Wait, What Order Are These Games?

Just to get this straight, the women's team is home and the men's team is away against the same opponent, just not in basketball?

Yes. That's right. The women's lacrosse team is home against Virginia tomorrow at 1. The men's team will be at Virginia at the same time.

That's usually how basketball works in February, not lacrosse.

As for basketball, Courtney Banghart was sure her team was going to Dartmouth first this weekend. TigerBlog was just as sure that Harvard was coming to Jadwin Gym first this weekend. Turns out they were both right.

All of this came out during the current edition of "The Court Report," the podcast that TB has done each week with the Princeton women's basketball coach this season. TB mentioned that Harvard was the first game of the weekend, and then Courtney said that her team was going to Dartmouth first.

This was always TigerBlog's fear when he traveled with men's basketball, which he did from 1989-2004 or so. He was positive that one of those times, or maybe each time, that he'd have it backwards, and he'd show up at, say Ithaca, N.Y., in time to see Cornell play ... Penn.

It never happened, fortunately. There was the time that an old-time sportswriter from the Star-Ledger called him to find out where everyone was; TB was at Harvard and the writer had gone to Palmer Stadium.

There were no cell phones then, of course, so TB got a call at the Harvard Stadium press box. It's like getting a call at 2 am. You assume something is wrong, though it turned out just to be a sportswriter who couldn't read a schedule. On the plus side, it would have been worse if he'd been at Harvard and the game had been at Princeton.

Anyway, both Courtney and TigerBlog were correct this time.

It'll be the women's team at Dartmouth tonight and Harvard tomorrow night. It'll be the men home against Harvard tonight and Dartmouth tomorrow night.

Courtney was on the bus yesterday when she texted TB about something, and TB reminded her to make sure she was going to New Hampshire first.

It's not like she doesn't know the way. She's a Dartmouth grad, undergrad and graduate, and one of the best women's basketball players the school has ever had. She also coached there for three years before coming to Princeton 11 years ago.

This weekend isn't the time for anything sentimental, not at this time of year, not for either team. Princeton is playing for an Ivy League title; Dartmouth is playing to get into the Ivy League tournament, which is just two weeks away now.

Princeton is 9-1 in the league, one game ahead of Penn, who will be at Harvard and Dartmouth. From there it goes to a three-way tie for third, at 6-4, with Yale (the only team to beat Princeton), Dartmouth and Harvard. Princeton and Penn finish the regular season next week home games against Yale and Brown.

Brown and Cornell are both 2-8. TigerBlog didn't look all this up, but he's reasonably sure that Brown or Cornell could catch the three who are tied for third or the three who are tied for third can still catch Princeton and Penn, mathematically at least.

Practically, though, it appears that it's Princeton and Penn for the championship and top two seeds and then Yale, Dartmouth and Harvard in a race for the final two tournament slots.

On the men's side, Harvard is here tonight and Dartmouth tomorrow, a rarity where the men and women have different opponents. It's consecutive rarities - a weekend without any home basketball last weekend because there were doubleheaders on the road and then a weekend where the opponents don't match up.

Princeton has no time to worry about such matters though. The Tigers are still in the hunt for a spot in the Ivy League tournament, even with the current six-game losing streak.

Up first is the Crimson, who are tied with Penn for first at 9-1. Those teams match up tomorrow night in Philadelphia.

Princeton is currently in seventh, at 3-7 in the league, with four games to play. Obviously there's very, very little margin for error.

Yale is 5-5 entering this weekend. Columbia, Cornell and Brown are all 4-6. TB isn't sure about how the tiebreakers will all play out, but he does know that 6-8 made it last year and it might do so again.

Princeton is fortunate to have games left against the teams with whom it is competing.

With four games to go, Princeton can't really be looking at the big picture or the different permutations for the league tournament. Nope. The Tigers need to come out strong, and relaxed. As the mantra goes, "make shots."

See what happens this weekend and see where it leaves them. Then worry about next weekend.

As for lacrosse, it's Princeton's first regular season game against UVa on the men's side since 2008 (there was an NCAA tournament game in 2012), while the women play UVa every year. For the women, it's the home opener, and admission is free.

Both teams are 1-0 after the men opened with a 9-8 two OT win over Monmouth and the women opened with a 17-4 win at Temple.

Lacrosse season has started. Basketball season is winding down.

It's a weekend with big games in both.