A Little Lax, A Little Hockey

TigerBlog starts today in the same place he will all week: The men's basketball game Friday night has been moved from 7 to 6.

Say it with TB: "Princeton vs. Yale is Friday at 6 at Jadwin."

Okay, what next? How about yesterday's comment about Tom Schreiber and his assist to himself in the Toronto Rock game the other day.

Schreiber, who has been called the best player in the world by multiple lacrosse magazines, is the second-leading scorer in the National Lacrosse League, the indoor professional box league. He's also the two-time reigning MVP of Major League Lacrosse.

His most recent performance was a five-goal, seven-assist night as Toronto defeated New England 21-9. It wasn't even his first 12-point game this month, by the way.

One of his goals in that game was on a rebound off the boards behind the goal. Schreiber seemingly passed it off the wall and got it back, and he then scored while falling to the ground. It's an extraordinary goal.

You can see it here:

The skill that this takes! Wow! 🔥@TomSchreiber26 assists on his own goal! @SportsCenter @SportsCentre @BarDown #CaptainAmerica #SCTop10 pic.twitter.com/ra1FswnRQs

— Toronto Rock (@TorontoRockLax) January 28, 2018

The comment from yesterday asks if TB thinks Schreiber should get an assist on that play. The answer is, no, he does not.

TigerBlog is a member of the NCAA's official men's lacrosse statistics committee. He's co-written the rules for statkeeping for college lacrosse, and he just finished writing an FAQ for keeping stats that the NCAA will send out to all men's lacrosse contacts. Obviously he knows a thing or two about statkeeping.

That, though, is just for the outdoor game. There's no chance in the outdoor game to do what Schreiber did, because there are no boards to throw it off. Even if he tried to pass it to himself in the outdoor game, or throw it a spot and outrun the defense to get it, that would hardly be an assist.

In the indoor game? TB has no idea what the official rules are. His opinion, though, would be no player could ever get a assist on his own goal.

Not even Schreiber.

As for Schrieber, he is No. 26 as a professional lacrosse player after being No. 22 at Princeton, where his 200 career points make him the highest scoring middie in program history. The current No. 22 at Princeton is sophomore Michael Sowers, who in just one year already has established himself as one of the greatest players in program history.

Sowers put up a program-record 82 points as a freshman while becoming the first Princeton player ever to have at least 40 goals and 40 assists in a season. He is as good as any player in the country right now, and TB can tell you that the list of players that he's ever seen play lacrosse to whom he would compare Sowers is a very, very, very short one.

Even before Princeton has started practice, Sowers is featured in the very well-produced series "reLAXin'withPCarc." These videos feature ESPN's Paul Carcaterra, and he drives around with some of the top players in college lacrosse as a way for the viewer to get to know them a little more informally.

You can see the one with Sowers here:

reLAXin’ Season 2 is underway! Excited to go behind the scenes with the games best players and coaches. Episode 1 starts with @TigerLacrosse Michael Sowers! #ESPNULAX #relaxinwithpcarc

pic.twitter.com/16PMGYTRKp

— Paul Carcaterra (@paulcarcaterra) January 28, 2018

As you know, TigerBlog is always happy to talk lacrosse, whatever time of year.

There are some other things to get to today though.

The two Princeton hockey teams return from first-semester exam break tonight, and both are on the road. The two games are a bit different, though.

The men's team is at Quinnipiac, jumping right back into the thick of the ECAC race. Princeton currently sits in 10th place, one point back of Quinnipiac for ninth and two back of Brown for eighth. In the ECAC, the top eight teams get home ice in the playoffs.

Princeton follows the trip to Quinnipiac with a home weekend against St. Lawrence and Clarkson. After that are three more weekends of league games, prior to the start of the playoffs.

That means there are nine league games remaining, which means that Princeton could finish basically anywhere from 5-12. Hosting a playoff series is a very real goal.

As for the women, they are at Penn State in their return game, which actually is a return game in more ways than one. For starters, it'll be Princeton's return to playing after the exam break.

Also, it'll be Princeton's return to seeing Jeff Kampersal, the longtime coach at Princeton who is in Year 1 at Penn State. Kampersal needs to rebuild the Nittany Lions, who are 6-12-9.

The women's game, by the way, begins at 5.

And speaking of start times, the men's basketball Friday night against Yale is 6.

That's 6.