Golden Doodle

So TigerBlog was walking along the other day without his phone, which meant he couldn't check the time.

He walked past a man who was walking his dog, a rather large dog, and TB called out: "Do you know what time it is?"

And what did the man respond?

"Golden Doodle."

How great is that? He clearly wasn't paying attention that closely to what TB said. Either that, or a few people asked him what kind of dog he had.

"What time is it?"

"Golden Doodle."

Love it.

That has absolutely nothing to do with Princeton Athletics. The closest connection to Princeton Athletics is that when the conversation happened, TB was wearing a "Princeton Football" sweatshirt. Oh, and his Princeton bucket hat, an olive one with a striped "P" on it;

And that's not really a huge connection or anything. Or for that matter, it's not really all that unique for TB, who has something Princeton related on pretty much at all times.

It's interesting that telling time has gone from having a wristwatch to checking your phone. Or, if you're really lazy, you can simply say "hey Siri, what time is it?"

Do people still wear watches?

TB has never been a huge fan of wearing watches. In fact, he hardly ever has. The only watches he ever had as an adult were either NCAA tournament watches, NIT watches or in-season tournament watches. 

The two best of the last of those were the ones he got at the Rainbow Classic in Honolulu in 1998 and one of the ones he got from his two trips to Iowa State (1995 and 1998). The weather at those two locations in December was radically different, although on one of his trips to Iowa State, the temperature there set a record for the month in the state and started to melt the frozen lakes, which created the most absurd fog that TB has ever seen.

On that trip, TB flew to Minneapolis with Tom McCarthy, then the radio play-by-play man, and met up with his childhood buddy Larry Zucker, who lives in Eden Prairie. After dinner with the Zucker family there, TB and McCarthy drove the three hours south to Ames, the site of Iowa State.

The only problem is that you couldn't see at all out of the front of the car. TB has never seen any fog close to that. The three-hour ride ended up taking a whole lot longer. 

As for the NCAA tournament watches, they were all pretty special to him.

He got his first one after the Tigers' 1996 trip to the men's tournament, the one where Princeton defeated UCLA in Indianapolis. The watches were given out (if TB is remembering this correctly) at a reception with then-University president Harold Shapiro.

In other men's basketball news, Princeton alum Devin Cannady hit his first NBA three-pointer in an exhibition game this past Friday, when his Orlando Magic defeated the Atlanta Hawks 116-112. Cannady played seven minutes and had a rebound, assist and blocked shot in addition to his three points.

Orlando plays at home tomorrow night against the Charlotte Hornets in the third of four preseason games. Cannady had a strong season a year ago in the G-League for the Long Island Nets, averaging 14.4 points per game and shooting 36 percent from three.

Also in Princeton men's basketball news, there is a really good "Journey To Jadwin" piece on Jaelin Llewellyn, the current junior from Toronto who led the Tigers in scoring a year ago.

The story talks about how Llewellyn went from growing up in Toronto and rooting for the Raptors, how his father (a former player at Rhode Island who suffered a broken hip that derailed his professional career) helped get him started, Jaelin's experiences with the Canadian national program, how he went from Canada to finish high school in Virginia and ultimately how he made it to Princeton.

This part of the story really resonated:

While he received offers from the likes of Virginia, Tennessee, Wake Forest, Maryland, Georgetown and Purdue, Llewellyn ultimately chose Princeton the summer before his senior year at Virginia Episcopal. 

“I definitely want something else other than only basketball because I’m more things than just basketball,” said Llewellyn. “I have a lot of other interests and things that I like to do when I'm not dribbling a ball and I think Princeton has a culture that creates a space for that, even if you don't do anything with it.”

You can read the story HERE.