Three Parts

This first part has nothing to do with the Princeton women's basketball team.

This first part is about a story that TigerBlog read yesterday about a high school football game in Oklahoma that is now the subject of a lawsuit to determine who won. TB cringes as he writes the words.

Frederick Douglass High School was trailing Locust Grove 20-19 with a little more than a minute to go in a state playoff game. Douglass - a one-time slave who became an abolitionist - then scored on a 64-yard touchdown pass to apparently go up 25-20.

That's when the chaos ensued.

A Douglass coach ran down the sideline while his player was running to the end zone and accidentally bumped an official. Because the sideline had been warned earlier, a flag was thrown.

According to the rule, this should have been a five-yard, post-possession foul assessed on the kickoff. Instead, the refs incorrectly called the touchdown back.

Locust Grove held on 20-19. Frederick Douglass was not pleased.

The result was legal action that seeks to have the game replayed from the point of the touchdown. Locust Grove was prevented from playing its next game, pending the ruling, which is supposed to be today.

TigerBlog's take?

Life isn't fair. The refs made a mistake. Frederick Douglass did have all game to put itself in a position to not be down by a point with a minute to go, but hey, nobody wants to mention that.

What message is sent by going to court? Ah, forget it. What's the point? That's how America is now.

This next part doesn't have to do with Princeton women's basketball either.

TCU was ranked third last week in the college football playoff poll. This week they were sixth - after a 55-3 win over a bad Iowa State team. This dropped the Horned Frogs out of the four-team playoff.

TigerBlog isn't saying that TCU should be in over Ohio State. What he's saying is that it looks ridiculous to have a team be third one week and sixth the next after a 55-3 win. And yes, he knows that the committee said that the rankings one week have nothing to do with the ones the next.

Still, it looks ridiculous. Actually, no, it looks like the committee thought more people would watch Alabama-Ohio State than Alabama-TCU.

Okay, now TB is up to the part about women's basketball.

Princeton destroyed Michigan 85-55 on its home court in Ann Arbor last night, improving to 9-0 on the season. Princeton is now the first women's basketball team in Ivy history to win its first nine games.

As for the men's side? Princeton has twice started 9-0 in men's basketball, back in 1919-20 and 1914-15. There have been five other 8-0 starts, most recently in the 1966-67 season.

Penn's men were 28-0 to start the 1970-71 season. That would be the last time an Ivy men's team won its first nine.

Princeton isn't just winning. It's doing what it did last night.

The Tigers had four players in double figures, including two with more than 20 - Michelle Miller (25) and Blake Dietrick (22). Oh, and Dietrick had one of the greatest stat lines you will ever see: 25 points, 8 for 11 shooting, 4 for 5 from three-point range, nine rebounds, eight assists, zero turnovers.

Princeton shot 56.3% while holding Michigan to 40% shooting. Actually, the Tigers shot way better from three-point range (11 for 19, 58%) than Michigan did from two-point range (18 for 43, 42%). Princeton outrebounded the Wolverines 35-23, had 25 assists on 35 baskets and had a 25:11 assists:turnover ratio.

In other words, Princeton did everything well. In other words, Princeton isn't just relying on one thing to sustain it.

Oh, and by the way, Michigan was 6-1 coming into the game. And that's Michigan, as in the Big Ten.

Princeton's four-year streak of Ivy championships ended last year in a brutal loss to Penn on the season's final day. To say that this team remembers that feeling is something of an understatement.

Through nine games this year, Princeton is averaging 72.6 points per game. For the 2013-14 season, Princeton averaged 75.7 points per game. Scoring offense is down slightly.

But the defense? Last year, Princeton allowed 64.1 points per game - 68.0 in non-league games. This year? That number is now at 51.8.

Next up is Binghamton, Saturday at 2:30. There are still seven non-league games before the big one, a month from today.

It'll be Jan. 10 when Penn comes back to Carril Court, where last March it defeated Princeton 80-64 in a dominant performance in a winner-take-all showdown for the Ivy championship.

This time it'll be the Ivy opener for both. It'll also be Princeton's last game before a 20-day break for first semester exams.

In other words, it's a huge one.

It's still too early to focus on that day. For now, it's a time to see how good Princeton is, what the team's ceiling is for the year, if it continues to improve.

The game Saturday is the second-to-last one here for this calendar year. There is also a Dec. 19 against Portland State, though there are also four other games within a 90-minute drive.

In the meantime, Princeton is 9-0, with two wins against ACC teams and one each over the Big Ten and Big East.

That's a pretty good start, no?