A Lax Tuesday

TigerBlog had breakfast this past Saturday in Providence with Chris Humm, who spent several decades as the head of athletic communications at Brown.

These days, the man everyone calls "the Hummer" is retired. When TB asked him what he does in his retirement, the Hummer replied "whatever I want."

What he mostly wants, and therefore does, is 1) spend time with his grandchildren and 2) golf. He still goes to a lot of Brown athletic events, though he couldn't make it to the men's lacrosse game against Princeton Saturday because he was helping his younger son do some work on his house.

Such is the life of the retiree.

TB reconnected the Hummer with some others who were in the world of Ivy League athletic communications even before TB was when he added him to a text thread that included Princeton OAC alums Chuck Yrigoyen (who was also a longtime member of the Ivy League office), Kurt Kehl and Mark Panus. Of course the subject of the time that the Hummer was stung by a bee on his tongue in the Palmer Stadium press box came up immediately.

It was a different world back then, one in which there were real friendships that grew among the communications people at the time. TB doesn't want to sound like an old guy or anything, but it just seems different these days. 

As for the Hummer, it was awesome to see him. There aren't too many people TB has ever met that he's liked more than he likes Chris Humm, with whom he goes back to his newspaper days. 

The game that the Hummer missed was a 17-9 Princeton win over Brown. It was a huge effort for the Tigers in a game that they really had to have, coming as it did after a loss the week before at Yale. It was an Ivy League win on the road (home teams are now 7-2 this year in the league), and it came against a team that had been as much a thorn in Princeton's side as anyone else the last few years. 

Princeton's Alex Slusher was named the Ivy League Player of the Week after his six-goal game against the Bears. He scored four of those goals on the 6-0 run that started the third quarter and turned a 7-5 Tiger halftime lead into a 13-5 game.

The new rankings came out yesterday. This is not an easy year to be trying to rank teams, what with how so many of the top teams have been beating each other. 

How would you rank them? Maryland, the lone unbeaten, is a clear No. 1. After that? 

Georgetown and Rutgers have looked great and have one loss each, both to Princeton. The Tigers have two losses, to Maryland and to Yale, who beat Princeton, who beat Penn, who beat Cornell, who beat Yale. Penn lost to Princeton and Yale in overtime. 

It's messy.

The USILA coaches' poll has it Maryland, Georgetown, Rutgers, Princeton and Yale in the top five. It's a bit odd to see Princeton directly behind two teams it beat and directly ahead of a team it lost to, but hey, that's how it is this year. Also, there are five Ivy schools ranked in the top 11 of the USILA poll and in the top 10 of the Inside Lacrosse media poll.

Princeton sits at 6-2 overall and 2-1 in the league. There are five games to go in the regular season for the Tigers, and four of those are at home, including one tonight at 7 against Marist, a team that is also 2-1 in its league (the MAAC). For proof of what can happen if you take a team from the MAAC lightly, ask Kentucky, Murray State and Purdue in men's basketball.

After the game tonight, there's the final non-league game of the regular season, this Saturday at 1 against Boston University. Are the Terriers good this year? How about 8-1 overall, 5-0 in the Patriot League heading into their game today against Yale. Who is the loss against? Harvard. BU is ranked 13th this week in the USILA poll and Inside Lacrosse media poll.

Princeton has put together an incredibly tough schedule this year and has responded to it very well so far. Keep in mind, this is a Princeton team that was essentially ignored in the preseason polls. Now the Tigers are looking very much like a postseason team, though there are still plenty of hurdles left to clear before that happens.