Another Busy February Weekend

Miss TigerBlog's high school gave students the opportunity to attend the Eagles' Super Bowl parade yesterday, provided they had a note from their parents saying it was okay.

According to another parent, the school was a "ghost town" this morning.

TigerBlog has a colleague whose wife is a guidance counselor at another suburban Philadelphia high school. She said there was maybe 10 percent attendance today.

MTB went to Philly, along with some of her friends. TigerBlog? He had zero interest.

In fact, he was trying to think about what he'd less like to do - go to the Eagles parade or Times Square on New Year's Eve. He thinks they're tied, at no chance for either.

Still, TigerBlog understands why dieheard Eagles fans wanted to go. Their team won, and at the same time, their team comes across as completely likeable. It's a good combination.

Anyway, MTB had a good time at the parade. Apparently Jason Kelce did too.

And that's it for the Super Bowl.

The next big thing is the Winter Olympics, which actually have already started in South Korea. It appears to be really cold there, by the way.

TigerBlog can sum up Day 1 quickly - the figure skating kid who has been on every one of his Corn Flakes boxes for the last few months fell during his short program in the team competition, Israel's team was led by a Russian who lives in Hackensack and it would probably not be fun to be a mogul's skier who didn't advance and therefore was done in the Olympics before the Opening Ceremonies, which are actually today.

TigerBlog figures he'll watch a lot of it for the next two weeks. He won't be able to devote all of his attention to the Games in South Korea, though, not with the schedule that Princeton has coming up.

There are huge events across the board, as Ivy League winter championships are about to be won and spring seasons are about to start. 

It's another huge weekend for the Tigers, with 32 events between today and Sunday. At the very least, somebody will be winning Ivy League men's and women's fencing championships at Jadwin Gym this weekend, with the round-robin Ivy event here tomorrow and Sunday.

Princeton won the outright women's title last year, its sixth title in seven years. The men finished in a three-way tie for the championship.

The men's squash team is at Columbia tonight. Princeton could still get a share of the Ivy title with a win and a lot of help, but a loss to the No. 2 Lions would spell the end of those chances.

Back here on Carril Court, the women's basketball team hosts Harvard tonight, Dartmouth tomorrow and then, for good measure, Penn Tuesday. Those four teams are the top four teams in the league right now, and Princeton, Harvard and Penn are all tied for first.

Because of the Ivy tournament, the second Princeton-Penn game for both the men and women has been moved to midweek. It was the men's turn last Tuesday, which means that Princeton is now heading to Harvard and Dartmouth for its fourth and fifth games in eight days.

It'll be the women's turn next, and for Courtney Banghart, it's a first. And not an easy road, even if the first three are at home.

The men's team looks to bounce back from losses Saturday to Brown and Tuesday to Penn on the trip to Harvard and Dartmouth. The Tigers are still clearly very much alive for the Ivy tournament, and from there comes the bid to the NCAA tournament.

Speaking of teams who are looking ahead to tournaments, there is the matter of the upcoming ECAC hockey playoffs.

Both the Princeton men and women are currently in sixth. On the women's side, only the top eight of 12 make the playoffs, though, so Princeton would need to get into fourth to host a first-round series. Doing so would mean making up eight points in two weekends, something that is at least mathematically possible.

Should Princeton not do so, then this weekend would be the last home weekend of the season. The Tigers are home tonight against Clarkson (6) and then tomorrow against St. Lawernce (3), both of whom are in the top four.

The men's team is on the road, at Brown tonight and Yale tomorrow night. The men's team have three weekends left, and Princeton could finish anywhere between third (with a first-round bye) to 10th (first round on the road). The race will start sorting itself out each weekend, and every game is huge. At the very least, Princeton wants to be in the top eight, so it gets a home playoff series.

In addition, the women's tennis team hosts the ECAC championships at Jadwin and does so as the No. 1 seed, after it's win over then-No. 12 Auburn last weekend.
For everything else, check the schedule HERE.

Each weekend in February is crowded. It gets even more so next weekend, with the season openers for the men's and women's lacrosse teams.

So enjoy the Olympics. But not too much.

There's a lot of big Princeton stuff going on at the same time. It's mid-February. It's the busiest time of the year here.