All-Americans, USA Team Members, Home Basketball Game ... Go:

All-Americans, USA Team members, home basketball game ... Go:

* Roko Pozaric was named a second-team All-American in men's water polo earlier this week. Pozaric, a sophomore, is Princeton's first second-team selection since Peter Sabbatini in 2004. Pozaric was the Northeast Water Polo Conference Player of the Year after a season in which he led Princeton with 62 goals while adding 39 assists.

TigerBlog wrote this feature story about Pozaric a year ago, after his explosion onto the U.S. college water polo scene. It tells the story about how Pozaric made his way from Croatia to Princeton as the only member of his high school class to attend college in America.

Could Pozaric become the first Princeton men's water polo player to be a first-team All-American? He has two more years to do so. Of course, Princeton water polo has had a first-team All-American before, when Ashleigh Johnson of the women's team did so (in between winning Olympic gold medals).

In addition to Pozaric, Princeton had three other All-Americans, as Keller Maloney, Antonio Knez and Vladan Mitrovic were all honorable mention selections. It was the first time Princeton has had four All-Americans in one season.

(Non)-Coincidentally, Princeton set a program record with 27 wins this season and reached the NCAA quarterfinals. 

Princeton men's water polo has now had at least one All-American for 10 straight years.

* On the subject of All-Americans, Andrei Iosivas added two more such honors, including a first-team recognition by Phil Steele. One day earlier, he was named a Stats Perform FCS second-team All-American; his teammate Henry Byrd, an offensive lineman, was a third-team pick.

When that list came out, TB looked for the name Liam Johnson. Actually, he did a search for "Liam" and was momentarily excited when it turned up a third-team linebacker. Unfortunately, that linebacker was Liam Anderson of Holy Cross, not Princeton's Liam Johnson, who will have to settle this year for being the Bushnell Cup winner as Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year.

He also did a search for "Dylan," hoping that Tiger wide receiver Dylan Classi would come up. There was one Dylan, New Hampshire's Dylan Laube, who was listed as an all-purpose player. Classi is more of a one-purpose player — catch the ball, something he did with amazing consistency his entire career. 

* When TigerBlog saw that Princeton men's lacrosse alums Tom Schreiber and Michael Sowers had been named to the United States team for next summer's World Championships in San Diego, his first thought was if they'd ever been teammates before.

The answer was no. Certainly their careers at Princeton didn't overlap, with Schreiber a 2014 grad and Sowers a 2020 grad. Schreiber is the highest-scoring middie Princeton has ever had; Sowers is the highest scorer period. Between them, they scored 502 points at Princeton, an astonishing total.

They both wore No. 22 at Princeton, by the way.  They've also both won titles with the U.S., Schreiber at the 2018 World Championships in Israel (where he scored the game-winner in the final against Canada with one second to go) and Sowers a year earlier in the U-19 World Championships, and both has a professional outdoor championship too.

With all due respect to every other team, it's very likely that the 2023 final will once again match the U.S. and Canada. It's also likely that it'll be Princeton against Princeton again, with Zach Currier surely to be on the Canadian team.

In its recent ranking of its Top 50 players, the Premier Lacrosse League ranked Schreiber first, Currier seventh and Sowers 10th, making Princeton the only school with three in the top 10.

* Speaking of honors and selections, TB has always though the same as what Dan Arestia, one of the top social media accounts in the sport of lacrosse, had to say after the U.S. team announcement was made:

Rules are rules lacrosse twitter.

If you say someone was a Team USA snub, you have to say who they should replace on the team.

— Dan Arestia (@danarestia) December 20, 2022

He's 100 percent spot on. 

* The Princeton men's basketball team hosts Kean tomorrow afternoon at 2. It's the final Princeton Athletic event until the women's basketball teams hosts Rhode Island on the 28th (next Wednesday) and the final game for the men's basketball team until the Ivy opener against Harvard at 1 on New Year's Eve.

Kean, in addition to being the alma mater of Princeton Athletics' incredible IT guy Bryan Fitzwater, is also a perfect 12-0 on the season as it comes to Jadwin.