Opposition Swish

If your closet is mostly filled with orange and black, like TigerBlog's is, then you picked the right weekend to go to Dayton.

That was TB's first thought as he sat in a sports bar Friday night in the Ohio city that is about an hour from Cincinnati. Everywhere he looked there was orange and black, for the beloved Bengals, who were readying to play in the AFC Championship Game. 

His initial reaction was that everyone was wearing Princeton gear. The way the mind can train itself is a wonderful thing.

As it turned out, the Bengals lost to Kansas City 23-20, plunging Southwest Ohio into despair. As TB sat in a breakfast place (aptly named "Another Broken Egg Cafe") yesterday morning, his waitress saw his orange and black and said "tough loss." When she looked a little closer, she saw that it said "Princeton Lacrosse" and not "Cincinnati Bengals," to which she said "I'm from Vineland originally, so I'm an Eagles fan, but I can't say that here today."

As he mentioned yesterday, TB drove to Ohio to visit Miss TigerBlog, who is working in Dayton in her first post-Princeton job as an aerospace engineer. It's coincidence that he was here when the Bengals were one game from a return trip to the Super Bowl.

TB had seen that Dayton was playing Richmond Saturday at the UD Arena, which is one of the most famous in all of college basketball and a building in which TB had never before been. Richmond, of course, is coached by Chris Mooney, Princeton Class of 1994 and a first-team All-Ivy player during his time as a Tiger.

Earlier in the week, TB had emailed Doug Hauschild, the men's basketball SID at Dayton. TB had never met Hauschild, though when he read his bio he saw that Hauschild has been at Dayton longer than TB has been at Princeton, which is saying a lot.

Hauschild immediately got back to TigerBlog with tickets, credentials and a parking pass. It was quite hospitable of him, and it's also how those in athletic communications tend to operate.

The arena, by the way, is beautiful. Opened in 1969, it has hosted more NCAA tournament games than any other venue.

Prior to the game, TB and his daughter had lunch with Justin DiCarlo, a freshman on the Flyers' soccer team. DiCarlo attended Hotchkiss, where one of his close friends was current women's lacrosse freshman Jamie MacDonald, and he has started at Dayton this semester, allowing him to practice with the team this spring while having four years of eligibility.

Justin is also the son of Vinnie DiCarlo, who worked in the Princeton OAC in the mid-1990s. If you've been a longtime TB reader, you know that Vinnie stole a sign that said "this is not a public entrance to the RCA Dome" during Princeton's 1996 NCAA tournament appearance there.

The game was an 86-60 Dayton win behind what seemed to be sizzling three-point shooting, as in 14 for 27 for the night. What's more amazing is that the Flyers started the day 1 for 10 from beyond the arc, meaning they finished up 13 for 17. 

Overall, Dayton made 15 straight shots at one point, the last 11 of the first half and the first four of the second. TB was amazed at how hot Dayton got. 

After it was over, TB waited outside the Spider lockerroom to say hi to Mooney, who is one of the nicest guys who's ever come through the Princeton men's basketball program. It's always great to see him, even if it came after a frustrating day. 

Afterwards, TB went back to his hotel to watch Princeton-Yale men. If TB thought Dayton was hot, what did that make Yale? 

The Bulldogs topped Princeton 87-65 and shot 14 for 21 from three-point range in the process. If you put that together with the way Dayton finished up, then those two were a combined 27 for 38 from three-point range against Mooney and Mitch Henderson. That's 71 percent from three-point range.

Even if you include the 1 for 10 to start the day, it's still 28 for 47, or 60 percent, which is also nuts. Since TB was rooting for Richmond and Princeton, all he could do was shake his head. Hey, in basketball, there are those kinds of days.

The Princeton loss leaves the Tigers in a first-place tie with Cornell at 5-2 as the league race reaches the midway point. Yale and Dartmouth, who defeated Columbia 83-73 behind 41 points from Dame Adelekun, are both 4-3, followed by 3-4 Harvard, Penn and Brown.

This coming weekend is a huge one, as Princeton hosts Cornell Friday night and then Columbia Saturday night. 

The Cornell game will be preceded by a celebration in honor of Princeton's 1996, 1997 and 1998 teams, the ones that defeated UCLA in the NCAA tournament and then went 28-0 in the league the next two years, rising into the Top 10 in 1998 and defeating UNLV in the opening round of the tournament.

Henderson, the Princeton coach, and Earl, the Cornell coach, were obviously Princeton teammates during that run. They will be joined at Princeton by most of the others who were on the team then, as well as coaches and managers.