Spring Sports Weekend

The news that Gene Hackman passed away had to touch pretty much everyone of every generation.

Has there ever been a more beloved movie star? If there has been, the list of those ahead of Hackman isn't very long. 

Hackman was great in so many different roles — the brother in "Bonnie and Clyde," the preacher in "The Poseidon Adventure," the tough New York City cop in "The French Connection." 

His best role? That had to be as high school basketball coach Norman Dale in "Hoosiers," for which he didn't even receive an Academy Award nomination. What the heck? 

Paul Newman won that year (1986) for "The Color of Money," and the other nominees were from long-forgotten roles in long-forgotten movies: Dexter Gordon for "Round Midnight," Bob Hoskins for "Mona Lisa," William Hurt for "Children of a Lesser God," and James Woods for "Salvador."

You know those stories where they do an NFL or NBA redraft from five years later or so? If there was a redraft for 1986 movies, then Hackman would have won (no offense Mr. Newman).

The only problem that TigerBlog had with Hackman is that he wasn't the greatest game coach. Yes, he definitely had his team ready to play and yes his players played hard for him. 

But needing one of his players to tell him that he thinks that Jimmy could take his guy? And then wanting to use Jimmy as a decoy for the last shot?

Ah, but that's nitpicking. Gene Hackman was as great as it gets at what he did. The news yesterday was sad. 

"Hoosiers," of course, was from a winter sport, and TB went through the weekend at Princeton for the winter teams yesterday. Today is for the Princeton spring sports. 

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The women's lacrosse team defeated Delaware 15-14 Wednesday afternoon, getting a goal from Jami MacDonald with 10 seconds to play for the winner. It was an extraordinary game, one that saw the Tigers score the first six goals, lead 7-1 at the end of the first and then trail 14-13 in the fourth before McKenzie Blake tied it with 1:18 to go and then MacDonald won it.

MacDonald finished the game with four goals and two assists. Is it too simplistic to say as MacDonald goes, so go the Tigers? She was shut out in the season-opening loss to Virginia but has had four goals in each of the next two games, both wins (Loyola and Delaware).

MacDonald's four goals were two fewer than the six Blake put up. Her two assists were five fewer than the seven that Haven Dora had, giving Dora the school record for assists in a game. 

Like TB said, it was an extraordinary game. 

Next up for Princeton is a home game tomorrow against Hofstra (noon start). The Pride come in with a record of 4-0 on the young season, with wins over LIU, Manhattan, Marist and Fairfield. 

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The men's lacrosse team flew out of Philadelphia yesterday afternoon for the short (but very, very bumpy) trip to Raleigh Durham. This weekend will see eighth-ranked Princeton take on No. 7 Duke today at 6 and then No. 4 North Carolina Sunday at 11 am. 

Princeton is 1-1, with a win over No. 9 Penn State and a loss to No. 2 Maryland. This weekend is part of an ACC/Ivy event, with Penn at North Carolina tonight and Duke Sunday. A year ago, all four teams went 1-1 on this weekend. 

One of the highlights of the weekend will be the matchup between North Carolina goalie Michael Gianforcaro, a Princeton alum who was the Most Outstanding Player at the Ivy League tournament in 2023 and who helped Princeton to another Ivy tournament title a year ago. 

Gianforcaro is playing for the Tar Heels as a grad student. His replacement at Princeton is Ryan Croddick, Gianforcaro's backup the last two years. Croddick enters the weekend leading the country in saves per game with 17.5.

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The Princeton lacrosse career goal scoring records are both being seriously challenged this season. McKenzie Blake's six against Delaware give her 16 for the season and 158 for her career. Should she maintain her 5.3 goals per game average, she'd finish the regular season with 222; the school record is 209, held by Kyla Sears (Class of 2022).

On the men's side, Coulter Mackesy has 131 goals, one away from tying Mikey MacDonald, Jami's brother, for third place at Princeton, behind only Jesse Hubbard (163) and Chris Massey (146), both of whom were in the Class of 1998.

Should Mackesy maintain his current pace of 4.0 goals per game, he would have 175 goals at the end of the regular season. 

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The men's lacrosse team isn't the only one who hopped on a plane this weekend. The softball team is in College Station, Texas, where a monster field awaits. 

It started last night, when Princeton took on No. 8 Texas A&M, the host school for the weekend. Princeton will play two more games today, against No. 13 Texas Tech and Texas State, and then two more tomorrow, against Idaho State and George Washington.

What's up next weekend for Princeton? A spring break trip to California. 

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The baseball team also is in the state of North Carolina this weekend. 

Princeton is at Wake Forest for four games, though only two of them are against the Demon Deacons. Princeton's schedule has a game at noon today against Maryland, followed by another game at 4 against Wake Forest. 

The Tigers then play Maryland tomorrow at 1 and then Wake again Sunday at 9:30 am. 

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There's home men's and women's tennis this weekend as well, which means another chance to check out the new tennis center at the Meadows Campus. 

The schedule is:

men vs. Binghamton today (1)
men vs. Middle Tennessee today (6)
women vs. Penn State tomorrow (10)
women vs. Temple tomorrow (3)
men vs. Tulsa Sunday (12)
men vs. Saint Joseph's Sunday (5)

That's a lot of good tennis. 

There is also home men's volleyball, against NJIT tonight at 7 and Lincoln Memorial tomorrow at 4.

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The complete schedule is HERE.