Then he saw this play in Princeton's 20-11 win over Colgate last night:
Sowers to Stevens for Princeton's 16th goal at the end of the third. Sowers now has the school record for most points scored in a single game, and his ninth assist ties a school record for most assists in a single game.— Princeton Lacrosse (@TigerLacrosse) February 19, 2020
Princeton 16-7 heading into the 4th! pic.twitter.com/vipEBsYBl9
Which of his assists is your favorite so far this season? You have a lot of choices.
Sowers has an extraordinary 18 assists in two games, to go along with seven goals for an even more extraordinary 25 points.
His game last night was one for the ages, without a doubt the single best individual game in Princeton men's lacrosse history. Sowers put up 14 points on three goals and 11 assists, and when the dust had settled, he had the Ivy League record for points in a game and the Princeton record for assists in a game.
In fact he could have gotten the NCAA assists record with one more, but he didn't play the final 9:23 of the game. He was also two away from the NCAA record for points in a game, and the way he was playing last night, there's little doubt he would have gotten both.
As it was, he settled for becoming the seventh player to have at least 14 points in a game and the second in the last 23 years, along with Albany's Miles Thompson in 2013.
He's also the fifth player in Division I history with at least 11 assists in a game, and the first to reach that number since 1992.
Sowers destroyed the Princeton record book in his first three seasons, with the three-highest single-season totals in program history, which added together made him the all-time leader in points in a career before his senior year even began.
This year, every point he scores puts more distance between him and everyone else who has ever played at Princeton. TB got a text yesterday asking if Sowers was the closest comparison to Bill Bradley in terms of dominating a team's record book, and the answer is a resounding "yes."
Bradley, 55 years after graduation, stands as the all-time leader in scoring in men's basketball by a wide margin. Come back in 2075 and see where Sowers stands in the record book; TB is pretty sure he'll still be No. 1 by a large margin.
So what's the most amazing thing about Sowers?
Is it his vision? The way he keeps his head up at all times? The way he makes everything so simple? Is it his explosive first step? Is it his change of direction?
It's all of those things.
He makes it so easy to be the official scorer at his games, since none of his assists is ever remotely debatable. He makes the pass, and his teammates finish the layup or catch and shoot the outside shot. Nobody ever has to do anything other than finish after catching the pass.
Against Colgate, Sowers had assists to seven different teammates. That's crazy.
Even crazier is what he did during the deciding 10-0 run in the third quarter into the fourth quarter. Princeton led 8-6 at the break, but Colgate scored off the second half face-off to make it a one-goal game.
Then Princeton scored the next 10. During that stretch, Sowers had a goal and seven assists.
Yes, that's crazier.
Sowers now has 280 career points, which ranks him 23rd all-time in NCAA history. He's 11th in NCAA history with 168 career assists.
His per game averages for his career in assists and points are better than any players in the last 38 years.
Next up for Princeton is defending NCAA champion Virginia in Charlottesville Saturday. It'll be a huge test for Sowers and the Tigers, who have played two very good games against UVa the last two years, including an OT loss a year ago.
TigerBlog wrote a feature story about Sowers in the fall in which he called him the best lacrosse player he's ever seen.
He stands by that. After what Sowers has done the first two games this year, why would he think any differently?
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