Everybody Go To Winberies

TigerBlog was on the radio Tuesday night with Patrick McCarthy for the men's basketball game against Monmouth.

A big part of doing radio, or even PA, is doing the live reads. Those are the announcements you have to read during breaks.

If you've never done anything like that, you start to read the words on the page and don't really consider what it is they're saying. You're just focused on reading, Whatever is put in front of you, that's what's coming out of your mouth.

If you gave TigerBlog a piece of paper that said "nah nah nah nah" at the end, he'd read that and be on the third "nah" before he realized anything was wrong.

Also, which would you rather have, the actual spelling of things or the way they're actually pronounced? Would you do better if something said "goprincetontigers.com" or "go princeton tigers dot com?"

Every now and then, even the great ones start to stumble over the live reads. That's what happened to Patrick the other night.

He was reading one about a sponsor, Winberies. If you've never been, it's a very nice restaurant in Palmer Square.

Patrick, bless his heart, was reading and reading and it seemed like he was getting nowhere. He was about 80 percent through it when he looked up, complete exasperation on his face, and saw TigerBlog sitting there, trying not to laugh.

TigerBlog finally cut him off and said "let's sum this up by saying Winberies has great burgers." Patrick then came back and said that he had had the salmon last time there and it was great.

There are two things about doing the basketball games on the radio that TB really loves.

First, there's doing the games with Patrick. He's the son of Tom McCarthy, with whom TB did Princeton basketball 20 years ago, when Tom was just starting out and Patrick was a baby and an only child.

These days, Patrick is the oldest of four kids and Tom is the TV voice of the Philadelphia Phillies while also doing the NFL and the NCAA basketball tournament. Patrick is a graduate of The College of New Jersey who is now starting out in his own radio career, and he's very, very good.

Around the time that TB and his colleague Cody Chrusciel were looking for someone to do radio for Princeton men's basketball so that Derek Jones and Noah Savage could focus on the Ivy League Network broadcasts, Tom sent TB a link to a game Patrick had done at TCNJ, and TB was impressed.

Patrick was offered the job, and TB said he'd do the games with him. It had been a long time since TB had done basketball on the radio, but he and Patrick have become a reasonably good pairing, if he does say so himself.

Patrick, by the way, has a big future in doing this if he'd like.

The other thing TB likes is interviewing someone at halftime. He'd done that for years and years back when he first did radio, from 1989 through 2004 or so. It's always good to get someone on to talk about Princeton, whether it's a current athlete, or someone who used to play at Princeton or whoever.

TB usually just looks around to see who is there and grabs someone. There's always someone who shows up.

For the game the other night, TigerBlog looked around and saw Bella Alarie of the women's basketball team. She agreed to be on.

The two talked about her experience at Princeton so far, how far she's come as a player in a short time, how good the women's basketball team could be, what it's like to play against players she played with and against in high school. She was very good.

TB also talked about the women's game against Rutgers, which was one night later, last night. He asked Bella if she'd ever been to Rutgers' arena, the RAC, and she said no. TB then told her it was a great place for basketball and that she'd love it.

As it turned out, Rutgers defeated Princeton 70-50, so maybe she didn't love it as much as she might have. The game was a matchup of teams in the top 20 in RPI, with Rutgers at 14 and Princeton at 19.

Princeton did have three players in double figures, including Alarie, whose line was 10 points, six rebounds, two assists, two blocks and a steal. Sydney Jordan had 11, and Abby Meyers had 11 points and six steals.

Next up for the Princeton women will be a game at Wagner Sunday at 1, followed by a trip to Florida for games Wednesday and Thursday against St. Joe's and Chattanooga. The last home game of the calendar year will be Dec. 30, when Princeton hosts UMBC.

Then it'll be time for the Ivy schedule. It figures to be a pretty competitive league on the women's side.

Princeton has given every indication that it'll be as big a factor as anyone else. Last night's outcome doesn't change that in the least.