You're Busy On Dec. 8

TigerBlog used to watch a lot of Atlanta Braves games back when they were on WTBS, the Superstation.

This was also when the Braves started to get really good, back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Lest you think he was a bandwagon jumper, he started watching because where he lived at the time didn't allow him to get Mets' games on his cable system and MotherBlog was living in Atlanta. 

In fact, in 1990, the year before the Braves started their long, highly successful run, he and MB went to a game at old Fulton County Stadium and saw the Dodgers shellac the Braves in front of about 6,000 fans. 

Skip Carey was the play-by-play man for the Braves on TBS. When a game would be out of reach in the seventh inning or so, he'd say something along the lines of "you can turn off the game if you promise to support our sponsors."

In honor of the late Skip Carey, who passed away at only 68 in 2008, and because it is a Friday in the summer and you probably have more exciting things to do, TigerBlog will tell you that you can skip the rest of today's entry if you look this sentence: "You're busy on Dec. 8" and this video:

Time to bring @Coach_Berube home.

See you in Storrs, @UConnWBB‼️

Full schedule coming 🔜 pic.twitter.com/maoewfOawZ

— Princeton WBB (@PrincetonWBB) July 13, 2022

To the folks jumping off here, have a great weekend.

For those of you toughing it out for another 450 words or so, how pumped are you from that video? 

The Princeton women's basketball team released yesterday that the Tigers will be playing at UConn on Dec. 8. Princeton is coached by Carla Berube, whom you probably know is one of the all-time greats from the greatest program in women's basketball history, though she would never actually admit that she should be held in that company.

Berube put up 1,381 career points as a collegiate player. Her teams went 132-8 in her four years, including a perfect 35-0 record and NCAA championship in 1995, her sophomore year. 

If you're wondering what her all-time record is as a college player and head coach, well, here's a little math:

player: 132-8
head coach at Tufts: 384-96
head coach at Princeton: 51-6

If you add those together, you get 567-110. There cannot be too many people who have ever put up better numbers.

Princeton went 25-5 a year ago, winning the Ivy League and Ivy tournament without dropping a game. The Tigers then defeated a Kentucky team led by the No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA draft, Ryhne Howard, by a 69-62 score in the opening round of the NCAA tournament. 

The season ended with a 56-55 loss to Indiana on the Hoosiers' home court in the second round. Had Princeton won that game, it would have played UConn in the Sweet 16.

Instead, that game will now be played in Storrs on Dec. 8. It has to be pretty exciting for Berube, who will be going up against her college coach, the legendary Geno Auriemma. Actually, it has to be pretty exciting for any Princeton women's basketball fan. 

The Huskies went 30-6 last season and did what the team has often done under Auriemma, which is to say that it played on the final night of the season.

This time, UConn fell to South Carolina in the NCAA championship game. Auriemma has led UConn to 11 NCAA titles, the most in history. 

The Huskies will be led by perhaps the best player in the country, Paige Bueckers, as well as the usual deep cast of greats who have followed Berube to play for UConn.

Princeton had two seniors in 2021-22, Abby Meyers and Neenah Young. Interestingly, Meyers, the Ivy Player of the Year, will be playing as a grad transfer at Maryland, and UConn plays Maryland three days after it plays Princeton. The Huskies also are at Notre Dame four days before taking on Princeton.

And there you have it for today. 

If you made it to the end, enjoy your summer weekend too.