24 And Then 7

Welcome to a 24-event weekend at Princeton Athletics. 

That's actually a minimum of 24 events. It, hopefully, will be more than that. 

Come Sunday, when the wrestling team completes its day at the Patriot Open at George Mason, there will then be seven remaining athletic events for all of 2025 — with three women's basketball games, three men's basketball games and one men's hockey game. 

There will be first-semester exams. There will be Christmas. There will be New Year's. There will be all of the holiday season. 

What there won't be are a lot of Tiger sporting events.  

Oh, and while TigerBlog is on the subject, there is nothing that can make him hit the mute button faster than a commercial that takes a nice, cheery, happy, traditional Christmas song and substitute those lyrics with others that are designed to sell you something that whoever the intended recipient is doesn't want. 

TigerBlog sort of paraphrased George Carlin there (and cleaned it up quite a bit).

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Today, as TB wrote earlier in the week, is NCAA tournament day for the men's water polo team, who will be taking on second-seeded UCLA at 7 Eastern time in the third of four quarterfinal matches. The winner will take on the winner of the last game, between host Stanford and UC-Davis in the semifinals tomorrow. 

The other side of the bracket has No. 1 seed USC against Concordia-Irvine and No. 4 seed Fordham against Santa Clara.

You can watch the water polo match HERE.

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The women's volleyball team played at USC in the NCAA tournament opening round last night. 

The presence of the Tiger teams in California resulted in an early reunion. Joanna Dwyer, the Princeton expatriate who now works at USC, got to see her former co-workers Alex Henn and Aylin Arifkhan, who are traveling with the women's volleyball team. 

Alex sent this picture along of the three:

It's about the relationships you make, right? TB has pictures like dating back decades with former workers with whom he is still great friends. 

He hopes the same for them.  

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There isn't a lot on the Princeton schedule this weekend that takes place in home territory. 

As such, you could go this evening to the new racket center on the Meadows Campus and see the men's and women's squash teams play Williams. It's an extraordinary facility; if you haven't been there, this is a great chance to check it out. 

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The other home teams are the men's and women's swimming and diving teams, who are hosting the Big Al Invitational at DeNunzio Pool. 

In addition to the great competition in the pool, the event each year keeps alive the memory of someone who passed away tragically while a Tiger swimmer. Here is what TB has written about him before: 

The Big Al Invitational continues to honor the memory of Alan Ebersole, a Princeton swimmer who passed away in an accident in Florida in October 2004. TB never met Ebersole, but he remembers the outpouring of grief at his loss and the way the Princeton swimming community rallied around the Ebersole family. Having this event, which has grown into one of the best early-season meets in the country, has to be very special to everyone who knew him.  

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The men's and women's basketball teams are on the road this weekend, both in the Central time zone. 

The women are in Tennessee, taking on Belmont. Tip off is tomorrow at 2:30 Eastern on ESPN+. Belmont is 4-4 on the season, with a 22-point win over Brown as one of those four wins. 

The men are in Chicago, taking on Loyola. Tip is at 2 Eastern on the USA Network. The Ramblers are 2-7 on the year, with wins over Cleveland State and, most recently, Central Michigan. 

Loyola, of course, is the school that was represented by Sister Jean, who passed away two months ago at the age of 106. You remember her from the team's run to the 2018 Final Four. 

Do you remember which teams Loyola beat along the way? The answer is: Miami, Nevada, Tennessee and then Kansas State. 

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TigerBlog sends get-well wishes to Ella Cashman of the field hockey team, who had her completely torn ACL repaired yesterday. Cashman played about 30 minutes in both the NCAA semifinal and final despite the injury, suffered in the Ivy League tournament final win over Harvard. 

Cash, as she is know, missed only the first two games of the NCAA tournament with that injury. She's extraordinarily tough, as you might have guessed. 

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The complete weekend schedule is HERE.