It was a fairly gray day yesterday in Princeton, with swirling snow flurries and a brisk wind and only one moment where TigerBlog thought he detected a hint of sunshine, only to have it yanked away as a mirage.
TigerBlog was going about his regular Thursday, when all of the sudden a visitor emerged in his doorway.
This happens quite often in TB's office. His door is almost always open, and someone usually strolls in every five minutes or so.
This time, though, was different. This time, the visitor changed the entire tenor of the day.
This time, it was Bill Carmody.
The last time Bill Carmody was in TigerBlog's office was 14 years ago, when he was the Princeton men's basketball coach, before he left to coach Northwestern.
Back then, TigerBlog was the men's basketball contact and was for all four of Carmody's seasons as Princeton head coach. TB first met Carmody in the late ’80s back when he was Pete Carril's assistant and TB was in the newspaper business.
To say that Carmody is one of TB's all-time heroes would be a bit of an understatement. The four years that Carmody was head coach were one continuous great moment after another, as in great teams, great wins, great crowds, great media coverage, great players and great trips.
At the fore of all of it was Carmody, who combined an ultra-competitive personality - visible any time TB ever saw him play lunchtime basketball - with a demeanor that suggested he wasn't really taking any of it all that seriously.
Oh, but clearly he was.
Carmody led Princeton to the 1997 and 1998 Ivy League championships and NCAA tournaments and the 1999 and 2000 NIT. He was the head coach when Princeton came from 27 points back in the second half to beat Penn. He was the head coach who took his team past Florida State, Texas and UNC Charlotte on consecutive nights to win the Rainbow Classic in Hawaii.
As an aside, after one of those games in Hawaii, Carmody was asked by the local media about how every member of his team could shoot from beyond the arc. His response: "Everyone on our team can make a three. Our center can. Our SID can."
The good news is that TB has that one on tape. The bad news is that it's on a mini-cassette, and TB has no way of ever playing it again.
TB asked Carmody how he was, what he was up to. Carmody answered and punctuated it with one of those gestures that TB had seen so many times through the years, the one where he bends his elbows at 90 degrees, extends his hands palms up and then moves his hands in opposite directions.
It was great to see him. It always is.
In other tangential Princeton basketball news, TigerBlog watched some of the current group of lunchtime basketballers for a few minutes yesterday.
TB played at lunchtime for about 12 years or so, before he switched to squash. He would refer to his years of playing as the glory days of Jadwin lunchtime basketball.
Having said that, TB can't remember a time when he saw someone dominate at lunchtime the way Isaac Serwanga did for about five minutes yesterday.
Isaac was a wide receiver on the Princeton football team who also spent time on the basketball and track and field teams. He graduated in 2012.
TB wrote a feature about him for the game program his senior year in which Isaac talked about wanting to go to medical school. Somewhere in there his plans appeared to have changed, as he now works in general administration in the athletic department.
Given that he is a little more than two years removed from being a Division I athlete, it's safe to assume that he could have an impact in lunchtime basketball.
But to this extent? TB saw him throw three great passes - including one where the recipient didn't miss the uncontested layup. Serwanga drove for his own made layup and then knocked down a three-pointer.
Then he took the ball away from Jon Kurian - whose excuse after the fact was that he's 42 years old - and drove down the court to finish the game with a lefthanded dunk. All in all, it was fairly impressive.
If you're looking for more basketball in Jadwin this weekend, there's a women's game tomorrow against Binghamton at 2 (not 2:30, as TB said the other day). Princeton will be looking to get to 10-0 in that one, something that no Ivy League women's team has ever done (of course, no Ivy women's team has ever been 9-0 before), no Princeton men's team has ever done and no Ivy men's team has done since the 1970-71 Penn team did it.
There are only five Princeton athletic events this weekend, involving only four teams, and only two of those events are home - both, interestingly enough, against Binghamton. In addition to the women's basketball game, the wrestling team hosts Binghamton at 7 tonight.
Originally Princeton was also supposed to wrestle Sacred Heart as well, but the Pioneers had to reschedule due to a conflict with final exams. TigerBlog is glad to see Sacred Heart putting academics first.
The men's basketball team is on a plane to California today to play at Cal tomorrow. The men's hockey team is in Minnesota to take on the third-ranked team in the country, Minnesota State-Mankato.
Those two opponents are a combined 20-5-0.
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1 comment:
I can "see" Coach Carmody make the gesture you described so well. We miss him terribly at Northwestern. Both schools were lucky to have him!
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