RIP, Stan And Ock

Here's a rule change for the World Cup that will never, ever happen:

If a player goes to the ground due to what seems to be an injury and the official has to stop play to have him checked out, then that player has to leave the field. At this point, his team would hae the option of either subbing for him or playing man-down for five minutes.

This would end all of the flopping relatively quickly. Well, maybe not for Neymar. He might need longer to decondition himself from rolling around on the grass as if no human being has ever endured such excruciating agony several times per game. Seriously, it's embarrassing.

Also, the time needs to be kept on the scoreboard so everyone knows exactly when the half or the game ends, but you already knew that.

As dramatic as Belgium's win over Japan was, with a goal just before stoppage time ended, there's a really strong likelihood that it would have come after time would have expired had time been kept like it is everywhere else in every other sport in the world.

So those are two of TigerBlog's World Cup pet peeves. So is the short corner. TB has never seen one work.

For all of those, the thing he really hates about the World Cup is when a game is decided by penalty kicks. That's how both games Sunday ended, as Russia defeated Spain and Croatia defeated Denmark (TB figured that when it was 1-1 after three minutes that it was headed to PKs at the same score). 

Yes, it's dramatic and exciting and all, but it's an awful way to decide a game. It's not that dissimilar from deciding a tied basketball game by a free throw shooting contest.

Actually it's worse than that. The biggest problem is that a team can play to get to PKs and then take its chances. You would have to play a much different game if you knew that no matter, you couldn't win without a goal.

And yes, every now and then you'd have a game that went on and on without a goal scored, but so what? That happens in the NHL playoffs too. If you wanted to avoid that problem, then take players off the field so it opens things up, like field hockey does.

Having a game go 120 minutes and then have it decided by PKs is hardly a fair way to determine which team advances in the World Cup and which one goes home.

It's like that in the NCAA soccer tournaments, which also decides the outcome by PKs if it's tied after the two overtime periods.

The Princeton women's team won its NCAA second-round game a year ago against N.C. State in penalty kicks. Had Princeton lost that game, it never would have had the opportunity to do what it did in the next round, which was defeat 21-time NCAA champion North Carolina (in OT, but not in PKs).

And even with that, TigerBlog still doesn't think it's the right way to decide a winner.

While the World Cup goes on in Russia, the Princeton men's lightweight team will be in England at the very prestigious Henley Royal Regatta. You can read more about it HERE.
It has to be great for American college athletes to compete in England on the Fourth of July.

Finally, TigerBlog needs to shift to a sadder note today and remember two people who passed away yesterday, both of whom had strong connections to Princeton men's basketball.

The first is Jim O'Connell, who was a national college basketball writer for the Associated Press and, TigerBlog is pretty sure, the uncle of former Tiger Sean Gregory. The other is Stan Adelson, a longtime Princeton fan and, TB believes, one-time head of the Friends of Princeton Basketball.

TigerBlog knew Stan a lot better than he knew the man whom he never heard anyone call by his name. Nope, Jim O'Connell was simply "Ock" to everyone.

TB spent a lot of time with Ock in the mid-to-late 1990s, during Princeton's run those years to Ivy titles, NCAA tournaments, national rankings and NITs. He'd seen him or heard from him every now and then, and each time it was like he was a long-lost relative checking in.

Ock died of a heart attack at the age of just 64. He was a big, friendly, funny man who had time for everyone. He was an ultimate people person, and he just loved to be in a media room at a basketball game.

If Ock was a welcoming man, then Stan Adelson could best be described as a gentle man, and a gentleman. His quiet, respectful persona sort of didn't match with his life as a Major in the Air Force, TigerBlog always thought.

Stan, who was a month away from his 95th birthday, was a grandfatherly man to everyone at Princeton basketball. He certainly was to TigerBlog, who knew Stan for 30 or so years.

TigerBlog is trying to think of anyone he's ever met who loved Princeton basketball more than Stan, and if there's anyone, it's a very short list.

Stan was a Jadwin Gym fixture for decades. He loved the players and the coaches and the game nights. He was a soft-spoken man, one who smiled all the time, hugged often, was polite to everyone and couldn't get enough of watching the Tigers.

They were very different people, Stan and Ock, with very different personalities. They were united by their love of basketball, and they have left lasting memories on a lot of people.

Included in that group is TigerBlog, who liked them both very much.

College basketball won't be quite the same without Ock.

Jadwin Gym won't be quite the same without Stan.