TigerBlog's favorite NFL team is the Giants, and there really isn't another team that is close.
If he had to choose a second team, he'd go with the Colts, because he likes Peyton Manning. He doesn't mind the Jets, especially after former Princeton OAC assistant Manish Mehta, who covers the team for the New York Daily News, told TB that none of the players on the team is actually a bad guy.
As an aside, Manish says that the nicest player on the team is Jerricho Cotchery.
TB also is okay with the Lions, a team he hopes to see one day become a contender after all of this futility.
His two least favorite teams by far are the Cowboys and Eagles. He's never been a fan of the Raiders, Vikings, Patriots and Chargers.
A Super Bowl matchup of the Steelers and Packers, then, leaves him with very little in the way of rooting interest, as TB doesn't really like or dislike either team.
If anything, he'll root for Aaron Rodgers (it's an anti-Brett Favre thing) and against Ben Roethlisberger and pull for Green Bay.
TB sees it Green Bay 31, Pittsburgh 21.
What TB is definitely rooting for is an end to the pregame talk, which has dragged down the quality of sports media for the last two weeks. How many times can TB listen to an interview with Dick Vermeil or Roger Craig or someone like that?
Or worse, how many times can you hear "experts" talk about what's going to happen, all while being praised for their ability to "break down" the game, a phrase that is among TB's least favorite.
Want the keys to the game? Here they are:
* stop the run
* don't turn the ball over
* stay out of third-and-long
* have more big plays than the other team
Those are the keys to every football game, Super Bowl or not.
The talk will only get worse as kickoff gets closer. Fortunately for TB, there's plenty on the Princeton sports calendar to distract him:
* Men's Basketball tonight vs. Harvard, tomorrow night vs. Dartmouth
Princeton, Harvard and Penn head into the weekend all unbeaten in the Ivy League, which is the only league with more than one undefeated team in Division I men's basketball. Of course, that's a bit misleading, since most teams have played 10 or more league games already.
Harvard has won eight straight games, while Princeton has won 12 of 13. Both teams average 71 points per game, but they also rank 1-2 in the league in scoring defense. The winner of this game will get a big lift, but tonight will hardly decide the championship, not with the Crimson at Penn tomorrow night and then Penn here Tuesday, not to mention four more Ivy weekends still to come.
Still, it's a fascinating early game. Harvard has had a great deal of publicity for its rise to the top of the league, and Princeton is trying to reassert itself as a program that has won 25 Ivy League championships.
Plus, if you figure the league champ will be at least 12-2, then you don't want to be losing games this early in the season. It's always easier to play from ahead.
* Women's Basketball at Harvard tonight, at Dartmouth tomorrow night
Just as the men's game matches league unbeatens, so does the women's game tonight in Cambridge.
Princeton is 14-3 overall, while Harvard is 11-6. Yale has one league loss, on its home court to Princeton, and the Bulldogs are 7-11 overall. Every other league team has at least two losses, and only one of the other six teams has an overall winning percentage better than .400.
In other words, Princeton and Harvard are the clear favorites.
Princeton has won six straight games, including five straight since Niveen Rasheed tore her ACL.
Harvard has won five in a row.
* Men's Hockey vs. Union tonight, vs. RPI tomorrow
The men's hockey team has a brutal schedule ahead of it as it chases a top four spot in the ECAC standings, which would mean a first-round playoff bye and home ice in the quarterfinals.
Princeton is ranked 17th nationally in RPI (ratings percentage index, not Rennsalaer Polytechnic Institute), while Union is ninth and, well, RPI's RPI is eighth.
Ahead still are games at Dartmouth next weekend (14th in RPI) and then a season-ending run of a home game against Yale (still No. 1 in RPI despite losing twice last week) and then a trip to RPI and Union.
Princeton enters the weekend third in the ECAC with 19 points, three behind Yale, two behind Union and one ahead of RPI and Dartmouth. Princeton is also eight points (four full games) ahead of Brown for the eighth spot, which means at least home ice in the first round.
Still, Princeton has won 14 of 18 and has its sights a little higher at this point.
Men's Swimming and Diving vs. Navy
The Tigers host Navy tomorrow at 2 in a meet that will challenge Princeton's record of never having lost a duel meet at DeNunzio Pool.
As in, ever.
There are plenty of other Princeton events this weekend, and there are some huge ones on the horizon for next weekend as well, including the first winter Ivy League championships to be decided, in men's and women's fencing here at Jadwin.
In the meantime, this weekend offers up some big games, both in Princeton and on the road, all the way to Dallas.
Friday, February 4, 2011
Thursday, February 3, 2011
The Other Near-Miss In Providence
Stephanie Sutton has worked as the ticket manager here at Princeton since before TigerBlog showed up. TB can remember quite a few years ago when Mary Sutton, Stephanie's daughter, was out on the side court at Jadwin Gym being put through a workout by none other than Pete Carril, who had Mary dribbling around chairs, making layups, working on her shot and all the rest.
Mary has always been something a gym rat, and apparently it's starting to pay off. The other day, in her middle school game, Mary snapped a tie game by nailing a three-pointer at the final buzzer.
Mary was all smiles in the mailroom yesterday when TB congratulated her on her big shot. From talking to her and her mother, TB found out that Mike Dabney has a daughter who plays on the middle school level in the Princeton area as well and that Dabney is the father of Maya Moore, the best player for UConn.
TigerBlog knew that Dabney was a great player at Rutgers and a member of the 1975-76 Scarlet Knights' Final Four team. He didn't know he was Moore's father.
He did know that in the opening round of the 1976 NCAA tournament, Rutgers defeated Princeton 54-53 and that Peter Malloy, a 90% foul shooter, missed a one-and-one in the final seconds. The loose ball was collected by Dabney as time ran out, and RU had dodged a big bullet while keeping its perfect season alive.
The run would continue until the national semifinals, when Rutgers lost to Michigan 86-70. Back then there was still a consolation game, and Rutgers lost to UCLA 106-92 in that game.
The Knights were led that year by Dabney, Phil Sellers, Hollis Copeland, James Bailey and Eddie Jordan. It was a great team, one that Princeton almost kept from making history.
TigerBlog followed that Rutgers team, much more so than he did Princeton at the time.
The 1975-76 Rutgers team featured five of the top seven scorers in school history:
1. Phil Sellers (72-76) 2399
2. Bob Lloyd (64-67) 2045
3. James Bailey (75-79) 2034
4. Mike Dabney (72-76) 1902
5. Hollis Copeland (74-78) 1769
6. Quincy Douby (2003-06) 1690
7. Eddie Jordan (73-77) 1632
The Princeton team that played Rutgers in the NCAA tournament featured none of the top seven scorers in school history:
2503 William W. Bradley, 1962-65
1546 Christopher J. (Kit) Mueller, 1987-91
1451 Peter C. Campbell, 1959-62
1441 Craig M. Robinson, 1979-83
1428 Brian W. Earl, 1995-1999
1365 Robert K. Scrabis, 1985-89
1321 Geoffrey H. Petrie, 1967-70
In fact, the only player on the 1975-76 team who was in the top 18 in career points was Frank Sowinski, who was 12th with 1,133.
The 1975 Tigers missed out on the NCAA tournament but did manage one of the great moments in program history by winning the NIT with four straight wins at Madison Square Garden.
The 1976 Tigers ripped through the Ivy League with a perfect 14-0 record, and the reward was its first round matchup with Rutgers. Like the more famous near-miss 13 years later against Georgetown, a 50-49 Princeton loss, this one would also be at the Providence Civic Center.
TigerBlog has watched the 1989 Georgetown game a million times, and he's written and read a ton about it, not to mention head Pete Carril talk about it in great depth. The amount that he's written and read about and heard Carril talk about the 1976 Rutgers NCAA game is a fraction of that, and he's not 100% sure why that is.
When the great near-misses in NCAA tournament history come up, the 1989 Princeton-Georgetown game is always at the top of the list. The 1976 Rutgers game is never mentioned.
Maybe this is because of the fact that Georgetown was a No. 1 seed and Princeton was the No. 16, while in 1976, there were no seedings (that didn't happen until 1979). Or maybe it was because of Georgetown's reputation as a powerhouse, while Rutgers was more of a one-hit wonder that year.
Still, Georgetown in 1989 didn't reach the Final Four, something that Rutgers in 1976 did. That alone makes the 1976 game at least the equal of the 1989 game, if not more excruciating.
Princeton lost to Rutgers 75-62 at Jadwin during the season, but the rematch would be much closer. Unlike the Georgetown game, during which Princeton had the lead almost the entire game, Princeton would never lead against Rutgers and would only tie the score three times, at 2-2, 16-16 and 20-20.
RU led by eight at the half, at 33-25, but Princeton would never trail by more than that in the second half. Eventually, the Tigers chipped it away to five, then three and finally one.
It was still a one-point game when Dabney missed the front end of his own one-and-one with 35 seconds to play, to set up the tough end for Princeton and Malloy, one of the real class acts in Princeton basketball history and now a lawyer on Long Island.
Princeton would have four players in double figures: Sowinski, Barnes Hauptfuhrer, Armond Hill (who fouled out with the Tigers down 54-49) and Bob Slaughter.
Jordan led everyone with 16, while Sellers and Dabney were also in double figures.
Until this morning, TB had never looked at the box score for that game. He knows the box score from the Georgetown game essentially by heart.
He's not sure why that is, and why the 1976 game against Rutgers has been so ignored by history.
As near-misses go, it's up there with any of them.
Mary has always been something a gym rat, and apparently it's starting to pay off. The other day, in her middle school game, Mary snapped a tie game by nailing a three-pointer at the final buzzer.
Mary was all smiles in the mailroom yesterday when TB congratulated her on her big shot. From talking to her and her mother, TB found out that Mike Dabney has a daughter who plays on the middle school level in the Princeton area as well and that Dabney is the father of Maya Moore, the best player for UConn.
TigerBlog knew that Dabney was a great player at Rutgers and a member of the 1975-76 Scarlet Knights' Final Four team. He didn't know he was Moore's father.
He did know that in the opening round of the 1976 NCAA tournament, Rutgers defeated Princeton 54-53 and that Peter Malloy, a 90% foul shooter, missed a one-and-one in the final seconds. The loose ball was collected by Dabney as time ran out, and RU had dodged a big bullet while keeping its perfect season alive.
The run would continue until the national semifinals, when Rutgers lost to Michigan 86-70. Back then there was still a consolation game, and Rutgers lost to UCLA 106-92 in that game.
The Knights were led that year by Dabney, Phil Sellers, Hollis Copeland, James Bailey and Eddie Jordan. It was a great team, one that Princeton almost kept from making history.
TigerBlog followed that Rutgers team, much more so than he did Princeton at the time.
The 1975-76 Rutgers team featured five of the top seven scorers in school history:
1. Phil Sellers (72-76) 2399
2. Bob Lloyd (64-67) 2045
3. James Bailey (75-79) 2034
4. Mike Dabney (72-76) 1902
5. Hollis Copeland (74-78) 1769
6. Quincy Douby (2003-06) 1690
7. Eddie Jordan (73-77) 1632
The Princeton team that played Rutgers in the NCAA tournament featured none of the top seven scorers in school history:
2503 William W. Bradley, 1962-65
1546 Christopher J. (Kit) Mueller, 1987-91
1451 Peter C. Campbell, 1959-62
1441 Craig M. Robinson, 1979-83
1428 Brian W. Earl, 1995-1999
1365 Robert K. Scrabis, 1985-89
1321 Geoffrey H. Petrie, 1967-70
In fact, the only player on the 1975-76 team who was in the top 18 in career points was Frank Sowinski, who was 12th with 1,133.
The 1975 Tigers missed out on the NCAA tournament but did manage one of the great moments in program history by winning the NIT with four straight wins at Madison Square Garden.
The 1976 Tigers ripped through the Ivy League with a perfect 14-0 record, and the reward was its first round matchup with Rutgers. Like the more famous near-miss 13 years later against Georgetown, a 50-49 Princeton loss, this one would also be at the Providence Civic Center.
TigerBlog has watched the 1989 Georgetown game a million times, and he's written and read a ton about it, not to mention head Pete Carril talk about it in great depth. The amount that he's written and read about and heard Carril talk about the 1976 Rutgers NCAA game is a fraction of that, and he's not 100% sure why that is.
When the great near-misses in NCAA tournament history come up, the 1989 Princeton-Georgetown game is always at the top of the list. The 1976 Rutgers game is never mentioned.
Maybe this is because of the fact that Georgetown was a No. 1 seed and Princeton was the No. 16, while in 1976, there were no seedings (that didn't happen until 1979). Or maybe it was because of Georgetown's reputation as a powerhouse, while Rutgers was more of a one-hit wonder that year.
Still, Georgetown in 1989 didn't reach the Final Four, something that Rutgers in 1976 did. That alone makes the 1976 game at least the equal of the 1989 game, if not more excruciating.
Princeton lost to Rutgers 75-62 at Jadwin during the season, but the rematch would be much closer. Unlike the Georgetown game, during which Princeton had the lead almost the entire game, Princeton would never lead against Rutgers and would only tie the score three times, at 2-2, 16-16 and 20-20.
RU led by eight at the half, at 33-25, but Princeton would never trail by more than that in the second half. Eventually, the Tigers chipped it away to five, then three and finally one.
It was still a one-point game when Dabney missed the front end of his own one-and-one with 35 seconds to play, to set up the tough end for Princeton and Malloy, one of the real class acts in Princeton basketball history and now a lawyer on Long Island.
Princeton would have four players in double figures: Sowinski, Barnes Hauptfuhrer, Armond Hill (who fouled out with the Tigers down 54-49) and Bob Slaughter.
Jordan led everyone with 16, while Sellers and Dabney were also in double figures.
Until this morning, TB had never looked at the box score for that game. He knows the box score from the Georgetown game essentially by heart.
He's not sure why that is, and why the 1976 game against Rutgers has been so ignored by history.
As near-misses go, it's up there with any of them.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
To The Groundhog - Again
Going back to last Feb. 2, TigerBlog had this to say:
TigerBlog understands that not every movie made is trying to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. In that vein, he's never understood the complete disdain so many people have for the movie "Groundhog Day."
TB saw it in the movies when it came out in 1993, and he's seen it about a thousand times since. It's a perfectly harmless, funny, at times charming, certainly inoffensive movie, and yet there are so many people who flat out hate it.
As an aside, TigerBlog was always confused as a kid by Groundhog Day, as six weeks after Feb. 2 takes you to March 16 (or March 15 in a leap year), which is still winter. He never quite understood the whole "six more weeks of winter" thing. Shouldn't it be more like 10 more weeks of winter if the point is that figuratively speaking spring will be late to arrive?
This year, he'd like to say this about the significance of Feb. 2:
TigerBlog understands that not every movie made is trying to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. In that vein, he's never understood the complete disdain so many people have for the movie "Groundhog Day."
TB saw it in the movies when it came out in 1993, and he's seen it about a thousand times since. It's a perfectly harmless, funny, at times charming, certainly inoffensive movie, and yet there are so many people who flat out hate it.
As an aside, TigerBlog was always confused as a kid by Groundhog Day, as six weeks after Feb. 2 takes you to March 16 (or March 15 in a leap year), which is still winter. He never quite understood the whole "six more weeks of winter" thing. Shouldn't it be more like 10 more weeks of winter if the point is that figuratively speaking spring will be late to arrive?
And next year, he'll probably add this:
TigerBlog understands that not every movie made is trying to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. In that vein, he's never understood the complete disdain so many people have for the movie "Groundhog Day."
TB saw it in the movies when it came out in 1993, and he's seen it about a thousand times since. It's a perfectly harmless, funny, at times charming, certainly inoffensive movie, and yet there are so many people who flat out hate it.
As an aside, TigerBlog was always confused as a kid by Groundhog Day, as six weeks after Feb. 2 takes you to March 16 (or March 15 in a leap year), which is still winter. He never quite understood the whole "six more weeks of winter" thing. Shouldn't it be more like 10 more weeks of winter if the point is that figuratively speaking spring will be late to arrive?
Get the joke?
See, in the movie, Bill Murray woke up every morning in Punxsutawney, Pa., outside of Pittsburgh, and every morning it was exactly the same: Sonny and Cher were singing "I Got You Babe," it was Groundhog Day morning, it was 6 a.m. and there was a snowstorm on the way.
No matter what he did, it seemed like he would be stuck there forever.
At first, he takes this as a sign that he can get away with anything, mostly self-destructive, with no consequences. It's only until he learns how to truly care about other people and makes a real commitment to becoming the best person he can be that he is able to get to Feb. 3.
In many ways, it reminds TB of the movie "It's A Wonderful Life," in which the main character starts out with an idea of what he wants out of his life and only through complete self-reflection - brought on through fantasy - does he see what's really important, and how he was actually where he wanted to be all along.
TigerBlog loved it the first time he saw it. Others, such as Roger Ebert, needed a little more time, at least according to Wikipedia:
After giving it a three-star rating in his original review,[11] Ebert acknowledged in his "Great Movies" essay that, like many viewers, he had initially underestimated the film's many virtues and only came to truly appreciate it through repeated viewings. In 2009, the American literary theorist and legal scholar Stanley Fish named the film as among the ten best American films ever.
No offense to Mr. Fish, but it's not one of the 10 greatest American movies ever. Still, it is a great movie to watch once or twice a year.
Today, Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow, largely because there is no sun to make a shadow. Instead, there is plenty of ice and rain from a storm, which if you live in the United States, had a nearly 40% chance of affecting you.
Here in Princeton, the result was a lot of ice in trees and on roads and everywhere else. The bright side is that the storm did not include the 12-18 inches of snow that TB heard at first and then the five to eight inches of snow that were threatened on Monday.
In "Groundhog Day," Phil Connors (Murray's character) is a weatherman. It's a great profession, because people are fixated on what you say, regardless of whether or not it's going to be correct.
The concept of the weatherman fits in nicely with where American society as a whole is these days. The weatherman is always talking about the next thing, tomorrow or five days from now, rather than dwelling on whether or not what he/she most recently said was in anyway correct.
It's the news version of Bracketology, which has gone from a fun little exercise for a guy in Philadelphia to something that becomes the focal point for millions of college basketball fans, as well as analysis on TV, the radio and print. And the great part is that none of it matters, because in the end, it has no impact on what the actual tournament brackets will look like.
At least in the case of St. Joseph's University marketing administrator Joe Lunardi, the man who popularized Bracketology for ESPN.com, he takes the time to go through the same types of processes that the NCAA committee does, and as a result he will often have almost every team that ends up in the field.
And his work does provide a good barometer for where the college basketball season is at any given point and where it seems to be headed. But still, if he says that Georgetown will be a sixth seed in the Southwest, it doesn't mean it's true.
Just like saying there'll be eight inches of snow, when in fact, there was less than one.
Still, Bracketology makes for great discussion, especially given what's going on this weekend in Ivy League men's basketball.
Princeton hosts Harvard Friday night in a matchup of Ivy League unbeatens. The following night, Harvard is at Penn, also unbeaten in the league.
Should the Crimson sweep, they would be the clear frontrunner. Should the two home teams sweep their weekends, then they would meet here Tuesday night with first place on the line.
The current Bracketology has Harvard as a No. 14 seed, taking on No. 3 Villanova in Washington.
Just like saying that there's a 30% chance of snow in a few days, there's no accountability for being wrong. In fact, there's almost no chance that it'll be No. 14 Harvard vs. No. 3 Villanova in Washington, D.C., even if Harvard wins the league.
But hey, it makes for great discussion.
The games over the next week will set the tone for the early part of the Ivy men's basketball season, but no team will win the title this soon.
In the meantime, there's a chance for more snow and wintry mix Saturday around here, as well as a 100% chance of a whole new Bracketology next week.
TigerBlog understands that not every movie made is trying to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. In that vein, he's never understood the complete disdain so many people have for the movie "Groundhog Day."
TB saw it in the movies when it came out in 1993, and he's seen it about a thousand times since. It's a perfectly harmless, funny, at times charming, certainly inoffensive movie, and yet there are so many people who flat out hate it.
As an aside, TigerBlog was always confused as a kid by Groundhog Day, as six weeks after Feb. 2 takes you to March 16 (or March 15 in a leap year), which is still winter. He never quite understood the whole "six more weeks of winter" thing. Shouldn't it be more like 10 more weeks of winter if the point is that figuratively speaking spring will be late to arrive?
This year, he'd like to say this about the significance of Feb. 2:
TigerBlog understands that not every movie made is trying to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. In that vein, he's never understood the complete disdain so many people have for the movie "Groundhog Day."
TB saw it in the movies when it came out in 1993, and he's seen it about a thousand times since. It's a perfectly harmless, funny, at times charming, certainly inoffensive movie, and yet there are so many people who flat out hate it.
As an aside, TigerBlog was always confused as a kid by Groundhog Day, as six weeks after Feb. 2 takes you to March 16 (or March 15 in a leap year), which is still winter. He never quite understood the whole "six more weeks of winter" thing. Shouldn't it be more like 10 more weeks of winter if the point is that figuratively speaking spring will be late to arrive?
And next year, he'll probably add this:
TigerBlog understands that not every movie made is trying to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. In that vein, he's never understood the complete disdain so many people have for the movie "Groundhog Day."
TB saw it in the movies when it came out in 1993, and he's seen it about a thousand times since. It's a perfectly harmless, funny, at times charming, certainly inoffensive movie, and yet there are so many people who flat out hate it.
As an aside, TigerBlog was always confused as a kid by Groundhog Day, as six weeks after Feb. 2 takes you to March 16 (or March 15 in a leap year), which is still winter. He never quite understood the whole "six more weeks of winter" thing. Shouldn't it be more like 10 more weeks of winter if the point is that figuratively speaking spring will be late to arrive?
Get the joke?
See, in the movie, Bill Murray woke up every morning in Punxsutawney, Pa., outside of Pittsburgh, and every morning it was exactly the same: Sonny and Cher were singing "I Got You Babe," it was Groundhog Day morning, it was 6 a.m. and there was a snowstorm on the way.
No matter what he did, it seemed like he would be stuck there forever.
At first, he takes this as a sign that he can get away with anything, mostly self-destructive, with no consequences. It's only until he learns how to truly care about other people and makes a real commitment to becoming the best person he can be that he is able to get to Feb. 3.
In many ways, it reminds TB of the movie "It's A Wonderful Life," in which the main character starts out with an idea of what he wants out of his life and only through complete self-reflection - brought on through fantasy - does he see what's really important, and how he was actually where he wanted to be all along.
TigerBlog loved it the first time he saw it. Others, such as Roger Ebert, needed a little more time, at least according to Wikipedia:
After giving it a three-star rating in his original review,[11] Ebert acknowledged in his "Great Movies" essay that, like many viewers, he had initially underestimated the film's many virtues and only came to truly appreciate it through repeated viewings. In 2009, the American literary theorist and legal scholar Stanley Fish named the film as among the ten best American films ever.
No offense to Mr. Fish, but it's not one of the 10 greatest American movies ever. Still, it is a great movie to watch once or twice a year.
Today, Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow, largely because there is no sun to make a shadow. Instead, there is plenty of ice and rain from a storm, which if you live in the United States, had a nearly 40% chance of affecting you.
Here in Princeton, the result was a lot of ice in trees and on roads and everywhere else. The bright side is that the storm did not include the 12-18 inches of snow that TB heard at first and then the five to eight inches of snow that were threatened on Monday.
In "Groundhog Day," Phil Connors (Murray's character) is a weatherman. It's a great profession, because people are fixated on what you say, regardless of whether or not it's going to be correct.
The concept of the weatherman fits in nicely with where American society as a whole is these days. The weatherman is always talking about the next thing, tomorrow or five days from now, rather than dwelling on whether or not what he/she most recently said was in anyway correct.
It's the news version of Bracketology, which has gone from a fun little exercise for a guy in Philadelphia to something that becomes the focal point for millions of college basketball fans, as well as analysis on TV, the radio and print. And the great part is that none of it matters, because in the end, it has no impact on what the actual tournament brackets will look like.
At least in the case of St. Joseph's University marketing administrator Joe Lunardi, the man who popularized Bracketology for ESPN.com, he takes the time to go through the same types of processes that the NCAA committee does, and as a result he will often have almost every team that ends up in the field.
And his work does provide a good barometer for where the college basketball season is at any given point and where it seems to be headed. But still, if he says that Georgetown will be a sixth seed in the Southwest, it doesn't mean it's true.
Just like saying there'll be eight inches of snow, when in fact, there was less than one.
Still, Bracketology makes for great discussion, especially given what's going on this weekend in Ivy League men's basketball.
Princeton hosts Harvard Friday night in a matchup of Ivy League unbeatens. The following night, Harvard is at Penn, also unbeaten in the league.
Should the Crimson sweep, they would be the clear frontrunner. Should the two home teams sweep their weekends, then they would meet here Tuesday night with first place on the line.
The current Bracketology has Harvard as a No. 14 seed, taking on No. 3 Villanova in Washington.
Just like saying that there's a 30% chance of snow in a few days, there's no accountability for being wrong. In fact, there's almost no chance that it'll be No. 14 Harvard vs. No. 3 Villanova in Washington, D.C., even if Harvard wins the league.
But hey, it makes for great discussion.
The games over the next week will set the tone for the early part of the Ivy men's basketball season, but no team will win the title this soon.
In the meantime, there's a chance for more snow and wintry mix Saturday around here, as well as a 100% chance of a whole new Bracketology next week.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Wondering
TigerBlog has always felt like there were two television characters with whom he could best identify when he was a kid.
The first was Richie Cunningham, from "Happy Days." Whatever words you want to come up with to describe Richie, they basically applied to TB way back when. TB wasn't quite The Fonz, and he wasn't quite Potsie either.
Richie was smart, friendly, a bit nerdy, generally well-liked. He had a good sense of humor. He tried to do the right thing. He was a bit, uh, awkward around the girls, and he wasn't quite the coolest kid on the block. Hey, sounds like TB circa age 14-17.
TigerBlog figured he'd never find another character who could better represent his own childhood, and he was wrong.
Just when TB figured he was his own version of Richie Cunningham, along came a different character, one whose childhood was filled basically with all of the same highs and lows, all the same successes and failures, all the same desires and insecurities. Each week, when TB saw this show, he came away remembering some moment in his own past, some experience or emotion that came flooding back to him, all by watching the fictional life of one late ’80s/early ’90s television character.
Kevin Arnold.
For those who don't remember, Kevin Arnold was the youngest child of the family on "The Wonder Years," a TV show that ran for just six years, from 1988-94. In its first season, only six episodes ran - and it still won the Emmy for best comedy series.
It was a rarity for a television show in that it managed to be funny and dramatic at the same time without having to turn its characters into caricatures to achieve either. It tackled really serious issues, starting in Episode 1 when Winnie Cooper's brother is killed in the Vietnam War, but it also perfectly summed up what it meant to come-of-age in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
There's an innocent charm to the show, coupled with a willingness to allow real life, real loss, real failure to be part of it - all while the adult version of Kevin, Daniel Stern, narrates.
Ultimately, it's completely about the relationships, between Kevin and his friends, Kevin and his family, Kevin and the other kids at school and Kevin and the girls he's interested in.
There are four episodes that really stand out for TB:
* the one where Kevin chooses all the bad players for his basketball team in gym class and then the team gets steamrolled by the good kids; were it like most shows, the bad kids would have figured out a way to win the game
* the one where Kevin tries to hold Becky Slater's hand as they walk down the street at the end of the episode, while Judy Collins sings "The Circle Game"
* the one where Kevin has two dates to the dance and ends up alone, but not in a contrived way
* And by far, the last episode, where Kevin and Winnie fight, make up and make promises for a lifetime, which they then back up. Except that they don't do it in the way that any other TV show ever would have done. The way that the adult Kevin talks about what ends up happening to the all the characters is one of the great moments in television history, and the series ends with these words, spoken by Stern:
"Growing up happens in a heartbeat. One day you're in diapers, the next day you're gone. But the memories of childhood stay with you for the long haul. I remember a place, a town, a house, like a lot of houses. A yard like a lot of other yards. On a street like a lot of other streets. And the thing is, after all these years, I still look back ... with wonder."
In many ways, it is the closest to perfect that any television series TB has ever seen has come.
And now TB has found a channel on his cable system that shows repeats of the series. And stunningly, these episodes are followed by back-to-back episodes of "Happy Days."
TigerBlog would tell you the name of the channel, only he can't remember it. And that's okay, because what does it matter what channel it's on?
It used to be that TV meant the three major networks and some independent stations and that was it. Channel 7 was channel 7 everywhere, and channel 11 was channel 11.
Today, there are hundreds of options on any cable or satellite system, and the stations are different depending on which system you have.
TigerBlog always chuckles when someone calls up the OAC asking what channel they can see a game on that night, because their ESPNU and TB's ESPNU and BrotherBlog's ESPNU are all different.
Beyond that, there are so many different networks now that who can keep them all straight? Who could possibly know what show is on what network by name, rather than by channel number on their system?
There was a time when the most important thing for TB when it came to having Princeton games on television was to have them on a network that was carried by DirecTV, so that it could be seen anywhere in the country and so alumni groups could pick it up together.
Today, that's not the thought.
In the next week, there are three Princeton games on television. Among them they fit the current climate of how TV works around here, and the strengths and weaknesses of both are interesting.
The men's basketball game Friday night against Harvard is on ESPNU, as one of seven games Princeton has with the network each year. This will be Game 4, if you're keeping score, following water polo and men's soccer in the fall and one men's hockey game earlier this season. Still to come are this game, the men's hockey game against Yale and then two men's lacrosse games (North Carolina, Syracuse).
Having games on ESPNU is good because they are available to a huge distribution area across the country. The downside is that they cannot be videostreamed, as part of the deal that ESPN makes.
The other two games are the men's hockey game against Union Friday night and the men's basketball game next Tuesday against Penn. Both of these are on Verizon Fios 1, a channel that TB has never seen.
At the same time, those games more than make up for lack of distribution by being made available to Princeton for videostreaming. The quality of the Verizon Fios broadcast versus what Princeton would normally be able to provide is night and day, as the Verizon Fios one comes with announcers, graphics, multiple cameras and the rest.
TB loves the balance of the two television deals, with the exposure on ESPN balanced with the streaming quality of Verizon Fios.
He's love to expand both of them, especially the Verizon Fios one.
The first was Richie Cunningham, from "Happy Days." Whatever words you want to come up with to describe Richie, they basically applied to TB way back when. TB wasn't quite The Fonz, and he wasn't quite Potsie either.
Richie was smart, friendly, a bit nerdy, generally well-liked. He had a good sense of humor. He tried to do the right thing. He was a bit, uh, awkward around the girls, and he wasn't quite the coolest kid on the block. Hey, sounds like TB circa age 14-17.
TigerBlog figured he'd never find another character who could better represent his own childhood, and he was wrong.
Just when TB figured he was his own version of Richie Cunningham, along came a different character, one whose childhood was filled basically with all of the same highs and lows, all the same successes and failures, all the same desires and insecurities. Each week, when TB saw this show, he came away remembering some moment in his own past, some experience or emotion that came flooding back to him, all by watching the fictional life of one late ’80s/early ’90s television character.
Kevin Arnold.
For those who don't remember, Kevin Arnold was the youngest child of the family on "The Wonder Years," a TV show that ran for just six years, from 1988-94. In its first season, only six episodes ran - and it still won the Emmy for best comedy series.
It was a rarity for a television show in that it managed to be funny and dramatic at the same time without having to turn its characters into caricatures to achieve either. It tackled really serious issues, starting in Episode 1 when Winnie Cooper's brother is killed in the Vietnam War, but it also perfectly summed up what it meant to come-of-age in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
There's an innocent charm to the show, coupled with a willingness to allow real life, real loss, real failure to be part of it - all while the adult version of Kevin, Daniel Stern, narrates.
Ultimately, it's completely about the relationships, between Kevin and his friends, Kevin and his family, Kevin and the other kids at school and Kevin and the girls he's interested in.
There are four episodes that really stand out for TB:
* the one where Kevin chooses all the bad players for his basketball team in gym class and then the team gets steamrolled by the good kids; were it like most shows, the bad kids would have figured out a way to win the game
* the one where Kevin tries to hold Becky Slater's hand as they walk down the street at the end of the episode, while Judy Collins sings "The Circle Game"
* the one where Kevin has two dates to the dance and ends up alone, but not in a contrived way
* And by far, the last episode, where Kevin and Winnie fight, make up and make promises for a lifetime, which they then back up. Except that they don't do it in the way that any other TV show ever would have done. The way that the adult Kevin talks about what ends up happening to the all the characters is one of the great moments in television history, and the series ends with these words, spoken by Stern:
"Growing up happens in a heartbeat. One day you're in diapers, the next day you're gone. But the memories of childhood stay with you for the long haul. I remember a place, a town, a house, like a lot of houses. A yard like a lot of other yards. On a street like a lot of other streets. And the thing is, after all these years, I still look back ... with wonder."
In many ways, it is the closest to perfect that any television series TB has ever seen has come.
And now TB has found a channel on his cable system that shows repeats of the series. And stunningly, these episodes are followed by back-to-back episodes of "Happy Days."
TigerBlog would tell you the name of the channel, only he can't remember it. And that's okay, because what does it matter what channel it's on?
It used to be that TV meant the three major networks and some independent stations and that was it. Channel 7 was channel 7 everywhere, and channel 11 was channel 11.
Today, there are hundreds of options on any cable or satellite system, and the stations are different depending on which system you have.
TigerBlog always chuckles when someone calls up the OAC asking what channel they can see a game on that night, because their ESPNU and TB's ESPNU and BrotherBlog's ESPNU are all different.
Beyond that, there are so many different networks now that who can keep them all straight? Who could possibly know what show is on what network by name, rather than by channel number on their system?
There was a time when the most important thing for TB when it came to having Princeton games on television was to have them on a network that was carried by DirecTV, so that it could be seen anywhere in the country and so alumni groups could pick it up together.
Today, that's not the thought.
In the next week, there are three Princeton games on television. Among them they fit the current climate of how TV works around here, and the strengths and weaknesses of both are interesting.
The men's basketball game Friday night against Harvard is on ESPNU, as one of seven games Princeton has with the network each year. This will be Game 4, if you're keeping score, following water polo and men's soccer in the fall and one men's hockey game earlier this season. Still to come are this game, the men's hockey game against Yale and then two men's lacrosse games (North Carolina, Syracuse).
Having games on ESPNU is good because they are available to a huge distribution area across the country. The downside is that they cannot be videostreamed, as part of the deal that ESPN makes.
The other two games are the men's hockey game against Union Friday night and the men's basketball game next Tuesday against Penn. Both of these are on Verizon Fios 1, a channel that TB has never seen.
At the same time, those games more than make up for lack of distribution by being made available to Princeton for videostreaming. The quality of the Verizon Fios broadcast versus what Princeton would normally be able to provide is night and day, as the Verizon Fios one comes with announcers, graphics, multiple cameras and the rest.
TB loves the balance of the two television deals, with the exposure on ESPN balanced with the streaming quality of Verizon Fios.
He's love to expand both of them, especially the Verizon Fios one.
Monday, January 31, 2011
In The Pool
Back when TigerBlog worked at the paper, his daily routine often went like this:
* wake up around 11
* eat breakfast
* watch TV for a little while
* go to Rider and swim
* eat a huge lunch
TigerBlog can't remember where he first learned to swim. He does remember taking JLS (Junior Lifesaving) at Camp Toledo back when he was eight or nine or so in a course that included treading water in blue jeans for a minute.
TB was never a fast swimmer, and his high school didn't have a swim team. In fact, it was a rarity for a team by the Shore to have a swim team back then, and TB was a bit shocked at how basically every school in the Mercer County/Bucks County area had a swim team and a pool when he first started covering high schools.
In fact, back then, swimming was one of the sports TB covered the most, and he began to develop a pretty good understanding of the nuances of the sport, from how training worked to what coaches had to do to put swimmers into the right spots to maximize points during championship meets.
When he went from covering high schools to colleges, TB didn't cover as much swimming anymore. Still, he went to occasional meets and did get to know the local swimming coaches, which is how he ended up in the pool at Rider three or four days a week for two or three years or so.
As exercise goes, it's hard to beat swimming laps. TB would go up and back in the pool, time after time, eventually working up to 100 laps. His major problem was that he was never good at flip turns, so TB invented his own semi-flip turn, which looked a bit awkward but got the job done.
Since TB has been working at Princeton, he hasn't been in DeNunzio Pool that often, choosing instead to play basketball or squash primarily for exercise. DeNunzio is the deepest pool he's ever been in, with nothing that could be called a shallow area as it is, TB believes, at least 10 feet deep everywhere.
It's also a beautiful pool. Even more than 20 years after it opened, the pool has a great aesthetic quality to it, and improvements in recent years have featured the history of the two swimming and diving programs throughout the building.
For those who don't make it in to DeNunzio, that history can be found for the men and for the women on a pair of information central pages on goprincetontigers.com.
The pages highlight two programs that have been great histories - and presents, and both teams are consistently ranked in the national Top 25.
The men's program has won six of the last nine Ivy League championships, including two straight and four of five. The women have won nine of the last 11.
The 2011 Ivy League women's championships will be held Feb. 24-26 at DeNunzio, while the men's championships are a week later at Harvard.
This past weekend gave a bit of a glimpse into what those championships might just hold, as the annual HYP event was held at Yale, whose pool resembles the Coliseum in Rome.
On the men's side, Princeton defeated Yale and lost to Harvard in a close matchup. If history has anything to say about it, the Ivy champ will be either Princeton or Harvard, as it has been every year since 1993, when Yale and Harvard tied for the crown. In fact, the last time a team other than Harvard or Princeton won an outright men's title was 1971, when Penn did so.
The women's event was all Princeton, as the Tigers won all 16 individual events and took both team meets by huge margins. This came in the first HYP meet since the graduation of Alicia Aemisegger, a 13-time All-America, and Courtney Kilkuts, one of the very greatest swimmers in program history who was overshadowed by Aemisegger for four years.
Harvard's win on the men's side and Princeton's on the women's would set them up as favorites in a month, but it's hardly set in stone for either. A great deal can happen in a championship swimming meet, when swimmers who are primed for that day and turn, say, a sixth-place finish into a third can make all the difference.
Princeton swimming and diving has had a great deal of stability in its program through the years with the presence of women's head coach Susan Teeter, men's head coach Rob Orr and diving coach Greg Gunn.
This stability has helped the programs maintain their high level of success, and the goal of each year starts with an Ivy League championship and sending as many swimmers as possible to the NCAA meet.
This year will be no different.
* wake up around 11
* eat breakfast
* watch TV for a little while
* go to Rider and swim
* eat a huge lunch
TigerBlog can't remember where he first learned to swim. He does remember taking JLS (Junior Lifesaving) at Camp Toledo back when he was eight or nine or so in a course that included treading water in blue jeans for a minute.
TB was never a fast swimmer, and his high school didn't have a swim team. In fact, it was a rarity for a team by the Shore to have a swim team back then, and TB was a bit shocked at how basically every school in the Mercer County/Bucks County area had a swim team and a pool when he first started covering high schools.
In fact, back then, swimming was one of the sports TB covered the most, and he began to develop a pretty good understanding of the nuances of the sport, from how training worked to what coaches had to do to put swimmers into the right spots to maximize points during championship meets.
When he went from covering high schools to colleges, TB didn't cover as much swimming anymore. Still, he went to occasional meets and did get to know the local swimming coaches, which is how he ended up in the pool at Rider three or four days a week for two or three years or so.
As exercise goes, it's hard to beat swimming laps. TB would go up and back in the pool, time after time, eventually working up to 100 laps. His major problem was that he was never good at flip turns, so TB invented his own semi-flip turn, which looked a bit awkward but got the job done.
Since TB has been working at Princeton, he hasn't been in DeNunzio Pool that often, choosing instead to play basketball or squash primarily for exercise. DeNunzio is the deepest pool he's ever been in, with nothing that could be called a shallow area as it is, TB believes, at least 10 feet deep everywhere.
It's also a beautiful pool. Even more than 20 years after it opened, the pool has a great aesthetic quality to it, and improvements in recent years have featured the history of the two swimming and diving programs throughout the building.
For those who don't make it in to DeNunzio, that history can be found for the men and for the women on a pair of information central pages on goprincetontigers.com.
The pages highlight two programs that have been great histories - and presents, and both teams are consistently ranked in the national Top 25.
The men's program has won six of the last nine Ivy League championships, including two straight and four of five. The women have won nine of the last 11.
The 2011 Ivy League women's championships will be held Feb. 24-26 at DeNunzio, while the men's championships are a week later at Harvard.
This past weekend gave a bit of a glimpse into what those championships might just hold, as the annual HYP event was held at Yale, whose pool resembles the Coliseum in Rome.
On the men's side, Princeton defeated Yale and lost to Harvard in a close matchup. If history has anything to say about it, the Ivy champ will be either Princeton or Harvard, as it has been every year since 1993, when Yale and Harvard tied for the crown. In fact, the last time a team other than Harvard or Princeton won an outright men's title was 1971, when Penn did so.
The women's event was all Princeton, as the Tigers won all 16 individual events and took both team meets by huge margins. This came in the first HYP meet since the graduation of Alicia Aemisegger, a 13-time All-America, and Courtney Kilkuts, one of the very greatest swimmers in program history who was overshadowed by Aemisegger for four years.
Harvard's win on the men's side and Princeton's on the women's would set them up as favorites in a month, but it's hardly set in stone for either. A great deal can happen in a championship swimming meet, when swimmers who are primed for that day and turn, say, a sixth-place finish into a third can make all the difference.
Princeton swimming and diving has had a great deal of stability in its program through the years with the presence of women's head coach Susan Teeter, men's head coach Rob Orr and diving coach Greg Gunn.
This stability has helped the programs maintain their high level of success, and the goal of each year starts with an Ivy League championship and sending as many swimmers as possible to the NCAA meet.
This year will be no different.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Til Death Do Us Part
Before TigerBlog gets to the ECAC hockey standings, he first wants to tell a family story that has him a bit freaked out.
FatherBlog had a first cousin named David, and he was married for 61 years to a woman named Minnie. They were a kind, friendly couple, the kind TB saw at extended family gatherings like weddings and such. In all the time he knew them, TB can't remember either ever saying or doing anything that could be construed as anything but nice.
Anyway, Minnie passed away earlier this week, at the age of 83. Then, two days later, David (who had not been sick) died as well. Married for 61 years, apart for two days.
TigerBlog has heard many stories about married couples who had been together for such long periods of time who passed away close to each other. TigerBlog remembers being at Mrs. Zucker's mother's funeral a few months after he father's and seeing her hear one time too many that her mother had "died of a broken heart" before she lashed out; ironically, it was Mr. Zucker who would die similarly many years later, a few months after Mrs. Zucker.
Still, in the case of David and Minnie, it was two days apart. Yes, it is sad that they both passed away, but there are worse ways to end up than being married for 61 years and dying two days apart.
TB wanted to share that story, partly to say goodbye to David and Minnie and partly because he's not sure why it happens. Is the mind that strong that it can take the body with it in such a fashion? It must be.
Anyway, thanks for indulgence.
As for the ECAC hockey standings, Princeton went into the exam break in second place, but that wasn't a very good indication of where the Tigers stood, since the rest of the league would be playing as many as four league games while Princeton was off.
Princeton got on the bus yesterday to head to the north country to take on St. Lawrence and Clarkson this weekend, and it did so tied for third. In reality, it's a better sign for Princeton than being in second was three weeks ago.
As an aside, Princeton qualifies for "north country" status these days. And TB just heard that there's another "significant snowfall" on the radar for next week.
If TB told you that the ECAC hockey standings had Colgate in first, Harvard in second and St. Lawrence in third, you'd figure that was simply business as usual. Instead, those three rank 10-11-12, as in the bottom three, right now.
At the other end? It's No. 1 Yale in first, followed by Union in second and then Princeton and Dartmouth tied for fourth.
TB assumes that the average Yale fan is okay with how things are going, by the way, as much with where the Crimson are as with where the Bulldogs are.
The point totals are like this:
Yale 20
Union 17
Princeton/Dartmouth 15
RPI 14
Clarkson/Cornell 13
Quinnipiac 12
Brown 11
St. Lawrence 6
Harvard 4
Colgate 2
The goal is to be in the top four, which earns a first-round bye in the ECAC playoffs and makes the path to a potential NCAA tournament berth more attainable. Princeton's RPI currently is 18, which is actually fifth among ECAC teams, behind Yale (1), Union (10), RPI (11) and Dartmouth (15).
On the other hand, Princeton plays Union and RPI twice each still, including games at Baker Rink next weekend, while also playing at Dartmouth and home with Yale.
The ECAC regular season ends Feb. 26, which means the Tigers now have 10 league games in a 29-day stretch that starts tonight.
At the very least, the goal is to be in eighth place or better, to get a home series in the first round. Mathematically, it'll be hard for Princeton not to be at least eighth.
But sitting in third in late January, the Tigers' goals can be set a little higher.
Princeton hockey in the last few years has given its fans some of the greatest moments in the history of the program, and there have been more home playoff games at Baker Rink of late than there were in the decades that predated this run combined.
It's easy to forget that there were years when Princeton hockey was playing out the string in late February, locked into a road playoff series to open the playoffs and hoping against hope to capture some magic.
TigerBlog has said before and will repeat it that Baker Rink could be Princeton's best athletic venue, with the action directly in front of the fans and with high-quality, competitive games the norm.
Princeton hasn't played a league game in three weeks; tonight is the start of five straight Friday/Saturday games to end the regular season, with at least one guaranteed playoff round, almost surely at home.
Starting tonight, Princeton is playing to see if it can get a week off before having to start the playoffs.
From there, anything is possible. A year ago, a group of Tigers in orange and black made the NCAA Final Four - the ones from RIT.
Maybe some day a different group will get there as well, the ones from Princeton.
Will it this be this year? Maybe not, but there's no harm in dreaming big.
FatherBlog had a first cousin named David, and he was married for 61 years to a woman named Minnie. They were a kind, friendly couple, the kind TB saw at extended family gatherings like weddings and such. In all the time he knew them, TB can't remember either ever saying or doing anything that could be construed as anything but nice.
Anyway, Minnie passed away earlier this week, at the age of 83. Then, two days later, David (who had not been sick) died as well. Married for 61 years, apart for two days.
TigerBlog has heard many stories about married couples who had been together for such long periods of time who passed away close to each other. TigerBlog remembers being at Mrs. Zucker's mother's funeral a few months after he father's and seeing her hear one time too many that her mother had "died of a broken heart" before she lashed out; ironically, it was Mr. Zucker who would die similarly many years later, a few months after Mrs. Zucker.
Still, in the case of David and Minnie, it was two days apart. Yes, it is sad that they both passed away, but there are worse ways to end up than being married for 61 years and dying two days apart.
TB wanted to share that story, partly to say goodbye to David and Minnie and partly because he's not sure why it happens. Is the mind that strong that it can take the body with it in such a fashion? It must be.
Anyway, thanks for indulgence.
As for the ECAC hockey standings, Princeton went into the exam break in second place, but that wasn't a very good indication of where the Tigers stood, since the rest of the league would be playing as many as four league games while Princeton was off.
Princeton got on the bus yesterday to head to the north country to take on St. Lawrence and Clarkson this weekend, and it did so tied for third. In reality, it's a better sign for Princeton than being in second was three weeks ago.
As an aside, Princeton qualifies for "north country" status these days. And TB just heard that there's another "significant snowfall" on the radar for next week.
If TB told you that the ECAC hockey standings had Colgate in first, Harvard in second and St. Lawrence in third, you'd figure that was simply business as usual. Instead, those three rank 10-11-12, as in the bottom three, right now.
At the other end? It's No. 1 Yale in first, followed by Union in second and then Princeton and Dartmouth tied for fourth.
TB assumes that the average Yale fan is okay with how things are going, by the way, as much with where the Crimson are as with where the Bulldogs are.
The point totals are like this:
Yale 20
Union 17
Princeton/Dartmouth 15
RPI 14
Clarkson/Cornell 13
Quinnipiac 12
Brown 11
St. Lawrence 6
Harvard 4
Colgate 2
The goal is to be in the top four, which earns a first-round bye in the ECAC playoffs and makes the path to a potential NCAA tournament berth more attainable. Princeton's RPI currently is 18, which is actually fifth among ECAC teams, behind Yale (1), Union (10), RPI (11) and Dartmouth (15).
On the other hand, Princeton plays Union and RPI twice each still, including games at Baker Rink next weekend, while also playing at Dartmouth and home with Yale.
The ECAC regular season ends Feb. 26, which means the Tigers now have 10 league games in a 29-day stretch that starts tonight.
At the very least, the goal is to be in eighth place or better, to get a home series in the first round. Mathematically, it'll be hard for Princeton not to be at least eighth.
But sitting in third in late January, the Tigers' goals can be set a little higher.
Princeton hockey in the last few years has given its fans some of the greatest moments in the history of the program, and there have been more home playoff games at Baker Rink of late than there were in the decades that predated this run combined.
It's easy to forget that there were years when Princeton hockey was playing out the string in late February, locked into a road playoff series to open the playoffs and hoping against hope to capture some magic.
TigerBlog has said before and will repeat it that Baker Rink could be Princeton's best athletic venue, with the action directly in front of the fans and with high-quality, competitive games the norm.
Princeton hasn't played a league game in three weeks; tonight is the start of five straight Friday/Saturday games to end the regular season, with at least one guaranteed playoff round, almost surely at home.
Starting tonight, Princeton is playing to see if it can get a week off before having to start the playoffs.
From there, anything is possible. A year ago, a group of Tigers in orange and black made the NCAA Final Four - the ones from RIT.
Maybe some day a different group will get there as well, the ones from Princeton.
Will it this be this year? Maybe not, but there's no harm in dreaming big.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Home Or Away?
Being a lawyer who knows little about sports, BrotherBlog has a different reaction to “hit-and-run” than most. With that background, BB surprised TigerBlog one day, when they were watching or listening to some trivia show, possibly “Jeopardy.”
As an aside, TigerBlog was watching "Jeopardy" last night and ran the category entitled "President Tyler," going 5 for 5 on the 10th President.
Anyway, back to the original story, the question asked what pitcher had thrown the most career no-hitters, and BrotherBlog instantly said “Nolan Ryan,” which is correct. Impressed, TB asked him how he knew that, and BB said that he answers “Nolan Ryan” to any baseball trivia question.
A friend of TB’s from a long time ago once said that the answer to any random question about Nobel Prize winners is “R. Buckminster Fuller.”
Along those same lines, the answer to a question of “who said the following quip” is usually either Ben Franklin or Mark Twain.
For instance, it was Franklin who said “Some people are weather-wise; some people are otherwise.” It was Twain who said “Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody every does anything about it.”
TB thought of the second one last night as he watched snow fall yet again. “What,” TB said out loud, “would you have TB do about this Mark?”
Again it snowed, this time a whole lot. TB estimates that it was nearly two feet this time, though this was probably the weirdest winter storm ever. The snow turned to rain, rain to ice and then, eventually back into snow. And oh yeah, just to make it super bizarre, there was also thunder and lightning.
Thunder and lightning? During a winter snowstorm. What in the world was that about? What even caused it?
Anyway, the result was that Princeton University is actually closed today. In all the time TB has worked at Princeton, he can’t remember more than maybe five times if that that the entire University has been shut down due to snow.
Also, like many people in the area, TB has no electricity, which means that he’s hoping his computer battery lasts long enough to finish this and not quit in mid-sentence.
And so, he might as well get to the point.
The Princeton men’s basketball team opens its Ivy season this weekend, hosting Brown tomorrow night and Yale Saturday. At the same time, the women will be on the road at the same two locations.
The women are already 1-0 on the Ivy season after defeating Penn nearly three weeks ago.
Next weekend, the men are home with Harvard and Dartmouth, while the women are on the road again.
This begs the question of which team has the advantage? Is it the men, who play four straight home games to start the league season or the women, who play four straight on the road during this crucial stretch that includes two teams (Yale and Harvard) who are already 2-0.
Which would you prefer, if you were the coach?
Of course, this assumes that home court advantage is valuable in the Ivy League. A few years ago (2003, TB believes), the Ivy League came within one game on the men’s side of having every team sweep the teams below it and get swept by the teams above it. In other words, home court meant nothing.
This year, though, TB’s sense is that home court will have value.
Back in the early 1990s, TB used to travel with the Tigers on their bus as they went on the road in men’s basketball, and he actually thought being on the road was an advantage. The team was focused completely on basketball, away from campus, completely together and all business.
Still, it’s common sense that teams would rather play at home than on the road. So which is better?
Gary Walters, Princeton’s Director of Athletics, walked by TB’s office the other day, and TB asked him that question. Without flinching, Walters said “start at home.” Then, after thinking about it for a few seconds, he said “I’m not sure, actually.”
The advantage to being at home is the opportunity to use that home court to get off to a good start, play from ahead in the league and then be a bit more seasoned before having to hit the road.
The advantage to playing on the road is knowing that if you win, you have a big edge the second time around and that if you lose, you have the home game to fall back on.
So which is better? Depends if you win or lose, TB suspects.
Still, if TB had to choose, he’d much rather open with the road games and know that the home games were still out there.
Or, even more, he’d probably use another famous quote he’s heard in the past.
“Just make shots.”
Who was that who said it? Franklin? Twain?
Nope.
Bill Carmody.
As an aside, TigerBlog was watching "Jeopardy" last night and ran the category entitled "President Tyler," going 5 for 5 on the 10th President.
Anyway, back to the original story, the question asked what pitcher had thrown the most career no-hitters, and BrotherBlog instantly said “Nolan Ryan,” which is correct. Impressed, TB asked him how he knew that, and BB said that he answers “Nolan Ryan” to any baseball trivia question.
A friend of TB’s from a long time ago once said that the answer to any random question about Nobel Prize winners is “R. Buckminster Fuller.”
Along those same lines, the answer to a question of “who said the following quip” is usually either Ben Franklin or Mark Twain.
For instance, it was Franklin who said “Some people are weather-wise; some people are otherwise.” It was Twain who said “Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody every does anything about it.”
TB thought of the second one last night as he watched snow fall yet again. “What,” TB said out loud, “would you have TB do about this Mark?”
Again it snowed, this time a whole lot. TB estimates that it was nearly two feet this time, though this was probably the weirdest winter storm ever. The snow turned to rain, rain to ice and then, eventually back into snow. And oh yeah, just to make it super bizarre, there was also thunder and lightning.
Thunder and lightning? During a winter snowstorm. What in the world was that about? What even caused it?
Anyway, the result was that Princeton University is actually closed today. In all the time TB has worked at Princeton, he can’t remember more than maybe five times if that that the entire University has been shut down due to snow.
Also, like many people in the area, TB has no electricity, which means that he’s hoping his computer battery lasts long enough to finish this and not quit in mid-sentence.
And so, he might as well get to the point.
The Princeton men’s basketball team opens its Ivy season this weekend, hosting Brown tomorrow night and Yale Saturday. At the same time, the women will be on the road at the same two locations.
The women are already 1-0 on the Ivy season after defeating Penn nearly three weeks ago.
Next weekend, the men are home with Harvard and Dartmouth, while the women are on the road again.
This begs the question of which team has the advantage? Is it the men, who play four straight home games to start the league season or the women, who play four straight on the road during this crucial stretch that includes two teams (Yale and Harvard) who are already 2-0.
Which would you prefer, if you were the coach?
Of course, this assumes that home court advantage is valuable in the Ivy League. A few years ago (2003, TB believes), the Ivy League came within one game on the men’s side of having every team sweep the teams below it and get swept by the teams above it. In other words, home court meant nothing.
This year, though, TB’s sense is that home court will have value.
Back in the early 1990s, TB used to travel with the Tigers on their bus as they went on the road in men’s basketball, and he actually thought being on the road was an advantage. The team was focused completely on basketball, away from campus, completely together and all business.
Still, it’s common sense that teams would rather play at home than on the road. So which is better?
Gary Walters, Princeton’s Director of Athletics, walked by TB’s office the other day, and TB asked him that question. Without flinching, Walters said “start at home.” Then, after thinking about it for a few seconds, he said “I’m not sure, actually.”
The advantage to being at home is the opportunity to use that home court to get off to a good start, play from ahead in the league and then be a bit more seasoned before having to hit the road.
The advantage to playing on the road is knowing that if you win, you have a big edge the second time around and that if you lose, you have the home game to fall back on.
So which is better? Depends if you win or lose, TB suspects.
Still, if TB had to choose, he’d much rather open with the road games and know that the home games were still out there.
Or, even more, he’d probably use another famous quote he’s heard in the past.
“Just make shots.”
Who was that who said it? Franklin? Twain?
Nope.
Bill Carmody.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Dreaming Of A White Month After Christmas
For those in the greater Princeton area who were dreaming of a white Christmas, well, you were disappointed.
For those hoping to have a day since Christmas without snow on the ground, you too are similarly disappointed.
Today marks exactly one month since the first snowfall of this winter in Central Jersey. Back on Dec. 26, more than a foot of snow was dropped on the area, and since that day, there has not been a day where snow has not been on the ground.
The snow that made this morning's commute a disaster is the seventh of the season, and this one could be the worst. It's supposed to snow for much of the day before turning first to ice and freezing rain and then back to snow for an additional five to eight inches.
This year's awful winter comes on the heels of last year's, when there were four separate storms of at least a foot of snow. This year hasn't had that many huge downfalls, as the average has been about six inches or so.
Of course, this year also has featured much colder overall temperatures. Last weekend, for instance, it never got above 20 degrees, and the lows were around five.
TigerBlog much prefers warm to cold, summer to winter, dry to snow. He's been skiing once and didn't like it; he's been to the beach hundreds of times and loves it.
Of course, there was a least one ray of sunshine today, one glimmer of hope that the end of winter is at least on the horizon.
Today marked Opening Day for the first spring sport.
Okay, Princeton-Rutgers women's tennis on E level of Jadwin on a snowy, icy day isn't quite sitting on the hill at Clarke Field or at Class of 1952 Stadium on the first sunny and 70 degree day of April, but at least it's a spring sport.
Megan Bradley, the women's tennis coach, learned a year ago in her first season - when she led the Tigers to a 7-0 Ivy mark and the league title - that the best way to boost attendance for her team's matches in Jadwin was to feed the audience.
As such, there was a sign inviting everyone down to E level to watch the match and enjoy bagels, coffee and orange juice. And, at 10, as the teams were warming up, sure enough there was a parade to the courts, to see a little tennis and get some free food.
As TB reached for a plain along with a few others, Bradley walked by and said to the group "now you have to stay and watch for awhile."
Bradley was dressed in black sweatpants and an orange "Princeton tennis" sweatshirt, and it got TB to thinking about the wide disparity of ways in which coaches dress for their events.
For instance, men's hockey coach Guy Gadowsky and men's basketball coach Sydney Johnson are always in suit and tie for their games. Courtney Banghart gets dressed up for her women's basketball games as well.
The football staff, all of it, wears the same exact thing, with their Princeton football shirt and khaki pants.
Men's lacrosse does basically the same, substituting Princeton lacrosse gear for football; women's lacrosse tends to be a bit more casual, with sweatpants and Princeton lacrosse tops.
Scott Bradley and the baseball staff wear, of course, baseball uniforms, honoring a long-standing tradition that includes every baseball manager in the last 100 years except for Connie Mack, who famously wore a jacket and tie.
Trina Salcido and the softball staff, on the other hand, wear sweats and Princeton softball gear.
The field hockey coaches dress up. The soccer coaches dress, for the most part, as if they're about to put themselves in the game, with soccer shorts and dri-fit shirts in reasonable weather and then winter stuff when it gets cold.
Beyond those groups, there are also the coaches who dress in what could basically be called business casual, usually in an orange and black scheme. TB's sense is that some of these coaches have their lucky shirts and sweaters and such.
TB isn't sure why basketball and hockey coaches began to dress up for games, while most coaches tend to be as casual as possible. Perhaps it is because those sports are indoors or because the coaches are so easily seen by the fans in the arena.
These days, all of these different dressing styles are part of the different cultures of each sport, and to deviate from them really stands out. TB used to like to see football coaches who wore suits on the sideline, but now they just look odd.
The same would be true if Chris Bates showed up for the first men's lacrosse game of the season with the same kind of suit that his hockey or basketball colleagues wear.
Of course, that first men's lacrosse game is a mere four weeks from Saturday.
By then, it'll probably have snowed five more times.
For those hoping to have a day since Christmas without snow on the ground, you too are similarly disappointed.
Today marks exactly one month since the first snowfall of this winter in Central Jersey. Back on Dec. 26, more than a foot of snow was dropped on the area, and since that day, there has not been a day where snow has not been on the ground.
The snow that made this morning's commute a disaster is the seventh of the season, and this one could be the worst. It's supposed to snow for much of the day before turning first to ice and freezing rain and then back to snow for an additional five to eight inches.
This year's awful winter comes on the heels of last year's, when there were four separate storms of at least a foot of snow. This year hasn't had that many huge downfalls, as the average has been about six inches or so.
Of course, this year also has featured much colder overall temperatures. Last weekend, for instance, it never got above 20 degrees, and the lows were around five.
TigerBlog much prefers warm to cold, summer to winter, dry to snow. He's been skiing once and didn't like it; he's been to the beach hundreds of times and loves it.
Of course, there was a least one ray of sunshine today, one glimmer of hope that the end of winter is at least on the horizon.
Today marked Opening Day for the first spring sport.
Okay, Princeton-Rutgers women's tennis on E level of Jadwin on a snowy, icy day isn't quite sitting on the hill at Clarke Field or at Class of 1952 Stadium on the first sunny and 70 degree day of April, but at least it's a spring sport.
Megan Bradley, the women's tennis coach, learned a year ago in her first season - when she led the Tigers to a 7-0 Ivy mark and the league title - that the best way to boost attendance for her team's matches in Jadwin was to feed the audience.
As such, there was a sign inviting everyone down to E level to watch the match and enjoy bagels, coffee and orange juice. And, at 10, as the teams were warming up, sure enough there was a parade to the courts, to see a little tennis and get some free food.
As TB reached for a plain along with a few others, Bradley walked by and said to the group "now you have to stay and watch for awhile."
Bradley was dressed in black sweatpants and an orange "Princeton tennis" sweatshirt, and it got TB to thinking about the wide disparity of ways in which coaches dress for their events.
For instance, men's hockey coach Guy Gadowsky and men's basketball coach Sydney Johnson are always in suit and tie for their games. Courtney Banghart gets dressed up for her women's basketball games as well.
The football staff, all of it, wears the same exact thing, with their Princeton football shirt and khaki pants.
Men's lacrosse does basically the same, substituting Princeton lacrosse gear for football; women's lacrosse tends to be a bit more casual, with sweatpants and Princeton lacrosse tops.
Scott Bradley and the baseball staff wear, of course, baseball uniforms, honoring a long-standing tradition that includes every baseball manager in the last 100 years except for Connie Mack, who famously wore a jacket and tie.
Trina Salcido and the softball staff, on the other hand, wear sweats and Princeton softball gear.
The field hockey coaches dress up. The soccer coaches dress, for the most part, as if they're about to put themselves in the game, with soccer shorts and dri-fit shirts in reasonable weather and then winter stuff when it gets cold.
Beyond those groups, there are also the coaches who dress in what could basically be called business casual, usually in an orange and black scheme. TB's sense is that some of these coaches have their lucky shirts and sweaters and such.
TB isn't sure why basketball and hockey coaches began to dress up for games, while most coaches tend to be as casual as possible. Perhaps it is because those sports are indoors or because the coaches are so easily seen by the fans in the arena.
These days, all of these different dressing styles are part of the different cultures of each sport, and to deviate from them really stands out. TB used to like to see football coaches who wore suits on the sideline, but now they just look odd.
The same would be true if Chris Bates showed up for the first men's lacrosse game of the season with the same kind of suit that his hockey or basketball colleagues wear.
Of course, that first men's lacrosse game is a mere four weeks from Saturday.
By then, it'll probably have snowed five more times.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Good For Them
TigerBlog was told something yesterday that he didn't realize about the Super Bowl.
In the last 10 years, there have been four AFC teams who have reached the big game: the Patriots, the Colts, the Steelers and the Raiders.
In the same time frame, the NFC has had 10 different representatives. That's right; there have been 10 different NFC teams in the last 10 years.
TB will give you a few paragraphs to list them.
He'll spot you the Green Bay Packers, who will play the Steelers a week from Sunday in Dallas. For those who don't know, the next three Super Bowl sites after this year are Indianapolis, New Orleans and the Meadowlands, in February 2014. Judging by the way this winter has gone, TB is pretty sure the NFL is glad that this isn't the year for an outdoor stadium in the Northeast.
Yesterday, TB and TigerBlog Jr. listened to Mike Francesa's annual Super Bowl trivia game, in which people have to answer four mostly unanswerable questions to win a trip to the game in Texas. The way to win is to listen all day and hear the questions that other people get right and hope to piece that together four times to win.
TB did learn some things that he never realized, such as the fact that Kerry Collins has thrown the most passes in Super Bowl history without having a touchdown. And that Don Shula went to John Carroll.
He was also shocked that one contestant, when asked to name the four quarterbacks who had started in the Super Bowl for the Giants, came up with Collins, Eli Manning and Jeff Hostetler - but not Phil Simms.
Anyway, the NFC representatives (year the game was played, not the year for the season played):
2011 - Green Bay
2010 - New Orleans
2009 - Arizona
2008 - New York
2007 - Chicago
2006 - Seattle
2005 - Eagles
2004 - Panthers
2003 - Buccaneers
2002 - Rams
That leaves six teams with a chance to extend the streak next year - the Cowboys, Vikings, Lions, 49ers, Redskins and Falcons. Of those six, three have a realistic chance - the Vikings, Cowboys and Falcons.
The Super Bowl is the single biggest thing in American sports, though TB knows many people who prefer the last two weekends from a purely football standpoint, with four games and then two and with little associated hype, at least compared to what will go on between now and kickoff.
There is a huge difference between professional sports and college sports, obviously, and it extends to all pieces of the two, from on-the-field to player procurement to the business side and everything else. About the only thing they have in common is the way that they have carved out important places in the American public psyche.
There is, TB feels, a misconception on the part of the average fan as to what college sports are all about. Most people know college sports only for big-time football and men's basketball, and through this there is the idea that college athletics serve mostly as a minor league farm system for the NBA and NFL.
The reality, as most people know, is that almost nobody makes it all the way to the professional ranks, which makes the NCAA slogan of "Almost all of us are going pro in something other than sports" something of pure genius.
TB hates the term student-athlete; there are no "student-musicians" or "student-debaters" or "student-artists." Still, almost all of college athletics exists within this framework, whatever you want to call it, across a wide range of sports and divisions.
Almost every kid plays a youth sport at one point in time, but about 80% of those never play in high school. The chances of going from high school to college aren't easy either.
About five percent of high school football players will play in college; fewer than two percent play in the pros. The numbers are lower for men's basketball (they're highest for hockey and baseball).
TigerBlog has always wondered what percentage of football and basketball players at major Division I program realize that they're never going to play in the pros and are using their scholarships to get an education that otherwise might not be available to them. TB also wonders what percentage are under the mistaken belief that they are a lock for a big paycheck, when the reality is that they aren't.
There can't be many, if any, Princeton athletes who have ever come here thinking about using this as a springboard to a pro career. That's not to say it's impossible, because it's been done many, many times in a variety of sports.
Princeton has long had good representation in the pro ranks, including not only what has traditionally been known as the big four (hockey, baseball, basketball, football) but also now in soccer and lacrosse.
What TB is saying is that those who come here are doing so with an eye not just on what their professional future might be.
For instance, TB read a story today about how Cam Newton, who recently quarterbacked Auburn to a dubious BCS national championship, is now in California working out for the combine. TB leaves everyone to draw their own conclusions about the educational value Newton saw at Auburn.
At Princeton - and at many other points in the Ivy League and across the college athletic landscape - athletes have a much more balanced experience than that. When a Princeton athlete does land the huge professional contract, it's something unique.
Of course, it's happened twice in recent days.
Chris Young, who played two years of basketball and baseball at Princeton and left every Princeton fan with a huge what-if, signed with the Mets for $1 million guaranteed and incentives that should push it up at least to $2 or $3 million and possibly to as much as $4.5 million.
For Young, even without the extra incentives, his career earnings now stand at $16.125 million.
Ross Ohlendorf is having an arbitration hearing with the Pirates. He has asked for $2.025 million; the club has offered $1.4 million; this means that he'll either get one of those from an arbitrator or some settled amount before the hearing that is in between the two.
Add it up, and Young has $16 million for 48 career wins, and Ohlendorf is going to earn a 400 percent raise minimum, to at least $1.4 million, for going 1-11 a year ago.
Of course, Young's career winning percentage is nearly 60%, and he'd probably have around 80-90 career wins had it not been for injuries. When healthy, he's been a dominant starting pitcher.
And Ohlendorf has also shown potential stardom in his young career, though he too was hurt much of last year. Also, pitching for the Pirates is not easy.
TB is happy for both of them.
Chris Young is as fine a person as TB has ever met. TB has never met Ohlendorf, but from everything he's seen, heard and read about him, he's up there with Young.
So good for both of them.
It doesn't happen often for Princeton athletes, but it does happen. It's part of what makes this place so special.
In the last 10 years, there have been four AFC teams who have reached the big game: the Patriots, the Colts, the Steelers and the Raiders.
In the same time frame, the NFC has had 10 different representatives. That's right; there have been 10 different NFC teams in the last 10 years.
TB will give you a few paragraphs to list them.
He'll spot you the Green Bay Packers, who will play the Steelers a week from Sunday in Dallas. For those who don't know, the next three Super Bowl sites after this year are Indianapolis, New Orleans and the Meadowlands, in February 2014. Judging by the way this winter has gone, TB is pretty sure the NFL is glad that this isn't the year for an outdoor stadium in the Northeast.
Yesterday, TB and TigerBlog Jr. listened to Mike Francesa's annual Super Bowl trivia game, in which people have to answer four mostly unanswerable questions to win a trip to the game in Texas. The way to win is to listen all day and hear the questions that other people get right and hope to piece that together four times to win.
TB did learn some things that he never realized, such as the fact that Kerry Collins has thrown the most passes in Super Bowl history without having a touchdown. And that Don Shula went to John Carroll.
He was also shocked that one contestant, when asked to name the four quarterbacks who had started in the Super Bowl for the Giants, came up with Collins, Eli Manning and Jeff Hostetler - but not Phil Simms.
Anyway, the NFC representatives (year the game was played, not the year for the season played):
2011 - Green Bay
2010 - New Orleans
2009 - Arizona
2008 - New York
2007 - Chicago
2006 - Seattle
2005 - Eagles
2004 - Panthers
2003 - Buccaneers
2002 - Rams
That leaves six teams with a chance to extend the streak next year - the Cowboys, Vikings, Lions, 49ers, Redskins and Falcons. Of those six, three have a realistic chance - the Vikings, Cowboys and Falcons.
The Super Bowl is the single biggest thing in American sports, though TB knows many people who prefer the last two weekends from a purely football standpoint, with four games and then two and with little associated hype, at least compared to what will go on between now and kickoff.
There is a huge difference between professional sports and college sports, obviously, and it extends to all pieces of the two, from on-the-field to player procurement to the business side and everything else. About the only thing they have in common is the way that they have carved out important places in the American public psyche.
There is, TB feels, a misconception on the part of the average fan as to what college sports are all about. Most people know college sports only for big-time football and men's basketball, and through this there is the idea that college athletics serve mostly as a minor league farm system for the NBA and NFL.
The reality, as most people know, is that almost nobody makes it all the way to the professional ranks, which makes the NCAA slogan of "Almost all of us are going pro in something other than sports" something of pure genius.
TB hates the term student-athlete; there are no "student-musicians" or "student-debaters" or "student-artists." Still, almost all of college athletics exists within this framework, whatever you want to call it, across a wide range of sports and divisions.
Almost every kid plays a youth sport at one point in time, but about 80% of those never play in high school. The chances of going from high school to college aren't easy either.
About five percent of high school football players will play in college; fewer than two percent play in the pros. The numbers are lower for men's basketball (they're highest for hockey and baseball).
TigerBlog has always wondered what percentage of football and basketball players at major Division I program realize that they're never going to play in the pros and are using their scholarships to get an education that otherwise might not be available to them. TB also wonders what percentage are under the mistaken belief that they are a lock for a big paycheck, when the reality is that they aren't.
There can't be many, if any, Princeton athletes who have ever come here thinking about using this as a springboard to a pro career. That's not to say it's impossible, because it's been done many, many times in a variety of sports.
Princeton has long had good representation in the pro ranks, including not only what has traditionally been known as the big four (hockey, baseball, basketball, football) but also now in soccer and lacrosse.
What TB is saying is that those who come here are doing so with an eye not just on what their professional future might be.
For instance, TB read a story today about how Cam Newton, who recently quarterbacked Auburn to a dubious BCS national championship, is now in California working out for the combine. TB leaves everyone to draw their own conclusions about the educational value Newton saw at Auburn.
At Princeton - and at many other points in the Ivy League and across the college athletic landscape - athletes have a much more balanced experience than that. When a Princeton athlete does land the huge professional contract, it's something unique.
Of course, it's happened twice in recent days.
Chris Young, who played two years of basketball and baseball at Princeton and left every Princeton fan with a huge what-if, signed with the Mets for $1 million guaranteed and incentives that should push it up at least to $2 or $3 million and possibly to as much as $4.5 million.
For Young, even without the extra incentives, his career earnings now stand at $16.125 million.
Ross Ohlendorf is having an arbitration hearing with the Pirates. He has asked for $2.025 million; the club has offered $1.4 million; this means that he'll either get one of those from an arbitrator or some settled amount before the hearing that is in between the two.
Add it up, and Young has $16 million for 48 career wins, and Ohlendorf is going to earn a 400 percent raise minimum, to at least $1.4 million, for going 1-11 a year ago.
Of course, Young's career winning percentage is nearly 60%, and he'd probably have around 80-90 career wins had it not been for injuries. When healthy, he's been a dominant starting pitcher.
And Ohlendorf has also shown potential stardom in his young career, though he too was hurt much of last year. Also, pitching for the Pirates is not easy.
TB is happy for both of them.
Chris Young is as fine a person as TB has ever met. TB has never met Ohlendorf, but from everything he's seen, heard and read about him, he's up there with Young.
So good for both of them.
It doesn't happen often for Princeton athletes, but it does happen. It's part of what makes this place so special.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Center-Forward
With the temperatures outside dropping to nearly her age, sixth-grader Grace sat on the gym floor as basketball practice ended and made this statement: "I really want some ice cream."
TigerBlog, her coach, looked at her and came back with this: "If you live to be 100 years old, always remember that it's never too cold for ice cream or too hot for soup."
Coaching kids - boys or girls - is not an easy proposition, and TigerBlog has had considerable experience in this arena. There are all kinds of issues for the youth coach, such as how competitive to make things, what messages are being sent, how to balance playing time, how to deal with parents whose ideas might be contrary to the coaches', how to deal with opposing coaches and refs, how to teach kids about the value of sportsmanship.
That last one is even more difficult when almost everything young athletes see on TV is the opposite of good sportsmanship. In fact, television seems not only to show but also to glorify the me-first, let-me-taunt-you nonsense that has infested professional sports, especially football.
Look at yesterday's Packers-Bears game. It was 14-7 Packers with the Bears backed up near the goal line with Caleb Hanie, their No. 3 quarterback, who had almost no NFL experience. What happens? He throws an interception to Green Bay lineman B.J. Raji.
And what happens next? Of course. Raji holds the ball out in front of him with one hand and starts to slow down as he nears the goal line. Luckily for him, he had to go 18 yards instead of 19, because Hanie caught him just after he got to the end zone and knocked the ball away. Had that been just before he got to the end zone and the ball had gone out of bounds in the end zone, it would have been a touchback for the Bears.
This is to get into the Super Bowl. And this is a defensive lineman who isn't used to carrying the ball. Is it asking too much to protect it and then hustle into the end zone, rather than showboat?
And can one of the TV announcers call Raji out on this, or is that asking too much?
How many kids watched the play and now want to emulate it? How hard is it going to be for their coaches to get them away from that mindset?
TigerBlog has tried to stick with the idea that teaching them the right way to play, physically and mentally, is the most important thing a youth coach can do.
TB isn't a huge fan of leagues that don't keep score of games, largely because everyone there is keeping score anyway and because it's important for kids to be learn how to win and how to lose. Too often in today's world, kids are rewarded for doing nothing other than being there, and the critical idea that you have to work to improve and ultimately be successful gets lost in that thinking.
For kids up through sixth grade, for TB the main goal is to get them to want to play again next year, because they had a good experience this year. For seventh/eighth graders, especially the stronger ones, TB thinks that that is the age when they should start to learn what it might be to compete on the high school level and therefore he tries to prepare them for that.
All of which brings us back to Grace and her eight fifth/sixth grade girls' basketball teammates. This is an in-house league, not a travel league.
TigerBlog, long ago brainwashed by the Pete Carril/Bill Carmody/John Thompson/etc. approach to basketball, had it in his mind that he could incorporate elements of Princeton basketball into his 5/6 grade team, including something as benign as layup lines. Instead of having the players dribble in and shoot the layup, TB has them pass from one line to another, receive the pass back and then shoot the layup.
For TB, isn't simply the idea of using pieces of Princeton basketball because of his Princeton connections. No, it's more because they are at their core based on simple philosophies - pass, cut, dribble, shoot, defend - and TB figured they'd be easy for 5/6 grade girls to pick up on.
Immediately, he ran into a few problems. First, the court is narrower than a regular court, which affects the ability to have good spacing. Second, for kids in this age group, boys and girls, dribbling is probably the toughest of all the skills.
TB backed off some of his thoughts of Princetonian grandeur early on, concentrating instead on trying to run a pick-and-roll or to free up the girl bringing the ball up the court by setting a pick for her as she reached the defense, which can't guard in the backcourt.
All that really ended up happening, though, was that the person who brought the ball up would get stuck 20 feet from the basket after picking up her dribble, and yet the girls would still try to set picks for her or, beyond that, simply run to the ball.
To counter this, TB tried to introduce the concept of setting a screen away from the ball and having someone curl off of that screen to get a pass. Here, though, the lack of spacing came into play; with so many players in such a small area, there are few clean passing lanes.
And then it came to TB the other night in practice.
Center-forward.
When people think of Princeton basketball, they think of the backdoor pass for the layup, which comes when the defender gets caught up "ball-watching." Only after it is too late does the poor, exposed defender realize that the offensive player has already cut and is about to receive a pass for an uncontested layup or dunk.
Princeton - and Georgetown, Northwestern, Mercer County College and the rest - run this in a bunch of different ways. It could be that the person with the ball dribbles right at another defender and then makes the pass after the teammates cuts behind, for instance.
What all of these plays have in common is that they come without a screen. They're all done off of cuts. In fact, TB wishes he had $5 for every time he heard Carmody yell "hard cuts" during a game.
Another way that Princeton runs this is its center-forward play, which basically has a guard get to the ball to the center, who starts on the low block and then comes up to the elbow. The center than passes to the cutting forward, who comes from the wing as the center is getting the ball. Bang-bang.
Arguably the single most famous play in the history of Princeton basketball - TB is hard-pressed to think of another one that equals it - is Gabe Lewullis' layup against UCLA in the first round of the 1996 NCAA tournament.
The play came with the score 41-41, after UCLA had led a few minutes earlier at 41-34. Princeton came back on a long three-pointer by now-head coach Sydney Johnson and then layups by Steve Goodrich (great feed from Chris Doyal) and Johnson (after a Mitch Henderson steal).
As an aside, TB is pulling the play-by-play from memory. It's seared into his brain.
UCLA had two chances in the final minute, first when Johnson intentionally fouled Cameron Dollar, who then missed both foul shots, and then when Kris Johnson's short jumper bounced out and was rebounded by Goodrich. Timeout Princeton with the shot clock off.
As the clock went under 10 seconds, Johnson had the ball and made the pass to Goodrich, who came to the high post. Lewullis made one cut, doubled back and then reversed himself, getting the pass from Goodrich and converting the layup. When Toby Bailey's jump shot sailed long at the buzzer, Princeton had one of the great wins in NCAA tournament history.
But could the 5/6 grade girls execute the same basic play?
TB spent much of practice Friday night trying to figure out if they could. After about 20 minutes, he brought in some of the parents to play defense to see if the girls could make it work against them, and it had limited success, largely because Grace's dad was defending the wing better than Charles O'Bannon had in 1996.
Still, at the game Saturday, TB was ready to try. The first few times, it didn't work, because either the original pass went to the forward or because the forward cut long before the ball came up the court or because the pass to the center was dropped.
At halftime, TB drew it up again. Aileen was to bring the ball up. Grace was to be the center. Gianna was to be the forward.
This time, everything went perfectly. Aileen's pass to Grace was on the money, and Grace controlled it and turned to immediately pass. Gianna had made her cut at the right time and now had lost her defender, who was focused on Grace and the ball. The pass led Gianna enough, and Gianna caught it all alone and converted the layup.
Okay, so TB's team lost the game. Still, he couldn't help but get the feeling that he'd been successful in a few ways at that moment.
They'd learned how to run the play. They practiced it over and over until they could do it. They translated that into the game.
Most importantly, they'd been successful in doing so. Maybe, in some small way, it got them all to think "hey, if we work in practice and play as a team and I understand my role in all that, then we can get better as a team and I can get better as an individual." Maybe years from now, one or more or even all of them will still have that idea in their heads.
Maybe it won't just be confined to sports.
TB could be dreaming or making way more out of it, but he'd like to think that life lessons have come from less.
Coming next week?
Chin.
TigerBlog, her coach, looked at her and came back with this: "If you live to be 100 years old, always remember that it's never too cold for ice cream or too hot for soup."
Coaching kids - boys or girls - is not an easy proposition, and TigerBlog has had considerable experience in this arena. There are all kinds of issues for the youth coach, such as how competitive to make things, what messages are being sent, how to balance playing time, how to deal with parents whose ideas might be contrary to the coaches', how to deal with opposing coaches and refs, how to teach kids about the value of sportsmanship.
That last one is even more difficult when almost everything young athletes see on TV is the opposite of good sportsmanship. In fact, television seems not only to show but also to glorify the me-first, let-me-taunt-you nonsense that has infested professional sports, especially football.
Look at yesterday's Packers-Bears game. It was 14-7 Packers with the Bears backed up near the goal line with Caleb Hanie, their No. 3 quarterback, who had almost no NFL experience. What happens? He throws an interception to Green Bay lineman B.J. Raji.
And what happens next? Of course. Raji holds the ball out in front of him with one hand and starts to slow down as he nears the goal line. Luckily for him, he had to go 18 yards instead of 19, because Hanie caught him just after he got to the end zone and knocked the ball away. Had that been just before he got to the end zone and the ball had gone out of bounds in the end zone, it would have been a touchback for the Bears.
This is to get into the Super Bowl. And this is a defensive lineman who isn't used to carrying the ball. Is it asking too much to protect it and then hustle into the end zone, rather than showboat?
And can one of the TV announcers call Raji out on this, or is that asking too much?
How many kids watched the play and now want to emulate it? How hard is it going to be for their coaches to get them away from that mindset?
TigerBlog has tried to stick with the idea that teaching them the right way to play, physically and mentally, is the most important thing a youth coach can do.
TB isn't a huge fan of leagues that don't keep score of games, largely because everyone there is keeping score anyway and because it's important for kids to be learn how to win and how to lose. Too often in today's world, kids are rewarded for doing nothing other than being there, and the critical idea that you have to work to improve and ultimately be successful gets lost in that thinking.
For kids up through sixth grade, for TB the main goal is to get them to want to play again next year, because they had a good experience this year. For seventh/eighth graders, especially the stronger ones, TB thinks that that is the age when they should start to learn what it might be to compete on the high school level and therefore he tries to prepare them for that.
All of which brings us back to Grace and her eight fifth/sixth grade girls' basketball teammates. This is an in-house league, not a travel league.
TigerBlog, long ago brainwashed by the Pete Carril/Bill Carmody/John Thompson/etc. approach to basketball, had it in his mind that he could incorporate elements of Princeton basketball into his 5/6 grade team, including something as benign as layup lines. Instead of having the players dribble in and shoot the layup, TB has them pass from one line to another, receive the pass back and then shoot the layup.
For TB, isn't simply the idea of using pieces of Princeton basketball because of his Princeton connections. No, it's more because they are at their core based on simple philosophies - pass, cut, dribble, shoot, defend - and TB figured they'd be easy for 5/6 grade girls to pick up on.
Immediately, he ran into a few problems. First, the court is narrower than a regular court, which affects the ability to have good spacing. Second, for kids in this age group, boys and girls, dribbling is probably the toughest of all the skills.
TB backed off some of his thoughts of Princetonian grandeur early on, concentrating instead on trying to run a pick-and-roll or to free up the girl bringing the ball up the court by setting a pick for her as she reached the defense, which can't guard in the backcourt.
All that really ended up happening, though, was that the person who brought the ball up would get stuck 20 feet from the basket after picking up her dribble, and yet the girls would still try to set picks for her or, beyond that, simply run to the ball.
To counter this, TB tried to introduce the concept of setting a screen away from the ball and having someone curl off of that screen to get a pass. Here, though, the lack of spacing came into play; with so many players in such a small area, there are few clean passing lanes.
And then it came to TB the other night in practice.
Center-forward.
When people think of Princeton basketball, they think of the backdoor pass for the layup, which comes when the defender gets caught up "ball-watching." Only after it is too late does the poor, exposed defender realize that the offensive player has already cut and is about to receive a pass for an uncontested layup or dunk.
Princeton - and Georgetown, Northwestern, Mercer County College and the rest - run this in a bunch of different ways. It could be that the person with the ball dribbles right at another defender and then makes the pass after the teammates cuts behind, for instance.
What all of these plays have in common is that they come without a screen. They're all done off of cuts. In fact, TB wishes he had $5 for every time he heard Carmody yell "hard cuts" during a game.
Another way that Princeton runs this is its center-forward play, which basically has a guard get to the ball to the center, who starts on the low block and then comes up to the elbow. The center than passes to the cutting forward, who comes from the wing as the center is getting the ball. Bang-bang.
Arguably the single most famous play in the history of Princeton basketball - TB is hard-pressed to think of another one that equals it - is Gabe Lewullis' layup against UCLA in the first round of the 1996 NCAA tournament.
The play came with the score 41-41, after UCLA had led a few minutes earlier at 41-34. Princeton came back on a long three-pointer by now-head coach Sydney Johnson and then layups by Steve Goodrich (great feed from Chris Doyal) and Johnson (after a Mitch Henderson steal).
As an aside, TB is pulling the play-by-play from memory. It's seared into his brain.
UCLA had two chances in the final minute, first when Johnson intentionally fouled Cameron Dollar, who then missed both foul shots, and then when Kris Johnson's short jumper bounced out and was rebounded by Goodrich. Timeout Princeton with the shot clock off.
As the clock went under 10 seconds, Johnson had the ball and made the pass to Goodrich, who came to the high post. Lewullis made one cut, doubled back and then reversed himself, getting the pass from Goodrich and converting the layup. When Toby Bailey's jump shot sailed long at the buzzer, Princeton had one of the great wins in NCAA tournament history.
But could the 5/6 grade girls execute the same basic play?
TB spent much of practice Friday night trying to figure out if they could. After about 20 minutes, he brought in some of the parents to play defense to see if the girls could make it work against them, and it had limited success, largely because Grace's dad was defending the wing better than Charles O'Bannon had in 1996.
Still, at the game Saturday, TB was ready to try. The first few times, it didn't work, because either the original pass went to the forward or because the forward cut long before the ball came up the court or because the pass to the center was dropped.
At halftime, TB drew it up again. Aileen was to bring the ball up. Grace was to be the center. Gianna was to be the forward.
This time, everything went perfectly. Aileen's pass to Grace was on the money, and Grace controlled it and turned to immediately pass. Gianna had made her cut at the right time and now had lost her defender, who was focused on Grace and the ball. The pass led Gianna enough, and Gianna caught it all alone and converted the layup.
Okay, so TB's team lost the game. Still, he couldn't help but get the feeling that he'd been successful in a few ways at that moment.
They'd learned how to run the play. They practiced it over and over until they could do it. They translated that into the game.
Most importantly, they'd been successful in doing so. Maybe, in some small way, it got them all to think "hey, if we work in practice and play as a team and I understand my role in all that, then we can get better as a team and I can get better as an individual." Maybe years from now, one or more or even all of them will still have that idea in their heads.
Maybe it won't just be confined to sports.
TB could be dreaming or making way more out of it, but he'd like to think that life lessons have come from less.
Coming next week?
Chin.
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