TigerBlog starts today with one of the two best saves he's ever seen a lacrosse goalie make.
This one belongs to Colton King, a senior for Sacred Heart University. Yeah, yeah, TB knows what you're thinking. He has some Sacred Heart bias.
And yes he does. TigerBlog Jr., if you recall, is a Sacred Heart graduate, and he had a wonderful experience at the school in Connecticut as a student and a lacrosse player.
In fact, TBJ was a goalie for the Pioneers, and he made some pretty sweet saves in his career. With all due apologies to his son, he never made one as good as this:
— Sacred Heart Men's Lacrosse (@SHUmenslax) February 25, 2021
That's ridiculous, right?
The other best save TB has ever seen came in the 2016 NCAA final. Actually in overtime. Here it is:
That's also ridiculous, right? Maybe even more ridiculous, given the stakes. That was Maryland's Kyle Bernlohr, whose team ultimately lost that game, but hey, that save still has a place in lacrosse history.
As for King's save, it came from a player who has been slowed by injuries for much of his career. It was great to see him have that moment, and great to see how it ended up as one of the top 10 best plays of the day on SportsCenter.
That's not for lacrosse. That's for all sports.
Of course, that little fact reminded TB of something that happened in Princeton men's basketball nearly two decades ago and again how much the world has changed.
Do you know the game TB is thinking about now? Hint - Ed Persia.
The game was a basketball game at Monmouth. It seemed it was just another night and just another game, determined to be forgotten by most people shortly after it answered.
Instead, Ed Persia stepped in to make some history.
Princeton was down 10 in the second half before rallying to tie it at 57-57. Monmouth's Kevin Owens missed what would have been a game-winning foul shot, and Princeton was awarded possession with 0.7 seconds to play.
Overtime, right?
Will Venable, who would go on to a long Major League Baseball career and is now a Major League coach on his way to being a manager one day, inbounded the ball to Persia in front of the Monmouth bench. Persia then turned an heaved it towards the basket.
As TB recalls, it looked like the ball had a chance when it left Persia's hand. He's not sure why, but he definitely remembers thinking it had a chance.
He also remembers that it seemed like it took forever to get there. When it finally did, it smacked off the backboard and into the basket. Final score, Princeton 60, Monmouth 57.
It was extraordinary. It was an 80-yard shot from Persia, a former high school quarterback in Texas. Here's what Persia said after the game: "Right when it left my hand, I knew it had a chance. It seemed like it took an hour to get there."
So suppose you were in athletic communications at the time. What would you do next?
This was before social media, before streaming. The game was being filmed by Princeton's coaches (TB is almost sure it was Susan Tucker, who still films for Princeton).
The first thing was to get a copy of the tape. That part wasn't that difficult.
Then it was about getting it on TV. How did TB do that?
He had to drive it from West Long Branch, N.J., where Monmouth is located, all the way to the offices of what was then Comcast SportsNet in Philadelphia. Those offices were located in what is now the Wells Fargo Center and which back then could have been called any number of banks.
Once he drove it there, he was able to get it onto the highlights there and also to SportsCenter in Connecticut, with a lot of help from the Comcast people.
Today?
You get a great play. You clip it. You put it on social media. You put the hashtag "#SCTop10" and that's about all there is to it.
Simple, right?
On the other hand, as TB also recalls, it was after midnight when he started driving back from Philadelphia, and he stopped off for a cheesesteak for the ride home.
The current generation may have it easier with technology, but there's nothing like an after-midnight Philly cheesesteak.
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