And It's Marcoux Samaan vs. Henderson

It's been five days, and TigerBlog still hasn't had a chance to talk to you about the inauguration.

In keeping with official TigerBlog policy, he will avoid every aspect of the situation except for one. In this case, it's the coverage by the cable news networks.

It bordered on hilarious. There was not one objective thing about any of the coverage. On one network, nothing but positives. On another network, watching the same exact stuff, there was nothing but negatives.

Of course, this is how the world works these days. If you're wondering why the polarization seems worse than ever, it's because there is almost no place to go for unfiltered information. Instead, the world of information has become not about learning about events or studying events but about surrounding yourself with points of view that reinforce your own.

It's too easy to do. You can follow people on Twitter or Instagram. You can go to websites. You can watch TV networks. All of these can simply serve to mirror what you already think and make you less inclined to consider that there might be merit to another point of view.

Social media can be a wonderful thing. It can also be a blurring thing, as in blurring the ability to see another side. It's a constant bombardment of reinforcement. That's hard to get past.

And the events of last Friday? The networks were an extension of that. TigerBlog flipped back and forth just to see the obvious differences in their interpretations and opinions. It was hilarious - and predictable.

Everything else about the inauguration? TB is leaving that alone other than to say things seem nastier than ever before.

TigerBlog also hasn't had a chance to get back to you about his pre-playoff Super Bowl prediction. Let's go back to Jan. 6, when TB said this:While TigerBlog will be rooting for the Giants, he won't be crushed if they lose to Green Bay Sunday. He doesn't see anyone who can beat New England in the AFC, at least not in Foxboro. In the NFC, he can see basically any of five teams - other than Detroit - who could get to the Super Bowl. He'll go with Atlanta, though.

He was right, as it turns out.

At this point, he will, in the interest of full disclosure, point out that most of his sports-related predictions haven't quite worked out in the recent past. For instance, for the 2015 season, his preseason pick for the Super Bowl was the Eagles and the Ravens, who won about five games each that year.

And he's been really wrong on NCAA picks for basketball the last few years. He'll probably be bad again this year.

So he'll have to bask in the glory of having gotten a prediction right. That's the best part about predictions. Nobody remembers them, so if you're wrong, you don't have to remind people and if you're right, you can copy and paste the paragraph - and put it in italics, for good measure.

Inauguration? NFL playoffs? There are much more important things going on around here now.

Athletic events? Not quite yet. It's still first semester exam break, which runs through this weekend.

Princeton gets back into it with three events Saturday: two women's tennis matches at home (against Delaware at 10 am and Seton Hall at 3 pm, in Jadwin Gym) and a men's hockey game against Penn State at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia at 7.

There will be seven other teams who compete during the week after return from exams: men's tennis, men's squash, women's squash, men's volleyball, men's track and field, women's track and field and women's hockey. Not too many of those events are at home.

What is taking place in Jadwin is a ping-pong tournament, but you already knew that. Men's basketball coach Mitch Henderson advanced to the finals last week, and the second semifinal was played yesterday.

This one matched Ford Family Director of Athletics Mollie Marcoux Samaan and head softball coach Lisa Van Ackeren. TigerBlog lost track of the final score, but Mollie won the best-of-three match in two games.

And that means it's Mollie against Mitch for the championship. Game time has not yet been set.

TigerBlog lost his opening round match to Mitch, and TB is the only one to take a game off of him so far. Just reminding you of that.

There's a simultaneous tournament in Dillon Gym. Actually, the Dillon people went first, with a tournament the last two years, both of which were won by Mike Pallister, assistant field hockey coach. The winner of the Jadwin tournament will play the winner of the Dillon tournament; TigerBlog thinks there should be a match between Jadwin and Dillon similar to a squash match, with  a lineup of nine players each.
Anyway, the final between Mollie and Mitch will match two super-competitive people. It's not necessarily easy to play the boss, but TB has a sense Mitch will find a way past that.

The ping-pong table appeared in the Jadwin lobby a few weeks ago. There would be 15 total matches in the four-round tournament, but the table has been used basically every day since it showed up, by those in the tournament and those who aren't.

If the idea was to give the people who work in Jadwin something to bring them closer together, it's certainly worked.