Tuesday Night Wrap

It didn't dawn on TigerBlog until he'd walked about 75% of the way down the stairs from the press box and around the field at Villanova Stadium that the gate he was trying to get to was probably locked.

Sure enough, it was.

So, back he went to another gate. Also locked. In fact, they all were.

Not just locked with the kind of luck that you can open from the inside. Chained.

The point was for nobody to get in, except it was also keeping TB from getting out.

Eventually, TB had to walk back up the bleachers to the press box and then take the elevator down to the entrance. Once he did that, he found two more locked doors before finally being able to get out through the main entrance, which was wide open.

After that, he had to walk all the way around again, since his car was parked just outside the first gate he'd been at, albeit 15 minutes earlier.

The little detour back to the press box prevented TigerBlog from hearing the end of the Princeton-Evansville men's basketball game on the radio.

By the way, TB isn't going to go on about men's lacrosse here this morning, except for three thoughts:

1) the second and third quarters, especially the third quarter, of last night's 14-8 win over Villanova is the best Princeton has played in a long time. The Tigers were efficient and essentially unstoppable against a very good team, one that is ranked 10th this week

2) Make what you will out of all of these results:
Lehigh beat North Carolina
Lehigh beat Penn
Penn beat North Carolina
Villanova beat Penn by one
Villanova beat Lehigh by 10
North Carolina beat Princeton
Princeton beat Villanova

3) Princeton is the one men's lacrosse team in the country that is an absolute must-see, because of the wondrous talent of sophomore Tom Schreiber, who is as good as any player TB has ever seen play here, with the possible exceptions of Jesse Hubbard and Ryan Boyle (and there are things he does better than either of those two all-time legendary greats). And keep in mind, this takes into account a lot of great players. Every time Schreiber touches the ball, he's a threat to do something spectacular.

Anyway, enough about lacrosse - for now.

Let's talk about the CBI.

Princeton and Evansville found out late Sunday that they'd be playing each other, which led to little or no prep time for either team.

The result? A wild shootout.

Like, really wild.

TB put up the live stats to find it was 87-85, on its way to 95-86 Princeton.

TigerBlog has never seen Princeton score 100 points in a game, and odds are neither have you, since the last time the Tigers did was back on Feb. 26, 1971.

In fact, the last time Princeton scored more than 95 points in game was the opening game of 1971-72, in a 99-68 win over Rutgers.

And now here were the Tigers in Indiana, in a game where both teams were unstoppable.

Douglas Davis needed one point to become the third player in men's basketball here to reach 1,500; he got a career-high 31. Now, with at least one game left to play, Davis has 1,530, leaving his 16 away from Kit Mueller for second place (and just short of 1,000 away from Bill Bradley, who scored 2,503 points in three seasons without a three-pointer shot; keep in mind just how ridiculous that is).

He also is second all-time at Princeton (behind Brian Earl, with 281) and third all-time in the Ivy League with 270 career three-pointers.

So what do you make of Davis' career?

On the one hand, he's never been first-team All-Ivy League.

On the other hand, he's going to be second or third all-time in scoring at Princeton. Yes, he's played in more games than any player in program history, but he's not just a compiler of numbers.

And, he always has that other thing going for him. You know, having hit the single most clutch shot in school history.

While Davis' career winds down, Princeton fans can look forward to another year of Ian Hummer, who is also something of a walking highlight reel.

Hummer has 501 points this season, which means that only three people have ever scored more points in a season at Princeton than Hummer has this year. Want to name them?

TB will do it for you:
Bill Bradley (who did it three times)
Brian Taylor (who did it twice)
Geoff Petrie (who did it once)

Those are some pretty big names in school history.

Hummer has 1,156 career points - with his senior year to go.

Oh, and least one more game of his junior year.

Any doubt as to whether or not Princeton was serious about the CBI was erased last night in Indiana. TB isn't quite sure if Princeton plays the winner of Pitt-Wofford next, or if they take the remaining eight teams and create new matchups.

Either way, the Tigers aren't playing in the tournament they wanted.

Still, look what happened the last time Princeton was in the CBI. The Tigers got the semifinals - and then the NCAA's the following year.