Summer Friday

Welcome to the first full weekend of summer. 

What is on your dance card? Whatever it is, keep this in mind: there are eight weeks to go until the first Princeton Athletic event of the 2026-27 academic year. And, as he does every Friday in the summer, TigerBlog will remind you of the countdown as the new year approaches. 

In the meantime, have a great weekend — but only after you read up on this:

*

Well, Princeton University is no longer the same. Karen Malec doesn't work here anymore. 

That's a tough sentence to write. There hasn't been a day, until today, where TB has worked at Princeton and Karen hasn't. 

As TB has written before, Karen announced her retirement back in March after 34 years at Princeton. Nobody has ever served the department with greater devotion and professionalism. Maybe others have been up there with her, but nobody has ever outdone her. As such, she clearly has earned her retirement and whatever she wants to do with it. 

It's just that it won't be the same without her. TB ran into her outside Jadwin on the 20,000 step walk the other day. He knows they'll stay in touch. It's just that, again, it won't be the same.  

*

Speaking of 20,000-plus steps in a day, TigerBlog got this text from his colleague and friend Warren Croxton: 

"176 straight days of 20,000 steps."

Impressive Warren. It does make TB wonder how many steps Warren had 177 days ago. 

Also, it got TB to thinking. You could take 20,000 steps in the NBA and still not get called for traveling.  

*

Cleveland State. 

That was the school TigerBlog couldn't remember the other day. Fortunately, his longtime friend Bruce Wood of the Big Green Alert emailed him the other day with the quote he couldn't remember. 

It came after TB wrote about Jerry Tarkanian and his issues with the NCAA. Tark had a wildly famous quote about the organization he hated. It went like this: 

"The NCAA is so mad at Kentucky they're going to give Cleveland State another year of probation." 

TB knew it was something like that. Thanks for the heads up Bruce. 

*

The group stage of the World Cup is winding down, with the 32-team knockout round to come. This is the first time that there have been 48 teams in the draw and then 32 in the knockout round. 

Canada is one of the 32 teams who will continue to play beyond the group stage. Reaching the knockout round is a first for Canada, which had never won a World Cup game prior to this year.

The team is coached, of course, by Princeton alum Jesse Marsch. In a nice little World Cup fact, Marsch is now the second former Princeton men's soccer player to coach a team into the knockout round, along with Bob Bradley, who had been Marsch's coach at Princeton.  

*

TigerBlog went to see "South Pacific" yesterday at the Bucks County Playhouse. The musical, which by the way was written by Rogers and Hammerstein in nearby Doylestown, has always been one of TB's favorites. 

He's mentioned this before, but musical theater is one of his favorite things, especially classics like "South Pacific." He doesn't like to see plays. He wants to walk out of the theater humming and singing, like he did yesterday. 

His seat was on the aisle, seat X101 to be exact. As it turns out, his seat was the aisle, middle and other aisle, since there was no other seat in the row. In fact, his seat was next to the lighting and sound board in the back of the theater. 

This was great for the first act and second act. It wasn't quite as peaceful at intermission, since it was directly in the path of those who needed to use the ladies room. That line snaked past TB's seat, and his determination to stick it out in his seat quickly ebbed when he got whacked by an older woman's walker. That's when he decided it would be best to stand off to the side til the curtain came back up. 

If you don't know much about the show, it's set in, well, you can guess that part, during World War II. One of the main characters is named Lt. Joe Cable, who is of all things a Princeton alum, at least a fictional one. He's also described as "athletic," though it never says what sport he played. 

After the show, TigerBlog ran into Lt. Nellie Forbush, or at least the actress who played her (Alexandra Socha). She had previously played Glinda in "Wicked" on Broadway; that's another of TB's all-time favorites. 

TB asked her if she knew Sam Gravitte, the former Princeton men's lacrosse player who had also been in "Wicked" on Broadway. She said that yes, she knew him, but no, they hadn't been in the show together. 

Sam is in a new show in New York City at the Laura Pels Theater on West 46th Street. This show is called "A Walk On The Moon," a musical based on the 1999 movie that is set in the summer of 1969. TB hasn't seen it yet, but he'd like to. He did see Sam as Fiyero (the male lead) in "Wicked" though, and he was spectacular. 

If you're interested in Sam's new show, you can get more information HERE.

See? Not all Princeton lacrosse alums in New York City work on Wall Street. At least one works on Broadway.  

The 20,000 Steps

Okay, John Nolan, you'll appreciate this story. 

Who is John Nolan? He's a broadcaster in Indiana whom TigerBlog tried to hire at Princeton when Nolan graduated from Syracuse. He's done a lot of college basketball and, for the last two seasons, has been the play-by-play man for the Indiana Fever. 

It was Nolan who once mentioned to TigerBlog about America's obsession with round numbers. TB couldn't help but think of that yesterday afternoon. 

If you had been in TB's neighborhood, you might have noticed that he was walking up and down his driveway. Why was that? Well, it's because he had 19,200 steps for the day — and he had to get that over 20,000, no? 

And so he did. See for yourself:

That was for you, John Nolan. 

Anyway, how did TB get that many steps in? It started with a nice morning walk and then continued with a massive tour of the Princeton campus, a tour that started on Nassau Street, made its way through the Art Museum and Prospect Gardens all the way to Jadwin Gym and ultimately the racket center on the other side of the lake. After all that, it was back to Nassau Street. 

And, of course, ultimately up and down his driveway. 

If you walk around the campus during the school year, it's obviously awash with people and energy. Every where you go, you'll see any and all segments of Princeton life. It's nearly impossible for TB to do so and not run into at least one person he knows. 

In the summer it is wildly different. There is hardly anyone around, and many of those who are fall into the category of visitors, either campers or those attending conferences or those who've come to do a tour and the like. 

That's not to say that nobody was around. TB saw field hockey backup goalie Kylie Elefante, a rising sophomore who was a member of the team that reached the second overtime of the NCAA championship game last fall. 

Oh, and TB should mention that BrotherBlog is in town from Seattle, and he and Princeton superfan Pattie Friend joined TB on the long walk around the campus. BB works on a college campus as well, the University of Washington, where he is a law school professor. TB at one time considered going to law school, though he's sort of glad he never did at this point. 

The other thing to mention is that Pattie Friend is an extraordinary Princeton campus unofficial tour guide. Also, when you walk around with Pattie Friend, she will inevitably find someone she knows.

In the case of yesterday's walk, that came in the form of someone who was walking into Jadwin. TB had no idea who it was; the only thing he knew was that she wasn't wearing shoes and her socks were dirty. 

So who was it? How about Alexandra Kelly, the All-American jumper who just finished her Princeton track and field career. Kelly was also a von Kienbusch Award finalist this past spring. Mrs. Friend knows Kelly from her job checking students into Cannon Club for dinner on Sunday nights. 

This time, she and Kelly gave each other a nice hug, with big smiles. TB asked them to pose for a photo, which they happily did. 

For TigerBlog, it was nice to see someone he'd never actually met but about whose many achievements at Princeton he'd written. He didn't introduce himself though. He just watched Kelly and Mrs. Friend talk about what's next after graduation, how each other was doing and just enjoying each other's company as old friends do. 

In that moment, TB was reminded of something that he's known for a long time. Those in the athletic department talk about doing what they do to help the athletes have the best possible experience. That's certainly been a driving factor for TB all these years, and he's pretty sure he's been successful. 

But it's not something unique to him or his colleagues. The Princeton athletes come from all over (in the case of Kelly from Long Island) to spend their four years on the campus where TB, BB and Pattie walked yesterday. And they are touched by any number of people while they're here. 

Pattie Friend is one of them. She's one of those who makes Princeton better for the Alexandra Kellys who come into her orbit. 

It was a great day for 20,000 steps. And for that reminder. 

For a quiet early summer day at Princeton, there wasn't much more you could have asked to see than that.  

Shark Tales

If you're in TigerBlog's age range, then everything about the above screenshot makes you laugh. 

If you're too young to appreciate it, well, you missed out on a great decade. 

Just in case you don't know who those referenced are, TB offers you a quick primer: 

* Barney Miller? He was one of the greatest police captains in one of the greatest precincts with one of the greatest rosters of detectives in New York City history (at least the fictional kind)

* Kojak? Who loves ya baby? He was the greatest fictional police officer New York City has ever seen (with all due respect to Barney Miller). 

* Jerry Tarkanian? The Shark? He had a bit of a, um, interesting relationship with the NCAA during his years as the men's basketball coach at Long Beach State, UNLV and Fresno State. In fact, Tarkanian sued the NCAA twice, once in a case that reached all the way to the United States Surpreme Court and another that ended with a $2.5 million settlement of a harassment suit (though the NCAA didn't admit the harassment). 

Of those three, by the way, only Barney Miller (actually Hal Linden) is still alive. 

Tarkanian — the only one of the three who actually was a real person — went 2-1 against Princeton, as near as TB can figure. At least that's how TB remembers it. 

Tarkanian's UNLV teams defeated Princeton 68-56 in the second round of the 1984 NCAA tournament 69-35 in the 1990 regular season. That second game came on banner-raising night at the Thomas and Mack Center after the Runnin' Rebels won the 1990 NCAA championship. 

The 1984 NCAA game? Princeton had four players who went all 40 minutes, including one who led the team with 24 points on 10 for 13 shooting, with a team-best seven rebounds mixed in. Can you name him and the other three? 

The third game was in December 1995, during Tarkanian's first season back at his alma mater (and Pete Carril's last season at Princeton, though nobody knew it at the time). Princeton won that game 59-54, with 34 of those points from the two most recent Tiger head coaches, as Mitch Henderson has 18, and Sydney Johnson had 16. 

Oh, and Carril always made TB laugh when he referred to the name of the school where Tarkanian spent most of his career. Everyone calls it "Nevada-Las Vegas." Carril called it "Las Vegas, Nevada." TB isn't sure why he found that funny, but he always did. f t TigerBlog remembered those three games. That is, he searched his own personal database. 

This came after he asked three different AI sites this question: "What was Jerry Tarkanian's record against Princeton?" None of the three got the correct answer, including ChatGPT, which offered this: 

I could not find any record of a game between one of Tarkanian's teams and Princeton during those years. In fact, modern head-to-head databases list no prior meetings between Princeton and UNLV before their 2024 NIT game, which occurred long after Tarkanian's coaching career ended. So Tarkanian's record against Princeton was: 0–0 (never met).

If you're wondering who had the big game in the NCAA tournament, that would be Howard Levy. TigerBlog will never miss a chance to refer to his good friend Howard. 

The other three Princeton players who went all 40 minutes? Billy Ryan, who had a team-best seven assists, Kevin (Moon) Mullin, who had 18 points, and John Smyth. 

Ryan, to this day, is still Princeton's career leader in assists with 413, which would be 30 more than second-place Spencer Weisz.  

Howard also is a Princeton career record holder still, with a .647 shooting percentage. Only three Princeton players have ever been at least .600 — Richmond Aririguzoh (.636) and Alan Williams (.614). Had Richmond made six shots that he missed, the record would be his. 

Anyway, thanks to Super 70s Sports, which is one of the funniest sites you'll visit (again, the disclaimer is you have to have experienced 70s pop culture). 

And don't trust everything AI tells you.  

On The Ice

You know how you can tell if a World Cup soccer player is actually hurt or is flopping? 

Count the number of times he rolls over. If it's more than a half, then he's flopping. Nobody but nobody rolls over multiple times after an actual injury, especially a leg injury. 

Watch any (American) football game. What you'll see: someone get hurt. What you won't see: that player roll over and over and over. 

This phenomenon was on clear display yesterday in the France-Iraq game, when an Iraqi player was actually hurt. He fell, grabbed his ankle and didn't roll. That equals an actual injury. 

TigerBlog has two favorite games so far in the tournament. 

The first was a 0-0 tie between Ecuador and Curacao, a game in which Curacao goalkeeper Eloy Room set a World Cup record for most saves in a 90-minute game with 15 of them — many of which should have been goals. The second was another draw, this one a 2-2 game between Uruguay and Cape Verde. 

Why did TB like this one so much? First, it's that he's definitely on the Cape Verde bandwagon, especially after the 0-0 tie against Spain in the first game. Next up is Saudi Arabia Friday, where a win and a Uruguay tie or loss to Spain would vault Cape Verde into the knockout stage (as would any number of other scenarios).

Second, it's because the referee applied the "rolling over and over means no foul needs to be called" and let the game go on. What happened? The player who was agonizingly writhing on the field somehow got up and got right back into the play. Genius. 

Canada, by the way, finishes its three games of the group stage with a game tomorrow against Switzerland. The Canadians, coached by Princeton alum Jesse Marsch, have never reached the knockout stage and have not yet clinched a spot, though they almost certainly will, even with a loss.

The top two teams in each of the 12 groups will advance to the round of 32, as will the eight best third-place finishers. The tiebreakers are 1) points, 2) goal differential and 3) goals scored. Canada cannot finish last in its group and already has a plus-6 goal differential. 

Oh, and did you see Kylian Mbappe's first goal yesterday for France in the 3-0 win over Iraq? It was the most impressive one TB has seen so far in this World Cup. It was also Mbappe's first of two; he also had two in France's opener. He seems pretty good.  

Anyway, moving on to a different sport where the goal is to, well, score goals, Princeton had three women's hockey players chosen in the recent Professional Women's Hockey League draft. It's not shocking, given that Princeton won the ECAC regular season championship and reached the NCAA tournament under first-year head coach Courtney Kessel.

From Princeton to the pros. Congrats to Issy Wunder, Jane Kuehl, and Emerson O'Leary on being selected in the 2026 PWHL Draft! 🐯🏒https://t.co/kNBD4OlOUD

— Princeton Women's Ice Hockey (@PWIH) June 18, 2026

You can read about the three in the story on goprincetontigers.com that is linked in the post. 

In addition to posting about the three draftees, the Princeton women's ice hockey account has also announced its 2026-27 captains and ECAC schedule. As far as the captains go, they'll be Maggie Johnson, Rosie Klein, Gabby Kim and Uma Corniea. 

The opening face-off for the ECAC season is exactly four months from today, when the Tigers will be at RPI. 

In a typical year, the season starts the weekend before that, no? Last year, there were two with UConn a week earlier than the ECAC began; it was the same UConn team that Princeton would play in the NCAA tournament at season's end. There was a nearly five-month gap between the first two games and the NCAA game. 

Also, TB isn't sure if writing "2026-27" seems futuristic or not. He was talking about that very thing with a friend the other day, about what it was like when they were kids and thought the Year 2000 seemed so far away. 

Then again, four months from today seems so far away for right now. It'll be here soon, of course — but not too soon. It's not quite time for ice.  

Welcome To Summer

Well, it's officially summer. 

The Summer Solstice was yesterday, which was the longest day of the year. Do you recognize this?:

“In two weeks it’ll be the longest day in the year. Do you always watch for the longest day of the year and then miss it? I always watch for the longest day of the year and then miss it.”  

TigerBlog will give you a few paragraphs for that one. 

Meanwhile, what are your summer plans? Vacations? The beach? Kids to summer camp? Kids to summer tournaments? 

TigerBlog spent six summers at sleepaway camp, the first five at a camp called Camp Toledo and then the final one at Camp Echo after Toledo closed. They were both in the Catskills. 

At the time, they seemed so far away from home, even if they were only three hours or so. TB's first summer was when he was six — that was eight weeks away when he was only six years old. Despite that, all of TB's memories of his time at camp are really good ones. 

TB also spent a lot of time at summer tournaments, not his own, since they didn't exist back then. Nope. These were his kids' tournaments, with lots of summer weekends spent on very hot sidelines watching lacrosse. Again, TB's memories of those are all really good ones, with the friendships that were made by his kids with their teammates and by TB with the other parents. 

And the passage above? That comes from "The Great Gatsby" and is spoken by Daisy, whom Fitzgerald later describes as, along with her husband Tom, "careless people." What else would you expect from a wife whose depth extends to giving serious thought to missing the solstice and a husband who went to Yale? 

This is the 18th summer for TigerBlog — the actual blog, not the person. He's a bit older than that. In fact, given the choice between being the age he is and being 18 again, he'd choose his current age. 

When he first started doing this, TigerBlog (the person this time) wasn't sure what he'd do when the summer rolled around, what with no Princeton Athletic events to write about. As it turns out, he's learned that there is no shortage ever of topics in Princeton Athletics to chronicle here. That's a testament to the Tigers, both current and historical. 

Back in the summer of 2009, though, he had no idea what to expect. And so he wrote this: 

When TigerBlog first started writing this every day, he wasn't quite sure what he was going to do in the summers. After all, there are no athletic events, obviously. He has learned through the years that there is always something he can come up with, but back then he was uncertain. So what did he figure he'd do? When in doubt, write funny Pete Carril stories. 

TB certainly has no shortage of those to share. 

For the first full day of summer 2026, TigerBlog will honor that original idea with two stories from the late Hall of Fame Princeton men's basketball coach, who passed away nearly four years ago already. 

Story No. 1:

Princeton played in the Coors Light Classic in Fresno in December 1994. The day prior to the tournament, there was a luncheon for the teams involved. TB walked with Carril towards the building where the event would take place, and Carril had a lit cigar with him. As they got close to the entry, the tournament host pointed out that smoking was not permitted in the building. 

Carril then proceeded to take the cigar, snuff it out and put it under the handrail that led up the stairs. Two hours later, after the luncheon, he walked out of the building, picked up his cigar and lit it back up.  

Story No. 2:

Princeton was flying to play in a tournament. TB was seated behind Carril, who was in the middle of three seats. To Carril's left was his longtime assistant and ultimate replacement Bill Carmody. To his right was an older gentleman with no connection to Princeton. 

Carril was doing a crossword puzzle, and the older gentleman was looking over his shoulder. At one point, he said "14 down is such-and-such" and "21 across is so-and-so." When he opened his mouth again, Carril cut him off, saying "Yo, Pops, when I want your help I'll ask for it."

Anyway, welcome to the Summer of 2026. Make it a great one.  

Jesse And Will

TigerBlog offers a look at two Princeton alums who are coaching, and succeeding, on their biggest stages these days. 

And he also offers a thank you to two other Princeton alums for calling this to his attention.  

First, there is Jesse Marsch, a men's soccer player who graduated in the Class of 1994. Not too many alums can say that they've taken a path anywhere close to the one Marsch has. 

Carol Brown, one of the greatest athletes Princeton has ever had as a swimmer and rower (she was the first Princeton woman athlete ever to win an Olympic medal, with a rowing bronze in 1976), sent THIS STORY from the Toronto Star TB's way earlier this week. It chronicles the road Marsch has taken from Princeton to his current position as the head coach for the Canadian national team at the World Cup. 

The crux of the story is one that you're probably familiar with as a Princeton fan — the enduring friendship between Marsch and Tiger head men's basketball coach Mitch Henderson. The two are certainly close; Marsch is even the godfather of one of Henderson's children. 

The story also does a great job of showing what the coaching life can be, especially in a sport like soccer on the international level, with its quick triggers of moving on from one coach to another. It's impacted Marsch several times, in contrast with how Henderson has been at Princeton for the last 15 years. 

TB isn't nearly as close to Marsch as Henderson is, though he does know him well enough to know that he is one of those people that you meet and immediately like. And immediately want to see succeed. Marsch is a person of great depth and a genuine nature, very much like his head coach at Princeton, Bob Bradley. 

Canada does not have a great World Cup history. In fact, prior to the current edition, Canada had scored only a single goal in its entire World Cup past. 

The Canadians were also 0-6 in World Cup games prior to this go-around, with three losses in 1986 and then three more losses in 2022. The current team tied its first game 1-1 against Bosnia-Herzegovina and then exploded past Qatar 6-0 yesterday afternoon. 

The tournament this time has expanded to 48 teams, with 12 groups of four. There will be a 32-team knockout stage, featuring the top two in each group plus the eight best third-place teams. The win yesterday almost certainly will advance Marsh's team to the knockout stage for the first time.

Next up will be a the final group stage game against Switzerland Wednesday in Vancouver. The Swiss are also 1-0-1 in the tournament, with a 4-1 win over Bosnia-Herzegovina and a 1-1 tie against Qatar. 

Meanwhile, there is Will Venable, Class of 2005. 

Howard Levy, a 1985 graduate and still Princeton's career leader in field goal percentage in men's basketball, sent along a picture from Yankee Stadium earlier this week. That's Howard on the left, his son Lior on the right and Will in the middle. 

Venable, as you know, was a two-sport star at Princeton in basketball (a 1,000-point scorer and one of the best defenders the program has ever had) and baseball (a longtime Major League career).   

TB once wrote this about Venable: 

Venable wasn't the character that his fellow 1,000-point teammate Judson Wallace was, and he didn't have the big Texas personality of another teammate, Ed Persia. He was somewhat quiet, with a smile that often said more than he did. He was polite and engaging and easy to work with, and he was a ferocious competitor who was at his best in the biggest moments. 

As a coach, Venable won a World Series ring with the Texas Rangers (as did another Princeton basketball/baseball alum, Chris Young, the Texas general manager). He got his first shot as a Major League manager a year ago with the Chicago White Sox, who were coming off a 41-win season the year before he took over. 

Venable improved the Sox to 60 wins in his first season, even if the team did finish last. Chicago already has 39 wins through just 73 games far this season after last night's 5-1 win over the Yankees. That has the team tied for first in the American League Central with Cleveland. 

Taking over a team that won 41 for an entire season and within two years having that team headed to eclipsing that total before the end of June? That's crazy impressive. 

What A Racket

Guess what Princeton head coach TigerBlog met Tuesday morning? 

That would be brand-new women's rugby coach Karameli Fa'ae'e. It was outside her office at the Meadows campus. TB recognized her immediately from her pictures when she was hired back in May. 

TB spent about five minutes chatting with Fa'ae'e. She's definitely excited for the coming season and for her new job. You could tell that in way fewer than five minutes. 

You know what else you could tell in fewer than five minutes? That she has a really cool New Zealand accent. 

It was only a quick "hi, how are you" conversation, but that was all it took to know that you can add Fa'ae'e to the list of people for whom it easy to root. Make sure you get out there to watch the Tigers this fall. And say hello to the coach. She's certainly very approachable. 

Why was TigerBlog at the Meadows campus? Why else? To play tennis. Duh. 

TigerBlog played high school tennis a very long time ago. He played a little bit of tennis through the next few decades, playing lunchtime basketball in Jadwin Gym before finding the squash courts on D level. Those were his exercise home for 15 years or so, with epic matches usually five days a week against his longtime friend and colleague Craig Sachson. 

There was a time during those 15 years when TB tried to play tennis. Have you ever done that after you've played a lot of squash? No? 

Well, this is how it goes. In squash, you never have to worry about hitting the ball out past the baseline, because there isn't one. In tennis, you need a bit more touch on the ball. The first TB tried to hit a tennis ball after all that squash, he launched it over the fence. 

Sadly, all of that squash took its toll — two knee surgeries and a shoulder labrum tear (small one) later, his squash career ended and his bicycling career began. And with that, he went on pedaling. 

Fast forwarding to this past April 19, TB found himself at the indoor courts at Brown, ahead of Princeton's Ivy championship clincher over the Bears. As he waited for the players to come out to warm up, he decided to hit a few balls with head coach Elizabeth Johnson. Suddenly, he wanted to pick up a racket again.

In fact, he got one from men's head coach Billy Pate. And, Tuesday morning, he finally was able to use it. 

The catalyst for this was TB's friend Pattie Friend, the Princeton Athletics superfan and, like TB, an honorary member of the Class of 1965 (her late husband Lloyd was an actual class member). She met Coach Fa'ae'e at the same time as TB, and there is no doubt that 1) Pattie will attend more than the two rugby matches she did this past year and 2) she and the coach will become friends. That's just how she rolls. 

In addition to being a superfan, Pattie is also a longtime tennis player. She told TB that she would hit with him, and so off they went to the Si Qin Family Indoor Tennis Center. 

Pattie, as you might expect, is a very consistent player. TigerBlog? He was all over the place. Also, because of his shoulder issue, it's hard for him to serve or hit overheads, so he had to serve underhand. 

Back when he first hurt his shoulder in squash, he began to hit only forehands — righthanded on the right side of the court and lefthanded on the left side. He started to do that on the tennis court, including when men's head coach Billy Pate wandered out to watch. 

A few minutes later, it was a 10-point doubles tiebreaker, with TB and Pate against Pattie and assistant coach Ethan Nittolo. When it came to returning serve, TB asked Pate what side he should be on, and Pate said "if you're hitting lefthanded returns, you should probably take the right side."

If you're wondering, TB and Pate went up 7-4 before Nittolo and Pattie ripped off six straight to win it. Still, just being out on the court was a lot of fun.  

TB hit just enough good shots to make him think he could end up being good again. The odds of that aren't quite as high as the odds that he hurts his shoulder or knees again, but hey, why not, right?  

The End Of The Race

TigerBlog starts today again with the New York Knicks and with all of the analysis that suggests that Jalen Brunson s the greatest player in franchise history. 

TB has two thoughts: 1) he isn't and 2) this is where sports commentary is these days. He's surprised he hasn't seen a "Mount Rushmore" of Knicks the last few days. Maybe it's out there and he just missed it.

For everyone who thinks Brunson is the team's best player ever, consider that this is a franchise that has had 25 players inducted into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame (including TigerBlog h'65's classmate Bill Bradley). There were also nine Knicks on the NBA's 75th Anniversary Top 75 team, of whom Willis Reed, Patrick Ewing, Walt Frazier, Dave DeBusschere, Earl Monroe and Jerry Lucas were known more for their time with the Knicks than with any other team (Bob McAdoo, Jason Kidd and Carmelo Anthony were the other three).  

Maybe Brunson will end up as the greatest Knick ever, but he's not there yet. Keep in mind, Reed, Frazier and DeBusschere won two NBA titles each in New York. 

Okay, now that he's written about the two Princetonians who've won professional championships this week — McKayla Tyrrell with the Knicks in the NBA and Eric Robinson with the Carolina Hurricanes of the NHL — TigerBlog can finally get around to the final Princeton Athletics event of the 2025-26 season. 

The NCAA track and field championships concluded this past weekend in Oregon, and with that, another athletic year has come and gone. Of course, like most of the rest of 2025-26, the last event was a wildly successful one for Princeton. 

There were by TB's count 17 Princeton athletes who qualified for the finals. Also by TB's count, there were 14 who came back as All-Americans. 

TigerBlog watched quite a bit of the championships, including the men's 5,000 meter final. Remember yesterday when he admitted that he didn't know that Cape Verde was a country? The same is true for Eritrea, which turns out to be the home country of Habtom Samuel, the winner of the race. 

Samuel seemed to be in complete control of the race, even when he somewhere in the middle of the pack. In fact, TB thought he might have watched the race on tape delay, since the broadcast seemed to focus on him the whole way. Princeton was represented in that race by Myles Hogan, who finished in 12th, earning second-team All-American honors.  

Oh, and if you're wondering, Eritrea is in East Africa. It is 46,000 square miles, which makes it smaller than New York State. 

Earlier in the evening Friday, Princeton's Connor McCormick ran a fantastic race in the 1,500, finishing in fourth to become a first-team All-American. The race was won by Oregon's Simon Birnbaum, who sprinted away on the last lap to win in 3:36.05; the next three were separated by only 0.09 seconds. It's amazing the small differences that decide races and places. 

Princeton was represented by seven women, all in field events, all of whom finished as All-Americans. The first five did so Thursday, including four honorable mention winners: Alexandra Kelly and Georgina Scoot in the long jump, Angela McAuslan Kelly in the hammer and Tessa Mudd in the pole vault.

The other All-American was Shea Greene, who came in seventh in the javelin to earn first-team honors. Have you ever tried to throw a javelin? TigerBlog has. He can't imagine having it go 180 inches, let alone the 180 feet that Greene's did.  

Scoot came back to finish seventh in the triple jump Saturday, adding a first-team All-American honor. Layla Giordano went 186-10 to take sixth place in the discus. It's fairly fascinating to TB that a javelin and a discus can go basically the same distance, given that a javelin weighs about half as much as a discus. 

In fact, the winning javelin throw was 200 feet. The winning discus throw was 216 feet. That's reasonably close — and the heavier one went further. 

Alysa Carrigan finished 11th in the high jump with a Princeton record 6-0.5. That was good for second-team All-American. 

And with that, the schedule was suddenly completed, after nearly 700 athletic events with nearly 1,000 Princeton varsity athletes. The next Princeton Athletic event will be Aug. 20, when the women's soccer team opens its season at home against Loyola. 

What will you be doing between now and then? That's a little more than two months. Make sure you enjoy the summer. 

TigerBlog will still be here every day. 

There will always be something Princetonian to write about. 

Happy Birthday Eric Robinson

TigerBlog was watching the Georgia-Oklahoma Men's College World Series game last night while he was reading a story about how the Uruguayan team had major travel issues in getting into the United States before its World Cup opener. 

Uruguay, who was training in Cancun, didn't get to fly to Miami for Game 1 (against Saudi Arabia) until 24 hours before kickoff due to paperwork issues with the plane it was using. After reading that, TB saw on the ESPN crawl that Uruguay was down 1-0 in the 79th minute. 

Figuring he'd check in to see if the team showed any obvious sign of being affected by the late arrival, TB switched over to see the end of the soccer game. It was still 1-0 Saudi Arabia when he did; it was 1-1 within five seconds of when he started watching. Actually, it might have been less than five seconds. 

At first, TB thought it was a replay from earlier, but nope. He just timed it well. 

The game was the opposite of what you might have expected. Uruguay and Saudi Arabia had five shots each in the first half, including the Saudi goal in the 41st minute. In the second? Would Uruguay fold? Well, shots were 23-2 in favor of Uruguay, but the game ended in a 1-1 tie. 

There are 48 countries in this expanded World Cup field. There are 47 that TB had heard of before — the lone exception is Cape Verde, who had a shocking 0-0 tie with Spain yesterday. TB would not have been able to identify Cape Verde as a country off the African coast near the Canary Islands, even though he's been to the Canary Islands. 

The World Cup is part of a very busy sports June in this country. The NBA Finals just concluded, with, as you may have heard, a championship for the New York Knicks. 

Also, the Stanley Cup playoffs ended Sunday night, one night after the Knicks took care of the Spurs. This time, it was the Carolina Hurricanes who closed out the final series, beating Vegas 3-0 to lift the Cup four games to two. 

Among the Hurricanes who get to have their names etched on the Stanley Cup will be Eric Robinson, who was the captain of Princeton's 2018 ECAC championship team. Robinson has established himself as a very steady, consistent NHL veteran, and the game Sunday night ended with him on the ice. 

Oh, and all of this happened on his 31st birthday. That's not a bad way to celebrate.

Pretty good birthday present for Robby pic.twitter.com/5ZUI7dvdB0

— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) June 15, 2026

Robinson joins George Parros (Anaheim Ducks in 2007) and Kevin Westgarth (Los Angeles Kings in (2012) as Princeton alums who have won the Stanley Cup as players. Jeff Halpern has won two as an assistant coach with the Tampa Bay Lightning. 

There's another short list that Robinson has joined as well, one that includes six others, one of whom is Parros. Any guesses? 

Hint - think about where Princeton is. TB will give you until the end. 

Robinson has played in 455 career NHL games, with 66 goals and 75 assists. Like TB said, he's a very solid veteran winger.  

The last time TB mentioned Robinson here was this past January, when he recalled how Robinson had scored the tying goal just ahead of the final horn in Game 2 of the 2017 ECAC tournament opening round. Princeton would then score in overtime to tie the series and then win Game 3 to advance.

This is what TB wrote the following Monday:

There was Game 2 Saturday night, which was one of the very best Princeton athletic events TigerBlog has ever seen. Yes, he knows how many games that's taking into account. Yes, he's not prone to hyberbole. This was a great game, start to finish.   

Now nine years later, TB stands by that. If you were there, you agree with him. It was crazy. So was Robinson's tying goal, an incredible individual effort that saw him come out of seemingly nowhere to just beat the clock. 

And now he's a Stanley Cup champion. TB sends his congrats.  

And the answer: Robinson became the seventh New Jersey high school hockey player to win the Stanley Cup. Robinson grew up in Bellmawr, outside of Philadelphia, and went to Gloucester Catholic. Parros grew up in Randolph in North Jersey and went to the Delbarton School. 

Congrats McKayla

TigerBlog's Rule No. 1 in sports is that if you don't believe you can win, you won't.

You have to get off the bus knowing you'll win. Otherwise, don't get on the bus in the first place. 

Close behind is Rule No. 2, which states: "Never do what the other team wants you to do." You should never make a move after which the other team says "yes, that's perfect for us."

Had the San Antonio Spurs followed Rule No. 2, then they would be celebrating an NBA championship right now. Actually, they would have celebrated it a few days ago, since they would have won the series in four games, instead of losing in five to the New York Knicks, who ended the series Saturday night with a 94-90 win to win their first title in 53 years. 

What was the practical application of Rule No. 2 in this series? Every time Victor Wembanyama launched a three-point shot, every New York Knick said "yes, that's perfect for us."  

In the five games of the Finals, the 7-4 Wembanyama was 44 for 103 from the field. Broken down by kind of shots he took, he was 9 for 33 from three-point range (27.3 percent) and 35 for 70 from two-point range. Nearly one-third of his shots were threes. 

It's worse in the four games the Knicks won, where Wemby was 7 for 29 from three (24.1). Did you watch the games? He was nearly unstoppable around the basket and way more "miss" than "hit" from outside the arc. Also, when he was that far from the basket, he took himself completely out of position for any offensive rebounds. 

Given that the Knicks won their four games by 10, one, one and four — and that the Knicks trailed by double figures in every game — San Antonio would have rolled had it traded a few of those three attempts by Wemby for, TigerBlog might suggest, a post-up every now and then? Maybe a few more drives to the hoop? 

But no. Not in the way the NBA is played these days. For the five games, there were 859 field goals attempted, of which 386 were threes. That's 45 percent of all shots attempted. 

Of course, there was the otherworldly Game 5 effort from New York's Jalen Brunson, who scored 45 of his team's points Saturday night. Everyone else combined for 49 points. Brunson was unstoppable as he willed his team back from another huge second-half deficit to close out the series. 

If you heard him speak afterwards, you could see how genuine his emotions were, especially with his father Rick as a Knick assistant coach. It was heartwarming. 

If you watched the broadcast from the start, you saw a familiar face holding her phone and following the team around. That person was McKayla Tyrrell, who is the Knicks' manager of digital content. 

Why is she familiar? Because of her time as a student manager for the Princeton men's basketball team before graduating in 2020. 

From student manager to working for the champs. 🏆

Congratulations to @nyknicks Manager of Digital Content McKayla Tyrrell '20 on providing championship level coverage for the 2025-26 NBA champions all season long!

The Tigers have known how talented, creative and dedicated she… pic.twitter.com/zITJj0ihep

— Princeton Men’s Basketball (@PrincetonMBB) June 14, 2026

This graphic went up shortly after the game ended. Even as it was being posted, you could see MyKayla as she ran around the court and the stage that was set up, capturing content for the team. 

You could also see her before the game ever started, when she followed the team onto the court. Just as the three-pointer has embedded itself in the NBA game like never before, so too has the need for exactly what it is that McKayla does — digital content creation. 

When the NBA championship rings are given out, there will be one with the name "Tyrrell" on it. Just as there should be. She's certainly earned hers. She's been there with the team, home and away, game days and off days, chronicling it all. 

Her payoff, like everyone else in the organization, came courtesy of Jalen Brunson — and the Spurs failure to follow Rule No. 2. 

Congrats to McKayla. It's always great to see Princeton Athletics be part of something like what the Knicks just accomplished.