Stat Time

It's been awhile since TigerBlog has kept stats at a game. 

Think he remembers how? Well, he'll find out quickly, as he'll be the official statistician for two field hockey games today. 

When it comes to doing the program called StatCrew, TB has done approximately one million games in his life. Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration. It's probably more like 100,000.

Actually, he wishes he knew how many games he's kept stats for in his life, because it's a relatively high number. It's one of the core functions of being in college athletic communications, not to mention being the team scorekeeper of his kids' teams as they were growing up.

The last Princeton game he did stats for was the Princeton-Rutgers men's lacrosse game on March 8, 2020. Princeton won the game 16-11 to move to 5-0 on the year, not to mention second in the national poll. 

There was no paper left in the Class of 1952 Stadium press box, so TigerBlog put some in his car to take over for the next game, which was going to be the Ivy League opener against Penn the next Saturday.

Instead, everything shut down due to COVID, and TB hasn't done a Princeton game since. He did do stats at the NCAA men's lacrosse championships this past spring, but he wasn't the one who was on the computer doing the entering.

He'll be that today. Does he remember how? It's like riding a bike, something he's done a lot of since March of 2020.

TigerBlog's field hockey stat keeping will be at an Ivy League-ACC doubleheader that begins at noon with Penn-Louisville, followed at 2:30 by Princeton-North Carolina. The first part of doing stats was getting the times right, something TB almost didn't do, because he thought it was 2:30 and 5. 

Now that he has it down pat, he's looking forward to these games. North Carolina is the three-time defending NCAA champion, including a 6-1 win over Princeton in the 2019 final. The Tar Heels won their most recent title last May, as the NCAA had its fall championships in the spring, and UNC went 19-1, with only a loss to Louisville in its second game.

UNC has already lost more games this year than it did all of last year – and the year before that and the years before that combined. North Carolina is 0-2 this year, with losses last week in Iowa against Michigan and Iowa, after going 23-0 in 2018 and 2019 before the 19-1 run last year. 

The game today will be Princeton's first since that NCAA final two falls ago. The four teams will be back on Sherrerd Field Sunday, when Penn will play North Carolina at 11 and Princeton will play Louisville at 1:30. The Cardinals are ranked fifth in the country after opening with shutout wins over Ohio and New Hampshire by a combined 9-0. Princeton is ranked 13th. 

It's actually a Class of 1952 tripleheader today. After the two field hockey games, you can flip from Bedford Field to Sherrerd Field (or simply face the other way out of the press box) and watch the Princeton men's soccer team in its season debut.

The Tigers host the Scarlet Knights at 7 (so you can get something to eat between field hockey and soccer). 

Rutgers comes into the game 1-0-1, though the Scarlet Knights have to allow a goal. RU opened with a 2-0 win over Delaware and then played a scoreless tie with Temple. 

Princeton and Rutgers men's soccer goes way back. This is the 59th meeting between the two, and Princeton leads 28-21-9.

The first meeting between the teams was on Nov. 20, 1951. Princeton won the game 6-2, but the big story the next day in the Daily Princetonian was about the Big Three football bonfire. That was a football team led by Dick Kazmaier.

As for the current Princeton men's soccer team, there are still 18 players on the team who were on the 2018 Ivy League championship team. There are also four returning players who have earned All-Ivy honors in their careers, including Kevin O'Toole, who was the 2018 Ivy League Offensive Player of the Year and a 2019 first-team All-Ivy League selection.

And remember - admission to regular season field hockey and soccer at Princeton is free. And the weather should be great. 

See you there.