Happy 2026.
How was your New Years Eve? Did you have fun? You probably had more fun than TigerBlog.
Well, unless your car slid on the ice and ended up with the front left wheel suspended over a small ravine you did. And unless you also fell on said ice in an effort to extricate your car from said predicament.
TB called his 24-hour roadside assistance, and a tow truck arrived rather quickly. And what was TB told? Nah, can't help you. The truck would just slide on the ice as well, the driver told TigerBlog.
Eventually, TB was able to slowly back his car up and have the left front tire somehow make its way back to join the other three on flat ground. Was everything smooth sailing from there? Well, sort of, only TigerBlog fell on the ice yet again.
Ah, but both he and his car seemed to be fine yesterday. Mr. Tow Truck Driver had said to wait 12 hours to make sure he hadn't caused slow leak in the tire, and that doesn't appear to be the case.
Enough of that. The holidays are officially over, which means that it's time for all the lights, decorations and trees to come down if they haven't already.
It's Jan. 2, obviously. You know what that means, right? It means that the opening days for Princeton men's and women's lacrosse, baseball and softball are all, officially, next month.
Before any of that, though, you have the first weekend of the new year, which figures some pretty good events on the Princeton Athletics calendar. In fact, there are only nine events between today and Monday, but the schedule makes up in quality what it lacks in quantity.
It starts today (it's Friday, right? — who can tell what day of the week it is right about now?) with the first of two hockey doubleheaders at Baker Rink. The women will host Stonehill at 3 today and tomorrow, while the men will take on Dartmouth tonight at 7 and Harvard tomorrow at 7.
The women will return to their ECAC schedule next weekend at Union and RPI. The Tigers are currently where in the league standings?
If you guessed "first place," you are correct. Princeton has 22 points, followed by Clarkson with 19.5. Every team in the league has played 10 league games except Clarkson and St. Lawrence, who have played nine each.
The two opponents for the men this weekend are both ranked, with Dartmouth at No. 8 and Harvard at No. 18. Dartmouth is the only unbeaten team in the ECAC at 6-0-0 for 18 points, followed by Cornell with 16, Harvard with 15 and Princeton with 13.
So yes, these appear to be pretty good games on tap.
Elsewhere, the women's basketball team will be at Penn tomorrow, with tip-off at 2. It's the Ivy League opener for both, and they've both had really good non-league success to this point.
In fact they come into this game with a combined record of 24-4, with the Tigers at 12-1 and the Quakers at 10-3. Princeton has won 10 straight, with its only loss to Maryland, who is 14-0 and ranked eighth in the Division I NET ratings (and sixth in the AP poll).
Penn has won five straight games, including a sweep of Maryland-Eastern Shore and Binghamton at the FDU tournament this past Monday and Tuesday.
Princeton's NET ranking is now 38 in Division I (and 25 in the AP poll). Penn is 110 in the NET, behind the Tigers, Columbia (58) and Harvard (81) among Ivy schools.
As a point of interest heading into the game, Princeton leads the Ivy League in scoring with 75.9 points per game. Penn is third in the league in scoring offense at 54.5 points per game.
The wrestling team (split squad matches against Lock Haven and Hofstra Sunday morning) and men's volleyball team (exhibition match in Toronto tomorrow night) are on the road this weekend, which brings TB to the ninth game on the schedule: Monday's men's basketball home game against Penn.
It's the Ivy opener for both of them as well. Jadwin tip-off is at 7.
TB will have more on that one here Monday.