What's Up This Weekend?

Since his son is an alum of Sacred Heart University, TigerBlog has earned a lifetime pass of rooting for the Pioneers' teams.

Factor in that his longtime friend and former Yale athletic communications legend Steve Conn is now at Sacred Heart, and TB has even more reason to proudly wear his Sacred Heart gear.

SHU has done a great deal in building its academic programs in the last 10 years or so. For a school that is the same age as TigerBlog, it has come a long way in a short time.

In addition to its upgraded academics, the school has also raised a great deal of money (a huge thank you goes to former Director of Athletics Bobby Valentine) for its team's facilities. This past weekend, Sacred Heart debuted its new 3,600-seat Martire Family Hockey Arena, which looks like a great place to see a game. The first game was last Saturday, with a 3-2 overtime loss to Boston College. 

Still, it seemed like quite the party atmosphere from the social media accounts TB saw. You can see what the arena looks like HERE.

TB starts his Friday by congratulating Sacred Heart on the new addition.

As for hockey closer to home, this weekend has the Princeton women at home and Princeton men on the road.

The women host Yale tonight at 6 in what figures to be a great matchup against a Bulldog team that comes in ranked second in the nation and with a record of 17-1-1, including 10-1-1 in the ECAC. Yale won its first eight games, tied Cornell, lost to Colgate and since have won nine straight. 

Princeton will follow the game tonight with a game tomorrow at 3 against Brown, who is tied for 10th in the league standings. 

The Tigers are tied for seventh in the league, with Harvard. Princeton is 10 points back of fourth place in the league, which would mean home ice in the first round of the playoffs, and six points ahead of ninth place, which would mean not making the playoffs.

Here are two notes about ECAC women's hockey: 1) you get three points for a win and one for a tie and 2) beginning next year, all 12 teams will make the playoffs.

The men's hockey team is at Colgate tonight and Cornell tomorrow night, with face-off at 7 for both games. Sometimes a great deal of analysis is necessary in advance of a game; other times it's a bit more simple. Which one is this weekend's for the men?

Consider the standings:

3. Cornell 22 points
4. Princeton 20 points
5. Colgate 19 points

The prize for finishing in the top four is a first-round bye in the playoffs. Teams 5-8 will be home in the first round.

In addition to hockey, it's another typically busy weekend all around for the Tigers.

The men's basketball team is home tomorrow at 2 against Dartmouth in a matchup of two of the three teams who are over .500 in the league at this stage of the season. Princeton, at 4-1, is tied with Cornell for first place, while Dartmouth, who has already won at Yale and at Harvard, is 3-2 (the Big Green also own a win over Penn at home).

While the men are home, the women are at Dartmouth. The Tigers have won three straight after their 0-2 league start, which leaves them tied with Harvard for fourth, behind three 4-1 teams (Columbia, Yale and Penn). With each weekend that goes by, the race for the championship and the four Ivy tournament spots will get just a bit clearer.

In addition to hockey and basketball, the Princeton Athletic schedule also has men's and women's tennis, men's and women's squash, wrestling, men's and women's track and field, women's swimming and diving and men's and women's fencing.

There's also the Dream Bowl in Tokyo, which makes an Ivy League football all-star team against a Japanese team. That game, which includes seven Princeton players, kicks off at 11 Eastern tomorrow night, or 1 pm Sunday in Japan.

The complete weekend schedule can be found HERE.