Twas The Day After Christmas

How was your Christmas? 

Did you get any good presents? TigerBlog did — an air fryer from his children. He's already used it, with great results. It will get a lot of use going forward. 

Hopefully everyone else was as excited when they opened their presents. 

Among the other highlights of TB's Christmas Day was the halftime show of the Lions-Vikings game. Snoop Dog, Lainey Wilson and Andrea Bocelli? Something for everyone.

Can you look much cooler than Bocelli did in a white suit with sun glasses in a domed stadium while he sang "White Christmas?" Maybe Steve McQueen on a motorcycle at the end of "The Great Escape." Maybe Telly Savalas in any episode of "Kojak." That's about it. 

By the way, unless you count some leftover snow in parking lots, it was not a white Christmas in Princeton. It figures to be a white "day after Christmas," with 3-5 inches forecast, with an unhelpful layer of ice on top of that.  

Back at the football game, Minnesota won 23-10 to knock Detroit out of playoff contention. It made TB think back to September, when he made these not-so-accurate preseason NFL predictions:  

AFC Championship Game: Buffalo over Cincinnati
NFC Championship Game: Detroit over Washington
Super Bowl: Buffalo over Detroit

He can still be right about the Super Bowl champ. The other three teams won't even be in the playoffs. In fairness, Cincinnati and Washington did loose their quarterbacks for most of the year, and they were the main reason why TB had them where he did. 

He also wrote this:  

If he's right, he'll remind you in February. If he's wrong, you'll have long since forgotten.  

And yet he's bringing it up again.  

Also, TB thought Drew Brees was pretty good as an announcer. TB didn't like the extended in-game interviews Netflix had with former greats. 

The first game yesterday was Dallas at Washington, two teams who were already mathematically out of the playoffs. The last game was Denver at Kansas City. That makes six teams who played yesterday, five of whom will not be in the playoffs. 

Chris Oladokun was the starting quarterback for Kansas City. Can you name the three colleges at which he had played? Hint - they all start with an "S." 

Meanwhile, back at Princeton Athletics, you're down to two more athletic events for the calendar year of 2025. 

The first of those two is Sunday, when the men's hockey team hosts Brown at 2 pm. Keep in mind that this game is not an official ECAC or Ivy game. Princeton last played on Dec. 6, has a 7-4 record to date and fell to Brown 2-1 in Providence on Nov. 7 and will play the Bears again on Hobey Baker ice on Feb. 7. 

The other will be Tuesday at 1, when the men's basketball team hosts Vermont. Princeton played a wild game earlier this year with Vermont in Florida that ended with a 79-74 win for the Catamounts. Princeton went from down 23 in the second half all the way back to take the lead before Vermont pulled it out.  

After those games, the next games will be in 2026, though that's not that far in the future. There will only be two days with no events until January's schedule kicks off with a women's/men's hockey doubleheader at home a week from today. 

As is now a TigerBlog tradition, he will be offering up some year in review stuff next week. What was the top story of this year? There are way too many to choose from, and TB would probably get any number of different answers if he asked 10 or 20 others their thoughts. 

It's been a year of incredible success for Princeton teams. It'll be a lot to go through it all — and that of course is a great problem to have. 

Also, since it's the end of 2025, TB is contemplating another review for next week, one that goes over the top moments in Princeton Athletics in the first quarter of this century. If you think there are a lot of contenders for 2025, how about for a quarter of a century? 

Stay tuned.  

Oh, and as for where Oladokun played in college? The answer is South Florida, Samford and South Dakota State.  

 

Twas The Night Before Christmas

TigerBlog was recently in Florida, which is an interesting place to be this time of year.

You know those inflatable snowmen and Santas? They look somewhat uncomfortable in the 75 degree sunshine.  

Also, walking on the beach with your feet in the ocean at this time of year? That's different.  

Anyway, back in the Northeast with the snow and the wintry feelings, things seem a bit more normal for this holiday. Twas the night before Christmas, right?

TigerBlog hopes that Princeton's athletes, coaches, staff and fans are doing their best Christmas traditions right about now, whether those are religious, cultural or whatever. Do you know which U.S. President signed the bill making Christmas a federal holiday? It was the same bill that also recognized The Fourth of July and Thanksgiving as federal holidays.

The answer is: Ulysses S. Grant in 1870. 

It was actually the morning before Christmas when TigerBlog went down the rabbit hole of trying to figure out who actually wrote that poem, officially entitled "A Visit From St. Nicholas." To this day, it appears, there are scholars and historians who are split on the subject, between a man named Clement Clarke Moore and another named Henry Livingston Jr. 

There is no dispute that the poem was first published on Dec. 23, 1823, in a newspaper called The Troy Sentinel. There is also no dispute that TB can recite the entire thing from memory, along with "The Cat In The Hat."

As he looked deeper and deeper into the theories about the two possible authors, TB was amazed to see that as recently as early this century there were two competing books published on the subject, one by a professor from Vassar and one by a professor from UMass. 

TB did learn that Henry Livingston Jr. was a major in the Continental Army and that Clement Clarke Moore's father Benjamin Moore 1) was the president of Columbia University from 1801-1811 and 2) had nothing to do with the paint business. Clement himself spent 44 years as a Columbia trustee.  

As tomorrow is Christmas, TigerBlog would like to share with you a Santa Claus joke: 

"Did you hear that Santa Claus did the DNA ancestry testing? Turns out he's 1.5 percent Polish and 98.5 percent North-Polish."

Not bad, right?  

In the meantime, here is what TB offered up last year on Christmas Eve: 

TigerBlog has a large collection of Christmas songs on his iTunes.

He's always been a big fan of Christmas music. He was a trumpet player in high school, and he loved when the concert band, or the jazz band, played holiday music. He was in fact part of a great jazzy version of "Winter Wonderland" that he still whistles every now and then. 

What's his favorite Christmas song? 

It's probably not a shock to anyone who has read this for awhile to learn that it's "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town," the Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band version, of course. That's a big sticking point with TB.

It's the song, but it's also the artist. He's not interested in hearing anyone sing "Silver Bells" except for Dean Martin. The same goes for "Silent Night" and Emmylou Harris. 

If not his old high school jazz band, then it has to be Darlene Love's version of "Winter Wonderland."

"The Christmas Song?" If it's not Nat King Cole's voice that starts out with "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire," it's likely TB won't even make it to "Jack Frost nipping at your nose." 

And does he even have to mention "White Christmas" and Bing?

He has his favorites. 

Having said all that, he does have to give honorable mention to the Beach Boys jazzed up version of "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town."

Oh, and you know what he cannot stand, not even a little bit? TV commercials that substitute its own lyrics for classic Christmas songs. TB would rather listen to fingernails on blackboards.

What else? 

The surest way to get TigerBlog to tear up is invite him over, click HERE and fast-forward to the 7:00 mark.

Never fails.

If you don't want to go through all that, then the link takes you to the last scene of the Christmas classic "It's A Wonderful Life."

The line that always, 100 percent of the time, brings a tear to TB's eyes is Harry Bailey's toast to his brother. TB could watch it in early July on a day far removed from Christmas and still it'll have the same effect.

Want to see some more of TB's favorite Christmas clips? Then watch one of these:

* the end scene from "A Christmas Story"

* bonus scene from the same movie

* Charlie Brown makes a bold purchase

* the Grinch's heart grows

* now this is a duet

* and this is a ballet

* this one is the greatest ever version of any Christmas song ever performed 

* this one is second

* this is really cute

* and you can't watch the last one without this one

* this is long, but cute

* oh, and here's one more. Is this a Christmas song, or a show tune? It's both.

* you can thank Princeton's own Jeff Ingold for this one.

* and this one too 

* and this one is 4:38 well spent. 

* a new one for this year 

Merry Christmas Tigers. Hopefully it's safe and happy. 

And he'll leave you today with this, which, unfortunately, is not available on iTunes, at least not by these guys. And this one especially has to be these guys: 

Education From WBB And The Emmy Winner Strikes Again

Well, apparently TigerBlog isn't the only one who was amazed by the women's basketball team's comeback win Saturday at George Mason. 

At least judging by the number of responses he got,. There were quite a few people who reached out with a graphic of the win percentages for the two teams with less than 30 seconds left. 

It was, if TB read it right, 99.9 percent for Mason and 0.1 percent for Princeton. And why not? How many times does a team come back from seven down in 23 seconds? 

Which was the more impressive comeback win, the women's basketball team from down seven with 23 seconds left or the epic 1999 men's basketball comeback from 27 down at Penn with 15 minutes to go? Maybe the same people who emailed TB can answer that question.

*

The women didn't need nearly as much drama in yesterday's 87-77 win over Temple in front a huge Jadwin crowd on Education Day. 

Given the theme of the game, Princeton provided a great math lesson for the kids. If you shoot 50 percent from the field and take 60 shots, you're going to probably win that game. 

And that's exactly how it went for the Tigers. 

Princeton was a monstrous 30 for 60 from the field and another 18 for 20 at the foul line. Once again, the team that has five players who average at least 11 points per game used balance, including a career-high 15 from Toby Nweke, who isn't even one of the ones averaging at least 11. 

Nweke, as you recall, did make a huge play in the comeback Saturday, with an offensive rebound, put back with an and-one mixed in to tie it with seven seconds left in regulation. 

Madison St. Rose led the Tigers with 22, and Skye Belker had 19. 

Next up for Princeton? The Ivy opener at Penn on Jan. 3. Princeton will bring a 12-1 record into that one.  

*

What's next for today? How about golf? 

TigerBlog's colleague Drew Miller released his 25 minute documentary on the recent trip that the men's and women's golf teams made to the historic St. Andrews course in Scotland. It's definitely worth the investment of your time. 

 

Miller was working on the piece while he traveled with the field hockey team, first to the Ivy League tournament and then to the NCAA Final Four. What you can't see from watching the video is the meticulous way that Miller pieced together what had to be hours and hours of footage that he had taken on the trip.

Perhaps that would make a good documentary. 

Miller, you might remember, won a Mid-Atlantic Emmy Award in the "Editor-Content" category for his featured look at Olympic gold medalist Maia Weintraub from Princeton's "Beyond The Stripes" series. That award, by the way, completed a trifecta: Drew won his Emmy, TigerBlog's feature on Weintraub was the national athlete feature story of the year in the College Sports Communicators Fred Stabley Writing Contest and Weintraub won ... what was it she won? 

Oh yeah, an Olympic gold medal. 

* 

Miller's golf documentary is probably the longest piece Princeton Athletics has produced since John Bullis did his movie on Chuck Dibilio, the Princeton running back who went over 1,000 rushing yards as a freshman and never played again after suffering a stroke. 

This one is 35 minutes and again, if you've never seen it, you definitely should watch. 

 

*

Speaking of Emmy Awards, TigerBlog's cousin Jill showed him her own Emmy, which she won as a producer at Dateline. When TB picked it up he almost dropped it, which led him to say "Noooo. That would have been terrible."

And what did Jill respond? 

"It's okay. I have three others."

*

 

How'd They Do That?

Okay. Okay.

TigerBlog will admit it. He turned off the Princeton women's basketball game at George Mason Saturday afternoon. Twice, actually. 

The first time was in the final minute of regulation, when he was convinced the game was over and Princeton had lost. The second time was in overtime, when he had the same thought. 

Happily, he was wrong both times. Final score: Princeton 71, George Mason 69.

What the heck? How in the world did Princeton do it? 

The Tigers trailed by seven with 25 seconds left in regulation. Can you blame TB for thinking that might be too much? 

At that point, TB switched over to the Miami-Texas A&M football playoff game, which was late in the fourth quarter. Then he got a text saying "do you believe this game?" He took that to mean the football game, a close, if not exactly well played, game. 

Ah, but no. It was the women's basketball game. Princeton had tied it, forcing overtime.

How? Down 63-56 when TB turned it off, George Mason was called for a flagrant foul, and Skye Belker made 1 of 2. Princeton, keeping the ball, got it to Madison St. Rose, who was fouled and made three foul shots. 

Just like that, it was 63-60, but only 17 seconds were left. Princeton then forced a held ball and got possession, with a chance to tie it. Enter Toby Nweke, who rebounded a missed three, scored and was fouled. Her tying free throw was with eight seconds to go. 

That made it a 7-0 Princeton run in 15 seconds. 

When George Mason didn't score on the final possession, off to OT the game went. 

Meanwhile, over at the football game, Miami was driving in a 3-3 game late in the fourth quarter. TB decided to check to see what the final score of the women's basketball game was. Instead, he saw it was going to OT. 

Okay, back to that game. And now George Mason pulled ahead 68-63 by making five of six foul shots. St. Rose missed a three with 2:23 to go, with the rebound to the Patriots — and then it was back to the football game. 

By then, Miami had scored to go up 10-3, and now A&M was coming back. In fact, the Aggies made it all the way to the 5 yard line or so in the final seconds before an interception ended it. 

Oh well. It was entertaining. 

And then, again, TB checked on the women's game. It had to be over, right? 

Nope. Princeton was up 69-68 with 10 seconds left. How? First it was baskets from Belker and Ashley Chea to make it a one-point game, and then it was Nweke again, to put Princeton ahead. 

Now GMU inbounded and got fouled but only made one of two. Tie game, 69-69. Eight seconds to go. 

Would there be a second overtime? 

Uh, no. Not when Chea is on the court. Once again she buried a clutch game-winner, this time with 3.1 seconds to go. George Mason couldn't get a good look after that, and the Tigers had an incredible win.  

TIGERS WIN!!!!!! @ashleyycheaa | #GetStops 🐯🏀 pic.twitter.com/PHt82oMwuH

— Princeton WBB (@PrincetonWBB) December 20, 2025

Once again the Princeton attack was balanced, with four players in double figures, led by St. Rose with 19 and Olivia Hutcherson with 17 points and seven rebounds. Fadima Tall wasn't one of those in double figures in scoring, but she did have 10 rebounds. Again, everything Princeton does is as a team. 

The game was Princeton's first since moving into the Top 25 of the national rankings. It was also the team's first in 10 days after first semester exams. 

There won't be as much rest before the next game, which comes up this morning at 11:30 at Jadwin Gym against Temple as part of Education Day. The Owls are 6-5 (with an opening day win over George Mason) and are the defending American Conference regular season champ.

The Princeton men, by the way, are at Temple tonight at 7 against those Owls, who are 7-5. 

Have the men and women ever played the same opponent at opposing sites before? Just kidding. Just kidding.  

Unprecedented Ivy

Remember back in elementary school when you had the dreaded "Show and Tell?"

What was supposed to be an exercise in public speaking and creativity instead was a general nightmare. The bus was going to be there in five minutes, and that's when you remembered: "Oh, no, Show and Tell today."

As such, you'd grab the first thing you could find and try to fake your way through some sort of meaningful presentation that would make it seem like you gave this a lot of thought. Then you'd have to sit through everyone else's attempt to do the same. 

TigerBlog's memories of Show and Tell are all nightmarish. 

All these decades later, it apparently still exists. Now, though, it appears that a letter has been added, as in it's "Show and Tell Letter Day." 

Now you can't just grab something and run after the bus. Now you have to grab something that matches up with that week's chosen letter. 

At least that's how it works at the preschool where little Anja Schermick goes. Her mother Rachel works in the communications office at the Ivy League, and she sent TB an update on Anja's Show and Tell when the letter of the week was "I."

He'll get to that in a moment. Rachel also sent TB a picture of a dry erase board that listed what the kids brought in that day. 

There were 13 children in the class, and there were four who brought in ice cream. Okay. Did it melt? The same holds true for the kids who brought in "ice" and "ice pack." Ice pack? Yeah. That's really grabbing something at the last second. 

There were three "insects." There were two instruments. There was also one "Ishika," which TB supposes was an Indian doll (Ishika is a feminine given name of Indian origin. It may refer to various people and fictional characters, such as a badminton player, a beauty pageant contestant, or a love interest in a film). 

And that left Anja. Rachel's husband Casey is a golf pro. Did Anja bring in an iron? Nope.

Here's what she brought:

Ivy. Now that's perfect. 

This week's letter is "U," which to TB suggests that the order of the alphabet has changed a bit since he was in school. Either that, or they're going out of order. 

If Anja wanted to combine last week and this week, she could have brought in the four Princeton men's soccer players who went in the MLS Super Draft. No Ivy team has ever had that many drafted before. 

What does that make it? 

Unprecedented Ivy. 

Happy @MLS SuperDraft Day, Tigs! 🐅

Congratulations to our record 4️⃣ draftees!#PrincetonSoccer #WhosNext #PrincetonPros pic.twitter.com/RVZbsC3E2n

— Princeton Men’s Soccer (@PrincetonMSoc) December 18, 2025

And that list of four doesn't count Ivy Offensive Player of the Year Daniel Ittycheria, who signed with the Vancouver Whitecaps this week as well. 

His four teammates who were drafted were Jack Jasinksi by the San Jose Earthquakes, Giuliano Fravolini Whitchurch by the Los Angeles Football Club, Bardia Hormozi by the Minnesota United FC and Andrew Samuels by the St. Louis CITY FC. 

Samuels and Hormozi are juniors, so they could opt to return to Princeton next year as seniors. 

The season did not end the way Princeton would have hoped, but it was still obviously a great year for the Tigers, who spent much of it ranked No. 1 nationally in RPI and who ended up with the No. 3 seed in the NCAA tournament. Along the way Princeton ran the table in the Ivy League, and by "ran the table," TB means went 7-0-0 and did not allow a single goal to be scored. 

The Tigers followed that with a second straight Ivy League tournament championship. Beyond all of that, this team was just a lot of fun to watch play. They were clearly a team built on chemistry and talent who loved to play together, something that was evident after watching 10 minutes of any game. 

The fact that there were four MLS draftees plus Ittycheria speak to just how strong the talent on this team was. Getting four selections in one Super Draft? 

Yup. 

Unprecedented Ivy.  

Procrastinating

 

So TigerBlog is currently procrastinating right now. 

He's great at it. Procrastination is one of his best things. 

He ostensibly is trying to figure out what to write about here for today. Instead, though, he's been watching some YouTube videos of his favorite comedians. 

For instance, he watched Richard Pryor talk about being in Arizona to film the movie "Stir Crazy" with Gene Wilder. Then it was George Carlin, who went on about things that annoy him. The list was extensive.

He heard Rodney Dangerfield offer this: "I come from a dumb family. In the Civil War, my great-grandfather fought for the West." He also mentioned how he gets no respect and as proof said "in my aunt's will, I owed her $20."

Then he went and got a cookie. Still he'd written zero words for today. Still nothing, so he got another cookie. 

Then it was Brian Regan, the one where he talks about going to the ER, having to mail something through UPS and his eye doctor appointment, among other things. Never saw him? HERE you go.  

Should he get another cookie? Figure out what to write? Nah. He folded the laundry instead.  

Okay. He's back. 

Wait. He might as well listen to Nicole Scherzinger's rendition of "Phantom of the Opera," along with four different Phantoms. Wow, she is good. And then after that, before he could think about a subject for today, the Corr's version of "Ruby Tuesday" came up. Have to listen to that, right? 

He was going to tell the story about the time he went to a restaurant with a few people on "Wing Day." The menu said you could order wings with various different sauces and sides and all, and it was $1.09 per wing. TB has no idea where they came up with $1.09.

Anyway, one of the guys he was with ordered 10. The other guy ordered seven. For some reason, that made TB laugh. And he ate all seven and said he was full. The 10 guy only ate nine. 

It was funny, but you had to be there to fully appreciate it. He decided not to tell the story, sort of. 

And just like that, it was two hours later. And he was still looking at a blank screen. 

Okay. What should he write about? 

In situations like this, he'll sometimes go back in time to see what he wrote five years ago or 10 years ago. He decided this time to look back to this date in 2015. 

Interestingly, he wrote about how it was in the 50s and 60s in Princeton and about to be 70 for Christmas. And he wrote about the women's basketball team's game at Ohio State that night. 

As it turned out, Ohio State was ranked No. 3 in the country at the time. Princeton was on its way to getting the Ivy League's first at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, after going 12-2 in the league and finishing second to a Penn team that beat Princeton twice by two points before there was an Ivy tournament. 

When Princeton played at Ohio State, the Buckeyes were ranked third in the country and played like it: The final was OSU 90, Princeton 70. 

There were three players in the game who had at least 20 points. Princeton's Michelle Miller had 21 to lead the Tigers, who had two others in double figures with 14 each: Alex Wheatley and Annie Tarakchian (who also had a game-high nine rebounds). 

Those three and the rest of the Tigers were a year removed from their 31-1 season and the program's first NCAA tournament win. If you're a Princeton fan, those three have to among your favorite Tigers. They were so much fun to watch and such great players. 

As for the other two players in the game who had more than 20 points, that would be two from Ohio State. Ameryst Alston had 27 to lead everyone; she'd go on to play for the New York Liberty in the WNBA and still plays in Europe. 

The other was Kelsey Mitchell, who had 25 points on 10 for 15 shooting, including 4 for 6 from three-point range. That's the same Kelsey Mitchell who currently is on the Indiana Fever and who has scored nearly 5,000 points in her WNBA career, including a career-best 20.2 this past season.

Hey, you never know what you're going to find when you look back in the archives, right? 

Anyway, it might be time for another cookie.  

Two? Really?

Beth Yeager made history yesterday. 

The Princeton senior became the first Ivy League field hockey player to be a four-time first-team NFHCA All-American when the team was announced. Yeager also became the eighth player all-time to be a four-time first-team All-American, and there is an asterisk with two of the other seven.

And what is that asterisk? Two of those players — Yeager's 2024 USA Olympic teammates Phia Gladieux of Penn State and Maddie Zimmer of Northwestern — were second-team All-Americans and then first-team each of the next four years, with their extra Covid season. Asterisk, yes, but still wildly impressive. 

Current North Carolina head coach Erin Matson, by the way, was a five-time first-team All-American. That's beyond wildly impressive. 

Yeager was a first-team selection four times in four seasons. Her resume also includes an unprecedented four Ivy League Offensive Player of the Year awards, two Regional Player of the Year Awards and, this year, the Most Outstanding Player award at the Ivy tournament and NCAA Final Four all-tournament team. 

The 2025 season saw Princeton go 18-4, win 14 straight games at one point, win the Ivy tournament and win three NCAA tournament games before falling to Northwestern in the championship game 2-1 in two overtimes. 

What a career Yeager had at Princeton. History making, as TB said. 

Princeton, unfortunately, made a different kind of history when the All-American teams were announced yesterday. 

The other Final Four teams were North Carolina, which lost 4-3 in overtime to Northwestern, and Harvard, who lost 2-0 to Princeton. Harvard, by the way, went 19-2 this season, with its two losses to the Tigers, first in the Ivy final and then in the NCAA semifinals. 

Those three Final Four teams combined for 14 All-Americans, five of whom were first-team. Northwestern and Harvard had five total each, while UNC had four. 

Princeton? Two. 

There were 48 Division I All-Americans between first-, second- and third-team. Princeton had two.  

What? Two? 

The other, by the way, was Ella Cashman, who was named second-team All-American. The junior is a great player, a defensive midfielder who scores on one end of the field (three goals, three assists) and stops the opponent on the other as one of the best defensive penalty corner players in the country. 

So what history did Princeton make? Not the kind you want. 

It's been more than 20 years since the national runner-up had fewer than three All-Americans. It was Duke, back in 2004. 

From then until this year, every NCAA runner-up had at least three. Northwestern, the runner-up two years ago, had six in 2023. 

It makes sense that the runner-up would be rewarded on the All-American teams. After all, your team just went on a big run — you can't run much further. 

You don't get there without talent. Great talent. 

That was the case with this Princeton team.  

Goalie Olivia Caponiti was fourth in Division I in goals-against average and was the best player on the field in the NCAA final. She was a first-team All-Region selection. Nothing for her? 

Pru Lindsey went on a massive scoring streak during that 14-game winning streak that went to the NCAA final, finishing with seven goals and 11 assists, all in the final 14 games of the year. Nothing for her? 

Clem Houlden, who had a great season defensively on a team that allowed its opponents only 7.4 shots per game, was a first-team All-Region and first-team All-Ivy pick. Nothing for her? 

If you told TigerBlog he could add one more Princeton player to the All-American team, he would have said "Ottilie Sykes, first team." Sykes is the middle of that defense, next to Houlden, in front of Caponiti. Having her on defense was like having a giant wall at the top of the circle. 

Nothing for her? 

Don't take this as a slight at all to any of the 48 players who were chosen. TB isn't going to bother suggesting who shouldn't have made it in place of the Princeton players.

He is going to say this, though: If Princeton made it as far as it did with only two All-Americans, then two things are true. 

One, Yeager should be the National Player of the Year when that award is announced later this week. And two, Princeton's coaching staff should be the national winner when that award is announced after the New Year. 

Oh, and one more thing: None of these Tigers would trade the run to the national final for any individual award.  

But still. Two? Really?  

Go To The Hoop

TigerBlog had his first experience with something the other day that he would never imagined would be possible back when he was just a Little Blog. 

What was it? A self-driving car. 

Have you been in one? They're freaky at first. Maybe they're always freaky. 

The car belongs to TB's college friend Charlie. TB didn't realize when he got into the car that it was self-driving. In fact, the first thing he noticed was the steering wheel, which was only actually half of a steering wheel. 

Charlie said that when he got the car, the dealer sold him on the half-steering wheel by saying this: "It's like an Indy car or Formula 1 car. Do you have guy friends? They'll all say the same thing when they get in. They'll say 'wow, that's cool.'"

This, of course, happened after TB sat down and said "wow, that's cool." 

The 15-minute car ride was strange, to say the least. Would the car go over the speed limit? Yes, if you set it to. Would the car switch lanes? Yes. Would the car swerve to avoid potholes? Yes as well. 

What the heck? 

The craziest part was getting back into the car. This time, Charlie went onto an app on his phone, and the car started and drove over to where they were standing. With nobody in it. Freaky. 

And then there's TB's car. At least it has seat warmers.  

Speaking of where TB and Charlie went to college, TB was reading a story about an AI version of George Washington, and it included this line: 

He looked like George Washington if the first president wore Bombas socks and went to Penn.

TigerBlog loves his Bombas socks, and he went to Penn. And he looks nothing like ol' George. 

By the way, several Princeton field hockey players asked TB what they should get for the holidays for their fathers, and without hesitation, TB said "Bombas socks." That falls under the part of his job description where it says "other duties as assigned."

Holiday shopping is on the back-burner this week for Princeton students, who are currently in first semester exams. As such, this is the midway point of a long stretch of no athletic events. 

The most recent Tigers to play were those on the women's basketball team, who took down Rutgers 81-63 last week at Jadwin Gym. Fadima Tall earned her second Ivy League Player of the Week award for her performance in that game, and, well, of course she did. 

All Tall did in that game was have a career-high 28 points with five steals (tying her career best), four rebounds and three assists. She shot 7 for 14 from the field and 10 for 11 from the foul line. 

Princeton's 81 points in that game marked the fifth time in 11 games this season that the Tigers have put up at least 80. That is a relatively easy math problem: 80 or more points once every 2.2 games. 

From the time Carla Berube became the Tiger head coach prior to the 2019-20 season until the start of this season, Princeton had played 146 games and reached at least 80 points on 11 different occasions. That would be once every 13.3 games. 

Princeton is averaging 75.4 points per game, which leads the Ivy League and ranks 66th in Division I. Only once prior to this has a Berube-coached Princeton team averaged as many as 70 per game, and that was her first team, which put up 71.2 per night. A year ago, Princeton averaged 66 points per game and ranked 142nd. 

Keep in mind that last year's team got an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.  

Princeton is also leading the Ivy League in some other important offensive categories, including assists per game, field goal percentage and three-point percentage. That's a lot of offensive efficiency.  

This is all a testament to the coaches, for understanding the team's offensive ability and depth, and the players, who move the ball wonderfully and can hit shots from basically anywhere. Princeton has three of the top seven scorers in the Ivy League — Madison St. Rose is second at 16.5, Tall is fourth at 16.1 and Skye Belker is seventh at 13.4. 

Want to keep going? Princeton also has Ashley Chea at 13th with 11.4 and Olivia Hutcherson 14th at 11.0. That is five players who average at least 11 points per game, and that's just incredible. 

Princeton comes off of exams Saturday at George Mason. Tip off is at 1.  

Princeton's Heisman Winner

 

TigerBlog's favorite non-Princeton college football game of every year is the Army-Navy game. 

The one this past weekend didn't disappoint at all. Navy came back to win it 17-16 on a game that could have easily gone the other way if a handful of bounces had bounced differently. 

Navy also scored the game-winning touchdown on a fourth-and-goal from the 8 with  6:42 left and Army ahead 16-10. Would you have taken the sure three points? TB is a big believer in being bold, and that was definitely the time for it. 

The play before that TD saw Navy fumble, Army recover, Navy strip the ball and Navy recover. It wasn't exactly the same play the Eagles had last Monday night against the Chargers, with an interception followed by a fumble followed by another fumble, for three turnovers on one play. 

As TB watched that, by the way, all he could think of was how glad he was that he didn't have to be the scorer for the night. Sorting all that out was going to be a problem. 

The first time Princeton ever used computer stats was in the mid-1990s in Palmer Stadium. At one point in the game, there was a pass completed to the one yard line, a fumble that was picked up by the defense and then another fumble that rolled into the end zone, where a Princeton offensive lineman fell on it for a TD. 

The entire stat crew — of which one, Doug Gildenberg, still works football and basketball games to this day — sort of looked at each other and laughed. 

The other biggest news of the college football weekend was the Heisman Trophy announcement, which unsurprisingly went to Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza. With that win, Indiana is now tied with Princeton for Heisman winners, with one each. 

Princeton's winner was Dick Kazmaier, back in the 1951 season, the team's second straight perfect season. Kazmaier, who passed away in 2013 at the age of 82, was one of the great gentlemen TB has ever met. 

As the years go by, fewer and fewer people know who he was and what he accomplished, at Princeton and beyond. 

He came to Princeton from Maumee, Ohio, in 1948 after being a five-sport star in his hometown. He started out at Princeton as the fifth-string back on the freshman team, an undersized 155-pounder who didn't figure to be able to stand up to the pounding of head coach Charlie Caldwell's single-wing offense.

Instead, he thrived in it as a duel passing/running threat. As a sophomore he led the team in rushing as the Tigers went 6-3 while winning their final four games.

Princeton then went 9-0 and finished ranked sixth nationally in 1950. With only Kazmaier back on offense in 1951, Princeton nevertheless went 9-0 and ended up sixth again in 1951.

Among the highlights of his senior year was his 15 for 17 passing performance against Cornell in a 53-15 win. When the season was over, he was the overwhelming winner for the Heisman Trophy, with 506 first-place votes and 1,777 points, easily outdistancing runner-up Hank Lauricella of Tennessee, who had 45 first-place votes and 424 points.

The rest of the top 10 that year included future Pro Football Hall of Fame members Ollie Matson of San Francisco and Hugh McElhenny of Washington, who would share the NFL Rookie of the Year Award in 1952.

Kazmaier famously passed on an opportunity to play in the NFL, choosing instead to go to Harvard Business School before spending three years in the Navy and embarking on a long, successful career in business and philanthropy.

He was also one of the two athletes whose No. 42 jersey was retired, across all Princeton teams, along with Bill Bradley. That picture is from the retirement ceremony, with the author John McPhee (Kazmaier's roommate at Princeton), Bradley and Kazmaier. 

The young guy is Greg Seaman, a men's lacrosse player in the Class of 2009 who is the last Princeton athlete ever to wear the No. 42. 

There aren't too many people around Jadwin Gym who can still vouch for what a great person Kazmaier was. TigerBlog is one of them. 

In fact, TB also would guess that the hundreds of people who walk by the two statues in front of Jadwin don't realize that one of them is Kazmaier, immortalized the way he should be, in a way that would have embarrassed him. 

Next time you walk past, give him a nod and a high-five. Or get your picture taken with him. 

There haven't been too many greater Princetonians than Dick Kazmaier.  

Who's That Girl?

Welcome to the only weekend between August and June that has no Princeton Athletic events. 

In fact, today is actually Day 2 of a nine-day stretch without a single event. This is due, obviously, to first semester exams. 

There is no longer a single Princeton student who can relate to having to take first semester exams, something that was the standard for every Princeton student going back decades and decades. In fact, TigerBlog isn't sure when that academic calendar began, but it certainly was a long time ago. 

A quick search of the Daily Princetonian archives showed that there were columns and editorials that called for a change to the schedule going back into the 1970s. There was also a small news item that mentioned that first semester exams for the 1948-49 academic year would run through Jan. 29. 

The change actually did happen for the 2020-21 academic year, which means that if you were in the Class of 2022 — like, say, TigerBlog's daughter — you had two years of exams before the holidays and two years after. 

The Class of 2024 was the first to have four years of exams after the New Year. With students who would have taken a year off from school, you probably had some in the Class of 2025 who had one year of pre-holiday exams. 

Now? There can't be many, if any. 

If you recall the athletic calendar, January exams would always mean a two-week break from games, followed by an onslaught of winter sports in a very short time between the end of January and the beginning of March. 

In fact, those two weeks used to be when TB would focus on getting the men's lacrosse media guide done, back when media guides were produced. That's when he was the football, men's basketball and men's lacrosse contact.

So with no games this weekend, what should today's topic be? How about this photo: 

Well that's sweet. A little girl delivered the gameball prior to the start of a women's basketball matchup between Princeton and Columbia.

The year was 2009, TB is pretty sure. That was Courtney Banghart's second year as head coach, when she led the Tigers to a 14-14 record after a 7-23 start a year earlier. The next year? How about 26-3 — and the program has never looked back. 

There are three Princeton players in the picture, and all three were cornerstones of the foundation of the dynasty that is Princeton women's basketball. No. 23 is Addie Micir, who would be the Ivy League Player of the Year in 2011. That's Lauren Edwards nearest to the little girl. And that's Devona Allgood about to jump center. 

Between the three of them, they combined to score 3,684 points, with all three over the 1,000 point mark. They also combined for five first-team All-Ivy League selections, with at least one for all three. 

The date of the game, by the way, would have been Feb. 7, 2009. Princeton won 69-59, and the three in the photo combined for 32 of those 69 points. 

And that's that, right? So have a nice weekend and ... 

... what? There's more to that photo? 

Ah yes, there is. The little girl. That's right. 

That little girl is the daughter of one of the greatest players in Columbia women's basketball history, Helen Doyle. In fact, when she graduated in 1985 she was the Lions' all-time leading scorer, and she is still among the program leaders in career rebounds. 

Doyle went on to a very successful business career. She also got married to a man named Scott Yeager. Their daughter, the one pictured, is all grown now. 

Her name is Beth Yeager. 

Yes, that's the same Beth Yeager who recently led Princeton to the NCAA field hockey championship game, where the Tigers fell 2-1 in double OT to Northwestern. Yeager was named the NFHCA Mid-Atlantic Region Player of the Year yesterday, making her the first Princeton player ever to win that award twice in her career. 

The All-American teams will be announced this coming Tuesday. Should she be named first-team, she would become the first four-time first-team All-American in field hockey in Ivy League history. 

And there she was, rooting for Columbia all those years ago. Nah. She probably knew what the future was. She was probably rooting for the Tigers. 

Now that's a picture.