TAGD Tomorrow

TAGD WEBSITE

It dawns on TigerBlog that this is the longest he goes each year without writing.

He comes to you every day, except for Saturdays and Sundays. And Monday holidays. And Christmas and New Year's. Other than that, he's here every day, with only this four-day Thanksgiving break as the exception.

Did you miss him?

TigerBlog hopes everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend.

He hopes it was full of turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole and pumpkin pie, or whatever else might be your favorite. And leftovers. And, as he said last week, perhaps a little time to consider what it is you're thankful for this year.

TB's holiday started Wednesday night, when he was doing the radio with Patrick McCarthy for the men's basketball game against Fairleigh Dickinson. Late in the game, TB mentioned that in all the time he's been working with Princeton men's basketball - 30 years now - he couldn't think of a player who looked like he was having more fun playing the game than Devin Cannady does.

Maybe it's because over time you lose track of just how much some of the older players seemed to be enjoying themselves. Certainly Kit Mueller did, for instance.

The more he thinks about it, though, he's going with Cannady. He just exudes joy at all times on the court, mixing it with confidence and skill to form a dominant player who has had a great career.

Cannady missed Princeton's first two games this year due to injury, but he has come back in a big way. He had 21 against FDU in his first appearance, a loss at Jadwin before Thanksgiving.

Included in that performance was a three-point shot that saw his back heel just about touching the Tigers' whiskers on the logo at halfcourt. He took this shot in the flow of the offense, swishing it through like it was nothing.

He didn't quite beat his best in his second game, at least not just in terms of points scored. Cannady followed up his first game with 21 more in Saturday's 60-57 win over Monmouth, but that doesn't quite tell the story. Cannady had three at the half and then 18 more after the break, including the Tigers' final 11 of the game, all in the final 3:38, as he rallied his team from down 10 with nine minutes left.

He snapped a 55-55 tie with a three-pointer with 40 seconds left and then, after Monmouth got it back to 58-57, he made two clutch foul shots with 12 seconds left.

Cannady, for his two games, is obviously averaging 21.0 points. He's also shooting .600 from three-point range (9 for 15) and has made all three of his foul shots.

Cannady now has 1,266 career points, 12th best all-time at Princeton. He needs to average just short of 15 per game to move all the way up to second place (somewhat fascinatingly, he just moved past the halfway point of the 2,503 that Bill Bradley scored).

Oh, and why did TigerBlog use the phrase "beat his best" a few paragraphs ago? That's been one of the themes the last week on the social media lead-up to tomorrow, which is the annual Tiger Athletics Give Day, or TAGD.

Like this:

Michael Sowers beat his best when he broke his own school record for points in a season. Beat Your Best when Tiger Athletics Give Day arrives Tuesday. #TAGD #TigerUp pic.twitter.com/tIGV8asULg

— Princeton Tigers (@PUTIGERS) November 24, 2018

The other theme is that this is the fifth TAGD. Like this:

Elise Wong became the 5th Tiger in @TigerFH history to be named Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year in 2018. The 5th #TAGD is Nov. 27! #TigerUp pic.twitter.com/NTrN1Xx0xX

— Princeton Tigers (@PUTIGERS) November 25, 2018

Five already?

The first TAGD grew out of the celebration of the first athletic event in school history, back on Nov. 22, 1864. That was a baseball game against Williams, which Princeton won 27-16. Yes. Baseball.

Since then, Princeton Athletics has raised more than $7 million dollars, which goes directly to benefit 37 varsity teams and especially the experience of the 1,000 student-athletes.

The competition on TAGD is fun, but serious. The teams and Friends' groups are competing against each other for total dollars raised and total donors, in four different brackets. There are also bonus funds for breaking existing records for each Friends' group in both categories.

You know. Beat your best.

TAGD is a 24-hour fundraising event. Only gifts made from midnight tonight Eastern time through 11:59 PM count towards the totals.

There's much more information available on the TAGD website, the link to which TB put at the very top. Included in there is the way to give, but don't do it until tomorrow.

Then you can help Princeton beat its best.