Happy Washington's Birthday

Technically, today is not Presidents' Day.

Today is actually a federal holiday called officially "Washington's Birthday," named for the first President of the United States. Washington's birthday has been a federal holiday since 1879, and it was moved from his actual birthday of Feb. 22 to its current spot on the third Monday of February in 1968.

The fact that the holiday no longer falls on Washington's birthday, coupled with the fact that it is now in between Washington's birthday and Abraham Lincoln's birthday, has led it to be known as "Presidents' Day" by most people.

There are 10 official federal holidays in the United States. Only one, "Martin Luther King Jr. Day," is named for someone who was born after the United States became an independent nation in 1776.

As for the Presidents, among TigerBlog's rather useless abilities, he can name all 45 Presidents of the United States in order. Trust him on this.

Mostly he remembers who was elected in what year, so it makes it easier to put them in order. He can also recite the entire "Cat In The Hat" from memory, as well as a lot of lines from movies and TV shows and a lot of song lyrics.

At one point, he was able to recite "Casey At The Bat" and what is known as "The Night Before Christmas" but is really called "A Visit From St. Nick," but he has forgotten certain parts of both. Every now and then he'll go through the entire "Cat In The Hat," just to make sure he still can.

Okay, so it's a little weird, but hey, why not. It reminds him of how he learned it in the first place, when he would read it to TigerBlog Jr. and Miss TigerBlog back when they were little. One day he realized that he'd simply memorized it.

TigerBlog can't remember exactly when he first started reading the Dr. Seuss classic to his kids. It might have been around the time the current Cornell men's basketball coach, Brian Earl, was earning the 1999 Ivy League Player of the Year Award as a Princeton Tiger.

Earl earned his first win against his alma mater Friday night in Ithaca, when Cornell defeated Princeton 107-101 in three overtimes. Princeton's current losing streak reached five Saturday night, when the Tigers - after that three OT game and then a four-hour bus ride to New York City - lost to Columbia.

TigerBlog has been asked about the current losing streak a lot in the last few weeks. It is a stunning situation, as the Tigers looked like as strong an Ivy League contender as anyone for the non-league season and then into the start of the league season, even after a loss to Penn.

Now? Princeton is playing to get into the Ivy League tournament, and to do so, the team needs to turn things around somewhat quickly, beginning this weekend, when Harvard and Dartmouth come to Jadwin Gym.

Right now, Princeton is 3-7 in the league, one game back of Cornell, Columbia and Brown for the fourth spot in the tournament. There are four games left for every time, and Princeton will finish the season with a trip to Brown and Yale.

TigerBlog will admit that he has been very surprised by the losing streak, and he never saw it coming after the Tigers went into first semester exam break with big wins over Columbia and Cornell. This isn't like the Giants most recent season, in which everyone thought the team would be very good but instead turned out to be awful from Day 1.

No, Princeton was supposed to be good and in fact was for much of the season. Then it all turned, seemingly on a dime.

TigerBlog's take on it is this: Relax. Everyone just relax.

First of all, TigerBlog will believe the Tigers aren't going to be part of the Ivy League tournament when that mathematically happens. Until then, he still has faith in this team.

For starters, the head coach is the right guy, Mitch Henderson. He's the same coach who led the Tigers to a 16-0 Ivy run last year, going 14-0 in the regular season and then winning the first tournament. He then led Princeton into the NCAA tournament, where the Tigers lost by just two to Notre Dame, who had just torn through the ACC tournament.

Henderson is in his seventh year as the head coach at Princeton. He's a Princeton basketball guy from head to toe. He's already third all-time in coaching wins in program history, behind only Pete Carril and Cappy Cappon.

How does that play out this season? He is facing a tough challenge, navigating his team when things aren't going easily. TB has a lot of confidence in the coach.

He also has confidence in the players. This is the same group that has had brilliant stretches this year. This is the same group that has some big-time players who have proven themselves time and again.

Maybe that's why all of this has been so stunning. Turning it around won't be easy, but it wouldn't be stunning either.

There's a lot of time between now and the next tip-off. And it'll be on Carril Court, rather than on the road.

It'll start Friday night, when Harvard is here. The Crimson are tied with Penn for first, and they play the Quakers in Philadelphia Saturday night.

TigerBlog knows that Princeton's season has a long way to go. A year ago, a 6-8 team reached the tournament field, after being 2-8 at this point, rather than 3-7.

And hey, with the tournament, every Ivy game is still hugely important. It gives Princeton a second chance, and it makes this weekend really exciting.

Like he said, he'll stay positive until the math says otherwise.