Hosting The Hawks

Milena Flores, the assistant coach of women's basketball, came down to TigerBlog's office yesterday for the reason most people who visit TB's office do.

She had to see Brian Fitzwater, IT guy extraordinaire, whose office is next to TB's. That's okay. TB is used to it.

While Milena was here, the subject turned to movies. Specifically, it was about a movie that TB had always wanted to see and finally did recently, a movie that Milena says she loves.

There's always a movie out there that when you tell someone you've never seen it, their response is an amazed "you never saw fill-in-the-blank?"

There's also a movie out there that you haven't seen that more than any you want to see and just, for some reason, have never gotten around to seeing. Often, the movie that you want to see more than any other is also the movie that most elicits the "you've never seen that?" response.

For TigerBlog, at one point, that movie was "The Godfather." Then he saw it in high school. After that, it was "Gone With The Wind," which he didn't see until Thanksgiving of 2004. Don't ask him why he remembers that. He just does. He also went all those years not having seen it, greeted with amazed looks of "you never saw 'Gone With The Wind?' "

Once he saw Rhett and Scarlett and their adventures, then the movie he most wanted to see was "It Happened One Night." Interestingly, it also starred Clark Gable.

TigerBlog stumbled on that movie on Turner Classic Movies one night about seven or eight years ago and knocked that one off his list. After that, it was "Rebel Without A Cause," which he saw maybe two years ago.

From that point until last week, the movie he most wanted to see but just never had was "The Princess Bride." When TB told Milena that, her response was an incredulous "You've never seen 'The Princess Bride?' "

And now he has. It was great. He loved it. Actually, it's been awhile since he enjoyed watching a movie that much. 

For starters, it was hilarious. There were so many great lines. It was a fantasy, but not too much of one. It made fun of itself a few times. The performances were all great. Where else can you say that you watched a movie and thought that Peter Falk, Cary Elwes and Andre the Giant were all amazing.

Mostly, it's not taking itself all that seriously. It's just a fun movie. And, as TB said, it has so many great lines, he can't pick just one. You want to see the IMDB list of great quotes?

As you wish: HERE IT IS.

Milena's team had itself a big week last week, defeating Lafayette and Quinnipiac. If you don't know how good Quinnipiac is, well, the Bobcats last year did something no Ivy League women's basketball team has ever done, reaching the Sweet 16.

Bella Alarie continues to impress and make the case that she is the best all-around player in Princeton women's basketball history. From the story about how she was honored as Ivy Player of the Week from goprincetontigers.com:
Against Lafayette, the sophomore snagged 14 points and 12 rebounds, along with six blocks and two steals in a victory on Wednesday. Her six blocks were one shy of her career high. Against Quinnipiac, Alarie recorded 16 points, 11 rebounds, stole three passes, blocked two shots and was 6-of-9 (66.7 percent) shooting.

Also from the story:
It's the fourth time in her career that Alarie has been chosen as the Player of the Week. It's her 13th weekly award as she was picked Rookie of the Week nine times last year.

As for the men's team, the Tigers are home tonight for the final time in 2017 when they take on Monmouth. Tip is at 7.

Monmouth has generated a lot of attention the last two years as a borderline Top 25 team, one that found itself excruciatingly short of the NCAA tournament both teams. Even so, the Hawks won 55 games the last two years, with only 15 losses. That's outstanding.

This year, Monmouth, like Princeton, is working to make itself the team it wants to be come February and March. These two teams were a combined 50-14 last year, but they are now 5-13 in 2017-18.

They played a great game last year, a 96-90 Monmouth win that featured three players with at least 25 points, all of whom graduated (Princeton's Steven Cook led everyone with 30). The Hawks most notable game this year was a 101-96 loss in four OTs to Penn.

Princeton's next home game after Monmouth will be Penn, but that won't be until early January. Tonight's game figures to be a good one, and another chance for the Tigers to take a step towards being ready for the Ivy League.

There have been flashes this year from Princeton about how good of a team it can be. The rotation for later in the year still hasn't been completely set, and there are still a lot of pieces to try to fit together.

On the other hand, it's still December. From the pregame story on GPT:
• The Tigers have overcome tough starts to have a strong Ivy League season before under Mitch Henderson. In Henderson's first season of 2011-12, Princeton started 1-5 before finishing 10-4 in the league, a record that's now one likely in contention for an Ivy League Tournament bid. In 2012-13, Princeton started 3-6 before going 10-4 in the league. In 2014-15, Princeton started 3-8 before going 9-5 in the league. Last season, Princeton started 4-6 before going 14-0 in the Ivy.     

So that's Princeton-Monmouth, tonight at 7 on Carril Court at Jadwin.


Oh, and what movie is it that TB has never seen and most wants to now?

Milena named a few, but TB had either seen them all or had no interest in them. After Milena left, TB looked through the AFI Top 100 movies of all time and figured out the one that he'd most want to see.

What? You've never seen "To Kill A Mockingbird?"