Small World

This is a story about three seemingly unrelated people — with the emphasis on the "seemingly."

At least to TigerBlog, they had absolutely no connection at all, until he recently learned differently. He's since told this story to maybe five people, and they've all had the exact same reaction: "Wow. Crazy."

Okay, back to the three main characters.

The one that you probably already know is named Spencer Weisz. Yes, that Spencer Weisz, the former Princeton basketball player. 

He's actually more than just a former Princeton basketball player. He is, in fact, one of only eight players in Ivy men's basketball history to win the league Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year awards. 

Weisz ranks second all-time at Princeton with 383 career assists and 14th all-time at Princeton with 1,241 career points. He's one of seven Princeton players who have made at least 200 career three-pointers and is the only Princeton player ever with at least 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, 300 assists and 200 threes. You can take away the 200 three pointers from the criteria and only Kit Mueller would then join him with the other three.

As a senior, Weisz was part of the great Princeton team that went 14-0 in the league and then won the first Ivy tournament, going a perfect 16-0 against league opponents. The Tigers then lost 60-58 to Notre Dame in the opening round of the NCAA tournament in a game in which Weisz went all 40 minutes and had 15 points, five rebounds, four assists, two blocked shots, one steal — and zero turnovers. 

He was awarded the 2017 Roper Trophy as the top senior male athlete in his class. That year's banquet also featured a video in which Weisz competed against other Princeton athletes in their sports, with a final product that showcased him as a tremendous all-around athlete and also as having a great personality and sense of humor.  

TigerBlog worked on that video with Weisz. He'd written extensively about him by the time he graduated, and he's followed Weisz during his professional career in Israel. TB got to spend some time with Weisz when he was in Israel in late May for a wedding and was reminded of what a great young man Weisz is — friendly, outgoing, funny, warm, welcoming. You can't say enough good things about him. 

Here is what TB wrote about Weisz after the banquet in 2017: 

He talked about coming to Princeton with doubts. He talked about the honor of wearing "Princeton" across his chest. He talked about how his coach, Mitch Henderson, pushed him to get the very best of him. He talked about his teammates and the other coaches and how much they meant to him. He talked about his parents and all of their support, saying he could literally count on one hand the number of games of his that they'd missed. 

Okay, so Weisz is one of the three people in this story. 

The second person in the story is named Charlie. He was TigerBlog's roommate his senior year at Penn, and the two have stayed great friends for all of the years since. 

TigerBlog doubts that Charlie has ever stepped foot in Jadwin Gym. For that matter, he probably didn't spend too much time in the Palestra either when he was a Penn student. There's no chance he's ever heard of Spencer Weisz. 

Charlie has always been very into Facebook. Last week Charlie decided to start a group of Penn alums and he wanted TB to join, knowing full well that TB didn't have and has never had a Facebook account. Charlie, being the persuasive person he is, managed to convince TB to create one, and so TB did, leaving him 1) in Charlie's new group and 2) with a Facebook page for the first time in his life. 

And what do you do with your new Facebook page? Right, you look up all the people you knew in high school and college. It entertained TB for most of an afternoon, as he checked on friends he hadn't seen (or even thought of) in decades. Then he decided that was enough and deactivated his page. 

This brings the story to its third character, a woman named Genie Prell. Like TB and Charlie, Genie is also a Penn alum. She and TB were friends in college, though TB can't remember exactly where he met her. A class maybe? 

Genie also lived in the same town as TB's aunt and uncle, and he does remember giving her a ride home one holiday. And, she gave him some boxes that he used to store a bunch of books in his aunt and uncle's basement. Years later, when he finally retrieved the books, they were in a box that had "GENIE PRELL" written across the top in black marker. 

TB hadn't seen or thought of Genie in a very, very long time. And then, while he was wasting his time on Facebook, he decided that she would be one of the old friends he'd look up. 

And that's when he found out the truly shocking part of the story:

Genie Prell is now Genie Weisz and ... GENIE PRELL WEISZ IS SPENCER WEISZ' MOTHER.

What? That's crazy, right? 

Yes, it is. TB was certainly stunned. 

TB reached out to Genie on Facebook and sent her a picture of him and Spencer from Israel. She got back to him quickly and was just as stunned. 

TB did ask Genie — whose husband Andy is a Montclair State grad — if she had any trouble rooting against Penn, something TB of course long ago learned how to do. Her response was:

"Once Spencer chose to go to Princeton over UPenn, I only rooted for him and the Tigers! For me it was my kids first! We bleed Blue and Maize [Spencer's older sister Becca went to Michigan] and Orange and Black in our family."

Genie mentioned that she'd read everything TB wrote about her son and never realized it was being written by a friend of hers from her son's biggest rival, someone she herself had been friends with all those years ago. 

Remember what Weisz said at the banquet his senior year? He said he could count on one hand how many games his parents had missed in his years as a Tiger.

How many times did TB walk past his old college friend in Jadwin and not realize who she was? How did he not make that connection? 

What a small world. It was nice to catch up with her. She has certainly raised a great son.

Hey, TB told you it was a great story.