET from way out and the Tigers lead 2-1!! 🚀#PrincetonSoccer #WhosNext pic.twitter.com/VG4tzQahWW

— Princeton Men’s Soccer (@PrincetonMSoc) October 19, 2024

The story was actually from last month, though TB didn't see it until yesterday. The feature is part of a Senior Thesis Spotlight series, and it's really interesting stuff. 

Also, as the story says, his thesis was entitled “Ancient Roman Banditry: A Modern Criminological Analysis,” which applies modern criminological theory to ancient Roman accounts of organized crime and earned Duchovny the John J. Keaney Prize, the classics department’s prize for the best senior thesis. 

This is how it starts: 

As a classics major at Princeton, he spent four years learning to read ancient texts slowly and carefully. As an investigator in the Brooklyn public defense office, he scoured the borough for surveillance footage after alleged crimes occurred and interviewed witnesses. And as a midfielder on the Princeton men’s soccer team, he won recognition for his tactical precision and ability to connect play down the field. For Duchovny, all three pursuits share something fundamental: the practice of connecting scattered details into a meaningful picture.

Duchovny came to Princeton from Brooklyn, where he first started playing soccer before he ever started school. At Princeton he was a Classics major, something he was pointed to from his first Latin class in eighth grade. There was this from the story: 

“I liked how reading a Latin sentence felt like putting together a puzzle,” he said. “You look at all the cases and tenses and you piece it together to extract a meaning.” 

There's a lot of depth to Duchovny, and it all comes out in the piece. It's also a great look into once again what continues to make Princeton so special. You have a champion athlete. You have a classical scholar. You have a well-rounded citizen. 

TB leaves you with this, also from the story: 

He describes his four years at the University as a continual process of “leveling up,” academically, athletically and intellectually. 

More Meeks

 

Okay, TigerBlog has a new pet peeve to add to last weeks' list: 

People who sideswipe his car and take out his sideview mirror. What the heck? 

To the person who did this, what did TB's sideview mirror ever do to you? TB is pretty sure the local police have set up roadblocks or something and that justice will be served. Either that, or the blue tape that is now holding the mirror in place will have to do for now. 

At least TB already had a standing appointment to take his car in tomorrow to see Ron, the official mechanic of TigerBlog. It's July, which means the car needs to be inspected, as opposed to February, when TB thought it was supposed to be inspected and took it to Ron back then. 

What did Ron say about the mirror? "Don't worry about it. I'll fix it." And he will. 

Today is the first of the two World Cup semifinals, as France meets Spain. Today is also Bastille Day, It's a national French holiday, celebrating the storming of the Bastille during the revolution in 1789. Can France lose on its national day? 

TB wrote yesterday about watching the World Cup and Wimbledon (though after all that, he wasn't really into the men's final after Djokovic and Fery lost in the semis. What else was TB watching? 

"The Secret Life of Us," which is his latest Australian show. And, over the weekend, there was also the Premier Lacrosse League. 

Before he gets into the PLL, TigerBlog would like to remind you that Princeton won the NCAA men's lacrosse championship this past spring. As part of a year in review, TB posted an "A to Z" recap yesterday; you can read it HERE. 

It includes this: 

J – Just Win
Princeton is 60-23 since the start of the 2022 season, with one NCAA championship, two Final Fours, three quarterfinals and five NCAA appearances, as well as three Ivy tournament championships and one Ivy title. Matt Madalon is now 92-43 as Princeton head coach, with a .681 winning percentage that trails only Bill Tierney’s .735 at Princeton (other than Ernie Ransome’s .750 for his only season as head coach, in 1950).  

Impressive. Very impressive. 

Back at the PLL, TigerBlog's main interest in the league would be the Princeton alums who are scattered around the eight teams. There are now double figures in Princetonians in the league, most of whom are making huge impacts. 

That includes the familiar names, like Zach Currier, still the best all-around player in the world. And Michael Sowers, tied for second in the PLL in scoring. 

And then there are three others who are emerging stars on the pro level, two of whom are rookies and one of whom is in Year 2. 

The second-year player is the Boston Cannons' Coulter Mackesy, who is currently leading the PLL in points with 25, on 11 one-point goals, two two-point goals and 10 assists. It's a big jump for Mackesy, who had a solid rookie year with 15 goals (all one-point) and five assists. You might recall that Mackesy is Princeton's career leader in goals with 167 and is second in career points with 248 (behind only Sowers, who had 302). 

Chad Palumbo, who scored 48 goals this past season for the NCAA champion Tigers, has nine goals and four assists, putting him among the rookie leaders in goals and points. In fact, Palumbo has for most the season been considered one of two favorites for the Rookie of the Year award, along with Syracuse alum Joey Spallina. 

Ah, but into that mix a new contender has emerged of late — Andrew McMeekin. Perhaps you remember him as well? 

McMeekin holds Princeton's record for career and season face-off wins and groundballs. He had a dominant senior year and even more dominant NCAA tournament,  even after going undrafted by the league. Actually, no face-off specialists or goalie were drafted, though McMeekin signed rather quickly with the Cannons after the Princeton season ended. 

How has he done? He's currently second in the league in face-off winning percentage, trailing only the legendary Trevor Baptiste — and not by much (Baptiste is at 60 percent; McMeekin is at 59 percent). 

This past weekend McMeekin went 18 for 28 with eight GBs, as well as his first career PLL goal and an assist, to Mackesy at that, as the Cannons beat Maryland 15-13. TB was particularly interested in this face-off matchup, since it was against Luke Wierman, a Maryland alum who dominated McMeekin each time they went head-to-head in college. 

This time? It was a great performance by McMeekin, one that has vaulted him into serious Rookie of the Year consideration.  

TB has been astonished how little national recognition — and Ivy League recognition for that matter — McMeekin received through his Princeton career. Maybe it'll come his way on the pro level. 

He's certainly deserving of it. 

TB wouldn't want to face-off against him.  

Of Some Consolation

Can there be a World Cup game played without controversy? 

It's amazing that a system designed to eliminate controversy has only made it worse. TigerBlog is referring to the VAR, which stands for "Video Assistant Referee."

What it should stand for is "Your guess is as good as theirs," which doesn't really go with "VAR" but still. 

A ball hits a wire on the camera above the field and play continues when it's supposed to be blown dead. Not reviewable. Goal, England. A missed call on the field ends up reversing a yellow card, the second on a Swiss player, and suddenly Argentina is a man up for the rest of the game. It was clear on the review that it shouldn't have been a yellow card on the Argentine player, but it was also a really uneven penalty against Switzerland — especially since the "simulation" in question wasn't one of the worst in the game, let alone tournament. 

With that, Argentina has continued to come up with miraculous endings in this knockout round, first against Cape Verde, then against Egypt and now against Switzerland Saturday night, when the world's No. 1 ranked team scored twice in the second extra period for a 3-1 win. 

Oh, and one more thing, something that TigerBlog has said before. Why can't the official time be kept on the scoreboard? If TB was a World Cup ref, he'd want it on the scoreboard. He could signal when the clock should be stopped, like in every other sport, and he wouldn't have to worry about any questions about why he blew the whistle early or let them play on or whatever. 

Get ride of stoppage time. A 90-minute match now is easily more than 100 minutes. A match that goes to extra time is closer to 140 minutes than the 120 it's supposed to be by the time it ends. 

Sadly, this was not in the jurisdiction of the NCAA Division I men's lacrosse rules committee.  

Anyway, the semifinals are now set with the top four teams in the FIFA rankings, as No. 1 Argentina plays No. 4 England Wednesday and No. 2 France plays No. 3 Spain tomorrow. TB is shocked that England in the semifinals for only the fourth time ever,  and he also thinks that the French, with Mbappe, will be the ones left standing come Sunday, after the final at the Meadowlands. 

The World Cup is one of the few tournaments in the world that still has a third-place game, one that will be played Saturday in Miami. Why does the World Cup still do this? TigerBlog has to think that there's no way that the losers of the semifinals want to go through the motions of Saturday's game. 

Maybe he's wrong, but common sense would say otherwise. This isn't the Olympics, where a bronze medal means a whole lot more than a fourth-place finish. 

There used to be third-place games in several tournaments, most notably the NCAA men's basketball tournament. In fact, there was a third-place game before the championship game every year from 1946 through the last one in 1981. 

This, of course, included the 1965 tournament, whose third-place game matched the two teams who lost in the semifinals: Princeton and Wichita State. Princeton, the East Region champion, had a rematch with Michigan of their classic Holiday Festival game from December in one national semifinal. This time, the Wolverines were in control pretty much throughout, winning 93-76.

This is how the Daily Princetonian story, written by John Alexander and John Kretzmann, saw it:

The key to the game lay in the officiating. Bradley drew his third foul late in the first half on an offensive call, and from that point on, Princeton was forced to play a much too cautious game. [Head coach Butch Van Breda Kolff merely corroborated the obvious discontent of the 13,200 fans on hand when he commented vindictively on the officiating: "Please don't ask me about that." During the contest he was more vociferous —"What in the world did we come out here for?" At the game's end, Princeton had out-fouled Michigan, 24-14. 

Perhaps video review would have made a difference? 

Wichita State, meanwhile, was defeated by UCLA 108-89 in the other semifinal. The third-place game saw Princeton set 11 different records, some of which still stand, in the 118-82 win. 

The 118 points are still the most Princeton has ever scored in a game. The 58 points that Bill Bradley scored in that game remain the most ever by a player in a Final Four game. 

This was Kratzmann after that game: 

By the three-quarter mark, it was evident that the Bengals were fighting only the record book— Wichita had long since surrendered, and the NCAA records were about to follow suit.  

And then, scrolling down a bit, TB found this quote from van Breda Kolff: 

"This makes up a little for last night (the loss to Michigan) and lets the kids go out feeling pretty good."  

Hmmm. Maybe TB is wrong about the consolation game. 

He's not wrong about the VAR and the scoreboard.