TigerBlog has a book called "Lost Ballparks," which is a mix of text and pictures of stadiums that used to be homes for Major League Baseball teams but long ago were demolished.
The book includes great old pictures of places like Crosley Field in Cincinnati, Forbes Field in Pittsburgh (home plate from that stadium was left in the exact spot where it was and is now inside a building at the University of Pittsburgh), Jarry Park in Montreal, Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia, Metropolitan Stadium in Minnesota and of course Ebbetts Field in Brooklyn and the Polo Grounds in Manhattan.
TigerBlog has always loved to drive by stadiums - and airports for that matter. He's gone out of his way to go past Shea Stadium (could be in "Lost Ballparks II) and La Guardia Airport on his way back from Long Island, just to check out the structures and, in the case of airports, to watch planes take off and land and see "what man can do," as his cousin Jill once said.
There's always been something fascinating about a stadium to TigerBlog. Maybe it's the fact that no two look exactly the same, or maybe it's the idea of what location was chosen to build them. TB isn't sure.
He's seen plenty of old pictures of Ivy League stadiums, most of which are still in use today.
Palmer Stadium, of course, joined the "lost" list more than a decade ago. TB has dozens of old pictures of the building, many of them when it was jammed with fans going back to the days when the pictures also include an area for horses to be "parked" during the games.
One of the best old Princeton football pictures TB has seen is not from Palmer Stadium but rather Franklin Field at Penn. In that picture, from the 1950s, a Princeton receiver is juggling a pass as two Penn defenders close in. The best part of the picture is probably the enormous crowd that filled the building at 33rd and Spruce.
Crowds like that no longer come to Ivy League football games, but it doesn't mean that Franklin Field can't still be a draw.
In fact, you only need to go back to last weekend and the Penn Relays to see almost every seat filled.
The event drew 48,531 Saturday, and the huge crowd got to see Princeton do something it hadn't done in 71 years.
The 4xmile relay team of Chris Bendsten, Donn Cabral, Kyle Soloff and Mark Amirault won the event in a time of 16:19.98, giving Princeton its first Championship of America victory at the Penn Relays since the sprint medley won in 1940. It was the first 4xmile win in 80 years at the Penn Relays for the Tiger program.
Of course, the Championship of America is a Penn Relays term, and there are other kinds of championships ahead for Princeton to compete for, beginning this weekend with the Ivy League Heptagonal championships at Yale.
The winners there will be crowned Ivy League champion, something that Princeton has already won this year in cross country and indoor track and field on both the men's and women's side.
Beyond the Heps, there's NCAA qualifying and ultimately the NCAA championships, a place where Cabral finished as the runner-up a year ago in the steeplechase and where Princeton can make a literal run at All-America honors in several events this year.
So where does the Penn Relays win rank?
Pretty high.
For starters, the Penn Relays are the oldest relay event in the country. Anything with that kind of tradition that can still draw crowds like it does is to be respected.
In fact, TB was trying to remember the last time a Princeton team competed in front of that many people at an event other than the Penn Relays. It had to have been football way back when, no?
And then there are the schools that Princeton outran to win the event.
Anytime you win a big race by getting past schools like Indiana and Villanova and by ultimately out-kicking Arkansas, you've done something big.
Princeton's 4xmile win the other day was a great moment for the program. Would those involved trade the Championship of America for a championship of the Ivy League this weekend?
Maybe. But hey, they're not mutually exclusive.
There's plenty of reason to celebrate one while getting ready for the other.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Monday, May 2, 2011
Remembering John Schroeder
Peter Farrell came in this morning and said this:
"What a weekend. The men's track team did something that hadn't been done in more than 70 years, and Bin Laden's dead."
TigerBlog had every expectation of writing about the big win by the men's 4xmile team at the Penn Relays this past weekend, until he heard the news that Usama Bin Laden had been killed by the United States military. Once he heard that, TB knew he was putting track on hold for 24 hours.
After all, the death of Bin Laden is a huge moment for this country and the world. In some ways, it's similar to the death in 1945 - two days earlier, on April 30 - of Adolph Hitler in that Bin Laden was the murderous face of evil.
Of course, it's also dissimilar, in that Nazi Germany died with Hitler, while Al Qaeda lives on without Bin Laden. Amidst all of the celebrating going on over the news, it's important that nobody in this country lose track of that fact.
TigerBlog bailed on the Mets-Phillies game last night in the eighth, after Chris Young pitched seven shutout innings while allowing only two hits, because TB figured the bullpen would give it away, which sort of happened (the Mets would win in 14 innings, but Young got a no-decision).
Because of that, TB missed what had to be an amazing, never-to-be-forgotten moment, when the fans at Citizens' Bank Park learned the news of Bin Laden's death and began chanting "USA, USA."
Oh, and TB never had a doubt that when Bin Laden was finally killed, it would be because of the United States military, not anyone else. Bin Laden's death came after his compound - not cave - was swarmed by Navy SEALs who were, perhaps, at one time athletes at the United State Navy Academy.
And so the credit needs to be given where it belongs, to the military, to the intelligence community that connected the dots and to President Obama for giving the go-ahead.
When TB first heard the news this morning, he thought about the tens of thousands - hundreds of thousands perhaps - of innocent people who lost their lives as a direct result of Bin Laden's crusade.
And he thought about one in particular.
John Schroeder.
Back in 1992, when Princeton won the first of its six NCAA men's lacrosse championships, Schroeder wore No. 14 for the Tigers. He wasn't a star or even a starter, though he did play a considerable amount.
He had one goal that year, against Dartmouth in the regular-season finale. The box score from the 1992 final credits him with one ground ball. He came to Princeton from St. Anthony's on Long Island, a school that has sent the Tigers some of its greatest players in recent memory, up to the present with Tom Schreiber.
TigerBlog first started covering Princeton lacrosse in the 1990 season, when Schroeder was a sophomore. As Princeton worked its way up the lacrosse food chart to become a national champion, TB got to know players like Justin Tortolani, Scott Bacigalupo , Kevin Lowe, Torr Marro, Mike Mariano, Andy Moe and the other big-name players on the team.
It's probable that TB at some point had a conversation with Schroeder, but he has no memory of ever getting to know him.
He did get to meet Schroeder's father, who met with the Princeton players prior to the 2002 NCAA championship game - and after the game, after the Tigers had lost 13-12 to Syracuse. Schroeder's dad spoke about how proud he was of the team and how much Princeton lacrosse meant to John Schroeder.
His son wasn't there to speak for himself. He had been killed in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, another of the victims of Usama Bin Laden.
Today, Bin Laden is dead, justice having been delivered by the U.S. military.
Be proud of that accomplishment. Celebrate that this country never gave up in its search for the arch-villain and that it finally succeeded.
It's a time to rejoice.
But it's also a time to realize that while Bin Laden is dead, the threat he created will live on without him.
And it's a time to realize that before he died, he caused so much pain to so many people and that because of him, so many families today live on without being whole.
The Schroeders among them.
"What a weekend. The men's track team did something that hadn't been done in more than 70 years, and Bin Laden's dead."
TigerBlog had every expectation of writing about the big win by the men's 4xmile team at the Penn Relays this past weekend, until he heard the news that Usama Bin Laden had been killed by the United States military. Once he heard that, TB knew he was putting track on hold for 24 hours.
After all, the death of Bin Laden is a huge moment for this country and the world. In some ways, it's similar to the death in 1945 - two days earlier, on April 30 - of Adolph Hitler in that Bin Laden was the murderous face of evil.
Of course, it's also dissimilar, in that Nazi Germany died with Hitler, while Al Qaeda lives on without Bin Laden. Amidst all of the celebrating going on over the news, it's important that nobody in this country lose track of that fact.
TigerBlog bailed on the Mets-Phillies game last night in the eighth, after Chris Young pitched seven shutout innings while allowing only two hits, because TB figured the bullpen would give it away, which sort of happened (the Mets would win in 14 innings, but Young got a no-decision).
Because of that, TB missed what had to be an amazing, never-to-be-forgotten moment, when the fans at Citizens' Bank Park learned the news of Bin Laden's death and began chanting "USA, USA."
Oh, and TB never had a doubt that when Bin Laden was finally killed, it would be because of the United States military, not anyone else. Bin Laden's death came after his compound - not cave - was swarmed by Navy SEALs who were, perhaps, at one time athletes at the United State Navy Academy.
And so the credit needs to be given where it belongs, to the military, to the intelligence community that connected the dots and to President Obama for giving the go-ahead.
When TB first heard the news this morning, he thought about the tens of thousands - hundreds of thousands perhaps - of innocent people who lost their lives as a direct result of Bin Laden's crusade.
And he thought about one in particular.
John Schroeder.
Back in 1992, when Princeton won the first of its six NCAA men's lacrosse championships, Schroeder wore No. 14 for the Tigers. He wasn't a star or even a starter, though he did play a considerable amount.
He had one goal that year, against Dartmouth in the regular-season finale. The box score from the 1992 final credits him with one ground ball. He came to Princeton from St. Anthony's on Long Island, a school that has sent the Tigers some of its greatest players in recent memory, up to the present with Tom Schreiber.
TigerBlog first started covering Princeton lacrosse in the 1990 season, when Schroeder was a sophomore. As Princeton worked its way up the lacrosse food chart to become a national champion, TB got to know players like Justin Tortolani, Scott Bacigalupo , Kevin Lowe, Torr Marro, Mike Mariano, Andy Moe and the other big-name players on the team.
It's probable that TB at some point had a conversation with Schroeder, but he has no memory of ever getting to know him.
He did get to meet Schroeder's father, who met with the Princeton players prior to the 2002 NCAA championship game - and after the game, after the Tigers had lost 13-12 to Syracuse. Schroeder's dad spoke about how proud he was of the team and how much Princeton lacrosse meant to John Schroeder.
His son wasn't there to speak for himself. He had been killed in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, another of the victims of Usama Bin Laden.
Today, Bin Laden is dead, justice having been delivered by the U.S. military.
Be proud of that accomplishment. Celebrate that this country never gave up in its search for the arch-villain and that it finally succeeded.
It's a time to rejoice.
But it's also a time to realize that while Bin Laden is dead, the threat he created will live on without him.
And it's a time to realize that before he died, he caused so much pain to so many people and that because of him, so many families today live on without being whole.
The Schroeders among them.
Friday, April 29, 2011
The Leg Of Honor
TigerBlog can't remember what it was that made Peter Farrell ask what is considered the greatest moment in Princeton football history.
Of course, it was only 24 hours ago, so TB is surprised it's not ringing a bell. Actually, maybe it was just out of nowhere.
TigerBlog stopped for a minute to think about it. The obvious answer would be the 1951 season, when Princeton went undefeated for the second straight year and Dick Kazmaier won the Heisman Trophy.
Farrell, the only women's track and field coach Princeton has ever had, had his own answer. In typical Farrell fashion, it took him awhile to tell the story and, by the time he got to the end, he had drawn a ton of laughs.
In Farrell's mind, the best moment was the 1981 game between Princeton and Yale, the one that the Tigers won 35-31 to end a 14-year losing streak to the Bulldogs.
In that game, Princeton quarterback Bobby Holly threw for 501 yards, a league single-game record that would stand for 27 years, and four touchdowns before running in on the final play for the winning score.
To TB's credit, back in 1999, he wrote a long piece about that day, which he considered the Princeton football game of the century.
TB remembers talking to Scott Oostdyk, a wide receiver for Princeton in that game, as he prepared his story. Oostdyk caught a pass on a fourth-down early in the game-winning drive and got a favorable spot, and TB remembers how Oostdyk basically said that he always feared the day would come when someone would call, tell him he didn't really get 10 yards and take away the win.
Farrell's version of the story has him in the Palmer Stadium stands surrounded by 20 friends who were rooting for Yale. He described the game-winning play as having Holly back to pass and, finding no one open and with the middle of the field wide open, barely getting it across the goal line as he was swarmed by Yale defenders.
And then he was off to the Penn Relays.
A day earlier, he had been in the office to talk about the Penn Relays. In this case, though, he was talking about "The Cosby Show," specifically the one where Cliff runs in the event, entitled "Off To The Races."
As Farrell recalled the episode, Cliff tells his wife that he has to skip the family event to run the anchor leg in a charity race, or as he calls it, "the leg of honor."
The episode was filmed during a running of the Penn Relays back in the 1980s. The event still continues to flourish, and it annually outdraws any other athletic event played on an Ivy League campus (other than perhaps Harvard-Yale football, depending on how you do the accounting).
The event began yesterday and runs through tomorrow, at Franklin Field on Penn's campus. Princeton's Emma Ruggiero won the hammer throw on Day 1, and in all the Tigers will have 35 athletes in 11 different relays competing before the meet ends.
The Penn Relays are now in their third century, as they date to 1895. If you go to the Penn Relay's website, the first picture you see in the history section is of Jesse Owens as he competes.
TigerBlog did not know that the Penn Relays grew out of head-to-head relay event between Princeton and Penn in Philadelphia that was held in 1893. From the website:
When the University Track Committee, chaired by Frank B. Ellis ‘93, looked for ways of adding interest to their 1893 spring handicap meet, they struck on the idea of a relay, four men each running a quarter mile in succession. The idea created enough interest that a team from Princeton was invited to contest the event. Held at the end of the meet on May 12, the Princeton team of J.A. Chapman, George McCampbell, Isaac Brokow and Theodore Turner pulled away in the homestretch to beat Penn by eight yards with a time of 3:34.0.
The following year Penn exacted its revenge against the Princeton team on the University Field track, located at 37th and Spruce Streets, where the Quad Dormitory is now. Interest in the first two years’ races was such that the committee decided to sponsor a relay meet in 1895 with hopes of reviving sagging interest in Penn track. The first Penn Relays also served as the dedication for Franklin Field, built on the same ground it occupies today, but under a different guise. The only grandstand at the time was a wooden single-tiered bleacher on the South side of the field, along what is now the sprint straightaway.
For the record, TB lived in the Quad for two years.
TigerBlog isn't usually in the business of trying to get people to go to events on other campuses, but if you've never been to the Penn Relays, it's worth the trip.
Unless you want to go to baseball here today or women's lacrosse here tomorrow, of course.
Of course, it was only 24 hours ago, so TB is surprised it's not ringing a bell. Actually, maybe it was just out of nowhere.
TigerBlog stopped for a minute to think about it. The obvious answer would be the 1951 season, when Princeton went undefeated for the second straight year and Dick Kazmaier won the Heisman Trophy.
Farrell, the only women's track and field coach Princeton has ever had, had his own answer. In typical Farrell fashion, it took him awhile to tell the story and, by the time he got to the end, he had drawn a ton of laughs.
In Farrell's mind, the best moment was the 1981 game between Princeton and Yale, the one that the Tigers won 35-31 to end a 14-year losing streak to the Bulldogs.
In that game, Princeton quarterback Bobby Holly threw for 501 yards, a league single-game record that would stand for 27 years, and four touchdowns before running in on the final play for the winning score.
To TB's credit, back in 1999, he wrote a long piece about that day, which he considered the Princeton football game of the century.
TB remembers talking to Scott Oostdyk, a wide receiver for Princeton in that game, as he prepared his story. Oostdyk caught a pass on a fourth-down early in the game-winning drive and got a favorable spot, and TB remembers how Oostdyk basically said that he always feared the day would come when someone would call, tell him he didn't really get 10 yards and take away the win.
Farrell's version of the story has him in the Palmer Stadium stands surrounded by 20 friends who were rooting for Yale. He described the game-winning play as having Holly back to pass and, finding no one open and with the middle of the field wide open, barely getting it across the goal line as he was swarmed by Yale defenders.
And then he was off to the Penn Relays.
A day earlier, he had been in the office to talk about the Penn Relays. In this case, though, he was talking about "The Cosby Show," specifically the one where Cliff runs in the event, entitled "Off To The Races."
As Farrell recalled the episode, Cliff tells his wife that he has to skip the family event to run the anchor leg in a charity race, or as he calls it, "the leg of honor."
The episode was filmed during a running of the Penn Relays back in the 1980s. The event still continues to flourish, and it annually outdraws any other athletic event played on an Ivy League campus (other than perhaps Harvard-Yale football, depending on how you do the accounting).
The event began yesterday and runs through tomorrow, at Franklin Field on Penn's campus. Princeton's Emma Ruggiero won the hammer throw on Day 1, and in all the Tigers will have 35 athletes in 11 different relays competing before the meet ends.
The Penn Relays are now in their third century, as they date to 1895. If you go to the Penn Relay's website, the first picture you see in the history section is of Jesse Owens as he competes.
TigerBlog did not know that the Penn Relays grew out of head-to-head relay event between Princeton and Penn in Philadelphia that was held in 1893. From the website:
When the University Track Committee, chaired by Frank B. Ellis ‘93, looked for ways of adding interest to their 1893 spring handicap meet, they struck on the idea of a relay, four men each running a quarter mile in succession. The idea created enough interest that a team from Princeton was invited to contest the event. Held at the end of the meet on May 12, the Princeton team of J.A. Chapman, George McCampbell, Isaac Brokow and Theodore Turner pulled away in the homestretch to beat Penn by eight yards with a time of 3:34.0.
The following year Penn exacted its revenge against the Princeton team on the University Field track, located at 37th and Spruce Streets, where the Quad Dormitory is now. Interest in the first two years’ races was such that the committee decided to sponsor a relay meet in 1895 with hopes of reviving sagging interest in Penn track. The first Penn Relays also served as the dedication for Franklin Field, built on the same ground it occupies today, but under a different guise. The only grandstand at the time was a wooden single-tiered bleacher on the South side of the field, along what is now the sprint straightaway.
For the record, TB lived in the Quad for two years.
TigerBlog isn't usually in the business of trying to get people to go to events on other campuses, but if you've never been to the Penn Relays, it's worth the trip.
Unless you want to go to baseball here today or women's lacrosse here tomorrow, of course.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Mitch And Brian
TigerBlog woke up early on July 29, 1981. Very, very early. Like around 4 a.m. early.
Then he made pancakes, or was it french toast?, for a bunch of people.
Of course, TB's small breakfast party wasn't the only pre-dawn one going on at the time. It was the thing to do that day, wake up early, throw something on the griddle and then settle down to watch the royal wedding between Princess Diana and Prince Charles.
As an aside, TB's fingers are so conditioned to typing a certain word that he - without thinking - typed the word "Princeton" before both "Diana" and "Charles" in the last sentence and had to go back and change it. Princeton Charles?
TB isn't sure why he bought into the whole royal wedding thing. Maybe he just wanted the pancakes.
And TB wishes he could remember back all those years, to what his thoughts about British royalty were. He knows that they are now, though.
The United States broke away from England largely to get away from the idea of a monarchy, and the best part about this country is that it's all about the individual. Anyone from anywhere, no matter what their inherited hardships, can grow up to literally be the President.
Look at where Ronald Reagan started. Or Bill Clinton. Or Barack Obama.
In fact, the way that President Obama was almost deified, as if he was royalty, after his 2008 election frightened TigerBlog. In this country, no person is supposed to be looked at that way.
Of course, the royal family now has little in the way of constitutional power or responsibility, so they're more celebrities than anything else. And in today's world, where celebrity is so valued regardless of the reason for it, TB understands why people would embrace a young, attractive, royal couple like the two getting married tomorrow morning.
Yes, it makes for great theater, and there's certainly something to be said for a bit of escapism every now and then. Still, there's something about it that TB just can't embrace.
The more TB thinks about it, the more he thinks it was pancakes, not french toast, that he served that morning in 1981.
His favorite french toast story is about the time at the 1996 NCAA basketball tournament in Indianapolis that TB tried to order french toast for breakfast, only to be told that they didn't have french toast.
"You have bread, milk and eggs, right," said Mark Eckel, who was covering (the game, not breakfast) for the Trenton Times.
"Yes," the waiter said with a confused look.
"Then you have french toast," Eckel said.
This morning, two members of that 1996 team - and the two that followed it - sat in TigerBlog's office, arguing about which of them would win if they played tennis. Despite the fact that neither has ever seen the other play, they both were supremely confident that they would win.
In fact, the idea that the other even had a chance was too ridiculous for either to contemplate.
TB took at as another sign that Princeton men's basketball is in the right hands.
Mitch Henderson, the Tigers' new head coach, was one of the two former players. Brian Earl, who will be staying on as Henderson's top assistant, was the other.
Just as TB wishes he could think back to the Charles-Diana wedding and remember what his thoughts were about British royalty, he wishes he could back to the RCA Dome that night in 1996 - or any of the other many nights that Henderson and Earl played together - and remember what he thought of their potential as basketball coaches.
He's pretty sure he thought it was pretty high.
Henderson and Earl played together for three season, from 1995-96 through 1997-98.
During that time, the team went 40-2 in Ivy League games (41-2 if you count the 1996 playoff win over Penn), a record that was 28-0 in their final two seasons.
Overall, they were 73-13, including 2-3 in NCAA tournament games. Their team reached the national Top 25 in both of their final two seasons, going to as high as seventh in 1998.
Combined they went for 2,398 career points, 567 career assists (Henderson ranks fourth all-time at Princeton, Earl ranks seventh), 282 career steals (they rank 8-9 all-time) and 374 career three-pointers.
Their combined numbers in the 1998 NCAA tournament win over Nevada-Las Vegas: 40 points, 16 of 29 shooting, eight rebounds, 11 assists, three steals. Both played 40 minutes.
TigerBlog watched in awe as Earl and Henderson played together here, and he saw every game they played those final three years.
Henderson wasn't the pure shooter that Earl was, but nobody was the passer that Henderson was.
What stands out most to TB as he thinks back is their toughness. They were not going to pushed around, despite the fact that every opponent tried their best to do just that.
Earl, especially, was the target, with his baby face and small frame. For whatever reason, opposing teams and players saved their most brutal comments for him, and TB cannot think of another Princeton athlete he's seen here who was subjected to that kind of verbal abuse on a regular basis.
And how did it affect him? He'd go out and drain another three, that's how.
TB can remember games that Earl simply took over, and TB can see the look that he saw a few times from Earl that seemed to say "get out of my way."
The night that Princeton came from 27 points down to beat Penn? With all due respect to the other four key Tigers that night (Gabe Lewullis, Ahmed El-Nokali, Chris Young, Mason Rocca), that's a 20-point Penn win without Earl.
And the night that Princeton beat North Carolina State in the 1999 NIT in the final Wolfpack men's game at Reynolds Coliseum? That was all Brian Earl.
It's not a coincidence that he did both on hostile courts against teams that knew they had to stop him. It's not a coincidence that he silenced the crowd both times.
TB remembers one sequence specifically from that Penn game. Princeton trailed 42-30 with seven minutes or so left when a three-point play cut it to nine. Earl then stole the inbounds pass and gave it to El-Nokali.
As he made the pass, he was already setting his feet to shoot and clapping his hands at El-Nokali to get him the ball back. Once the return pass was made, Earl let it go in a heartbeat.
TB was sure that shot was going in before the pass ever got back to Earl, and sure enough, it swished in, making it a six-point game.
Earl scored 1,428 points at Princeton, and TB saw 1,417 of them. That one three-pointer stands out more than any other.
One other thing about Earl: TigerBlog has never seen a Princeton player who, when the shot clock dipped under five seconds and there was absolutely nothing there, could make something out of nothing like Earl.
And now, after every other contribution that he's given to Princeton basketball in his life, Earl gives the program continuity as the coaching change to Henderson happens.
Henderson and Earl. They're tough. They're competitive. They're proven winners. They're Princeton guys through and through.
Princeton basketball is in good hands.
Then he made pancakes, or was it french toast?, for a bunch of people.
Of course, TB's small breakfast party wasn't the only pre-dawn one going on at the time. It was the thing to do that day, wake up early, throw something on the griddle and then settle down to watch the royal wedding between Princess Diana and Prince Charles.
As an aside, TB's fingers are so conditioned to typing a certain word that he - without thinking - typed the word "Princeton" before both "Diana" and "Charles" in the last sentence and had to go back and change it. Princeton Charles?
TB isn't sure why he bought into the whole royal wedding thing. Maybe he just wanted the pancakes.
And TB wishes he could remember back all those years, to what his thoughts about British royalty were. He knows that they are now, though.
The United States broke away from England largely to get away from the idea of a monarchy, and the best part about this country is that it's all about the individual. Anyone from anywhere, no matter what their inherited hardships, can grow up to literally be the President.
Look at where Ronald Reagan started. Or Bill Clinton. Or Barack Obama.
In fact, the way that President Obama was almost deified, as if he was royalty, after his 2008 election frightened TigerBlog. In this country, no person is supposed to be looked at that way.
Of course, the royal family now has little in the way of constitutional power or responsibility, so they're more celebrities than anything else. And in today's world, where celebrity is so valued regardless of the reason for it, TB understands why people would embrace a young, attractive, royal couple like the two getting married tomorrow morning.
Yes, it makes for great theater, and there's certainly something to be said for a bit of escapism every now and then. Still, there's something about it that TB just can't embrace.
The more TB thinks about it, the more he thinks it was pancakes, not french toast, that he served that morning in 1981.
His favorite french toast story is about the time at the 1996 NCAA basketball tournament in Indianapolis that TB tried to order french toast for breakfast, only to be told that they didn't have french toast.
"You have bread, milk and eggs, right," said Mark Eckel, who was covering (the game, not breakfast) for the Trenton Times.
"Yes," the waiter said with a confused look.
"Then you have french toast," Eckel said.
This morning, two members of that 1996 team - and the two that followed it - sat in TigerBlog's office, arguing about which of them would win if they played tennis. Despite the fact that neither has ever seen the other play, they both were supremely confident that they would win.
In fact, the idea that the other even had a chance was too ridiculous for either to contemplate.
TB took at as another sign that Princeton men's basketball is in the right hands.
Mitch Henderson, the Tigers' new head coach, was one of the two former players. Brian Earl, who will be staying on as Henderson's top assistant, was the other.
Just as TB wishes he could think back to the Charles-Diana wedding and remember what his thoughts were about British royalty, he wishes he could back to the RCA Dome that night in 1996 - or any of the other many nights that Henderson and Earl played together - and remember what he thought of their potential as basketball coaches.
He's pretty sure he thought it was pretty high.
Henderson and Earl played together for three season, from 1995-96 through 1997-98.
During that time, the team went 40-2 in Ivy League games (41-2 if you count the 1996 playoff win over Penn), a record that was 28-0 in their final two seasons.
Overall, they were 73-13, including 2-3 in NCAA tournament games. Their team reached the national Top 25 in both of their final two seasons, going to as high as seventh in 1998.
Combined they went for 2,398 career points, 567 career assists (Henderson ranks fourth all-time at Princeton, Earl ranks seventh), 282 career steals (they rank 8-9 all-time) and 374 career three-pointers.
Their combined numbers in the 1998 NCAA tournament win over Nevada-Las Vegas: 40 points, 16 of 29 shooting, eight rebounds, 11 assists, three steals. Both played 40 minutes.
TigerBlog watched in awe as Earl and Henderson played together here, and he saw every game they played those final three years.
Henderson wasn't the pure shooter that Earl was, but nobody was the passer that Henderson was.
What stands out most to TB as he thinks back is their toughness. They were not going to pushed around, despite the fact that every opponent tried their best to do just that.
Earl, especially, was the target, with his baby face and small frame. For whatever reason, opposing teams and players saved their most brutal comments for him, and TB cannot think of another Princeton athlete he's seen here who was subjected to that kind of verbal abuse on a regular basis.
And how did it affect him? He'd go out and drain another three, that's how.
TB can remember games that Earl simply took over, and TB can see the look that he saw a few times from Earl that seemed to say "get out of my way."
The night that Princeton came from 27 points down to beat Penn? With all due respect to the other four key Tigers that night (Gabe Lewullis, Ahmed El-Nokali, Chris Young, Mason Rocca), that's a 20-point Penn win without Earl.
And the night that Princeton beat North Carolina State in the 1999 NIT in the final Wolfpack men's game at Reynolds Coliseum? That was all Brian Earl.
It's not a coincidence that he did both on hostile courts against teams that knew they had to stop him. It's not a coincidence that he silenced the crowd both times.
TB remembers one sequence specifically from that Penn game. Princeton trailed 42-30 with seven minutes or so left when a three-point play cut it to nine. Earl then stole the inbounds pass and gave it to El-Nokali.
As he made the pass, he was already setting his feet to shoot and clapping his hands at El-Nokali to get him the ball back. Once the return pass was made, Earl let it go in a heartbeat.
TB was sure that shot was going in before the pass ever got back to Earl, and sure enough, it swished in, making it a six-point game.
Earl scored 1,428 points at Princeton, and TB saw 1,417 of them. That one three-pointer stands out more than any other.
One other thing about Earl: TigerBlog has never seen a Princeton player who, when the shot clock dipped under five seconds and there was absolutely nothing there, could make something out of nothing like Earl.
And now, after every other contribution that he's given to Princeton basketball in his life, Earl gives the program continuity as the coaching change to Henderson happens.
Henderson and Earl. They're tough. They're competitive. They're proven winners. They're Princeton guys through and through.
Princeton basketball is in good hands.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Welcome To Ithaca
TigerBlog, back in his days as the football and men's basketball contact, would often come up with interesting game notes that the coaches wouldn't exactly embrace.
For instance, there was the "1.9 yards and a cloud of dust" note, which mentioned that in one particular year in the late 1990s, Princeton was rushing for and allowing an average of 1.9 yards per carry. He also had one even earlier than that that said Princeton had attempted some large number of passes since it had last completed one to the tight end.
Or there was the basketball note about dunking, back in 2001, maybe? These said that Princeton had whatever number of three-pointers it had but no dunks for the season.
Maybe none of the ones that TB has ever come up with has tortured the coach like his current one about Princeton-Cornell men's lacrosse. In every meeting between the two since 2005 - a total of eight games in six years - the Big Red has scored early and started to build a big lead.
Last year was Chris Bates' first as head coach of the Tigers, and TB told Bates about the Big Red's run as the year went along.
In the regular-season finale, Cornell then won the opening face-off and scored in the first 1:03, eventually building a 4-0 lead at the end of the first quarter and a 9-3 lead at the end of the third. Princeton stormed back and almost pulled it off before falling 10-9.
Princeton and Cornell met in the Ivy League tournament final eight days later. At breakfast on the morning of the game, TB mentioned it again to Bates, who finally turned around and said 75 percent laughing and 25 percent serious: "Would you just shut up about this?"
So what happened next?
Cornell won the opening face-off and scored in 16 seconds. By the third quarter, it was 7-3 Cornell, and it was looking like business as usual - until the Tigers rallied again. This time, Princeton made it all the way back, winning 10-9 in overtime on a goal by Jack McBride.
In the postgame interview room, Bates was asked what he was thinking when Cornell scored so early, and he said something about wanting to find TB and curse him out.
The teams meet again Saturday in Ithaca, and TB will find the first minute or so fascinating. Will this be the year Princeton doesn't let Cornell get off to a quick start?
TB is also looking forward to the fifth meeting between Rob Pannell and Chad Wiedmaier.
Pannell, Cornell's junior attackman, leads the nation in scoring with 5.67 points per game, more than a full point above the next-highest total. He's also first in assists per game and fifth in goals per game, and with 32 goals and 36 assists, he's the only player in the country with at least 30 of each (something that a Princeton player has only done once, David Tickner in 1976).
Then there's Wiedmaier, who like Pannell is a junior who has been first-team All-Ivy League his first two years. Wiedmaier has been matched up against Pannell four times already, and he has held him to two goals on 31 shots. Add in Pannell's nine assists in four games, and his numbers against Wiedmaier are below what they are the rest of the time, though the matchup has been something of a draw so far.
The bigger picture of the game Saturday is whether or not it'll be the end of the season for the Tigers or the first of two trips to Ithaca in six days.
Princeton currently is tied for fourth in the Ivy League with Harvard, both at 2-3. Cornell, at 5-0, has clinched the league's outright title and the host spot for the Ivy League tournament.
As an aside, Cornell (with 26 Ivy titles) and Princeton (with 25) have simply dominated the league since its inception.
For Princeton to get into the Ivy tournament, it needs Harvard to lose to Yale; a Crimson win in that game means that Princeton is eliminated.
Should Yale beat Harvard, then Princeton would get into the tournament one of two ways. The easiest would be to beat Cornell, which would give Princeton fourth place to itself.
The hard way would be to have Harvard lose, Princeton lose and Dartmouth beat Brown, setting up an unbreakable three-way tie between Princeton, Harvard and Dartmouth that would have to be settled by a random draw.
It's not the ideal way, in TB's mind, to decide who plays on and who doesn't. Perhaps RPI? Perhaps goal-differential between the three teams head-to-head?
Of course, both of those currently favor Princeton, but TB would be in favor of that even if they didn't.
And should Princeton get into the Ivy tournament, it's locked into playing Cornell in the semifinals (Harvard would be the No. 3 seed with a win over Yale, who would drop to four; Penn is locked into the No. 2 spot).
That would require two trips to Ithaca, to watch two opening face-offs and two matchups between Pannell and Wiedmaier.
TB would be fine with that.
For instance, there was the "1.9 yards and a cloud of dust" note, which mentioned that in one particular year in the late 1990s, Princeton was rushing for and allowing an average of 1.9 yards per carry. He also had one even earlier than that that said Princeton had attempted some large number of passes since it had last completed one to the tight end.
Or there was the basketball note about dunking, back in 2001, maybe? These said that Princeton had whatever number of three-pointers it had but no dunks for the season.
Maybe none of the ones that TB has ever come up with has tortured the coach like his current one about Princeton-Cornell men's lacrosse. In every meeting between the two since 2005 - a total of eight games in six years - the Big Red has scored early and started to build a big lead.
Last year was Chris Bates' first as head coach of the Tigers, and TB told Bates about the Big Red's run as the year went along.
In the regular-season finale, Cornell then won the opening face-off and scored in the first 1:03, eventually building a 4-0 lead at the end of the first quarter and a 9-3 lead at the end of the third. Princeton stormed back and almost pulled it off before falling 10-9.
Princeton and Cornell met in the Ivy League tournament final eight days later. At breakfast on the morning of the game, TB mentioned it again to Bates, who finally turned around and said 75 percent laughing and 25 percent serious: "Would you just shut up about this?"
So what happened next?
Cornell won the opening face-off and scored in 16 seconds. By the third quarter, it was 7-3 Cornell, and it was looking like business as usual - until the Tigers rallied again. This time, Princeton made it all the way back, winning 10-9 in overtime on a goal by Jack McBride.
In the postgame interview room, Bates was asked what he was thinking when Cornell scored so early, and he said something about wanting to find TB and curse him out.
The teams meet again Saturday in Ithaca, and TB will find the first minute or so fascinating. Will this be the year Princeton doesn't let Cornell get off to a quick start?
TB is also looking forward to the fifth meeting between Rob Pannell and Chad Wiedmaier.
Pannell, Cornell's junior attackman, leads the nation in scoring with 5.67 points per game, more than a full point above the next-highest total. He's also first in assists per game and fifth in goals per game, and with 32 goals and 36 assists, he's the only player in the country with at least 30 of each (something that a Princeton player has only done once, David Tickner in 1976).
Then there's Wiedmaier, who like Pannell is a junior who has been first-team All-Ivy League his first two years. Wiedmaier has been matched up against Pannell four times already, and he has held him to two goals on 31 shots. Add in Pannell's nine assists in four games, and his numbers against Wiedmaier are below what they are the rest of the time, though the matchup has been something of a draw so far.
The bigger picture of the game Saturday is whether or not it'll be the end of the season for the Tigers or the first of two trips to Ithaca in six days.
Princeton currently is tied for fourth in the Ivy League with Harvard, both at 2-3. Cornell, at 5-0, has clinched the league's outright title and the host spot for the Ivy League tournament.
As an aside, Cornell (with 26 Ivy titles) and Princeton (with 25) have simply dominated the league since its inception.
For Princeton to get into the Ivy tournament, it needs Harvard to lose to Yale; a Crimson win in that game means that Princeton is eliminated.
Should Yale beat Harvard, then Princeton would get into the tournament one of two ways. The easiest would be to beat Cornell, which would give Princeton fourth place to itself.
The hard way would be to have Harvard lose, Princeton lose and Dartmouth beat Brown, setting up an unbreakable three-way tie between Princeton, Harvard and Dartmouth that would have to be settled by a random draw.
It's not the ideal way, in TB's mind, to decide who plays on and who doesn't. Perhaps RPI? Perhaps goal-differential between the three teams head-to-head?
Of course, both of those currently favor Princeton, but TB would be in favor of that even if they didn't.
And should Princeton get into the Ivy tournament, it's locked into playing Cornell in the semifinals (Harvard would be the No. 3 seed with a win over Yale, who would drop to four; Penn is locked into the No. 2 spot).
That would require two trips to Ithaca, to watch two opening face-offs and two matchups between Pannell and Wiedmaier.
TB would be fine with that.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Is There Anything In My Box?
Joe Taylor is an autistic man who is probably in his 50s.
He works at McCaffery's supermarket in the Princeton Shopping Center, where TigerBlog often sees him. The other place that TB sees him is at Princeton sporting events, where Taylor is a regular for just about every team.
TB doesn't know a great deal about autism, a disease that robs people of their ability to communicate and socialize in a normal manner. In Taylor's case, he must be high-functioning, since he can clearly carry on conversations and process the information.
TB has known Joe since his newspaper days and has seen him in the office here at Princeton regularly for 20 years or so. There used to be a box in the back room by the printer that was "Joe Taylor's box," a place to put any old publications that were otherwise going to be thrown out.
Joe would come in and walk away with all of these guides and programs and such and take them home and read them. And memorize them.
The phone would ring every now and then here in the OAC, and it'd be Joe Taylor, who would always say the following: "Yes, this is Joe Taylor; is there anything in my box?"
He also loved to talk about whatever the most recent Princeton game he'd be at was, and he would speak in very, very specific terms about the details, referencing names, plays, standings, locations and everything.
About the only thing that's changed with Joe is that his box is long gone, though he still calls and asks about it.
In fact, this morning, Joe walked in the door and had a normal Joe Taylor conversation, which included things like:
* "who's in first place in the Red Rolfe Division?"
* "wasn't it exciting that the baseball team swept Harvard in Cambridge?"
* "the men's lacrosse team needs to beat Cornell Saturday"
and of course ... "is there anything in my box?"
Joe gets emotional when he talks about Princeton's teams, and he often laughs loudly during these exchanges. When he talks about specific people, he always uses their first name and last name.
When he's in the office, he often will continue to stand in the same place long after the conversation has ended and then suddenly turn and bolt.
All of this is fresh in TB's mind because Joe was just in here a few minutes ago, talking baseball and getting excited.
Of course, it's a good time to be excited about Princeton baseball, a team that at one point was 3-13 but has since squared its record at 18-18.
More importantly, the Tigers are 12-4 in the Gehrig Division - "the Lou Gehrig Division," Joe Taylor calls it - and they have a four-game lead on Penn with four to play.
In other words, for Princeton not to win the division title, it would have to be swept by Cornell this weekend and Penn would have to sweep Columbia, forcing a tie and a one-game playoff that Penn would then have to win.
The prize for the division winner is a spot in the Ivy League championship series, which matches the two division winners.
In the Rolfe Division, Dartmouth and Yale are tied for first heading into the final weekend, which will see Dartmouth take on Harvard four times and Yale take on Brown four times.
There could still be a three-way tie at 10-10 in the Rolfe, which would require a Brown (6-10) sweep of Yale (10-6) and a Harvard (5-11) sweep of Dartmouth (10-6). It's more likely that if there is a tie, it's between Yale and Dartmouth.
Assuming Princeton gets the division title, the next step would be hosting the ILCS, an honor that goes to the team with the better league record.
In Princeton's case, the magic number is three, meaning a combination of Princeton wins and Dartmouth and Yale losses totaling three would put the best-of-three playoff on Clarke Field May 7 and 8.
This past weekend wasn't the greatest for Princeton athletics. Both tennis teams needed assistance to earn shares of the Ivy title - and neither got it. The women's lacrosse team lost in an opportunity to get a share of the league title, and the men's lacrosse team no longer is in a win-and-in situation for the Ivy tournament.
The golf teams finished third (women) and fifth (men) at the Ivy tournaments, and the softball team was swept Sunday.
The baseball team, though, went 3-1 for its four games, losing the first and winning the next three for the second straight weekend (okay, Monday isn't really a weekend).
As a result, the Tigers did more than just put themselves in a great position in the division and to host the league series.
They also made Joe Taylor's day.
He works at McCaffery's supermarket in the Princeton Shopping Center, where TigerBlog often sees him. The other place that TB sees him is at Princeton sporting events, where Taylor is a regular for just about every team.
TB doesn't know a great deal about autism, a disease that robs people of their ability to communicate and socialize in a normal manner. In Taylor's case, he must be high-functioning, since he can clearly carry on conversations and process the information.
TB has known Joe since his newspaper days and has seen him in the office here at Princeton regularly for 20 years or so. There used to be a box in the back room by the printer that was "Joe Taylor's box," a place to put any old publications that were otherwise going to be thrown out.
Joe would come in and walk away with all of these guides and programs and such and take them home and read them. And memorize them.
The phone would ring every now and then here in the OAC, and it'd be Joe Taylor, who would always say the following: "Yes, this is Joe Taylor; is there anything in my box?"
He also loved to talk about whatever the most recent Princeton game he'd be at was, and he would speak in very, very specific terms about the details, referencing names, plays, standings, locations and everything.
About the only thing that's changed with Joe is that his box is long gone, though he still calls and asks about it.
In fact, this morning, Joe walked in the door and had a normal Joe Taylor conversation, which included things like:
* "who's in first place in the Red Rolfe Division?"
* "wasn't it exciting that the baseball team swept Harvard in Cambridge?"
* "the men's lacrosse team needs to beat Cornell Saturday"
and of course ... "is there anything in my box?"
Joe gets emotional when he talks about Princeton's teams, and he often laughs loudly during these exchanges. When he talks about specific people, he always uses their first name and last name.
When he's in the office, he often will continue to stand in the same place long after the conversation has ended and then suddenly turn and bolt.
All of this is fresh in TB's mind because Joe was just in here a few minutes ago, talking baseball and getting excited.
Of course, it's a good time to be excited about Princeton baseball, a team that at one point was 3-13 but has since squared its record at 18-18.
More importantly, the Tigers are 12-4 in the Gehrig Division - "the Lou Gehrig Division," Joe Taylor calls it - and they have a four-game lead on Penn with four to play.
In other words, for Princeton not to win the division title, it would have to be swept by Cornell this weekend and Penn would have to sweep Columbia, forcing a tie and a one-game playoff that Penn would then have to win.
The prize for the division winner is a spot in the Ivy League championship series, which matches the two division winners.
In the Rolfe Division, Dartmouth and Yale are tied for first heading into the final weekend, which will see Dartmouth take on Harvard four times and Yale take on Brown four times.
There could still be a three-way tie at 10-10 in the Rolfe, which would require a Brown (6-10) sweep of Yale (10-6) and a Harvard (5-11) sweep of Dartmouth (10-6). It's more likely that if there is a tie, it's between Yale and Dartmouth.
Assuming Princeton gets the division title, the next step would be hosting the ILCS, an honor that goes to the team with the better league record.
In Princeton's case, the magic number is three, meaning a combination of Princeton wins and Dartmouth and Yale losses totaling three would put the best-of-three playoff on Clarke Field May 7 and 8.
This past weekend wasn't the greatest for Princeton athletics. Both tennis teams needed assistance to earn shares of the Ivy title - and neither got it. The women's lacrosse team lost in an opportunity to get a share of the league title, and the men's lacrosse team no longer is in a win-and-in situation for the Ivy tournament.
The golf teams finished third (women) and fifth (men) at the Ivy tournaments, and the softball team was swept Sunday.
The baseball team, though, went 3-1 for its four games, losing the first and winning the next three for the second straight weekend (okay, Monday isn't really a weekend).
As a result, the Tigers did more than just put themselves in a great position in the division and to host the league series.
They also made Joe Taylor's day.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Bye, Guy
TigerBlog always feels somewhat guilty when he orders at a Chinese restaurant. Lo Mein. Fried rice. Beef and broccoli, or maybe with vegetables. Egg roll. Soup.
It's so ordinary.
TB assumes the people who answer the phone and cook the food roll their eyes at such orders, what with menus that they put great thought into.
Still, TB's first choice when he's not in the mood to make dinner would normally be Chinese food.
One day a few summers ago, as he walked into the Chinese restaurant in the Princeton Shopping Center, he saw Guy Gadowsky walking out, carrying three bags. He wore shorts out of the 1980s or earlier, and he couldn't have been happier with his dinner selection. He smiled ear-to-ear, talked about how great the food was in the restaurant and how much he hoped TB enjoyed it as well.
Take Guy Gadowsky away from an athletic competition, and that's what you get. There aren't too many friendlier people out there, too many who laugh as easily, too many who are so genuine when they tell you they hope you enjoy your own Chinese food.
Put him in an athletic competition, and he's a whole different, uh, Guy.
The coaching profession lends itself to the ultra-competitive, and there are few TB has ever met who match Guy Gadowsky in that category.
TB learned this first-hand playing squash against Gadowsky, but that's not really something that was necessary to figure it out.
Gadowsky, who announced Sunday that he was leaving Princeton to become the first men's hockey coach at Penn State, inherited a team at Baker Rink that had won won eight games total the previous two seasons. At Princeton, Gadowsky won eight games in his first season and increased his win total in each of the next five seasons, including a program-record 22 wins in the 2008-09 season.
He won an ECAC title and an Ivy League title, and he took Princeton to two NCAA tournaments in seven years. Princeton went from a team with almost no history of success since the days of Hobey Baker himself to a regular in the national Top 20. Princeton players that he brought in and coached started to consistently reach the NHL.
He did it by imposing his will on the program, and his players responded in a big way. They played hard, aggressively, up-tempo, and the results speak for themselves.
Beyond just the turnaround in record, Gadowsky brought Princeton hockey back to be something that people wanted to watch. Attendance went way up, and Baker Rink became as exciting a venue as Princeton has.
When TB heard Gadowsky was leaving, one of his first thoughts was what Gadowsky's historical place at Princeton would be.
TB thought that Gadowsky was the top Princeton coach of the last decade, but what about beyond that?
Princeton's athletic history is filled with coaches who have won national championships, and it's also filled with coaches who found teams who were near rock bottom and turned them around.
And surely there have been coaches who have stayed longer at Princeton than the seven years that Gadowsky was here.
What Gadowsky did, though, was something special. Hockey is a sport where several Ivy teams have great traditions, and breaking into that hierarchy wasn't easy.
And other than a stretch in the 1990s under Don Cahoon and featuring Jeff Halpern, Princeton had never been part of the elite. Princeton had only one winning season from 1960 through 1995, and that was in 1967-68.
Turning Princeton hockey into what it became during his tenure was one of the most extraordinary coaching performances in the history of the school.
When Gadowsky arrived, Princeton was coming off seasons of 3-26-2 and 5-24-2.
As he arrives in State College, his new program is coming off seasons of 0-0-0 going back to 1946, the last time Penn State had varsity hockey.
Penn State has no team, no players, no schedule, no games until 2012-13. Click on any of those links on Penn State's webpage, and you'll get "information coming soon" as a response.
Well, the first piece of that information has been taken care of. The head coach is in place.
Penn State appears to be making the necessary commitments of revenues to fielding as strong a hockey team as possible. And clearly a school like Penn State can certainly be competitive quickly, with its name recognition and place in the world of intercollegiate athletics.
And now with Gadowsky in charge of the program, that commitment is in good hands.
Penn State has gotten someone dynamic to be the head man for its hockey program. It has someone with the drive and desire and sheer competitive will necessary to follow through on the school's investment.
Good luck, Guy.
Princeton will miss you.
It's so ordinary.
TB assumes the people who answer the phone and cook the food roll their eyes at such orders, what with menus that they put great thought into.
Still, TB's first choice when he's not in the mood to make dinner would normally be Chinese food.
One day a few summers ago, as he walked into the Chinese restaurant in the Princeton Shopping Center, he saw Guy Gadowsky walking out, carrying three bags. He wore shorts out of the 1980s or earlier, and he couldn't have been happier with his dinner selection. He smiled ear-to-ear, talked about how great the food was in the restaurant and how much he hoped TB enjoyed it as well.
Take Guy Gadowsky away from an athletic competition, and that's what you get. There aren't too many friendlier people out there, too many who laugh as easily, too many who are so genuine when they tell you they hope you enjoy your own Chinese food.
Put him in an athletic competition, and he's a whole different, uh, Guy.
The coaching profession lends itself to the ultra-competitive, and there are few TB has ever met who match Guy Gadowsky in that category.
TB learned this first-hand playing squash against Gadowsky, but that's not really something that was necessary to figure it out.
Gadowsky, who announced Sunday that he was leaving Princeton to become the first men's hockey coach at Penn State, inherited a team at Baker Rink that had won won eight games total the previous two seasons. At Princeton, Gadowsky won eight games in his first season and increased his win total in each of the next five seasons, including a program-record 22 wins in the 2008-09 season.
He won an ECAC title and an Ivy League title, and he took Princeton to two NCAA tournaments in seven years. Princeton went from a team with almost no history of success since the days of Hobey Baker himself to a regular in the national Top 20. Princeton players that he brought in and coached started to consistently reach the NHL.
He did it by imposing his will on the program, and his players responded in a big way. They played hard, aggressively, up-tempo, and the results speak for themselves.
Beyond just the turnaround in record, Gadowsky brought Princeton hockey back to be something that people wanted to watch. Attendance went way up, and Baker Rink became as exciting a venue as Princeton has.
When TB heard Gadowsky was leaving, one of his first thoughts was what Gadowsky's historical place at Princeton would be.
TB thought that Gadowsky was the top Princeton coach of the last decade, but what about beyond that?
Princeton's athletic history is filled with coaches who have won national championships, and it's also filled with coaches who found teams who were near rock bottom and turned them around.
And surely there have been coaches who have stayed longer at Princeton than the seven years that Gadowsky was here.
What Gadowsky did, though, was something special. Hockey is a sport where several Ivy teams have great traditions, and breaking into that hierarchy wasn't easy.
And other than a stretch in the 1990s under Don Cahoon and featuring Jeff Halpern, Princeton had never been part of the elite. Princeton had only one winning season from 1960 through 1995, and that was in 1967-68.
Turning Princeton hockey into what it became during his tenure was one of the most extraordinary coaching performances in the history of the school.
When Gadowsky arrived, Princeton was coming off seasons of 3-26-2 and 5-24-2.
As he arrives in State College, his new program is coming off seasons of 0-0-0 going back to 1946, the last time Penn State had varsity hockey.
Penn State has no team, no players, no schedule, no games until 2012-13. Click on any of those links on Penn State's webpage, and you'll get "information coming soon" as a response.
Well, the first piece of that information has been taken care of. The head coach is in place.
Penn State appears to be making the necessary commitments of revenues to fielding as strong a hockey team as possible. And clearly a school like Penn State can certainly be competitive quickly, with its name recognition and place in the world of intercollegiate athletics.
And now with Gadowsky in charge of the program, that commitment is in good hands.
Penn State has gotten someone dynamic to be the head man for its hockey program. It has someone with the drive and desire and sheer competitive will necessary to follow through on the school's investment.
Good luck, Guy.
Princeton will miss you.
Friday, April 22, 2011
While The Coach Is In Motion
One of the normal Friday afternoon sights around here is a line of Coach USA buses that forms in the circle near DeNunzio Pool.
These buses then are loaded up with coaches, athletes, equipment, athletic trainers, food, drinks and everything else that is standard for a college athletic team as it heads to the road.
The sidewalk in front of Caldwell Field House becomes the staging area, and bag after bag is first placed there and then under the bus. Athletes in their standard travel gear mill around. Cars race by dropping off other supplies or latecomers before heading back to park in Lot 21 someplace.
The team itself doesn't usually make a difference, since it's basically the same for every sport. Well, some sports, like hockey, leave from Baker Rink, so it's not every team that heads out from outside of Jadwin.
Still, it's something that hardly raises an eye anymore. Eventually, with everything on board - including movies to watch on the way - and the head coach seated in the front seat opposite the driver, away the bus goes, brimming with optimism on the way to the competition
It's tough to pick the right departure time, since there are too many competing factors, like classes, practice times, meal times, traffic and any number of others.
There aren't as many people around when the buses return, usually because they're doing so at night, mostly after midnight. Then, the real pain is clearing everything off the bus, getting everything back into Caldwell, getting rid of the garbage off the bus - all after sitting on a bus for hours.
TigerBlog hates buses. They're a guaranteed way to make TB queasy, and let's face it, there's only so much hand sanitizer that a person can use in one day.
Most of TB's bus travel experience has been with men's basketball, ironically enough, when he was still at the newspaper.
In fact, TB once saw Pete Carril violate all of the rules that are posted near the door, as he stood forward of the white line, drinking a beer, smoking a cigar, eating and, worst of all, speaking to the driver while the coach was in motion.
Peter Farrell, the women's track and field coach, says he doesn't really mind traveling, though he does know several coaches who have gotten out of the profession after saying that they "couldn't get on the bus one more time."
One coach who probably can't wait to get on the bus today is Chris Sailer, the women's lacrosse coach, even if her ride is five times longer than the one from Wednesday night.
Sailer, a Hall-of-Fame coach who has won three NCAA titles, has her team tied for first place in the Ivy League, at least by number of losses. In fact, it's a four-way tie right now between Penn, Princeton, Harvard and Dartmouth, and it's guaranteed that those four teams will make up the field for the Ivy League tournament.
There are still two pretty good questions remaining, though. First, which team or teams will win the championship? And second, where will the tournament be?
Well, the answer to the second question is: It can be at any of the four schools.
And to the first? The answer is that there can be an outright championship all the way to a four-way tie.
One thing there cannot be is a four-way tie at 6-1, since there are still head-to-head matchups between the four, beginning tomorrow when Sailer's team gets off the bus in Hanover to take on Dartmouth and continuing next week when Dartmouth takes on Harvard.
Penn has one game remaining, against Brown (1-4 in the league) tomorrow. Both Harvard (tomorrow) and Princeton (Wednesday) also take on Columbia (1-4).
Penn is already 2-1 against the other three, with one-goal wins over Dartmouth and Harvard and an 11-7 loss to Princeton the other night that snapped the Quaker's 34-game Ivy winning streak and threw this race wide open.
Princeton won that game after a one-goal loss to Harvard last weekend, and so the Tigers are 1-1 against the other three. Harvard is also 1-1, and Dartmouth is 0-1.
If you're a Princeton fan, you're rooting for two Princeton wins and then a Dartmouth win over Harvard, and you'll have the Ivy women's tournament in Princeton.
If Princeton, Penn and Harvard all win out, then they'd all be 6-1 with no way to break the tie for home field, which would then be determined by random draw.
Any two-way or three-way tie that includes Penn but not Princeton will favor the Quakers, and Penn has the easiest path to 6-1, since it only has one game and it's the only team not playing one of the other three.
The men still have all seven teams alive for a tournament spot; the women's field at least is set. Both races figure to be up in the air right to the end.
For the team that wins the Ivy tournament, there's an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Last year, in the first year of the tournament, the host teams went 1-1, as the Penn women won in Philadelphia but the Cornell men lost to Princeton in Ithaca, so home field is no guarantee of anything.
Still, it's always better not to have to get on a bus.
These buses then are loaded up with coaches, athletes, equipment, athletic trainers, food, drinks and everything else that is standard for a college athletic team as it heads to the road.
The sidewalk in front of Caldwell Field House becomes the staging area, and bag after bag is first placed there and then under the bus. Athletes in their standard travel gear mill around. Cars race by dropping off other supplies or latecomers before heading back to park in Lot 21 someplace.
The team itself doesn't usually make a difference, since it's basically the same for every sport. Well, some sports, like hockey, leave from Baker Rink, so it's not every team that heads out from outside of Jadwin.
Still, it's something that hardly raises an eye anymore. Eventually, with everything on board - including movies to watch on the way - and the head coach seated in the front seat opposite the driver, away the bus goes, brimming with optimism on the way to the competition
It's tough to pick the right departure time, since there are too many competing factors, like classes, practice times, meal times, traffic and any number of others.
There aren't as many people around when the buses return, usually because they're doing so at night, mostly after midnight. Then, the real pain is clearing everything off the bus, getting everything back into Caldwell, getting rid of the garbage off the bus - all after sitting on a bus for hours.
TigerBlog hates buses. They're a guaranteed way to make TB queasy, and let's face it, there's only so much hand sanitizer that a person can use in one day.
Most of TB's bus travel experience has been with men's basketball, ironically enough, when he was still at the newspaper.
In fact, TB once saw Pete Carril violate all of the rules that are posted near the door, as he stood forward of the white line, drinking a beer, smoking a cigar, eating and, worst of all, speaking to the driver while the coach was in motion.
Peter Farrell, the women's track and field coach, says he doesn't really mind traveling, though he does know several coaches who have gotten out of the profession after saying that they "couldn't get on the bus one more time."
One coach who probably can't wait to get on the bus today is Chris Sailer, the women's lacrosse coach, even if her ride is five times longer than the one from Wednesday night.
Sailer, a Hall-of-Fame coach who has won three NCAA titles, has her team tied for first place in the Ivy League, at least by number of losses. In fact, it's a four-way tie right now between Penn, Princeton, Harvard and Dartmouth, and it's guaranteed that those four teams will make up the field for the Ivy League tournament.
There are still two pretty good questions remaining, though. First, which team or teams will win the championship? And second, where will the tournament be?
Well, the answer to the second question is: It can be at any of the four schools.
And to the first? The answer is that there can be an outright championship all the way to a four-way tie.
One thing there cannot be is a four-way tie at 6-1, since there are still head-to-head matchups between the four, beginning tomorrow when Sailer's team gets off the bus in Hanover to take on Dartmouth and continuing next week when Dartmouth takes on Harvard.
Penn has one game remaining, against Brown (1-4 in the league) tomorrow. Both Harvard (tomorrow) and Princeton (Wednesday) also take on Columbia (1-4).
Penn is already 2-1 against the other three, with one-goal wins over Dartmouth and Harvard and an 11-7 loss to Princeton the other night that snapped the Quaker's 34-game Ivy winning streak and threw this race wide open.
Princeton won that game after a one-goal loss to Harvard last weekend, and so the Tigers are 1-1 against the other three. Harvard is also 1-1, and Dartmouth is 0-1.
If you're a Princeton fan, you're rooting for two Princeton wins and then a Dartmouth win over Harvard, and you'll have the Ivy women's tournament in Princeton.
If Princeton, Penn and Harvard all win out, then they'd all be 6-1 with no way to break the tie for home field, which would then be determined by random draw.
Any two-way or three-way tie that includes Penn but not Princeton will favor the Quakers, and Penn has the easiest path to 6-1, since it only has one game and it's the only team not playing one of the other three.
The men still have all seven teams alive for a tournament spot; the women's field at least is set. Both races figure to be up in the air right to the end.
For the team that wins the Ivy tournament, there's an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Last year, in the first year of the tournament, the host teams went 1-1, as the Penn women won in Philadelphia but the Cornell men lost to Princeton in Ithaca, so home field is no guarantee of anything.
Still, it's always better not to have to get on a bus.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Mitch Henderson, Nice To Meet You
John Mack, the 10-time Heptagonal track champion from Princeton who is now an associate athletic director at Northwestern, told TigerBlog something yesterday that he didn't previously know about Princeton's new head men's basketball coach.
Mitch Henderson, it turns out, is a squash player. According to Mack, he's a pretty good one at that.
TB doesn't doubt it, not with the athleticism that Henderson was given at birth. And, as Henderson stood in TB's office yesterday, TB couldn't help but notice that Henderson is taller than TB remembers, which probably translates into good court coverage and would make it difficult to lob over him.
As squash is now TB's preferred method of exercise, he assumes he will get to see Henderson's game up close at some point in the not-so-distant future.
Still, TB never really thought about wanting to play squash like Henderson.
He did, in all the years he played lunchtime basketball, want to pass like Henderson.
For all of the great passers Princeton basketball has had since TB has been here, nobody other than Nate Walton compares to Henderson.
Henderson was an amazing passer, back when he the Tiger point guard on the Ivy League championship teams of 1996, 1997 and 1998.
TB wrote in a game program story about Henderson was he was a senior, and the story began with the time that then-head coach Bill Carmody dragged TB up to his office to show him the tape of a pass that Henderson had thrown the weekend before.
"That pass would be even more special if there weren't literally 100 others like it," TB wrote. "Henderson has 101 assists on the season, and a whole bunch of those have brought out the 'wow' in anyone who saw them. They have been lefthanded, righthanded. Bounce passes. Chest passes. One-handed. Two-handed. And they all have common denominators: They have very little margin for error, and they almost always end up where they're supposed to go."
TB would throw one-handed passes off the dribble as soon as he saw someone cut, just like he would see each weekend from Henderson, only they would hardly ever end up going where they were supposed to go. Ultimately, John Thompson III would tell him to knock it off and stop throwing the ball away.
In Henderson's case, that wasn't an issue.
TB's biggest memory of Henderson as a Princeton player is his ability to pass. Well, plus his toughness. And his natural warmth, which was summed up yesterday to TB by someone who called him "Midwestern."
The Mitch Henderson who walked in here yesterday was like a kid who woke up on a white Midwestern Christmas morning and found the present he'd always dreamed of under the tree, and he could hardly contain his excitement.
He shook hands, introducing himself to people who've worked here for years and yet never saw him as a player. He asked each what they did, where they went to school, what their background was. He found something they had in common and suggested that they'd pursue it together.
He could have been running for office, except that it came across as so genuine, so honest, so free of any pretense. As first impressions went for those just meeting him, he couldn't have done any better.
TigerBlog has been around a lot of teams at Princeton in a lot of different sports.
There's nothing that can touch what happened between 1996 and 1998, when the men's basketball team defeated UCLA in Carril's last year and then went 51-6 in Bill Carmody's first two years while rising into the Top 10 nationally and when the men's lacrosse team won three straight NCAA titles.
Both teams had great groups of players, and TB was lucky to be around them, to see some of the greatest athletes and people Princeton University has ever produced as they competed, as they prepared to compete and as they were just being themselves.
If TB is correct, he's spoken to Henderson fewer than five times in the 13 years since he graduated. Still, he'd watch Northwestern basketball games on television to root for Carmody and Henderson, and he couldn't help but smile when he saw Henderson on the Wildcat bench.
Why? Because if you can't root for Mitch Henderson, there's something wrong with you.
Every time TB would see him on TV, he'd remember all the times he'd see him in a hotel or after practice or before a game or walking around campus and how every single time, Henderson would say "hi, how are you" in that rarest way that made you realize he actually cared what the response was.
But that's not his only side.
TB also remembers practice two days before the 1996 Ivy League playoff game between Princeton and Penn, when Pete Carril implored his team to push back if Penn tried to push the Tigers around. To that point, Princeton had lost eight straight to the Quakers.
Early in the game, Henderson literally did push back, shoving Garrett Kreitz of Penn after Kreitz shoved him after a scramble for the ball. TB can't remember if Henderson got a technical foul, and he lent the book that has the box score in it to Sean Gregory for his great story on the Princeton-UCLA game from Time last month.
Still, it was the symbolic play that Princeton needed, the one that said "hey, we're here, and we're not going away easily."
Henderson was that kind of player. He made all the plays that needed to be made. And he was so tough, played so hard, all the time.
Eventually, what most people remember Henderson for is The Picture, the one where he has his arms extended after the UCLA game, with a dejected Toby Bailey and an elated Sydney Johnson in the background.
TB loves to watch the end of the UCLA game and see the exact moment that the picture was taken, and Gregory's story includes an anecdote about how the photographer thought he'd captured it but wasn't completely sure until he saw the negatives.
Henderson said yesterday that he loves the picture and never gets tired of it but that Princeton is hiring the coach, not the player.
After spending time with the new coach yesterday and today, TB realizes that those two people are pretty much the same.
Back then, he made you root for him because of who he was and how he carried himself.
Starting now, he'll do the same as Princeton's head men's basketball coach.
Mitch Henderson, it turns out, is a squash player. According to Mack, he's a pretty good one at that.
TB doesn't doubt it, not with the athleticism that Henderson was given at birth. And, as Henderson stood in TB's office yesterday, TB couldn't help but notice that Henderson is taller than TB remembers, which probably translates into good court coverage and would make it difficult to lob over him.
As squash is now TB's preferred method of exercise, he assumes he will get to see Henderson's game up close at some point in the not-so-distant future.
Still, TB never really thought about wanting to play squash like Henderson.
He did, in all the years he played lunchtime basketball, want to pass like Henderson.
For all of the great passers Princeton basketball has had since TB has been here, nobody other than Nate Walton compares to Henderson.
Henderson was an amazing passer, back when he the Tiger point guard on the Ivy League championship teams of 1996, 1997 and 1998.
TB wrote in a game program story about Henderson was he was a senior, and the story began with the time that then-head coach Bill Carmody dragged TB up to his office to show him the tape of a pass that Henderson had thrown the weekend before.
"That pass would be even more special if there weren't literally 100 others like it," TB wrote. "Henderson has 101 assists on the season, and a whole bunch of those have brought out the 'wow' in anyone who saw them. They have been lefthanded, righthanded. Bounce passes. Chest passes. One-handed. Two-handed. And they all have common denominators: They have very little margin for error, and they almost always end up where they're supposed to go."
TB would throw one-handed passes off the dribble as soon as he saw someone cut, just like he would see each weekend from Henderson, only they would hardly ever end up going where they were supposed to go. Ultimately, John Thompson III would tell him to knock it off and stop throwing the ball away.
In Henderson's case, that wasn't an issue.
TB's biggest memory of Henderson as a Princeton player is his ability to pass. Well, plus his toughness. And his natural warmth, which was summed up yesterday to TB by someone who called him "Midwestern."
The Mitch Henderson who walked in here yesterday was like a kid who woke up on a white Midwestern Christmas morning and found the present he'd always dreamed of under the tree, and he could hardly contain his excitement.
He shook hands, introducing himself to people who've worked here for years and yet never saw him as a player. He asked each what they did, where they went to school, what their background was. He found something they had in common and suggested that they'd pursue it together.
He could have been running for office, except that it came across as so genuine, so honest, so free of any pretense. As first impressions went for those just meeting him, he couldn't have done any better.
TigerBlog has been around a lot of teams at Princeton in a lot of different sports.
There's nothing that can touch what happened between 1996 and 1998, when the men's basketball team defeated UCLA in Carril's last year and then went 51-6 in Bill Carmody's first two years while rising into the Top 10 nationally and when the men's lacrosse team won three straight NCAA titles.
Both teams had great groups of players, and TB was lucky to be around them, to see some of the greatest athletes and people Princeton University has ever produced as they competed, as they prepared to compete and as they were just being themselves.
If TB is correct, he's spoken to Henderson fewer than five times in the 13 years since he graduated. Still, he'd watch Northwestern basketball games on television to root for Carmody and Henderson, and he couldn't help but smile when he saw Henderson on the Wildcat bench.
Why? Because if you can't root for Mitch Henderson, there's something wrong with you.
Every time TB would see him on TV, he'd remember all the times he'd see him in a hotel or after practice or before a game or walking around campus and how every single time, Henderson would say "hi, how are you" in that rarest way that made you realize he actually cared what the response was.
But that's not his only side.
TB also remembers practice two days before the 1996 Ivy League playoff game between Princeton and Penn, when Pete Carril implored his team to push back if Penn tried to push the Tigers around. To that point, Princeton had lost eight straight to the Quakers.
Early in the game, Henderson literally did push back, shoving Garrett Kreitz of Penn after Kreitz shoved him after a scramble for the ball. TB can't remember if Henderson got a technical foul, and he lent the book that has the box score in it to Sean Gregory for his great story on the Princeton-UCLA game from Time last month.
Still, it was the symbolic play that Princeton needed, the one that said "hey, we're here, and we're not going away easily."
Henderson was that kind of player. He made all the plays that needed to be made. And he was so tough, played so hard, all the time.
Eventually, what most people remember Henderson for is The Picture, the one where he has his arms extended after the UCLA game, with a dejected Toby Bailey and an elated Sydney Johnson in the background.
TB loves to watch the end of the UCLA game and see the exact moment that the picture was taken, and Gregory's story includes an anecdote about how the photographer thought he'd captured it but wasn't completely sure until he saw the negatives.
Henderson said yesterday that he loves the picture and never gets tired of it but that Princeton is hiring the coach, not the player.
After spending time with the new coach yesterday and today, TB realizes that those two people are pretty much the same.
Back then, he made you root for him because of who he was and how he carried himself.
Starting now, he'll do the same as Princeton's head men's basketball coach.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
In Or Out?
TigerBlog had a teacher named Mr. Eovino for a probability and statistics class back in high school.
TB was a junior, and he took the class that was probably two-thirds seniors. Back when TB was in high school, the kids a year older than he was were an academic powerhouse of a group, and taking an upper-level advanced math class with them was as challenging as anything TB ever did in high school.
TB remembers Mr. Iovino as a great teacher, one who managed to combine being funny and approachable with having extraordinarily high standards in his class. When TB thinks back to his days in high school, Mr. Iovino is one of the very few teachers - along with maybe four others - who stand out to him as having all of those qualities and who, as a result, really pushed TB to do his best.
He also had a great sense of humor, something he demonstrated during the school talent show one year, when he put white powder in his black beard, dressed in flowing robes and danced around the stage as a group of kids turned the Kinks' song "Lola" into "Ayatollah."
One day in class, he interrupted himself and started flailing away futilely, swatting at an unseen annoyance in front of his face. Eventually, the flailing got to be quite energized and somewhat violent - until he stopped abruptly and said to the class: "There's no bug here."
Probability and statistics was a difficult subject, and it was often confusing for TB to remember all the starting points and formulas and such.
Still, he's pretty sure that if there are six events with two possible outcomes for each event, then the total number of outcomes is two to the sixth power, or 64.
That means there are 64 possible outcomes of the remaining six Ivy League men's lacrosse regular-season games, and those 64 outcomes will take the race for the four Ivy League tournament spots in almost as many different directions.
Right now, this is how it looks:
Cornell 4-0 (Brown, Princeton remaining)
Penn 3-2 (Dartmouth remaining)
Yale 3-2 (Harvard remaining)
Princeton 2-2 (Harvard, Cornell remaining)
Harvard 1-3 (Princeton, Yale remaining)
Brown 1-3 (Cornell, Dartmouth remaining)
Dartmouth 1-3 (Penn, Brown remaining)
As of now, Cornell is in the tournament and none of the teams have been mathematically eliminated or have clinched a spot. Also, Princeton could still host the tournament, mathematically at least.
In its most simplistic form, a Cornell win over Brown and a Princeton win over Harvard Saturday gives Cornell the outright title and home field in the tournament and puts Penn, Yale and Princeton in the field, locking Princeton into the fourth seed.
But ...
There could be some wild stuff if the right outcomes happen, including:
* Princeton could NOT be in the tournament at 3-3 but make the field at 2-4
* there could be a five-way tie for second at 3-3 ... should this happen, Princeton would be out
* Harvard could have its fate decided by who wins Dartmouth-Brown, two teams Harvard has already played
* there could be multiple combinations of teams that could finish in a four-way tie at 3-3
* there could be a four-way tie at 2-4 for the last spot between the same four teams, but they could get there in two different ways, and whichever way they got there would determine who got the fourth spot
* there could be a three-way tie for the last spot that would have to be broken by a random draw
Cornell, obviously, is in, and Yale and Penn would be in simply by winning their last remaining game.
Princeton, likewise, is in a win-and-you're-in situation.
Is anyone else?
Brown definitely isn't, since a 3-3 Brown team could still finish behind Cornell, Yale, Penn and Princeton or even with Princeton in a two-way tie for fourth, but the Tigers defeated Brown.
Dartmouth isn't definitely in, since it could win out to 3-3 and find itself tied with Princeton and Penn for the last two spots. Each would be 1-1 against the other, so the next tiebreaker would be how each team did against the teams from the top of the standings down.
In this case, should Princeton get to 3-3 with a loss to Harvard and win over Cornell and, assuming a Yale win over Harvard, then Princeton would be third, leaving Penn and Dartmouth fourth and giving Dartmouth the spot with its head-to-head win over Penn.
But if Princeton lost to Cornell and beat Harvard, then Penn would be third because it would have beaten Yale. That would leave Princeton and Dartmouth, and Princeton's win over Dartmouth would knock out the Green.
As for Harvard, TB may be overlooking something, but he can't see any way that Harvard isn't in with a win over Princeton and Yale. But it's really, really complicated in some of those scenarios, so hey, he may be wrong.
The last Saturday of the 2010 Ivy League lacrosse season was the wildest day in Ivy League men's lacrosse history. There were three games involving six teams, all of whom still had a shot of getting in the tournament.
All three games were one-goal games, and one went into OT. When the dust cleared, there were four teams tied at 4-2, the first four-way title in league history in men's lacrosse.
This year? Hey, it could be just as nuts.
TB was a junior, and he took the class that was probably two-thirds seniors. Back when TB was in high school, the kids a year older than he was were an academic powerhouse of a group, and taking an upper-level advanced math class with them was as challenging as anything TB ever did in high school.
TB remembers Mr. Iovino as a great teacher, one who managed to combine being funny and approachable with having extraordinarily high standards in his class. When TB thinks back to his days in high school, Mr. Iovino is one of the very few teachers - along with maybe four others - who stand out to him as having all of those qualities and who, as a result, really pushed TB to do his best.
He also had a great sense of humor, something he demonstrated during the school talent show one year, when he put white powder in his black beard, dressed in flowing robes and danced around the stage as a group of kids turned the Kinks' song "Lola" into "Ayatollah."
One day in class, he interrupted himself and started flailing away futilely, swatting at an unseen annoyance in front of his face. Eventually, the flailing got to be quite energized and somewhat violent - until he stopped abruptly and said to the class: "There's no bug here."
Probability and statistics was a difficult subject, and it was often confusing for TB to remember all the starting points and formulas and such.
Still, he's pretty sure that if there are six events with two possible outcomes for each event, then the total number of outcomes is two to the sixth power, or 64.
That means there are 64 possible outcomes of the remaining six Ivy League men's lacrosse regular-season games, and those 64 outcomes will take the race for the four Ivy League tournament spots in almost as many different directions.
Right now, this is how it looks:
Cornell 4-0 (Brown, Princeton remaining)
Penn 3-2 (Dartmouth remaining)
Yale 3-2 (Harvard remaining)
Princeton 2-2 (Harvard, Cornell remaining)
Harvard 1-3 (Princeton, Yale remaining)
Brown 1-3 (Cornell, Dartmouth remaining)
Dartmouth 1-3 (Penn, Brown remaining)
As of now, Cornell is in the tournament and none of the teams have been mathematically eliminated or have clinched a spot. Also, Princeton could still host the tournament, mathematically at least.
In its most simplistic form, a Cornell win over Brown and a Princeton win over Harvard Saturday gives Cornell the outright title and home field in the tournament and puts Penn, Yale and Princeton in the field, locking Princeton into the fourth seed.
But ...
There could be some wild stuff if the right outcomes happen, including:
* Princeton could NOT be in the tournament at 3-3 but make the field at 2-4
* there could be a five-way tie for second at 3-3 ... should this happen, Princeton would be out
* Harvard could have its fate decided by who wins Dartmouth-Brown, two teams Harvard has already played
* there could be multiple combinations of teams that could finish in a four-way tie at 3-3
* there could be a four-way tie at 2-4 for the last spot between the same four teams, but they could get there in two different ways, and whichever way they got there would determine who got the fourth spot
* there could be a three-way tie for the last spot that would have to be broken by a random draw
Cornell, obviously, is in, and Yale and Penn would be in simply by winning their last remaining game.
Princeton, likewise, is in a win-and-you're-in situation.
Is anyone else?
Brown definitely isn't, since a 3-3 Brown team could still finish behind Cornell, Yale, Penn and Princeton or even with Princeton in a two-way tie for fourth, but the Tigers defeated Brown.
Dartmouth isn't definitely in, since it could win out to 3-3 and find itself tied with Princeton and Penn for the last two spots. Each would be 1-1 against the other, so the next tiebreaker would be how each team did against the teams from the top of the standings down.
In this case, should Princeton get to 3-3 with a loss to Harvard and win over Cornell and, assuming a Yale win over Harvard, then Princeton would be third, leaving Penn and Dartmouth fourth and giving Dartmouth the spot with its head-to-head win over Penn.
But if Princeton lost to Cornell and beat Harvard, then Penn would be third because it would have beaten Yale. That would leave Princeton and Dartmouth, and Princeton's win over Dartmouth would knock out the Green.
As for Harvard, TB may be overlooking something, but he can't see any way that Harvard isn't in with a win over Princeton and Yale. But it's really, really complicated in some of those scenarios, so hey, he may be wrong.
The last Saturday of the 2010 Ivy League lacrosse season was the wildest day in Ivy League men's lacrosse history. There were three games involving six teams, all of whom still had a shot of getting in the tournament.
All three games were one-goal games, and one went into OT. When the dust cleared, there were four teams tied at 4-2, the first four-way title in league history in men's lacrosse.
This year? Hey, it could be just as nuts.
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