Congrats Luis, And Go Employer

Before TigerBlog talks about how he hopes his longtime employer beats his alma mater four times tomorrow, he wants to start out by congratulating Princeton water polo coach Luis Nicolao.

In case you didn't see it, when Princeton defeated Iona 17-9 Thursday night, it gave Luis his 400th win with the men's program. He's now 400-162 for his career with the men to be exact.

How many Princeton coaches have ever reached 400 wins? It's not a very long list. It includes names like Pete Carril, Cindy Cohen and Glenn Nelson - oh, and also Luis Nicolao. Yes, he was already in the group, having reached the 400 mark in women's water polo already.

By the way, baseball coach Scott Bradley is very close, with 389.

Luis' record with the women's team is 442-149. That makes him 842-311 overall. That's a winning percentage of, uh, really good.

Luis is as much a part of the Princeton Athletics fabric as anyone. He's been here a long time, and he and his two programs have represented the very best of what Princeton Athletics hopes to be. There have been victories, championships, NCAA Final Fours, an Olympic gold medal - and wave after wave of athletes who have embodied the "Achieve, Serve, Lead" spirit.

At the head of all that has been Luis. He's run the program, two programs actually, but he's also made himself a visible and universally well-loved part of the department culture as a whole - including appearing as Santa at the holiday party, and in just a Speedo at formal events.

So congrats to Luis. That's a lot of wins, and counting.

And now there's the whole alma mater vs. employer deal.

As always, TigerBlog wonders how many Princeton alums have ever gone to work someplace else ad ended up rooting against Princeton as many times as TB has rooted against Penn? It can't be many.

Also, how many people have about 100 articles of clothing that have a college on them and not one of them is from where that person actually went? Can't be many of them either. 

On the other hand, TB spent four years at Penn and now is closing in on 30 years of being around Princeton and its teams. So, you know, it's understandable.

Princeton is at Penn for four events tomorrow. Of those four, two of them have immediately Ivy League championship implications and a third might have as the season continues.

It'll be Tigers vs. Quakers tomorrow in field hockey (noon), football (1), women's soccer (4) and men's soccer (7).

The field hockey team has already clinched at least a share of the Ivy title, and the Tigers know they will be playing in the NCAA tournament no matter what happens tomorrow. On the other hand, a win would give Princeton an outright championship and a perfect run through the league.

Harvard can still tie Princeton for the championship should the Tigers lose and the Crimson defeat Columbia. Princeton's win over Harvard earlier this season, though, would be the tiebreaker for the NCAA bid, so Princeton knows it's in.

Princeton, by the way, has outscored its first six league opponents by a combined 30-4.

The women's soccer team is tied with Columbia for first place in the league at 5-1-0. Columbia owns a win over Princeton meaning Princeton needs to finish ahead of the Lions to get the automatic bid. Columbia hosts Harvard tomorrow.

Ah, but Princeton may have something a lot better than an automatic bid - the No. 8 spot in the Division I RPI rankings. That means that Princeton is pretty much a lock for an at-large bid with a great chance to be at home.

Should Columbia and Princeton both win or both tie, then there'd be a co-championship. Brown, at 4-2-0, could still get a share of the championship with losses from both Princeton and Columbia and a Bears win over Yale - but Columbia would still get the league's automatic bid in that case with its wins over both Princeton and Brown.

The men's soccer team has two games left, the one at Penn and then next week at home against Yale. Princeton, who got off to a rough start and who has had to deal with a brutal stretch of injuries, is quietly inching its way back to the .500 mark.

In fact, should Princeton win its last two, it would be above .500 in both the league and overall. Just getting back to where the Tigers are now shows a lot about the character and resilience of the team and its coaches.

The football team, like the men's soccer team, has had to deal with more than its share of injuries. The Tigers now sit at 2-2 in the Ivy League, which in most years would mean a title is out of reach.

This year, though, isn't most years. It wouldn't be shocking if the Ivy championship was shared among teams who are 5-2, which means Princeton is still very much in play to be one of them.

Obviously, if Princeton wins out, it would be 5-2. It would also mean that Princeton would have beaten Yale, which would mean the Bulldogs would have a second loss. That would leave one-loss Cornell and Columbia, and they still play each other, which would mean one of them would have to get a second loss.

So, for Princeton, all it would take would be the winner of the Columbia-Cornell game to lose one of its other two. Will that happen? In this wild year of Ivy football, anything is possible.

The bottom line for Princeton is that all it can worry about is the next game, or even the next series, and see what happens from there.

And that's the weekend in Tigers and Quakers.

Go employer. Beat alma mater.