Play Of The Day

TigerBlog went to SportsCenter yesterday to see if a former Princeton women's basketball player made the Top 10 Plays of the Day.

Turns out, nobody made it. They didn't have a Top 10 yesterday. Well not the regular kind at least. 

Instead, in honor of the All-Star break, ESPN went with the Top 10 plays in Major League Baseball to date this season. It was a series of home runs that were robbed, with a mixture of infield grounders that resulted in further robberies. 

The No. 1 spot went all the back to April 5, when Los Angeles Angels outfielder Jo Adell stole three separate home runs in one game against Seattle. The Angels lost 1-0, though it would have been worse had it not been for Adell's three gems. The last was the best, as he went completely over the fence and held on to the ball — and then celebrated with the fans in rightfield.

See for yourself:

There were many who posted that this was the greatest defensive game in baseball history. Most of those people never saw Ozzie Smith play shortstop or Brooks Robinson play third or Dwight Evans play rightfield and all, but yes, it was  really, really impressive. 

Still, where were the top plays for Wednesday? A few of them were in Atlanta, where Argentina defeated England 2-1 in the World Cup semifinals. 

What did the English coach have to say about playing in the third-place game tomorrow?

"None of our players and none of the French players want to play this match," Tuchel told reporters following the defeat. "They want to play the final. We gave everything to achieve that. Everyone plays to win the World Cup, but that’s how it is. We have one less day of recovery than France, but we will do it with professionalism." 

TB was right, it appears. 

Had ESPN wanted to do a Top 10 for yesterday, there were at least nine plays from that game in Atlanta that would have fit the bill, especially the two assists from Lionel Messi and a few of the saves from England goalie Jordan Pickford. 

The 10th? That was in Indiana. 

It came from Princeton alum Kaitlyn Chen, who had a wild game for the Golden State Valkyries in an 88-75 win over the Fever. To TB, Chen will always be a Princeton alum, even if she won an NCAA championship as a graduate student at UConn two seasons ago. 

Did anyone go into the game thinking that Chen would outscore Caitlin Clark? She did, 14-13. 

What's even more amazing is that Chen's 14 points came in just 10 minutes on the court. That's, hmmm, somewhere around 1.4 points per minute. 

There were three WNBA games Wednesday night. Chen was the only player in any of those games who scored more points than she minutes she played. 

Chen played the last two minutes of the second quarter without scoring. She was on the bench when the second half started. Then she came back into the game and went off. 

She'd score 12 of her points in the third quarter, with a layup early in the fourth to bring her to 14. It was her drive to the hoop as time ran down in the third, though, that would have easily been a Top 10 selection.

KC closing off the 3rd quarter on a 12 point tear 🔥 pic.twitter.com/deryJ55DHH

— Golden State Valkyries (@valkyries) July 16, 2026

As TB watched, he thought she was going to run out of time. Then he thought "at least she drew the foul." Then the shot went in.

Through it all, she was typical Kaitlyn Chen, a big smile the entire time. It was just another big moment in her young WNBA career, of which this is a breakout second year for both her and her team. Golden State was an expansion team a year ago, when it went 23-21 and earned a playoff spot as the No. 8 seed.

This season, Golden State is now 18-7, a game back of Minnesota for the best record in the league. The win Wednesday night was the team's eighth straight, and Golden State became the second team in WNBA history to have an unbeaten road trip of at least five games. 

The fifth of those wins was the one in Indiana. It came about largely because of Chen, who was 5 for 5 from the field and 4 for 5 from the line, along with three assists and a steal in just those 10 minutes. She continues to be a microwave off the Valkyrie bench, doing whatever is necessary to help the team win. 

And Wednesday night, that would have included a Play of the Day, had there been one.  

The Other Pitch

TigerBlog was in the deli the other day when he noticed the stuffed tiger in the Claw machine. 

You know. It's the machine where Woody and Buzz got stuck before Sid won both of them in "Toy Story." It's one of the best scenes:

"Who's in charge here?" "The clawwwwwwww. The claw decides who will stay and who will go." 

TB wrote that paragraph back in October, after witnessing the field hockey team's interaction with a Claw machine on a rest stop on I-95. Izzy Morgan was able to win a stuffed animal out of the machine, with guidance from Pru Lindsey. 

Ah, but those two were nowhere to be found in the deli this week. TB knew he had no chance at doing this, but he did see a mother with two 10 or so year olds who were about to try their luck. He offered them $20 if they could get the Tiger. Try as they might, they couldn't — but they did get one of those green things and seemed pretty happy about that. 

Oh well. The tiger must still be there. 

The Princeton field hockey team reached the NCAA championship game a year ago before falling to Northwestern 2-1 in two overtimes. You know all about Beth Yeager, who graduated this past spring after putting together a resume that included being a four-time first-team All-American, a U.S. Olympian and a von Kienbusch Award winner. 

Because of her graduation and the huge hole it leaves, it's easy to forget that Yeager was the only senior who started in the NCAA final for Princeton. In fact, Princeton started four freshmen and four sophomores against Northwestern last November. 

The TFH (Tiger Field Hockey, as the group likes to go by) begins its season in seven weeks (and one day), when the Tigers will be in Chapel Hill for the Conference Crossover. It'll begin against Old Dominion on Friday, Sept. 4, and then conclude with a game against North Carolina two days later, while Penn plays the opposite schedule. 

Princeton will play six of its first seven games on the road, a run that ends Sept. 26 at Harvard for the annual showdown between the teams that have dominated Ivy field hockey of late. A year ago the teams met three times, with Harvard the winner in the regular season and then Princeton the winner in the Ivy tournament final and NCAA semifinal. 

There will be plenty of time to talk about TFH once the season rolls around. For today, TB sends out his best wishes to the eight players on the team who are from a sad place right now — England. 

If you watched the World Cup semifinal yesterday, then you know to what TigerBlog refers. England, looking for its first final berth since the 1966 championship team and second final berth ever, was up 1-0 with fewer than 10 minutes plus stoppage time to go. Argentina, though, was swarming. Could the English hold up? 

As it turned out, the answer was no. From the time England scored early in the second half until just past the 80-minute mark, TB was planning ahead. He'd get quotes from all eight of the English players, pictures of them with friends and family as they celebrated. 

And then? Argentina tied it. And then? Argentina won it. The game never even made it to extra time. 

TB did text with Caitlin Thompson, a rising sophomore. Caitlin doesn't know this, ut she was going to be one TB would have asked to coordinate all of the texts and photos. She did say there was a lot of chatter on a group text. 

When England went up 1-0, TB texted her that he was confident. Caitlin responded with an emoji that suggested nervousness. After it ended, she sent this:

😔

It'll be Argentina and Spain Sunday in the final from the Meadowlands. France and England will play Saturday in Miami in the third-place game. TigerBlog stays with his original thought from last week that the game offers little consolation to the teams who will be competing. 

Or to their fans.  

Leveling Up

TigerBlog had his six-month dental checkup yesterday. 

Remember what Rodney Dangerfield said about going to his dentist? 

"I said to the dentist 'my teeth are turning yellow; what should I do?' He said 'wear a brown necktie.'" 

Going to the dentist doesn't stress TB out or anything. He likes his dentist. He went to her house for Thanksgiving once. 

Remember that story? He asked her for floss after they ate. 

The dental hygienist, on the other hand, was brand-new. She seemed like she knew what she was doing, though she has a job TigerBlog would not want. Ick. 

Every hygienist always says the same thing: "Floss more." It's almost like you have personally let them down, so much so that TB felt the need to apologize. 

When it was time to go, Lindsey, the affable office manager, asked TB if he wanted to schedule his next six-month checkup, to which TB said he would. Then she asked him which was better, Jan. 19 at 9 am or Jan. 20 at 10 am. He went with Jan. 19, so now he has his first thing on his schedule for 2027. Lindsey is very efficient, though the idea of scheduling something into next year made TB wonder how many patients do so and how many call back in another four months or so.

The trip to the dentist was one of yesterday's peaks. There was also the matter of the first World Cup semifinal, in which Spain defeated France 2-0. It was never really in doubt for the Spaniards, even if TB thought France would ride Kylian Mbappe all the way to the Cup. 

Today is semifinal No. 2, between England and Argentina. If England can win, then the final would match two countries making their second appearances in the finals. 

Oh, and here's a little reminder for American writers and broadcasters: the name of a country is singular, not plural, so it's "Spain advances to the final," not "Spain advance to the final." 

Princeton is an "it." Tigers are a "they." 

While today's subject is soccer, TigerBlog stumbled on the story on the main Princeton website about men's soccer alum Gabriel Duchovny. You can read it HERE. 

Duchovny graduated this past spring after being a big part of Princeton's run to an Ivy League championship, Ivy tournament and the No. 3 seed in the NCAA tournament a year ago. He also scored Top Drawer Soccer's 2024 Goal of the Year for the game-winner in the 2024 win at Columbia. 

IT HAD TO BE THE MAN FROM NEW YORK! 🗽

Gabe Duchovny with a ROCKET from way out and the Tigers lead 2-1!! 🚀#PrincetonSoccer #WhosNext pic.twitter.com/VG4tzQahWW

— Princeton Men’s Soccer (@PrincetonMSoc) October 19, 2024

The story was actually from last month, though TB didn't see it until yesterday. The feature is part of a Senior Thesis Spotlight series, and it's really interesting stuff. 

Also, as the story says, his thesis was entitled “Ancient Roman Banditry: A Modern Criminological Analysis,” which applies modern criminological theory to ancient Roman accounts of organized crime and earned Duchovny the John J. Keaney Prize, the classics department’s prize for the best senior thesis. 

This is how it starts: 

As a classics major at Princeton, he spent four years learning to read ancient texts slowly and carefully. As an investigator in the Brooklyn public defense office, he scoured the borough for surveillance footage after alleged crimes occurred and interviewed witnesses. And as a midfielder on the Princeton men’s soccer team, he won recognition for his tactical precision and ability to connect play down the field. For Duchovny, all three pursuits share something fundamental: the practice of connecting scattered details into a meaningful picture.

Duchovny came to Princeton from Brooklyn, where he first started playing soccer before he ever started school. At Princeton he was a Classics major, something he was pointed to from his first Latin class in eighth grade. There was this from the story: 

“I liked how reading a Latin sentence felt like putting together a puzzle,” he said. “You look at all the cases and tenses and you piece it together to extract a meaning.” 

There's a lot of depth to Duchovny, and it all comes out in the piece. It's also a great look into once again what continues to make Princeton so special. You have a champion athlete. You have a classical scholar. You have a well-rounded citizen. 

TB leaves you with this, also from the story: 

He describes his four years at the University as a continual process of “leveling up,” academically, athletically and intellectually. 

More Meeks

 

Okay, TigerBlog has a new pet peeve to add to last weeks' list: 

People who sideswipe his car and take out his sideview mirror. What the heck? 

To the person who did this, what did TB's sideview mirror ever do to you? TB is pretty sure the local police have set up roadblocks or something and that justice will be served. Either that, or the blue tape that is now holding the mirror in place will have to do for now. 

At least TB already had a standing appointment to take his car in tomorrow to see Ron, the official mechanic of TigerBlog. It's July, which means the car needs to be inspected, as opposed to February, when TB thought it was supposed to be inspected and took it to Ron back then. 

What did Ron say about the mirror? "Don't worry about it. I'll fix it." And he will. 

Today is the first of the two World Cup semifinals, as France meets Spain. Today is also Bastille Day, It's a national French holiday, celebrating the storming of the Bastille during the revolution in 1789. Can France lose on its national day? 

TB wrote yesterday about watching the World Cup and Wimbledon (though after all that, he wasn't really into the men's final after Djokovic and Fery lost in the semis. What else was TB watching? 

"The Secret Life of Us," which is his latest Australian show. And, over the weekend, there was also the Premier Lacrosse League. 

Before he gets into the PLL, TigerBlog would like to remind you that Princeton won the NCAA men's lacrosse championship this past spring. As part of a year in review, TB posted an "A to Z" recap yesterday; you can read it HERE. 

It includes this: 

J – Just Win
Princeton is 60-23 since the start of the 2022 season, with one NCAA championship, two Final Fours, three quarterfinals and five NCAA appearances, as well as three Ivy tournament championships and one Ivy title. Matt Madalon is now 92-43 as Princeton head coach, with a .681 winning percentage that trails only Bill Tierney’s .735 at Princeton (other than Ernie Ransome’s .750 for his only season as head coach, in 1950).  

Impressive. Very impressive. 

Back at the PLL, TigerBlog's main interest in the league would be the Princeton alums who are scattered around the eight teams. There are now double figures in Princetonians in the league, most of whom are making huge impacts. 

That includes the familiar names, like Zach Currier, still the best all-around player in the world. And Michael Sowers, tied for second in the PLL in scoring. 

And then there are three others who are emerging stars on the pro level, two of whom are rookies and one of whom is in Year 2. 

The second-year player is the Boston Cannons' Coulter Mackesy, who is currently leading the PLL in points with 25, on 11 one-point goals, two two-point goals and 10 assists. It's a big jump for Mackesy, who had a solid rookie year with 15 goals (all one-point) and five assists. You might recall that Mackesy is Princeton's career leader in goals with 167 and is second in career points with 248 (behind only Sowers, who had 302). 

Chad Palumbo, who scored 48 goals this past season for the NCAA champion Tigers, has nine goals and four assists, putting him among the rookie leaders in goals and points. In fact, Palumbo has for most the season been considered one of two favorites for the Rookie of the Year award, along with Syracuse alum Joey Spallina. 

Ah, but into that mix a new contender has emerged of late — Andrew McMeekin. Perhaps you remember him as well? 

McMeekin holds Princeton's record for career and season face-off wins and groundballs. He had a dominant senior year and even more dominant NCAA tournament,  even after going undrafted by the league. Actually, no face-off specialists or goalie were drafted, though McMeekin signed rather quickly with the Cannons after the Princeton season ended. 

How has he done? He's currently second in the league in face-off winning percentage, trailing only the legendary Trevor Baptiste — and not by much (Baptiste is at 60 percent; McMeekin is at 59 percent). 

This past weekend McMeekin went 18 for 28 with eight GBs, as well as his first career PLL goal and an assist, to Mackesy at that, as the Cannons beat Maryland 15-13. TB was particularly interested in this face-off matchup, since it was against Luke Wierman, a Maryland alum who dominated McMeekin each time they went head-to-head in college. 

This time? It was a great performance by McMeekin, one that has vaulted him into serious Rookie of the Year consideration.  

TB has been astonished how little national recognition — and Ivy League recognition for that matter — McMeekin received through his Princeton career. Maybe it'll come his way on the pro level. 

He's certainly deserving of it. 

TB wouldn't want to face-off against him.  

Of Some Consolation

Can there be a World Cup game played without controversy? 

It's amazing that a system designed to eliminate controversy has only made it worse. TigerBlog is referring to the VAR, which stands for "Video Assistant Referee."

What it should stand for is "Your guess is as good as theirs," which doesn't really go with "VAR" but still. 

A ball hits a wire on the camera above the field and play continues when it's supposed to be blown dead. Not reviewable. Goal, England. A missed call on the field ends up reversing a yellow card, the second on a Swiss player, and suddenly Argentina is a man up for the rest of the game. It was clear on the review that it shouldn't have been a yellow card on the Argentine player, but it was also a really uneven penalty against Switzerland — especially since the "simulation" in question wasn't one of the worst in the game, let alone tournament. 

With that, Argentina has continued to come up with miraculous endings in this knockout round, first against Cape Verde, then against Egypt and now against Switzerland Saturday night, when the world's No. 1 ranked team scored twice in the second extra period for a 3-1 win. 

Oh, and one more thing, something that TigerBlog has said before. Why can't the official time be kept on the scoreboard? If TB was a World Cup ref, he'd want it on the scoreboard. He could signal when the clock should be stopped, like in every other sport, and he wouldn't have to worry about any questions about why he blew the whistle early or let them play on or whatever. 

Get ride of stoppage time. A 90-minute match now is easily more than 100 minutes. A match that goes to extra time is closer to 140 minutes than the 120 it's supposed to be by the time it ends. 

Sadly, this was not in the jurisdiction of the NCAA Division I men's lacrosse rules committee.  

Anyway, the semifinals are now set with the top four teams in the FIFA rankings, as No. 1 Argentina plays No. 4 England Wednesday and No. 2 France plays No. 3 Spain tomorrow. TB is shocked that England in the semifinals for only the fourth time ever,  and he also thinks that the French, with Mbappe, will be the ones left standing come Sunday, after the final at the Meadowlands. 

The World Cup is one of the few tournaments in the world that still has a third-place game, one that will be played Saturday in Miami. Why does the World Cup still do this? TigerBlog has to think that there's no way that the losers of the semifinals want to go through the motions of Saturday's game. 

Maybe he's wrong, but common sense would say otherwise. This isn't the Olympics, where a bronze medal means a whole lot more than a fourth-place finish. 

There used to be third-place games in several tournaments, most notably the NCAA men's basketball tournament. In fact, there was a third-place game before the championship game every year from 1946 through the last one in 1981. 

This, of course, included the 1965 tournament, whose third-place game matched the two teams who lost in the semifinals: Princeton and Wichita State. Princeton, the East Region champion, had a rematch with Michigan of their classic Holiday Festival game from December in one national semifinal. This time, the Wolverines were in control pretty much throughout, winning 93-76.

This is how the Daily Princetonian story, written by John Alexander and John Kretzmann, saw it:

The key to the game lay in the officiating. Bradley drew his third foul late in the first half on an offensive call, and from that point on, Princeton was forced to play a much too cautious game. [Head coach Butch Van Breda Kolff merely corroborated the obvious discontent of the 13,200 fans on hand when he commented vindictively on the officiating: "Please don't ask me about that." During the contest he was more vociferous —"What in the world did we come out here for?" At the game's end, Princeton had out-fouled Michigan, 24-14. 

Perhaps video review would have made a difference? 

Wichita State, meanwhile, was defeated by UCLA 108-89 in the other semifinal. The third-place game saw Princeton set 11 different records, some of which still stand, in the 118-82 win. 

The 118 points are still the most Princeton has ever scored in a game. The 58 points that Bill Bradley scored in that game remain the most ever by a player in a Final Four game. 

This was Kratzmann after that game: 

By the three-quarter mark, it was evident that the Bengals were fighting only the record book— Wichita had long since surrendered, and the NCAA records were about to follow suit.  

And then, scrolling down a bit, TB found this quote from van Breda Kolff: 

"This makes up a little for last night (the loss to Michigan) and lets the kids go out feeling pretty good."  

Hmmm. Maybe TB is wrong about the consolation game. 

He's not wrong about the VAR and the scoreboard.  

 

They Couldn't Have Been Nicer

It's a Friday in the summer. 

Read this, and then go and enjoy your weekend, whatever that involves. 

*

It's somewhat fitting that TigerBlog spent much of this week discussing the 1975 NIT championship won by Princeton. Why is that? It's because today would have been Pete Carril's 96th birthday.  

Carril, who passed away nearly four years ago, was the head coach of that team that won the NIT, as well as 28 other Tiger teams during his Hall of Fame career. In all, he went 514-261 at Princeton, with 13 Ivy League championships and 11 NCAA appearances. Some of those NCAA games you might remember. 

TigerBlog received this email earlier this week, after his piece on the 1975 NIT. It came from Jordan Becker, Class of 1982:

Further to your piece today--back in October, on "Orange & Black Day" I co-organized a gathering for Westchester, NY alums in Sleepy Hollow at JP Doyle's Restaurant. We were gathered in a back room, when a tall man came in and asked if this was a Princeton gathering. I said, yes, and he mentioned that he had played basketball at Princeton. He introduced himself as Armond Hill, and said that he, Pete Molloy, Mickey Steuerer, and Barnes Hauptfuhrer were coincidentally in the restaurant having dinner together. Attached is a picture of some of us with the champs. They couldn't have been nicer.

TigerBlog has met all four of those players and can vouch for the fact that they couldn't have been nicer. To this day, Armond Hill remains one of TB's favorite people that he's worked with at Princeton. 

TB asked Jordan if could use the picture and if Jordan could ID the others in the photo, and here was his response: 

Other than the basketball players--

Front row Bill Bandon '83, Patricia McKeogh s'83, Florence DiStefano Hudson '80, Rick Lipkin '83

Middle row:  Jacqueline Carr '00, George Hudson s'80

Back Row--Jordan Becker '82

Go ahead and use it!  Give Bandon the credit for organizing it. Although I was a co-organizer, he really did the work.

 

Good work, Bandon. And thanks for the heads up, Jordan. 

 

*

 

Speaking of basketball, Princeton alum Kaitlyn Chen is now in her second year as WNBA player, with the Golden State Valkyries. Here are her year-over-year numbers: 

 

Last year: 2.0 points per game, 38 percent from the field, 33.3 percent from three
This year: 7.2 points per game, 56.3 percent from the field, 43.3 percent from three

 

You read that correctly. She's shooting 56.3 percent from the field. That's ninth in the WNBA. 

Chen is averaging 11.0 points per game in her last five, shooting an insane 24 for 37 from the field during that time. That's 64.9 percent. She's also 2 for 7 from three in those five games, which puts her at 22 for 30 on two-point attempts. That's 73.3 percent. 

If you're not doing anything tonight, you can head up to Uncasville, to see the Valkyries and the Connecticut Sun. 

*

Pet Peeve Department: 

TigerBlog has a few pet peeves. Among those are people who say "whom" when they should say "who," people who block the aisle in the supermarket with their carts and people who root for Harvard or Yale. 

Hey, here's a good idea. If you get a dog or a cat, name it "Peeve." Then you can say "this is my pet Peeve."

Another traditional pet peeve for TigerBlog is when a Princeton alum pro athlete is referred to on television by the school he or she attended as a grad student. This happens with the aforementioned Kaitlyn Chen, who won an NCAA title as a grad student at UConn, and with a few Princeton player in the Premier Lacrosse League. Stop putting "Duke" next to Michael Sowers for instance. 

*

TigerBlog sends his condolences to the family and friends of Dick Brown, Class of 1965, who passed away last week. Princeton has not had many alums as dedicated and passionate about the school than Dick Brown, and his passing touched so many, especially his classmates (even the honorary ones).

Here is his obituary:  

Richard L. Brown II, born November 4, 1943, passed away peacefully at his home on July 1, 2026, after a lengthy battle with cancer. Our long time Reunion Chair and Class President joined us from the George School in Newtown PA.  At George School, Dick played varsity soccer and tennis and was active in the Religious Life Committee.  At Princeton, Dick played freshman squash and tennis and continued at the very bottom of the tennis ladder. He roomed with Kime all 4 years and with Luddy, Lindenfeld, Bobo, Cochran, Zeller and Metzger for one year.  Dick took his meals at Dial Lodge where he was elected Club Gentleman based on a promise not to throw rolls on party weekends. He elected Special Program in European Civilization with a focus on Spanish and American History as his major and wrote his thesis on the Central American Economic Union.  Dick became active in class affairs at our 15th Reunion.  Dick served the Class of 1965 for 20 years as President (1985-90 and again 2015-2020) and Reunion Chair (2005-2015).  He was always proud of the idea to book two bands for Reunions ensuring that the music never stopped, that the Class of 1965 always held a rockin' reunion, drawing in the younger classes, and being the place to go if you wanted to dance the night away!  Dick was wise, considerate, and a true gentleman.   

Midway

You know who is having a really fun start to his summer? 

Arthur Fery. 

Who is Arthur Fery? He's the wild card into the Wimbledon main draw who has now made his way all the way to the semifinals, getting there yesterday with a straight set win over ninth-seeded Flavio Cobolli. 

It could have been much different for Fery, who would have played fourth-seeded Ben Shelton in the second round, had Shelton not been upset in Round 1 by Otto Virtanen. In all likelihood, Shelton would have steamrolled Fery, and that would have been that. And, because Shelton is one of TigerBlog's favorite players, he would have been rooting against Fery. 

That was not the case yesterday. Like pretty much everyone who was actually there, TB was rooting for Fery in the match against Cobolli. And why not? There's the whole wild card angle, and who doesn't love the underdog. 

Then there's the joy with which he plays — and his post-match on-court interviews have reflected that joy. It's one of the great parts of a story like his. The interview referred to the "Arthur Fery Tale," with a pause between "Arthur" and "Fery" and none between "Fery" and "Tale." It was well done. 

Lastly, there's also where he's from. You know how far it is from where he went to high school to Center Court at Wimbledon? That would be, according to Google Maps, a 1.1 mile walk. 

Next up for Fery is tomorrow's semifinal, against second-seed Alexander Zverev, while No. 1 Jannik Sinner plays No. 7 Novak Djokovic. TB is hoping that it won't be a No. 1 vs. No. 2 final. 

Fery played college tennis at Stanford, which is a bit further away than his high school. TB wondered if Fery had played against Princeton at all, and it turns out that almost nobody who has ever played men's tennis at Princeton has played against Stanford. 

The two schools have met only once, in the 1979 NCAA tournament second round, after the Tigers had defeated Arkansas in the opening round. Princeton just missed John McEnroe, who was the NCAA singles champion while leading Stanford to the team title in his only year of college tennis, 1978.

TigerBlog would have thought Princeton and Stanford would have run into each other way more than once in their men's tennis histories, despite the distance. Then again, Princeton field hockey has played St. Joseph's only once ever, and that was in the NCAA quarterfinals two years ago, though the teams will meet again near the end of the coming regular season.  

Back in the present, with a glance in the all-too-near future, guess what is six weeks from today? That would be opening day of the 2026-27 athletic season, when the women's soccer team hosts Loyola. 

That's Thursday, Aug. 20, and that'll be the first of three games in eight days for Sean Driscoll's team to kick things off. The Tigers will be at Syracuse that Sunday and then home again Wednesday against West Virginia (who reached Round 2 of the NCAA tournament a year ago). 

The women's soccer team will also play two more games — home against James Madison and then at Ohio State — before any other Princeton team kicks off. Once September rolls around, it'll be off to the races with fall sports. 

Does it really seem like that long ago when Princeton teams were finishing off a wildly successful athletic year with wildly successful postseason performances?  

The last actual game of the 2025-26 athletic year was a pretty good one. It was on May 25, when the Princeton men's lacrosse team defeated Notre Dame 16-9 to win the NCAA championship. The last Princeton event was the NCAA track and field championships, which ended on June 13.  

If you go by the lacrosse championship, then there would be 87 days between Princeton games. If you go by track and field, then there would be 68 days between events. 

That makes the midway point either July 17, if you're going by track and field. Or, if you're going from game to game, then that would make the midpoint yesterday.

Either way, time flies, right? 

Enjoy the rest of the summer. It'll be six weeks from now in no time.  

The 1975 NIT

TigerBlog has two things for you today that he should have written earlier this week. 

The first one is World Cup related. And while he didn't write it here, he did text it to a friend of his before the U.S.-Belgium game, so he can produce the evidence if subpoenaed:

"If Balogun plays, then the U.S. will lose. If he doesn't play, the U.S. will win."

TB was spot on about that. Oh, and it took him about 10 tries before he spelled "subpoenaed" correctly. 

TigerBlog was actually amazed at the entire Folarin Balogun situation, on so many levels. Even more than the politics of it all, TB is just shaking his head at how many people who never heard of him before acted like Michael Jordan had been kicked out of the next round.

Seriously, if you knew a month ago that there was a player in the World Cup named Folarin Balogun, you might have thought he played for Belgium. And speaking of Belgium, they seemed to have figured out trolling to a high level with this:

Meanwhile, there was yesterday's Argentina-Egypt game. Could Argentina possibly do anything that would measure up to its previous game, the epic 3-2 win over Cape Verde last weekend? 

Turns out that the answer was yes. Argentina trailed 2-0 late into the second half and then scored three goals to win, the second a massive strike from Lionel Messi and the third a controversial one that came after a non-call that would have given Egypt a penalty kick at the other end. 

This all happened as Novak Djokovic was winning a first-set tiebreaker in his Wimbledon quarterfinal. Did you see what he did from there? It was simply stunning to watch as he beat an opponent 16 years younger than he is in 5:16. That's five hours and 16 minutes. 

Messi and Djokovic are two of the most remarkable athletes ever, both still at or near the top of their sport as they are approaching 40 years old (Djokovic, in fact, is 32 days older than Messi).

So that's the first thing TB wanted to say. 

The other is this: How in the world did he forget to mention the 1975 NIT when he was talking about Princeton and Madison Square Garden yesterday? 

TB always thinks he's overlooking something or someone obvious when he makes a list of things. This one, though, should have been completely obvious. 

Back in 1975, the NCAA tournament had a field of 32 teams, which left a lot of really good teams on the outside. An additional 16 made it into the NIT, putting 48 teams between the two tournaments. This past year, that number was 100 — and it'll be going up this coming year. 

The fact that the NCAA field was so small still meant that the NIT back then was still a very, very important event. And also in 1975, the entirety of the tournament was played at the Garden, something that was true from the tournament's inception in 1938 until 1977. 

Princeton had one previous NIT appearance, in 1972, when it beat Indiana in the first round and then lost to Niagara. In 1975, Princeton opened the tournament on Sunday, March 16, with an 84-63 win over Holy Cross, after which Pete Carril had this to say: 

"We are still alive and we'll have the ignominious pleasure of playing South Carolina." 

Ignominious. That's not a word TB ever heard from Carril. 

South Carolina that year had been ranked as high as fifth nationally and had defeated Princeton 64-48 in Columbia in December. This time, four days after its tournament opener, Princeton thumped the Gamecocks 86-67. This time, Carril said this, about South Carolina coach Frank McGuire:

"I just hope that by the time I'm his age, I can be half as successful as he's been." 

McGuire coached St. John's, North Carolina and South Carolina, with one year as the head coach of the NBA's Philadelphia Warriors, winning an NCAA title with an unbeaten UNC team in 1957 (beating Kansas and Wilt Chamberlain 54-53 in the final). McGuire (not related to Al McGuire, who coached Marquette to the 1977 NCAA title) also coached St. John's baseball team to the 1949 College World Series. 

Their career college basketball records? McGuire was 549-236. Carril was 523-273. Both are in the Naismith Hall of Fame. Carril might not have won an NCAA championship, but he was way more than half as successful as McGuire. Also, that reminds TB of one of Carril's best quotes: 

"One day I'll be dead and two guys will walk past my grave and say 'poor guy, he never won a national championship, and I won't hear a word they say.'"

Princeton closed out the tournament with a 58-57 win over Oregon and an 80-69 win over Providence in the final on consecutive days that weekend. And what did Carril say afterwards?

"My father told me when I was a kid that the strong take from the weak and the smart take from the strong. They had brains and courage. How can you beat that?"  

Does any of that sound familiar? 

Garden Party

Apparently there was a wedding at Madison Square Garden recently? 

TigerBlog's invitation apparently was lost in the mail. He couldn't have gone anyway; he was busy watching a David Attenborough nature documentary. No. Seriously. He was. If you haven't watched any of them, they're great. 

Back at the wedding, the bride is the second-most famous graduate of Wyomissing Area High School, near Reading, Pa. The most famous? That would be Ross Tucker, the former Princeton and longtime NFL offensive lineman and current big-time football broadcaster. 

Tucker was among the 1,000 or so people who actually were invited and attended the wedding. Really. TB asked Tucker what it was like, and he responded with a single word: "Incredible." That's not hard to imagine, right?  

The building that currently hosts the NBA champion Knicks (how does that sound?) and Rangers — and the occasional wedding — is actually the fourth to be known as Madison Square Garden. The first two were located on the actual Madison Square site, at 23rd between Fifth Ave and Broadway. The third was more uptown, on Eighth Ave between 49th and 50th. 

The first MSG opened in 1879 and was replaced on the same spot 11 years later. That building closed in 1925, when the third came into existence and then lasted through 1968. 

The first time Princeton competed in Madison Square Garden was in that first building, shortly before it closed. The occasion was sort of an indoor sports festival that included indoor football (Rutgers vs. Penn) and indoor lacrosse (Rutgers vs. Staten Island Football Club), on a makeshift dirt field laid out over the wooden floor.

The main event was track and field, and Princeton was well-represented there. One of the Tigers who ran there that night was Knowlton Ames, known as "Snake," who is also better known from his football days. Ames had career totals at Princeton of 62 touchdowns and 730 points, neither of which exactly equate to the way the modern game is played but are still school records. 

The name "Snake Ames" is legendary in Princeton Athletic history. His story was not a happy one. He spent three years as the football coach at Northwestern and Purdue before going into finance and publishing. He was originally very successful in both, but huge money losses at the start of the Depression were too much for him to overcome. He'd commit suicide in 1931 by shooting himself in the head while in his car. 

Princeton's history in the various Madison Square Gardens since that first event in 1889 is storied, to say the least. Bill Bonthron, one of the world's top middle distance runners, competed at the Garden numerous times, setting multiple team and national records individually or as part of relays, including a five-man distance medley relay. 

There was this from the Daily Princeton on Feb. 27, 1933:

Princeton's relay team, aided greatly by Bill Bonthron's spectacular spurt in the 1500 meters leg, chopped 14 seconds off the unofficial indoor championship record for the 2900-meter medley relay before 16,000 fans at the A. A. U. track and field games at the Madison Square Garden Saturday night.The relay team, which only last Monday lowered the Princeton record for the two-mile relay to 7:51.8, established a new championship mark of 7:09, breaking the old unofficial record of 7:23 by 14 seconds.

A few decades later, Bill Burke became the first Princeton to run a sub-four minute mile when he finished in 3:58.7 at the 1991 Milrose Games there (TigerBlog interviewed him at halftime of the Princeton men's basketball game in Jadwin Gym the next night). 

The men's basketball team has had some epic nights in the building as well. There was the 1997 Holiday Festival, won by the Tigers with victories of Niagara and Drexel, famously 1) getting 21 assists on 21 baskets and 2) hearing head coach Bill Carmody say "you're smart; you'll figure it out" during a timeout. 

When you talk about Princeton in the Holiday Festival, you have to go back to the 1964 game between Bill Bradley's Tigers and Michigan, led by Cazzie Russell and ranked No. 1 nationally. Princeton led when Bradley fouled out after scoring 41 points, but the Wolverines would come back to win 80-78 — and then beat Princeton in March in Oregon at the Final Four. 

Bradley and Russell would spend several years as teammates with the Knicks, playing in the old Garden and winning a championship in the new one in 1970. Neither was a starter in 1967-68, when the team played in its last game in the old Garden on Feb. 10 (defeating the 76ers) and the first game in the new one four day later (defeating the San Diego Rockets, who played in Southern California for their first four years before moving to Houston in 1971). 

Madison Square Garden calls itself "The World's Most Famous Arena." This past weekend it hosted "The World's Most Famous Wedding."

It's good to know that Princeton was once again represented there, as has been the case throughout the building's history. 

Thinking Of Grant

GUEST TIGERBLOG BY NATE EWELL ON THE DEATH OF GRANT WAHL • Dec. 13, 2022 

Did you see the game the other night? 

If you did, then you know exactly to which game TigerBlog refers. If you didn't or missed what everyone else said about it, the game was the World Cup knockout round game between Argentina and Cape Verde. 

That's powerhouse Argentina, the defending World Cup champion. And that's "who can find it on a map" Cape Verde, with all of 520,000 citizens. Argentina entered the World Cup ranked No. 1 in the world in the FIFA rankings. Cape Verde was ranked 69th. 

Argentina is in its 19th World Cup, with three championships. Cape Verde is in its first. The game Friday night in Miami would be Argentina's 91st World Cup game all-time. It would be Cape Verde's fourth.  

What would the final be? 3-0? 4-0?

Argentina scored first, with a Lionel Messi goal. Somehow, Cape Verde tied it. That was miraculous enough. What followed was just amazing. 

Cape Verde kept it 1-1 through the end of regulation, largely because of its goalkeeper, Vozinha, who made 10 saves in the game, five against Messi. The fairy tale seemed over when Argentina scored early in the extra time — until one of the most stunning moments the World Cup has ever seen, when Sidny Lopes Cabral curled in a perfect shot from just inside the box to make it 2-2. 

It's hard to overstate just how incredible that goal was. First of all, once Argentina went ahead again, there was probably no one who thought Cape Verde would answer. It was like when Rocky got off the canvas in the 14th round of his first fight against Apollo Creed. 

Sadly, much like Rocky, Cape Verde was defeated when Argentina scored again in the second extra time period. Ah, but much like Rocky, the team from the tiny island off the coast of Africa was the one that left the lasting impression. 

Had Cape Verde won, it would have been the biggest upset in World Cup history and probably the biggest upset in international sports since the 1980 Miracle on Ice. The game, though, was riveting from start to finish and was one of the best sporting events TB has ever seen. When Lopes Cabral's goal when in, TB almost fell of the couch while letting fly some sort of audible expletive. 

Well done, Cape Verde. 

Elsewhere in the World Cup, the United States will have Folarin Balogun tonight when it takes on Belgium in the Round of 16. TB's favorite part of this whole thing is how pretty much nobody outside of serious soccer fans had heard of Balogun before the World Cup started. 

You know who would be loving this World Cup? That would be Grant Wahl, Princeton Class of 1996. TigerBlog wrote this about Grant during the last World Cup in Qatar, where unbelievably Grant passed away in the press box, at the age of 48:

To most of the world, Grant Wahl was the premiere soccer journalist ever from America and one of the greatest ever from any country. Grant's death has brought an outpouring of sympathy from athletes, politicians (including the Governor of New Jersey), fans and especially his fellow writers. To TigerBlog, Grant Wahl, Class of 1996, was more than that. Grant was the guy he met back in the mid-1990s, back when Grant was a student worker in the Office of Athletic Communications and one of the sports editors of the Daily Princetonian. TB knew Grant to be exactly who he was: kind, friendly, funny, strong and pretty much any other positive quality you want to ascribe to someone. 

What stood out first about Grant all those years ago was his ability to write. There are not many who are good writers at a young age, and even fewer who are great writers by that point.

TB has never seen anyone who could write like Grant could as a college student. Certainly TB himself couldn't do it.

Grant was great at telling stories, legendarily so, even back then. His writing was superb, entertaining, well-crafted. More than anything else, though, it was, in a word, mature. If you read what he wrote, you would never have guessed that it came from someone so young.

He wrote this after Princeton's 10-10 tie with Dartmouth on the final day of the 1995 football season, a tie that earned the Tigers an outright Ivy League championship:

A glance at each of the sidelines after Sierk's kick revealed much more than than the hollow-gutted ambivalence that normally accompanies such results.

That's John McPhee-level stuff there. 

That writing skill stayed with him as he grew into that maturity. What he came to develop beyond that was the ability to write difficult truths, and even more difficult opinions. 

If Grant's writing was defined by its maturity as a college student, it was defined by his courage as an adult. That's not a common trait. Most writers want to be liked, especially by the subjects of their writing. It's tough to put that natural feeling aside and hold people accountable, and it's even tougher to do so and then go right into the lions' den of a lockerroom afterwards.

It may not get you liked. It will get you respected. Grant? He had everyone's respect. Perhaps the root of this began with his senior thesis at Princeton, entitled "Playing the Political Game: Soccer Clubs in Argentine Civil Society."

Grant died while literally writing a story at the World Cup about the game between the Netherlands and Argentina. It was the eighth World Cup that he covered. 

Even now, one full World Cup later, it's hard to imagine that Grant isn't there to be a part of it all. What would he have written about Cape Verde? What would have been his thoughts on how Balogun's red card was rescinded? You can guarantee it wouldn't have been some jingoistic cheerleading. 

Read Nate's piece. Read TB's words. Or don't. 

Just know that Grant Wahl was a very, very special person, one who was taken far too young. 

And he would have loved the Argentina-Cape Verde game even more than TigerBlog.