What Did He Say?

It's quite possible that TigerBlog was hallucinating yesterday as he watched "The Rockford Files" reruns while trying to take his mind off the searing pain that has became standard this week in his immediate post-tonsil world. 

In fact, TB wasn't really paying all that close attention, but he's pretty sure he heard Jim say this to the guy who was paying him $200 a day plus expenses: "Wait, you still think you're the lacrosse captain at Andover?" The response? "It was Lawrenceville."

By the way, the guy who claimed to have been a lacrosse captain played Fletcher Daniels on "Hill Street Blues."

Hey, what else are you supposed to do when you're in post-surgical misery besides watch classic 1970s television shows on Roku. Oh yeah. You're supposed to write a blog.

* 

David Ma was a very deserving ECAC men's hockey defensive Player of the Week this past week. He logged huge minutes Saturday night as Princeton defeated No. 19 Dartmouth 3-1 to finish a weekend sweep, one that began with a 4-3 OT win at Harvard Friday night. 

Ma had a goal and two assists in that game, including assisting on the game-winner. 

The sweep at Harvard and Dartmouth was Princeton's first since 2010. It also moved Princeton into the thick of the battle for home ice in the first playoff game. 

How tight are the ECAC standings right now? Princeton is tied with RPI for eighth with 16 points. If you go all the way to the bottom of the standings, you'll notice that the team there has 14 points. In other words, that's five teams within two points — at least one of those five will get a home game in the playoffs. 

Meanwhile, this weekend's schedule has Clarkson and St. Lawrence at Hobey Baker Rink tomorrow and Saturday, with puck drop at 7 both nights.

*

Did you see the end of the Nets-Rockets game Tuesday night? 

There are hundreds of games in an NBA regular season, and very few of them will have the drama that the game at the Barclays Center did. And, best of all, guess who was right in the middle of it all? 

Tosan Evbuowman.

Basically, the Nets were down by four with 10 seconds left. Evbuomwan inbounded the ball to Keon Johnson, who hit a three-pointer. Evbuomwan then lined up to guard the inbounds pass before dropping off and then, somehow, found himself with the ball, which he then tipped above the three-point line to D'Angelo Russell, who drained the game-winner. 

The Nets went from down 97-93 to a 99-97 winner in a blink. Evbuomwan had assists on both of the late threes, plus a steal. 

Tosan Evbuomwan kept playing at the end here. He had 14-4-4 tonight and provided a major assist on the game-winning three for the Nets in a stunning win over the Rockets. pic.twitter.com/rPronuTQlc

— Derek Jones (@DerekJones79) February 5, 2025

He also finished with 14 points on 7 for 11 shooting, with four rebounds and four assists. His numbers with Brooklyn through 16 games: 10.0 points, 4.7 rebounds, 46.8 percent field goal shooting, 32.5 percent three-point shooting, 24.8 minutes. 

You know what else tells you that he's establishing himself as a legitimate NBA player? That he was on the court at the end of the game. 

Tosan Evbuowman is the easiest professional player to root for since Andrei Iosivas. 

* 

There will a men's squash showdown Sunday at Penn for the Ivy League men's squash championship when Princeton heads to Philadelphia to take on the Quakers. Princeton is ranked No. 2 nationally; Penn is ranked No. 1.

The CSA website keeps track of a team's record and then breaks it down way further, to total games won and total points won. In case you're interested, here's how the teams stand so far:

Princeton is 9-0, with a record in all of its matches of 67-14. If you're wondering about games, Princeton is 207.76. If you're wondering about points, that's 2,871-2,088.

Penn is 15-0, with a record in all of its matches of 128-7. If you're wondering about games, the Quakers are 391-63. In points, that's 4,769-2,727.

*

There will also be Ivy League championships crowned at Penn this weekend in men's and women's fencing, who will compete in the league round-robin event as well. 

Princeton earned a share of both titles a year ago. The Tiger women will be going for at least a share for the fourth straight year, while the men will search for their first back-to-back Ivy titles since 2016-17 and 18th overall.

Tonsil Talk

TigerBlog is in his 60s. 

He also had his tonsils out Monday morning — among other things to fix some issues in the back of his throat. Everything went well, though it's made for pretty much the worst sore throat imaginable. 

On the other hand, it might even be worse to hear the response every time he mentioned his procedure: "Why didn't you get that done when you were a kid? ... I didn't know they did that for people your age? ... I had that when I was five and all I remember is getting a lot of ice cream."

TB has no idea why he waited so long for this. All he knows is that he wished he'd done it way back when. 

TigerBlog had to be at the hospital at 5:30 am — as did a whole bunch of other people in advance of their various surgeries. As he sat there, TB couldn't help but wonder what everyone was having done, and if he was the only tonsil guy there. He did strike up a conversation with three other people who were waiting and said "what are you in for," to which everyone laughed and no one answered. 

Before he was wheeled into the operating room, TigerBlog had this exchange with his surgeon:

Surgeon: How are you?
TigerBlog: How are you more importantly?
Surgeon: I'm good.
TigerBlog: You still remember how to do this one? I think there are some videos on YouTube if you forget.

Always good to double check on the relative stranger who is about to go into the back of your throat with very sharp instruments. 

TB's pep talk seemed to work, since everything apparently went smoothly. And now, other than his complete inability to speak or to swallow anything, TB is on the road to recovery. 

He also got some nice text messages from his daughter after the fact, checking in to see how he was doing. And he also got this message after the procedure was over from his son: "When is your surgery?"

Two days before his operation, TigerBlog went to Villanova to watch the men's lacrosse team's scrimmage against the Wildcats. What's more ridiculous than that was the fact that Saturday was also opening day of actual games in Division I lacrosse. 

Princeton doesn't have a real game until Feb. 15, when the women are home against Virginia and the men are at Penn State. 

The Princeton men's team has four players who are the sons of former Princeton athletes who competed while TB was already covering the Tigers. One of them is Kevin Morrow, a freshman defenseman, who father David was the 1993 Division I Player of the Year and a 2018 NCAA Silver Anniversary Award winner. You can make a case that David Morrow is the greatest defenseman in lacrosse history.

Another is Cooper Mueller, whose father Kit was a two-time Ivy League men's basketball Player of the Year (1990, 1991). There is Porter Malkiel, whose father Jon was part of two NCAA championship teams on the men's lacrosse team (1992, 1994). And there is Billy Barnds, whose father Tom was the 1990 men's lacrosse captain.

As TB stood on the sideline at the scrimmage, he realized that Jon Malkiel was a high school junior when TB first started watching Princeton lacrosse. 

For years and years, TB thought that he'd feel old when the children of athletes who covered at Princeton started to compete as Tigers themselves. Those days have come and gone, and TB still hasn't felt old. 

Maybe it's because he still had his tonsils? He doesn't anymore. 

This season will be TB's 36th with the men's lacrosse team. He's been with the team for six NCAA titles and 11 Final Fours, most recently in 2022. The last three seasons have all ended in the NCAA tournament. The current season begins in the top 10.

Along the way, TB has had the chance to meet hundreds of Princeton men's lacrosse players, and they are among the best people he's met in his life. The experiences he's had with Princeton Lacrosse have taken him literally all over the world. 

When the time comes some day from him to think back on his career and asks the question "what it worth it," the answer will be a resounding "yes."

Ah, but he's not there yet. The thrill of another season is building. It's what Bill Tierney always used to say — each season is its own entity, its own challenge, its own reason to be excited. 

That's how you stay young. 

"My Brother Has Some Wings On Me"

TigerBlog was talking to someone the other day about the nature of sports when he heard this perfect description:

"Sports is life condensed into a few hours."

TB was really taken aback by that. He really likes that. 

Specifically, it's a reference to the emotional swings that can found in athletic competition and how they can run the gamut across all points of the compass. It's about more than just winning and losing. 

It's about how much of oneself an athlete has to invest to reach the fullest potential and then to put yourself on display to be judged publicly, with nowhere to hide. How many setbacks can there be, how many moments of joy — and they can lead one into another in rapid succession. 

Where else are you going to find that? 

If you followed anything to do with the Senior Bowl this past Saturday, you definitely got to see it all. And it certainly hit close to home for Princeton.

The game-winning touchdown was scored by TCU wide receiver Jack Bech on the final play of the game. Bech wore No. 7 in the game. The play started with seven seconds to play. The pass came from quarterback Seth Henigan, from the University of Memphis.

That would be the Memphis TIGERS.

Bech wore No. 18 for the Horned Frogs this year, when he put up one of the best seasons in program history for a wide receiver. His 1,034 receiving yards were the fourth-most in a single season at TCU, and he had nine touchdown receptions on his 62 receptions. 

He had 200 yards on nine receptions in a 35-34 loss to the University of South Florida, making him one of only five players from a Power Four Conference school to reach 200 receiving yards in a game this past season. He was a second-team All-Big 12 selection and an honorable mention All-American, among many other awards.

Bech is projected as a third or fourth round pick in this coming NFL Draft. He certainly helped his cause with his performance at the Senior Bowl, where he caught six passes for 68 yards in addition to the game-winning catch.

There was so much more to it than just the numbers and the winning play.

Jack Bech is the younger brother of Tiger Bech, the Princeton football alum who was killed in the terrorist attack in New Orleans in the early hours of New Year's Day. The Bech family has been remarkable in how it has so publicly grieved and done so much to keep Tigers' memory alive. 

They have focused on who Tiger was, what a bright light he was able to shine on the world in his 27 years. They've done so in a way that is so genuine and so inspirational that you can't help but manage a bit of a smile when you think of them, after everything that they've been through.

"It's simple, my brother has some wings on me," Bech said after the game to NFL.com's Tom Pelissero. "He gave them to me and let all of that all take place.

Maybe you saw the long embrace between Jack and his parents after the game. It was so emotional, so powerful. 

"My brother had some wings on me."

One month after tragically losing his brother, @TCUFootball's Jack Bech scored the game-winning TD and won @seniorbowl MVP 💜 @tompelissero pic.twitter.com/8Rlw1vlK3O

— NFL Network (@nflnetwork) February 1, 2025

TigerBlog had a chance to spend some time with Michelle Bech, Tiger's mother, and Ryan Quigley, his teammate and best friend, shortly after the tragedy. The more he's come to know about the Bech family and those close to them, the more impressive they all become. 

To see what happened at the Senior Bowl was just extraordinary. It was another moment where there were memories of Tiger everywhere.

And that's just how the Bech family wants it. And needs it. 

"Sports is life condensed into a few hours."

That was rarely truer than it was Saturday at the Senior Bowl. 

To The Groundhog

Okay, once again, TigerBlog has to point out the obvious.

If the groundhog's forecasting prowess can determine whether or not there will be an early spring or six more weeks of winter, then those two outcomes are supposed to be radically different. Of course, six more weeks from Feb. 2 is March 16, which is five days before the end of winter. 

In other words, six more weeks of winter and an early spring are the same thing. Then again, what do you expect from getting highly scientific weather analysis from a rodent?

Yesterday was Groundhog Day, when said rodent gets to make the annual prediction about how much more winter there will be. It wasn't that big of a deal until 1993, when the movie of the same name was released. 

Somehow, it didn't earn a single Academy Award nomination. And yet? There aren't too many movies that are thought of more fondly than "Groundhog Day," which was funny and touching and clever. 

It also made "Groundhog Day" a term used to refer to things that happen over and over, as opposed to weather prediction. That's not easy to do.

Anyway, March 16, in addition to being six weeks from Groundhog Day, will also be the championship game of the Ivy League men's basketball tournament. The women's final will be the day before.

The tournament will be held at Brown, by the way. 

If the tournament were to start today, only Princeton would be in both the men's and women's tournaments. Of course, there is a very, very long way to go until then. 

Princeton's women improved to 6-1 in the league with a pair of wins this weekend, taking down 74-38 and Brown 60-47. Back when Pete Carril was the Princeton men's coach, TigerBlog used to think that holding a pair of opponents under 100 points for a weekend was an extraordinary accomplishment.

It's even more impressive these days, with the shorter shot clock, the more athletic teams, the greater balance in the league, more reliable three-point shooters. Carla Berube's Princeton teams still emphasize defense above all else, and the results speak for themselves.

The score of the Princeton-Brown game may make it seem like it was a comfortable win, but it was anything but. In fact, it was a 43-43 game at the end of the third quarter, and Brown had the home court and the confidence that grows as you come closer and closer to an upset.

Instead, the fourth quarter was all Princeton. The Tigers shut out Brown for the first 7:07 and allowed only four points for the entire 10 minutes. Princeton, meanwhile, ripped off the first 13 points of the quarter, including getting back-to-back threes from Fadima Tall, who finished with a career high of 18 points.

As the women are at the midway point, Columbia is 7-0, followed by the 6-1 Tigers, 5-2 Harvard and 4-3 Brown. Every other league team has at least five losses.

Winning a road game against a good team when it's tied after three quarters is impressive. So too is what the Princeton men's team did Saturday, at home against Brown.

Princeton came into the game having lost two straight league games, including one Friday night against Yale, who swept the weekend at Princeton and Penn to stay unbeaten through six games. Brown came into the game having won at Penn Friday night. 

That's a different kind of challenge. How did Princeton handle it? 

The Tigers sprinted away from Brown with a 20-5 run midway through the first half and then held off any move from the Bears, winning 69-49. It was an impressive start to finish performance from a team that had to turn the page quickly after the game Friday night.

As a side note, Princeton's dynamic junior duo of Caden Pierce and Xaivian Lee are closing in on 1,000 points each. As the Tigers prepare to head to the Palestra Friday night, Lee is sitting on 992, while Pierce is at 989. 

For the men, the standings now have Yale at 6-0, Cornell at 5-1, Princeton at 4-2 and Dartmouth at 3-3. Brown, Harvard and Penn are all 2-4, while Columbia is 0-6.

There's a long way to go between now and Ivy Madness. And Groundhog Madness, with its early spring and six more weeks of winter all rolled into one.