Meeting Amie And Martha

If you walk into the Si Qin Family Indoor Tennis Center, you'll see photos and text that trace the history of the two Princeton teams. 

In one of those pictures, a black-and-white one, a woman in a "P" tennis sweater is following through on a shot. What do you see? A wooden racket, for starters. Looking closer, it's obvious that she's completely focused with her eyes dialed in on the ball that she just hit. 

The picture hangs there every day. The woman in the yellow sweater and blue jeans in front of it does not. In fact, this is her first time here — in this building, not at Princeton. 

This woman's face lacks the intensity on the one of the woman on the wall. Beyond that, they're the same face, since they are, in fact, the same woman. 

On the wall is Amie Knox, in 1977. In front of it is Amie Knox, in 2026. 

A few minutes earlier, TigerBlog looked down towards the far courts and saw another familiar face. This one belonged to Martha Russo, Class of 1985. 

This was a little more than a week ago. Prior to that, TB had never met either woman — at least not in person. 

Despite that little fact, he could tell you anything you want to know about them, since they were a big part of his book on the first 50 years of women's athletics at Princeton, entitled "I Can Do Anything." 

TB had spoken to them both and then wrote their life stories for the book. Until that day at the tennis center, though, he'd never seen either in person. It's a bit odd, "meeting" people whom you already "know" so well. 

It was like a family reunion of sorts, with hugs and smiles and telling stories and laughing. TB had to keep reminding himself that this was, in fact, the first time he'd met either. 

Knox won 11 letters and a von Kienbusch Award after playing field hockey, squash and tennis as one of only 17 women ever to letter in three sports at Princeton. She was a multiple time national champion in squash and Eastern champ in tennis. 

Russo was on her way to multiple All-American honors in both field hockey and lacrosse and ultimately the Olympic Games before two massive knee injuries ended her athletic career and opened a new door. 

It was that door that brought the two together and brought them back to campus. 

Of all of the athletes about whom TB wrote for the book, a number just short of 100, there were a few who stood out with the awe that they brought out in their former teammates who spoke about them. In his book, TigerBlog describes the way they spoke about Russo as "reverential." She was gifted with a different gear, one that enabled her to go from 0 to 60 faster than anyone else. 

TB smiles as he remembers the story Russo told him about how she would make money for her older brothers by racing their friends and never losing. That's one of his favorite stories in the book.  

Russo made the U.S. national field hockey team while she was still in high school, only to have her path to the 1984 USA Olympics went from sure-thing to over with the two knee injuries. The door that opened was in the art world, where she first studied at Princeton under professor Toshiko Takauzu. 

Knox, for her part, worked at ABC Sports for much of her career. She now makes documentary films, including one entitled "Time And Other Materials," centered around five artists, one of whom was Russo. Both grew up in Southern Connecticut. Both now live in Colorado, which is where they first came into each other's orbit. 

Meanwhile, one day before TB saw them at the tennis center, they were at the University Art Museum for a screening of that movie. One day before that, Emilia Reay happened to read the chapters about both of them in TB's book. 

If you haven't met the human jet engine that is Emilia Reay, you probably will at some point. She's a sophomore who is involved in basically everything, from creating videos for Mathey College to writing for the Daily Princetonian to working for TB at men's lacrosse games. She's headed this summer to an internship with USA Lacrosse. 

When TB pointed out to her that Knox and Russo would be on campus, Emilia went from never having heard of either of them to being the youngest person at the screening. And, of course, she came away with a photo of the three of them. 

TigerBlog was really happy to meet Amie and Martha. And he thinks that picture is such a great representation of Princeton. You have three women, one from the 1970s, one from the 1980s and now one from the Class of 2028. 

It's a meeting of generations, bound by their Orange and Black bond. 

Oh, and did TB mention that Emilia does frequent commentaries on her Instagram page. You can find them at emiliareaycametoplay.

Here's the one she did after meeting Amie and Martha:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by EMILIA REAY (@emiliareaycametoplay)

How good is that? Check her out on Instagram for more of those. 

Amie Knox and Martha Russo are two of Princeton's greatest athletes ever. Getting a chance to meet them, especially after having written about them, was a thrill. 

For TB, and for Emilia. 

Weekend Connections

As TigerBlog has often said, he's a big fan of puzzles. 

His daily routine includes the mini, midi and regular crosswords. There are Strands, Letterboxed and Spelling Bee. 

And Wordle. He recently saw a great cartoon that had a guy standing on the side of a highway holding a sign that said: "Today's Wordle Is ..."

And Connections, both the regular and the sports version. All of those are an every day thing for TB. 

As such, he saw this (before three different people sent it to him) the other day: 

There it is. Princeton. It's one of the four clues that refer to "offenses," along with pick and roll, triangle and motion. 

In fact, that has inspired TigerBlog to make his second attempt at a "Princeton Athletics" Connections edition. 

The first one didn't go too well, since it's really hard to find the balance between way too easy and impossible. This time, this is sort of a Weekend in Review Connections. 

And here you are:

Lightning || Cab || Spain || Mack

Softball ||  Word || Jackson || Miley Cyrus

Dom || Burchett || Atkinson || Maple Syrup 

The Academy || Women's Tennis || Rugby || Payne

Okay, figure it out? Again, it's not that easy to balance making it too easy and too hard. 

And now TB needs to give you a few paragraphs to work on it. Hmmmm. What should he talk about in the meantime? 

Well, here's something: TB is getting congratulations on his LinkedIn page for his work anniversary. It says it's his 35th year at Princeton. 

The only problem is that this isn't the case. He's finishing Year 32 as a Princeton employee, after five years of covering Princeton while in the newspaper business. So 35th anniversary? 

He's not sure where that came from. In fact, he's not even sure where his LinkedIn page came from, since he isn't the one who set it up. He's pretty sure that someone in the athletic department set them up for a bunch of people. 

Still, thanks to everyone who checked in on LinkedIn. 

Anyway, back at Weekend Connections. Did you solve it?

Here are the answers: 

* Lightning, Miley Cyrus, Maple Syrup, The Academy
* Atkinson, Burchett, Jackson, Payne
* Cab, Dom, Mack, Word
* Rugby, Softball, Spain, Women's Tennis

Did you get it right? 

Here are the way they're connected: 

* Lightning, Miley Cyrus, Maple Syrup, The Academy

This would be things associated with places where Princeton teams competed this weekend. 

Lightning? That would be Tampa, where the women's rugby team went 5-1 at the Tropical 7s, reaching the final of the event. 

Miley Cyrus? That would be Franklin, Tenn, which is Miley's hometown. That's where the men's golf team competed at the Mason Rudolph Championship. 

Maple Syrup? Vermont. In this case, Burlington, Vermont. That's where the men's lacrosse team was Saturday for a 19-5 win over the Catamounts in a game that was 13-0 at the half. 

The Academy? That's Annapolis, Md., where the men's heavyweight rowing team retained the Navy-Princeton Cup, winning every race of the day.  

 * Atkinson, Burchett, Jackson, Payne

This would be the 4x100 relay team of Brooke Jackson, Maisha Atkinson, Laila Payne and Franziska Burchett, who ran a 45.39 to win the event Saturday at Princeton's Sam Howell Invitational. It was the second-fastest time in program history. 

 * Cab, Dom, Mack, Word

This would be words that sound like the beginning of the first or last names of Princeton athletes who led their teams in scoring this weekend. 

Cab — Nate Kabiri of the men's lacrosse team, who had five goals and two assists at Vermont.

Dom — Graciela Dominguez of the softball team, who scored seven runs in three games, all wins, over Brown. The three wins improved Princeton to 9-0 in the league, something no team has done before since the league went to its current format of three-game series against each team in 2018. 

Mack — Jami MacDonald of the women's lacrosse team, who also had five goals and two assists, as  Princeton won a key Ivy League game against Cornell 14-12.  

Word — Grant Werdesheim of the baseball team, who scored three runs. This one gets a bit of an asterisk, since his teammate Jake Kernodle also had three. 

 * Rugby, Softball, Spain, Women's Tennis

This would all be multiple winners this weekend. 

As TB said, the women's rugby team went 5-1 at the event in Florida and the softball team went 3-0 at home against Brown. 

Spain refers to Jadon Spain, who won the 100 meter dash at the Sam Howell meet and who also teamed with Greg Foster, Jackson Clarke and Charlie Sexton to win the 4x100 relay. 

Women's tennis? The Tigers went 2-0, defeating Harvard and Dartmouth to improve to 3-0 in the Ivy League, tied with Columbia for first place. 

April Weekend

TigerBlog heard from quite a few of you yesterday about his story about trying to be a running back for one play for the Princeton football team back in the training camp of 1994.

All but one of those responses were of the same basic theme: "You got me." One of them, though, was this: "If you had any guts, you'd do it this coming training camp." 

To that, TB says this: "No chance."

Anyway, that's enough April Fools' stuff for one year. It's April Fools' Day, not April Fools' week or month. 

*

March is supposed to come in like a lion and go out like a lamb, and it certainly go the second part right. It was around 70 at midnight when March turned to April. 

Of course, April showers being what they are, the schedule for baseball and softball this weekend has had to be altered due to the forecast. Instead of playing tomorrow and Sunday, both teams will play games today and tomorrow, both at home. 

For the softball team, that means a single game today at 4 against Brown, with two more tomorrow, beginning at 12:30. For the baseball team, it means three against Yale, with one today at 3 and then a doubleheader tomorrow, with first pitch at 11:30. 

The softball team is 6-0 already in the league as it looks to win another Ivy title and to host the tournament next month. Brown's last trip to Cynthia Paul Field ended with a dogpile (or is that Bearpile) for winning the 2025 Ivy tournament. 

Princeton has hosted the league tournament (or championship series, its predecessor) each of the last four years as the Ivy champ. Princeton won the postseason event in 2022 and 2024, but before it can worry about a numerical recurrence, there is the matter of 15 more regular season games. 

The baseball team also has 15 regular season games to go as it pursues an Ivy tournament spot. Right now each team has played six league games, and three games separate all eight teams. 

*

The women's lacrosse team has three Ivy League games in eight days beginning tomorrow at noon, when Cornell comes to Sherrerd Field. After that, it'll be the Tigers and Penn Wednesday at 7 on the same field and then a trip to Columbia a week from tomorrow at 1.

Princeton and Penn have played two Ivy games to date, while the rest of the league has played three each. The Tigers are 1-1, while Cornell is 2-1. Yale (3-0) and Penn (2-0) are unbeaten, while the other four teams all have at least two losses. 

The top four teams will compete in the Ivy tournament next month as well.  

* 

The forecast for tomorrow in Princeton is for a temperature near 80. In Burlington, the one in Vermont, it's for 45 — but at least no rain. 

The men's lacrosse team will make its first trip ever to Vermont as it takes on the Catamounts in the final non-league game of the regular season. After this, it'll be Penn (home), Harvard (away) and Dartmouth (home) before possible Ivy tournament and NCAA tournament games. 

Here's one tidbit about the men's lacrosse team: 

Jack Stahl has had more caused turnovers than goals allowed by the player he’s been guarding in seven of the eight games since he’s moved to a starting defenseman spot from longstick midfielder. Stahl was named Inside Lacrosse’s No. 1 breakout player of the season two weeks ago.  

That seems pretty good. 

*

The Sam Howell Invitational track and field meet will be held this weekend at Weaver Track and Field Stadium. 

Of every sport, the track and field season goes the longest, especially if you add cross country into the mix. It is a physical and mental grind, especially since the whole point is to be at peak form at the most important moments of the season. 

There aren't many people in Princeton left who knew Sam Howell. TigerBlog did. Howell, for those who don't know, was a 1950 Princeton grad who worked here for 38 years, including 21 years (1970-91) as an Associate Athletic Director. 

There was a plaque in Sam's memory outside the ticket office in Jadwin Gym, and it refered to him as "warm-hearted."  Yeah, that's definitely how TB would describe him to someone who never had a chance to meet him. 

*

The women's tennis team won its Ivy League opener last week at home against Penn, and the Tigers now have two more this weekend in Princeton — tomorrow against Harvard and Sunday against Dartmouth. The doubles will start at 1 both days. 

If you haven't seen it already, you can check out TigerBlog's feature story on Eva Elbaz, the only senior on the team and its No. 3 singles player. Elbaz grew up in Paris and moved to this country to go to high school at IMG Academy in Florida as a 16-year-old junior. Oh, and she didn't speak English at the time. 

You can read the story HERE.

*

As for the rest of the weekend schedule, you can see it HERE.

Irreverence, With A Modicum Of Responsibility

After a day of being inundated with obviously fake press releases and stories, TigerBlog would like to point out something that he should have mentioned related to April Fools' Day.

The point is not to get someone to believe something plausible. The point is to get someone to believe something completely implausible.  

A school may start a new Division I program in a sport? A popular show was canceled? Where's the creativity?

Do you want to know where the creativity is? It is right HERE.  

Oh, and if you didn't know to do it already, take the first letter of each word in the subhead and see what it spells. 

TigerBlog was right. The more implausible, the better. 

TB hasn't read that piece in a very long time, and yet he remembers back to when it first came out. He and everyone he knew believed every word of it.  

The author was George Plimpton. If you don't know anything about him, he was a pretty fascinating human being, even if he did go to Harvard. 

Plimpton spoke at the Daily Princetonian banquet back in March of 1969, which was 60 years ago and 16 years before the Sidd Finch story. Here is what the newspaper wrote about Plimpton's talk: 

George Plimpton, Paper Lion and graduate of the Harvard Lampoon and the Boston Celtics training camp, told an audience of 90 at last night's 93rd annual Daily Princetonian banquet that "irreverance with a modicum of responsibility" is the key virtue in college publications. Plimpton, looking like a cross between a tall Johnny Carson and a suntanned Ted Kennedy, entertained his audience with anecdotes of his experiences as America's most famous literary "impostor." His best seller, Paper Lion, is an account of his sojourn with the Detroit Lions football team. Currently he is playing with the Boston Celtics to gather information for a book on the pro basketball team. Before joining up with the Celtics, he was coached by Princeton's Bill Bradley. "Bradley is a polite man. Even after a month of practicing with me, he still called me 'Mr. Plimpton.' "When I practiced set shots sometimes he would say 'Very good, Mr. Plimpton,' but most of the time, 'Too bad, Mr. Plimpton.' " 

If you don't get the "Paper Lion" reference, it refers to one of the books that Plimpton wrote about his own athletic exploits. Actually, make that unathletic exploits, since he wasn't a very good athlete. 

That's not something that prevented him from seeing how an average adult would do against the very best in a sport. He started out by pitching to some of the best players in Major League Baseball back in 1960 for what became a book called "Out Of My League." TB had never heard of it until yesterday, and he ordered in on Amazon. He'll let you know how it is.

Meanwhile, a few years later, Plimpton tried out for the Detroit Lions as a quarterback. The book (and movie starring Alan Alda) was called "Paper Lion."

When he was first at Princeton (and a lot younger), he wanted to emulate "Paper Lion" with the Princeton football team during its 1994 training camp. Back then, the players actually slept in Caldwell Field House, but TB was going to draw the line there. 

His hope was to be a running back for one play, to see what it would be like. He had no illusions of breaking one for 50 yards or anything. He wanted a simple hand-off up the middle, just to see what getting hit would be like. 

Then he'd write about it. How simple, right? 

Well, it started out simply. It was okay with the coaches. It was okay with then-equipment manager Hank Towns, who had to actually teach TB had to put on all the gear. And his uniform number? It was to be 42. What else would he wear other than the number that 10 years later would be retired. 

You know who wasn't okay with it? University Risk Management, even though TB said he would sign a waiver. Nope. No go. 

To this day, TB can still remember how he just couldn't get the practice jersey over the shoulder pads. Who knows how to do that if they've never played football? Turns out you had to put the jersey over the pads before putting either over your head. 

Also to this day, TB wonders what would have happened. He is pretty sure that he would have gotten positive yards. 

Ah, but it's okay, for two reasons. First, the reality is that he likely would have broken something. And second, he made that whole thing up. 

See? The more implausible, the better. 

Now that's irreverence, with a modicum of responsibility. 

Happy Anniversary Sidd Finch

It's April 1 — and you know what that means. 

More lame April Fools' jokes. They're like Super Bowl Commercials. There was a time when they were extraordinarily clever, and that time has passed. 

In fact, April Fools' jokes and Super Bowl commercials both peaked in the 1980s. For the commercials, it was the 1984 introduction of Macintosh computer from Apple. 

And for April Fools' jokes? Well, you had to be there.  

TigerBlog was a senior in West Philadelphia when Sidd Finch burst onto the scene on this day in 1985. Finch was the phenom of all phenoms, and he'd just been signed by the New York Mets. There was a big article in Sports Illustrated and everything.

Finch wore one hiking boot when he pitched and was a big fan of Eastern philosophy. His fastball topped out at 168 mph, and he could pitch every day. Baseball was never going to be the same.

TigerBlog believed every word in the story. Everyone did. Why not? It was in Sports Illustrated, for crying out loud. George Plimpton wrote it.

It was only later – days later – that it became known that it was a hoax. The first letter of every word in the subhead (He's a pitcher, part yogi and part recluse. Impressively liberated from our opulent life-style, Sidd's deciding about yoga) spelled out "Happy April Fools Day."

It remains the greatest April Fools Day prank of all-time – and a great learning lesson for TigerBlog. Lesson No. 1, actually. And what is the lesson?

People believe everything they read. It doesn't matter where they read it. It doesn't matter what it says. If it's written someplace where others can read it, it must be true. 

At least at first. Maybe skepticism takes over at some point, but when you first read whatever words you read, you're very likely to believe them.

TigerBlog did some quick research on the origins of April Fools' Day and saw that it somehow related to "The Canterbury Tales." TB didn't think they were funny at all. 

And maybe the fact that the Sidd Finch piece was so good — like the Apple Macintosh commercial a year earlier — has left TB jaded all these decades since. That's possible. Something certainly has (just kidding). 

For years, TigerBlog has wanted to write a great April Fools story that would be a Princeton version of Sidd Finch. He just hasn't hit upon the perfect idea. It has to be so outrageous, so over-the-top, that it defies all logic and yet fits Rule No. 1 — it was written here, so it must be true. 

The closest he came was a reference to the idea that Princeton was changing its school colors from Orange and Black to silver and teal, and yes, he got a few emails from people who hated the idea. That was pretty good.  

And he has a few other ideas as well. You never know when he might hit you with one of them. Maybe even today. 

In the meantime, there are three Princeton teams who compete today. No, really. There are. This isn't the joke. 

The softball team is at Lehigh at 4 this afternoon for a non-league matchup. How has the Ivy season started for the softball team? 

Well, it's just two weeks in and already the Tigers are 6-0 and three games up on the rest of the field. That's pretty hard to do. Fresh off sweeps of Cornell and Columbia, Princeton will be home the next two weekends against Brown and then Penn, two teams who are in a pack of four at 3-3 right now along with Harvard and Dartmouth. 

Keep in mind that the Ivy League champion will host the league's tournament next month for a spot in the NCAA tournament. 

There are also two home events this evening. 

The women's water polo team is home at 6:30 against Wagner and then at Marist tomorrow at 7 before a week off until the CWPA tournament at Michigan. Princeton is currently 20-5 and ranked 12th, in a tie with Michigan actually, one spot behind Harvard and two spots behind Indiana. 

Also, at 6 tonight, the women's lacrosse team will host Stony Brook. If you're traveling day of game from Stony Brook to Princeton or the other way as often happens, your ride can take somewhere between 2.5 and 11 hours. 

Stony Brook comes into the game tonight ranked 14th nationally. Princeton is 21st. 

The Tigers are looking to rebound after the 16-8 loss to Yale Saturday. Next up for Princeton after this one will be Cornell at home Saturday at noon. 

And with that, go enjoy your Wednesday. If you're playing practical jokes, do TigerBlog a favor. Make them really creative. 

Make Sidd Finch proud.  

Tuesday Night Lacrosse

Did you see that shot off the turnover that went in with less than a second to go in the game Sunday? 

No, not the Duke-UConn one — though upon further review, should UConn coach Danny Hurley have been called for a technical foul for getting in the ref's face and bumping him afterwards? Would you have called one there? 

The shot TB is referencing was a few hours earlier, when Rutgers scored with 0.1 seconds left to tie its men's lacrosse game against Johns Hopkins. The play didn't quite get the national attention of the one in basketball, though the result was basically the same. 

Hopkins had the ball up one but turned it over with 12 seconds left. Rutgers was just able to beat the final horn after an incredible clear. Rutgers won the game, this one in overtime. 

Rutgers (No. 13) is one of the four RPI top 20 teams that Princeton has defeated this season. Ironically, Maryland (No. 21 currently) is not one of them. 

The others are No. 1 North Carolina, No. 3 Syracuse and No. 20 Yale. Princeton is No. 2 in the most updated RPI.

Where else are these Tigers ranked? 

Well, they're No. 2 in RPI, No. 3 in USA Lacrosse Magazine, No. 4 by the coaches and No. 5 in the Kane Inside Lacrosse Media Poll. What would you do if you were making a pregame graphic for the team's game tonight against Lehigh. 

Face-off on Sherrerd Field is at 7 tonight. If you're interested in Division I men's lacrosse this weekend, well, guess what? Between the end of the two games Sunday (UNC defeated Harvard 17-7 in the other one) and the Merrimack-Manhattan game Friday, tonight's game is the only one scheduled. 

This is also Princeton's lone midweek game of the 2026 regular season. Back when TigerBlog started covering the team in the early 1990s, there were three or four of them. 

The Ivy League has seven men's lacrosse teams, which means each team gets one in-season Saturday off from a league game. This is Princeton's week; in addition to the game tonight, Princeton will also play at Vermont Saturday. 

For all of the men's lacrosse games TigerBlog has seen, there aren't too many that can rival the statistical oddities that came out of Saturday's 20-14 win at Brown. Consider these little nuggets:

* Princeton had 11 failed clears
* Princeton had one caused turnover
* Princeton allowed six extra man goals despite committing only four penalties (two were full time)

Despite that, Princeton had the lead for the final 55 minutes of a 60-minute game. The Tigers led by at least four from the end of the first quarter through the end and by at least five for all of the final 37 minutes. 

That is not easy to do. 

Princeton senior midfielder John Dunphey had five goals and three assists in the game. That's one fewer goal than he had in the first seven games combined, and the eight points he had Saturday were also one fewer than he'd had all season prior. 

Dunphey's five goals came on five shots and followed a two-goal, two-shot game the week earlier against Cornell.  His seven straight goals on seven shots match what Chad Palumbo (who also had five goals against Brown) did in the NCAA tournament a year ago. 

It's been quite a season to date for the Tigers, who are hoping to improve on last season's excruciating loss to Syracuse in the NCAA quarterfinals. The Princeton resume, with those big non-league early-season wins, pretty much as the team looking good for the NCAA tournament again; if that does happen it would be the Tigers' fifth straight trip. 

After the two games this week, Princeton finishes the regular season with games at home against Penn, at Harvard and home against Dartmouth. Penn is now No. 18 in RPI, and Harvard is No. 5.  

Meanwhile, again, what was once a very busy night on the college lacrosse schedule has only one game on it tonight — and that is on Sherrerd Field at 7, where Princeton and Lehigh will meet for the, well, who knows how many times they've actually met. 

After all, there is this:

The series history between Princeton and Lehigh is somewhat uncertain. The Princeton record book and the Lehigh record book agree that the first game in the series was a 3-1 Princeton win in 1888. They also agree that there were 10 more games through 1933, though they disagree on the final score of the 1933 game - Lehigh has it 8-4 Princeton; Princeton has it 8-1. It gets a little murkier in 1934 and 1935, when Lehigh has games against Princeton but Princeton has games against Lehigh L.C., not Lehigh, like the first 11 games. Then there's 1940 and 1941, when Lehigh has a pair of games against Princeton that Princeton has no record of having been played.  

Winter Wonderland

Well, just when it looked like the current NCAA men's basketball tournament would get all the way to the Final Four without anything remotely interesting happening, along came UConn-Duke. 

It certainly looked like another dull regional final, like the other three had been, after the eight Sweet 16 games weren't exactly memorable either. Duke led by 19 points in the first half and 15 at the half. You could be forgiven if you turned it off and started scrolling X or went to dinner or watched whatever show you were binging.  

In fact, TigerBlog has a friend who was working and wanted to know if the game was worth watching. TB's first response was "no." His second response was "you may want to watch the last few minutes."

What started out as boring and didn't seem like it was going to be any different most of the way ended up being one of the best endings of an NCAA game you'll ever see. It wasn't quite Duke-Kentucky from 1992, another East Regional final, but it was incredible nonetheless. 

And this time, Duke on the losing end, as UConn miraculously pulled out a 73-72 win when Braylon Mullins hit a shot with 0.3 seconds to go from so far beyond the three-point line that it would have made Caitlin Clark envious. The shot came after Duke had 1) led by 19-points in the first-half, 2) led by 15 at the half, 3) had the ball and the lead in the final seconds and 4) turned it over just across midcourt with maybe three seconds to go. 

If you watched it, you probably had some sort of expletive come out of your mouth as Mullins' shot splashed through. 

And now the Final Four is set: Michigan vs. Arizona and UConn vs. Illinois. It'll probably be more of the same that has dominated this tournament, but hey, the Duke-UConn game will be talked about forever.  

The two basketball tournaments and the men's ice hockey tournament will be crowning champions in the next two weeks, and that will be it for the winter college seasons. 

For Princeton, the winter ended on the sports calendar just a few days after it did on the actual calendar, which is always a good sign. The final Tigers to compete were on the men's swimming and diving team, who finished the season this weekend at Georgia Tech. 

Princeton, in fact, finished 22nd as a team there, the program's best finish in 14 years. The team was led by senior Mitchell Schott, who earned first-team All-American honors by finishing seventh in the 200 butterfly and eighth in the 200 freestyle. 

Sophomore Patrick Dinu finished 11th in the 100 free, becoming a second-team All-American. Schott and Dinu teamed with Logan Noguchi and Jake Tararo to finish 16th nationally in the 400 free relay, giving those four honorable mention All-American honors. 

It's always good to have All-Americans. 

And championships. 

Princeton Athletics had plenty of both in the winter season that just ended. 

Princeton won the Ivy League championship in men's swimming and diving. And women's swimming and diving. And men's indoor track and field. And women's indoor track and field. And women's basketball. And women's squash. 

That's six Ivy titles for the winter — which runs the 2025-26 total to 11 after a five-title fall: men's cross country, women's cross country, men's soccer, women's soccer and women's volleyball. 

And that doesn't count the women's hockey team, which was the ECAC regular season champion for the first time ever. Or the men's water polo team from the fall. Or the field hockey team's Ivy tournament championship on the way to the national championship game. 

How many All-Americans have there been? TB lost track awhile ago, but the answer is: "a lot."

Even more than that, think about how many athletes play on the seven teams that won championships. For as long as TB has been at Princeton, he's heard about the goal of providing a "championship experience" to those who compete here. 

Of course, that is never a guarantee. And there are great moments that don't end with championships. TigerBlog referenced this last week, with the men's hockey team's loss in overtime to Dartmouth in the ECAC final and Marc-Anthony McGowan's loss in the NCAA 125-pound wrestling final. 

You want to know something else that's great about this past winter for Princeton Athletics? It's not necessary the best winter Princeton has ever had. 

How many places could win that many championships and have that many All-Americans and still make that statement? 

For TB, winter is his least favorite season, at least weather-wise. This one was still a lot of fun, even with all the snow.  

Time And Other Materials

If you want to see two of the greatest athletes in Princeton history this afternoon, can TigerBlog recommend heading to the campus art museum? 

Amie Knox was an 11-letter winner between field hockey, squash and tennis who graduated in 1977. Martha Russo was a field hockey/lacrosse player who graduated in 1985.

Was she just any field hockey/lacrosse player? Uh, no. Russo is widely considered to be as fine an athlete as there was in the first 20 or so years of women's athletics at Princeton. She was a speed demon — at least until she suffered two devastating knee injuries. 

Instead of competing in the 1984 Olympics with the U.S. field hockey team, Russo's athletic career was over. 

The two athletic legends will be at the Art Museum today at 2 for a screening of the documentary "Time And Other Materials." Russo turned to art after her injuries and today is a highly regarded sculptor. Knox went into a career in television and film production. 

The documentary, according to the website: 
"is a captivating look at what it means to live a life devoted to creativity. Through a series of intimate studio sessions, the documentary film explores the inner worlds and artistic processes of five women artists working in animation, ceramics, installation, large-scale sculpture, and more. Following the screening, Martha Russo ’85, a former student of the artist Toshiko Takaezu and one of the artists featured in the film, will join director Amie Knox ’77 in a discussion moderated by Lecturer in Visual Arts Dani Levine."

For more information, click HERE. 

You can read more about the two in TigerBlog's book on the first 50 years of women's athletics at Princeton, which you can get HERE. 

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The women's lacrosse team is home tomorrow, which itself is news. The Tigers have played seven games to date, only one of which has been on Sherrerd Field. 

The opponent tomorrow will be Yale, who is ranked No. 9 in the current Kane Inside Lacrosse media poll, the same poll that has Princeton at No. 19. If you go by RPI, the teams are much closer, with Princeton at No. 14 and Yale at No. 15.

Princeton averages 14.29 goals per game, which is about three times as many as Yale, who leads Division I in scoring defense at 5.39, allows. Yale is 2-0 in the league with wins over Columbia and Brown, while Princeton is 1-0, with a win over Harvard. Penn is the only other unbeaten in the league at Dartmouth. 

The opening draw tomorrow is at noon. 

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You can see a lot of Princeton-Brown tomorrow in Providence if you happen to be there. 

The men's lacrosse team will be there tomorrow at noon to take on the Bears. About 100 yards away, the Princeton baseball team will be playing a doubleheader, with first pitch tomorrow at 11:30. There will also be a third game (baseball, not lacrosse) Sunday at noon.

The men's lacrosse team will look to rebound from its 13-11 loss to Cornell a week ago, which ended a five-game winning streak and evened the Tigers' Ivy record at 1-1. Princeton has won 11 straight Ivy games against teams other than Cornell but is 0-3 against the Big Red in that same stretch. 

The last Princeton loss to an Ivy team other than Cornell? That would have been the last trip to Brown, where the Bears won 13-12 after jumping out to a 6-0 lead back in 2024.

The baseball team won its first two league games last weekend against Cornell before falling in Game 3. Penn is the only team that swept its opening baseball weekend and so is the lone 3-0 team, while Princeton, Brown and Columbia all went 2-1. 

The top four teams in the league in both sports will reach the Ivy League tournament in May. 

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Did you see the Grant Hill-Rick Pitino piece on the 1992 Duke-Kentucky game, which is widely considered to be the greatest college basketball game ever? 

TigerBlog covered that game back in his newspaper days and was seated directly behind the Kentucky bench, about five feet away from Pitino. During the final timeout, TB's only memory of the then-Kentucky coach is that he held his hands up and said "no fouls; don't foul" over and over. 

So what did Pitino say when Hill asked him about it? Exactly what TB remembered that he said. 

Vindication is always fun.  

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As more than one person pointed out to TB yesterday, Carla Berube did promise to do a karaoke duet with him. Now that she's heading to Northwestern, TB resolves to hold her to that some day. 

Meanwhile, again, HERE is the complete weekend schedule. 

And if you can, get over to the art museum today.  

Goodbye Carla

TigerBlog is pretty sure he had the same reaction to the news that Carla Berube is leaving Princeton to become the head women's basketball coach at Northwestern: "Nope. No. No. Won't allow it. La La La La La."

If you are looking for approval ratings, Berube will be leaving with a 100 percent positive one. TigerBlog has never heard anyone who has worked with her ever have a bad word to say about her. 

TB is in that group, certainly. He got to know her during the years when he and Berube did the "Conversations With Carla" podcast, and even though they haven't had as many conversations the last few years, TB can't say enough good things about her. 

There is absolutely nothing phony about her. She is as driven and competitive as any coach Princeton has had during TB's time here, and yet she has never lost the genuine, warm and upbeat qualities that define her personality.

The news was released yesterday afternoon, in conjunction with the announcement from Northwestern. This isn't the first time TigerBlog will have to root for Northwestern Basketball, since it's not the first time the Wildcats have come to Jadwin Gym to find a new head coach.

It was 26 years ago that Bill Carmody was hired away from Princeton to take over the program in Evanston. There are other connections between Princeton Basketball and Northwestern; men's head coach Mitch Henderson was an assistant for 10 years under Carmody, and Ford Family Director of Athletics John Mack was an administrator there as well. 

TB would include Mike Mahoney in that group, though Mahoney has never actually worked at Princeton. Mahoney, who oversees athletic communications at Penn, was the men's basketball contact at Northwestern when Carmody was there.  

And now Carla Berube heads there. 

There really wasn't much more she could do at Princeton. In her six seasons as Tiger head coach, she put together a 147-28 record. That's a mere .840 winning percentage. 

Her record in Ivy games was even more impressive, as in 77-7. That's .917. 

She won five Ivy League championships and four Ivy League tournaments. She took her team to the NCAA tournament every year, including this past one, when her team went 26-4. She has two NCAA tournament wins on her Princeton resume as well.  

Of course winning has followed her wherever she's gone. None of this is new to any Princeton fans, but she was a 1,000-point scorer and NCAA champ as a player at UConn. She coached Tufts for 17 years and went 384-96 overall. Add in her record at Princeton and you have 531-124. 

Insane. 

As TB wrote not that long ago:

Carla Berube is in her 23rd season as a college basketball head coach. Counting this season, she will have lost five games or fewer in 13 of those seasons. Actually, it becomes more incredible when you consider that only two of her first 10 teams at Tufts lost five or fewer, which means means that 11 of her last 13 teams have lost five games or fewer — including four of six at Princeton. Hey, if you want to throw in the four years she played at UConn, where none of those teams lost more than four games in a season, and in her 27 seasons as a player and head coach, she's up to 17 that have lost five or fewer. 

The program she takes over is coming off an 8-21 season, including 2-14 in the Big Ten. The last time the Wildcats had a winning season was 2021-22, when they went 17-12. Each of the last three seasons has seen the team win just two B1G games. 

There are certainly other questions that this move brings out. Can she win there? What does this mean for UConn when that job eventually opens? Who will replace her at Princeton?

None of those really matter right now. 

For today, there is only the appreciation for Carla Berube, the coach and the human being, and all she did during her time here. 

Princeton University is much better off for having her as one of its own — even if that time is now over. 

Even as TB wishes her the best, he, again, speaks for Princeton fans everywhere when he says that he will miss her.  

One More For Winter

Every time TigerBlog drove, or for that matter walked, over the bridge on Washington Road between December and about two weeks ago, he wondered where the Princeton rowing teams were going to be able to compete this season. 

The lake? It was frozen, presumably solid.  

Every time he looked at the far side of Sherrerd Field, he wondered if Princeton would have a home lacrosse game this season without remnants of the snow bank, the one that at one point stood 14 feet high. During one early season game, TB was asked by a media member why the facility no longer had the men's and women's championship banners along the fence, to which TB pointed out that they were still there, only blocked by the white fortress. 

Then, all of the sudden, the ice was gone from the lake and the snow was (almost completely) gone from the far side. Amazing what rain and a few days near 80 degrees can do.

The oddest part is that TB didn't even notice until it was pointed out to him. "Hey, the snow is gone." And "Hey, the water is back."

And why not?  

It is, after all, officially springtime, or, as Pete Carril would have called it, "the spring of the year."  

The Ivy League baseball and softball seasons opened this past weekend. 

For Princeton, that meant six games against Cornell between the two teams, with five Tiger wins. The softball team won all three of its games, and the baseball team went two for three. 

The Ivy League season opens for both tennis teams this weekend, with the women home against Penn. There is rowing and golf and outdoor track and field and rugby and lacrosse this weekend, all of which are outdoor events. 

HERE is the whole Princeton Athletics schedule. 

Ah, but the winter isn't quite over. Maybe the calendar says it is, but there's still enough chill in the air to suggest otherwise. 

And, there's also still one more winter sports event, at least for Princeton. That would be the NCAA men's swimming and diving championships, which begin today in Atlanta. 

Princeton will be represented there by 10 athletes, three of whom are divers and seven of whom are swimmers. Senior Mitchell Schott and sophomore Patrick Dinu will both be a part of six events, swimming together in the 200, 400 and 800 free relays, against each other in the 200 free and then individually in the 500 free and 200 butterfly (Schott) and 50 and 100 free (Dinu).

Aidan Wang, for his part, will compete in the 1M, 3M and platform diving events. 

The women's event was held in the same pool a week ago. Princeton junior Eleanor Sun finished 14th in the 200 individual medley to earn second-team All-American honors one year after doing so in the 400 IM.

Last weekend also saw Princeton compete at the NCAA fencing championships, where other Tigers became All-Americans as well. 

This year, for the first time, the NCAA fencing national team championship was divided into a men's winner and a women's winner, both of whom happened to be Notre Dame. Before this year, there was one combined, co-ed team champion. 

The individual championships didn't change, with qualifying bouts that earned team points and then sent the top four to the semifinals for each of the three weapons. Tiger junior Hadley Husisian was the runner-up in the epee, giving her three All-American honors in three years of competing (she took off a year while qualifying for the U.S. team at the 2024 Olympics).

Princeton also had three other women become All-Americans: senior Honor Johnson (saber) junior Alexandra Lee (saber, where she reached the semifinals) and freshman Angel Xiao (epee). Princeton finished third in the team standings. 

On the men's side, both senior Brandon Lee (foil) and junior Alec Brooke (epee) were All-Americans, Lee for the third time and Brooke of the second. 

Princeton's men finished ninth overall.  

By the way, a special shout out goes to TB's longtime friend and colleague Andrew Borders, who alerted TB that Princeton's women under the new format would have won the NCAA title in 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2023. The 2013 Tigers did win the combined NCAA championship.