A Baby And A Basketball Schedule

TigerBlog starts today with some good news.

Of course it's not that he usually brings bad news or anything. So maybe he shouldn't say good news, as much as special news.

TigerBlog's first text message yesterday came from men's lacrosse coach Matt Madalon. It said that his wife Ashley had given birth to their second child, Whitney Drew Madalon, who joins her older sister Waverly.

So TB starts the day by saying mazel tov to the Madalons. 

When you have a first child, by the way, you overthink everything. It says not to put the baby formula into the microwave, so you agonize over that. When you have a second it's "yeah, whatever." Throw the bottle in the microwave and get on with it.
The other thing about having a second child is that you've pretty much completely forgotten how to deal with most things that involve an infant. Like the infant car seat for instance.

TB knows someone who had a second baby and had a two year old at the same time. When they brought the baby home from the hospital, the two year old walked around it and then kicked it. Now that they're both in their 20s, they seem to get along just fine, with no lingering resentment from that intro.

TigerBlog once had a three year old and a newborn. His comment on that is that while those were very special times, it's way easier to have a 22 year old and a 19 year old.

Of course, he's very happy for the Madalons.

What other news was there from yesterday?

Well, there was the release of the men's basketball schedule. At one point, when TB first started here, the schedule was announced through a press release and on the back cover of the media guide. Then it was a story on goprincetontigers.com.

Yesterday it was released through an Instagram story. What will the announcement of the 2029-30 schedule look like?

Princeton will play two games in NBA arenas, including a Nov. 9 game against San Francisco in the brand-new Chase Center, which will be the home for the Golden State Warriors.

The other NBA arena is the Barclay's Center in Brooklyn, where Princeton will play Iona Dec. 17 as part of the Air Force Reserve Basketball Hall of Fame Invitational.

Arizona State will be at Jadwin Gym on Nov 26 after Princeton defeated the Sun Devils in Tempe 67-66 last December. Princeton has played 27 games against current Pac 12 teams, but only one in the past has been at home. And that game, on Dec 30, 1968 against Stanford, predated Jadwin Gym and instead was played in Dillon.

Another season highlight will definitely be the trip to Indiana on Nov. 20.

This won't be Mitch Henderson's first time in Assembly Hall in Bloomington on a Nov. 20. He was there on Nov. 20, 1996, when he scored six points, had three rebounds and had three assists in a 59-49 loss to the Hoosiers.

TigerBlog was at that game as well. It was Bill Carmody's first game as Princeton head coach.

TB missed his flight to Indianapolis out of Newark because of a truck fire on the New Jersey Turnpike. He was with Tom McCarthy and Mark Eckel (then of the Trenton Times) and they arrived at the gate just in time to see the plane push back.

The only other flight that would get them to Indiana on time was actually out of Philadelphia, so they had to drive back down the turnpike to Philly, fly to Indianapolis and then rent a car and get to Bloomington. It all worked out.

Princeton opens this coming season on Nov. 5 at Duquesne. Yeah, that's a little more than two months away.

There are also non-league home games against Lafayette, Monmouth, Hofstra and Lehigh, and trips to Bucknell, Drexel and FDU.

There are also obviously the 14 regular season Ivy League games, beginning with games Jan. 4 and 11 against Penn (the first one is in Philadelphia).

Though the first athletic event of the year is still two days away, it'll be basketball season soon enough.

The schedules that both Princeton teams have together should make for a pretty good November and December, in Jadwin Gym and around the country.