A Big Saturday On Sherrerd Field

Bill Tierney mentioned to TigerBlog the other day that he was about to become the head coach of the Philadelphia Waterdogs in the Premier Lacrosse League.

It wasn't being announced until next week, though. In fact, it would probably be held off until Tuesday, since Monday was April Fools' Day and nobody would believe it.

As it turned out, word got out. It always does, it seems. There it was yesterday, everywhere in the lacrosse media world.

TB spoke to Tierney for the men's lacrosse podcast this week, along with head coach Matt Madalon. Tierney will be back at Sherrerd Field tomorrow, when the Tigers host Dartmouth at noon. 

The occasion is Alumni Day, and Tierney will be on the field at halftime to celebrate an endowment that now makes it "The William G. Tierney P’01 P’02 Head Coach of Men's Lacrosse at Princeton." 

TigerBlog probably doesn't have to run through the list of all of Tierney's achievements, so here's a bit of an abridged list: 

* seven NCAA championships, with six at Princeton and one at Denver
* the only coach ever to win NCAA titles at two different schools
* 10 Final Fours at Princeton and five more at Denver
* 238-86 record at Princeton and 439-152 overall

Tierney, whom TB considers the greatest lacrosse coach of all time, retired at the end of last season from Denver. He's done a bit of broadcasting as he's adapted to his new life and he's writing a book about his life in the game, but there's something about being a coach that stays with the best forever. Because of that, TB wasn't all that surprised to learn that Tierney was heading back to the sidelines.

Madalon has the best winning percentage of any Princeton coach other than Tierney in the last 75 years, winning 56 of 91 games, for a .615 percentage. He's also fourth all-time in wins by a Princeton men's lacrosse coach, trailing only Tierney, Ferris Thomsen (115, 1951-70) and Al Nies (74, 1921-35). 

In other words, since 1970, only Tierney has won more games at Princeton than Madalon. He's also taken Princeton to back-to-back NCAA tournaments, the 2022 Final Four and the 2023 Ivy tournament title.

His current Princeton team is back home after a big 14-11 win at Harvard last Saturday in the rain. How big was it? 

The Tigers had lost to Cornell 15-14 in their Ivy opener a week earlier. Falling to 0-2 does not make it impossible to reach the Ivy tournament, but it's certainly a difficult road.

Penn and Cornell are now both 2-0, and they play each other tomorrow in Philadelphia. Princeton and Yale are both 1-1, while Harvard is 0-2 and Brown and Dartmouth are 0-1 each.

The top four will reach the Ivy tournament, which this year will be held at the home field of the Ivy champion.

Princeton is right in the thick of the race for the Ivy title and, should it not get the league's automatic bid, an NCAA at-large spot. In fact, the Tigers have a current RPI of 12.

With all of that, it's easy to forget just how young these Tigers are. Princeton's top six on offense consists of three freshmen, two sophomores and a junior. Princeton has scored 102 goals to date this season, and only six have come from seniors.

Junior Coulter Mackesy became the third-fastest Princeton player to reach 100 career goals when he scored against Harvard last weekend, in his 39th career game. Only Wick Sollers in the 1970s and Jesse Hubbard in the 1990s got there faster.

Hubbard holds the career record with 163. Mackesy set the single-season record a year ago with 55.

Will Mackesy catch Hubbard? And will Nate Kabiri catch Mackesy? Kabiri, a freshman, has played eight games and has 22 goals, including five a week ago against the Crimson. 

Should he maintain his current season's average, Kabiri would finish the regular season with 35 goals. The freshman record at Princeton is 41, held by Michael Sowers. Mackesy is tied for second with 28 his freshman year. 

The Princeton men's lacrosse program is all about the mixing of the past and the present. The alums who will be back tomorrow are an extraordinarily loyal group, and Madalon and his staff work hard to make sure that every current player is aware of the history of the team they now represent.

It'll all be on display tomorrow at Sherrerd Field. Face-off against the Big Green is noon. The forecast is good.

Paging Anita Gomez

TigerBlog begins today with a question of ethics, courtesy of a good friend of his.

What would you do in this situation: You're waiting for a red-eye flight, only you're on standby. The gate agent has told you that your only chance of making this flight, and subsequently your connecting flight, is by having someone not show up. 

As the flight is boarding, there is one person who has not arrived. The gate agent makes an announcement over the PA, asking for "passenger Anita Gomez to come to the front." No one responds. 

Ah, but at the same time, you see a woman who has fallen asleep near the gate. Actually, she's not just asleep. She's 1) set up a sleep area, so that she has a blanket and pillow and such, and 2) she is out of view of the gate agent.

Could that be Anita Gomez? Do you wake her and ask if she's Anita? Do you alert the gate agent, even though doing so could mean you miss the plane? Or do you just get on the flight? 

As an aside, TB's friend told him this story from Atlanta, where he was waiting for his connecting flight, so that will tell you what he decided. 

Would you have done the same? Let your conscience be your guide.

Meanwhile ...

*

The forecast for the weekend is for clear skies and temps around 60. In other words, it's springtime.

If there has ever been a team that deserves to play in the sunshine, it's the Princeton women's lacrosse team. Just when you think it can't rain any harder on Jenn Cook's team, along comes another Nor-easter to leave them and their fans once again soaked.

So naturally, with the weather forecast promising, there is no women's lacrosse game this weekend. Next up for Princeton is Penn, the Ivy League preseason favorite, who will be on Sherrerd Field Wednesday night. Princeton is 1-1 in the league after a huge win over Cornell last weekend, while Yale and Penn are both 2-0.

The men will be home Saturday against Dartmouth, with face-off at noon. Princeton's men are also 1-1 in the league, after bouncing back from a brutal 15-14 loss to Cornell two weeks ago with a 14-11 win over Harvard last Saturday — in the rain, of course. 

The men's game comes on Alumni Day, and former coach Bill Tierney will be recognized at halftime (even though he's a Cortland State alum).

*

The baseball team is home for three games this weekend against Yale (DH Saturday, single game Sunday) after taking two of three from Cornell last weekend. Should Kyle Vinci hit a home run in any of those games, then he'd take over sole possession of Princeton's career record, which he currently shares with Matt Evans (Class of 1999) with 26. 

The softball team is also home this weekend, with three against Penn (also DH Saturday, single game Sunday). Again, the great thing about the current location of the two fields is that you can see pretty much every pitch of both games at the same time if you position yourself correctly, or you can at least wander back and forth inning-by-inning. 

*

The highest rated women's college basketball NCAA game this past weekend was Iowa-West Virginia, which, in fact, was the highest rated women's NCAA non-Final Four game ever and the third-highest NCAA game in the last 20 years. The previous record? It was set two days earlier, by the Iowa-Holy Cross game. Iowa-West Virginia drew 2.5 times as many eyeballs as the next-highest rated second round game; Iowa-Holy Cross drew nearly five times what any other first round game did.

If you haven't figured it out yet, the draw is Iowa's Caitlin Clark. Had Princeton defeated West Virginia in the opening round, then that record would have been set for the Tigers' second round game. That would have been cool.

There is, of course, the risk that the pendulum will switch back and the sporting public will be tired of having all-Clark, all the time in its collective face. That's how it always works. 

In the midst of all of this Clark-mania, UConn coach Geno Auriemma said that his star, Paige Bueckers, is the best player in the college basketball. Down the road for Iowa would be LSU in the regional final if both win their Sweet 16 games (against Colorado and UCLA, a team Princeton lost to by three), and then of course there is still South Carolina and USC and any number of other compelling teams still around.

Should the Final Four feature Clark, Buekers and South Carolina, the ratings for the women could exceed those of the men. The women certainly have the bigger stars this year, that's for sure.

*

The last remaining winter team to compete is the men's swimming and diving team, which is at the NCAA championships today through Saturday in Indianapolis. Princeton will be represented by four divers — Aidan Wang and Luca Fassi will compete in the 1-meter, 3-meter and platform events and George Callanan and Taso Callanan will compete in the platform.

*

There are more teams who compete in the spring than in the fall or winter, and so every weekend this time of year is a busy one. This weekend, in addition to the home baseball, softball and men's lacrosse games, there is also home rowing (lots of it), women's tennis (Ivy opener against Penn), women's rugby (Sunday) and track and field (Sam Howell Invitational).

The complete schedule, home and away, can be seen HERE.

Earl And Bradley

When TigerBlog saw the news that Brian Earl had been named the head men's basketball coach at William & Mary, he sent Earl the following text:

"Thank you for allowing me not to have to have mixed emotions for Princeton-Cornell. Congrats. Good luck there."

The Ivy League Player of the Year in 1999 as a Princeton senior, Earl did a tremendous job at Cornell, rebuilding the program and making it one of the best teams in the Ivy League. The Big Red, like Princeton, reached the NIT this season after a disappointing loss in the Ivy League semifinals.

It was always very hard to root against Earl when his team's played Princeton. And if that was the case for TB and Princeton fans, imagine what it was like for Princeton head coach Mitch Henderson.

Earl and Mitch Henderson are very, very close. Each Princeton-Cornell game was an emotional roller-coaster for both of them, as you might expect. 

It was especially true when the 1996-98 teams were honored in 2023 on their 25th anniversary of winning three straight Ivy titles and two NCAA tournament games. It was held on a night when Princeton played Cornell, and Earl was surrounded by his former teammates — all of whom wanted him to lose.

The team he inherits is one of 34 in Division I on a list that none of them relishes, the list of teams that have never reached the NCAA tournament. That's out of the 352 D1 teams who are eligible (there are 11 more who are transitioning to Division I and are not yet able to qualify).

This past season, W&M went 10-23, 4-14 in the CAA. Clearly this is a challenge. 

Of course, winning at Cornell was also a challenge. The Big Red had six straight losing seasons before he arrived, including 25-61 in the three years immediately before he arrived. Earl then had four sub-.500 seasons before going 54-30 the last three years.  

If you want to watch Earl's introductory press conference at William & Mary, you can see it today at 1 on tribeathletics.com.

Earl's junior season was the first for Scott Bradley as the head baseball coach at Princeton. This past Friday, Bradley became the second Princeton coach to reach 450 career wins, which he did in a doubleheader sweep of Cornell to start the Ivy season.

The all-time record at Princeton is 564, held by Bill Clarke, for whom Clarke Field is named. Clarke, the first head baseball coach at Princeton, spent three different tenures as the Tiger head coach, from 1900-17, 1919-27 and 1936-44.

Clarke and Bradley have some things in common.

Both were Major League catchers for a decade or so. Both played for four different teams in the Majors. Clarke had a .256 career batting average. Bradley had a .257 career batting average. That's sort of cool.

Clarke began his career in 1893 with the Baltimore Orioles before also playing with the Boston Beaneaters, Washington Senators and New York Giants. You get extra credit if you can tell TB what the current editions of the Beaneaters and Senators are called.

Clarke was also nicknamed "Boileryard Bill," apparently because of his voice. 

The two wins for Princeton against Cornell were followed by a loss Sunday, leaving the Tigers at 2-1. Penn, the defending champion, swept Brown to start the year at 3-0. 

Remember, the Ivy League went to a four-team tournament last year after years of having the top two teams play in an Ivy League championship series. Princeton and Penn were the last two teams left in last year's tournament, which the Quakers would win to advance to the NCAA tournament.

Another note for Princeton baseball is that Kyle Vinci hit his 26th career home run in the Sunday loss to the Big Red. Those 26 home runs tie the school's career record, meaning Vinci will be all alone in first with his next one. 

The record has been held since 1999 by Matt Evans, who you may also recall was a three-time first-team All-Ivy League punter in football.

Also, the Boston Beaneaters eventually became the Boston Braves and then ultimately the Milwaukee Braves and now Atlanta Braves. The original Washington Senators are now the Texas Rangers, though a subsequent Washington Senators franchise became the Minnesota Twins.

NCAA Champ Tristan Szapary

Welp, the fun part of the NCAA men's basketball tournament is over.

Unless, like last year, Princeton advances to the Sweet 16, the best part of the tournament ends at the end of the first Sunday. The field goes from 68 teams on Selection Sunday to only 16 left, and from here forward the excitement is not what it was heading into the first games. It happens so quickly.

That's part of the tournament's charm and uniqueness. What other championship event has its apex of excitement in the beginning and then sees it dwindle from there? 

If you're looking at the 16 teams that are left, you have all four No. 1 seeds, all four No. 2 seeds, two No. 3 seeds, two No. 4 seeds, two No. 5 seeds, one No. 6 and one No. 11. 

The 11, by the way, is North Carolina State, which won five games in five days at the ACC tournament just to get into the tournament in the first place. That's impressive, and it makes for a good story, but a team from a power league is hardly a good underdog story, especially with wins over Texas Tech and Oakland. 

There are 16 teams who are still going, and only one is higher than a six. It makes for quality basketball, but the charm of the tournament is behind everyone now.

On the women's side, there are still way fewer upsets than the men's tournament has each year. Only one double figure seed made it out of the first round on the women's side, and that was No. 11 Middle Tennessee State, whom Princeton defeated in the regular season, by the way.

Oh well. Enjoy the rest of it, even if you'll enjoy it less than you did this past weekend.

As for the rest of the world of college athletics, there were national championships on the line this past weekend in other sports. Princeton senior Tristan Szapary earned one of those, when he took the NCAA epee fencing title Sunday at Ohio State.

Szapary became the ninth Princeton male fencer to win an NCAA individual title and the first since 2012. The individual championship comes out of the team portion, as the four individuals in each weapon with the most wins advance to the semifinals. 

From the goprincetontigers.com story: 

Szapary held off Notre Dame's Jonathan Hamilton-Meikle 15-14 in the final after knocking off Harvard's Henry Lawson 15-9 in the semifinal. Lawson was the top seed after the pool round as he a won 17 of 23 bouts to 16 for Szapary and Hamilton-Meikle.

The final itself ended in a way that TigerBlog didn't even know was possible. Szapary trailed 1-0 and then led 7-0 before Hamilton-Meikle got it to within one four different times, the last at 14-13. The winning point came on a double-touch, something TB didn't know existed. 

When TB watched the video of Szapary's win on X, he was a bit surprised by how calm Szapary seeed. It was actually a pretty understated reaction to becoming an NCAA champ, which is an honor that very few ever accomplish.

The Princeton co-ed team finished fourth overall, which is the 10th time in its last 12 appearances that the Tigers have been in the top four as a team. In addition to Szapary, Princeton had five other fencers who earned All-American honors: senior Ryan Jenkins (saber), freshman Alexandra Lee (saber), sophomore Matthew Limb (saber), junior Jessica Lin (epee) and senior Ariana Rausch (epee).

For Rausch, it was her first trip to the NCAA championships and came in her final season. Jenkins, a semifinalist, and Lin earned All-American honors for the third time each.

TigerBlog looked up Szapary's bio on the webpage, and it's filled with impressive stuff. He finished 10th a year ago, earning All-American honors, and he was the NCAA regional champ this year, as well as the 2023 Ivy epee champ.

Oh, and he also summited Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania when he was 12. That's a 19,341-foot peak, by the way. 

Hey, like TB said, impressive stuff.

The Gold Standard

Ellie Mitchell had just fouled out of Princeton's first-round NCAA women's basketball game against West Virginia, and the TV screen flashed "Ellie Mitchell - 3 points."

From his seat on the men's lacrosse bus, from which he watched the game, TigerBlog he rolled his eyes. If anything ever failed to tell a story of game, which Princeton lost 63-53, it was "Ellie Mitchell - 3 points."

Yes, it was accurate. She did have three points in the game. No, scoring was never how she was judged in her Princeton career.

Here are other numbers Mitchell had: 15 rebounds. Five assists. She had 10 of those rebounds in the first half. 

With each play she made, the men's lacrosse coaches ooh'd and ahh'd. They raved about her energy, how she impacted everything on the defensive end, how tough she played on every possession.

In the end, it was the end of her Princeton career, one that she finished with 1,125 rebounds. It's a school record, for women or men, and TB will be shocked if it's broken any time soon.

The game also saw the end of the Princeton career of Kaitlyn Chen, who had 17 points in the game, leaving her with 1,276 career points, 12th best among Tiger women. 

There is a beauty to the NCAA tournament, and yet for every shining moment, there is a corresponding heartbreak. For Princeton, the heartbreak came one round earlier than it had each of the last two seasons, when the Tigers won their NCAA opener and came within a game of the Sweet 16.

Because of that success, and because of what the prize was for winning this game, this heartbreak was even tougher. It will be West Virginia, and not Princeton, who advances to take on Iowa, which means a second-round date with the great Caitlin Clark, as big a star as there is in sports today.

It would have been a great experience to compete again her, yes, but it was also a great experience to reach the NCAA tournament at all, any year, for any team. It is never something to take for granted, and winning there likewise is never, ever easy.

In the history of Ivy League women's basketball, there have been four NCAA wins. Before these Tigers came along, there were two: Harvard in 1999 and Princeton in 2016.

Then Princeton beat Kentucky two years ago and North Carolina State last year. It changed expectations and goals for this group, but West Virginia's pressure defense, especially in the third quarter, was too much to overcome. 

This is a glorious time for Ivy League basketball in general. This year saw the Ivy League get two bids on the women's side for the second time ever, which shows you how nationally relevant the league is.

Yale's men, of course, won their game Friday against Auburn, and it was no fluke. Afterwards, Yale coach James Jones suggested that Princeton was the best team in the Ivy League this year, and he felt that Yale had been the best team last year. 

It was last year that Princeton reached the Sweet 16. Kevin Whittaker, who knows as much about Ivy basketball as anyone, totaled that the Ivy League was now 8-12 in the last 20 games, and all of those games were against teams seeded at least seven spots above the Ivy team.

The gold standard through all of this has been the Princeton women. The team had never been to the NCAA tournament prior to the 2010 event, but this year's trip was the 11th in program history. 

The coaching staffs have turned over. The rosters have turned over — replacing Mitchell, Chen and Chet Nweke becomes the next challenge there. The rules have changed. The game has changed. 

The constant has been Princeton women's basketball success. 

Once again, the Tigers showed themselves to be among the very best women's basketball teams in the country. They spent the year ranked nationally and finished with a 24-6 record. 

Yes, it stung to go out in the first round this time around. That just shows you how much they've accomplished through the years, and the last two specifically.

There will be big graduation losses to overcome, but there have been in the past as well. Don't worry about this group though.

They're not going anywhere.

NCAA Weekend

Today starts with the numbers "75" and "58."

If those look familiar, they were the final score of last weekend's Ivy League tournament final in women's basketball, where Princeton defeated Columbia 75-58.

Perhaps less familiar to Princeton fans, those numbers also pretty much equate to the average score of a West Virginia women's basketball game this season. The Mountaineers average 74.6 points per game on offense while allowing 57.8 per game on defense.

Princeton's averages aren't that far off, with 70 points per game on offense and 56 allowed per game on defense. 

Princeton and West Virginia meet up tomorrow at 5:30 Eastern time in the opening round of the NCAA tournament in Iowa City. Princeton is the No. 9 seed in the region, while West Virginia in the No. 8.

The first round, as an 8-9 game, figures to be evenly matched, right? Last year in the women's tournament, the eight seed won twice and nine seed won twice. The games were decided by one, two, five and, well, 23 points. 

The year before? Again, two wins each for the eight and the nine. None of those 2022 games, though, was closer than 10 points.

This will be Princeton's fourth NCAA game as an eight or nine, and the eight has won the previous three. The Tigers' 2015 win over Wisconsin-Green Bay came as an eight, and its wins the last two years came as an 11 (over Kentucky) and a 10 (over North Carolina State).

The last time Princeton and West Virginia played was in the 2016 NCAA tournament opening round, back when Princeton got an at-large bid as a No. 11 seed. West Virginia won that game 74-65.

These Mountaineers are led by guard JJ Quinerly, an honorable mention All-American who averages 19.6 points per game. Much like Princeton's Kaitlyn Chen, Quinerly does not rely on three-point shooting as her biggest weapon.

In fact, Quinerly, who is 5-8, is a 33 percent three-point shooter who has taken 70 percent of her shots from two-point range. Chen, who is 5-9, is a 32 percent three-point shooter who has taken 83 percent of her shots from two-point range. 

Included in Chen's two-point game is this one from the Ivy final against Columbia:

#IVYLeague final game of @CULionsWBB vs @PrincetonWBB

Kaitlyn Chen in mid air https://t.co/ihrayEAdwp pic.twitter.com/3o4JlCPRhx

— The Local W (@TheLocalW) March 19, 2024

If you're wondering, that shot went in.

TigerBlog was talking to another longtime Princeton fan recently about Chen, and TB said that he can't think of another high-scoring guard in the three-point era who took so few three-pointers. In fact, TB said, Chen has probably scored more points on shots between eight and 15 feet than any Princeton basketball player since Brian Taylor? Bill Bradley? 

The winner of the Princeton-West Virginia game will play Monday in the second round, in all likelihood against top-seeded Iowa and Caitlin Clark. Her presence alone has turned this four-team pod into one that will draw a lot of eyeballs and a lot of media attention, and it is into that situation that Princeton flew Wednesday night. 

Would playing against Iowa be a wild experience? Of course. Getting there, though, will not be easy.

The women's basketball team is not the only Princeton team that is competing in an NCAA postseason event this weekend. Far from it.

The women's swimming and diving team is represented by five swimmers today alone at the NCAA meet in Athens, Ga. Swimming today will be Dakota Tucker and Eleanor Sun in the 400 individual medley, Heidi Smithwick in the 100 butterfly, Margaux McDonald in the 100 breaststroke and Sabrina Johnston in the 100 backstroke.

All five will swim again tomorrow as well. More information can be found HERE.

The fencing team has sent 11 Tigers to the NCAA championships at Ohio State. You can read everything you need to know about the event HERE.

There is also wrestling this weekend at the NCAA championships in Kansas City, where three Tigers — Luke Stout, Nate Dugan and Matt Cover — will aim for All-American honors. There is complete information on the wrestling championships HERE.

Princeton produced an NCAA champ last year when Pat Glory won the 125-pound title. This year, the three Tigers are at the other end of the literal scale, with the three upper weights all represented.

Princeton has produced 25 All-Americans in program history. Of that number, there have been 13 since 2016 alone.

Welcome To Iowa, Tigers

Welcome to Iowa, all you Princeton Tigers.

The women's basketball team touched down in Iowa last night in advance of Saturday's NCAA tournament opening round game against West Virginia (5:30 tip off). Princeton is the No. 9 seed in the region, while the Mountaineers are the No. 8.

It's impressive to be a single-digit seed in the NCAA tournament for an Ivy League team. TigerBlog is pretty sure that Princeton's No. 8 seed in 2015 is the best ever, which makes this the second best.

On the other hand, being in the 8-9 game means that if you win, you're almost surely playing the No. 1 seed on its home court. This happened to Princeton in 2015, when the 30-0 Tigers drew Wisconsin-Green Bay in the opening round, won the game and then as a reward had to play No. 1 Maryland in College Park.

For making a run to the Sweet 16, it's not necessarily the best path. For the experience that Princeton is about to have? You probably can't ask for more.

The reason? That's easy. It's because of the most famous college basketball player, male or female, this century: Iowa's Caitlin Clark.

Don't agree? Name someone more well known then. TigerBlog will wait ... 

... anybody? ... 

... anybody? ...

... no? ... 

Okay. The winner of the Princeton-West Virginia game will take on Clark and top-seeded Iowa, assuming the Hawkeyes get past the winner of Holy Cross and UT-Martin in the First Four game. TB will assume that they will.

In case you missed it, West Virginia coach Mark Kellogg had this to say about the draw after the selections were announced: 

"I already told them, 'Let's win one and let's send Caitlin Clark packing.'" 

Of course, the "let's send Caitlin Clark packing" part is the part that was repeated over and over. That was the part that assumed West Virginia will beat Princeton.

TigerBlog learned a long time ago that, while you never want to give the other team something extra for motivation if you can avoid it, in the end that stuff doesn't make a difference. One of his biggest beliefs, in fact, is that if you need that kind of extra motivation in a situation like this then you're already in trouble. 

Plus, Kellogg wasn't really saying "we're looking past Princeton. He was saying 'let's win one and then have the opportunity of a lifetime.'"

Whoever wins the Princeton-West Virginia game will be playing in a wild environment. The games will be played at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, which seats, according to its website, 14,998 fans; they couldn't have added two more seats? 

No matter how many seats there are in the building, every one of them is already sold. That's the Clark effect.

The first game will feature the packed house. The second? How many fans will stay for that one? 

Princeton, as you know, has won an NCAA tournament game three times. There was the one over Wisconsin-Green Bay, and then there were wins the last years, against Kentucky and North Carolina State. Taking on a Big 12 team like West Virginia will not be intimidating.

TigerBlog has read and seen a lot about the idea that the women's tournament will outdraw the men's tournament in terms of TV ratings. Those chances go way up the longer Clark stays in it.

Beyond just Princeton's women, today starts a run of first- and second-round games that, for TB's money, is almost always the best part of the tournament. If you're a college basketball fan, you can't beat the next few days. It's wall-to-wall games, and they're staggered so you can see the end of anything that's close. 

TB has filled out no brackets for the men or women, but he'll take a guess and say that the winners will be South Carolina's women and Purdue's men. The first is a logical pick. The second is more of a hope, since other than Princeton, TB's favorite men's team is Purdue. There's also some logic to it, since Purdue is due after its stunning failures the last two seasons.

Lastly, as he's written many times before, TigerBlog thinks the NCAA tournament is the only major sporting event he can think of that gets less interesting as it makes it way along.

These next few days are the best part.

Enjoy. 

A New Friend

TigerBlog walked up to Nassau Street to go the diner the other day for lunch.

As he was reaching the door to go in, he saw a woman a few steps away who also appeared to be heading into the restaurant. MotherBlog would have been happy to know that TB held the door for her.

When TigerBlog walked in, the first person he saw was Princeton men's lacrosse sophomore Chad Palumbo, who is in the middle of something of a breakout season that has seen him go from two goals last year to 10 goals and five assists through the first seven games this year. 

TB spoke to Palumbo for a few moments while the woman was seated. Then TB was put at a table opposite her, on the other side of the diner, at a distance of about 20 feet or so.

The woman, who was wearing a "Princeton 1746" baseball cap, called out to TB, who was wearing a "Princeton Field Hockey" hat and a "Princeton Tigers" sweatshirt, to let him know that she had just come from purchasing her ticket to the Princeton-UNLV men's NIT game in Jadwin Gym, which tips off tonight at 8.

The two proceeded to have a conversation across the restaurant before she invited him to join her. It seemed like a nicer way to have lunch, so TB accepted.

As it turns out, her name is Pattie Friend. Her late husband Lloyd Friend, who was a member of the Class of 1965. They'd met in high school in North Jersey, got married right after Lloyd's graduation and were together until Lloyd passed away 15 years ago.

These days, Pattie lives in town. She works part time checking people in at mealtimes into Cannon Club, whose notable alums include Lloyd Friend and Miss TigerBlog ’22 and among whose newest members will be Chad Palumbo.

As it turns out, Pattie is a huge Princeton sports fan. Her husband, who graduated from Princeton in the same class as Bill Bradley, wrestled and played football for a year, and perhaps those two items launched in Pattie a lifelong affection for Tiger athletics. 

She's watched football games from the Class of 1956 Lounge next to the press box. She's a men's lacrosse season ticket holder who has attended games since the Bill Tierney era, for instance. She had seen the men's team's excruciating loss to Cornell Saturday, but she did remember that Palumbo (three goals, one assist) had a big game. When Chad got up to leave, she insisted that TB call him over and introduce him, something that made both of them laugh.

She rarely misses a game in Jadwin Gym. This season, in fact, she saw every home game for both the men's basketball team and the women's basketball team. As such, it wasn't surprising to hear that she is pretty fired up for the basketball game tonight. 

The Runnin' Rebels come to Jadwin with a record of 19-12 and winners of 10 of their last 13. UNLV lost in the quarterfinals of the Mountain West Conference to San Diego State most recently; the Mountain West sent six teams to the NCAA tournament: San Diego State, Nevada, Boise State, Utah State, New Mexico and Colorado State.

UNLV averages 73.2 points per game. Princeton averages 77.1. How they get to those numbers is a bit different.

UNLV, in its 31 games, shot 210 for 630 from three-point range. Princeton, in its 28 games, has shot 292 for 817. That's a lot more makes and attempts in three fewer games. 

Princeton has attempted 817 three-pointers and 810 two-pointers. UNLV has attempted 630 three-pointers and 1,154 two-pointers.

Tonight's game will be the second NIT game ever played in Jadwin. The first was in 1999, when Princeton defeated Georgetown 54-47 in a game in which five Tigers (Gabe Lewullis, Mason Rocca, Chris Young, Brian Earl and Ahmed El-Nokali) played 40 minutes each. 

Rocca, by the way, had six points and 18 rebounds in that game. Remind you of anyone?

TigerBlog was at that game 25 years ago. How many others will be at this one as well?

Pattie Friend will be in attendance. Here's what she texted TB after their lunch:

I am such a Princeton fan and bleed orange and black to anyone who will listen as you now know.  Princeton has given so much to me and being a widow…these guys really take care of their widows. 

Hey, that's a good friend, even if it's someone TB just met. 

On To The NIT

It was the day before the opening round of the 1998 NCAA men's basketball tournament in Hartford.

TigerBlog went into the pre-tournament meeting, which included coaches, administrators, athletic communications reps and TV people. It was standard stuff, running through a pre-tournament checklist that is exciting the first time you experience it and then becomes like the safety instructions before a plane takes off if you're a frequent flier.

Back then, in Princeton's pre-Nike days, TigerBlog did have a closet filled with identifiable Princeton attire. For this meeting, he probably had no Tiger logo anywhere, and so when a stranger sat down next to him, he had no idea who TB was.

The stranger was UNLV head coach Bill Bayno, whose team, as it turned out, was 24 hours away from playing against Princeton. When Bayno introduced himself to TB and TB responded that he was Princeton's athletic communications contact, Bayno said this: "Nice to meet you. We have no chance of beating you."

He was right, of course. Princeton won that game 69-57. 

Anytime TB has seen UNLV since, he's thought of that exchange. He's also thought about how Pete Carril never called the school "UNLV" or "Nevada-Las Vegas" or even just "Vegas" but instead would refer to it as "Las Vegas, Nevada."

TB will remember both of those tomorrow night at 8, when Princeton and UNLV play at 8 at Jadwin Gym in the opening round of the NIT. The Tigers are one of four No. 2 seeds in this year's NIT, while UNLV is unseeded.

Princeton and UNLV have played four times in their history, and the Runnin' Rebels are 3-1, with the lone Tiger win in that 1998 NCAA game.The most recent game between the two was at a tournament in Charlotte in Dec. 1999, a game UNLV took 66-56.

As for the NIT itself, Princeton has had some great moments in the tournament. The best, of course, was in 1975, when the entire event was held in Madison Square Garden. Back then, Princeton knocked off, consecutively, Holy Cross, South Carolina, Oregon and Providence, all in one week.

The 1999 team also had a great run when it beat Georgetown at Jadwin and then won at North Carolina State before falling at Xavier in the quarterfinals. 

For Princeton, this isn't the tournament it was hoping to be in after last year's NCAA tournament Sweet 16 run and this year's Ivy League championship. Unfortunately for the Tigers, they came up a bit short against Brown in the Ivy League semifinals this past weekend, and then unfortunately for the Bears, they dropped a heartbreaker to Yale in the final after being ahead by six with 27 seconds to play. 

Still, it's always good to be playing this late in March, and the NIT can be a wonderful consolation prize. It's a chance to keep going together as a team, and it's a chance to start to look ahead to next season.

And that brings TigerBlog to Dalen Davis. 

A year ago, as a freshman, Xaivian Lee averaged 4.8 points per game. This year, he jumped to 17.3. 

This year, as a freshman, Davis has averaged 6.7 per game. Don't be shocked to see that number skyrocket next year as well.

Davis was extraordinary against Brown in the second half. With Lee slowed by illness, Davis came on to score 21 points in the second half and lead Princeton from down 22 to as close as three late in the game. He was, simply, unstoppable, in a way that Lee has been this season.

In the last eight games, Davis has averaged 11.1 points per game. For the first 20 of the year, he averaged just under five per game. He can shoot, and as he showed against Brown, he can get to the basket almost at will.

The NIT gives Princeton fans another chance to see him, and the rest of the Tigers — and to do so in Jadwin, where the Tigers are unbeaten this year. The winner of this game gets the winner of Boston College and Providence in the next round. 

It's not the NCAA tournament, but it can be a lot of fun. TigerBlog has seen Princeton play in the postseason many times, and the 1999 NIT is one of his favorite memories.

Tip-off tomorrow is at 8.

Tournament Tigers

Welcome to today's segment of "Records That May Never Be Broken."

First, there is Kaitlyn Chen, who is now the three-time Ivy League tournament Most Outstanding Player. In the history of the Ivy League, for all of the tournaments its run in all sports, no player has ever matched that achievement. In fact, only one — Yale men's lacrosse player Ben Reeves — has ever been the Ivy tournament Most Outstanding Player even twice.

Can anyone match Chen? Unlikely. It would take a lot, as in 1) your team has to in all likelihood win three tournaments in your four years and 2) you have to be honored above any other teammate. Neither of those are easy. 

That's incredible stuff. To be the Most Outstanding Player three times? TigerBlog is willing to guess that nobody will ever do that again, or if they do, it would be because they are one of the greatest players in Ivy League history, which, of course, Kaitlyn Chen would also have to be considered.

Then there's Ellie Mitchell. In the Ivy tournament semifinal game Friday, she broke the career record for rebounds in a career at Princeton, for men or women. That record had stood for 46 years, without anyone who ever came remotely close. Mitchell now has 1,110 career boards. The only other players who have even reached 1,000 are Bill Bradley (1,008) and Maggie Meier Benchich (1,099).

Can anyone match that? Also quite unlikely.

It was Mitchell, by the way, who slapped the Striped P onto the "Ticket Punched" board after Princeton took down Columbia 75-58 Saturday evening in the championship game. She deserved that honor, after she continued to slap away all obstacles to the Tigers' success.

TigerBlog wrote last week that he couldn't believe that Mitchell wasn't a first-team All-Ivy League selection. When TB tweeted that out, his longtime colleague and friend from Cornell athletic communications Jeremy Hartigan replied with this:

I contend Ellie Mitchell is the most valuable player in the Ivy League. Favorite player to watch on an opposing team in a long time. No first team is a crime.

Now she didn't make the All-Tournament team for the Ivy tournament?

Mitchell had 18 points and 22 rebounds in the two games, and yet maybe the best stat for her for the weekend was "charges drawn." She had four of them in the final, when Princeton held Columbia nearly 20 points below its average for the year. She also had a huge charge drawn with 14 seconds left in Friday's 59-54 semifinal win over Penn, at a time when it was a one-possession game. 

Has there ever been a Princeton athlete who has impacted games the way Mitchell does without ever being the leading scorer? Mitchell is a three-time Ivy Defensive Player of the Year, not because she's a great one-on-one stopper but because she impacts the entire game when its on the other team's side of the court. How many shots does the other team not get because of her presence. 

Madison St. Rose, who was Princeton's leading scorer in both games of the tournament with 19 against Penn and 18 against Columbia, was on the All-Tournament team along with Chen. They both inspire so much confidence when you watch them play; it's more surprising when their shot doesn't drop.

The tournament win was Princeton's fifth straight and gave the team an 11-1 record all-time in Ivy tournament games. This is Princeton's time of year, winning Ivy tournaments and then making a name for itself in the NCAA tournament, where it's won a game each of the last two years.

This year's challenge was announced with the women's Selection Show last night, when Princeton learned that it would be a nine seed and take on eighth seeded West Virginia.

The best part? The game is at Iowa, and the winner gets to take on the top seed in the region, the host Iowa. And that would mean Caitlin Clark. 

How cool would that be?

Columbia, by the way, made it a two-bid Ivy for the second time ever, as the Lions drew a 12 seed and will play in a First Four game against Vanderbilt.

The date and time of Princeton's game is still to be announced, with the game either Friday or Saturday.

Tournament Time

If all goes well for Princeton and Cornell fans, then Sunday would offer a pretty good TV doubleheader.

Princeton and Cornell will play in men's lacrosse Sunday at 2 on ESPNU. That game, which will be on Sherrerd Field, is a definite. 

The Ivy League men's basketball tournament championship game will tip off at noon on ESPN2 Sunday. If both teams win their semifinal games tomorrow, then it would be Princeton and Cornell again.

Standing in the way of that doubleheader are Brown and Yale, whose men's basketball teams will play Princeton and Cornell in the men's semifinals tomorrow. The first semi will be the Tigers and Bears at 11 on ESPNU, followed by Cornell-Yale at 2 on ESPNEWS. 

The tournament, which is being held at Columbia, starts today with the women's semifinals, which are both on ESPN+. Game 1 is at 4:30 between Princeton and Penn, and Game 2 follows at 7:30 between Columbia and Harvard.

The women's final is tomorrow at 5, on ESPNEWS.

The winner of each tournament gets the league's automatic NCAA tournament bid. Will it be a two-bid Ivy? Nobody wants to be the ones who find that out come Sunday's Selection Shows.

It was pretty clear early on that on the men's side, it would be Princeton, Yale and Cornell in some order for the top three seeds. It was also pretty much considered obvious that it was a huge advantage to be No. 1, and not only because it means that you won the league championship — which Princeton did outright.

The idea was that avoiding the other two teams in the semifinal would be an easier path, but somebody forgot to tell Brown that. Here are the overall Ivy records of the top four:

Princeton 12-2
Yale/Cornell 11-3
Brown 8-6

That's a pretty big drop from the top three to fourth, no?

Ah, but if you look at the standings for just the last six games of the Ivy season, this is what you see:

Princeton 6-0
Brown 6-0
Cornell 4-2
Yale 3-3

That should get everyone's attention, no?

Princeton defeated Brown twice this season, winning 70-60 in Providence and 72-63 in Princeton. The game in Princeton was on Feb. 16; Brown has not lost since.

In its six games prior to that, Brown was 1-5. What's been the big difference? Brown averaged 69.3 points per game in that 1-5 streak and then 76.5 in the winning streak. Brown allowed 74.2 points per game in the 1-5 run and now has allowed 69.3 in the winning streak. 

Those swings make a huge difference. Princeton, by the way, is the No. 1 defensive team in the league at 65.1 per game and the No. 3 offensive team, at 77 per game.

For the women, Princeton and Columbia split their two games and went 12-0 against everyone else. Will they meet in the final? 

Harvard was 9-5 in the league, and Penn was 7-7. Princeton will be six days removed from a 72-55 win over the Quakers, by the way, when they meet today.

A year ago, Princeton and Columbia were both 12-2, followed by 9-5 Harvard and Penn. The semifinal matchups were the same as they were this year. 

Harvard, though, knocked off Columbia, setting up a championship game against Princeton, which the Tigers won. 

What's the point of all of this? Things don't always work out the way you think they will.

Also, remember how many times you've heard "Defense wins championships?" If you look at the Ivy League women's basketball stats, you'll see that Princeton is first in scoring defense and then Columbia, Harvard and Penn are 4-5-6. 

Scoring offense? The four tournament teams rank 1-2-3-4, in this order: Columbia, Princeton, Harvard, Penn.

Oh, and the lacrosse game? 

Princeton and Cornell have won by far the most Ivy titles in men's lacrosse history. The rivals have ended the season against each other for the last 15 years, but the schedule has changed to see them open with each other. 

The Ivy League figures to be its usual wild competitive self in men's lacrosse this season. Each game will be huge. 

If you can't get to Princeton Sunday, you can watch this one on ESPNU.

Hopefully it'll be Game 2 of at least a Tiger doubleheader.

Ivy Madness Eve

Should TigerBlog start with the history that Caden Pierce made yesterday? 

He'll get back to that in a second. First, this is how easily TigerBlog can be distracted:

He wanted to read about Wagner's NEC championship in men's basketball, something accomplished with only seven healthy players and with three road wins, including the final over Merrimack. Wagner defeated the top three seeds in the league, taking down No. 3 Sacred Heart, No. 1 Central Connecticut and then No. 2 Merrimack.

Before he could find a story about that game, though, TB saw a different story that said "March Madness Announcing Teams, TV Schedules Set." This immediately took him away from Wagner to that story, where he found that Princeton's own Tom McCarthy (he'll always be Princeton's own) will be paired with Deb Antonelli, Avery Johnson and A.J. Ross. 

Where will that group be? When TB texted McCarthy yesterday, he said that he won't know for sure until Sunday, when the Selection Show happens. TB then mentioned that another one of Princeton's own, Colgate Director of Athletics Yariv Amir, told TB that Pat McCarthy (himself yet another Princeton's own) was to be doing the Westwood One broadcast of the Patriot League final last night between the Raiders and Lehigh.

By the time that conversation had ended, TB had almost forgotten about the Wagner story. The Seahawks, as it turned out, had three players go all 40 minutes and another go 37. That would have made Pete Carril (the ultimate "Princeton's own") smile.

If you're a college basketball fan, this is your favorite week. It'll be wall-to-wall college hoops between now and the end of the second round a week from Sunday, complete with more conference champions, the selections, the First Four and then the best part of the tournament, the first two rounds.

March Madness, right? 

Tomorrow is the beginning of what has become known as Ivy Madness. The league will have its tournament at Columbia, beginning with the women's semifinals tomorrow and continuing with the men's semifinals and women's final Saturday and the men's final Sunday.

If you've missed it, here is the schedule:

Women
No. 1 Princeton against No. 4 Penn at 4:30 Friday in one semifinal and No. 2 Columbia against No. 3 Harvard at 7:30 in the other, both on ESPN+. The two winners will meet at 5 Saturday on ESPNEWS.

Men
The top seed is also Princeton, who will play No. 4 Brown at 11 am Saturday (ESPNU), followed by the other semifinal between Yale and Cornell at 2 (ESPNEWS). The winners play Sunday at noon on ESPN2. 

Before the tournament begins, the league announced the All-Ivy teams, which were voted on by the league coaches. Princeton's own were well-represented, though not necessarily as well represented as TB would have liked to have seen.

For the men, Caden Pierce was the league Player of the Year after averaging 15.7 points and 9.3 rebounds, along with putting up a whole host of impressive other numbers. Pierce was last year's Ivy Rookie of the Year, which makes him the first Princeton men's basketball player ever to be the league's Rookie of the Year one year and Player of the Year the next year. 

Before Pierce, only Spencer Weisz had won both awards in his career at Princeton. Keep in mind, of course, that the Rookie of the Week Award dates to 1972 and the Player of the Year award dates to 1976.

As for the All-Ivy teams themselves, Pierce and Xaivian Lee were unanimous first-team selections for the men, as was Kaitlyn Chen for the women. Ellie Mitchell was the Defensive Player of the Year for the women.

Princeton also had three second-team selections: Mitchell, Madison St. Rose and Matt Allocco. Mitch Henderson was the men's Coach of the Year.

What's TB's objection? He cannot believe Mitchell wasn't a first-team selection. Going a bit further, he can't believe Mitchell wasn't a unanimous first-team selection. 

Yes, she doesn't score a lot. On the other hand, yes, she changes every game she plays.

Oh well. This week isn't the time to worry about individual things. Now is the time for one thing — win the next game and keep playing.

And then ride that as long as you can.

A 46-Year-Old Record And The Woman Who Holds It

There exists within Princeton Athletics a bridge between generations that keeps the connections within programs strong.

The ones who played here previously know what their athletic experience meant to them, and they in turn want the current athletes to be able to have something similar during their time as Tigers. It's why alumni support is so great for things like TAGD and why so many former athletes take such pride in the successes that current teams have.

It's one of the best parts of being here for as long as TigerBlog has. It's given him a real appreciation for just how genuine and strong this connection is.

If he had any reason to doubt that such a dynamic exists, it was reinforced for him as he spoke with former Princeton women athletes for his book on the first 50 years of women's athletics here. This was especially true of those who started and helped grow the programs, back in the 1970s.

Because of that, he was hardly surprised to hear that Maggie Benchich is a huge fan of Ellie Mitchell and how she plays the game. Nor was it a surprise that Benchich said, quite genuinely, that she's hoping that Mitchell can break a record that she has held for the last 46 years.

Maggie Benchich was Maggie Meier when she played basketball at Princeton in the 1970s, winning four Ivy League titles in four years. She graduated as the only Princeton women's player ever with at least 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds, and to this day she remains the only one ever to do so (Bill Bradley is the only men's player who has reached those numbers).

Benchich finished her career with 1,099 rebounds, an extraordinary total when you consider 1) how long the record has lasted and 2) that nobody has come particularly close. And that would be men (where Bradley holds the record with 1,008) or women.

Nobody, that is, until Mitchell. 

Right now, as Princeton gets ready to play in the Ivy League tournament this weekend at Columbia, Mitchell, who yesterday was named the league's Defensive Player of the Year for the third time, has 1,088 career rebounds, leaving her 11 away from the record. She averages an Ivy League-best 10 boards per game.

Princeton's women's team, in all reality, has a minimum of two games to go this year, with more possible. First of all, there is Penn in Friday's first semifinal (4:30, ESPN+). Should Princeton lose, it would still play in a postseason tournament, so that's a second game.

In each of the last two seasons, Princeton has played four games from this point forward — two in the Ivy tournament and then two more in the NCAA tournament after winning the first game both years. 

Will Mitchell break the record? It's quite likely that she will. 

What does Benchich think of that? You can read for yourself. TigerBlog wrote a feature story about here, and you can get that HERE.

TigerBlog met up with Benchich at a deli not far from where she lives now and not far from Central Bucks East High School, where she first played the game in 10th grade. To that point, she had never been on a competitive sports team in her life.

In two years, she became the Philadelphia Bulletin area Player of the Year, and then she came to Princeton to play for Pat Walsh during the earliest days of the program. 

She and her teammates played in Ivy League tournaments as well, though they weren't quite what the current team can expect. There was no TV coverage. There was no NCAA bid at stake.

In fact, the league champion was determined over a two-day tournament in which each Ivy team played every other team once, all at the same location. Think that would fly these days? Not a chance.

It wasn't that long ago, of course.  

This weekend will be about more than the rebounding record. Mitchell wants to finish her career with a return to the NCAA tournament. She wouldn't care if she didn't get a single rebound this weekend if Princeton wins (though one is definitely helped along by the other).

Columbia and Harvard play in the second semifinal. The winners play Saturday at 5 on ESPNEWS for the league's automatic NCAA bid.

Spring Break Update

TigerBlog likes to drive to campus by coming up Nassau Street and turning onto Washington Road, down to Faculty Road. 

Usually, both Nassau and Washington are jammed with people, especially if TB drives down Washington Road when classes are letting out. He sees all kinds of Princeton athletes, some he knows and most he doesn't, and it's a great reminder that Princeton Athletics have always been and remain an extension of the overall educational mission of those who compete here.

As TB drove down Washington Rd. yesterday, he counted three people that he saw along the way. Only three? That's what happens when it's Spring Break here.

TB was on the men's lacrosse bus Sunday as it came back from the team's 14-8 win at Rutgers, and as the bus pulled onto the campus, head coach Matt Madalon remarked that you could "feel the stillness" of Spring Break. It's so true. This campus just has a completely different vibe when the students aren't around, and it all changes on a dime.

The big story in Princeton Athletics this week is, of course, the coming Ivy League basketball tournaments at Columbia. As a reminder, here are the matchups:

On the women's side, it's No. 1 seed Princeton vs. No. 4 seed Penn at 4:30 and then No. 2 Columbia against No. 3 Harvard at 7:30. Those games are on ESPN+. The winners meet Saturday at 5, on ESPNEWS, for the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

On the men's side, it's No. 1 Princeton vs. No. 4 Brown Saturday at 11 on ESPNU, followed by No. 2 Yale vs. No. 3 Cornell at ESPNEWS at 2. The winners play Sunday at noon on ESPN2.

Basketball, though, is not the only Princeton news this week. Consider:

* 

The wrestling team had three automatic NCAA qualifiers after this past weekend's EIWA championships at Bucknell. The three are: Nate Dugan, who was the runner- up at 184, Luke Stout, who took sixth at 197, and Matt Cover, who was fourth at 285 after being seeded eighth.

Those three are definites for the NCAA meet in Kansas City, beginning a week from Friday. There are still at-large selections to be announced tomorrow, so the Tigers could have others who make the cut.

*

Evan Harmeling finished 10th at the PGA Tour's Puerto Rico Open this past weekend. Harmeling, a 2012 Princeton grad, finished at 15-under after shooting 70-69-67-67. 

If you're wondering, his earnings for the weekend were $97,000.

Harmeling has a fascinating story. He's 35, and this weekend marked his first PGA Tour appearance after years on the Korn Ferry and other tours. He also runs a foundation that supports inner-city education, and you can read about those efforts HERE.

If you don't want to read that whole story, read this excerpt from it:  

Harmeling is putting his money where his mouth is. The Princeton alum has launched the Evan and Ariel Harmeling Foundation, alongside wife Ariel, aiming to provide greater educational opportunities for kids who wouldn’t have them otherwise.

*

Another impressive Princetonian is football player Jalen Travis, the 6-9, 315-pound offensive lineman who is a two-time All-Ivy selection and a likely NFL player down the road.

If pro football doesn't work out, though, Travis still has a future that seems limitless. 

Last week, Travis was announced as the winner of the Coach Wooden Citizenship Cup. According to its website: 

The Coach Wooden Citizenship Cup is presented to six distinguished athletes from any sport – male/female high school, male/female intercollegiate, and male/female professional – who best display character, teamwork, and citizenship, the attributes Athletes for a Better World deems central to transforming individuals, sport, and society.  The award establishes the recipients as athletes of excellence both on and off the field, role models both as performers and persons, the most important and distinctive honor athletes can achieve.

HERE is the complete release about Travis and his honor.

*

For this Spring Break, you can see Princeton teams compete all over the country, in places like California (women's water polo, women's rugby, softball, men's tennis), Florida (women's lacrosse, women's tennis), Virginia (baseball), Louisiana (women's golf) — and even New Jersey (men's lacrosse, men's volleyball).

The complete schedule is HERE.

Ivy Champs x 2

Ah, the perfect one-handed bounce pass for the uncontested layup.

This past Saturday afternoon at Jadwin Gym, late in the third quarter, Kaitlyn Chen and Madison St. Rose executed it to perfection.

Chen dribbled with her left hand on the right side of the court, heading back to the middle. St. Rose cut perfectly behind the Penn player who was guarding her. 

Without flinching, Chen threw a one-handed bounce pass. St. Rose caught it in stride. Layup. 

This is TigerBlog's favorite Princeton Basketball play. More than any other, even "chin" and "center-forward," this one captures the beauty of what became known as the "Princeton Offense." It takes timing. It takes two people completely on the same page. 

And it takes the courage to throw the pass, which is all-or-nothing. If it goes wrong, it usually goes very wrong.

You know who threw that pass better than anyone TB has ever seen try it? That would be Mitch Henderson, back when he was a player in the 1990s. Now he's the Princeton men's head coach, and this past Saturday was a big day for him as well.

Before his team ever took the court at the Palestra Saturday night against Penn, Brown had come back to defeat Yale in overtime in New Haven. The result of that game? Princeton clinched at least a share of the Ivy title and the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Ivy League tournament.

Also, Henderson made a little bit of his own history, becoming the first one to win three straight Ivy League men's basketball championships as both a player (1996-98) and a head coach (the last three).

His team then went out and put a huge punctuation mark on things, blasting Penn 105-83 behind 32 points from Caden Pierce and 23 from Zach Martini. That makes Princeton your outright Ivy League men's basketball champion for 2024, and nothing that happens from here on will change that. 

The 105 points? That's the first time Princeton has ever gone over 100 against the Quakers.

The win itself? That's the 10 straight for the Tigers against the Quakers. More than that, it continued one of the most amazing statistical achievements in Princeton history. 

Mitch Henderson as a player lost his first four games against Penn and then won five straight. As the Tiger head coach, he is now 21-4, pushing the total to 26-8, and 26-4 in the last 30. That's remarkable. Penn leads the series 122-97 in games Henderson has not played in or coached.

The Princeton women went into their game knowing that a win would give them at least a share of another Ivy League championship. Beyond that, interestingly, a win would also set up another game against Penn six days later, in the Ivy League semifinals. 

The Princeton women took down Penn 72-55, after the Quakers had put up a strong fight into the third quarter. The Tigers finished the game on a 35-19 run, and Kaitlyn Chen came up three rebounds shy of a triple-double, as she finished with 19 points, 11 assists and seven boards.

When it was over, they were 13-1 in the league, tied with Columbia for the championship for the second straight year and winner of an Ivy title for the sixth straight year.

Because Princeton and Columbia split and were 12-0 against everyone else, the last tiebreaker for the league seedings was NET ranking. It wasn't official until yesterday, but Princeton was too far ahead of Columbia to be caught, and so it will be No. 1 Princeton against No. 4 Penn at 4:30 Friday in one semifinal and No. 2 Columbia against No. 3 Harvard at 7:30 in the other.

The two winners will meet at 5 Saturday for the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Keep in mind the tournament will be played on Columbia's home court, Levien Gym.

For the men, the top seed is also Princeton, who will play No. 4 Brown at 11 am Saturday, followed by the other semifinal between Yale and Cornell at 2. The winners play Sunday at noon for the automatic NCAA bid.

Brown, by the way, hasn't lost since it did so against Princeton in Jadwin on Feb. 16. Since then, the Bears have gone 6-0, beating every other team in the league once, which means Cornell and Yale.  

The Ivy League tournament won't be easy for either team, or any of the eight teams who gather in New York City. That's how it's supposed to be. 

At the same time, that's two Ivy basketball championships on one Saturday for the Tigers. That's something that will never be taken for granted. 

On to New York City ...

Celebrations

Happy Birthday wishes to the great John McPhee, who turns 93 years old today.

If you recall, back on his 90th birthday, McPhee and TigerBlog bicycled 11 miles together. That is a pretty good life goal — riding 11 miles on your 90th birthday. 

McPhee goes way, way back with Princeton Athletics, all the way to when he was a kid and his father was the Princeton Athletics team physician. McPhee graduated in the Class of 1953 and of course went on to a long career as one of America's greatest non-fiction writers, not to mention as a Princeton writing professor.

While at Princeton, one of McPhee's roommates was Dick Kazmaier, the Heisman Trophy winner. The subject of his breakthrough writing piece was another Princeton athlete who wore No. 42, Bill Bradley, about whom McPhee wrote a piece called "A Sense Of Where You Are." 

It was that story that would be picked up in 1965 by the New Yorker, and McPhee has written for the magazine ever since. An expanded version of the story also became the first of his more than 30 books.

And now he's 93, and still writing.

TB and McPhee have ridden a lot more than 11 miles together through the years. In all of that time, TB has heard so many incredible stories from McPhee about his life and experiences, all of which can be considered extraordinary. 

Happy birthday to one of the best people TB has ever met.

As Mr. McPhee celebrates his birthday, this weekend will answer the question of which teams celebrate Ivy League basketball championships.

There are six regular season Ivy basketball games left, all of which will be played tomorrow. Harvard and Dartmouth finished their regular seasons Tuesday evening.

The four teams that will be advancing on each side to next weekend's Ivy Madness at Columbia have already been determined. As a reminder, that's Princeton, Yale, Cornell and Brown for the men and Princeton, Columbia, Harvard and Penn for the women.

The seeds, and the championships, will be settled this weekend.

For the men, there could be one champion or a two- or three-team tie. For the women, it'll either be an outright champion or a two-team co-championship.

Both Princeton teams play Penn tomorrow, the women at home at 2 and the men in Philly at 6. By the way, it's also Senior Day for the Tiger women.

The other games are Cornell-Columbia and Yale-Brown for both men and women and Harvard and Dartmouth for the women.

Should Princeton beat Penn, then it would have no worse than a share of the Ivy title — and that goes for both the men and the women. 

Princeton and Yale are tied for first on the men's side at 11-2. Cornell is a game back at 10-3. Should Princeton and Yale both win, then they'd be co-champions. Should both lose and Cornell win, then there'd be the three-way tie.

The tiebreaker for seeding between 12-2 Princeton and Yale teams would be NET ranking, where Princeton is currently 51 and Yale is currently 82. Should it come down to three teams at 11-3, then it gets a bit dicier in the tiebreakers, but Princeton (TB believes) would still be the No. 1 seed, based on the fact that Cornell and Yale would both have lost to Brown but Princeton would not have.

As for the women, Princeton and Columbia are both 12-1, with a loss to each other. Princeton's NET as of right now is 31, while Columbia currently sits at 57.

This weekend will see at least two and as many as five teams celebrate a league championship. Remember, the Ivy tournament determines only the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament; the league champion will be the regular-season winners. 

Between now and the start of the tournament, there will also be the All-Ivy teams and the league's Players of the Year. Princeton's teams will be well-represented in postseason honors, and that will all be a nice subplot.

The big story will be which teams are playing after next weekend. This weekend will help set the table for all of that. 

Then the fun will really begin.

Today's Title Is Titles

As he has written many times before, TigerBlog has had many different titles during his time with Princeton Athletics.

In fact, he is now on his 11th — Senior Writer/Historian. His first was Manager of Sports Media Relations, and, if he recalls correctly, this is how it went from there:

* Assistant Director of Athletic Communications
* Assistant Director of Athletic Public Affairs for Media Relations
* Sports Information Director
* Interim Director of Athletic Communications
* Director of Athletic Communications
* Assistant Director of Athletics for Communications
* Associate Director of Athletics for Communications
* Senior Associate Director of Athletics for Communications
* Senior Communications Advisor/Historian 

That's a lot of titles. His favorite is his current one, so that's good.

TB mentions this again because his brother is now dealing with a new title of his own: (Interim) Dean of Students at the University of Washington Law School. That's Dean BrotherBlog to you.

Today's subject, therefore, will be "Titles."

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There will be titles on the line this weekend at the EIWA championships, which are being held at Bucknell, and the NCAA Fencing regional, which for Princeton will be at Drew University in North Jersey.

The big prizes are still down the road for both, but these events are huge, since they are the qualifying routes into the NCAA championships. Keep in mind that the Ivy League will begin to host its own wrestling tournament beginning next year, and that will be the NCAA qualifier moving forward.

You can read more about the fencing HERE and the wrestling HERE.

The NCAA indoor track and field titles will be earned this weekend in Boston, and Princeton will be represented by sophomore pole vaulter Tessa Mudd. The Ivy League record holder and the Most Outstanding Field Athlete at the recent Ivy League Heps championships, Mudd is the 13th seed in the NCAA event. 

By the way, there are 16 women in the pole vault at the NCAA meet, and only one school is represented by two athletes: Washington.

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The title on the current lead softball story on goprincetontigers.com is: "Spring Break Trip To California Up Next." You can read that story HERE, including capsules on each opponent.

This week is midterm week at Princeton, and it is followed as always by spring break. For the softball team, that means seven games next week in California. 

Princeton, who is 5-4 on the young season, are not the only team looking to take advantage of the California sun. Another is North Dakota, located in Grand Forks, where the low temps are still in the teens and 20s every night for the next 10 days, with highs somewhere between 30 and 50.

North Dakota has played 22 games so far, all in either Louisiana, New Mexico, Texas or Florida. The trip to California will be the team's fifth plane trip this season to date, and it's only early March. 

UND's home opener isn't until April 6.

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Chris Sailer, you may remember, was Princeton's Hall-of-Fame women's lacrosse coach for 37 years. Last night at Sherrerd Field, she took on a new title: color commentator.

Sailer made her ESPN+ debut on the call of Princeton-Monmouth. As someone who did a podcast with her for several years, TigerBlog was not surprised that she was excellent her first time out. 

For decades, Princeton Lacrosse was defined by Sailer and men's coach Bill Tierney, who won nine NCAA championships between them. Now both of them are at least dipping their toes into the broadcasting pool, as Tierney has been on ESPN as well.

The Princeton women are off to Florida for two games, at Florida this coming Wednesday and then at Jacksonville on Saturday the 16th.

The men are at Rutgers Sunday, and the winner of that game gets a trophy called entitled "The Meistrell Cup." 

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This weekend, apparently Evan Harmeling, Class of 2012, will earn the title of "First Princeton alum to play in a PGA Tour event."

Harmeling, who has played in 169 pro events to date on the Korn Ferry and other tours, qualified for the main event at an event earlier this week in West Palm Beach.

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Looking for a good book to read? It's title is "The Complete Flying Officer X Series."

It's a compilation of essays written by an Englishman named H.E. Bates during World War II. He spent his time on an RAF base, talking to flyers and learning their stories and then writing about them. Apparently, in England, it was a very big part of the war effort and morale.

Not all of the pieces end happily. Most don't, actually. It makes you wonder how he did it.

And, for what it's worth, if you didn't realize it, you'd think the author was John McPhee.

Play Of The Day

Princeton men's lacrosse attackman Coulter Mackesy caught a pass from goalie Michael Gianforcaro on the Princeton side of the midline Friday night at North Carolina in a game the Tigers would win 15-9.

When he looked up, he saw a 10-man ride, which meant the goal was empty. Mackesy turned and tossed the ball towards the net, which was probably 45 yards away. Swish.

The next morning, that play was the No. 2 Play of Day on SportsCenter. TigerBlog saw that Princeton men's lacrosse had the No. 2 Play of the Day before he saw which one, and the fact that you don't immediately know which play was the one honored is a sign that your team had a good night.

For that matter, if you had told TB that Mackesy's goal was honored, his first thought would have been "which one of the five he scored?" As it turned out, it was the one against the 10-man ride. 

Did Princeton men's hockey forward Ian Murphy watch that and say to himself "I can beat that?"

Whether he did or didn't, later that day, Murphy did in fact one-up Mackesy, coming in with the No. 1 Play of the Day on SportsCenter. 

That's two days. Two Princeton athletes. One came in second. One came in first. 

And that's a Tiger first, TB is almost positive.

What did Murphy do? See for yourself:

#1️⃣2️⃣ is #1️⃣!@Ian_Murphy12's spectacular one-handed goal lands in the top spot on @SportsCenter's Top-10 Plays!@ecachockey | @NCAAIceHockey | @IvyLeague | @TeamECH | @MikeGrinnell_ pic.twitter.com/6KbPCETIXo

— Princeton Men's Ice Hockey (@princetonhockey) March 3, 2024

Yes, that's worthy of being No. 1.

Look at what he did. If you go to the roster, you'll see that Murphy is listed as righthanded. 

If you look at the play, you see that his right arm gets pinned against his body by a check as the puck drifts to the middle of the ice. With no other option, he swipes at it with his left hand, and he gets enough on it to put it into the top corner on the near side of the goal.

How did he get enough on the puck to get it past the goalie? How did he get it into the air in the first place?

That's an impressive effort. Yeah. Definitely No. 1.

Princeton finished its regular season this past weekend and now heads into the ECAC opening round playoff at Harvard this Friday night (face-off at 7). The first round is now single-elimination, if you forgot, as opposed to best of three as it was for years before last year.

Princeton is the No. 9 seed in the tournament, playing at No. 8 Harvard. The other first round matchups are No. 7 St. Lawrence and No. 10 Yale, No. 6 Union and No. 11 Brown and No. 5 Clarkson and No. 12 RPI.

The top four seeds are, in order, Quinnipiac, Cornell, Colgate and Dartmouth. The quarterfinals, which will be best of three, will match the lowest remaining seed at the No. 1 seed, the next lowest at the No. 2 and so on.

The game Friday night will be Princeton's second this season in Cambridge. The first? That was a 4-4 tie, after which Princeton won the shootout. The other meeting between the teams was a 5-2 Princeton win at Baker Rink.

And when were those games? 

The first was on Nov. 3, which was the same night Princeton played football at Dartmouth. The second game was eight weeks later, Dec. 30. 

The game Friday will be 70 days after the second game and 127 days after the first. That should give you a sense of how long a college hockey season is.

Murphy, by the way, was a first-team All-Ivy League selection two years ago and a second-team selection last year. He is currently tied for the team lead in goals with 11. 

He holds the team lead for goals that were SportsCenter's No. 1 Play of the Day.

Photos By Brian McWalters

If you were in the Raleigh-Durham airport Sunday in the late afternoon, there appeared to be a better than 50 percent chance that you were wearing a shirt, jacket, sweatshirt or hat that identified a college team for whom you were rooting.

At least that's how it seemed to TigerBlog, who was there in, of course, Princeton stuff. While he waited for his flight to Newark, it seemed like everyone else was similarly dressed.

Even when he got on the plane, he saw two people who were sitting across the aisle from each other, one in a Duke Lacrosse shirt and other in a North Carolina Lacrosse shirt. TB said "don't start any trouble" as he walked past them.

In the next row was a man in a Penn Lacrosse shirt. There were Princeton Lacrosse parents as well. All four of those teams had played over the weekend, with two games Friday and two Sunday, and now everyone was heading home. 

The Princeton baseball team also played in North Carolina, and there were Princeton baseball parents in the airport, scattering as well. TB met one of them, Doris Zdunek, in the gate area. She was heading back to California.

Her son Dylan is a freshman catcher on the Tiger baseball team. He had his first career RBI in the game Friday at UNC.

The lacrosse games were part of an unofficial Ivy League/ACC event. As it turned out, nobody won and nobody lost, or everybody won and everybody lost. Princeton beat North Carolina, who beat Penn, who beat Duke, who beat Princeton.

It was a great all-around experience for everyone involved. It started with Friday night's games, which were played in epic rains. The games Sunday felt like they were played in mid-summer humidity. 

Back at the rains Friday night, as TB said, they were epic. It rained from start to finish during the Princeton-UNC game, and it kept getting heavier and heavier as the night went along.

The game was played under the lights in Chapel Hill, with an 8 pm start time. The grass was green. Princeton wore black uniforms with black shorts. Carolina wore Tar Heel blue jerseys and shorts. 

As TB stood out in the rain — ditching his umbrella after the first quarter because it wasn't helping much anyway — he had the thought that the colors were perfect for photography. As it turned out, he didn't realize how right he was.

Brian McWalters was Princeton's photographer at the games in North Carolina this weekend, with two lacrosse games and the middle of the three baseball games. Brian has shot a bunch of stuff for Princeton through the years when Tiger teams head to the general area, and he was the one who was challenged to battle through the elements to take fullest advantage of the colors and the atmosphere.

First, TB will share with you one of Brian's pictures from Sunday, in the game against Duke:

That's Princeton sophomore middie John Dunphey who is sprawled out. In any other weekend, that would have been the best picture you could expect to get. 

On this weekend? 

How about these from Brian from Friday night? 

And TB has saved the best for last:

That's Cooper Mueller, checking the ball away from UNC's Andrew Preis. 

And that's about as good as a sports photo gets.

Everything You Need To Know

 Okay, here's everything you need to know about Princeton men's basketball sophomore Xaivian Lee in a nutshell:

Princeton was playing Cornell Saturday night in a game the Tigers had to have in order to have a chance at an Ivy League title and the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Ivy tournament. A seven-point Princeton lead had turned into a five-point deficit with a little more than four minutes to play, and now it was make-or-break time.

To that point, Lee was 3 for 12 from the field and 1 for 5 from three-point range. And then what happened?

First he got into the lane and scored, making it a three-point game. Then, after missing a three that would have tied it, he drilled a longer three with 2:38 to go that did draw Princeton even. 

As TigerBlog watched, he could hear the words that Pete Carril spoke so often: "If you're 0 for 9, do you have the courage to take the 10th shot? I want guys who take the 10th shot."

And now here's everything you need to know about Caden Pierce. After Lee's heroics, Cornell retook a two-point lead, this time with 2:20 to play. To that point, Pierce was having a solid night. From there? 

In the final 2:20, Pierce first got an offensive rebound and made two foul shots, tying it. Then he dunked and was fouled, making the foul shot to put Princeton ahead for good. Then he helped seal it with two more foul shots. 

Winning players make winning plays and winning time.

Final score: Princeton 79, Cornell 77.

And here's everything you need to know about the Princeton women's weekend. The Tigers, who are tied for first with Columbia, were down five to Harvard at the half Friday. After allowing 31 first half points, including 21 in the second quarter, Princeton then allowed six in the first 14:43 of the second half. 

Final score: Princeton 60, Harvard 49.

And then Saturday, Princeton sprinted away from Dartmouth quickly, building a 17-6 lead after the first quarter. Final score: Princeton 68, Dartmouth 42.

And, again, TigerBlog could hear Carril, who always said that a good weekend was allowing fewer than 100 points in two nights. For the Princeton women, it was a 91-point weekend, of which 31, or basically a third, came in the first half of the first game.

By the way, the two Princeton teams combined are now 45-7, which seems pretty good.

And here's everything you need to know with one weekend of Ivy basketball's regular season left to go:

The eight teams who will be playing at Columbia the following weekend are set. 

On the men's side, it's Princeton, Cornell, Yale and Brown. On the women's side, it's Princeton, Columbia, Harvard and Penn.

As far as seeds go, there are three that are locked in. Brown will be the No. 4 seed on the men's side. Harvard will be the No. 3 seed on the women's side. Penn will be the No. 4 seed on the women's side. Nothing that happens this weekend will change that.

What is at stake are the two championships and the remaining seeds. For the two Princeton teams, it's simple: win against Penn (the women in Jadwin at 2, the men at the Palestra at 6) and you have at least a share of the championship and definitely have the No. 1 seeds. 

Why? Because even if there were to be shared championships, Princeton's men and women would both have the tiebreaker based on highest NET. In that metric, neither team can be caught at this point.

Princeton can still get a share of the championship and the top seeds with a loss, but it would take some other things to happen as well. The easiest thing this week is to win.

Of course, should Princeton's women win Saturday, then they'd play Penn again five days later in the Ivy semifinals. The Princeton men, with a win, would play Brown in the Ivy semifinals. 

And that's what you need to know about Princeton basketball after this weekend. 

Still ahead? All of that is unknown at this point. Finding out figures to be exciting, or, as the league likes to call it, "Ivy Madness."

Thoughts From Gate A13

 Want to hear something TigerBlog did that was pretty dumb? 

Yesterday, as you know, was the last day of February. TB needed to get his car registration renewed, so he went online Tuesday morning and took care of it. 

He also needed to get his car inspected by the end of the month, so he made an appointment with his guy Ron, the official mechanic of TigerBlog. He took the car over to Ron's bright and early yesterday — and then Ron told him his car didn't need inspecting until July.

What? July? The little sticker on the car said "2/24," no? Uh, no. It said "7/24," only the seven looked a bit like a two. 

"Take the car, and then when it gets to be really, really hot out, bring it back and I'll do it then," Ron said. 

TigerBlog actually wrote this last night at Gate A13 at Philadelphia Airport, where he ended up sitting for a few hours as he and the men's lacrosse team waited for its flight to Raleigh-Durham, where the Tigers will play North Carolina tonight (8, on the ACC Network) and Duke Sunday (noon, ACCNX). 

The team got to the airport so early that the people at Gate A13 actually were waiting for a flight to Miami, which left an hour and a half before Princeton's flight to RDU. In fact, Princeton's plane was still in North Carolina when the team got to the gate.

As TB has mentioned a few times, it's a big weekend for Princeton in the Research Triangle area. There are the two men's lacrosse games, and there is also a three-game baseball series between Princeton and UNC. Princeton head coach Scott Bradley, as you probably know, was a longtime Major League catcher who played collegiately at UNC. 

If you're not making the trip down here, then you can see two other Princeton teams played in Jadwin Gym this weekend. 

It's a doubleheader weekend of basketball at Princeton, with the women at home against Harvard tonight (at 5) and Dartmouth tomorrow night (at 4), followed both nights by the men, who take on Columbia tonight (8) and Cornell (7) tomorrow.

Don't tell TigerBlog who won. He's going to try not to find out and watch all four games after the fact, something that didn't work out at all last weekend. 

At this stage, as every league basketball team has three remaining regular season games, every moment of all four games in the building will be important.

Both teams enter the weekend tied for first place, the women with Columbia and the men with Cornell and Yale. All five of those teams have clinched their spots in the Ivy League tournament, as has Harvard's women's team. 

That, of course, leaves only two spots remaining for bids to the tournament in two weeks, one in each tournament. On the women's side, that fourth team will be either Penn, Brown or Yale. On the men's side, it'll be either Harvard, Brown or Columbia.

The automatic bids to the NCAA tournament go to the tournament winners (the official Ivy League champion or champions will be determined by the regular season). As such, being the top seed is big, as it means you avoid one of the other teams who's already clinched its spot, which presumably is a bonus. Remember, to win the tournament, you have to win two games in two days. 

Both Princeton teams would get that No. 1 seed, and no worse than a share of the Ivy league title, by winning these final three games. Both play Penn in the final game of the regular season, with the women home and men away next Saturday.

Why? Because at worst, they would be in an unbreakable tie, which would then decide the top seed by virtue of best NET ranking, where Princeton cannot be caught at this stage. 

That's good to know, but it doesn't mean a thing when you're actually playing the games. 

There are subplots, of course. Princeton has players who are in the thick of the race for Ivy Player of the Year. There are Tigers who are chasing rcords. 

Those are individual things, though. This isn't the time to focus on any of that. 

If you're in North Carolina, come see the Tigers this weekend.

If you're in New Jersey this weekend, come see the Tigers this weekend.