The Year In Review

Well, that's another year come and gone. 

It's only a few days away from 2024, which will bring with it the Summer Olympics, a Presidential election, and another 12 months of Princeton Athletics. What will be the top story in those 12 months? Who can say? 

Here's a look back at what the top stories in TigerBlog's year-end reviews have been for the last 10 years:

2013- the Ivy League football championship
2014 - Julia Ratcliffe's NCAA hammer title
2015 - the women's basketball team goes 31-1
2016 - Ashleigh Johnson wins gold as an undergraduate
2017 - the women's soccer team defeats UNC to reach the NCAA quarterfinals
2018 - the men's hockey team wins the ECAC championship/the football team goes 10-0
2019 - the field hockey team reaches the NCAA final
2020 - the Covid pandemic
2021 - the women's lightweight rowing national championship
2022 - the death of Pete Carril

You know what's amazing about that list? Only one sport is listed more than once, and that was football. In other words, you never know what the No. 1 story is going to be or which team it's going to come from for that matter.

And for 2023? 

Here TB's list for the top 10. This is just his opinion, and so anyone can feel free to disagree, though if you disagree with his No. 1, TB would like to know why.

Also, to be eligible, it has to be something that was done by a current Princeton athlete or team. To that end, these great accomplishments are ineligible:

* Chris Young and Mike Hazen go head-to-head in the World Series as opposing general managers
* Tyler Lussi continues to make her mark in professional women's soccer
* Abby Meyers makes her WNBA debut
* Tom Schreiber and Michael Sowers win a World Championship in lacrosse and Schreiber and Ryan Ambler win one in the PLL
* Andrei Iosivas scores his first two NFL touchdowns
* Olivia Fiechter Weaver wins gold in Pan Am squash
* Beth Yeager wins silver in Pan Am field hockey
* Quincy Monday wins a national wrestling title
* Kevin O'Toole and Malik Pinto go head-to-head in MLS
* six Princetonians win medals at the World Championships in rowing

No. 10 -  Victoria Liu plays in an LPGA event
The Princeton senior-to-be played in the CPKC Women's Open in Vancouver in August. Liu was also the Ivy League Player of the Year this past spring after winning the Ivy tournament a year earlier.

No. 9 - Lots of league titles
Princeton teams won league championships in: men's cross country, men's water polo,  men's basketball, women's basketball, men's indoor track and field, women's fencing, women's swimming and diving, softball, women's open rowing, women's lightweight rowing, men's lightweight rowing, women's water polo, men's golf and women's tennis in the calendar year of 2023. This only includes regular season championships, which means it doesn't count the next item ...

No. 8 - the men's lacrosse team wins the Ivy League tournament
Princeton went into the first weekend of May with only one path into the NCAA tournament: win the league tournament — and that's exactly what the Tigers did. It started with a taut 9-8 win over Penn on a Friday night at Columbia, when Princeton goalie Michael Gianforcaro made 15 saves against the Quakers, and Princeton needed every one of them. He made 17 more against Yale in the final two days later, though that one wasn't as close, as the Tigers rolled to a 19-10 win in a game that was 13-3 at the half.

Nos. 6 and 7 - the men's water polo team and the women's water polo team reach the NCAA Final Four
Which one is No. 5 and which one is No. 6? It doesn't really matter. Both the Princeton men and women advanced to the Final Four of the NCAA tournament, the women in the spring and the men in the fall. Together they were a combined 58-10, which is just extraordinary. On the women's side, Princeton took down California 11-9 in the NCAA quarterfinals, becoming the first non-West Coast school to reach the Final Four since Michigan did so in 2016. It was also Princeton's first Final Four trip in women's water polo. The men (who had their first ever first-team All-American in Roko Pokaric) beat UC-Irvine 12-7 in the quarterfinals before falling to No. 1 UCLA 17-13. Between the two Final Fours, the eight teams represented were Cal (men), Stanford (women), UCLA (twice), USC (twice) — and Princeton twice. Does one of those names sort of stick out? Again, that's a ridiculous accomplishment for the Tigers. 

No. 5 - the women's and men's lightweight first varsity 8s win national championships
Once again, the Princeton women dominated, winning their third straight IRA National Championship, this time building a two-second lead after 500 meters of the final before winning by 6.2 seconds over Stanford. Princeton also won the overall team points championship. Unlike the women, the men were pushed the entire 2,000 meters in the first varsity 8 race. The Tigers actually trailed slightly (very slightly, at 0.2 seconds) after 500 meters, and even after they took the lead in the middle of the race, they never really shook the field. When it was over, Princeton men won by 1.8 seconds, giving the program its first IRA first varsity 8 lightweight men's title since 2010. The overall points championship was Princeton's sixth ever and also first since 2010. The men's heavyweights finished third, and the women's open finished third at the NCAA championships.

No. 4 - the women's basketball team reaches the second round of the NCAA tournament as Grace Stone makes the Play of the Year
Princeton won the Ivy League tournament title and then took down North Carolina State 64-63 in the first round of the NCAA tournament, giving Princeton an NCAA win for the second straight year. Here's how TB called it when it happened: The Tigers trailed in this one 63-55 with five to play. Along the way, the Tigers had a 1 for 24 shooting stretch (yes, that's not a typo) while NC State had a 17 for 22 stretch of its own. And yet Princeton was still in the game. Princeton got a three from Grace Stone and another three from Kaitlin Chen to make it a one-point game with less than a minute to go. It was still that way when Princeton got the ball back on a steal by Stone with just 11 seconds left. Out of the timeout, Stone then drained a three from the corner. Ballgame. It was an extraordinary shot, one that was put up with complete confidence, and which splashed through while barely moving the net. As he thinks back on it, that shot was beyond clutch.

No. 3 - Pat Glory wins the NCAA wrestling championship at 125 pounds
Glory became Princeton's second NCAA individual wrestling champion and first since 1951, a span of 72 years, when he defeated Purdue's Matt Ramos 4-1 in the championship match at 125 to finish a perfect season. Glory also became Princeton's second wrestler ever to be an All-American four times. His championship win in 2023 followed a runner-up finish the year before.

No. 2 - Fred Samara retires/Sondre Guttormsen wins his third NCAA pole vault title
It was quite the swan song in the men's track and field world for legends Fred Samara and Sondre Guttormsen. Samara, the head coach of the men's program for 46 years, retired after winning 51 Heps titles, coaching 502 individual Heps champions, winning 10 Heps "triple crowns" and seeing 10 of his athletes win NCAA championships while six reached the Olympics. The last of those NCAA championships was the indoor pole vault won by Guttormsen, who won three NCAA titles in his career.

No. 1 - the men's basketball team reaches the Sweet 16
It's hard to imagine anything that could have topped this. Princeton had a magical "March of the Tigers," taking the Ivy League tournament and then defeating second-seeded Arizona and seventh-seeded Missouri to reach the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament as a 15 seed. Along the way Princeton made a national name for itself, with a team of eminently likable players and a head coach, Mitch Henderson, who ran, in TB's words, "gave a master class on how to represent an institution. He was humble. He gave full credit to his players, to his mentors, to the spirit and pride that define the University. He mentioned the great fan support. He talked about how much the team had changed since his playing days in the 1990s. His love of all things Princeton, and not just basketball, was obvious. There is no grade Henderson can get other than an A+ for how he handled success." It's a moment that will never be forgotten at Princeton. Actually, it's a series of moments: the all-around play of Tosan Evbuomwan, the white-hot second half that Blake Peters had against Missouri, the toughness of Caden Pierce on the boards, the smoothness of Ryan Langborg and Matt Allocco, the clutch moments from Keyshawn Kellman and Zach Martini. Yes, that run is the No. 1 story for 2023.

And that's the list for 2023. Remember, that is TigerBlog's list, so you can blame only him if you disagree.

And have a happy and safe New Year's Eve. As TB has written before:

The evolution of New Year's Eve goes like this: 1) try to stay up til midnight, 2) desperately try to find something fun to do at midnight, 3) pretend you don't care if you have something fun to do at midnight even though you do, 4) don't do anything other than stay up to watch the ball drop at midnight while sneering at those who are in steps 2 and 3, and finally 5) not care that it's New Year's Eve.

Here's to a great 2024.

 

A Fish (And Chips) In Water

TigerBlog's feature on Abby Meyers

People in England find the idea of driving more than an hour of so to be unheard of, yet at the same time they're very polite in their criticisms.

When TigerBlog suggested he was going to make a four-hour drive up to Durham, near the Scottish border, to watch a basketball game, the responses he got included "are you bloody mad" and "that's far too far."

These are, of course, the same people to whom time is best measured in centuries. They have a saying: The English think 200 miles is a long way, and the Americans think that 200 years is a long time.

TigerBlog has spent his entire adult life driving long distances to games. To him, this was nothing different than driving up to Cornell. And yet, any time he mentioned it, the reaction was one of incredulity, with a confused look and a random "blimey" thrown in for good measure. 

And then, what came next? "You want to take the A414 to the A10 to the A1 to the M1. Of course, there might be traffic on the A1, but you want to avoid the M3 and the M25 at all costs."

Blimey, indeed.

TB did make the trip. And why? It was to see the London Lions play at the Durham Palatinates in the Women's British Basketball League. 

London, if you didn't realize it, features Abby Meyers, one of the best players in Princeton women's basketball history, plays for the Lions in her first experience in overseas professional basketball. This comes after her first experience as a player in the WNBA. 

Back when he was a kid, TigerBlog read Bill Bradley's book "Life On The Run." At the time, he had no way of knowing what Bradley's college exploits would come to mean to him as an adult. Or that he'd meet Bradley many times, for that matter.

The book is Bradley's memories of a three-week period during the 1973-74 season with the New York Knicks. It painted a pretty inside picture of what it was like to be an NBA player during that time (including when the teams used to fly on commercial flights). 

As he wrote the story on Meyers, he thought that "Life On The Run" would be a great title. He even started it with this quote from Bradley's book:

“Victory is fraught with as much danger as glory. Victory has very narrow meanings and, if exaggerated or misused, can become a destructive force. The taste of defeat has a richness of experience all its own. Beyond all the years of practice and all the hours of glory waits that inexorable terror of living without the game.” — Bill Bradley, Life On The Run

That's pretty intense stuff. It also pretty accurately describes Abby Meyers' approach to being a pro basketball player. 

It's been quite a 21-month stretch for Meyers. In that time, she's worn five different uniforms, that of Princeton, Maryland, the Dallas Wings, the Washington Mystics and now the London Lions. It hasn't been that long since she was becoming the Ivy League's unanimous Player of the Year while putting up 29 in a first-round NCAA tournament win over Kentucky.

She is now playing for the Lions in the WBBL, as well as in the EuroCup. It's her first experience of overseas professional basketball, and she's taken to it like a fish (and chips?) in water.

As TB saw her play last week, he was struck by how close the Lions seem to be, how well-coached they seem to be (and how much the coach, Stella Kaltsidou, looks like Tiger head coach Carla Berube), how easily Meyers has fit in and how much she is getting out of the experience.

In the end, it was a great experience for TB as well. 

TB got to see two games, the one in a tiny gym against Durham and then at the Copper Box Arena in London, which housed Olympic team handball in 2012 and Princeton men's basketball a year ago, where he saw a game unlike any he's ever seen before (you have to read the story to see why). He had a chance to spend some time with Meyers and meet her coaches, her teammates and some of the team's fans. 

He was struck by how grounded Meyers is and how much she is focused on the all-around experience, not just the basketball piece. She's also clearly bought in to what it means to be an American pro basketball player in Europe. 

You can't watch her in her London uniform without feeling her love for the game and her joy at where she is right now. It was more than worth the long drive.

This is the second-to-last entry for 2023. Coming tomorrow will be TB's annual Year-In-Review entry. 

While it won't make the list of top Princeton Athletic events, TB's time with the Meyers and the London Lions was definitely a top 10 moment. 

Three Memories

Today's subject is Memories.

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It dawned on TigerBlog yesterday that it had been exactly 25 years to the day that he and Tom McCarthy flew to Hawaii for the 1998 Rainbow Classic men's basketball tournament.

Now that was a great trip. 

Princeton defeated Florida State, Texas and UNC Charlotte on three consecutive nights to win the tournament title on the home court of the University of Hawaii. The championship trophy was presented to the Tigers by the Hawaii AD, who wore shorts, a flowered shirt and a lei. 

Because Princeton kept winning, it kept playing at night, which meant that there was time in the afternoon to enjoy Waikiki Beach. If you've never been, the last week in December is a reasonably good time to go.

There is no memory of that trip that is a bad one for TB. Even the long ride out there had its funny moments. 

The team had gone out the day before, but TB and McCarthy waited until Dec. 26. Their first flight got into San Francisco late, past the time that the connecting flight for Hawaii was leaving. The flight attendants assured TB and McCarthy that the second plane would wait for them, and as it turned out, it did.

Of course that plane was a 747, a full 747 at that. And TB and McCarthy were the only two people on the first flight who got on the second, which at least was at the next gate.

As the two walked down the aisle, to row 52 as TB remembers, the pilot made an announcement thanking everyone for their patience and saying that they were waiting for two people from a flight from Newark. This in turn was greeted with boos and calls to leave them, which is what you might expect from people who were hoping to get to Hawaii as quickly as possible.

TigerBlog tried to walk as quickly as he could to his seat, but Tom just took his time, stopping to wish people happy holidays, apologize for being late and, in the case of one completely bald man, ask him if he shaves his head every day.

Ah, the memories. Has it really been a quarter-century? 

*

It's been two years, not a quarter century, since TB wrote a feature story about Roko Pozaric of the men's water polo team. The occasion was the team's trip to the NCAA tournament that year, and TB's memory is speaking to Pozaric in DeNunzio Pool before the team went to the airport. 

HERE is the link to the story. Here is a quote from Pozaric:

“I was stressed a lot about coming here,” Pozaric says. “I’d never been to Princeton before. I’d never been to the United States before.”

TB's memory of talking to him when he was a freshman is that he was almost a bit shy. He guesses that Pozaric has become more acclimated to America. 

Now that he's a first-team All-American and all.

Pozaric came to Princeton from Croatia with no idea to expect. He recently became the first Princeton men's water polo player to become a first-team All-American when the team was announced last week. 

That honor followed Northeast Water Polo Conference Player of the Year Award honors as he led the Tigers to the Final Four of the NCAA tournament. And he has one year left to go.

*

Lastly, TB remembers traveling with the Princeton baseball team to the 2016 NCAA tournament at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette. That was quite a trip as well.

TB actually was disappointed when he saw that Lafayette was the destination. He had wanted to go to either Mississippi or Mississippi State because he thought he'd get the fullest college baseball experience there. As it turned out, he got all of that and more in Lafayette.

The fans were amazing. The tailgating was incredible. The in-game atmosphere was some of the best he's experienced at any event. And the food? Amazing.

TB remembers one local who came up to Princeton head coach Scott Bradley before the first game and asked him if he liked tuna. When Bradley said yes, he handed him some tuna, saying "I caught it this morning. You have to try it."

This was 45 minutes before first pitch.

The baseball team released its 2024 schedule last week, and included is a three-game series at North Carolina March 1-3. That coincides nicely with the men's lacrosse team's trip to the area as well, as the Tigers will play UNC on March 1 and Duke on March 3. 

TB doesn't have game times yet for lacrosse, but he's guessing you'll be able to see a lot of both teams if you're in the area. 

The whole baseball schedule can be found HERE.

The games themselves were spectacles.

Happy Birthday?

Today is December 26.

As TigerBlog thinks about it, this has to be the worst day to have a birthday. It's either today, or February 29. 

Actually, December 26 has to be way worse. When you're born on Feb. 29, yes, your birthday only comes around once every four years, but that has to be a pretty cool thing in a lot of ways. If you were, say, 28, you could tell people you were seven.

No, Dec. 26 is the worst day for a birthday. Yesterday, obviously, was Christmas. Today is the day that nobody really feels like doing anything after a long time, and actually a long month, of lead-up.

You don't want to be the one to say "hey, it's my birthday. What are we doing?" 

The answer has to be "nothing. You're on your own. We're all wiped out."

TB knows a bunch of people who were born in the week before Christmas, including his longtime friend and colleague Nancy Donigan. That's not ideal, but at least people are in a celebratory mood when your day rolls around.

Today? TB doesn't know anyone who is celebrating a birthday today, but if you are, hey, have a great one.

The time between Christmas and New Year's is always interesting. The weeks before Christmas seem to go very slowly, with a lot of build-up, a lot of putting up trees and lights, a lot of shopping, a lot of wrapping. Then it's over in a blink. 

Then it's the days between Christmas and New Year's, which become a blur of cleaning up, resting up and figuring what, if anything, to do for New Year's Eve.

For TigerBlog, the week between Christmas and New Year's always means putting together the Princeton Athletics Year in Review, with the top stories and moments both in Princeton Athletics and by Princetonians outside of Princeton Athletics.

Some years, it's quite clear what is the No. 1. Other years, you can make a case for a few things. This year sort of combines the two. You can make a case for more than one moment. At the same time, it's quite clear that these moments are extraordinary ones in the history of Princeton Athletics. They just happened to come in the same calendar year. 

You have to wait until the end of the week until TB spells it out for you. In the meantime, you can probably guess. After all, as Bill Carmody once said, "you're smart. You'll figure it out."

As far as the calendar goes, there aren't many events for Princeton teams between now and the end of 2023. 

The men's hockey team is the only Princeton team who has a home game this week, as the Tigers host Harvard in an ECAC game Saturday at 4. Princeton, who has not played in three weeks, sits in fifth place in the league standings, while Harvard is in 10th place at the moment.

This will conclude Princeton's season home-and-home with the Crimson, as the teams played a 4-4 tie before the Tigers won the shootout back on Nov. 3 in Cambridge.

There are two women's basketball games, both of which are on the road, first at Vermont Friday and then at Le Moyne New Year's Eve at noon. Vermont is 8-5 on the year, and the two most interesting results for Princeton fans would be a 54-51 loss against Courtney Banghart's North Carolina team and a 58-32 win over Dartmouth. 

The Catamounts are the defending America East champs. They were 25-7 a year ago, with a loss to UConn in the opening round of the NCAA tournament. 

As for Le Moyne, it also reached the NCAA tournament last year — the Division II tournament. The Dolphins are in Year 1 on the Division I level and are 2-9 to date, with wins over UMass-Lowell and Buffalo.

The men's basketball team has one game this week, at Delaware Saturday at 2. The Blue Hens are 8-4 on the season, with a 67-59 win over Brown and a 65-57 win over Joe Scott's Air Force team. 

The wrestling team is at the prestigious Midlands Tournament this weekend at Northwestern, whose strength and conditioning coach is former Princeton coach Mark Ellis.

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

TigerBlog has a large collection of Christmas songs on his iTunes.

He's always been a big fan of Christmas music. He was a trumpet player in high school, and he loved when the concert band, or the jazz band, played holiday music.

What's his favorite? 

It's probably not a shock to anyone who has read this for awhile to learn that it's "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town," the Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band version, of course. That's a big sticking point with TB.

It's the song, but it's also the artist. He's not interested in hearing anyone sing "Silver Bells" except for Dean Martin. The same goes for "Silent Night" and Emmylou Harris. 

It has to be Darlene Love's version of "Winter Wonderland," though his high school jazz band did do its own great version of the song.

"The Christmas Song?" If it's not Nat King Cole's voice that starts out with "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire," it's likely TB won't even make it to "Jack Frost nipping at your nose." 

And does he even have to mention "White Christmas" and Bing?

He has his favorites. 

Having said all that, he does have to give honorable mention to the Beach Boys jazzed up version of "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town."

Oh, and you know what he cannot stand, not even a little bit? TV commercials that substitute its own lyrics for classic Christmas songs. TB would rather listen to fingernails on blackboards.

Today, of course, is the day before Christmas. As he said last year (and the year before that and the year before that and so on and so on):

The surest way to get TigerBlog to tear up is invite him over, click HERE and to fast-forward to the 7:00 mark.

Never fails.

If you don't want to go through all that, then the link takes you to the last scene of the Christmas classic "It's A Wonderful Life."

The line that always, 100 percent of the time, brings a tear to TB's eyes is Harry Bailey's toast to his brother. TB could watch it in early July on a day far removed from Christmas and still it'll have the same effect.

Want to see some more of TB's favorite Christmas clips? Then watch one of these:

* the end scene from "A Christmas Story"

* bonus scene from the same movie

* Charlie Brown makes a bold purchase

* the Grinch's heart grows

* now this is a duet

* and this is a ballet

* this one is the greatest ever version of any Christmas song ever performed 

* this one is second

* this is really cute

* and you can't watch the last one without this one

* this is long, but cute

* oh, and here's one more. Is this a Christmas song, or a show tune? It's both.

* you can thank Princeton's own Jeff Ingold for this one.

* and this one too.

Merry Christmas everyone. Hopefully it's safe and happy. 

And he'll leave you today with this, which, unfortunately, is not available on iTunes, at least not by these guys. And this one especially has to be these guys. 

Who Says Nothing Is Going On Before Christmas?

 Just when you thought there would be nothing to talk about this week ...

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The men's basketball team hosts Delaware Valley University tomorrow, with a matinee tip-off at 1. It's the lone Princeton athletic event between Dec. 17 and Dec. 29.

If you didn't watch the "Hard Cuts" episode that was part of TB's feature story on Ellie Mitchell and Caden Pierce, it's definitely worth your time. 

TB has made the point many times, but those two are exceptional rebounders, unprecedented at Princeton. They are both likely to finish as the career leaders for the women and men. 

You can see it and read the story HERE.

*

Before the end of this season, who had been the longest tenured football coach in Division I? He retired this year after 32 years as the head man. 

The answer is Jim Parady, whose retirement left an opening at Marist for the first time since 1991. And who has now filled that spot? 

The answer is Mike Willis, who as you probably know has been Princeton's Offensive Coordinator for the last three seasons. He was also an offensive lineman for the Tigers on the 2013 Ivy League championship team and then an assistant coach for the titles in 2016, 2018 and 2021.

Having known Willis since his playing days, TigerBlog thinks it'll be difficult to see him in the Marist red. On the other hand, he's happy for him and wishes him all the best. He's a really good person, in addition to his football successes. He's the kind of person you want running your program.

* 

Remember when TigerBlog was surprised last week that Johnny Orr wasn't already in the EIWA Hall of Fame? 

He had the same feeling when he saw the news of Caroline Lind's selection to the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame.

Lind, a rower, is as accomplished an athlete as Princeton has ever produced. That's men and women, any era, any decade, any sport. TB just reread that statement and stands by it.

Lind was the top rower in Princeton's loaded 2006 NCAA championship first varsity 8, and she then went on to win Olympic gold in women's 8s in 2008 and 2012. That's greatness in a nutshell. 

And now she's in the North Carolina Hall of Fame. You mean she wasn't already? 

* 

Not to keep harping on the whole Ozzie Nicholas-not-a-Bushnell-finalist thing, but he was the only unanimous All-Ivy League selection on defense this past fall. 

Earlier this week, he was selected as a third-team FCS All-American. As TB has said before, Nicholas was the leading tackler in the Ivy League by a wide margin and, with 104 on the year, was the only player in the Ivy League to reach triple figures. 

He's a tackling machine. And an All-American.

*

Quincy Monday is in his first year as an assistant coach with the Princeton wrestling program, but that hasn't meant that his career on the mat has ended. Far from it.

In fact, Monday won the 74 KG title at the U.S. Senior Nationals, earning himself a spot in the upcoming Olympic Trials. His father Kenny was himself an Olympic gold medalist.

This is what Quincy Monday said:

"It's so special to be able to continue to compete and train out of the Princeton room while also coaching the college team. The energy is very high and the team inspires me to keep competing with passion and intensity, representing the Princeton wrestling brand: TOUGH, AGGRESSIVE, and EXCITING." 

Yes, he is all-in on Tiger wrestling. 

Monday, as a Tiger, was a three-time All-American who was an NCAA runner-up once and a third-place finisher another time.  

*

While the subject is wrestling, the Ivy League will hold its first conference tournament in the next athletic year. Instead of the traditional EIWA tournament to determine NCAA tournament berths, Ivy wrestlers will advance through the league event.

The first one will be held in Jadwin in March of 2025, which, by the way, sounds like it's far in the future but is really 15 months away.

The addition of the wrestling tournament means that the Ivy League will have grown to 19 championship events.

PWHL Opening Face-Off

Well, it's another feature story from TigerBlog, with an added bonus. 

You can read about Princeton's extraordinary rebounders Ellie Mitchell and Caden Pierce and watch a video where they talk about how they do it with Ford Family Director of Athletics John Mack HERE.

Speaking of basketball, when TigerBlog wrote about Brian Taylor the other day, he didn't mention that at one point Taylor was once traded for one of the seven players in NBA history with multiple career streaks of 10 or more games with 30-plus points.

Who was it? 

The others on the list are Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor, Jerry West and the newest addition, Joel Embiid. None of them were ever traded for Brian Taylor.

That leaves only one. Hint - the trade sent Taylor from the Nets to the Kings, who at the time were the Kansas City-Omaha Kings. Another hint - the player traded for Taylor is in the Naismith Hall of Fame. You have probably heard that Jordan was cut from his high school varsity as a sophomore, but he's not the only Hall-of-Famer to have that happen. It also happened to the player who is the answer to the Brian Taylor trade question.

TigerBlog will give you until the end to figure it out.

In the meantime, since the subjects seem to be pro sports and trivia, here's a question for you: 

What are the six cities that are represented in the new Professional Women's Hockey League? Another hint: of the six, there are four that were considered "original six" NHL franchises.

The answer is New York, Boston, Montreal and Toronto, who were four of the NHL's original six, as well as Ottawa and Minneapolis. The two original six cities not represented are Chicago and Detroit.

The PWHL begins play Jan. 1, when New York is at Toronto in a game that will feature two of the four Princeton alums in the league. The four Princetonians are Claire Thompson (New York), Maggie Connors (Toronto), Rachel McQuigge (Ottawa) and Mariah Keopple (Montreal). The opening game of the league will be followed a day later by Montreal at Ottawa.

In all, teams will play 24 regular seasons games each, with a few at neutral sites. There will also be a break for the World Championships April 4-14 in Utica, N.Y.

Thompson, of course, is an Olympic gold medalist and World Champion already. Keopple, you may recall, was the one who scored the game-winning goal when Princeton defeated Cornell in overtime to win the 2020 ECAC championship.

As TB did some research, he found that the reaction to the team names wasn't exactly overwhelming. Here are excerpts from a Hockey News story:

* The proposed names of the Toronto Torch, Minnesota Superior, Montreal Echo, Boston Wicked, Ottawa Alert, and New York Sound were met with wide spanning criticism from fans, media, and onlookers.

* "To everyone saying the new PWHL names are AI generated: no way because ChatGPT did a way better job" 

* Meg Linehan, senior writer at The Athletic agreed writing "I know team names are hard or whatever but… Boston Wicked makes me want to actively fight whoever came up with it. Why would you do this. Why."

TigerBlog actually likes the Boston Wicked, since "Wicked" is a common phrase among Bostonians and the team color is green, which conjures up the Broadway musical, which is one of TB's all-time favorites. 

Regardless of names, and apparently, rather plain uniforms, the league itself seems to be on stabler footing than its predecessors. Additionally, any professional league for a major women's sport shows just how much progress has been made in the world of women's athletics. 

Such a league would have been unthinkable not that long ago. Ask former Ford Family Director of Athletics Mollie Marcoux Samaan or any of the other great Princeton women's hockey players of the past if they would have minded odd-sounding team names and plain uniforms. The answer would be a resounding "who cares."

The teams will be playing in various arenas, including for the New York team splitting its home games between the USB Arena (home of the Islanders) and the Total Mortgage Arena in Bridgeport. 

Come New Year's Day, it'll be worth following this league, and the four Princeton players who are part of its inaugural.

And the NBA trivia answer? That would be Nate (Tiny) Archibald, who at 6-1 wasn't so Tiny. Archibald averaged 18.8 points and 7.4 assists for his 12-year NBA career, which included a 1981 championship with the Celtics.

Feature Time

TigerBlog learned a long time ago about the value of a good feature story.

He's not sure what his first one was, though he does know that back when he was covering high school sports in the newspaper business 40 years ago, he did try to integrate feature elements into routine game stories. That's how he was taught, primarily by a fellow sportswriter named Bruce Johnson.

Through the years, he's found that features are his favorite stories to write. He also learned from the late, great Harvey Yavener that everyone has a story to tell and that it's on you as the writer to get them to tell it to you before you can then tell it to everyone else. 

When you spend your career at Princeton, you have no shortage of great subjects. And, as Yav always said, their stories are fabulous before you ever mention anything to do with sports.

With not much in terms of games on the Princeton Athletic calendar this month, TB has four feature stories to share with you. 

One of them is up today on goprincetontigers.com, and it's the story of two people who didn't even know each other back in September. Despite the short time they've known each other, they have had a massive impact on each other's well-being.

Oh, and speaking of "short," here's something you can get away with you're barely five-feet tall:

This particular elf on this particular shelf is Grace Schulze, a member of the field hockey team. This was to have been a big season for Schulze, who was coming off a second-team All-League selection in 2022 and who was Princeton's leading returning scorer.

Her season lasted exactly 60 minutes and 45 seconds, over in the first minute of the second game with a broken collarbone. Through a confluence of events that began with that injury, Schulze ended up introduced to Bryce Chase, a member of the Class of 1963 and a longtime member of the men's lacrosse program.

Chase lost his beloved wife Phyllis back in August. Schulze, needing a place to live after withdrawing from school, became the 37th different resident of the basement apartment in Bryce and Phyllis' house. Grace Schulze is a bolt of lightning and energy, and she came to Bryce at a time when he needed both in his house. She has brought something important to the house, which, without Phyllis, in Bryce's word, "sucks."

As would be the case in any situation where someone close to you has lost a longtime spouse, everyone who knows Bryce was worried about him. How would he get along? What would he be like?

There is nobody affiliated with Princeton men's lacrosse who doesn't love Bryce. They all, to a person, want to thank Schulze for everything she's done.  

That's the story that's up today. There are three others brewing as well.

One is about Ellie Mitchell and Caden Pierce and their extraordinary ability to rebound. This particular feature story will be paired with a video of the two, with an appearance from Ford Family Director of Athletics John Mack.

TB wrote the story two weeks ago, and each time the basketball teams play he updates it with their latest feat. Most recently, Mitchell had 19 more against Villanova and then another 10 against Rutgers, both of which were Princeton wins. Mitchell now sits in third place all-time among Princeton women in career rebounds with 948, which leaves her 14 away from Bella Alarie for second and 151 away from Margaret Meier's 1,099, the most by a Princeton woman or man.

Speaking of Princeton basketball, TB also has a piece coming out soon about Abby Meyers and her basketball travels. Meyers has played for five different teams in the last two years, but, she says, she's "a Princeton Tiger at heart."

Then there is the fourth feature, this one on Kate Joyce. She may know Joyce as an All-American javelin thrower in women's track and field, but did you know how she came to throw the javelin in the first place? Or what her best sport was when she was younger? 

Even more than that, do you know what she's doing while she's injured this year? 

You'll find it all out when TB gets this story done as well.

Enjoy the four features. There will be others in the New Year. 

As Yav always said, there's no shortage of subjects at Princeton.

That Piece Of Paper From Princeton Comes First

When he was a kid, TigerBlog loved to watch games in the old ABA.

He was a big fan of the Knicks in the NBA — and that was before anyone told him he'd spend much of his adult life knowing basically everything about Bill Bradley's time at Princeton — but there was always something special about the ABA.

Maybe it was the red, white and blue ball. TB had one of those, which he used on the hoop in his backyard. Maybe it was the three-point shot, which originated in the league.

Maybe it's because most of his favorite players all seemed to be in the league at one point, especially guys like Julius Erving, David Thompson, George Gervin, Connie Hawkins, Spencer Haywood, Billy Paultz, Moses Malone, Artis Gilmore ... and George McGinnis.

TigerBlog was saddened by the news last week that McGinnis had passed away at the age of 73. The longtime member of the ABA's version of the Indiana Pacers before he entered the NBA with the 76ers, McGinnis was a pure scorer who averaged 20 points per game for his pro career, which includes the Pacers and then the Sixers, Nuggets and the NBA Pacers. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in 2017.

Quick - where did McGinnis go to college? 

While you mull that over, he only played one varsity season (freshmen were ineligible then) before leaving for the ABA, back when you had to prove financial hardship to join the NBA before your college eligibility was up. That one season was 1970-71, and here was the All-American team from that year: 

First team
Sidney Wicks, UCLA
Austin Carr, Notre Dame
Artis Gilmore, Jacksonville
Jim McDaniels, Western Kentucky
Dean Meminger, Marquette

Second team
Curtis Rowe, UCLA
Paul Westphal, South Carolina
Johnny Neumann, Mississippi
John Roche, South Carolina
Dave Robisch, Kansas

For his part, McGinnis was a third-team selection — from Indiana, where he averaged 29.9 points per game. That was only good for third team? 

Princeton played Indiana when McGinnis was a freshman and when McGinnis would have been a junior, winning 82-76 at UCLA a night before losing to the top-ranked Bruins 76-75 on Wicks' buzzer beater (it's one of the 10 greatest games Princeton men's basketball has ever played) and then winning 68-60 in the NIT opening round, in what was the first postseason game Pete Carril coached at Princeton.

Around the same time that McGinnis left Indiana to go to the ABA, Princeton's own Brian Taylor considered it as well. Taylor averaged 23.5 points per game in 1970-71, the year Princeton didn't go against McGinnis. 

At the end of the season, Taylor was invited to try out for the U.S. Pan Am team, which would be a precursor to the 1972 Olympic team. TB found a story in the Daily Princetonian that said that Taylor was concerned about attending the tryout because it would interfere with his summer work, and that in turn would impact his financial aid situation. 

It was possible, the story said, that he would have to sign a pro contract. At the time, of course, pros were ineligible for the Olympics and Pan Am Games, which were strictly for amateurs.

Taylor did in fact return to Princeton for the 1971-72 season (he is 15th in program history still with 1,239 points despite only playing two seasons) before himself joining the ABA the following year, first with the New York Nets, with whom he'd win the league's Rookie of the Year award. He'd average 13 points per game during his pro career, which also took him into the NBA when the ABA merged with the NBA in 1976.

The story that TB read about Taylor included this quote: "Getting that piece of paper from Princeton comes first."

And get the paper he did. Taylor actually finished up after his pro career, graduating with the Class of 1983. He has gone on to a great career in education and service and is one of the most outstanding human beings to ever come through the Princeton basketball program.

Oh, and something else that TB saw in that Prince story. It was this blurb, including a quote from then-USA basketball chairman Tex Winter:

Winters admitted the '72 Olympic team might be the best ever "if we can develop and train.'' This is quite a prediction since no U.S. basketball team has ever been defeated in Olympic competition, despite scares in recent years from rapidly improving Russian and Yugoslavian teams.

How'd that work out?

One And Two

So what do you want to talk about during exam break? 

TigerBlog starts with his question of yesterday. Which quarterback do you want, Bryce Young or Tommy DeVito?

TB heard from a few people, and the common response was this: not ready to give up on Bryce Young, but toss-up at this stage. Also, pretty much everyone threw in a reference to Italian food.

The point isn't that TB thinks that DeVito will be a better NFL quarterback than Young. It's that Young, the No. 1 overall pick, a player for whom the Panthers traded away a lot to get, is no more of a sure thing than the undrafted free agent. 

And whose fan base is happier? Remember this next time you read all that draft coverage and hear from all those experts.

What else is there to talk about today? 

Men's lacrosse? Okay. 

The Premiere Lacrosse League published the results of its player survey to come up with the 50 best players in the league. When it's your peers who are voting, it's a pretty special honor.

After the PLL had announced its first 47 on the list prior to yesterday, it was clear that two of the final three were going to be Princeton alums. How could it be otherwise, when the names "Tom Schreiber" and "Michael Sowers" had yet to appear. 

To that point, the most interesting part was that Zach Currier was only 12th on the list. TigerBlog supposes that he gets it, since Currier is not a huge scorer, goalie or powerhouse defenseman. 

Perhaps if the question had been worded differently — say, something along the lines of "which player would you most love as your teammate and hate as your opponent" — then Currier would have been No. 1. Probably by a large margin. 

TB paid attention to the rollout on the PLL's X page Wednesday to see where Sowers and Schreiber would come in. He thought there was a chance Sowers would be around five or so, and when the list stopped for the day at No. 4 without him or Schreiber, he took that as a reminder of just how much respect they both have.

This is the other players, remember. This isn't a fan popularity contest (in which Schreiber and Sowers would also finish near the top).

TigerBlog's introduction to Michael Sowers came when Sowers played a few tournaments with TigerBlog Jr. back in, oh, the fourth and fifth grade years. Sowers then became a local high school legend, someone TB never got a chance to see in person.

When Sowers committed to Princeton, TB met him for the first time at another tournament, by which time Sowers had already begun his assault on the national high school record book. TB had the same reaction everyone does when they first see him: This is the guy? 

Then, when he first saw him play in the fall of his freshman year at Princeton, the answer was "yes, this is the guy." 

As for Schreiber, his reputation also was that of a great player before he ever got to Princeton. In fact, TB saw his assist on the St. Anthony's HS overtime goal to beat Chaminade for the Long Island championship. It was a ridiculous pass, and it was so much more impressive than if he had simply ripped a shot from the top of the box.

Between them, Schreiber and Sowers combined for 502 points as Tigers. No Princeton midfielder has ever scored more than Sowers (200 points). Nobody period has ever scored more than Sowers, who put up 302 in just 47 games.

The two were teammates this past summer on the U.S. team that won the gold medal at the World Championships. They faced off in the PLL championship game as well, as Schreibers' Archers team dethroned Sowers' Waterdogs team.

Oh, and they are without question the two nicest people you could ever hope to meet. 

So all that was left was to see where they'd fall. TB assumed it would be Sowers third, goalie Blaze Riordan second and Schreiber first.

As it turned out, it was 1. Schreiber, 2. Sowers, 3. Riordan. 

That's a ton of respect for the two Princetonians from the rest of the league.

Anyway, have a great weekend. If you're a Princeton student, good luck on exams. If you're out of school, be glad you don't have to take them anymore.

No Love For Ozzie, Orr To The Hall And More

Welcome to another Thursday ...

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Ozzie Nicholas was named an FCS All-American by Pro Football Focus. The senior linebacker certainly deserved it after a season in which he finished with 104 tackles, the most by a Princeton defender in nearly 20 years.

TigerBlog still isn't quite sure why Nicholas, the only unanimous first-team All-Ivy League selection on defense, wasn't a Bushnell Cup finalist, but hey, TB 1) is biased and 2) didn't have a vote. 

TB will say that in his opinion, Nicholas was the dominant defensive player in the league. He was the only player to reach triple figures in tackles, and he was in fact 11 tackles ahead of the second place finisher. 

Here's one fairly interesting number to consider: Nicholas had more than twice as many tackles as the Defensive Bushnell winner, Penn's Joey Slackman, who had 50. Yes, there are schemes and differences between being a linebacker and defensive lineman, which Slackman is, and those can definitely account for some of the differences in tackles. Linebackers usually make more tackles than defensive linemen. 

Still, that's a big disparity. Also, Nicholas had more sacks than Slackman (4.5-4). None of this is meant to take away from Slackman, who is obviously a great player. Still ...  no love for Nicholas? 

*

While the subject is football, it's hard not to jump on the Tommy DeVito bandwagon. The Giants' undrafted free agent rookie third-string quarterback (and how many others have succeeded with all that in front of their names) is now 3-1 as a starter with three straight wins after rallying his team past the Packers Monday night. 

And forget all the "Tommy Cutlets" stuff and how he lives at home still. What's best about DeVito for TB is 1) the sheer joy he plays with and 2) that he wasn't drafted. Who would you rather have right now? DeVito or Bryce Young, the No. 1 overall pick? 

Maybe DeVito can't keep this ride going, but he certainly seems like he has some ability to go along with the energy. 

*

Wait, Johnny Orr wasn't already in the EIWA Hall of Fame? 

The legendary Princeton wrestler was an EIWA champ in 1984 and NCAA runner-up in 1984 and 1985. TB assumed he was already in the Hall. This is from the goprincetontigers.com story:

Johnny Orr excelled as a wrestler in the 142-pound weight class at Princeton. With an impressive overall record of 89-9, he was a two-time EIWA place winner and secured the EIWA Championship in 1984, also receiving the Outstanding Wrestler Award that year. As a 2-time NCAA finalist in 1984 and 1985, Orr achieved the status of a 2-time All-American, 4-time First-Team All-Ivy, and 2-time Ivy Outstanding Wrestler. As a senior, he played a pivotal role in leading the Tigers to Ivy League team champions in 1985.

Orr is one of the Princeton athletes whom TB has never met but whose accomplishments are well-know to him. Congrats on the overdue honor.

* 

The rest of the athletics calendar for December is pretty light as first semester exams are here. The Class of 2024 has the distinction, if TB's math is correct, of being the first Princeton class to have all of its exams before the New Year, as opposed to afterwards.

For decades and decades, exams came after the New Year, which led to a massive nearly three-week break in athletic events in January. 

Now, with exams about to get underway, the only event on the calendar for the next eight days isn't even a team event and features only two Princeton athletes, Mary McKenna and Hayley Clark, who will swim in Miami Sunday in the College Swimming Coaches Association of America Open Water championships. 

The race is a 5K, which is 3.1 miles. Follow the math: the race lasts 16,368 feet, or 5,456 yards, which equates to 109 laps in a 50-yard pool or 218 in a 25-yard pool. And this is in open water.

The top five finishers in the race will advance to the USA Swimming Open Water championship.

*

Speaking of open water swimming, TigerBlog watched the Diana Nyad movie on Netflix a few weeks ago. It doesn't exactly paint a flowery picture of Nyad, whose attempts to swim from Cuba to Key West were legendary.

It does, though, include the guy who played Spike in "Notting Hill," so there's that.

* 

Guess what's on sale? Men's lacrosse season tickets. There are five home games this season, against Manhattan, Cornell, Lehigh, Dartmouth and Penn. Total for season tickets is only $30 (gametimes by the way are subject to change).

That would make for a great gift, no? 

You can find tickets for men's lacrosse and men's and women's basketball and hockey on the main ticket page HERE.

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Doubleheader Wednesday

Do you know who the No. 1 ranked team in the country in men's basketball is? 

That would be the University of Arizona. The Wildcats are 8-0, with wins over Top 25 teams Duke, Michigan State and Wisconsin. Next up is a date against No. 3 Purdue Saturday in Indianapolis.

The two head coaches can be forgiven if their pregame chat includes various expressions of how much they hate New Jersey. 

From the Purdue side, the Boilermakers (who by the way are TigerBlog's second-favorite college basketball team) have been bounced out of the NCAA tournament the last two years by St. Peter's (2022 Sweet 16) and FDU (2023 first round, a No. 16 over a No. 1). That's two straight years where the Boilermakers were as favored as anyone to win a national title, only to be taken down by a small private school in Northern New Jersey.

And Arizona? As you probably recall, the Wildcats were a No. 2 seed in last year's NCAA tournament, only to go out in the first round against Princeton. Given the perfect start to the season, Arizona's last loss still was to the Tigers.

Princeton won its first nine games this season before falling to St. Joe's Sunday afternoon in Philly. Next up for the Tigers are games at home against Bryn Athyn today at 4 and Delaware Valley on the 22nd, with only a trip to a very good Delaware team on Dec. 30 before the Jan. 6 Ivy League opener at home against Harvard.

The game today is the first of a doubleheader that continues at 7 when the women take on Rutgers. 

The Princeton women come into that game after a 61-58 win at Villanova Monday night. It's quick turnaround for the Tigers, whose game at Villanova was a thriller all the way.

Once again, TB has to talk about Ellie Mitchell and her rebounding. She had 19 of them against Villanova. That's a ridiculous number, 19.

Mitchell ranks fifth in Division I with 11.9 boards per game. She's also one of six players in Division I with two games of at least 18 rebounds, after she had that number against Oklahoma.

She now has 938 career rebounds, leaving her four away from tying Ellen DeVoe for third in program history and 26 away from tying Bella Alarie for second. The record is currently held by Margaret Meier, with 1,099.

Meanwhile, Kaitlyn Chen had a 31-point night against Villanova, which was 1) a career high and 2) more than half of Princeton's point. The Tigers were down five in the fourth quarter before coming back to win.

While Mitchell chases the career rebounding leaders, Chen is making her way up the scoring charts. Her 31-point night against Villanova left her with 968 for her career, or 32 away from becoming the 28th 1,000-point scorer in program history.

That's a lot of points, especially in only two-plus seasons. That speaks to what a great and consistent scorer Chen has been.

The Rutgers women have had 39 1,000-point scorers, the most recent of whom is Kossandra Brown, who went over the mark earlier this season. Rutgers comes to Jadwin after falling in its Big Ten opener to Indiana 66-56; Princeton has a nine-point loss to Indiana on its 7-3 record.

The teams have one other common opponent, Seton Hall, whom the Tigers defeated 75-71 in Jadwin and whom Rutgers lost to 82-63 in South Orange.

Rutgers leads the all-time series against the Tigers 17-4, though at one time that was a 15-1 edge before Princeton came out on top in three of the last five. 

The Princeton women will be playing for the second time in three days. After this, there will be plenty of rest, as the next game isn't until Dec. 29, at Vermont.

As for the men's game, Bryn Athyn comes in with a record of 8-2 on the year. If you've ever been to Bryn Athyn, which is about 45 minutes from Princeton in Bucks County, Pa., then you know that the town and the college campus are beautiful.

The team's nickname is Lions, so it'll be Lions vs. Tigers who tip at 4. Then it'll be Tigers and Scarlet Knights at 7.

Mostly Clear Skies

TigerBlog's flight back from Orlando Sunday began with an announcement from the pilot that the ride figured to be quite turbulent due to the storms that were going on in the Northeast.

Do you want to know that in advance? Or are you content to be taken by surprise? 

Fortunately, the pilot also pointed out that Boeing had built a very reliable aircraft and there was nothing at all to worry about. And then what happened? It was fairly smooth sailing the whole way.

Even the few times the seat belt sign came on wasn't that bad. When the plane landed at Newark and TB made his way to the front to get off, he saw the pilot in the door of the cockpit and, in his best Pete Carril voice, said "yo, you oversold the turbulence a little bit.

The plane itself had DirecTV, as opposed to the usual library of movies and TV shows, and TB watched the last two minutes of DePaul's 75-68 win over Louisville. If ever a game showed itself to be Exhibit A for the need to fix the end game of college basketball, this was it.

DePaul was up 71-60 with 46 seconds to go when a ball went out of bounds under the basket. One player from each team battled for the ball, and of course it ended up being reviewed. This took about two minutes or so. 

Louisville continued to foul up until the final few seconds. The last two minutes took forever, probably from the time the plane left Florida until it was over North Carolina or so.

Once that game mercifully ended, it was time for UCLA-Villanova. Unfortunately, TB couldn't get the Princeton-St. Joe's game on the in-seat console.

Princeton had come into the game with a 9-0 record, tying for its best start in history. Derek Jones, the Tigers' outstanding play-by-play man, chimed in that the last time Princeton was 9-0, "a little thing called the National Football League had not yet begun."

The perfect start for the Tigers was a follow up to last year's Sweet 16 run, and it had not gone unnoticed. Princeton has started to appear in different versions of national rankings, and players like Matt Allocco, Caden Pierce and Xavian Lee are getting some very deserved attention across the country.

Lee, in particular, has made an incredible jump from last year to this, his sophomore season. A member of the Canadian U19 team from last summer's World Championships, Lee has become a force in his first season in a leading role.

TB mentioned very early on this season that Princeton has a history of players who've made huge jumps from freshman year to sophomore year, but Lee is taking it to a different level. Consider some of his numbers:

* Lee has gone from 4.8 points per game last season to 19.5 this season
* 37.6 percent shooting last year to 48.3 percent this season
* .232 three-point percentage last season to .400 this season ... in fact, Lee took 56 three's a year ago and has taken 55 to date this season and has gone from 13 made last year to 22 this year

How many players in program history have averaged more than 19.5 points per game in a season? The answer is five. That's it.

Those five are: Bill Bradley (three times), Brian Taylor (twice), Geoff Petrie (twice), Pete Campbell (twice) and Bud Haabestad (once). Taylor is the most recent to do it, and that was back in 1971-72.

That's an extraordinary jump from Lee. Only Bradley, in the entire history of Princeton men's basketball, has averaged at least 19.5 as a sophomore.

TB got to baggage claim Sunday just in time to see the end of the game. Unfortunately, the nine-game streak ended with a 74-70 loss to the Hawks in Philadelphia, despite 20 more from Lee.

As much as it would have been great to keep the streak going, it's still been a remarkable start for the Tigers. Maybe the thought was that after last year, it might be a turbulent ride for the follow-up, but the skies have been pretty much clear to date, even with the one setback. 

Another Hall Of Fame For T

TigerBlog enjoyed the picture on Princeton men's hockey social media and on Sacred Heart's webpage of the Robbins brothers as they faced off to start the weekend's home-and-home series.

For the Tigers, it was Adam Robbins. For the Pioneers, it was Dylan Robbins. 

Setting the tone, Princeton's Robbins won the face-off. The Tigers took the game Friday night at SHU 4-0, and then the teams played to a 2-2 tie Saturday night in Princeton. 

As TB saw that picture, it got him wondering if there has ever been another family where one sibling played for Princeton and another sibling played for Sacred Heart. It didn't have to be limited to playing against each other in the same game. He was trying to figure out if there has been a family with one Pio and one Tiger.

Tough question. TB will think about it for awhile.

In the meantime, the update on the waitress who spotted TigerBlog an omelette in Orlando the other day is that TB went back, paid off the first one, ordered another and left a large gratuity. It was a nice act of kindness, something that is all too lacking these days.

TB's meetings in Florida were very productive and very fascinating. There's certainly a lot of discussion to be had moving forward, especially this coming June in Indianapolis when the men's lacrosse rules committee meets again to formalize any changes for the next two-year cycle. 

The highlight of the weekend, though, came Saturday night, when Bill Tierney was inducted into the Intercollegiate Men's Lacrosse Coaches' Association Hall of Fame.

If you're wondering why he wasn't already in, he long ago was inducted into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame. The IMLCA version is relatively new, and Tierney only became eligible this year, after he retired from Denver.

It was at Princeton where he built much of his Hall-of-Fame resume. Actually, it was where he built all of it, since he was still Princeton's coach when he got into the National Hall, back in 2002. 

While at Princeton, Tierney took a program that had never been in an NCAA tournament and prompltly won six championships, in 1992, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998 and 2001. Princeton remains the most recent team to win three straight. The 2001 title might have been the most emotional, as it was accomplished with his sons Trevor and Brendan on the team. 

The 1992 one might have been the most improbable, coming as it did after he told his first recruiting class that it would win an NCAA title its senior year, which is what happened. That it came at a time the team was 2-13 hardly mattered on that classic Memorial Day at Franklin Field in 1992.

Tierney left Princeton in 2009 to take over at Denver, who had never won an NCAA game until his arrival. He won it all there in 2015, making him the only coach ever to win with more than one team.

Tierney is a seminal figure in the sport's history. He has touched so many people, those who played for him and those who didn't, in ways they can't even begin to repay. There is no more loyal a group than Tierney's former Princeton players, who to a man know that they wouldn't have become who they are today without T's influence.

The same is true for TigerBlog. He knew nothing about lacrosse back in 1990, when he first met Tierney. The idea then that he would be on the NCAA rules committee one day for the sport? TB didn't know any of the rules before he met Tierney. It was Tierney who sat him down and taught him the basics and then slowly expanded to the strategic. 

He helped foster in TB a love for the sport that has lasted for decades. More than that, he has been someone TB knows he can always count on, for whatever the need. You're luck if you find someone like that in your life. 

Tierney also was TigerBlog Jr.'s childhood idol — "my friend Bill," he used to call him. Without that, TBJ would never have become a lacrosse player in his own right, and neither would Miss TigerBlog. Everything positive that has come out of the sport for TB and his children can be traced back to Bill Tierney. 

So would TB be there Saturday night to celebrate? Of course. It could have been in Orlando, Alaska, as opposed to Orlando, Florida. TB would still have made sure he was there. 

TigerBlog has been asked many times for a photo of Tierney with an NCAA trophy. The reality is he doesn't have any. Why? Because there aren't any. 

Bill Tierney was never about that. He was never about getting in front of the room to give an acceptance speech for an honor, even for a Hall of Fame.

Nope. He has always been about that day, what needed to be done, how to make his team better, how to make his guys better. Keep working. Keep moving forward. 

That's how he ended up in the front of the room Saturday night. He was introduced by his daughter Brianne, herself the head coach of the women's team at Kent State. Brianne's speech was everything you'd want from a moment like that — funny, serious, emotional and most importantly from the heart.

Then it was her father's turn to speak. It was classic Tierney. He was understated. He thanked everyone. He said, again, "remember what others gave up so you could achieve your success." He made it seem almost like he was a bystander during all of those years, that he was just fortunate to have been surrounded by everyone who did all the heavy work.

It's not true, of course. Yes, he didn't do it alone. Yes, he had a way of making everyone in his program regardless of role— including the communications person — feel like the team's success hinged on what that person did each day.

Ultimately, though, he was the force who drove it all. He was the innovator, the motivator, the aviator who flew his teams to heights they had never dreamed possible but that he made them reach.

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Finally for today, TigerBlog found an old picture the other day of him, BrotherBlog and first cousins Paul and Janet that was taken in 1987 at Paul and Janet's old house in Fair Lawn, N.J. 

When all four of them were together the other night, TB surprised them with the photo, and the four recreated it — 36-plus years later. Here are the two photos.

Pretty sweet, right? 

It was. Very.

Of course, TB couldn't help but think that back in 1987, all four of their parents were still alive. Shortly after the photo was taken, TB's Aunt Regina passed away, at the age of 53. His Uncle Larry lived until his late 70s. 

FatherBlog, now 88, is the only one of the four still alive. 

MotherBlog? She would pass away at the age of 55, in 1994. Actually, it was 29 years ago today. Candles burn for her today in TB's house and in BB's house, even if they're 3,000 miles apart.

No Free Breakfast, Brunch Or Lunch

So TigerBlog had about an hour between meetings yesterday in Orlando, and he figured he'd go get something to eat.

There was a little place that said "Breakfast, Brunch, Lunch" that was about a 15-minute walk from his hotel, so off he went. He had an omelette with a fruit salad, and it was very good. When the bill came, he reached into his pocket to get his credit card ... and found out that the only thing he had with him was his room key. 

Interestingly, the "Breakfast, Brunch, Lunch" place doesn't take room keys. 

TB began to explain to his waitress what the situation was and how he could run back his hotel and get the money and get back in the afternoon. Instead, she told him that she'd take care of the check, because the place closes at 2:30 and TB didn't have time to get back before that. When he told her that he'd be back first thing in the morning with the money, she said "if you do, that's great. If you don't, then 'Merry Christmas.'" She couldn't have been nicer about it.

Anyway, rest assured that, if you're reading this after 8 am or so, that TigerBlog has settled his debt — with a significant tip. And had another omelette.

How nice was that of her though, right? 

TigerBlog has never been a fan of cold weather, so some December days in Central Florida have been quite welcome. The temperature was right around 70 yesterday and will approach 80 the next two days.

As he mentioned yesterday, he's here for the Intercollegiate Men's Lacrosse Coaches' Association, which began yesterday with a full day of meetings. His role is on the NCAA rules committee, which met in the morning and then made a presentation to the full coaching body for Divisions I, II and III in the afternoon about this year's rules changes and points of emphasis and what might be ahead.

There are more meetings today, and then Saturday night is the IMLCA Hall of Fame dinner, at which Princeton's legendary coach Bill Tierney will be one of the inductees. Coach T, of course, was long ago inducted into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame, and the IMLCA one is a relatively new one. 

Meanwhile, back in the Northeast, there are two Princeton athletic events today. The men's hockey team is at Sacred Heart, as TB mentioned yesterday.

In addition, the wrestling team is at Rutgers. This has become a great local wrestling rivalry, and nobody epitomizes New Jersey wrestling quite like Tiger head coach Joe Dubuque, a two-time high school state champion at Glen Ridge High in North Jersey before going to win two NCAA titles at Indiana.

If you know Coach Dubuque at all, you know he's all in on this event. Dubuque's first match as Tiger head coach was against his alma mater. His second is now against the in-state Big Ten rival. 

Rutgers comes in ranked 13th in the country, and every wrestler in the lineup is ranked. 

This is from the preview story: 

The upcoming dual between Rutgers and Princeton will be their 86th meeting since the 1930-31 season. In the all-time series, Rutgers is ahead with a record of 46 wins, 34 losses, and 5 ties, having secured victories in 24 of the last 25 matchups. Last season, the Scarlet Knights barely edged the Tigers with a 17-16 victory at Jadwin Gymnasium.

The match begins at 6 at Jersey Mike's Arena.

The next two basketball games are in the Philadelphia area, with the men at St. Joe's Sunday at 1 and the women at Villanova Monday at 7. 

TigerBlog has a feature story coming out soon about Caden Pierce of the men's team and Ellie Mitchell of the women's team and their ridiculous ability to rebound. The story is packaged with a video of the two.

The most amazing thing about the story, or at least about the interviews for the story, is how much the two have in common. For that matter, there were many times that Pierce and Mitchell answered a question with the exact same words.  

Not to give it all away, but the bottom line appears to be that if you want to be a great rebounder, a good place to start is by being the youngest child with only older brothers.

Hello From Florida

TigerBlog brings you greetings from Orlando.

He's here for two reasons: 1) NCAA men's lacrosse rules committee meeting and 2) Bill Tierney's induction in the IMLCA Hall of Fame Saturday night. 

Okay. Three reasons. It's warm here. 

He came down yesterday on his first experience since being TSC Pre-Check certified. He applied online last week and made an appointment. When he was there, he was told it could take up to 60 days before he'd hear back and to not contact TSA until 60 days had passed.

Then he got an email the next day with his TSA Pre-Check number. If you've ever flown out of the Orlando airport, then you can appreciate the value of having a pre-check number.

He flew out of Newark yesterday morning. As he waited as his gate, he heard an announcement from an adjacent gate that said something along the lines of "we won't have to get a different aircraft after all. Maintenance says that the problem is fixed."

Is that encouraging? 

As for his own gate, the announcement for boarding did not say "Orlando." No, instead it said "now boarding flight to Mickey Mouse."

TB has never been to Disney World. Apparently there were people on his plane who have been and are going again.

Also, last year there was a youth cheerleading festival at the same hotel as the lacrosse convention, and apparently that's the case again. The flight seemed to be fairly well stocked with parents and children who can't wait to get the cheering going. They even had some in the airport by the gate.

TigerBlog was in seat 40F on his flight yesterday. When the plane landed, literally everyone around him stood up as soon as the seat belt sign went off. Yeah, no. What does that say about human nature? 

This is TB's second year of a four-year rules committee term. Last year was a non-change year, so this year figures to be a bit more interesting. TB brought his rules suggestions with him to Florida.

What could possibly be more fun than talking lacrosse rules? TB would have to say that if there has ever been a perfect match of a person and task, it's he and the men's lacrosse rules committee. 

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Speaking of lacrosse, is 700 pounds a lot? 

That's the amount that Princeton men's lacrosse sophomore face-off man Andrew McMeekin deadlifted the other day. Seven hundred pounds? 

McMeekin, who made the all-tournament team last year as Princeton won the Ivy tournament, is a bit of a moose. TigerBlog asked Matt Madalon last year if McMeekin could play another position besides face-off, and when Madalon asked which one, TB said "linebacker?"

Anyway, TB did a search for things that weigh 700 pounds. This is what he learned:

* a vending machine
* a V8 engine
* an ATM machine
* a 14-20 foot sailboat
* 110 bricks
* an unloaded U-Haul trailer
* two NFL offensive tackles

In other words, 700 pounds is a lot, and Andrew McMeekin is one strong individual.

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The Princeton Athletic calendar is pretty thin for the rest of the month, with final exams and holidays and such. Between today and New Year's Eve, there are only 18 remaining competitions for the Tigers. 

One of them is today, when the men's hockey team heads to Sacred Heart to play the first end of a home-and-home. 

When the schedule first came out, TB wanted to go to the game at Sacred Heart, which is TigerBlog Jr.'s alma mater. It's always fun to have a Princeton-SHU matchup.

Also, Sacred Heart has a relatively new rink that is supposed to be beautiful. The Pioneers have been in and out of the Top 20 for the last few years.  

This year's edition is 8-6-0, 8-3-0 in the American Hockey Conference. These will be fourth and fifth meetings in the series and first in 10 years.

Face-off at SHU is at 7 tomorrow night, and then teams then meet against at Baker Rink at 7 Saturday night. That game will be the second game of a Baker Rink doubleheader, with the women against Quinnipiac at 3.

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Lastly, TB leaves you with this photo, which needs no explanation to Princeton fans:

Top Four In The Pool.

Here's what TigerBlog doesn't get about the College Football Playoff: Why not Ohio State? 

The Buckeyes have one loss, on the road at No. 1 Michigan, by a 30-24 score. Where was Ohio State in the conversation? 

It's obvious that since Texas beat Alabama then Texas needed to get in ahead of the Crimson Tide. The committee decided to take both of them.

Florida State was unbeaten but left out. Georgia has one loss, to Alabama, and is also left out. 

Those were the top six. Ohio State? 

TB doesn't have any idea how you can say that Texas has a better resume. Ohio State has wins over Penn State and Notre Dame and only the close lose to Michigan, who is a clear No. 1. Texas beat Alabama, but the Longhorns also lost 34-24 to Oklahoma, who isn't ranked in the top 10.

This isn't to say that Ohio State is a slam dunk, or that Alabama can't win it all. Wouldn't that be wild, especially since the Crimson Tide was a fourth-and-goal from the 31 away from losing to Auburn? For Ohio State not to be mentioned? Very surprising.

To be fair, this wouldn't have been a fun year to be on the selection committee, not with an unbeaten Florida State team that isn't very good right now, a whole bunch of 12-1 teams and an expanded tournament on its way next year. 

Once the games start, the focus will shift anyway. To quote BrotherBlog: "Go Huskies."

Then there's the NCAA men's water polo tournament. You really have to hand it to the people who seeded that one.

The format is to seed the top four and then create matchups from there. The top four seeds were UCLA, Cal, USC and Princeton, in that order. 

One of those, as they say, is not like the others.

The first round saw the top four all win easily, and by margins that were in descending order by seed. UCLA beat Biola by 13. Cal beat Fordham by 10. USC beat San Jose State by eight. Princeton beat UC-Irvine by five (12-7).

That set up the semifinal round, where UCLA beat Princeton 17-13 and Cal beat USC 10-9. That left Sunday's championship game, where Cal beat UCLA 13-11.

Princeton's season was remarkable. The Tigers went 28-6 on the year, setting a program record for wins. And there were some big names in the win column, including UC-Irvine twice.

In fact, of those 28 wins, there were 14 against teams who were ranked. There was also a two-goal regular season loss at UCLA as well, and the Tigers led the NCAA semifinal game 8-7 at the break.

Princeton also won its third-straight Northeast Water Polo Conference championship, becoming the first team to win three straight East titles since Navy from 2006-08.

Roko Pozaric finished the season with 76 goals, the fourth best total in program history. He'll enter his senior year 48 goals away from the career record of 254, held since 2005 by John Stover. 

This was more than just the Roko Show. There were seven players with at least 30 goals, and goalies Kristof Kovacs and West Temkin are both excellent. This is a team in every sense of the word as well. 

Once again, the NCAA water polo final matched two teams from California. There's never been a final that hasn't.

Getting into that mix is not easy, and you have to give head coach Dusty Litvak a ton of credit for where the program is now. 

TigerBlog started today talking about the College Football Playoff, and to most fans of college athletics, it's about football and basketball. Schools have made geographically ridiculous realignment moves based on the money that football can bring in.

For TB, though, the great part is about all of the other sports and all of the other athletes who do what they love to do, far away from the huge spotlight. As he watched the Alabama-Georgia SEC championship game the other day, he texted a friend and Princeton alum and said that this is the kind of event that he'll never experience in his career, but still he wouldn't have wanted to work anywhere but Princeton.

Teams like Princeton men's water polo in 2023 is exactly why. He'll take that over the College Football Playoff any day.

MBB Facts

Coming soon to goprincetontigers.com will be TigerBlog's feature story on Ellie Mitchell and Caden Pierce and their ridiculous ability to rebound.

He doesn't want to give it all away, but he will tell you these facts:

1) Mitchell and Pierce between them have 55 double figure rebounding games. For the entire decade of the 1980s and the 1990s in Princeton men's basketball, there were 48 double figure rebounding games.

2) Since the start of last year, Mitchell and Pierce have 35 double figure rebounding games. That's more than Princeton's men had in either the 1980s or 1990s.

3) Mitchell is on pace to the be the all-time leading rebounder in Princeton women's basketball history. Pierce is on pace to be the all-time leading rebounder in Princeton men's basketball history.

As for the rest, it'll be on the webpage soon.

Meanwhile, here are some other Princeton men's basketball facts:

* Princeton is ranked No. 8 in Division I in the NET rankings. 

* Princeton is one of 15 unbeaten teams in the country.

* Princeton has more road wins than any other team in the country.

Okay, one more:

Princeton is 8-0 for the fourth time in program history and first since 1966-67. A win in the next game would match the best start the Tigers ever, and you have to go back a long, long way to see the last time, as in 1914-15 and 1919-20 seasons. 

Perhaps recent graduate Hobey Baker saw the 1914-15 Tigers play? 

Princeton can tie the record tonight at 7 in Jadwin Gym, when it takes on the Drexel Dragons. Next up after that is another Philadelphia opponent, St. Joe's, on the road Saturday at 1. 

Drexel comes in at 5-3 after defeating Villanova 57-55 at the Big Five Classic Saturday. The Dragons are used to playing close games; of their eight so far, three have been decided by two points, one was decided by six and another was decided by seven in overtime.

Princeton, of course, won a thrilling 70-69 game against Furman Saturday afternoon, taking its only lead of the second half when Matt Allocco hit a three-pointer with 4.2 seconds to play. Princeton had trailed by 11 with less than five minutes to play in that one, which came a few days after the Tigers rallied from 11 down in the second half to beat Bucknell.

By the way, speaking of buzzer beaters in the Ivy League and Big Five Classic, Penn lost 93-92 in overtime to La Salle Saturday on a halfcourt shot at the buzzer, one that looked similar to Furman's last gasp that almost went in.

And Princeton and Penn's endings seemed routine compared to what happened in the Yale-Vermont game. The Bulldogs were up by five after making two foul shots with three seconds left and lost in regulation. How? Vermont went end-to-end for a layup, making it a three-point game, and then got the ball back when Yale was called for an offensive foul on the inbound. Vermont's T.J. Long then took an inbounds pass, got fouled, banked in his three to tie it and them made the winning foul shot with 0.3 seconds to go. 

That's an extraordinary ending.

Drexel's win over Villanova fairly closely mirrored its season stats. Amari Williams scored 12 points to lead the team (that's just below his average) and nobody else was in double figures (nobody besides Williams averages double figures). 

The Dragons defend well and rebound well. If TB had to guess, he'd say it will probably be another close one. 

These are the kinds of games that you love to play at this time of year. They are exciting, and they definitely test you. They also pay off in a big way when you get into the league, which like every other year will be wildly unpredictable. 

For Princeton, the league opener comes up Jan. 6 at Jadwin against Harvard. There are only five more games between now and then, with the two against the Philly teams, home games against Byrn Athyn (Dec. 13) and Delaware Valley (Dec. 22) and then at Delaware (Dec. 30).

You'll want to take advantage of every opportunity you have to see these Tigers play. 

So far this season, they've more than been worth the price of admission.

What A Saturday Afternoon In Jadwin

The 2023 Sweet 16 banner for the Princeton men's basketball team was officially unfurled Saturday afternoon.

Then the current Tigers went out and showed that the magic didn't run out when the run last March ended. How else to explain Princeton's wildly entertaining 70-69 win over Furman at Jadwin Gym Saturday afternoon. 

Matt Allocco, once again, made the biggest shot of the day, a three-pointer with 4.2 seconds left that gave the Tigers the winning points. Those would be the only 4.2 seconds of the second half in which Princeton had the lead.

The win improved Princeton to 8-0 for the first time since 1966-67. Gary Walters, the point guard on that 1966-67 team, told TB that he didn't realize that he had been part of the last 8-0 team. 

The final play began with a missed layup from Xaivian Lee that Caden Pierce attacked, as he always does, coming down with the ball in traffic, jumping up to stay inbounds and finding Allocco on the perimeter. Allocco then canned his three-pointer for the win.

For the second time this week, Princeton won a game in which it trailed by 11 in the second half, after doing likewise against Bucknell Wednesday night. Against the Bison, Princeton was down by 11 4:49 into the second half. At least there was a lot of time left.

Against Furman, Princeton was down 11 with just 4:10 to play. Maybe the Tigers like a challenge? 

Furman, who beat Virginia in the opening round of last year's NCAA tournament, got a layup from Ben Vanderwal to make it 65-54 game with 4:10 to play. To that point, there was really no reason to suspect that Princeton was about to erupt. It looked all the world like it was going to be one of those days where the three-pointers don't fall (4 for 31 for the day) and you tip your hat to the good team that you played and move on.

And then? It started slowly and happened quickly.

Furman committed a foul to bring the game to the under-four media timeout. Allocco hit two foul shots out of the timeout, but it was still a nine-point game.

This is what Furman's next eight possessions produced:

* missed shot plus a foul that put Princeton on the line on the other end, where Pierce made both, getting it to 65-58
* two made foul shots: 67-58 Furman, 3:18 left
* turnover, Princeton couldn't convert
* foul, Xavian Lee with two made foul shots, 67-60, 2:40 left
* turnover, Pierce basket, 67-62, 2:29 left
* turnover, Lee layup, 67-64, 2:04 left
* turnover, Pierce three, tied 67-67 with 1:38 left
* made basket, 69-67 with 1:23 left

Furman's next two possessions were turnovers again. Princeton then missed five straight shots, four threes and the Lee layup attempt, which led to the Pierce rebound.

Allocco then complete drilled his three, after Princeton had made 3 of its first 30. Allocco had been 0 for 4. You go from an 0 for 4 day to hitting the game-winning three with four seconds to play? 

That's a gutsy win by a gutsy team that is playing with extraordinary confidence. Pierce had a 22-point, 15-rebound day. Who has those numbers consistently?

Lee had 24 more points, giving him 152 for the first eight games. A year ago, as a freshman, Lee had 152 points for the season.

And speaking of a year ago, Princeton honored its Sweet 16 run before the game, complete with a banner unveiling. Perhaps what's been going on so far is a product of that experience, even without the impact players who graduated, one of whom is averaging nearly 16 a game in the G-League and another who had 20 points in Northwestern's win over No. 1 Purdue this week.

Next up for Princeton is a home game Tuesday against Drexel. 

What will the Tigers do for an encore?

Pool Play

As TigerBlog walked into Jadwin Gym yesterday morning, he walked past the Cal State-Bakersfield swimming and diving teams, who were leaving DeNunzio Pool after a morning workout in advance of this weekend's Big Al Invitational.

It has to be a bit of culture shock for the Roadrunners, who swim in an outdoor pool in California, to come east for an early December event. At the same time, TB thought about how these swimmers were here while Princeton has a team competing in an outdoor pool in California this weekend as well.

According to TigerBlog's colleague Joey Maruschak, the men's water polo team left Newark Airport for its flight to California for the NCAA tournament Wednesday night at 7:59.

Not 8:00. No, exactly 7:59.

TB did some research and came across this great quote from a 2022 story: 

“Having worked at various airlines, I can tell you if you apply logical thinking to almost anything that the airline industry does, you’ll drive yourself crazy,” said Henry Harteveldt, an analyst with Atmosphere Research Group who joined Marketplace to explain how scheduling works.  

Henry also had this to say: 

“When I worked at Continental, we sent a flight from Houston to New York at 2:12 in the afternoon because that was the New York area code,” Harteveldt said.

TigerBlog could actually understand the seemingly random start times if he thought that planes would actually push back from the gate at that time. He's guessing whatever the listed start time, the plane pushes back exactly at that moment about one percent of the time. 

Oh well. Given the complexities of airline travel, you just have to accept that this system gets you from where you are to where you're going as seamlessly as it does.

Princeton flew out to Los Angeles in advance of the NCAA tournament, which starts today at the University of Southern California. The Tigers are the No. 4 seed in an eight-team field, and they will take on UC-Irvine today at 5 Eastern.

The winner of the game between the Tigers and the Anteaters will take on the winner of No. 1 UCLA and Biola tomorrow at 5 Eastern. The final will match that winner with the team that emerges on the other side of the bracket, with No. 2 Cal and Fordham and No. 3 USC and San Jose State, Sunday at 6 Eastern.

All but three players on the UC-Irvine team are homegrown Californians. The others come from Greenwich, Conn., McLean, Va., and Belgrade, Serbia. The teams played once already this year, and Princeton took that one 11-9 in Irvine's pool. 

There are no consolation games for the teams that don't advance. Should Princeton lose this game today 100-0, what the Tigers have done in earning the No. 4 seed is extraordinary in itself. 

The NCAA water polo tournament for men dates to 1989. How many times in all those years has a team from a state other than California won? 

If you said "zero," you'd be correct. For Princeton to be able to make this kind of national impact is an amazing achievement of its own.

Speaking of NCAA tournaments, you may recall that Princeton's men's basketball team had itself quite a run in last year's event. Had it not been for that, and for FDU and Florida Atlantic, then Furman would be remembered much more for what it did last March as well.

The Paladins pulled off what in most years would have been an upset for the ages, taking down Virginia 68-67 in the opening round. In case you forgot how it happened, this is from the recap:

Down 67-63 with 12 seconds remaining, Furman's Garrett Hien converted on two free throws to cut the deficit to two points. Furman trapped the Cavaliers on the inbounds pass and Hien intercepted Kihei Clark's pass near midcourt. He fed the ball to JP Pegues on the right wing and the Nashville, Tenn., product buried the go-ahead triple to put the Paladins in front. Following a timeout, Virginia got the ball in the hands of Reece Beekman but his last-second heave from long range missed off the back iron as time expired.

That's doing it the hard way. Furman lost in Round 2 to San Diego State, who made it all the way to the national final before losing to UConn.

Furman comes to Jadwin Gym tomorrow at 2 for what should be a very entertaining game. The Paladins are scoring just under 85 points per game, including 18 by Pegues and 22 from 6-4 guard Marcus Foster.

Princeton comes in at 7-0, for the first time since 1997-98. The last time Princeton was 8-0? Hint - the team's point guard was none other than Gary Walters, in the 1966-67 season.

The women, off that dramatic double overtime win over Seton Hall Wednesday night, are at Rhode Island Sunday at 1.

A Thursday Without Turkey

Another Thursday, though not quite like last Thursday ... 

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TigerBlog wrote about rebounding yesterday, which reminds him of something that Bill Carmody said to him before Princeton played Michigan State in 1989.

As TB recalls, Carmody said "we'll win if we get outrebounded by 15 or less." What happened? Princeton got outrebounded by 16 and lost by two.

Pete Carril once famously said: "A person's jumping ability is inversely proportional to his home's distance from the railroad tracks."

Sociologists can debate that all they wish. The reality is that at Princeton, rebounding was always an Achilles heel. The 1997-98 team, the one that went 27-2 and reached as high as No. 8 in the national rankings, was actually outrebounded by nearly three per game. You can put an asterisk on that perhaps because the Tigers shot just below 50 percent from the field for the year, so there weren't a lot of chances for offensive rebounds.

Carmody once said that his team played the "shoot and run offense," where "one guy shoots and four run back on defense." That is hardly the gameplan anymore. 

In last night's women's game against Seton Hall, Ellie Mitchell had nine rebounds despite fouling out after playing 31 minutes. With the nine rebounds, Mitchell became the four woman and sixth player in all in Princeton basketball history to reach 900 rebounds in a career. Mitchell now has 904.

As for the game, it was something of an early season classic, as the 25th-ranked Tigers and Pirates went to two overtimes before Princeton won 75-71. The biggest play of the night might have been a rebound, courtesy of Mari Bickley, a freshman who hauled in a missed Seton Hall shot in between three Pirates in the final minute of the second OT and Princeton ahead by one. 

The women are at Rhode Island Sunday.

The men defeated Bucknell 85-71 last night in Lewisburg in a game in which there were only 46 total rebounds, 23 for each team. Why so few rebounds? How about not a lot of missed shots. Both teams made better than 50 percent of their shots, including a blistering 58 percent for the Tigers, who host Furman Saturday at 2.

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One of the highlights on the weekend schedule will be held in DeNunzio Pool tomorrow through Sunday, as the men's and women's swimming and diving teams host the Big Al Invitational. For a full schedule of events, click HERE.

The competing teams will be: Princeton, Cal State Bakersfield, Columbia, Denver, George Washington, North Carolina, Penn, Penn State, Army (divers only). That's a pretty good field, with teams who will fly in and others who will swim in a pool with which they are very familiar. 

The event is named for Alan Ebersole, a Princeton swimmer who drowned in the Atlantic Ocean during a fall break trip to Florida in October 2004. The program has turned over many times since then, but it's important for everyone involved to know the name of the person for whom the meet is named.  

TigerBlog remembers when Ebersole passed away and the shock and outpouring of grief that accompanied the news from the swimming and diving teams and the department as a whole. It was one of the most emotional times he's ever seen from Ford Family Director of Athletics Emeritus Gary Walters, and many others. 

TB never met Alan Ebersole, but he's also never forgotten the empty feeling when he heard the news and when he wrote his obituary. It's hopefully of some consolation to those who knew him that his name remains a part of DeNunzio Pool.

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Wait, Ozzie Nicholas was the only defensive player to be a unanimous first-team All-Ivy League selection but was not a finalist for the Bushnell Cup? Actually, there were four unanimous first-team All-Ivy selections in all, with Harvard running back Shane McLaughlin and Yale wide receiver Mason Tipton on offense and Columbia punter William Hughes on special teams.

None of those four were finalists for the Bushnell Cup, which has two on offense (Yale QB Nolan Grooms and Brown WR Wes Rockett) and two on defense (Dartmouth DL Charlie Looes and Penn DL Joey Slackman).

Interesting, no? 

For what it's worth, Nicholas led the Ivy League in tackles with 103, or nine more than any other player and 16 ahead of third place.  

You know who didn't like that Nicholas wasn't a finalist? That would be none other than Andrei Iosivas:

 

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The College Football Playoff rankings have Ohio State at No. 6, despite only a very close, could-have-gone-either way loss at unbeaten Michigan on an otherwise perfect record? What has Florida State done to deserve to be ranked fourth, ahead of Ohio State? 

The Princeton men's hockey team was at Ohio State last weekend for a pair of games and had the chance to be around an entire community that was crushed by the result of a football game. This weekend, the Tigers are on the road, at Union tonight and RPI tomorrow night (face-off at 7 both nights).

The women are home, against RPI tonight at 6 and then against Union tomorrow afternoon at 3. 

It's way, way too early to get too hung up on the ECAC standings quite yet, though a quick look shows Princeton men tied with Clarkson for sixth place with Union and RPI tied for ninth, while on the women's side Princeton is eighth, followed by Union in ninth and RPI in 11th.

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Joe Dubuque's first dual match as Princeton head wrestling coach will be Sunday at 1 in Jadwin Gym against Indiana, who is the first team in the "others receiving votes" category in this week's poll. Indiana is also one of 13 Big Ten teams who are either ranked or receiving votes this week.

Oh, it's also Dubuque's alma mater. 

After the Indiana match, Princeton will be at No. 13 Rutgers Friday.

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There is also home men's and women's squash this weekend, while the fencing teams are at the Sacred Heart Duals. 

Oh, and there's also NCAA men's water polo and basketball. TB will have more on those tomorrow.