More Baby Steps

TigerBlog has told you this story twice before, the first time in 2010 and the second in 2015.

If you already heard it, then bear with him. It's a good one.

TigerBlog's introduction to broadcasting at Princeton came back in 1989, when he first started doing men's basketball games on what was then WHWH radio - AM 1350. David Brody was the play-by-play man, and TigeBlog was first on as a halftime guest, and then as the color commentator for away games.

Eventually, he did the home games with Brody as well. Actually, it was a three-man crew for home games, with Brody, TB and Rich Simkus, the former Tiger center.

One night in a game at Jadwin, the end of the first half didn't go the way Pete Carril wanted, and he was a tad upset as he left the court. Or, as TB said on the radio, he was something else:

TB: Pete Carril looks pretty pissed off right now.

That was followed by silence from TB's partners.

TB: What? You can't say "pissed off" on the radio?
Brody: Apparently you can, because you've said it twice.

Again a pause.

Simkus: You're beautiful.

TB's takeaway, of course, was that he was beautiful.

That was a long time ago, as TB thinks about it. Wow. Nearly 30 years?

A three-man radio team hardly ever works, but with the 45-second shot clock back then, that left plenty of time to talk. And as TB recalls, he and Simkus played off each other well, especially when they'd talk about how TigerBlog rooted against Simkus was he was a Penn student. Simkus was actually a very good analyst. That was a good broadcast team.

By the way, Simkus was featured prominently in the most recent episode of "Hard Cuts," as well as in the picture for the story on the webpage. See it HERE.

Princeton has had a lot of great announcers through the years that TB has been here, up through the present. The current football team (Cody Chrusciel, Craig Sachson, Dave Giancola) is excellent. The men's basketball team of Derek Jones and Noah Savage is as good as it gets for this level. TB would put them up there with anyone.

By the way, the women's broadcasting team this year for the Ivy League Network is John Mozes and Dei Lynam. That's a great pairing as well. Maybe you remember Dei from all of her years covering the NBA, especially the Sixers.

When Jones and Savage do the home games for the Ivy League Network, then the radio announcers are second-generation Tiger play-by-player Patrick McCarthy, the son of Tom McCarthy, and TigerBlog. Last night Patrick had to go solo on the radio, since TigerBlog had to do the PA for the mens' game against BYU.

TigerBlog likes doing the radio. He's never gotten nervous, perhaps because you can't really see your audience. Then again, he doesn't get nervous on the PA either. Maybe it's just nice to hear his voice.

Actually, there's an old episode of "WKRP In Cincinnati" where Bailey tells Johnny that if he gets nervous, he should just pretend he's talking to one person. That's sort of how it is in radio. Pretend you're talking to one person. Describe the game to that one person.

The challenge last night was to correctly pronounce Princeton freshman Jerome Desrosiers, who is French-Canadian, from Quebec. The phonetic spelling would be this: zheh-ROME de-ROH-zee-EH.

That was a good one. Then again, TB was the PA announcer at Jadwin the night that Brown's Alai Nuualiitia had his career high.

As for the game itself last night, Princeton expected a game in the 80s. The last time BYU was at Jadwin the score was 39-37. The teams sort of met in the middle, as BYU defeated Princeton 65-56.

After the game, Princeton coach Mitch Henderson talked about how his team looked good on offense in the opener against Butler (85-75 loss) and good on defense against BYU and that "somewhere in there is a good team."

TigerBlog yesterday talked about "baby steps," about how a team develops over the course of a basketball season. He's seen Princeton men's and women's teams that seemed to be struggling early turn into Ivy championship teams as they developed.

You can't win championships in November. You simply moving your team along the path of those baby steps, looking for the right combinations and answers and rotations and minutes. That's where the Tigers are right now.

According to Henderson, prior to last night he had gotten two technicals in his life and then doubled it with the two he got against the Cougars. He was contrite after the game and apologetic for what happened. 

Sometimes that happens. TB has seen the best of coaches lose it in the moment. Nobody should judge Henderson by that one moment. TB has known Henderson for a long, long time, and he knows that he is a class act, one who has high standards for his program. He also has tremendous passion, especially for Princeton basketball, and the program couldn't be in better hands.

Next up for Princeton is a trip to St. Joe's Saturday night. That's the next chance to move along towards the goal, which is to be a much-improved team come February. TB has no doubt that will be the case.

BYU coach Dave Rose summed it up really well when he got up to leave after his turn in the postgame interview room.

"Mitch has a good team," he said. "A fun team. They're going to have a fun year."

Then he paused and added this:
 
"Just not tonight."