The Missing Tiger

To everyone who told him that Lake Como was the most beautiful place on earth, TigerBlog has one thing to say: 

You very may be right about that. 

The Princeton men's lacrosse tour of Italy headed north yesterday morning, making the drive from Tuscany to Lake Como, near the Swiss border. It was about two-thirds of the way through the trip that the Alps first became visible, and, for that matter, hard to miss. 

As TB mentioned yesterday, he wanted to see three places on his trip here. The Colosseum? Check. The Leaning Tower of Pisa? Check. 

All that was left was Lake Como, largely because of everything that TB had heard about it through the years from all the people he knew who'd been there. In fact, BrotherBlog told him that he was jealous of the three-hour ride on the lake when the itinerary was shared with him. 

Could it possibly be this beautiful? The answer was unquestionably 100 percent yes. Affirmative. 

The team's boat ride stopped at Bellagio, a town on the far side of the lake, even closer to Switzerland. If you say "Bellagio" to anyone in Italy, they will immediately point out that there is only one real place with that name, and it's not in Las Vegas. This includes Princeton's tour guides Giancarlo and Alessia, both of whom have said it multiple times. 

By the way, here they are: 

They are pretty much the perfect guides you'd want with your group of 60, most of whom are men's lacrosse players. Giancarlo is with the defensive bus (which includes TB), while Alessia has the offense. Giancarlo has a great balance of talking about the history of his country with some fast quips to rag on the guys just a bit. TB hasn't heard Alessia on the microphone on the O bus, but she does give off a "big sister" vibe who is looking over the ones on her bus to make sure they get where they're going and stay out of trouble along the way. 

Anyway, Bellagio. TigerBlog recommends it. Oh, and even Elena, the guide on the boat, said that this Belagio was the only real one. 

Also, on the ride back across the lake, TB tried to take a picture through the boat window to make it look like a painting in a frame. How'd he do? 

There is one men's lacrosse player who has missed the trip, and that is Jackson Green, the All-American shortstick defensive midfielder. He does have a good excuse: He is a wide receiver on the Princeton football team, with a big game to play tomorrow. 

In other words, instead of being with the men's lacrosse team this morning as it learns to make its own pizzas and then plays the Swiss national team this afternoon, JG will be on a bus to Harvard, where Princeton kicks it off at 3. 

The game is a matchup of the only two teams unbeaten in the Ivy League, with both at 2-0. As a subplot, a Princeton win would be Tiger head coach Bob Surace's 89th at the school, which would tie Bill Roper's 96-year-old school record. 

Before the game, Craig Sachson wrote a feature story on Green for goprincetontigers.com, which includes this quote from Surace:

"Jackson Green is one of the best Ivy League athletes in any sport." Surace said "His combination of size, body control and speed is among the best I've coached. In addition, he's a terrific teammate and leader." 

TigerBlog can definitely second every word Surace said. The entire feature story can be read HERE. 

As for the game, Harvard comes in at 5-0. Princeton is 4-1, having won four straight since an opening loss at Bryant. 

The Crimson average 27.2 points per game, third in the league. Princeton averages 23 points per game, fifth in the league. They allow 24.2 per game — that's between them, total. The Tigers lead the league, allowing only 10.2 per game. 

In fact, Princeton also leads all of the FCS, allowing more than two points fewer than the next best team, Chattanooga (12.6). Harvard is fifth in the FCS. Brown, whom Princeton defeated 16-10 last week, is third in the FCS.

Will this be similarly low scoring? You never can tell. No matter what, though, it's a big one, clearly one of the most important in the league this season. 

TB will be watching it from Italy, where kickoff will be 9 pm. Of course he can't worry about that now. He has pizzas to make.