More Gold For Currier

One of these days, TigerBlog will be able to look back at the Princeton-Michigan State men's basketball second round NCAA tournament game of 1998 and not think "grrrr."

It's only been 24-plus years. You can't rush these things.

TB has been asked several times what the toughest loss he's been around for a Princeton team in all his time here, and he usually answers with that game. 

It's not so much that Princeton "should" have won that game. It's more that Princeton "could" have won that game, and considering that Michigan State had four players on that team who started two years later on a team that won the NCAA title, that's saying something.

The 1997-98 Princeton men's basketball team went 26-1 in the regular season and then easily defeated UNLV in the first round of the tournament (in Hartford). Michigan State jumped out to a big lead in the second round game, but the Tigers came back to tie it late before Mateen Cleaves, who would have a long NBA career, drained a long three to put the Spartans back on top. After that, Michigan State made some foul shots and won 63-56.

Cleaves was the only Spartan in double figures. He finished with 27. Steve Goodrich, who would also play in the NBA, had 18 to lead the Tigers.

Had Princeton won, it would have advanced to the Sweet 16 and would have played North Carolina in Greensboro. North Carolina was the only other team to defeat Princeton that season, and TB would have loved to see the rematch on that stage. 

North Carolina reached the Final Four that year, losing to Utah. Kentucky beat Stanford in the other semifinal and then Utah to win the championship.

It was a great year for the Tigers, one of the best by any Princeton team ever. It's just that it ended with a bit of a "what-if?" feel to it.

TigerBlog isn't really annoyed by that Michigan State loss. It's just that he'd have loved to see what Princeton would have done in the next round. Plus, it would have been really cool.

When it comes to being flat out annoyed by something he's seen at Princeton, there's a certain five-year-old matter that will always bother him. That would be the fact that Zach Currier was not a USILA first-team All-American in 2017.

In reality, he should have won the Tewaaraton Award that year as the nation's best player. Instead, he was a second-team All-American. 

These were Currier's numbers in 2017: 24 goals, 34 assists, 58 points (tops among all Division I midfielders that year), 130 ground balls (that's 94 more than the four first-team All-Americans that year combined) and 56.2 percent face-off winning percentage on 202 face-off attempts. He also led the team in caused turnovers. 

Sorry, but it might be that no midfielder in college ever puts up those numbers again. For all of the great players that the program has had and for all of the gaudy numbers they have put up, TB maintains that Currier's senior year was the best single-season he's seen by a Princeton men's lacrosse player. He was dominant in every way.

And it bothers him still.

Currier, a Canadian, has gone on from Princeton to establish clearly that he is one of the best players in the world right now. He has as good an all-around skill set as any player anywhere, and the results have been championships on the professional outdoor (Major League Lacrosse), professional indoor (National Lacrosse League) and international (indoor World Championships), with a runner-up finish at the most recent outdoor World Championships.

To all of that he can now add a World Games Sixes championship. The new international Sixes game is played on a smaller field with no face-offs after goals, fewer players (the name sort of gives it away), no long poles and more offense. 

It's almost as if a game was designed to best highlight was Currier can do.

It's not shock that Canada rumbled through the tournament this past week unbeaten, defeating the U.S. 23-9 in the final. Currier had a game-high five goals, including the first two, and he took only six shots to do so.

TB has written this a lot, but Currier is as competitive as any athlete he's ever seen. He's relentless. He's the kind of guy you love when he's your guy and can't stand when you have to play against him.

Fortunately for Princeton, he'll always be a Tiger.