So you know how you send a text message and then get the little "delivered" note underneath it?
So what do you do if you you don't get that message? Does that mean it wasn't delivered? Or was it delivered but you just didn't get the little return message underneath it?
What do you do?
Send another message to see if you get the "delivered" this time? What if you don't again but the messages are actually get through? Are you then annoying the person?
It appears that nearly 10 trillion text messages are sent each year. Surely some of them must get lost in the world of the "un-delivered."
Then there's email.
How many times is there this exchange:
"I sent you an email."
"I didn't get it."
This sort of happened to TigerBlog last week. TigerBlog got a phone call from someone who said he'd also emailed, but TigerBlog honestly couldn't remember getting the original email. When he asked him to resend, TB noticed that the email looked exactly like one of the million or so he gets that he immediately deletes.
For the most part though, TB assumes that email gets through and that if someone says it didn't get through, then what they're really saying is "it got through. It asked me to do something. I didn't do it. I'm telling you I didn't get it."
These are 21st century frustrations.
Back in the antediluvian days of the 20th century, those frustrations didn't exist. Back then it was trying to call someone on the phone and having it ring and ring with no answer, or constantly get a busy signal, something that people under 25 or so have never experienced.
In case you don't know what one of those is, it was a "beep, beep, beep" that you would get if the person you were trying to call was already on the phone. Then someone invented call waiting.
Fasting forward to today, what do you do when you're on the phone with someone in a relatively casual conversation and then you get another call, one that you want to answer without hurting the first person's feelings? What if that person is in the middle of a sentence? Interrupt?
So then you let the person keep talking and then call the other person back, only now, 30 seconds later, there's no answer. Frustrating.
TigerBlog used to have no way of knowing who called his office phone if there was no voicemail. Now he gets an email saying there's a missed call and the number of the caller.
Usually it's a number TB doesn't recognize. Of course, the curiosity factor weighs in, so he'll call the number back, which becomes something a reverse situation, where TB doesn't know the person he's calling.
TB got one of those missed calls yesterday, and so he called the number back, to find it was an alum in Connecticut wanting to know who won the women's water polo game.
Unfortunately, the answer was Indiana, not Princeton. The Tigers reached the CWPA championship game, only to lose to the Hoosiers in the final. Princeton had been ranked ninth nationally; Indiana was ranked 12th.
Princeton finishes its season at 31-2, which is the school record for most wins and fewest losses. It was a great year for Tigers, even if they fell a little short of the ultimately goal. By one goal. There's a harshness there that crosses many sports on the college level, when a razor-thin margin separates the team that advances to the big prize and the one that is left to think about how close it came.
It wasn't the greatest weekend for Princeton teams across the board.
There were some good performances, especially in track and field and rowing. And the men's volleyball team competed hard in the EIVA final at Penn State before falling.
The women's and men's golf teams had very good final rounds, and Kelly Shon earned Ivy League Player of the Year honors for the women, who finished second overall for the second straight year.
The defending-champion men went from seventh to fourth on Sunday, though they did get the award for the best tweet of the weekend. That would be the picture of the Ivy League championship trophy, with the words "We'll be back for you soon."
That's 21st century creativity.
Showing posts with label women's water polo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label women's water polo. Show all posts
Monday, April 28, 2014
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Good Luck To Lamar And Ashley
TigerBlog made a new friend yesterday.
It started when he got a text message from a phone number he didn't know. Usually, text messages come up from someone already in the contacts folder, so it's clear who it is.
When one comes up from a phone number, instead of a name, it usually starts out with "hey, it's so-and-so," and then the rest of the conversation.
This time, it started out with that sort of greeting, though it was coming from someone TB didn't know. Someone named Lamar.
Apparently Lamar was looking for a young woman named Ashley, only he got TigerBlog instead. TB's first thought was that Ashley had given Lamar a made-up number that just happened to be TB's.
As it turned out, apparently at least, Lamar simply entered the number wrong. There was this actual exchange:
Lamar: "I put in the wrong number."
TB: "Good. I'd hate to think that Ashley would do that to you. Let me know how it goes."
Lamar: "Who is this by the way? You seem very friendly and respectful. Usually people act rude."
TB then told Lamar who he was and said that he was adding Lamar to his contacts.
And with that, TB was off to the rest of his day.
The text message is an amazing little thing, isn't it? TigerBlog wonders what the ability to send text messages would have done to make his middle school and high school days different, as he sees the incredible reliance on the medium by his two children - and everyone they know.
TB's philosophy is that it's way easier to text something stupid than it is to say something stupid, which is why so many people get in trouble with things they text.
TB has a friend who has always said that if texting had been invented before calling that people would never text and would always call. The ability to hear someone's voice instead of just seeing the words? Who wouldn't want that.
It's not that much different than having silent movies or ones where you can actually hear what the people say. Despite that, TB is relatively sure that
The next person to text TigerBlog after Lamar was Bill Bromberg, the public address announcer, confirming that he was in for the Ivy League women's lacrosse tournament.
That event is next weekend. This weekend has some big events as well, with the biggest on the road.
The women's water polo team will be competing in the CWPA championships at Bucknell, with the prize a trip to the NCAA championships.
Princeton is ranked ninth in the country and has been dominant all year, but getting back to the NCAA tournament would mean doing so as the No. 2 seed in the CWPA tournament. The top seed is Indiana, the champ of the CWPA's western division and the No. 12 team in the country.
As an aside, the last text messages TB exchanged with water polo coach Luis Nicolao involved a picture of Luis in a speedo from the video for Gary Walters' farewell event, something about sending it to him because his wife wouldn't believe it. Now that is texting at its finest.
Anyway, the water polo event begins tomorrow and runs through Sunday.
The Ivy League men's and women's golf tournaments will also be held tomorrow through Sunday, at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, which is about an hour from Princeton.
Will Green's men's team is the defending champion, while Nicki Cutler's women lost by a single stroke a year ago. One lousy stroke.
Princeton has both defending champs, with seniors Greg Jarmas and Kelly Shon.
Baltusrol is a fairly famous golf course, having hosted the U.S. Open for both the men and women and the PGA Championship for the men, a tournament that will return to the course in 2016. TigerBlog figures he could challenge the course record - for highest score ever recorded.
Fortunately for Princeton, TB won't be one of the golfers going for the Ivy title. Princeton has three women and three men back from last year, and the Tigers figure to be in the chase until the end for both.
There are NCAA tournament spots on the line for women's water polo and men's and women's golf. TigerBlog is rooting for the Tigers - and for Lamar and Ashley.
It started when he got a text message from a phone number he didn't know. Usually, text messages come up from someone already in the contacts folder, so it's clear who it is.
When one comes up from a phone number, instead of a name, it usually starts out with "hey, it's so-and-so," and then the rest of the conversation.
This time, it started out with that sort of greeting, though it was coming from someone TB didn't know. Someone named Lamar.
Apparently Lamar was looking for a young woman named Ashley, only he got TigerBlog instead. TB's first thought was that Ashley had given Lamar a made-up number that just happened to be TB's.
As it turned out, apparently at least, Lamar simply entered the number wrong. There was this actual exchange:
Lamar: "I put in the wrong number."
TB: "Good. I'd hate to think that Ashley would do that to you. Let me know how it goes."
Lamar: "Who is this by the way? You seem very friendly and respectful. Usually people act rude."
TB then told Lamar who he was and said that he was adding Lamar to his contacts.
And with that, TB was off to the rest of his day.
The text message is an amazing little thing, isn't it? TigerBlog wonders what the ability to send text messages would have done to make his middle school and high school days different, as he sees the incredible reliance on the medium by his two children - and everyone they know.
TB's philosophy is that it's way easier to text something stupid than it is to say something stupid, which is why so many people get in trouble with things they text.
TB has a friend who has always said that if texting had been invented before calling that people would never text and would always call. The ability to hear someone's voice instead of just seeing the words? Who wouldn't want that.
It's not that much different than having silent movies or ones where you can actually hear what the people say. Despite that, TB is relatively sure that
The next person to text TigerBlog after Lamar was Bill Bromberg, the public address announcer, confirming that he was in for the Ivy League women's lacrosse tournament.
That event is next weekend. This weekend has some big events as well, with the biggest on the road.
The women's water polo team will be competing in the CWPA championships at Bucknell, with the prize a trip to the NCAA championships.
Princeton is ranked ninth in the country and has been dominant all year, but getting back to the NCAA tournament would mean doing so as the No. 2 seed in the CWPA tournament. The top seed is Indiana, the champ of the CWPA's western division and the No. 12 team in the country.
As an aside, the last text messages TB exchanged with water polo coach Luis Nicolao involved a picture of Luis in a speedo from the video for Gary Walters' farewell event, something about sending it to him because his wife wouldn't believe it. Now that is texting at its finest.
Anyway, the water polo event begins tomorrow and runs through Sunday.
The Ivy League men's and women's golf tournaments will also be held tomorrow through Sunday, at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, which is about an hour from Princeton.
Will Green's men's team is the defending champion, while Nicki Cutler's women lost by a single stroke a year ago. One lousy stroke.
Princeton has both defending champs, with seniors Greg Jarmas and Kelly Shon.
Baltusrol is a fairly famous golf course, having hosted the U.S. Open for both the men and women and the PGA Championship for the men, a tournament that will return to the course in 2016. TigerBlog figures he could challenge the course record - for highest score ever recorded.
Fortunately for Princeton, TB won't be one of the golfers going for the Ivy title. Princeton has three women and three men back from last year, and the Tigers figure to be in the chase until the end for both.
There are NCAA tournament spots on the line for women's water polo and men's and women's golf. TigerBlog is rooting for the Tigers - and for Lamar and Ashley.
Monday, March 3, 2014
Ashleigh Johnson, TV Star
There are two days, TigerBlog believes, when the best movies are on television.
One seems to be Election Day, for some reason. TB supposes that it's to provide an alternative to the wall-to-wall returns that dominate most channels that night.
The runaway winner is clearly the day of the Academy Awards, of course.
This year was no different. In the hours leading up to last night's award's show, all of the following were on one network or another: "Bridge on the River Kwai," "My Fair Lady," "Lawrence of Arabia," "Goodfellas," "Mutiny on the Bounty," L.A. Confidential," "Tootsie" and any number of others.
The Saturday lineup included "Casablanca," which TB has seen enough times to have essentially memorized. It's hard for TB to pick out his favorite line from the movie, and if he had to come up with his 100 favorite lines from any movies of all-time, then there'd probably be five to 10 from "Casablanca."
TigerBlog used to love the Academy Awards, back when he'd see most if not all of the movies that were nominated. This year, he'd seen only one, and, quoting a line from a long ago Weekend Update from "Saturday Night Live," based on what he'd seen, then "American Hustle" should have won.
TB didn't watch any of the awards show. It's a little too much self-love for him among the presenters and host and all.
In fact, for all of the great movies that were on yesterday, the two best things he saw on TV had nothing to do with film-making or the Academy Awards or anything.
First was the "30 For 30" documentary called "Ghosts of Ole Miss," which actually was released two years ago but which TB had not yet seen.
In the first 10 minutes, there is footage of James Meredith as he integrates the University of Mississippi, back in 1962. He walks in escorted by two white men, one of whom was very tall and very thin.
Now, more than 50 years later, that tall white man is one of the most impressive people TB has ever met. His name - John Doar - is now familiar to TB, though not from any history book. Instead, it wasn't until years after he graduated from college with a degree in American history that he even heard of Doar.
For that matter, the documentary never mentions him by name, even though he, along with Meredith, were the ones with the real courage. And yet there he was in the footage, doing what needed to be done because, as he's said simply to TB several times, "it was the right thing to do." One of TB's most cherished possessions is a handwritten note from Mr. Doar thanking TB for nominating him for the NCAA Inspiration Award, which he won several years ago.
The documentary does a great job of chronicling what it took to enroll Meredith while tying it into the Ole Miss football program. The best part - other than the footage of Doar - were the actual phone conversations of then-President John Kennedy surrounding the events.
And again, it left TB wondering what more John Doar could have done to get a little credit for what he did, not that he really cares about that.
In addition to the documentary, TB also watched Princeton's 11-9 win over Harvard in women's water polo on ESPNU.
Princeton's agreement with ESPN is nearly 10 years old and was recently renewed through 2019. Somewhere along the line, ESPNU began to televise Princeton water polo, and the feedback TB gets from the network is that they love it - and that people watch it.
Each of the last few years, there has been a Princeton men's water polo game among the seven events ESPNU has broadcast. This year, the network added a women's game to the men's game, and so there was DeNunzio Pool, on ESPNU again, yesterday morning.
It's easy to overlook water polo when thinking about the great athletes Princeton has had representing it in recent years, but that would be a mistake, especially on the women's side. As TB has said before, there are very few athletes who dominate the way sophomore water polo goalie Ashleigh Johnson does.
That's how it was yesterday during the game. The first half was high-scoring; the second half was all Johnson, and therefore wasn't.
Princeton led 8-7 at the break, and Johnson didn't make a single first-quarter save. It's fair to say she heated up after that.
In the end she'd allow just two second-half goals as Princeton improved to 11-0 on the year. Johnson would finish with 17 saves, and TB has no idea if that's a high number or not for an average goalie. For Johnson, it's her third-best total in 11 games.
More than the number, it's how she does it. She's ridiculously quick and strong. Think about it. She's treading water the entire time and still able to explode to the ball as it comes to her.
One of the reasons ESPNU loves water polo is that it fits into a 90-minute time slot. Because the game was over before that, there was a chance to interview Princeton head coach Luis Nicolao when it was over. It doesn't get too much better than Luis Nicolao, as an interview subject or as a person in general.
As always, Luis came across great on TV. In fact, everything did. The team. The pool. The event. The University's institutional spot with that great narrator with a great voice.
On a great TV day, Princeton water polo couldn't have asked for much more.
One seems to be Election Day, for some reason. TB supposes that it's to provide an alternative to the wall-to-wall returns that dominate most channels that night.
The runaway winner is clearly the day of the Academy Awards, of course.
This year was no different. In the hours leading up to last night's award's show, all of the following were on one network or another: "Bridge on the River Kwai," "My Fair Lady," "Lawrence of Arabia," "Goodfellas," "Mutiny on the Bounty," L.A. Confidential," "Tootsie" and any number of others.
The Saturday lineup included "Casablanca," which TB has seen enough times to have essentially memorized. It's hard for TB to pick out his favorite line from the movie, and if he had to come up with his 100 favorite lines from any movies of all-time, then there'd probably be five to 10 from "Casablanca."
TigerBlog used to love the Academy Awards, back when he'd see most if not all of the movies that were nominated. This year, he'd seen only one, and, quoting a line from a long ago Weekend Update from "Saturday Night Live," based on what he'd seen, then "American Hustle" should have won.
TB didn't watch any of the awards show. It's a little too much self-love for him among the presenters and host and all.
In fact, for all of the great movies that were on yesterday, the two best things he saw on TV had nothing to do with film-making or the Academy Awards or anything.
First was the "30 For 30" documentary called "Ghosts of Ole Miss," which actually was released two years ago but which TB had not yet seen.
In the first 10 minutes, there is footage of James Meredith as he integrates the University of Mississippi, back in 1962. He walks in escorted by two white men, one of whom was very tall and very thin.
Now, more than 50 years later, that tall white man is one of the most impressive people TB has ever met. His name - John Doar - is now familiar to TB, though not from any history book. Instead, it wasn't until years after he graduated from college with a degree in American history that he even heard of Doar.
For that matter, the documentary never mentions him by name, even though he, along with Meredith, were the ones with the real courage. And yet there he was in the footage, doing what needed to be done because, as he's said simply to TB several times, "it was the right thing to do." One of TB's most cherished possessions is a handwritten note from Mr. Doar thanking TB for nominating him for the NCAA Inspiration Award, which he won several years ago.
The documentary does a great job of chronicling what it took to enroll Meredith while tying it into the Ole Miss football program. The best part - other than the footage of Doar - were the actual phone conversations of then-President John Kennedy surrounding the events.
And again, it left TB wondering what more John Doar could have done to get a little credit for what he did, not that he really cares about that.
In addition to the documentary, TB also watched Princeton's 11-9 win over Harvard in women's water polo on ESPNU.
Princeton's agreement with ESPN is nearly 10 years old and was recently renewed through 2019. Somewhere along the line, ESPNU began to televise Princeton water polo, and the feedback TB gets from the network is that they love it - and that people watch it.
Each of the last few years, there has been a Princeton men's water polo game among the seven events ESPNU has broadcast. This year, the network added a women's game to the men's game, and so there was DeNunzio Pool, on ESPNU again, yesterday morning.
It's easy to overlook water polo when thinking about the great athletes Princeton has had representing it in recent years, but that would be a mistake, especially on the women's side. As TB has said before, there are very few athletes who dominate the way sophomore water polo goalie Ashleigh Johnson does.
That's how it was yesterday during the game. The first half was high-scoring; the second half was all Johnson, and therefore wasn't.
Princeton led 8-7 at the break, and Johnson didn't make a single first-quarter save. It's fair to say she heated up after that.
In the end she'd allow just two second-half goals as Princeton improved to 11-0 on the year. Johnson would finish with 17 saves, and TB has no idea if that's a high number or not for an average goalie. For Johnson, it's her third-best total in 11 games.
More than the number, it's how she does it. She's ridiculously quick and strong. Think about it. She's treading water the entire time and still able to explode to the ball as it comes to her.
One of the reasons ESPNU loves water polo is that it fits into a 90-minute time slot. Because the game was over before that, there was a chance to interview Princeton head coach Luis Nicolao when it was over. It doesn't get too much better than Luis Nicolao, as an interview subject or as a person in general.
As always, Luis came across great on TV. In fact, everything did. The team. The pool. The event. The University's institutional spot with that great narrator with a great voice.
On a great TV day, Princeton water polo couldn't have asked for much more.
Monday, August 26, 2013
Reunited
TigerBlog was driving to work today when he heard the unmistakable, instantly recognizable voice of the person who was guest-hosting the "Boomer and Carton Show" on WFAN.
It was none other than New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who was filling in for Boomer, Esiason, that is.
So let's start off right off the bat by saying this is not something pretty much any other high profile, a-chance-to-be-the-next-President politician would even consider.
In the course of the 20 minutes or so that TB was listening, he heard Christie say he hates the Yankees, that the only team he hates more than the Yankees is the Phillies, that he loves the Jets, that a caller who thought that Rex Ryan should be fired immediately was out of his mind and that Geno Smith is definitely not ready to be a starting quarterback but that if he is, then the Jets need to cut Mark Sanchez.
Oh, and he also sang a duet with Carton of the Peaches and Herb sort-of classic "Reunited."
Any other politician would have been tap-dancing around each subject, for fear of the remotest chance of saying something that might possibly turn off one person who otherwise might vote for him/her. And the singing? Never.
This, of course, is precisely why Christie is a different politician, one who strikes fear into the establishment of both parties. And why you could make a case that Christie's approach - which is innate and can't simply be imitated - makes him so appealing to so many people.
Ah, but to paraphrase Rick in "Casablanca," your business is politics; TigerBlog's is running a saloon.
And so TB will stick to less political subjects. Like the MTV Video Music Awards, which presumably were on last night.
Governor Christie also talked about Justin Timberlake, who apparently hit a big home run with his performance with his old band, N'Sync, last night. TB knows no N'Sync songs and isn't troubled by that.
Timberlake comes across as a nice enough guy, so TB is fine with the accolades he was getting at the end of his performance.
Mercifully, TB wasn't watching. He learned all this from Twitter.
Because he wasn't watching, he didn't get to see the train wreck that is Miley Cyrus, who apparently humiliated herself to no end with her own performance, except that this is a country where nobody really ever stands up anymore and says that such behavior is humiliating.
Once upon a time, Miley Cyrus was one of TB's favorite kid show characters, the very watchable Hannah Montana. If you have an early teenage daughter now, then you get TB's point.
"Hannah Montana" was a perfectly wholesome 30 minutes, time that an adult parent could suffer through without wanting to gouge out an eyeball or two, unlike so many other shows that kids get addicted to and force their parents to see.
Yeah, if you went to school with Miley and couldn't figure out she was Hannah then you didn't exactly deserve to be on the honor roll, but that's nitpicking.
Now? TB can sum her up in one word: yuck.
Ashleigh Johnson's 19th birthday is a few weeks down the road, so TB thinks she's a little too old to have been a fan of Hannah. Maybe she caught the beginning before she grew out of it.
Whatever she watched as a kid, she herself is now very much worth watching herself. Maybe women's water polo flies under the radar a bit, but that doesn't change the fact that Johnson may very well be Princeton's best female athlete right now.
By the time she's done, it's possible that "right now" could be changed to "ever." At the very least she's in the discussion for the first and ultimately has to be for the second.
Johnson finished her summer vacation in Greece this past weekend by being named the outstanding goalie of the World Junior Championships and helping the U.S. to the gold medal.
It's not a bad performance for a young woman who is starting her sophomore year of college.
A year ago, Johnson led Princeton to the Eastern championship and a fifth-place national finish. Along the way, it seemed like every picture that was taken of her showed her doing something ridiculously athletic and spectacular.
If you don't think water polo requires an unbelievable amount of stamina, strength, tenacity and athleticism, try going and treading water for seven minutes at a time with nobody else in the pool. Then try it with a pool full of people who are trying to essentially beat you up.
Luis Nicolao has done a great job through the years coaching both the men's and women's programs.
He's also somewhat buddies with the New Jersey Governor, whom he met at a Bruce Springsteen concert, where the two looked like long-time buddies or even brothers in the picture they had taken together.
A picture like that is a great prize to have.
So is a goalie like Ashleigh Johnson. Make sure you see her this spring and the two that follow it.
You'll be looking at a rare, rare athlete.
It was none other than New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who was filling in for Boomer, Esiason, that is.
So let's start off right off the bat by saying this is not something pretty much any other high profile, a-chance-to-be-the-next-President politician would even consider.
In the course of the 20 minutes or so that TB was listening, he heard Christie say he hates the Yankees, that the only team he hates more than the Yankees is the Phillies, that he loves the Jets, that a caller who thought that Rex Ryan should be fired immediately was out of his mind and that Geno Smith is definitely not ready to be a starting quarterback but that if he is, then the Jets need to cut Mark Sanchez.
Oh, and he also sang a duet with Carton of the Peaches and Herb sort-of classic "Reunited."
Any other politician would have been tap-dancing around each subject, for fear of the remotest chance of saying something that might possibly turn off one person who otherwise might vote for him/her. And the singing? Never.
This, of course, is precisely why Christie is a different politician, one who strikes fear into the establishment of both parties. And why you could make a case that Christie's approach - which is innate and can't simply be imitated - makes him so appealing to so many people.
Ah, but to paraphrase Rick in "Casablanca," your business is politics; TigerBlog's is running a saloon.
And so TB will stick to less political subjects. Like the MTV Video Music Awards, which presumably were on last night.
Governor Christie also talked about Justin Timberlake, who apparently hit a big home run with his performance with his old band, N'Sync, last night. TB knows no N'Sync songs and isn't troubled by that.
Timberlake comes across as a nice enough guy, so TB is fine with the accolades he was getting at the end of his performance.
Mercifully, TB wasn't watching. He learned all this from Twitter.
Because he wasn't watching, he didn't get to see the train wreck that is Miley Cyrus, who apparently humiliated herself to no end with her own performance, except that this is a country where nobody really ever stands up anymore and says that such behavior is humiliating.
Once upon a time, Miley Cyrus was one of TB's favorite kid show characters, the very watchable Hannah Montana. If you have an early teenage daughter now, then you get TB's point.
"Hannah Montana" was a perfectly wholesome 30 minutes, time that an adult parent could suffer through without wanting to gouge out an eyeball or two, unlike so many other shows that kids get addicted to and force their parents to see.
Yeah, if you went to school with Miley and couldn't figure out she was Hannah then you didn't exactly deserve to be on the honor roll, but that's nitpicking.
Now? TB can sum her up in one word: yuck.
Ashleigh Johnson's 19th birthday is a few weeks down the road, so TB thinks she's a little too old to have been a fan of Hannah. Maybe she caught the beginning before she grew out of it.
Whatever she watched as a kid, she herself is now very much worth watching herself. Maybe women's water polo flies under the radar a bit, but that doesn't change the fact that Johnson may very well be Princeton's best female athlete right now.
By the time she's done, it's possible that "right now" could be changed to "ever." At the very least she's in the discussion for the first and ultimately has to be for the second.
Johnson finished her summer vacation in Greece this past weekend by being named the outstanding goalie of the World Junior Championships and helping the U.S. to the gold medal.
It's not a bad performance for a young woman who is starting her sophomore year of college.
A year ago, Johnson led Princeton to the Eastern championship and a fifth-place national finish. Along the way, it seemed like every picture that was taken of her showed her doing something ridiculously athletic and spectacular.
If you don't think water polo requires an unbelievable amount of stamina, strength, tenacity and athleticism, try going and treading water for seven minutes at a time with nobody else in the pool. Then try it with a pool full of people who are trying to essentially beat you up.
Luis Nicolao has done a great job through the years coaching both the men's and women's programs.
He's also somewhat buddies with the New Jersey Governor, whom he met at a Bruce Springsteen concert, where the two looked like long-time buddies or even brothers in the picture they had taken together.
A picture like that is a great prize to have.
So is a goalie like Ashleigh Johnson. Make sure you see her this spring and the two that follow it.
You'll be looking at a rare, rare athlete.
Monday, May 13, 2013
Finding Consolation
TigerBlog turned on the women's lacrosse videostream Friday evening just in time to see a disallowed Princeton goal and an over-the-back call on a draw control that took possession away from the Tigers when they needed it most.
TB isn't saying either was a bad call. Far from it.
What he's saying is that Princeton's 10-9 loss to Duke in the opening round of the NCAA tournament was obviously a tough one, and the finality of such a loss in the postseason is always cruel.
Almost nothing separated Princeton and Duke Friday night, other than the fact Duke got to move on and Princeton had its season ended abruptly after the charging call on the Princeton non-goal in the first OT and then the turnover on the draw control that led to the only possession of the sudden-death part of overtime, as the Blue Devils cashed it in for the game-winner.
Duke is still playing, after having doubled-up Navy 10-5 in the second round to advance to a quarterfinal meeting with No. 1 Maryland. Princeton, clearly Duke's equal, got to come home after the loss.
It's not an easy way for a season to come to a close. In fact it's downright harsh.
It's also the reality of the NCAA tournament, and TB has seen it so many times, from both sides.
TigerBog has been in both lockerrooms at those moments, and the 180-degree change in emotions stems from a 1-degree separation between the teams during the game. It comes as little consolation at that moment that it was a great game or that it was a great season. In the moment, it just stings.
Another Princeton team that lost in the NCAA tournament Friday had a wildly different emotional experience.
TigerBlog can't think of any other NCAA tournament that has a consolation round other than the water polo tournaments. In the case of the Princeton women's water polo team this weekend, there was all kinds of consolation after losing the first game.
Princeton played a close game against third-seeded UCLA Friday in the quarterfinal round before falling 8-6. After that, it was a win over Iona in the first consolation game and then an OT win over fifth-seeded UC San Diego yesterday for fifth place.
Princeton's Ashleigh Johnson broke the tournament record for saves with 38, including 14 yesterday in the win over UC San Diego.
USC won the title 10-9 over Stanford in the longest game in NCAA championship history, as it went through the two play-it-out overtimes and then into the third sudden death overtime.
TB also doesn't understand why the team that won its first game and lost its next two gets to be fourth and the team that loses its first and wins its next two gets to be fifth.
Still, Princeton came home with a 2-1 record in an eight-team field that included five teams from California plus one from Hawaii.
Princeton water polo, both the men and women (both coached by Luis Nicoloa and Derek Ellingson), is on a tremendous run in the last few years, and their best moments have come in the consolation rounds, which don't exist in other sports. The men have twice finished third, while the women have now gone 3-1 in the consolation rounds the last two years.
The golf championships don't quite have consolation rounds per se, but they do have a format that allows individuals to continue to advance beyond when their team is eliminated. That's something of a consolation, no?
Princeton's Kelly Shon, the Ivy League champion, played three rounds at Auburn this weekend knowing that if she finished among the top two individuals after the players from the eight teams that would advance that she would earn a spot in the NCAA finals May 21-24 at Georgia.
It's a tough way to play, because it's hard to know who the competition is from minute to minute, unless it's clear that the players nearest to you are also there as individuals.
Shon shot a 71-68-70 to go seven-under and finish second overall, eliminating any of the suspense. Shon's bid to the NCAA finals is Princeton's second and first since Mary Moan in 1997.
It's a huge accomplishment for Shon and for the Princeton program.
And those were some of the headlines from Princeton's weekend.
Consolation for some.
TB isn't saying either was a bad call. Far from it.
What he's saying is that Princeton's 10-9 loss to Duke in the opening round of the NCAA tournament was obviously a tough one, and the finality of such a loss in the postseason is always cruel.
Almost nothing separated Princeton and Duke Friday night, other than the fact Duke got to move on and Princeton had its season ended abruptly after the charging call on the Princeton non-goal in the first OT and then the turnover on the draw control that led to the only possession of the sudden-death part of overtime, as the Blue Devils cashed it in for the game-winner.
Duke is still playing, after having doubled-up Navy 10-5 in the second round to advance to a quarterfinal meeting with No. 1 Maryland. Princeton, clearly Duke's equal, got to come home after the loss.
It's not an easy way for a season to come to a close. In fact it's downright harsh.
It's also the reality of the NCAA tournament, and TB has seen it so many times, from both sides.
TigerBog has been in both lockerrooms at those moments, and the 180-degree change in emotions stems from a 1-degree separation between the teams during the game. It comes as little consolation at that moment that it was a great game or that it was a great season. In the moment, it just stings.
Another Princeton team that lost in the NCAA tournament Friday had a wildly different emotional experience.
TigerBlog can't think of any other NCAA tournament that has a consolation round other than the water polo tournaments. In the case of the Princeton women's water polo team this weekend, there was all kinds of consolation after losing the first game.
Princeton played a close game against third-seeded UCLA Friday in the quarterfinal round before falling 8-6. After that, it was a win over Iona in the first consolation game and then an OT win over fifth-seeded UC San Diego yesterday for fifth place.
Princeton's Ashleigh Johnson broke the tournament record for saves with 38, including 14 yesterday in the win over UC San Diego.
USC won the title 10-9 over Stanford in the longest game in NCAA championship history, as it went through the two play-it-out overtimes and then into the third sudden death overtime.
TB also doesn't understand why the team that won its first game and lost its next two gets to be fourth and the team that loses its first and wins its next two gets to be fifth.
Still, Princeton came home with a 2-1 record in an eight-team field that included five teams from California plus one from Hawaii.
Princeton water polo, both the men and women (both coached by Luis Nicoloa and Derek Ellingson), is on a tremendous run in the last few years, and their best moments have come in the consolation rounds, which don't exist in other sports. The men have twice finished third, while the women have now gone 3-1 in the consolation rounds the last two years.
The golf championships don't quite have consolation rounds per se, but they do have a format that allows individuals to continue to advance beyond when their team is eliminated. That's something of a consolation, no?
Princeton's Kelly Shon, the Ivy League champion, played three rounds at Auburn this weekend knowing that if she finished among the top two individuals after the players from the eight teams that would advance that she would earn a spot in the NCAA finals May 21-24 at Georgia.
It's a tough way to play, because it's hard to know who the competition is from minute to minute, unless it's clear that the players nearest to you are also there as individuals.
Shon shot a 71-68-70 to go seven-under and finish second overall, eliminating any of the suspense. Shon's bid to the NCAA finals is Princeton's second and first since Mary Moan in 1997.
It's a huge accomplishment for Shon and for the Princeton program.
And those were some of the headlines from Princeton's weekend.
Consolation for some.
Friday, May 10, 2013
Open Wide
TigerBlog went to the dentist yesterday.
His dentist, Dr. Brody, is a nice guy. A Penn grad, which doesn't make him a bad person.
The stereotype, of course, has the dentist carrying on a conversation while the patient tries to answer, despite having all kinds of instruments, suction devices, cotton balls and fingers jammed in his/her mouth.
Bill Cosby did a great spoof of this in his one-man show from the 1980s.
"So, you do much fishing?"
"mbdlaefjaosda."
"Oh, I've fished there many times myself."
TigerBlog isn't sure why people become dentists. If you're going to go through all that trouble to go to school that long and work that hard, why not become a doctor?
Why spend all day every day with your hands in people's mouths? TB doesn't even like putting his fingers in his own mouth.
On the other hand, somebody has to be a dentist, and Dr. Brody has the perfect temperament for it.
He's very calm, very pleasant. He doesn't overdo it on the hysteria about gums and stuff. He cleans your teeth, tells you to floss more, does an x-ray or two every few years and sends you on your way for another six months.
Oh, and he gives you a new toothbrush and floss when you leave. How great is that?
Dr. Brody has a flat screen in his office so patients can watch TV while sharp metal instruments are used to probe their teeth.
Yesterday, while TB was in the chair, the TV was on a news channel, and for the entire time he was watching, the only story covered was the Jodi Arias murder trial. TB gets it: attractive woman, tawdry details. What he doesn't get is why strangers outside a courthouse would cheer so happily and chant "USA, USA" when a verdict is read.
Or, for that matter, why a woman would thrust her middle finger into the face of Joakim Noam of the Chicago Bulls in Miami the other night, but hey, that's another story for another day.
Dr. Brody, in mid-clean, lamented what this said about contemporary America, how it's getting harder and harder to separate reality TV from reality.
TB agreed completely and said so. It came out this way: "mbdlaefjaosda."
When TB got back from the dentist, he saw the women's lacrosse team finishing its last practice before heading to Annapolis for the NCAA tournament. The Tigers take on Duke tonight at 7:15, and the winner gets the winner of Navy-Monmouth Sunday to advance to the quarterfinals in the 26-team field.
The athletic year at Princeton is quickly winding down, with very little left on the schedule.
The men's golf team is at Washington State next weekend for the NCAA regionals. The Ivy League rowing championships are next weekend as well, with the national championships to follow.
Track and field is still going strong, with the IC4A/ECAC championships here this weekend and then the NCAA events after that. Matija Pecotic of the men's tennis team competes next week in the NCAA tournament as well.
Kelly Shon of the women's golf team is trying to become one of two individuals to move out of her regional to the NCAA finals, other than the players on the eight teams that will qualify. Her 1-under yesterday in the first round has her in contention, with rounds today and tomorrow.
And then there's women's water polo, which plays this weekend in the NCAA championships as well. Princeton, the sixth-seed, plays No. 3 UCLA this afternoon at 3:30 in the quarterfinals and then is guaranteed two more games after that.
Though it seemed like it just began, the 2012-13 academic year will be completely finished soon.
The PVC senior awards banquet is coming up. So is Reunions. And graduation. And summer.
Time continues to fly. It must mean TB is in the right profession.
Beats shoving his fingers into strangers' mouths all day.
His dentist, Dr. Brody, is a nice guy. A Penn grad, which doesn't make him a bad person.
The stereotype, of course, has the dentist carrying on a conversation while the patient tries to answer, despite having all kinds of instruments, suction devices, cotton balls and fingers jammed in his/her mouth.
Bill Cosby did a great spoof of this in his one-man show from the 1980s.
"So, you do much fishing?"
"mbdlaefjaosda."
"Oh, I've fished there many times myself."
TigerBlog isn't sure why people become dentists. If you're going to go through all that trouble to go to school that long and work that hard, why not become a doctor?
Why spend all day every day with your hands in people's mouths? TB doesn't even like putting his fingers in his own mouth.
On the other hand, somebody has to be a dentist, and Dr. Brody has the perfect temperament for it.
He's very calm, very pleasant. He doesn't overdo it on the hysteria about gums and stuff. He cleans your teeth, tells you to floss more, does an x-ray or two every few years and sends you on your way for another six months.
Oh, and he gives you a new toothbrush and floss when you leave. How great is that?
Dr. Brody has a flat screen in his office so patients can watch TV while sharp metal instruments are used to probe their teeth.
Yesterday, while TB was in the chair, the TV was on a news channel, and for the entire time he was watching, the only story covered was the Jodi Arias murder trial. TB gets it: attractive woman, tawdry details. What he doesn't get is why strangers outside a courthouse would cheer so happily and chant "USA, USA" when a verdict is read.
Or, for that matter, why a woman would thrust her middle finger into the face of Joakim Noam of the Chicago Bulls in Miami the other night, but hey, that's another story for another day.
Dr. Brody, in mid-clean, lamented what this said about contemporary America, how it's getting harder and harder to separate reality TV from reality.
TB agreed completely and said so. It came out this way: "mbdlaefjaosda."
When TB got back from the dentist, he saw the women's lacrosse team finishing its last practice before heading to Annapolis for the NCAA tournament. The Tigers take on Duke tonight at 7:15, and the winner gets the winner of Navy-Monmouth Sunday to advance to the quarterfinals in the 26-team field.
The athletic year at Princeton is quickly winding down, with very little left on the schedule.
The men's golf team is at Washington State next weekend for the NCAA regionals. The Ivy League rowing championships are next weekend as well, with the national championships to follow.
Track and field is still going strong, with the IC4A/ECAC championships here this weekend and then the NCAA events after that. Matija Pecotic of the men's tennis team competes next week in the NCAA tournament as well.
Kelly Shon of the women's golf team is trying to become one of two individuals to move out of her regional to the NCAA finals, other than the players on the eight teams that will qualify. Her 1-under yesterday in the first round has her in contention, with rounds today and tomorrow.
And then there's women's water polo, which plays this weekend in the NCAA championships as well. Princeton, the sixth-seed, plays No. 3 UCLA this afternoon at 3:30 in the quarterfinals and then is guaranteed two more games after that.
Though it seemed like it just began, the 2012-13 academic year will be completely finished soon.
The PVC senior awards banquet is coming up. So is Reunions. And graduation. And summer.
Time continues to fly. It must mean TB is in the right profession.
Beats shoving his fingers into strangers' mouths all day.
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Luis Nicolao - Sportsman And Santa
Way back when, there used to be a fan poll on goprincetontigers.com.
Each week or so, TigerBlog would come up with a new poll question, such as "what is your favorite Princeton venue" or "which athlete's performance this weekend was most impressive" or something like that. There'd be a few choices, and fans could vote.
The results would come up immediately, in the form of a bar graph, with different colors and everything.
When former women's basketball coach Richard Barron married former softball coach Maureen Davies, TigerBlog made the fan poll ask "who is getting the best of the Barron-Davies marriage," with the possible responses of "Richard Barron" and "Maureen Davies." TB then voted for Barron, had the bar graph come up with 100% for Barron, printed it out and the instantly had the next question come up.
The bride and groom both laughed.
If you're looking for a reason that the fan poll no longer exists, you can thank the swimming and diving and water polo teams.
The polls were only supposed to allow people to vote once. Somehow, the pool people figured out a way to vote thousands of times, thereby skewing all results.
When TigerBlog read that Luis Nicolao had been voted the College Water Polo Association Sportsman of the Year by fans on the association's webpage, his first thought was back to the fan polls that used to be done on goprincetontigers.com.
Then he quickly dismissed any thought of voter fraud, since there can't be a greater sportsman in the water polo world than Luis.
In fact, TB can't imagine how anyone else could ever win.
Actually, it was a good Princeton haul in the CWPA awards, starting when Yariv Amir and Diana Chamorro shared the athletic communications award.
Alex Gow became the next Princeton winner when he won the Save of the Year vote. If you're not impressed, then you try treading water in a pool that's 12 feet deep there and then making that save.
As for Nicolao, he's an ultra-successful coach, one who has taken both the men's and women's teams routinely into the national Top 20 and to the NCAA tournament.
TB would like to think that the rest of the water polo world recognizes what Nicolao is beyond just wins and losses. After all, when you think of a sportsman, you think of someone with more than just a successful resume.
Nicolao reminds TB a little bit of men's squash coach Bob Callahan. Like Callahan, Nicolao has won a lot more than he's lost and has earned the respect of those in his sport for his team's performance.
But beyond just that, they're both extremely funny men who do not tolerate poor sportsmanship from their teams and who have the greater good of their sport in mind. Squash and water polo aren't exactly mainstream sports, after all, and both coaches are always aware of their responsibility as ambassadors who are charged with helping grow their games.
Nicolao is also in many ways a big kid who loves to have fun, loves to make people laugh and loves to be part of the larger family of Princeton Athletics. Callahan is very similar.
And so there he was at last week's Department of Athletics Christmas party, the CWPA Sportsman of the Year.
He was dressed in a suit, though in this case, it was actually a Santa Claus suit.
Little kids would come to sit on his lap, some in tears, some gazing up at him in complete awe that the Santa was at the party.
It takes a special kind of person to take on that role at the company's party. It has to be someone who is willing to sacrifice his own fun time in the name of making the little kids happy.
It has to be someone with a great sense of humor. Someone with a huge heart.
And that's Luis.
The fact that he's a winning water polo coach isn't what makes him the Sportsman of the Year. Neither is the chance that, TB assumes, the Princeton water poloers rigged the voting.
Doesn't matter if they did anyway.
The right man won.
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Knowledge Is Good
The first R-rated movie that TigerBlog ever saw in the movies is also the funniest movie he's ever seen. Even all these years later.
Actually, TB saw a group of movies that he'd consider among the funniest of all time right in a row there. "Caddyshack." "Stripes." "Fast Times At Ridgemont High."
Years later, TB was watching "Stripes" with FatherBlog when Sergeant Hulka first gets the platoon to march. When Harold Ramis said to Bill Murray "look John, we're walking," that was the hardest that TB had ever seen Army vet FatherBlog laugh, except for all 60 minutes of Buddy Hackett's HBO special.
And TB doesn't even have that line in his top five from the movie.
It's hard to chose the single funniest line in "Caddyshack."
TB will go with "hey, Wang, this place looks restricted, so don't tell 'em you're Jewish," though you really can't go wrong with just about anything that comes out of Rodney's mouth.
The same is true of Spicoli in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High."
There have been other comedies, before, during and after that late 70s early 80s run that TB has loved.
For pure can't-help-but-laugh, sheer-genius-who-came-up-with-this, flawless comedy value, nothing TB has ever seen has ever beaten "Animal House."
It's been a few years since TB actually watched it, and yet there it was the other day, the unedited version on one of the movie channels. And so TB watched - and had it reinforced why he thinks so much of the movie.
The characters are tremendous. The timing is perfect. Each scene stands on its own merit and then ties into the story effortlessly.
And the lines? So many of them are classics that TB can't even begin to single out one.
What he can single out is the one person who carries the whole movie, and that is John Belushi. TB said on the day that Belushi died (March 5, 1982, at the age of 33) that he would never again watch "Saturday Night Live," and he never has, not for one second.
Faber College was the home of the Delta Tau Chis and their rivals in "Animal House." It's founder was Emil Faber, the student newspaper was "the Daily Faberian" and the college motto was "Knowledge Is Good."
The Deltas were modeled after a fraternity at Dartmouth, of all places, and the movie was actually filmed largely on the campus of the University of Oregon.
The ending of the movie shows what happened to all of the key people in the movie, including Senator and Mrs. John Blutarsky.
As a aside, TB just got an email that says that Daniel Day has been named director of news and editorial services at University communications. And here TB thought his whereabouts were unknown.
Maybe of everyone who works here, TB could have seen water polo coach Luis Nicolao as one of the Deltas.
Hey, anyone who shows up at a Princeton Varsity Club luncheon in a speedo or coaches on Halloween dressed as Batman certainly could have fit in with the Deltas. Yeah, TB could see Luis chanting "toga, toga, toga" in a fraternity basement, just after being put on double secret probation.
In reality, Nicolao is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy, where presumably there is no such fraternity craziness.
It's been a pretty good year for the Navy grad here with the Tigers.
In the fall, he led the men's team to the Eastern championship and the NCAA Final Four, where his team finished third. His record with the men was 22-10.
Now, this spring, the women are an even-better 28-4, bringing him to 50-14 overall.
In addition, the women's team is now the sixth seed in the NCAA tournament, earning an automatic bid by virtue of its 6-5 win over Maryland this past weekend in the Eastern tournament.
Princeton, the sixth-seed, will take on third-seeded USC next Friday at San Diego State. It'll be the first NCAA appearance for Princeton.
It's an eight-team field, and the each team will play three games.
If you've never seen water polo, it's a game that requires unbelievable strength and conditioning. Just go jump in the pool and tread water for seven minutes at a time and see how hard that is, let alone doing it with people kicking and pulling you under the water.
It's also a game of great skill and grace. And it goes very quickly.
Maybe that's why ESPNU makes it a staple of its yearly Princeton events. In fact, it was the first Princeton event on ESPNU this year, a men's water polo game.
Who knew it'd be a start of the most successful water polo year Princeton has ever had?
Actually, TB saw a group of movies that he'd consider among the funniest of all time right in a row there. "Caddyshack." "Stripes." "Fast Times At Ridgemont High."
Years later, TB was watching "Stripes" with FatherBlog when Sergeant Hulka first gets the platoon to march. When Harold Ramis said to Bill Murray "look John, we're walking," that was the hardest that TB had ever seen Army vet FatherBlog laugh, except for all 60 minutes of Buddy Hackett's HBO special.
And TB doesn't even have that line in his top five from the movie.
It's hard to chose the single funniest line in "Caddyshack."
TB will go with "hey, Wang, this place looks restricted, so don't tell 'em you're Jewish," though you really can't go wrong with just about anything that comes out of Rodney's mouth.
The same is true of Spicoli in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High."
There have been other comedies, before, during and after that late 70s early 80s run that TB has loved.
For pure can't-help-but-laugh, sheer-genius-who-came-up-with-this, flawless comedy value, nothing TB has ever seen has ever beaten "Animal House."
It's been a few years since TB actually watched it, and yet there it was the other day, the unedited version on one of the movie channels. And so TB watched - and had it reinforced why he thinks so much of the movie.
The characters are tremendous. The timing is perfect. Each scene stands on its own merit and then ties into the story effortlessly.
And the lines? So many of them are classics that TB can't even begin to single out one.
What he can single out is the one person who carries the whole movie, and that is John Belushi. TB said on the day that Belushi died (March 5, 1982, at the age of 33) that he would never again watch "Saturday Night Live," and he never has, not for one second.
Faber College was the home of the Delta Tau Chis and their rivals in "Animal House." It's founder was Emil Faber, the student newspaper was "the Daily Faberian" and the college motto was "Knowledge Is Good."
The Deltas were modeled after a fraternity at Dartmouth, of all places, and the movie was actually filmed largely on the campus of the University of Oregon.
The ending of the movie shows what happened to all of the key people in the movie, including Senator and Mrs. John Blutarsky.
As a aside, TB just got an email that says that Daniel Day has been named director of news and editorial services at University communications. And here TB thought his whereabouts were unknown.
Maybe of everyone who works here, TB could have seen water polo coach Luis Nicolao as one of the Deltas.
Hey, anyone who shows up at a Princeton Varsity Club luncheon in a speedo or coaches on Halloween dressed as Batman certainly could have fit in with the Deltas. Yeah, TB could see Luis chanting "toga, toga, toga" in a fraternity basement, just after being put on double secret probation.
In reality, Nicolao is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy, where presumably there is no such fraternity craziness.
It's been a pretty good year for the Navy grad here with the Tigers.
In the fall, he led the men's team to the Eastern championship and the NCAA Final Four, where his team finished third. His record with the men was 22-10.
Now, this spring, the women are an even-better 28-4, bringing him to 50-14 overall.
In addition, the women's team is now the sixth seed in the NCAA tournament, earning an automatic bid by virtue of its 6-5 win over Maryland this past weekend in the Eastern tournament.
Princeton, the sixth-seed, will take on third-seeded USC next Friday at San Diego State. It'll be the first NCAA appearance for Princeton.
It's an eight-team field, and the each team will play three games.
If you've never seen water polo, it's a game that requires unbelievable strength and conditioning. Just go jump in the pool and tread water for seven minutes at a time and see how hard that is, let alone doing it with people kicking and pulling you under the water.
It's also a game of great skill and grace. And it goes very quickly.
Maybe that's why ESPNU makes it a staple of its yearly Princeton events. In fact, it was the first Princeton event on ESPNU this year, a men's water polo game.
Who knew it'd be a start of the most successful water polo year Princeton has ever had?
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