Don't You Know A Good Tree From A Poor Tree?

TigerBlog figures he's in triple figures of the number of times he's watched "A Charlie Brown Christmas," most recently Wednesday night, when it was on just before the tree lighting from Rockefeller Center.

TB's favorite part, like everyone else's, is when Linus stands up, gets the right lighting and tells all the over-commercialized, Christmas-play-destroying cast members what the real meaning of Christmas is - and Charlie Brown's subsequent realization that he has in fact gotten the perfect tree.

Honestly, the entire 30-minute cartoon is nearly perfect, even if the animation is hardly cutting edge. It dates to its first showing, back on December 9, 1965, and no Christmas is the same without at least one viewing.

It's such an uplifting half-hour, maybe the only time in Peanuts history that Charlie Brown actually wins, that he doesn't get the football yanked away by Lucy, that he doesn't get hit so hard that all his clothes end up on the mound, that his dog doesn't get the best of him.

It has its funny moments, especially when Schroeder plays "Jingle Bells" for Lucy, who gets it all wrong. Or when Sally asks Charlie Brown to write her letter to Santa, asking for "tens and twenties."

"A Charlie Brown Christmas" is one of TB's favorite parts of this time of year.

So are Christmas carols, of which he has about 50 on his iTunes. He has a rule that he won't play any of those songs until it's the right time of year, though that isn't definitively set by any specific date.

For the record, he's pretty close, but not quite there.

Two Christmases have come and gone since TigerBlog sat at the Rutgers Athletic Center and watched Princeton drop a heartbreaker in women's basketball, falling 54-53 to the Scarlet Knights on a basket with four seconds left in a game that would have been a great win for Princeton, only to have it yanked away at the very end.

One night after watching "A Charlie Brown Christmas," TigerBlog watched the Princeton-Rutgers women's basketball game on his computer. Or at least the second half, because he was tied up from 6-7:30 trying to get middle school girls to learn to run elements of the Princeton offense, as well as defend.

Anyway, TB first checked the score via Twitter and found that Princeton was up big early. Then he watched the second half, during which Rutgers never really challenged the Tigers, who would end up with a 71-55 win.

The victory was Princeton's fourth in 19 tries against the Scarlet Knights, who have long been the dominant women's basketball program in the state of New Jersey.

The win was the first for Princeton over Rutgers since 1977.

Princeton won without having a monster night from Niveen Rasheed, who had a very steady, solid 15 points and seven rebounds.

In fact, Rasheed didn't even lead Princeton in scoring. That was, in fact, freshman Alex Wheatley, who had 17 on 8 for 12 shooting.

And if Lauren Polansky ever had a night typical for her, it was this one. Her line? One point, nine rebounds, seven assists.

It was a huge night for Princeton head coach Courtney Banghart as well, who got her first win over Rutgers' Hall of Fame coach C. Vivian Stringer.

As the game ended on his laptop, TB thought back to two years earlier in the RAC and how close to a signature win Banghart had come, only to have it get away in the final four seconds.

As TB remembers it, Banghart wasn't sad or crushed. She was determined. Focused. Zoned in on the next meeting between the schools.

And then the Knights weren't on the schedule last year, when Princeton had the best team it's had in school history. For that matter, the banners on the Ivy League title and NCAA tournament appearance were unveiled the three seniors from last year were honored at halftime.

So that left this year, the final game of November for the Tigers.

And it was no contest. Princeton dominated throughout, leaving nothing to a final four seconds of chance, like two years ago.

It was a great win for the Tigers, who have had plenty of those in the last three-plus seasons. Just not one over Rutgers, at least not since 1977.

When TB saw that was the last time Princeton had beaten the Knights, he started to do a little math. Forget that no current Princeton player was anywhere near born in 1977. TB is pretty sure Banghart wasn't either.

Last night was a great night for Princeton women's basketball.

Three alums honored at the half. Two more banners unveiled.

And one big, big victory.

Nice To See You Again

TigerBlog was in a restaurant yesterday in Madison, about an hour north of Princeton.

As he put the finishing touches on his New York strip steak wrap with caramelized onions and cheddar cheese, TB happened to glance out the window onto Main Street, which, in Madison, is an old-fashioned Main Street with restaurants and old-fashioned shops.

Anyway, as TB glanced outside, he saw a man walk by who at first glance looked familiar and at second glance turned out to be Mark Panus, who was the person that TB replaced when he first started working here at Princeton.

During TB's five years of covering Princeton in his newspaper days, Panus was the sport contact for football, men's basketball and men's lacrosse. TB would take over those sports and be their contact for the next eight years, which featured between them 17 Ivy League championships during that time.

Panus' title was Director of Sports Media Relations, which would also be TigerBlog's first title here. His current title, as an aside, is the ninth different title he's had here.

TigerBlog still has Panus' old Rolodex on his shelf, and though it's been years since he's actually looked at it, he keeps it around for old times sake.

Panus worked with Kurt Kehl, who brought TB to Princeton and for whom TB took over when Kehl left to go to work for the Washington Capitals.

Steve DiGregorio, who was an assistant football coach here at the time, refers to the Kehl/Panus days as "the golden age of Princeton athletic communications." Of course, what was done here then and what is done here now are hardly the same profession, and TB much prefers the current way of doing business.

Still, Panus and Kehl ran a great office, and TB's memories of covering football, basketball and lacrosse in those days are filled with a lot of laughs and good times.

TigerBlog chased Panus up Main Street and learned that Panus was on his way to the vacuum cleaner store, which required TB to go past a Christmas store, a hair-dresser, a Carvel and a few other stores that bring up connotations of Main Streets gone by.

TB and Panus spoke for a few minutes before each had to go their separate ways, and it was great to catch up.

The meeting in the restaurant that brought TB to Madison was of the College Athletic Administrators of New Jersey and its executive board. The board made some positive decisions in the name of growing the organization a bit, and TB is excited to see how it all plays out.

In case you were wondering, there are 43 four-year and two-year colleges in the state of New Jersey, and five league offices - including the Ivy League office - are located here as well.

Speaking of the Garden State, the two best women's basketball teams in the state of New Jersey meet here at Jadwin Gym tonight, as Princeton plays host to Rutgers.

The Scarlet Knights lead the all-time series 15-3, and the last meeting between the two was two years ago in Piscataway, where Princeton fell 54-53 when RU scored the game-winner with four seconds left. TigerBlog was at the game, and Rutgers should have been called for a turnover on an inbounds just before the winning hoop, but hey, that happens.

The teams meet again after their year off last year. It's a shame they didn't play in the 2011-12 season, since Princeton had the best team it's had in program history, not to mention one that would have had a strong senior class looking for payback from the 2010-11 game.

That class - 1,000-point scorers Devona Allgood and Lauren Edwards and Laura Johnson - will be back at Jadwin Gym tonight for the raising of the 2012 Ivy League championship banner.

And to see how the current blend of Tigers, who start four seniors - including Niveen Rasheed, the greatest player in program history- and get great off-the-bench support from the freshman class, can do against their in-state rivals.

Much like seeing Mark Panus yesterday, it'll be nice to see them again. And to see another edition of Princeton-Rutgers.

Football And Basketball

So as the college football season comes down essentially to one semifinal game this Saturday and then one championship game 36 days later and as college basketball season has another endless and indistinguishable schedule of games every single day, TigerBlog was left with two thoughts.

The first one he'll get into now. The second one can wait.

The first point is that college football and college basketball are total opposites.

College football has a horrible postseason and an all-important regular season. College basketball has a horrible regular season and an all-important postseason.

The college football bowl season will be a study in irrelevance, except for the BCS title game, which will match Notre Dame against the winner of the Georgia-Alabama SEC championship game from this coming Saturday.

Of course, they'll wait nearly six weeks to play the game. And if it's Alabama-Notre Dame then other than fans of both teams, everyone else will be rooting for both teams to lose.

Again, TigerBlog isn't sure how Alabama is any more deserving than Oregon or Kansas State. At least Notre Dame is undefeated against a relatively tough schedule - but the Irish don't have to worry about a conference championship game either.

And every other bowl game? Boring. Unless you happen to be one of the schools involved.

How could anyone get excited about these games, knowing that they have no impact on any championship?

TigerBlog has said this before, but if you're going to have this system, at least play the BCS championship game first, not last.

And yes, a four-team playoff is on the way beginning next year, if TB is correct, and that'll be a little better. Still, that still leaves about 30 meaningless bowl games and a even more subjectivity in the selection process.

And six weeks off in between the end of the season and the playoffs. 

Now college basketball? That's a whole other story.

The over-saturation of college basketball on TV beginning in early November is nuts, with so many games on so many channels every night that they all begin to look the same.

In fact, to try to differentiate between these games, promoters and schools began to play in more and more exotic locations, which leads to either makeshift arenas that are either tiny or empty or places like battleships that are unplayable.

And it's not going to stop once league play begins. If anything, it'll get worse.

Every night will be a flood of games. Every game will look the same (unless it's Georgetown or someone like that).

And it'll all lead to conference tournaments, which will determine the NCAA rep for one-bid leagues and then the NCAA tournament, where teams like Georgetown will be more concerned with their draw than their seed and where essentially anything can happen.

Hey, if every conference wants a tournament, so be it. TB's biggest issue with college basketball is more the over-saturation one these days.

And then there's this: How many college basketball players can you name? How many players on Notre Dame and Alabama football can you name?

Anyway, all of this brings TB to his second thought.

In the Ivy League, life is of course much different.

There are 10 weeks of football, with no weeks off, and the champion does not go to the Division I-AA playoffs.

In basketball, there is no conference tournament.

TigerBlog would love to have seen Penn, as the Ivy champ, advance to the football playoffs. He hates the idea of a tournament in basketball.

So if he had to pick football champ to the playoffs and a basketball tournament or no postseason for football and no basketball tournament, which would he pick?

He'd probably go with the status quo of no playoffs and no tournament.

He also thinks he's probably way in the majority of Ivy League fans.

Feeling Secure

When TigerBlog heard that Rutgers was going to the Big 10, the first person he thought of was Harvey Yavener, his longtime colleague, mentor and friend from his newspaper days.

Way back when, Yav was always saying that the Big 10 was the perfect league for Rutgers, a thought which got him essentially mocked by everyone in the newsroom back then.

And when Yav would elaborate on why Rutgers should be in the Big 10, he always said the same thing: academics. Rutgers, Yav always said, had much more in common academically with the Big 10 schools than it did with the schools in any other league, especially the Big East, given its status as a highly competitive land-grant state research-oriented institution.

This, of course, drew more mocking.

As an aside, TB doesn't like the "B1G" logo.

Meanwhile, the news last week that Rutgers was on its way to the Big 10 was another indication that Yav was simply a few decades ahead of his time.

TigerBlog heard Rutgers AD Tim Pernetti on during the Scarlet Knights' football game Saturday and again thought of Yav when Pernetti spoke about the academic fit for Rutgers in the Big 10. And the student-athlete experience.

These days, it's easy to mock not Yav but those sentiments when they're repeated by ADs and college presidents, because they're never the actual reason for making such a move.

The student-athlete experience? Remember, this goes beyond football (the decision-maker) and basketball (not the decision-maker) and trickles down to all sports, creating the possibility of, say, soccer or field hockey games 2,000 miles away on a weeknight.

No, those reasons are clearly money and fear.

If you're Rutgers, how could you not go from the great uncertainty of the future of the Big East (fear of being stuck without a major conference) to the Big 10 and its network (money, lots and lots and lots of it)?

It couldn't have gone better for the school if it had won the Powerball lottery.

Rutgers, by virtue of its proximity to the New York City market, is as big a winner as any school in the realignment in college athletics in the last few years and one of the only schools that can actually stand there and talk about academics with a straight face.

Of course, the money the biggest factor. According to one story TB read, Rutgers will go from receiving $6 million annually from Big East television money to early $25 million in the Big 10.

Another issue for Rutgers is the absence of a true rival in football. In men's basketball, TB supposes that the Rutgers-Seton Hall game is huge, but it's not one of the great rivalries in its league. In football, RU has no huge game circled every year.

Rutgers' home football schedule this year was this: Howard, UConn, Syracuse, Kent State, Army and Louisville. Which is the game that a Rutgers' alum circles and says "yes, we have them at our place this year?" Or next year, when the home league games are against South Florida, Temple, Cincinnati and Pitt.

Imagine replacing those games with some combination of opponents like Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, Wisconsin, Nebraska or others? If you're a Rutgers fan, you can't ask for more.

TB has read about the possibility that all of this realignment results in four 16-team mega-leagues. That's clearly the direction all of this is going.

And everyone else?

Denver, whose men's basketball team is coached by Princeton's own Joe Scott, announced today that it'll be leaving the WAC after one year to join the Summit League. This would make three leagues in three years for the Pioneers.

But what is a school like Denver supposed to do? It can't sit around and hope that its current league hangs on, because what if it doesn't?

These days, athletic directors at schools like Denver need to be proactive and not get caught up in worrying whether or not your school is the domino that destroys an existing league filled with longtime rivals. In other words, there is no room for loyalty - especially when nobody is being loyal to you.

Hey, for that matter, ADs can't please all of their own programs. Look at Maryland, who like RU will be joining the Big 10. The Terps advanced to the last two NCAA championship games in men's lacrosse.

There is no Big 10 men's lacrosse, at least not yet, and the other Big 10 schools that offer the sport are Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan and Rutgers. It's a far cry from the traditional ACC rivals Maryland has always played.

While all of this chaos goes on, TB always asks the same question: Is there any way the Ivy League would ever lose a member or add members?

The security in the currently insecure world of intercollegiate athletics that Ivy League schools enjoy is unrivaled anywhere. The Ivy League brand also benefits each of the eight schools way beyond athletics.

So for the league to lose a member, it would have to be a school that felt that it didn't need the academic affiliation with the Ivy League and wants to get in on the money, presumably in the name of modeling its athletic program after what Stanford has done (winning big in football, winning the Directors' Cup every year).

Certainly there would be nothing wrong with that. Would Princeton ever make that decision? Another school?

TigerBlog thinks no way. For starters, it would be such a risky endeavor. For another, alums would be probably revolt.

Would the Ivy League ever add schools? TB thought that if the Patriot League fell apart that some of its stronger academic schools could fit in nicely should the Ivy League want to expand, but there is nothing to indicate that it does. Better fits would be Army and Navy, at least in all sports other than football.

Still, TB can't imagine that the Ivy League is going to change. Or, for that matter, would even have serious discussions about changes in membership.

These days, in the current climate, that's about as good as the news can get.

Besides, in the Ivy League, it really is about academics and student-athlete experience.

He Dreamed Of Jeannie

Every story that TigerBlog saw this weekend about the passing of Larry Hagman at the age of 81 referred to him first and foremost as J.R. Ewing from the show "Dallas."

TB never was a big fan of "Dallas," and he probably watched less than an hour of the entire series. He definitely did not watch the famous "Who shot J.R." episode, which drew 83 million viewers, still the second-most ever for a TV show, behind only the final episode of "M*A*S*H."

As an aside, TB did watch the last episode of "M*A*S*H" and thought it was pretty good, way better than the last episode of, say, "Seinfeld," though nowhere near as good as the greatest final episode of them all, "Newhart."

If you never saw it, "Newhart" was a sitcom in which the hilariously dry Bob Newhart played an innkeeper in Vermont who was married to Mary Frann. This was not "The Bob Newhart Show," where he played a psychiatrist in Chicago who was married to Suzanne Pleshette.

TB read on the day of the final episode of "Newhart" a preview that it was the most creative ending to a TV show ever, and, as a fan of the show during its run, he was going to watch anyway. With about five minutes to go, it looked like it was okay but nothing special; it wasn't until the very, very last scene that it caused TB to think then, and now 22 years later, that it was in fact that cleverest moment in TV history.

If you've seen it, you know what he means. If you haven't click on the lick above and watch it.

Anyway, where were we? Oh yeah. Larry Hagman.

When TB thought of Larry Hagman, he thought not of J.R. Ewing but of Major Anthony Nelson and the show "I Dream Of Jeannie," which, along with "Gilligan's Island" was the first sitcom love for TB.

In the realm of classic TV shows that would never remotely fly today, "I Dream Of Jeannie" featured Barbara Eden as the title character and Hagman as her "master," who doubled as an astronaut in Cocoa Beach, Florida.

Jeannie, of course, would constantly get Tony into and then out of all kinds of trouble, all to the befuddlement of Colonel Bellows.

Jeannie and Tony eventually get married, and of course there was some, uh, chemistry that existed on the show that young TB never picked up on. For him, it was a harmless TV show about a guy who could get anything he wanted literally with the blink of an eye - and all he usually got was trouble.

And now that guy is gone, at the age of 81. His mother was Mary Martin, who played Peter Pan on Broadway. And, in a rarity for his profession (or any other for that matter), he was married to the same woman for 58 years.

TB figured he'd go with a little pop culture nostalgia after a Thanksgiving weekend that saw very little Princeton athletic action, especially here on campus.

It doesn't exactly pick up this week either, as only two teams play home games in the next week, though they do have two each.

The women's hockey team is home Friday against Union and Saturday against RPI. The women's basketball team is home against Rutgers Thursday and UMBC Sunday.

There are a handful of away events, including in men's basketball, where the Tigers are at Wagner Wednesday and Kent State Saturday.

The last few weeks featured the fall/winter overlap and are among the busiest of the year at Princeton. The schedule between now and the end of first semester exams is the slowest of the academic year.

After that, the winter teams will sprint through their Ivy schedules while spring teams will begin practice and then shortly after that competition.

One of the best parts of working in college athletics is the way the job is radically different depending on the time of year. Not only Saturdays, after all, are created equal.

Here at Princeton, the calendar is even more uniquely designed.

These days, it's not particularly fast-paced. Not to worry, though. There are some quality events between now and the end of the holidays, and it'll all pick up quickly after that.

In the meantime, there was a time to slow down and remember Larry Hagman - and his role not as an oil baron but as an astronaut who fell in love with the Jeannie in the bottle.

For TB, it brought back memories of days long gone.

Have A Great Thanksgiving

In case you think you've read this before, you did, if you read TigerBlog 104 weeks ago and 156 weeks ago today:


 As holidays go, you can't do much better than Thanksgiving. It's got it all, really: a huge meal (with turkey, no less), football, family, history (dates back to 1621), start of a four-day weekend for most people, leftovers. It's even a secular holiday, so every American can dive right in, regardless of religion.

TigerBlog attended many Manalapan-Marlboro Thanksgiving games a long, long time ago. The Lions and the Cowboys, obviously, always play at home on Thanksgiving, and the NFL has now added a third game (maybe a little too much). Beyond watching football, how many out there have played their own Thanksgiving football games, all of which, by the way, are named "the Turkey Bowl?"

The holiday may lag behind Christmas in terms of great Hollywood movies, and "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" is no match for "A Charlie Brown Christmas" or "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown." Still, there are some great moments in movies and TV shows around Thanksgiving.

Rocky and Adrian had their first date on Thanksgiving – "To you it's Thanksgiving; to me it's Thursday," Rocky said romantically – as did Meadow and Jackie Jr. on "The Sopranos" (it didn't quite work out as well as it did for Rocky and Adrian). "Everybody Loves Raymond" had two pretty good Thanksgiving episodes, the one where Marie makes a low-fat dinner and the one where Debra makes fish instead of turkey. As an aside, TigerBlog's Aunt Regina once made Cornish game hens instead of turkey, so he knows how they all felt. And of course, there was the Thanksgiving episode of "Cheers," which has the big food fight at the end.

The Woody Allen movie "Hannah and Her Sisters" starts and ends on two different Thanksgivings. "Miracle on 34th Street" is a Christmas movie, but it does start with the Thanksgiving parade in New York City.

And of course, there is the best of all Thanksgiving movies: "Planes, Trains and Automobiles." It'll make you laugh a lot and cry a little, and it ends on Thanksgiving.

TigerBlog didn't include that last year, so he figured he'd revisit it this time around. He was going to simply reproduce it without saying that he'd used it before, but then that would be a violation of the University's honor code.

If you asked 100 people what their favorite holiday is, TB is pretty sure you'd get 50% Thanksgiving and 50% everything else combined. TB would be in the first 50%.

TB has so many great memories of Thanksgivings, going back as far as he can remember. Happily, TigerBlog Jr. and Miss TigerBlog are also off to great starts with the holiday.

As TB is writing, various members of the women's basketball team have walked by, on their way to the bus and the airport, headed to Los Angeles for games Friday against UC-Riverside and Sunday against UCLA.

There will also be a big team Thanksgiving meal at Nicole Hung's house. It's not uncommon for winter teams to be traveling today and playing over the weekend and having their Thanksgiving together on the road, adding to the overall experience of being a team.

Of course, the women's basketball team travel party won't be the only people who are flying someplace on this day, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Today is the busiest travel day of the year, as everyone scrambles to get where they're going for the big day. 

As TigerBlog thinks back to his Thanksgivings when he was younger, he remembers people like his Uncle Herbie, his cousin Toby, his Aunt Regina and Uncle Larry, his grandparents and of course MotherBlog, all of whom are gone now.

He says this not to be morbid or to be a downer as the holiday approaches.

He says this instead as he smiles, as he thinks back to the great times he had with them all those Thanksgivings, how he cherishes those memories, how they were some of the best days of his life.

And how he wants everyone tomorrow to stop and look around at everyone they are with and to cherish them and that moment as well, knowing that it's a special day, this Thursday in late November.

It's about the food and fun and football, and it's about the traffic and the crowd in the supermarket or liquor store or bakery. It's about all of those things, yes, but it's mostly about the people you're with.

Stop for a second tomorrow. Put your plate down. Look away from the TV.

And take a good look around at the people who are there with you.

And be thankful for them.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

A Fall To Remember

What? No Twinkies? How will life go on?

No Twinkies? No soft yellow cake with the creamy inside? Possibly vanishing from America?

It seemed like a sure thing when TigerBlog read about it over the weekend. Now it appears that there might be hope for one of the most famous snack foods ever created, a 150-calorie, 4.5-fat-gram piece of heaven.

TigerBlog has probably eaten 100 Yodels for every Twinkie he's eaten in his life and probably 50,000 M&Ms for every Twinkie.

Hey, it's not all bad: He's probably eaten 1,000 apples for every Twinkie.

Twinkies to TigerBlog are sort of like the NHL.

He knows millions of people love the NHL and he respects those who do. And TB likes it when he pays attention to it.

At the same time, he doesn't exactly miss the NHL now that it's on strike, and while he definitely likes them, if he goes the rest of his life without eating another Twinkie, he'll figure out a way to get by.

Besides, he'd take the trade-off between no Twinkies for the rest of his life for the fall that Princeton Athletics recently completed.

Princeton has nine teams that compete in the fall as their primary season. Of those nine, seven play in the Ivy League - sprint football and men's water polo are not official Ivy sports.

Of the seven who compete in the Ivy League, three finished in first place, two finished in second and two finished in third.

Their combined Ivy League record? How about 31-9-2.

For the record, the three Ivy League champions were the field hockey team, the women's soccer team and the men's cross country team. Women's cross country and women's volleyball were second, and men's soccer and football were third (and so, for that matter, was men's water polo, who finished third at Easterns).

Looking beyond those two finishes, the men's soccer team still went 4-1-2 in the league, and it's only because of how strong Ivy men's soccer is that one league loss added up to a third-place finish.

And the football team? It went from 1-9 and 1-9 to 5-5 overall and went from 1-13 in the league the last two years to 4-3. The Tigers also beat Harvard in one of the greatest Ivy football games of all time and earned a bonfire by defeating Yale.

Even the sprint football team, which went winless again, had a very, very competitive fall, with almost no blowout losses and with a legitimate chance to win a few games. In fact, the sprint team was left feeling frustrated that it let a few get away, not to mention the heartbreak of falling in overtime to Post.

Princeton has a 13-point lead in the Ivy League's unofficial all-sports points championship standings. A year ago, Princeton was in fifth place after the fall, 5.5 points out of first.

When the final horn sounded at field hockey Sunday, Princeton had extended its streak of having at least one team or individual national champion to 42 straight years. This was the first time in that streak that Princeton produced a national champion in the fall.

The three highlights of the fall came from the league champions.

The men's cross country team came past the finish line the first time at the Heps championships in a bunched field that looked like it would be tough to sort out at the end. When the runners came back around for the final time, it was all Orange and Black, led by individual champion Chris Bendtsen.

The result was a huge party on Princeton's West Windsor Fields, on a day where the women's second-place finish was a strong accomplishment as well. The men went on to an 11th place finish at the NCAA championships for the program's best finish ever.

Then there were the two teams that had perfect Ivy seasons.

The women's soccer team went 7-0-0 in the league, outscoring its opponents 20-7 in the seven games. Princeton, led by Ivy Player of the Year Jen Hoy, had a 12-game winning streak after a 2-3-1 start, with the 12th win by a 2-1 count at West Virginia in the opening round of the NCAA tournament before the run ended in Utah against Marquette.

For head coach Julie Shackford, it was the second-best team in her 18 seasons here, behind only the 2004 Final Four team - and this one was close. It was a perfect blend of a star, some other frontline players, the great depth that was necessary after six players went out with injuries and overwhelming intangibles like great team chemistry and determination.

As for field hockey, what else can be said?

Princeton entered the year with a chance to win the first NCAA championship in program history and did just that, earning it in dramatic fashion this past weekend with wins over Maryland and North Carolina, from (for now) the ACC, which had produced the previous 11 NCAA champs.

The field hockey championship would fittingly be the final event of the fall of 2012 for Princeton Athletics.

It's really hard to ask for much more than Princeton's teams produced.

The 2012 NCAA Field Hockey Champion Princeton Tigers

Kristen Holmes-Winn walked into the office one day last winter to introduce herself to Diana Chamorro, who had taken over as the field hockey contact for the Office of Athletic Communications.

Diana had never seen a field hockey game before, and she knew nothing at all about the sport.

When she had her first introduction to Kristen, the head coach of Princeton field hockey, it was followed by, essentially, these words from the rest of the office: "you'll love field hockey, because they're going to win the national championship."

It was obvious way back then that 2012 was going to be a special year for Princeton field hockey, which had all of the pieces in place. There was a returning nucleus of last year's team, as well as the addition of a top recruiting class.

And of course, the Fab Four of Julie Reinprecht, Katie Reinprecht, Michelle Cesan and Kathleen Sharkey, four players who missed last year while training with the U.S. National Team, with the two Reinprechts on the U.S. Olympic Team and Cesan an alternate.

And there they all were yesterday, in Norfolk, Va., making it all come true, achieving what was dreamable last winter and is now reality this fall, winning the first NCAA field hockey championship in program history, defeating No. 1 seed North Carolina 3-2 to win it all.

Princeton finished its championship season 21-1, including a 7-0 run through the Ivy League by a combined 45-1 score. The Tigers won the NCAA title by beating two-time defending champion Maryland in the semifinal and then the No. 1 team in the country, North Carolina, in the final. 

As an aside, Princeton's streak of having at least one team or individual national champion win a national championship has now reached 42 consecutive academic years.

It's one of the great achievements in the history of women's athletics at Princeton - and one of the top athletic achievements by any Princeton team, for that matter.

It's not just an NCAA championship. It's one in a sport where it seemed like the landscape had shifted away from an Ivy League school and directly to the powers of the Atlantic Coast Conference, perhaps forever.

Princeton had played in the 1996 and 1998 NCAA finals, losing both. Three years later, Michigan would win the 2001 title, but from that point until yesterday, every championship was won by a team from the ACC.

Until yesterday, that is.

Two days after defeating Maryland in overtime, Princeton erased deficits of 1-0 and 2-1, took the lead with 20 minutes to go and then held off the Tar Heels for the victory.

For TigerBlog, the field hockey championship from this weekend reminds him of the 1992 NCAA men's lacrosse championship, when the Tigers went to Philadelphia and crashed the party of the big boys of the sport.

It was a magical weekend for a magical team, and it brought Princeton forever into the hierarchy of the sport.

It's the same for Princeton field hockey now.

Here's the list: North Carolina, Maryland, Wake Forest, Michigan, Old Dominion, James Madison, Iowa and UConn. And now Princeton. Those are the only schools that have ever won the Division I field hockey championship.

And of that group, three of them - James Madison, Iowa and UConn - won their titles in 1994 or earlier.

The 2012 Tigers were highly regarded, yes, but with a Final Four of the two ACC powers and Syracuse, who had defeated both Princeton and UNC during the regular season, Princeton wasn't supposed to walk away with the big trophy, just like the men's lacrosse team in 1992.

And yet come the end of the championship game, it was Princeton who was celebrating.

If you listened to the videostream of the trophy presentation, you heard one Princeton voice ask, through the cheers, this question: "is this real life?"
It is.

For Princeton field hockey, it's very real.

Princeton field hockey, the 2012 NCAA champion.

Fired Up

The collarbone is apparently the easiest bone in the body to break and the fastest bone in the body to heal.

TigerBlog learned that the hard way six years ago. Well, actually it was Miss TigerBlog who had to find that out for herself.

It was back at the last bonfire that Princeton football earned for defeating Harvard and Yale in the same season, back in 2006, the last time Princeton won the Ivy League title as well. MTB was there, and in the darkness, she ran into a chain link fence attached to a pole outside Nassau Hall.

At first, TB thought she wasn't hurt too badly. It wasn't until the next day that she had an x-ray, confirming that indeed her collarbone was broken. And then just like that, about three weeks later, it was healed.

Hopefully there will be no repeat of that incident for anyone who attends the bonfire tomorrow night. The event is scheduled for 7-9, on Cannon Green.

By the time the fire starts, it's possible that Princeton would have earned a share of the Ivy League championship, though it won't be easy. Princeton needs a win over Dartmouth tomorrow in the season finale (1 pm, Powers Field at Princeton Stadium) and also needs Jeff Matthews and Cornell to beat Penn.

Should that be the case, then Penn and Princeton would both be 5-2 in the league and tied for first.

Could there be a three-way tie? Yes, there could.

Should Princeton and Penn get to 5-2, they would be joined there by Harvard should the Crimson defeat Yale. In that scenario, the Ivy League would be left with its first three-way tie for the championship since 1982.

That was the year, by the way, when Penn went from 1-6 in the league to a share of the title.

The 2012 Princeton Tigers are attempting to go from worst to first, with the added bonus of trying to become the first team ever picked to finish eighth in the Ivy League's preseason media poll to actually win the league championship.

The bonfire is basically just a big party, and it is traditionally held on a Friday, TB believes. This year, it'll be after the last game is over, which could make it anywhere from a celebration of a championship to a bit of a letdown should Dartmouth defeat Princeton.

Still, it's TB's belief that by the time 7 pm rolls around tomorrow, it'll be impossible for the occasion to be anything but festive. For a young team, one coming off back-to-back 1-9 seasons, to earn a bonfire at all is amazing.

And let's remember how Princeton did it. The Tigers had to score the final 29 points of the wins over Harvard and Yale, erasing deficits both times.

Of course, the deficit a week ago in New Haven was 7-0 in the first quarter, which doesn't exactly count as a major come-from-behind moment.

But Harvard? Yes, that was a comeback. One of historic proportions.

If you somehow forgot, Princeton was behind the heavily favored Crimson 34-10 with 12 minutes to go before rallying to win 39-34. It was a ridiculous 12 minutes, as ridiculous a 12 minutes as any Princeton football fan has ever seen or could have hoped to see.

That's what the celebration will be tomorrow night. The Big Three championship. That's what earns the bonfire.

If it's more than that, then the party will be even more fun for everyone, especially the players.

It it isn't, that's okay too.

No matter what happens on its final Saturday, the 2012 football season will be remembered as a very, very special one for the Princeton Tigers.

Through The Kaleidoscope

Sports, to their great credit, are not about any one thing, and as such, they can be viewed through so many different prisms, often changing from moment to moment.

In so many ways, sports are a kaleidoscope, providing an ever-changing view and an ever-changing landscape, both from the outside looking in and also for those who are inside the lens.

For any game, for any day a team is together for that matter, sports can provide different challenges, different outcomes, different issues, different emotions.

Teams, especially college teams, go through so much together, from Day 1 on, sacrifice so much, are together so much, experience so much together along the way.

The kaleidoscope shows chaos at one moment and then harmony the next, a sense of collective effort that comes from a group that puts aside its individual goals in the name of team at one moment and then the struggle of each individual to buy into that the next.

The do all this for the experience, to be sure, of being college athletes and for their love of playing their particular sport.

And while they go down that path, they hold up in the back of their mind some lofty dreams, to keep it going as long as they can, to be together as long as they can, to put together the kinds of seasons that don't come around all the time and create as a team the kinds of memories that will last forever.

 Most teams don't reach those goals.

Some do. Some teams end up in the places that they've always dreamed of getting to, a sentiment summed up so famously by Bill Parcells when he screamed "this is why you life all them weights."

If they're lucky, their path will take them beyond what they could have hoped for, all the way to places that they've been dreaming of all along.

You know, like Utah. And Norfolk.

The Princeton women's soccer team will take on fourth-seeded Marquette in the second round of the NCAA tournament this afternoon, with the match to be held in Provo, Utah.

The field hockey team will play Maryland in the semifinals of the NCAA tournament Friday in Norfolk.

These might not seem like exotic destinations, but for the two teams they are Shangri-La.

It's easy to look from the outside at these two teams and admire their success, but there is no way to see how much has gone into making that success happen.

Like TB said, building teams is a very complex process, and then they go through so much together all year round, hoping to have much more go right than wrong.

In the case of the women's soccer team, there was the resolve to turn around last year's rare down season, something that started 12 months ago, not when this year began. It's easy to see a team that is 14-3-1, went 7-0-0 in the league, has won 12 straight games and defeated a West Virginia team that went undefeated in the Big 12 regular season in the opening round of the NCAA tournament and not realize that this isn't something that just happened. It's so much more than having good luck this year after having the ball not bounce right last year.

Besides, not everything went right this year. There were injuries - four starters lost during the year - and the need to keep moving forward and keep winning regardless of that. In that case, the 2012 Princeton women's soccer team isn't just about Jen Hoy; it's such a great team story.

The challenge today is daunting, as Marquette has been ranked as high as No. 2 nationally. Still, when the season began not that long ago, Princeton's biggest dream was to get to this very point, to be playing its best come mid-November and see how long the ride can continue.

As for the field hockey team, its challenge has been different. Princeton has played all year as a favorite, with its focus on getting to this weekend in Norfolk. Now that the team is there, anything can happen.

Princeton came into the season as the team with the Olympians, and that's not an easy way to go through a season, with that level of expectation, both internal and external.

None of that is what's important now. For Princeton, it's about the opportunity and a chance to make it all happen.

This moment, for both teams, is a rarity in sports. The kaleidoscope is completely focused now, and both teams can relish the fact that they've reached this point after all of the effort they put in to getting here.

And now they can do what they can to make the most of it.