Princeton At Cornell

TigerBlog's cousin Jill is, among other things, a huge fan of the New York Yankees and "The Wizard of Oz," as well as an Emmy Award winner (as a producer for "Dateline") and the mother of a six-year-old named Julia.

What else is on her resume?

Oh yeah. She's also a former editor of "The Cornell Daily Sun," the student newspaper at Cornell. TigerBlog remembers visiting her there a long time ago, on the way back from the 1991 NCAA men's basketball tournament in Syracuse.

He was with Mark Panus, who had his job at Princeton before TB did, George O'Neil, who is still an athletic trainer at Princeton and Kurt Kehl, who was at Princeton until 2002.

If you remember, Princeton lost to Villanova 50-48 in that game, on a Lance Miller floater in the lane with two seconds left. It was Kit Mueller's last game.

That was 28 years ago, and it still bothers TigerBlog when he thinks back to it. That game is definitely in the top five of most miserable games he's seen with Princeton.

The next day, the caravan went back to Princeton but stopped off in Ithaca, though TB isn't quite sure why. Panus is a Cornell alum too, but that wasn't why. Maybe it was.

There was a men's lacrosse game at Cornell that day as the Big Red played, TB believes, Harvard. As he thinks back to it, he remembers that Panus wanted to stop by that game for some reason.

And so, the four of them stopped off at his cousin's apartment. After they left, they got a flat tire on I-380 in the Poconos.

TB, who for the record knows how to change a tire, was assigned to hold the lug nuts.

Anyway, one of these days Jill is actually going to follow through on her stated position that she will attend a Princeton-Cornell football game. It just won't be this year.

The Tigers are in Ithaca tonight to take on the Big Red in a huge game. Then again, as the Tigers chase a second-straight Ivy League title and fourth title in seven years, every game is huge with four weeks left, now that the calendar has turned to November.

It's a huge Princeton weekend in Ithaca actually, with more than just a big football game that kicks off at 6 on ESPNU. One hour later, it'll be Princeton and Cornell in women's volleyball at Neumann Arena, across the street from the crescent grandstand of Schoellkopf Field.

That one is also big.

Then, tomorrow at 3, it'll be Princeton and Cornell in women's hockey. That's a matchup of two top six teams in the country, a pair of teams who figure to be right in the thick of the ECAC race all season - and well into the postseason.

Even though it's November, though, it's a bit early to start talking about women's hockey races. For today, TB will focus on the two fall teams who are at Cornell.

In women's volleyball, it's clearly a three-team race now. With three weekends of two matches each to play, or a total of six, Princeton, Cornell and Yale are all 7-1 in the league, while no other team is above .500.

Clearly when they go head-to-head, it's big.

The first time through Princeton lost to Cornell 3-1 and beat Yale 3-0. Yale beat Cornell 3-1.

So yes, it's big. 

As for the football game, Princeton is 3-0 in the league, tied with Dartmouth as the only two unbeatens. Dartmouth plays Harvard tomorrow, and that's a Harvard team whose only loss so far was last week against Princeton.

Then, next Saturday, Princeton and Dartmouth meet at Yankee Stadium. You will hear no one on Princeton or Dartmouth use the following numbers anytime before their games this weekend are over: "7-0."

With a win by each this weekend, Princeton and Dartmouth would enter that game 7-0, marking the second-straight year that they would have done so. Again, that's a minimum of 60 minutes away, and neither team can afford to look past their Week 7 opponent.

Cornell is playing home after a big 37-35 win over Brown last week. This is a Cornell team that led Yale in the second half and played Harvard tough before falling in both.

As for Princeton, there are all sorts of individual storylines for this team. TigerBlog will give you one: quarterback Kevin Davidson ranks eight all-time at Princeton in career touchdown passes with 23.

Now consider that Davidson has made seven career starts. He's thrown for at least 300 yards in four of those and 299 in a fifth.

That's your only individual note for today. It's not about individuals anyway. It's about getting another win and moving one step closer to the goal - all against a team that will be completely ready to go against the Tigers.

Again, that's a 6 p.m. kickoff on ESPNU.

And if you're in Ithaca, well, then you can make a weekend out of it. There are certainly big enough games to see there.