Take It To The Banks

The King's residence in Marrakesh is bordered on one side by a cemetery and on the other by a strip mall.

It is one block away from the entrance to one of the city's famous markets, and apparently the King will leave the residence and walk into the marketplace to get something to eat or just be around the citizens. Can you imagine that? You're on line for pizza, and the King walks in and asks for two slices and a Cherry Coke? 

For that reason alone, TigerBlog was rooting for Morocco in the World Cup semifinal yesterday.

As it turned out, France scored early and late and survived the Moroccan opportunities in between to win 2-0, setting up a final match Sunday between the French and Argentina. From what TB has seen from this World Cup, these are clearly the two best teams.

More than that, they seem to have the two best players, Lionel Messi of Argentina and Kylian Mbappe of France. Their immense skills were all over the two semifinal games, in which both were dominant with the ball, making everyone around them better.

Should France win the game Sunday, it would become the third team to win back-to-back World Cups, after Italy in 1934 and 1938 and Brazil in 1958 and 1962. If nothing else, TB hopes it doesn't end on penalty kicks.

There is not a lot on the Princeton Athletic calendar between now and the World Cup final, or, for that matter, now and the week between Christmas and New Year's. 

There are two men's basketball games, one Friday night at home against Delaware and another Dec. 23 against Kean, also at home. There is a diving event at the University of West Virginia that runs from today through the weekend.

Also tonight, there is a women's basketball game at Rutgers, on the Banks of the Ol' Raritan, as they like to sing there. It's the first time since 2017 that these teams will play.

Did you know that Rutgers has only ever had three full-time head women's basketball coaches? Also, while you definitely know that the first football game ever played was between Princeton and Rutgers, did you know that the first Rutgers women's basketball game was also against Princeton? 

That game was on Dec. 17, 1974, or 48 years ago tomorrow. Rutgers had a part-time coach named Ellen Johns, and another part-time coach a year later named Dottie McCrea.

The following year, Rutgers hired its first full-time women's basketball coach. Perhaps you remember the name Theresa Grentz? She led the Scarlet Knights to national prominence, including the 1982 AIAW championship over Texas, one year before the NCAA tournament began.

When Grentz left Rutgers to go to Illinois in 1995, she was replaced by C. Vivian Stringer, who retired at the end of last season. What do Grentz and Stringer have in common? For one thing, they're both in the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame.

The third full-time Rutgers women's basketball coach is Coquese Washington, who took over for Stringer after 12 years at Penn State. She must have circled Dec. 30 on her calendar when the season started, since that's the day Rutgers head to State College to take on her old team.

Her first Rutgers team comes into the game tonight with a record of 5-7. Princeton is 6-3 after its 62-47 win over Delaware this past Sunday. 

The teams have two common opponents, Seton Hall (Princeton won 62-58, Rutgers lost 75-57) and Texas (Princeton lost 74-50, Rutgers lost 82-44). Rutgers also has a 71-52 win over Cornell, a team Princeton will host Jan. 7.

The Tigers will be a bit busy between now and Cornell, or at least after Christmas. Princeton will be off after the game tonight until a home game at 2 against Rhode Island on Dec. 28, which is followed by the Ivy League opener at Harvard at noon on New Year's Eve. After that will be the home game against Columbia, Jan. 6 at 7, with Cornell the following night.

For a few individual notes, there's this: 1) Ellie Mitchell is third in the nation in rebounds per game at 12.7; 2) Kaitlyn Chen is the team's leading scorer at 14.6 per game and 3) Julia Cunningham has 880 career points as she chases the 1,000-point mark. 

Tip tonight is at 7 in Piscataway.