Snowballs and Basketballs

If, like TigerBlog, you have an iPhone, you know that your weather app can be a bit frustrating.

First of all, the temperature rarely is what the app says it's going to be. Second, it doesn't give any details to a forecast.

There have been about 20 times, or maybe even more, this season that TigerBlog's app has shown a little snowflake for the forecast. At various times, it's meant anything from a few flurries to a few inches to nothing at all.

In fact, for the entire winter of 2014-15 to date, the greater Princeton metropolitan area has seen very little in the way of snow, which is how TB likes it. He's definitely a summer guy.

A year ago, there were endless snowstorms and bitter, bitter cold throughout. This year? It's been cold but rarely horribly so, and there's been almost no snow.

Because of that, TigerBlog didn't take it all that seriously when he first saw a snowflake next to yesterday and today on his iPhone weather app. Even as late as Sunday afternoon, it didn't seem like it was going to be all that big a deal.

The forecast was calling for 1-3 inches. TB can handle that.

Then, late Sunday afternoon, it all changed. Dramatically.

In the span of about 10 minutes, the forecast went from 1-3 inches to 10-14 to "one of the worst storms in history," with forecasts for as much as 30 inches.

TigerBlog has been through some bad snowstorms, and he can remember a few with at least 30 inches. That's a lot of snow.

He remembers shoveling out from one storm and then walking through the rest of it down the street to a huge feast at a neighbor's house and wearing shorts while doing so.

He remembers as a kid when a storm wiped out an entire week of school.

TigerBlog hates shoveling snow, so he likes winters without much snow. He often wonders why he doesn't live in Florida.

Ah, but he lives here. And apparently "here" has dodged the worst of this one.

There is another little snowflake on his weather app for Friday, which would be a real shame, since Friday figures to bring the biggest crowd of the year to Jadwin Gym.

Princeton hosts Harvard in men's basketball, and to say this is a huge game for both teams might not be quite correct, given that Princeton has 13 Ivy games to play and Harvard has 12.

Still, there is a lot on the line for that game, even more so after what happened over the weekend.

Harvard is the preseason favorite and three-time defending league champion. The Crimson were close, if not in, the national rankings in the preseason.

When Harvard arrives at Jadwin Friday, it'll be doing so after having lost its last game to Dartmouth 70-61, done in by a 26-2 run by the Big Green. Using another app, TigerBlog saw the Crimson up by 11 in the second half and assumed it was over - and then he saw Dartmouth pull away to win.

Yale survived Brown Saturday, and Cornell beat Columbia. Penn, for its part, beat St. Joe's.

And even Princeton played, doubling up Rowan 96-48 in its return game after first-semester exams.

So where does it leave the Ivy League?

Well, right now, Yale in in first place at 2-0. Princeton is 1-0. No other team is unbeaten.

Harvard is 1-1, as are Columbia, Dartmouth and Cornell. Penn is 0-1. Brown is 0-2.

And what does that mean for Friday night?

It means a lot.

Harvard will come to Jadwin looking to reestablish itself. Princeton would be looking to deal the Crimson another setback, which would really change the shape of the race.

How many wins will it take to win the league? Will it be 11 or 12? If it's 12, then a 1-2 Harvard team would have no margin for error.

And Yale? The Bulldogs are 13-6 overall, with a win over UConn and a really close loss at Vanderbilt - and losses to Albany and NJIT. Yale needed to come back to beat Brown, and the Bulldogs held off the Bears 69-65.

Princeton has had moments of struggle and moments where it's looked really good so far this year. None of it matters now.

Now the Tigers are 1-0 with a 13-game sprint to the finish about to start. And it starts against a team that is in desperate need of a victory.

Yes, Princeton and Harvard have combined to play three of their 28 league games between them. But yes, it's a big game Friday night.

Hopefully that little snowflake goes away on the app.

A big game deserves a big crowd.