Record Breaking

As TigerBlog has mentioned before, he is currently the chair of the NCAA Division I men's lacrosse rules committee. 

Unfortunately, the committee's jurisdiction does not extend to, say, society in general:

"I'm sorry, but you'll have to come with me."
"Why?"
"It's now a crime to block an entire supermarket aisle while you compare two somewhat identical jars of spaghetti sauce, punishable with up to five years imprisonment."
"On whose authority?"
"The NCAA Division I men's lacrosse rules committee."

Ah, to dream. 

Sadly, TB's committee can't even change rules in other sports. As such, the best he can do is offer those who make the rules for football what his longtime friend and former colleague Jeff Graydon would call "a nickel's worth of free advice."

So here it is: When TB is in his meetings, he reminds the rest of the committee that there are three areas of priority — 1) player safety, 2) balance between offense and defense and 3) making it as easy as possible for the officials. 

All three of those are covered in pass interference and targeting. It's nearly impossible for officials to find consistency in those two areas, as was clearly seen in the huge impact those calls (or non-calls) had on the biggest games this past weekend. 

The first order of business would be to simplify what is and isn't a catch. Also, TB would suggest that the NFL rule match the college rule in that pass interference is 15 yards. Then, pass interference needs to be reviewable. Lastly, either call all helmet-to-helmet contact or change the rule; there are just so many such hits that go uncalled. 

Games, championships and coaching careers all changed dramatically because of officials calls, where one game didn't match another. That's not a good situation to put the refs into, and the last thing you want is what football has brought on — questioning the legitimacy of the outcomes.

And for the record, TB doesn't believe the refs are "in on it" or anything. It's just the rules seem to bring out confusion.  

So fix it. Don't make the Division I men's lacrosse rules committee have to take over. 

Okay, with that out of the way, how about the big records that were set by Princeton athletes over the weekend. Starting on the track, both Georgina Scoot and Greg Foster set Ivy League records in jumping events. 

Scoot set her record in the triple jump, going 13.47 meters (44' 2.5") to beat the existing mark of 13.44, which was set six years ago by Brown's Zion Lewis. Scoot, whose previous best was 13.16, now holds not only the Ivy record but also the top mark in Division I this season.

Foster set a new Ivy League record in the long jump, reaching 8.07 meters (26' 05.75"). How long had the previous record stood? 

How about 36 years, since Princeton's Al Dyer went 8.00  in 1990. 

Both Scoot and Foster are multiple time Ivy League Heptagonal champs and NCAA qualifiers. And they still have two more Heps and two more NCAAs to go. 

The other record-setters were on ice, where the women's hockey team took down Harvard and Dartmouth at Baker Rink this past weekend by a combined 8-1. Issy Wunder and Jane Kuehl scored two each, while four other Tigers had one each for the weekend. 

Uma Corniea stopped 34 of 35 shots for the two games, a performance that earned her a third ECAC Goalie of the Week award. 

The win was the 13th straight for Princeton, which is now the longest streak in the history of the program. The Tigers are also 17-4-0 overall and now ranked seventh nationally. 

Next up will be two more huge challenges, as No. 11 Cornell and No. 15 Colgate will be in Baker Rink Friday (6) and Saturday (3). This is from the pre-weekend story on goprincetontigers.com:

With 34 standings points, Princeton already has more points in the ECAC standings than it has had in a full season since 2020, when it had 35 and the year that it had its most recent high finish of second, along with 2019 and 2006. The league has been playing a 22-game season consistently since 2006-07 (other than the 2020-21 pandemic year), and in that time, 35 is the most ECAC standings points Princeton has had. Princeton has never won the ECAC regular-season title, but it does have an ECAC tournament title to its credit, won in 2020. 

Three big-time records in one weekend? That's not too bad. 

Working Overtime On The Holiday

You know what TigerBlog just can't do?

Watch a game after it's already happened. He tries to do it; he just can't. 

Take yesterday's women's basketball game against Harvard, which ended up as an 82-79 Princeton victory. 

It started at the same time as TB's dentist appointment, so he figured "okay, watch it from the start later."

He even reached out to anyone he thought might tip him off as to what happened and said "no updates of any kind." Okay, all set. Dentist. Game.  

And then he figured he'd check the halftime score. As it turned out, it was 25-25. Okay, don't check again. Watch it from the start of the second half. 

And ... he just couldn't help himself. So he checked again, just in time to see this on X:

OVERTIME!!!!@ashleyycheaa HITS IT WITH 0.4 SECONDS TO GO!!!!!

📺 - @NBCSPhilly
💻 - https://t.co/XFDTnfSEZn
📊 - https://t.co/SEYZ5dg6Lg#GetStops 🐯🏀 pic.twitter.com/cP4MRGzU3n

— Princeton WBB (@PrincetonWBB) January 19, 2026

You're kidding, right? 

Is there someone else you'd rather have taking your make-or-break shot than Ashley Chea? How many times has she either won a game or forced overtime at the buzzer. This was the second time against Harvard alone in her career.

And by the way, how did she get that wide open? You know Madison St. Rose can score. Did you know she could set amazing screens? 

So now TB was fully invested in seeing what would happen. The only problem is that he wasn't home yet. So what to do? 

Wait it out and watch the overtime? Nope. No chance. He had to know. 

And so he looked — and the Tigers had won. 

Princeton had five players in double figures, led by St. Rose and Chea with 19 each. St. Rose had five of her points in the overtime. 

Olivia Hutcherson had 14 points. Skye Belker had 13. Fatima Tall had 11 points and nine rebounds. That's how Princeton does it. Scoring balance. 

How else did the Tigers do it?  If you look at the box score, you'll see that there was very little that separated these two teams yesterday. 

Each team won two quarters — one each by one point and one each by two points. What else? 

Points in the paint? 38-36 Princeton. Bench points? 7-6 Harvard. Field goals? Harvard made 29; Princeton made 28. 

Fouls? Harvard had 20; Princeton had 19. Offensive rebounds? Both teams had 12. Turnovers? Princeton had 17; Harvard had 16. Points off turnovers? 38-36 Harvard. 

The biggest difference was in steals, though, where Princeton had more than twice as many as Harvard (13-6). Those steals are why turnovers were close and points off turnovers were close; without them, Princeton doesn't get anywhere near overtime. 

If you look at the Ivy League women's basketball stats, you'll see that Princeton is ranked No. 1 in scoring offense and No. 7 in scoring defense. That's not what you're used to seeing from Carla Berube teams.  

Defense, though, isn't just about scoring averages. The 13 steals against Harvard are a testament to that. How many points did Harvard not score because of those steals? As TB said, the game isn't getting near OT without those caused turnovers. 

Then again, they don't get to overtime regardless of anything else if Chea doesn't make that shot. It's one thing to be a great shooter. It's another to catch it and drop it in from three as the clock is about to go to all zeroes, knowing this is your team's last chance. 

As TB said before, is there someone else you want taking that shot?  

By the way, this is a great picture of Chea's reaction:

With the win, Princeton is now 16-1 overall and 4-0 in the Ivy League. Between the 16 men's and women's basketball teams, the Tiger women are the only one who has gone through four league games without a loss. 

Columbia and Brown are both 3-1 in the women's standings, followed by Harvard and Cornell at 2-2 each. Princeton will head to Providence Saturday with only a single game this weekend. 

MLK Day Hoops

TigerBlog has written this before on this occasion: 

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which makes the Civil Rights leader the only person ever born in the United States to have a federal holiday named for him or her.

TigerBlog spent a great deal of time in college studying the Civil Rights movement and Dr. King's role in it (he'd also be fortunate enough to meet John Doar, the Princeton basketball alum who was also a huge factor in the movement). 

In addition, TB has also been to the national park that bears Dr. King's name in Atlanta, back before it was a national park. The Civil Rights museum there is a must.

The occasion of his birthday first became a Monday federal holiday in 1983. Within three years, the NBA began to play games on the holiday, a tradition that will continue today with 11 games. Memphis (where Dr. King was killed in 1968) and Atlanta (his home) are at home each year.

The basketball tradition on the holiday was actually born a few months after the assassination itself. A year ago, TB wrote this on the holiday:

The National Basketball Association first started playing matinee games on Martin Luther King Day in 1986.

The first game to feature NBA players in honor of Dr. King came much earlier, back in 1968, the year in which he was assassinated. In fact, on the day after the assassination, which happened on April 4 of that year, Oscar Robertson began to organize a special exhibition game that would be played outdoors in New York City on Aug. 15.

That game included players like Wilt Chamberlain, Lenny Wilkens, Dave Bing, Dave DeBusschere, Willis Reed and Walt Bellamy. That game raised $90,000 in support of Dr. King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

If you haven't heard of all of those players, then stop what you're doing and look them up. They are among the all-time greats the game has ever seen.

This is Year 4 of the Ivy League's entry into the Martin Luther King Day basketball tradition as once again all 16 league teams have games today. For Princeton, it means the women will be hosting Harvard at 2, while the men will be at Dartmouth at 6.

The league's teams are completing a Saturday/Monday weekend, one that began with five unbeaten teams between the two standings but is now down to two, both on the women's side. Princeton is one of those after a 69-41 win over Dartmouth that improved the Tigers to 15-1 overall.

The other unbeaten? That would be the Brown women, who are 3-0 in the league and 11-4 overall. The Bears will host Princeton this coming Saturday but aren't focused on that quite yet, what with their game at Columbia today. 

As for the game at Jadwin today, Harvard is one of the EIGHT teams out of 16 who is currently 2-1 in the league. Princeton defeated Harvard twice in the regular season last year before the Crimson won their Ivy semifinal matchup; both teams played in the NCAA tournament. 

Of those eight 2-1 teams, five are on the men's side, including Princeton. In fact, there is currently a five-way tie for first in Ivy men's basketball, which means, obviously, that at least one of those teams will not reach Ivy Madness. 

Princeton fell to 2-1 with a loss at Harvard Saturday. Dartmouth fell to 2-1 with a loss at home against Penn Saturday. 

The other 2-1 teams are Yale, Penn and Harvard. To date, if you want to follow along — Princeton has beaten Penn, who has beaten Dartmouth, who has beaten Harvard, who has beaten Princeton. Princeton has also beaten Yale, whose wins are over Brown and Cornell. 

The Big Red, by the way, are 0-3 and have allowed at least 100 points in all three of those games, including most recently against Yale. 

What does all this mean? 

Well, mostly it means that the competition for the eight spots in Ithaca for the upcoming Ivy Madness will be as ferocious as it's ever been. The next few weeks will be fascinating. 

Today? It's a great day of Ivy hoops — and to remember the man whose holiday this is. His legacy is way more than basketball.  

Also In First

 

The Princeton men's tennis team hopped on a plane out of Newark Airport yesterday. 

By the time the Tigers return, they will have traveled more than 7,000 miles in 10 days, with stops in Idaho, and Washington and California. 

That's quite a road trip. The first match will be tomorrow at Boise State, followed by a second match at Washington Tuesday. 

The trip ends with the ITA Kickoff Weekend, where Princeton will compete in the San Diego region, first against Miami and then against either San Diego or Arizona State. 

How did Princeton end up in San Diego's part of the event? Apparently there's a draft in the summer, and Tiger head coach Billy Pate tied this whole trip together before school begins again. 

That sounds like quite an amazing time for Pate and his team. 

Meanwhile, the men's and women's basketball teams will play more Ivy League games between now and when the men's tennis players return than they have to date. 

Just like the hockey teams, both of Princeton's basketball teams enter the weekend in first place. At the same time, it is really, really early in the season, with the Ivy League teams only two games deep. 

Each men's and women's team in the league will now play the remaining 12 regular season games in the next 49 days, beginning tomorrow at least. The first part of that stretch includes games tomorrow and Monday (Martin Luther King Jr. Day).

For Princeton's men, that means the first two road games of the league season, starting at Harvard tomorrow at 2 and then finishing up at Dartmouth Monday at 6. The women are home tomorrow at 2 against Dartmouth and then home against Harvard Monday, also at 2. 

Both Princeton teams are off to 2-0 starts, with wins over Penn and Yale. There are two unbeaten teams on the men's side and three on the women's side. 

TigerBlog starts with the men. 

The two teams who enter the weekend will both not be unbeaten come Monday night, since they're the two who meet in Hanover Monday. Dartmouth has opened with road wins at Harvard (76-68) and Cornell (102-91). 

The Big Green average 80 points per game, led by 18.5 by Kareem Thomas, a 6-5 sophomore who didn't play in either game against Princeton last year. In fact, the 18.5 he averages this year are just 9.5 away from his total for last season. 

Dartmouth's Connor Edmondson was Ivy Co-Player of the Week last week after two big games, with 18 points and four rebounds against Harvard and 20 points and 10 assists against Cornell. Who was the other co-player? 

That would be Princeton's Jackson Hicke after his career-high 27 points in the 76-60 win over Yale. 

As for Harvard, the Crimson rebounded from the loss to Dartmouth to beat Columbia 79-54. Does this sound familiar at all: Harvard shot 62 percent in the second half of that game. Harvard is also shot 10 for 21 from three-point range against the Lions after coming in at 35.8 percent for the season. 

On the women's side, there are three 2-0 teams, two of whom meet in Ithaca tomorrow when Cornell hosts Brown. Princeton's opponents this weekend are 0-2 (Dartmouth) and 1-1 (Harvard).

Princeton is 14-1 overall in addition to 2-0 in the league, with 12 straight wins after the only loss, which came at No. 8 Maryland. Princeton's current NET rating is 37, in addition to its No. 22 ranking in the coaches' poll. 

Princeton leads the Ivy League in points per game, averaging 75.8. Dartmouth, despite its 0-2 league start, is the top-ranked scoring defense team in the league at 54.7.

The two Dartmouth losses have been to Harvard (72-47) and Cornell (61-52). The Big Green, though, are 9-6 overall after a season that saw them go 8-19, 2-12 in the league. 

Harvard is third in the league in NET ranking, at No. 85 (Columbia is second at No. 69). The Crimson won the Ivy League tournament a year ago, as you might recall, when Princeton, Harvard and Columbia all played in the NCAA tournament.  

The first Ivy weekend with two games starts with both Princeton teams in first place. As former men's coach John Thompson III used to say, the goal is to be there at the end of each weekend.  

In First

There is a daily trivia question at the front desk in Jadwin Gym, courtesy of a young woman named Naomi.

Here is yesterday's:

"Lt. Col. Charles Mawhood took two dogs of what breed with him into the Battle of Princeton?"

Colonel Mawhood, by the way, was the commander of the British forces in Princeton. Though the Americans won the battle, Mawhood did prevent a bigger loss for the British with his escape, presumably down Route 206 towards the Mercer Mall. For his bravery, Mawhood earned a commendation from the King himself. 

TigerBlog had no idea what breed the dogs could have been, so he guessed "chihuahua," which of course couldn't possibly have been correct. Then he thought "English Army, English dogs" and guessed "English Mastiffs," who are huge by the way. 

When that wasn't true, he went with "something in between." It turns out the answer was "spinger spaniels."  

What role did his two dogs play? Did they survive the battle too? 

This is all that TigerBlog could find:
"That day Mawhood rode a brown pony, and had a pair of springer spaniels playing before him.” 

 TigerBlog has no idea what happened to them, but here's a shot of one of their descendants:

Big Princeton fans, those springer spaniels. 

* 

Another trivia question could be "which is the only school that is in first place in men's and women's hockey in a Division I conference heading into this weekend?"

You know the answer. Why else would TigerBlog bring it up? 

In any situation where TB asks such a question, the answer is either Princeton (95 percent chance) or Sacred Heart (five percent chance).

In this case, the answer is "Princeton."

The men's hockey team is tied for first with Quinnipiac with 22 points, one ahead of Dartmouth and three ahead of Cornell. This weekend's schedule has Princeton at Cornell tomorrow night and then Colgate Saturday night. 

The Princeton women, as TB wrote the other day, are in first by four points over second-place Yale (28-24). These Tigers are home this weekend, tomorrow at 6 against Harvard and Saturday at 3 against Harvard. 

*

The women's hockey game Saturday will feature the "Denna Day" celebration, recognizing former Tiger Denna Laing, who will drop the ceremonial first puck. 

If you're not familiar with her story, Laing graduated in 2014 and then played professionally for a little more than a year, until she suffered a catastrophic spinal cord injury at an outdoor game in Gillette Stadium. Since then, she has worked tirelessly both on her own recovery and on advocating for others who are in the same situation.

TigerBlog included her in his book on the first 50 years of women's athletics at Princeton. How could he not? If you talk to her for two minutes you can't help but be inspired by her. 

Here is something TB wrote about her for the book: 

Beyond the physical, she has been nothing short of a warrior in this battle, and it’s impossible for anyone to be around her for more than a few moments not to realize that. Since her injury she has inspired others with spinal cord injuries, has spoken publicly about her own ordeal, and has helped to raise money for support and research. She’s completed the Boston Marathon, pushed in a special wheelchair for the 26.2 miles by former NHL star Bobby Carpenter in just under 4:30. She’s worked with the Christopher Reeve Foundation and with other athletes who suffered similar injuries, like former Rutgers football player Eric LeGrand and former Boston University hockey player Travis Roy, who passed away in 2020.

To learn more about Denna, you can go to her website HERE.

*

Another woman who is a massive bundle of energy and inspiration is Crista Samaras, a coach, broadcaster and motivational speaker, among other things. 

Samaras graduated from Princeton in 1999 as the all-time leading scorer in program history, and she'll stand forever as the player who scored the most points for the women's lacrosse team before the advent of the shot clock, which sped the game up considerably. 

This past weekend Samaras was part of the Class of 2026 that was inducted into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame, becoming the third member of the Princeton women's program to be so honored. The other two are Tewaaraton Award winner Rachael Becker and legendary coach Chris Sailer. 

Congratulations to Crista. 

*

In all this weekend, there will be 13 Princeton teams who will be competing this weekend. The complete schedule is HERE.

 

Looking Ahead, And Back

So this really happened to TigerBlog the other day. 

He was driving along a two-lane road when he came across a sign indicating that one lane would be closed ahead due to tree work that was going on. This happens all the time, right? 

As always, there were two people on either side of the work area with signs that said "Slow" and "Stop." You've seen this a million times. 

Ah, but this time was different. As TB sat as the second car on the "Stop" side, a replacement worker came to take over the sign. When Worker A handed over the sign to Worker B, it fell onto the ground between them. When Worker B picked it up, it was facing the wrong way, so that both sides of the road now had the "Slow" sign. 

Fortunately, the car in front of TB figured out what had happened and only moved up about 10 feet. Then Worker B turned the sign around. 

If that was TigerBlog's job, he'd have the sign facing the wrong way somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 percent of the time. 

As for today, if you need directions to the home fencing meet, you head to C level of Jadwin Gym, where the Tiger men and women will be hosting Wagner at 10 and then the women will host Cornell at 2. The Ivy League fencing round-robin championships, by the way, will be held Feb. 7-8, also in Jadwin Gym. 

If you need directions to go to the men's volleyball match tonight, TB can't really help you, since it's at UC-Irvine, starting at 9 Eastern. 

The Tigers played two exhibition matches last week in Canada, defeating Toronto Metropolitan and McMaster. Now they find themselves in California for the first three official matches of the 2026 season, with UC-Irvine tonight and then USC Friday and Concordia Tuesday. 

Looking ahead, you know what is one month from today? Hint - TigerBlog is not referring to Valentines' Day. 

The Princeton men's lacrosse season opener is only 31 days away, at home Feb. 14 at noon against Penn State. It's the start of an incredible schedule, one that sees the Tigers — ranked third in the preseason by USA Lacrosse — play four other top nine teams in 15 days. After the opener against No. 9 Penn State, Princeton will then play at No. 1 Maryland and host No. 2 Syracuse and No. 5 North Carolina. 

That's quite a way to start. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate. 

The lacrosse opener for the men comes seven days before the women open their season at Loyola. It also comes one day after the softball team begins its season in Jacksonville. 

The Tigers will play five games in three days that first weekend, with two against Stony Brook and single games against Jacksonville, North Florida and Iona. Princeton will then play games in North Carolina and California before the home opener — which is two months from today. 

And what else is there today, after looking ahead one month and two months? How about looking back?

TigerBlog found this quote about the state of college athletics by a former administrator:

"No sane man would deny the value of athletics. But the value of athletics depends on our ability to place this interest in a certain relation to all other interests. The correct relationship is indicated by the word 'sport;' the wrong relationship, by the word 'business. College athletics in this country have largely become a business, and have consequently ceased to be a 'sport.'"

Was this in reference to NIL? The transfer portal? 

Nope. 

When was it? That would be Jan. 14, 1926, which, if you're not paying attention, was 100 years ago today.  

The quote comes from a man named Archibald Alfred Bowman. He was a Scottish scholar who came to Princeton to teach in the Logics department in 1912. When World War I began, he returned home to fight with Scotland, eventually being taken prisoner by the Germans. 

He came back to Princeton in 1919 and became the chair of the Department of Philosophical Studies two years later. He returned to his native country in 1926 to finish his teaching career but did return to Princeton for a series of lectures in 1934, two years before his death at the age of 53. 

He had quite a life, no?

And with that, you have a wide range of subjects for your Wednesday. 

Now you can go Slow. Or is that Stop? 

 

Schott And Wunder

Schott and Wunder. 

That sounds like one of the British police detective shows that TigerBlog likes to watch. Season 4 was especially good; that was the one where they realize that the other detective is really a "bent copper" who is on the take and finally take him down after he framed someone else for the murder he committed. 

Season 3 was a little slow.  

Just kidding. Schott and Wunder aren't fictional detectives. They're not even real ones. 

Schott (Mitchell) and Wunder (Issy) are Princeton athletes, both of whom are coming off big weekends. 

TB starts with Schott. 

 

Here's a pretty cool paragraph: 

After winning eight out of his 28 gold medals at the 2008 Olympics, Michael Phelps set a Lejeune Hall record of 1:33.14 in the 200 freestyle just one year later in 2009. That record stood until today, when Mitchell Schott of the No. 22 Princeton University men's swimming & diving team finished in 1:32.72, setting a new pool record and winning the event at a meet that included Navy, Delaware and Kenyon.

That was the way the men's swimming and diving recap began Friday after Day 1 of a meet at the Naval Academy that included Delaware and Kenyon as well. 

Breaking a record held by Michael Phelps? It doesn't matter the record. That is something crazy impressive to be able to say you did. 

It's something else to add to the already stacked swimming record Schott has put together during his time at Princeton. The senior is already a five-time Ivy League champion, including winning four events a year ago, when he was the High Point Scorer of the Meet. 

He's also a two-time Scholar All-American, a multiple time NCAA qualifier and TigerBlog believes the holder of eight school best times. Schott does, of course, have the rest of his senior year to add to all of those totals.  

Beyond that, he gets to be "the guy who broke a Michael Phelps record."  

Schott's team has moved into the national rankings, at No. 22 in the most recent poll. The Ivy League championships, if you're planning ahead, will be held at DeNunzio Pool Feb. 25-28.  

As for Wunder, TB is shifting to frozen water. The Princeton women's hockey team is now up to 11 straight wins, which is the second-longest streak in program history, two off of the all-time record, set 20 years ago. 

The Tigers have a chance to equal that this coming weekend, with visits from Harvard and Dartmouth. 

The new rankings came out yesterday, by the way, and Princeton currently is ranked No. 9. Princeton's NPI rating, which is used for NCAA selections, stands at No. 8.

Issy Wunder had a great weekend as the Tigers won two more, this time at Union (3-1) and RPI (4-0). How many of those seven goals did Wunder score? 

How about five — two against Union and three more against RPI. 

19' left, 2nd pd | #9 Princeton 4, RPI 0

Wunder! The hatty! 🧢🎩

FIVE goals in 4+ periods this weekend!

💻: https://t.co/ZZtO8zbKix pic.twitter.com/gNhBM4sNiO

— Princeton Women's Ice Hockey (@PWIH) January 10, 2026

Wunder has now played 19 games this season and scored 18 goals, which puts her fourth in Division I in goals per game. Who is fifth? 

That would be fellow Tiger Mackenzie Alexander, who now has 17 goals in those 19 games. 

Wunder, a senior, began her career with nine goals and nine assists in 31 games and then followed that up with eight goals and 27 assists, leaving her with 17 goals and 36 assists through her first 63 games. 

She's played 51 more games, with 44 more goals and 36 more assists. Her first two years had her average 0.84 points per game; since then she's at 1.57 points per game. 

It adds up to 61 goals and 72 assists, for 133 points in 114 games. She needs four more assists to tie for 10th all-time at Princeton, and she has an excellent shot of reaching the top 10 in career goals and points. 

The sweep last weekend kept the Tigers in first place with 28 points, four ahead of second-place Yale. After that there are five other teams with between 21 and 23.5 points. 

 

Spirit Of 76

TigerBlog begins the week with some pretty interesting — at least to him — basketball stats. 

For instance, there is this:

Team A: 28 for 61 from the field, 5 for 17 from three, 15 for 19 from the foul line
Team B: 22 for 48 from the field, 11 for 27 from three, 21 for 23 from the foul line

If you added up the first one, it comes to 76 points. If you added up the second one, it also comes to 76 points. 

They also both added up to wins. 

Team A is the Princeton women's basketball team, who rolled to a 76-50 win at Yale Saturday afternoon. Team B is the Princeton men's team, who took down Ivy League preseason favorite Yale 76-60 Saturday afternoon. 

The men's game, by the way, drew 4,884 to Jadwin Gym. 

Then there is this: 

First half: 23 points per game
Second half: 54 points per game

That one also belongs to the Princeton men, in their two Ivy League games to date. Princeton has defeated Penn 78-76 and Yale 76-60, for a total of 154 points for the Tigers. 

Of those 154 points, the breakdown is this: 46 points in the first half and 108 in the second half. Princeton has shot 16 for 51 in the two first halves (.314) and 34 for 49 in the two second halves (.694).

That's incredible. 

What explains this? Is it a function of great adjustments from the coaches? That is part of it. 

What TigerBlog thinks, though, is that more than any X's and O's, what you've seen from the Tiger men this week is the importance of team culture. This Princeton team lost eight straight before its current three game streak, and that's the kind of run that could destroy a season, especially for a team without a senior. 

In this case, TB — who is not around the team so is just observing from afar but also basing it on what he knows about how Mitch Henderson coaches — would say that this is a team that never stopped believing in itself, has never stopped playing hard, has been allowed to make mistakes and learn from them and a team that is now benefiting from that. That's a tribute to the players and the coaches. 

And of course, getting Dalen Davis back has been huge. He followed up his 19 points against Penn with 17 more against Yale on a day when Jackson Hicke had a career-high 27 of his own. 

TB's written this before, but go back and look at the 2001 Tigers. This is starting to feel a little bit more like that season. 

Time, of course, will tell. In the meantime, Princeton is now 2-0 in the league, along with Dartmouth the only unbeatens. Those two will play a week from today in Hanover, after the Princeton-Harvard game in Cambridge Saturday. 

There are three unbeaten teams on the women's side, where the Tigers are joined by surprising Cornell and Brown at 2-0. Harvard and Columbia are both 1-1.

Princeton got to 2-0 by steadily pulling away from Yale in New Haven, backed by 18 points and five assists from Madison St. Rose, 17 points from Ashley Chea and 12 points and seven rebounds from Olivia Hutcherson.  Princeton won all four quarters, including a combined 39-21 in the second and third. 

we’re more cat people than dog people if we’re being honest. #GetStops 🐯🏀 pic.twitter.com/P32EOnPg7H

— Princeton WBB (@PrincetonWBB) January 10, 2026

Princeton is now 14-1 overall and ranked 24th in the country. The only loss is against Maryland, who is 16-1 and ranked eighth. 

Next up for the Tigers will be a home game Saturday against Dartmouth and another home game a week from today against Harvard.  

As a reminder, the top four teams in both the women's and men's races will advance to the Ivy tournament, to be held at Cornell in March.  

Old Rivals

The Princeton men's basketball team hosts Yale tomorrow, with tipoff at 2 in Jadwin Gym. 

The women, now ranked 24th in the country, will also play Yale tomorrow, also at 2. That game also tips at 2. 

Both Princeton teams won their Ivy openers this past week against Penn, both in close games. Olivia Hutcherson earned her first Ivy League Player of the Week award after she scored a career-high 20 in the 74-68 win at the Palestra. 

It's the men's game from the other night that TigerBlog would like to talk about today, however. Princeton won that one 78-76 Monday night after playing the most perfect basketball you can play in the first 11 minutes of the second half (this included making the first 16 shots after intermission). It's a win that gave Princeton the all-time series lead (127-126) for the first time ever. 

The end was dramatic too, as a Penn three-point attempt that would have won the game didn't fall. TigerBlog, though, starts when the opening tip was about 90 minutes away. 

Fans had not yet entered the building. Various players from both teams were milling around, getting some shots up, stretching, doing what players do before a game. 

Those working at the game were busy setting up — television, table personnel, game management. It was very much what you'd see prior to any college basketball game anywhere. Nothing was out of the ordinary. 

Over in what are the VIP seats opposite the Princeton bench sat two people, one in a blue Penn Basketball pullover and the other in a black Princeton Basketball pullover. They were talking like old friends who hadn't seen each other in a long time, and, well, that's exactly what they were. 

The Penn guy was head men's basketball coach Fran McCaffery. The Princeton guy was Roger Gordon,  who has no title, though if he did it would be something along the line of "guy who has done pretty every single thing you can do for the program and has done so for six decades now."

Here they are together:

They are both Philly guys, even if Roger has been a Princeton guy since the 1970s and Fran has had coaching stops at Lehigh, Siena and Iowa. TB wasn't sure how long it's been since they'd seen each other when he pointed them to each other Monday night, but however many years it had been melted away in the moment. 

"I tried to recruit this guy," Roger said laughing as they hugged.  

Then there was another picture that was taken at the game Monday. This one also mixed the two teams and the rivalry that has meant so much to so many. 

You know what's in this picture? 

That's 3,234 college points. That's seven All-Ivy League selections. That's seven Ivy League championships. 

And now, 40-something years later, that's a lot of smiles. 

Who are they? 

Well, you probably recognize Howard Levy in the middle. Howard, Princeton Class of 1985, was an assistant coach at Princeton under Bill Carmody, John Thompson and Joe Scott before becoming the head coach at Mercer County Community College. 

The other two guys? Those are also Penn guys. 

On the left is Bruce Lefkowitz, Class of 1987. On the right is Paul Little, Class of 1983. Little was the 1980 Ivy Rookie of the Year and 1983 Player of the Year. All three were All-Ivy League selections. All three played in the NCAA tournament. 

And all three were big parts of the Princeton-Penn rivalry.  

TigerBlog talks all the time about the bond that comes from being teammates and how it endures forever. That is certainly the case.

There is also, though, a different kind of bond, the one between rivals. Maybe it doesn't start out as being friendly, but it softens as the years (and decades) go by. Respect grows. Memories fade just enough that the exact way the game played out isn't exactly remembered the same by everyone. 

And what are you left with? Old rivals, smiling together, while the rivalry that brought them together plays out another classic in front of them.  

It's another special part about college athletics.  

And it was on full display at Jadwin Monday night.  

Back At It

So TigerBlog was walking outside of Jadwin Gym along Faculty Road the other day when he saw this guy. 

They both eyeballed each other for a second and then both backed up a bit — one faster than the other. Then they seemed to assess that the other posed no danger and went about their business. 

TB was going to ask if the fox wanted to get a picture together, but he thought better of it. Instead, he settled for a candid of the fox, who strolled by, flashed TB a paw bump and then turned left towards the lake. 

Foxes, by the way, actually pose very little threat to humans unless they're attacked. They're actually more afraid of people than the people are of them. This little fact meant nothing to TigerBlog when he first saw his little friend of course, and nor does he recommend trying to go up to one to make a friend. 

TigerBlog can't help but wonder where that fox is right now. Does he have a fox family somewhere in the area? Or is he a lone wolf, er, fox?

It turns out that foxes are in fact loners. Who knew? Perhaps this is the start of something for TB: "In addition to his work with Princeton Athletics, TigerBlog has also become one of the world's leading authorities on the social habits of the fox. His books include the history of women's athletics at Princeton, a novel and his recently released 'Of Fox and Men.'" 

Yeah, no. 

TB will just leave it as hopefully that guy found something to eat and is now enjoying some fox downtime.

And back to Princeton Athletics, there have been 18 total events between Dec. 7 and today, which is Jan. 8. After that lull, there will now be 23 events between today and tomorrow alone. 

Where will more of them be held than anywhere else? If you said "the Naval Academy," you would be correct. 

By the way, TigerBlog will give a shout-out to his longtime friend and colleague Stacie Michaud, with whom he has worked along with Loyola's Ryan Eigenbrode and Johns Hopkins' Ernie Larossa on the NCAA men's lacrosse statkeeping manual. 

They all got together this past summer for lunch. Judging them to be no threat, TB did in fact get a picture with the group. 

 

Stacie works with Navy football and Navy men's lacrosse, among many other teams, and she is now looking at a remarkable first: the Midshipmen will be playing football and men's lacrosse in the same month.

Yes. Navy defeated Cincinnati 35-13 Jan. 2 in the Liberty Bowl, and the men's lacrosse team plays its first regular season game on Jan. 31 against High Point. 

Crossover season is supposed to be fall/winter or winter/spring, not fall/spring. That's 29 days from the last football game and first men's lacrosse game. 

Again, it takes a lot of effort from a lot of people on a lot of campuses to keep all these teams able to compete. Most of those people do their work anonymously and only get noticed if something goes wrong, but there are so many hard workers out there who do this out of love.  

If Stacie is looking for something to do in her brief time in between, she can go see four different Princeton teams compete on her campus this weekend. The men's and women's swimming and diving teams will be there, along with the host Mids, Division III powerhouse Kenyon and Delaware, for a meet that will run tomorrow and Saturday. 

The men's and women's track and field teams will also be at Navy for a meet Saturday. 

The men's and women's squash teams will be at Virginia Saturday, while the wrestling team is at Franklin & Marshall tomorrow. 

There is also, as TB wrote earlier this week, home men's hockey (RPI and Union tomorrow and Saturday, both at 7) and away women's hockey (at Union tomorrow at 6 and at RPI Saturday at 3). There is also home men's basketball against Yale and away women's basketball at Yale, both Saturday at 2. 

This weekend is just the start of the mad rush that starts shortly. Between the end of this weekend and the end of January, there will be 96 Princeton athletic events. And then the spring teams start to play in February. 

By the time everyone exhales, it'll be summer again.  

That's what makes all this fun.