Back when Princeton lost to Michigan State in the second round of the 1998 NCAA men's basketball tournament, it was TigerBlog's job to get the players and get them to the interview area.
The game was played at the Hartford Civic Center, and TB and the Princeton players were waiting in a holding area behind the platform where the Michigan State players were already speaking.
Princeton's players were upset, obviously. They had put together a season of historic proportions, one in which the Tigers had gone 26-1 in the regular season, moved into the top 10 of the national rankings and won an opening round game against UNLV.
Then, for 40 minutes, Princeton went toe-to-toe with Michigan State, unaware that two years later, four of those same Spartans would be in the starting lineup as they won the NCAA title.
And then it ended. Boom. Or more like Swish, as in the swish of a Mateen Cleaves three-pointer that snapped a tie game in the final minute.
And now, a few minutes later, the players were sent to meet the media.
As the Michigan State players answered their questions, the Princeton players stood there frustrated, waiting their turn. If there had been a microphone nearby, it would have picked up the muffled sound of a curse word or two, muttered under someone's breath.
TigerBlog thought about that, and every other time he's seen that situation play out, when he read about what Andrew Harrison muttered about Wisconsin's Frank Kaminsky after his Kentucky Wildcats saw their dream of a 40-0 perfect season destroyed in the 71-64 loss to Kaminsky's Badgers Saturday night.
Was it the classiest moment of anyone's life? No. Is Harrison really, really lucky that this wasn't a case where their races were reversed? Yes. If that had been the case, Harrison would have been done.
To his credit, Kaminsky said it's no big deal and that he's over it.
It's something that TB is surprised doesn't happen more often. He's seen athletes on the losing side of a billion games in a billion big spots - at the NCAA basketball tournament and lacrosse Final Four especially.
It's remarkable that as many athletes keep their composure as do and that examples like this are few and far between.
What's the point anyway of asking kids who lost questions? What questions get asked? How do you feel? When did it get away? That kind of stuff.
What answers do you get? Well, we tried to win, we wanted to win, have to give them credit. That's about it.
Maybe it's time to revisit the procedure. Just send the losing coach into the interview room. Let the players talk inside or just outside their lockerroom, where it's less formal and there's a greater chance to maintain composure.
Either way, Kentucky will not be 40-0. Like the Princeton women, they ended up with one loss. Princeton's season ended two weeks ago, with a loss in the second round to Maryland.
Still, there were accolades to be awarded, and Princeton is getting its share.
Courtney Banghart was named the winner of the U.S. Basketball Writers' Association Coach of the Year. She received her award in Tampa yesterday before the women's Final Four.
If the way the 2015 season played out is any indication, it's that the top programs in women's college basketball have achieved great separation from the rest of the field and have every advantage in the world.
For a team like Princeton to do what it did this year? How could anyone else be the Coach of the Year?
Oh, and the picture of her on the story on goprincetontigers.com? It's a great one. It shows her to be calm, focused, determined, competitive and totally in control.
Then there's Blake Dietrick, who was the Ivy League Player of the Year and a seven-time Ivy League Player of the Week. Dietrick earned AP honorable mention All-America honors, becoming the second player - along with Niveen Rasheed - in program history to be an All-America.
Dietrick also competed in the national three-point shooting contest. She didn't advance out of the first round after making 14 three's, finishing fifth. The top four advanced, and the score to beat in Round 1 was 17.
TigerBlog turned on the three-point contest on TV just in time to see the slam dunk part. TB hates slam dunk contests. And home run derbys. Anyway, the closest he came to seeing Dietrick was when she was standing in the background on the court with the rest of the competitors during the dunking.
And that's hoops season for you.
Oh, except for a prediction for tonight's championship game.
TigerBlog picked Duke to win before the tournament started, and he thinks the Blue Devils will win tonight. He's rooting for Wisconsin, of course, but he thinks it'll be Duke.
Maybe 78-71. Something like that.
Monday, April 6, 2015
Friday, April 3, 2015
An Early Spring Weekend
TigerBlog walked into the mailroom yesterday and saw a magazine in the Office of Athletic Communications mailbox.
It's rare these days that important information comes in the actual mail. Usually it's all electronic.
Back when TigerBlog was in college, there was a mailroom in each dorm, with rows and rows of mailboxes. Actually, the dorms at most colleges today must look the same, TB assumes.
Anyway, back then, it was always exciting to peer into the little box and see something staring back at you. Every now and then, it was an actual letter.
Perhaps you remember those? Back when people picked up paper and pen and wrote out actual longhand thoughts and ideas to stay in touch, as opposed to, oh, email, or a text or a 140-character tweet.
TigerBlog can't remember the last time he wrote someone a letter. It's been a long, long time. At least he still knows how to string words and sentences together in a longform and isn't solely reliant on abbreviated words and phrases and grammar and punctuation be damned.
Ah, but that's for another day.
Meanwhile, back at the OAC mailbox on the balcony, what TB saw, as he said, was a magazine. As he walked closer to it, he could see the wording on the side, in big bright bold white lettering, before he could see anything else.
And what did it say?
"Princeton Women Are Perfect."
In the next split second he got the rest of it. There was Alex Wheatley, on a drive to the basket, on the cover of the Princeton Alumni Weekly. Obviously it was a recognition of the unbeaten regular season of the Princeton women's basketball team.
But the headline itself?
"Princeton Women Are Perfect." If you're a woman alum of Princeton, you have to be flattered by those words, no?
Anyway, that's what TB was struck by yesterday in the mailroom.
What he was struck by outside yesterday was how nice the weather was. Sunshine. Temps in the 60s. It was, dare he say, spring-ish?
It's the first weekend of April, after all. It's Good Friday today and Passover tonight and then Easter Sunday. The Masters is coming up, as is the first pitch of the Major League Baseball season.
It's spring, calendar-wise. And now, it would appear, weather-wise.
This is a huge spring weekend for Princeton Athletics. There are, from today through Sunday, 24 different events involving, if TB counted correctly, 14 Princeton teams - baseball, softball, men's tennis, women's tennis, men's lacrosse, women's lacrosse, men's track and field, women's track and field, men's golf, women's golf, men's volleyball, women's open rowing, men's heavyweight rowing and men's lightweight rowing.
Almost all of it is on the road. The home events are the Sam Howell Invitational in track and field - named for the longtime Princeton Athletic administrator - women's tennis and the rowing.
TigerBlog will be on Long Island, where the men's lacrosse team plays Stony Brook. It's the first meeting between the teams since 1993 and third overall; TigerBlog was at the first meeting in the series, back in 1992.
This is a matchup of Top 20 teams who score a lot of goals. Between them, they're 14-4, and it figures to be a pretty entertaining game.
The women's lacrosse team is at Yale.
Princeton is one of three unbeatens in the Ivy League, along with Penn and Cornell. Yale is 1-2, a game back of 2-1 Harvard for fourth place, which is a big spot, given that the top four reach the Ivy League tournament.
Baseball and softball are on the road, at Harvard and Dartmouth. The men's tennis team is at Brown and Yale.
The women's tennis team is the defending Ivy champion. The Tigers went 7-0 in the league a year ago, making them the most recent Princeton team to fit the headline "Princeton Women Are Perfect" before the women's basketball team.
The Ivy championship defense opens this weekend at home, also against Brown and Yale. It's still not certain whether the matches will be outside at the Lenz Center or inside Jadwin Gym.
The mere fact that such a decision hasn't been made yet is a sign that the weather is getting better.
After all, two weeks ago? The outdoor courts were covered with snow.
Not anymore. Spring is here.
Let the huge weekend begin.
It's rare these days that important information comes in the actual mail. Usually it's all electronic.
Back when TigerBlog was in college, there was a mailroom in each dorm, with rows and rows of mailboxes. Actually, the dorms at most colleges today must look the same, TB assumes.
Anyway, back then, it was always exciting to peer into the little box and see something staring back at you. Every now and then, it was an actual letter.
Perhaps you remember those? Back when people picked up paper and pen and wrote out actual longhand thoughts and ideas to stay in touch, as opposed to, oh, email, or a text or a 140-character tweet.
TigerBlog can't remember the last time he wrote someone a letter. It's been a long, long time. At least he still knows how to string words and sentences together in a longform and isn't solely reliant on abbreviated words and phrases and grammar and punctuation be damned.
Ah, but that's for another day.
Meanwhile, back at the OAC mailbox on the balcony, what TB saw, as he said, was a magazine. As he walked closer to it, he could see the wording on the side, in big bright bold white lettering, before he could see anything else.
And what did it say?
"Princeton Women Are Perfect."
In the next split second he got the rest of it. There was Alex Wheatley, on a drive to the basket, on the cover of the Princeton Alumni Weekly. Obviously it was a recognition of the unbeaten regular season of the Princeton women's basketball team.
But the headline itself?
"Princeton Women Are Perfect." If you're a woman alum of Princeton, you have to be flattered by those words, no?
Anyway, that's what TB was struck by yesterday in the mailroom.
What he was struck by outside yesterday was how nice the weather was. Sunshine. Temps in the 60s. It was, dare he say, spring-ish?
It's the first weekend of April, after all. It's Good Friday today and Passover tonight and then Easter Sunday. The Masters is coming up, as is the first pitch of the Major League Baseball season.
It's spring, calendar-wise. And now, it would appear, weather-wise.
This is a huge spring weekend for Princeton Athletics. There are, from today through Sunday, 24 different events involving, if TB counted correctly, 14 Princeton teams - baseball, softball, men's tennis, women's tennis, men's lacrosse, women's lacrosse, men's track and field, women's track and field, men's golf, women's golf, men's volleyball, women's open rowing, men's heavyweight rowing and men's lightweight rowing.
Almost all of it is on the road. The home events are the Sam Howell Invitational in track and field - named for the longtime Princeton Athletic administrator - women's tennis and the rowing.
TigerBlog will be on Long Island, where the men's lacrosse team plays Stony Brook. It's the first meeting between the teams since 1993 and third overall; TigerBlog was at the first meeting in the series, back in 1992.
This is a matchup of Top 20 teams who score a lot of goals. Between them, they're 14-4, and it figures to be a pretty entertaining game.
The women's lacrosse team is at Yale.
Princeton is one of three unbeatens in the Ivy League, along with Penn and Cornell. Yale is 1-2, a game back of 2-1 Harvard for fourth place, which is a big spot, given that the top four reach the Ivy League tournament.
Baseball and softball are on the road, at Harvard and Dartmouth. The men's tennis team is at Brown and Yale.
The women's tennis team is the defending Ivy champion. The Tigers went 7-0 in the league a year ago, making them the most recent Princeton team to fit the headline "Princeton Women Are Perfect" before the women's basketball team.
The Ivy championship defense opens this weekend at home, also against Brown and Yale. It's still not certain whether the matches will be outside at the Lenz Center or inside Jadwin Gym.
The mere fact that such a decision hasn't been made yet is a sign that the weather is getting better.
After all, two weeks ago? The outdoor courts were covered with snow.
Not anymore. Spring is here.
Let the huge weekend begin.
Thursday, April 2, 2015
Back To Reality
So yesterday TigerBlog brought out a little April Fool's humor.
At least he hoped it was humorous. And that you believed it, at least for a little while.
The key is to say something and hope that people will believe it simply because it's right there in front of them and so why wouldn't it be true? It's only when you step back and think about it logically that it becomes apparent that it's a joke.
It has to be something like changing the school colors, something that anyone rationally knows isn't going to happen but seems so perfectly plausible when you're reading it.
It can't be something too over-the-top or ridiculous. It has to find the right balance, just ludicrous enough but not bashing anyone over the head with it. And it has to be presented in a business-as-usual format.
Maybe TB succeeded. Maybe he didn't.
He had fun with it. And hey, wouldn't the league be better off as the Big Ivy?
Okay, so back to things that are actually true.
Here's one - TigerBlog is still annoyed about the seeding of Princeton women's basketball team in the NCAA tournament.
Yeah, yeah, let it go already.
It's just that if you didn't notice it, the top four seeds all advanced to the Final Four on the women's side. On the men's side, for that matter, three of the four top seeds all advanced.
Only Villanova's men let you down.
Anyway, that means that top seeds are 16-0 on the women's side and 13-1 on the men's side, or 29-1 overall.
Let's stay with the men for a second and then get back to the women.
TigerBlog is in the office pool here - NO MONEY IS INVOLVED AT ALL, JUST BRAGGING RIGHTS. TB picked Duke to beat Kentucky in the final, with Wisconsin also in the Final Four. He also had Virginia, so he wasn't completely right.
Anyway, if you had to ask him right now, he'd stay with his pick, for the same reason. Actually there are two reasons.
First, if anyone figures to beat a 39-0 team in the championship game, it figures to be Duke. Maybe TB just remembers watching the Blue Devils take out the last unbeaten in the Final Four - UNLV back in the 1991 semifinals. It just seems like something Duke would do.
Plus, if Duke has to win the NCAA title, then at least TB will be able to say he picked it correctly before the tournament started.
He'd love to see Wisconsin get it done, but that's asking a lot. Beat the 38-0 team and then Duke (TB gives Michigan State no chance in that one).
Okay, back at the women.
Princeton was the eighth seed in its region and had to play the top-seed Maryland in the second round. Okay, Princeton - 31-0 after winning its NCAA opener against Green Bay - wasn't going to beat Maryland and get to the Final Four.
But the Sweet 16? That would have been awesome. And Princeton would have had a legitimate chance to get there at almost any other seed. Hey, an 11 would have been better than an eight.
The worst part was having to play Maryland at Maryland, as opposed to, if Princeton could have gotten there, on a neutral court. And at 30-0 for the regular season, TigerBlog though that Princeton had earned the right to play at home for two rounds.
Again, what tortures TigerBlog the most when it comes to NCAA seedings, regardless of sport, is that the committees hide behind selection criteria to avoid having to be accountable for making subjective decisions. There's more to all of this besides the numbers.
Did Princeton play the best schedule? No. Did Princeton schedule to be 30-0? Not at all. Princeton played a very strong schedule, with nine top 100 wins.
And comparing Princeton's schedule to that of a team in a power conference isn't just, something the committee didn't acknowledge.
TigerBlog would have respected the committee for saying "hey, our job is to watch women's basketball all season and evaluate the teams. We watched Princeton, and even though that's a 30-0 team, in our view, it's a team that is properly slotted as an eighth seed because that's where we think they belong."
But nobody ever said that.
Instead, the committee hid behind strength of schedule and then gave Princeton and eight and an impossible task in the second round, against a team that then beat Duke and Tennessee by 10 points each on a neutral court.
How much was the home court worth? At least five points? Maryland beat Princeton by 15.
And that's the last TB will say about that.
But not about the women's basketball season and how much fun it was.
Actually, he doesn't have to say much.
He can just tell you to click HERE to see Part I of the Princeton athletics' video recap of the team's NCAA tournament trip.
You can see for yourself.
At least he hoped it was humorous. And that you believed it, at least for a little while.
The key is to say something and hope that people will believe it simply because it's right there in front of them and so why wouldn't it be true? It's only when you step back and think about it logically that it becomes apparent that it's a joke.
It has to be something like changing the school colors, something that anyone rationally knows isn't going to happen but seems so perfectly plausible when you're reading it.
It can't be something too over-the-top or ridiculous. It has to find the right balance, just ludicrous enough but not bashing anyone over the head with it. And it has to be presented in a business-as-usual format.
Maybe TB succeeded. Maybe he didn't.
He had fun with it. And hey, wouldn't the league be better off as the Big Ivy?
Okay, so back to things that are actually true.
Here's one - TigerBlog is still annoyed about the seeding of Princeton women's basketball team in the NCAA tournament.
Yeah, yeah, let it go already.
It's just that if you didn't notice it, the top four seeds all advanced to the Final Four on the women's side. On the men's side, for that matter, three of the four top seeds all advanced.
Only Villanova's men let you down.
Anyway, that means that top seeds are 16-0 on the women's side and 13-1 on the men's side, or 29-1 overall.
Let's stay with the men for a second and then get back to the women.
TigerBlog is in the office pool here - NO MONEY IS INVOLVED AT ALL, JUST BRAGGING RIGHTS. TB picked Duke to beat Kentucky in the final, with Wisconsin also in the Final Four. He also had Virginia, so he wasn't completely right.
Anyway, if you had to ask him right now, he'd stay with his pick, for the same reason. Actually there are two reasons.
First, if anyone figures to beat a 39-0 team in the championship game, it figures to be Duke. Maybe TB just remembers watching the Blue Devils take out the last unbeaten in the Final Four - UNLV back in the 1991 semifinals. It just seems like something Duke would do.
Plus, if Duke has to win the NCAA title, then at least TB will be able to say he picked it correctly before the tournament started.
He'd love to see Wisconsin get it done, but that's asking a lot. Beat the 38-0 team and then Duke (TB gives Michigan State no chance in that one).
Okay, back at the women.
Princeton was the eighth seed in its region and had to play the top-seed Maryland in the second round. Okay, Princeton - 31-0 after winning its NCAA opener against Green Bay - wasn't going to beat Maryland and get to the Final Four.
But the Sweet 16? That would have been awesome. And Princeton would have had a legitimate chance to get there at almost any other seed. Hey, an 11 would have been better than an eight.
The worst part was having to play Maryland at Maryland, as opposed to, if Princeton could have gotten there, on a neutral court. And at 30-0 for the regular season, TigerBlog though that Princeton had earned the right to play at home for two rounds.
Again, what tortures TigerBlog the most when it comes to NCAA seedings, regardless of sport, is that the committees hide behind selection criteria to avoid having to be accountable for making subjective decisions. There's more to all of this besides the numbers.
Did Princeton play the best schedule? No. Did Princeton schedule to be 30-0? Not at all. Princeton played a very strong schedule, with nine top 100 wins.
And comparing Princeton's schedule to that of a team in a power conference isn't just, something the committee didn't acknowledge.
TigerBlog would have respected the committee for saying "hey, our job is to watch women's basketball all season and evaluate the teams. We watched Princeton, and even though that's a 30-0 team, in our view, it's a team that is properly slotted as an eighth seed because that's where we think they belong."
But nobody ever said that.
Instead, the committee hid behind strength of schedule and then gave Princeton and eight and an impossible task in the second round, against a team that then beat Duke and Tennessee by 10 points each on a neutral court.
How much was the home court worth? At least five points? Maryland beat Princeton by 15.
And that's the last TB will say about that.
But not about the women's basketball season and how much fun it was.
Actually, he doesn't have to say much.
He can just tell you to click HERE to see Part I of the Princeton athletics' video recap of the team's NCAA tournament trip.
You can see for yourself.
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
Color Scheme
TigerBlog had a meeting with Ford Family Director of Athletics Mollie Marcoux yesterday.
It was actually the continuation of a discussion that was started last week.
The subject? How to shake things up around here. What would be a good way to give Princeton Athletics something new.
That's what Mollie wanted to know. Think big, she said.
Before TigerBlog can go ahead and tell you what was decided, he has to go back a little bit into the past. Like back to the 1880s.
Princeton's first football game was on Nov. 6, 1869, against Rutgers. It is considered the first football game in history.
Fast forward a few years, and the sport had already begun to catch up. Princeton, one of the leaders in its evolution, adopted a nickname.
If you've ever been to Princeton, perhaps you've seen the two lions that were given by the Class of 1879 - Woodrow Wilson's class - originally to guard the entrance to the Nassau Hall. For awhile, there was a thought to calling Princeton's teams the Lions.
That all changed because of William of Nassau of the House of Orange, for whom Nassau Hall was named. In his honor, Princeton began to use orange and black as its school colors, and, when the football team used those colors for its stripes on its sleeves one day, the team was credited with "fighting like Tigers."
Since then, it's been all Tigers.
Princeton Tigers is a great moniker for the team.
Anyway, that's the backdrop for the meeting that TB had with Mollie.
Actually, his first thought was an idea that he's had for years, and that's to modernize the league as a whole. The Ivy League? The real name is actually "The Council of Ivy Group Presidents." The name Ivy League itself doesn't fit in to the marketing realities of contemporary big-time college athletics.
In this league, athletic success on the national level stands on its own merit. Why not change the name to reflect that. How about this: "The Big Ivy."
Think about it. The league could come up with a logo like "B1G," which the Big Ten has used perfectly. Maybe "BIV."
Nah. TB knows that would never fly. Too much league-wide buy-in. If he put that out there today, it'd be a year from today and he would still have gotten nowhere.
As TigerBlog thought about Mollie's desire to come up with something to make a big splash, he looked down at his sneakers.
TigerBlog has an entire wardrobe of orange and black clothes. And jackets and sweatshirts. Even shoes. He has two pairs of bright orange sneakers.
And then it hit him.
Change the colors.
When TigerBlog brought it up to Mollie, her first reaction was a smile and a "yes, that's exactly what we need to do." Then they both said "ummmm, is it possible?"
TigerBlog doesn't know too many colleges that have ever changed their color schemes. Also, very few schools have had their colors longer than Princeton has been orange and black.
Hey, for that matter, it's more Orange and Black - with capitals - than it is lower case. That's how much a part of the fabric it is here.
So here are the questions - would there be a revolution against a change of the colors? Or would people simply evolve?
TigerBlog has run into this so many times before. Any time there has been a proposal of something drastic, TigerBlog has heard from every corner about how Princeton is all about its traditions and won't accept change readily.
And every time, the change has come and people adjusted. Sure, some objected. But they adjusted.
This is a school that didn't admit women students until 1970ish. Now it has a woman as Director of Athletics and had a woman serve as University president. Women have held just about every major administrative position here that there is - in admissions, campus life, academics, everything.
Why would changing the colors be any different?
Think of the possibilities. Think of how awesome Princeton could look dressed up in a different color.
The obvious issue is that a different color wouldn't match up with the nickname Tigers, but that's etched in stone. Princeton will always be the Tigers.
And yes, actual Tigers are orange and black. But so what?
After about 15 minutes, TB and Mollie decided that this was worth pursuing. For those who don't like it, tough. See the big picture.
The next step will be a meeting between Mollie and University president Chris Eisgruber. Once he signs off, the process of choosing new colors will begin.
Mollie's idea is to get major input from the general University community on the new colors. TigerBlog isn't so sure.
Changing the colors? People will accept that. Asking them what they think but then not using it? That's another story. That would hurt people's feelings.
TigerBlog thinks the athletic department, in conjunction with University communications, should choose the new colors and then roll this out over the summer. By next football season, Princeton would have new uniforms in new colors.
He's not sure he's going to get his way on the process, but Mollie is fully on board with the timeline.
This is exactly what Princeton needs right now. A great new look. Modern colors.
Again, if you don't like it, then you're missing the point. It's time for something new and exciting.
It's too bad that there are no games today. TB would love to see new colors out there today, see what the reaction would be.
You know. New colors today.
Happy April Fool's Day, Princetonians. Don't go throwing out your orange and black just yet.
It was actually the continuation of a discussion that was started last week.
The subject? How to shake things up around here. What would be a good way to give Princeton Athletics something new.
That's what Mollie wanted to know. Think big, she said.
Before TigerBlog can go ahead and tell you what was decided, he has to go back a little bit into the past. Like back to the 1880s.
Princeton's first football game was on Nov. 6, 1869, against Rutgers. It is considered the first football game in history.
Fast forward a few years, and the sport had already begun to catch up. Princeton, one of the leaders in its evolution, adopted a nickname.
If you've ever been to Princeton, perhaps you've seen the two lions that were given by the Class of 1879 - Woodrow Wilson's class - originally to guard the entrance to the Nassau Hall. For awhile, there was a thought to calling Princeton's teams the Lions.
That all changed because of William of Nassau of the House of Orange, for whom Nassau Hall was named. In his honor, Princeton began to use orange and black as its school colors, and, when the football team used those colors for its stripes on its sleeves one day, the team was credited with "fighting like Tigers."
Since then, it's been all Tigers.
Princeton Tigers is a great moniker for the team.
Anyway, that's the backdrop for the meeting that TB had with Mollie.
Actually, his first thought was an idea that he's had for years, and that's to modernize the league as a whole. The Ivy League? The real name is actually "The Council of Ivy Group Presidents." The name Ivy League itself doesn't fit in to the marketing realities of contemporary big-time college athletics.
In this league, athletic success on the national level stands on its own merit. Why not change the name to reflect that. How about this: "The Big Ivy."
Think about it. The league could come up with a logo like "B1G," which the Big Ten has used perfectly. Maybe "BIV."
Nah. TB knows that would never fly. Too much league-wide buy-in. If he put that out there today, it'd be a year from today and he would still have gotten nowhere.
As TigerBlog thought about Mollie's desire to come up with something to make a big splash, he looked down at his sneakers.
TigerBlog has an entire wardrobe of orange and black clothes. And jackets and sweatshirts. Even shoes. He has two pairs of bright orange sneakers.
And then it hit him.
Change the colors.
When TigerBlog brought it up to Mollie, her first reaction was a smile and a "yes, that's exactly what we need to do." Then they both said "ummmm, is it possible?"
TigerBlog doesn't know too many colleges that have ever changed their color schemes. Also, very few schools have had their colors longer than Princeton has been orange and black.
Hey, for that matter, it's more Orange and Black - with capitals - than it is lower case. That's how much a part of the fabric it is here.
So here are the questions - would there be a revolution against a change of the colors? Or would people simply evolve?
TigerBlog has run into this so many times before. Any time there has been a proposal of something drastic, TigerBlog has heard from every corner about how Princeton is all about its traditions and won't accept change readily.
And every time, the change has come and people adjusted. Sure, some objected. But they adjusted.
This is a school that didn't admit women students until 1970ish. Now it has a woman as Director of Athletics and had a woman serve as University president. Women have held just about every major administrative position here that there is - in admissions, campus life, academics, everything.
Why would changing the colors be any different?
Think of the possibilities. Think of how awesome Princeton could look dressed up in a different color.
The obvious issue is that a different color wouldn't match up with the nickname Tigers, but that's etched in stone. Princeton will always be the Tigers.
And yes, actual Tigers are orange and black. But so what?
After about 15 minutes, TB and Mollie decided that this was worth pursuing. For those who don't like it, tough. See the big picture.
The next step will be a meeting between Mollie and University president Chris Eisgruber. Once he signs off, the process of choosing new colors will begin.
Mollie's idea is to get major input from the general University community on the new colors. TigerBlog isn't so sure.
Changing the colors? People will accept that. Asking them what they think but then not using it? That's another story. That would hurt people's feelings.
TigerBlog thinks the athletic department, in conjunction with University communications, should choose the new colors and then roll this out over the summer. By next football season, Princeton would have new uniforms in new colors.
He's not sure he's going to get his way on the process, but Mollie is fully on board with the timeline.
This is exactly what Princeton needs right now. A great new look. Modern colors.
Again, if you don't like it, then you're missing the point. It's time for something new and exciting.
It's too bad that there are no games today. TB would love to see new colors out there today, see what the reaction would be.
You know. New colors today.
Happy April Fool's Day, Princetonians. Don't go throwing out your orange and black just yet.
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Out Like A Lamb
TigerBlog is a little too reliant on the weather app on his phone, though if the app is to believed, then it's possible that March will be going out like a lamb, or at least April will be coming in like one.
Actually, before he gets into that, TigerBlog has been told that he spends a lot of time watching TV and obsessing about the weather.
Right now, there is no show on TV that is a must-watch for him. This could be the first time in his life that's the case.
Yes, he's into "House of Cards," which is a great Netflix show. And a few others on Netflix. He's waiting for Season 3 of "Orange Is The New Black" and "Wentworth," which is the grittier Australian version.
He's watching "Bloodline," another Netflix show, which is a pretty good. It's a family drama, and the review he read about it says that it builds to the point where the last four episodes of Season 1 are the best shows Netflix has ever produced. TB is only on Episode 5 of 13.
Other than that? Nope. There's really nothing out there. He's given up on "The Big Bang Theory" and "Modern Family." He'll forgive "Homeland" when it comes on again for the awful ending to Season 4.
He's been into the James Bond movies that have been on whatever is channel 891 on his TV. It seems like there's always a good one on, including, of late, "Goldfinger," "The Spy Who Loved Me," "Octopussy" and "Live and Let Die."
So that's your TV update.
As for the weather, this is the time of year to be focused on it. Spring sports, as they were. Outdoors and all.
The weather around here has been awful for the last few months. It's been worse than awful, actually.
It's been as bad as it can be if you're trying to get fields ready to play. It's frozen, thawed a little, frozen again. It's rained and snowed and then, just when it started to dry up, snowed again.
The men's lacrosse team has played 80% of its home schedule, with four games down and only a game against Harvard at home on April 17 left for the regular season. Of the four games Princeton has played at home, two were played in snow - including one blizzard - and the other two were played on days that started in the 20s and barely reached 40 one day and never got there the other.
At least, though, the field becomes playable once it's plowed. And teams can play in nasty weather. Everyone in Division I has done so. TB saw the Duke-Carolina game Sunday and it was 42 degrees in Chapel Hill.
How about baseball and softball?
Princeton's softball field has the double-whammy of uncooperative weather and a construction project for new dugouts that got derailed by the winter weather.
As a result, Princeton moved its doubleheader against Brown this weekend to nearby Bordentown High School. Apparently it was a logistical success - and an on-field success, as Princeton swept the Bears.
TigerBlog was struck by the picture on the softball page yesterday - which for awhile was the first picture on the front page. It showed a player who was staring directly into the camera while smiling.
It almost looked staged as much as anything else. Actually, she was stepping into the batter's box, or least that's how it looked.
Her name is Skye Jerpbak, a junior from Rescue, Calif. Her high school was named Ponderosa.
She is the team's catcher and third-leading hitter, at .269. She also has two home runs.
TigerBlog can't remember a picture that he's seen where someone looks so happy. She looks like there's nothing else she'd rather be doing than playing softball at Princeton.
And that's how it should be.
TigerBlog figures she'll check out that picture in the coming decades and always be whisked right back to where it was taken. At Bordentown High School.
Oh well. Mother nature sometimes wins out.
As for the coming forecast, according to the weather app, the worst of it is over. The high temperature for the next 10 days is no lower than 52. The low temperature is never below freezing.
It's about time.
Actually, before he gets into that, TigerBlog has been told that he spends a lot of time watching TV and obsessing about the weather.
Right now, there is no show on TV that is a must-watch for him. This could be the first time in his life that's the case.
Yes, he's into "House of Cards," which is a great Netflix show. And a few others on Netflix. He's waiting for Season 3 of "Orange Is The New Black" and "Wentworth," which is the grittier Australian version.
He's watching "Bloodline," another Netflix show, which is a pretty good. It's a family drama, and the review he read about it says that it builds to the point where the last four episodes of Season 1 are the best shows Netflix has ever produced. TB is only on Episode 5 of 13.
Other than that? Nope. There's really nothing out there. He's given up on "The Big Bang Theory" and "Modern Family." He'll forgive "Homeland" when it comes on again for the awful ending to Season 4.
He's been into the James Bond movies that have been on whatever is channel 891 on his TV. It seems like there's always a good one on, including, of late, "Goldfinger," "The Spy Who Loved Me," "Octopussy" and "Live and Let Die."
So that's your TV update.
As for the weather, this is the time of year to be focused on it. Spring sports, as they were. Outdoors and all.
The weather around here has been awful for the last few months. It's been worse than awful, actually.
It's been as bad as it can be if you're trying to get fields ready to play. It's frozen, thawed a little, frozen again. It's rained and snowed and then, just when it started to dry up, snowed again.
The men's lacrosse team has played 80% of its home schedule, with four games down and only a game against Harvard at home on April 17 left for the regular season. Of the four games Princeton has played at home, two were played in snow - including one blizzard - and the other two were played on days that started in the 20s and barely reached 40 one day and never got there the other.
At least, though, the field becomes playable once it's plowed. And teams can play in nasty weather. Everyone in Division I has done so. TB saw the Duke-Carolina game Sunday and it was 42 degrees in Chapel Hill.
How about baseball and softball?
Princeton's softball field has the double-whammy of uncooperative weather and a construction project for new dugouts that got derailed by the winter weather.
As a result, Princeton moved its doubleheader against Brown this weekend to nearby Bordentown High School. Apparently it was a logistical success - and an on-field success, as Princeton swept the Bears.
TigerBlog was struck by the picture on the softball page yesterday - which for awhile was the first picture on the front page. It showed a player who was staring directly into the camera while smiling.
It almost looked staged as much as anything else. Actually, she was stepping into the batter's box, or least that's how it looked.
Her name is Skye Jerpbak, a junior from Rescue, Calif. Her high school was named Ponderosa.
She is the team's catcher and third-leading hitter, at .269. She also has two home runs.
TigerBlog can't remember a picture that he's seen where someone looks so happy. She looks like there's nothing else she'd rather be doing than playing softball at Princeton.
And that's how it should be.
TigerBlog figures she'll check out that picture in the coming decades and always be whisked right back to where it was taken. At Bordentown High School.
Oh well. Mother nature sometimes wins out.
As for the coming forecast, according to the weather app, the worst of it is over. The high temperature for the next 10 days is no lower than 52. The low temperature is never below freezing.
It's about time.
Monday, March 30, 2015
Weekend TV
The second-best basketball game TigerBlog saw on TV this weekend was Kentucky-Notre Dame.
If you saw that game, you know that it was the best game of the NCAA tournament so far. Kentucky's quest to go 40-0 is the main storyline of the tournament, and this was the closest anyone came - by far - to derailing that quest.
The Irish played an inspired game from start to near-finish. At times, it appeared that Notre Dame had Kentucky on the verge of being put away, and each time, Kentucky answered when it needed.
The ending was dramatic, that's for sure, as ND's Jerian Grant could have won it had his running three-pointer from deep in the corner dropped in instead of just going long. The real question is whether or not Notre Dame should have fouled Kentucky on purpose early in that last possession of the Wildcats, when the game was close.
TigerBlog remembers talking to Joe Scott about that once, and the former Princeton coach was adamant one way or the other, but TB can't remember which way now.
TigerBlog does think that there is a reluctance on the part of coaches to do things that are out of the standard practice, for fear of being second-guessed. Of course, it's tough to be too hard on ND coach Mike Brey, who did a great job getting his team to stand up to Kentucky and almost win.
In TigerBlog's just-for-fun bracket, he has three Final Four teams still alive - Kentucky, Wisconsin and Duke. He had Virginia as well, but the Cavs didn't make it.
And he has Duke over Kentucky in the final. If he's right? Nothing. No money is involved.
What was the best basketball game he saw on TV this weekend? Hickory 42, South Bend Central 40.
That's right. "Hoosiers" was on. TigerBlog skipped past it as Coach Dale was driving into Hickory for the first time in the opening scene and stayed with it, well, all the way to the end.
That's what happens when "Hoosiers" is on. And when Coach Dale says "I love you guys?" Yeah, TB gets a little misty - though not quite the same was as when Harry Bailer says "to my big brother George, the richest man in town," on Christmas Eve in Bedford Falls.
You know what else was on this weekend?
How about eight Division I men's lacrosse games on stations that are normally on basic cable. On Saturday there were two on ESPNU, two on CBS Sports and another on Fox Sports 1.
Yesterday brought three more on ESPNU, including Princeton-Brown.
TigerBlog loves lacrosse as much as anyway. He never thought he'd see a time when there'd be eight games on TV channels that are widely distributed.
Hey, when Princeton won its first NCAA tournament back in 1992, that game wasn't even on live. And when it was shown a week later, it was condensed into a one-hour showing.
The game on Fox Sports 1 was Yale's win at Penn. TigerBlog thought Stephen McElduff, a former North Carolina defenseman, was excellent as the color commentator on that broadcast. It might have been the first time TB had heard him, but he made great points and he did so in a calm, informative, objective way.
Meanwhile, back at Princeton-Brown, the color commentator was Ryan Boyle, who happens to be one of the elite players in the history of Princeton lacrosse. It can't be easy for him to be on TV commenting on his alma mater.
As for the game itself, TigerBlog - like everyone else - was expecting a ton of goals, though he did hedge his prediction in his pregame story by saying that because of all of the talk about 20-18 or so that the final would be 8-6.
In the end, it was 10-8, and it was 10-8 in favor of Brown. The Bears are an impressive team in transition and they have outstanding finishers, even those with longsticks, such as Larken Kemp, who scored twice in the game - and had an assist.
Off the top of his head, TigerBlog knows that David Morrow had two goals as a longstick in the Tigers' 16-14 win over North Carolina in the 1992 semifinals. He can't remember another time he's seen that.
The day belonged, though, to the goalies. Princeton's Eric Sanschagrin made 15 saves, six of which came against Dylan Molloy, who came into the game as the Division I leader in goals per game and the possessor of 41 on the year but who did not have a goal in this one.
On the other end was Jack Kelly, who also made 15 saves. Both goalies made incredible saves at major moments in a game that did feature 96 shots.
With the loss, Princeton is now 2-1 in the league, behind Cornell (3-0 and the highest-ranked Ivy team) and Brown (2-0). Dartmouth is 1-1, and Yale and Harvard have two losses and Penn has three.
The first goal is to get to the Ivy tournament, which requires a top four finish. Then the goal is to win it.
The two teams that TigerBlog saw play yesterday both look like they could accomplish either of those goals.
If you saw that game, you know that it was the best game of the NCAA tournament so far. Kentucky's quest to go 40-0 is the main storyline of the tournament, and this was the closest anyone came - by far - to derailing that quest.
The Irish played an inspired game from start to near-finish. At times, it appeared that Notre Dame had Kentucky on the verge of being put away, and each time, Kentucky answered when it needed.
The ending was dramatic, that's for sure, as ND's Jerian Grant could have won it had his running three-pointer from deep in the corner dropped in instead of just going long. The real question is whether or not Notre Dame should have fouled Kentucky on purpose early in that last possession of the Wildcats, when the game was close.
TigerBlog remembers talking to Joe Scott about that once, and the former Princeton coach was adamant one way or the other, but TB can't remember which way now.
TigerBlog does think that there is a reluctance on the part of coaches to do things that are out of the standard practice, for fear of being second-guessed. Of course, it's tough to be too hard on ND coach Mike Brey, who did a great job getting his team to stand up to Kentucky and almost win.
In TigerBlog's just-for-fun bracket, he has three Final Four teams still alive - Kentucky, Wisconsin and Duke. He had Virginia as well, but the Cavs didn't make it.
And he has Duke over Kentucky in the final. If he's right? Nothing. No money is involved.
What was the best basketball game he saw on TV this weekend? Hickory 42, South Bend Central 40.
That's right. "Hoosiers" was on. TigerBlog skipped past it as Coach Dale was driving into Hickory for the first time in the opening scene and stayed with it, well, all the way to the end.
That's what happens when "Hoosiers" is on. And when Coach Dale says "I love you guys?" Yeah, TB gets a little misty - though not quite the same was as when Harry Bailer says "to my big brother George, the richest man in town," on Christmas Eve in Bedford Falls.
You know what else was on this weekend?
How about eight Division I men's lacrosse games on stations that are normally on basic cable. On Saturday there were two on ESPNU, two on CBS Sports and another on Fox Sports 1.
Yesterday brought three more on ESPNU, including Princeton-Brown.
TigerBlog loves lacrosse as much as anyway. He never thought he'd see a time when there'd be eight games on TV channels that are widely distributed.
Hey, when Princeton won its first NCAA tournament back in 1992, that game wasn't even on live. And when it was shown a week later, it was condensed into a one-hour showing.
The game on Fox Sports 1 was Yale's win at Penn. TigerBlog thought Stephen McElduff, a former North Carolina defenseman, was excellent as the color commentator on that broadcast. It might have been the first time TB had heard him, but he made great points and he did so in a calm, informative, objective way.
Meanwhile, back at Princeton-Brown, the color commentator was Ryan Boyle, who happens to be one of the elite players in the history of Princeton lacrosse. It can't be easy for him to be on TV commenting on his alma mater.
As for the game itself, TigerBlog - like everyone else - was expecting a ton of goals, though he did hedge his prediction in his pregame story by saying that because of all of the talk about 20-18 or so that the final would be 8-6.
In the end, it was 10-8, and it was 10-8 in favor of Brown. The Bears are an impressive team in transition and they have outstanding finishers, even those with longsticks, such as Larken Kemp, who scored twice in the game - and had an assist.
Off the top of his head, TigerBlog knows that David Morrow had two goals as a longstick in the Tigers' 16-14 win over North Carolina in the 1992 semifinals. He can't remember another time he's seen that.
The day belonged, though, to the goalies. Princeton's Eric Sanschagrin made 15 saves, six of which came against Dylan Molloy, who came into the game as the Division I leader in goals per game and the possessor of 41 on the year but who did not have a goal in this one.
On the other end was Jack Kelly, who also made 15 saves. Both goalies made incredible saves at major moments in a game that did feature 96 shots.
With the loss, Princeton is now 2-1 in the league, behind Cornell (3-0 and the highest-ranked Ivy team) and Brown (2-0). Dartmouth is 1-1, and Yale and Harvard have two losses and Penn has three.
The first goal is to get to the Ivy tournament, which requires a top four finish. Then the goal is to win it.
The two teams that TigerBlog saw play yesterday both look like they could accomplish either of those goals.
Friday, March 27, 2015
A Random Friday
TigerBlog was sitting at his desk yesterday afternoon when he casually asked his colleague Andrew Borders what he should write about for today, and Borders unflinchingly said "Bill Carmody."
The way he responded made TB think Borders would be great at the round in "Family Feud" where they play for the big money at the end. TigerBlog can see it now:
Steve Harvey: "We'll give you 20 seconds to answer these questions. Say 'pass' if you'd like to pass."
Andrew: "Okay, Steve, but I won't need more than 10 seconds. I remember one time when I was asked what my colleague should write about one day, and I said 'Bill Carmody' in less than one second."
Steve Harvey: "Okay then."
So, in deference to Andrew, TigerBlog starts today with Bill Carmody.
Those who have been loyal readers know that Bill Carmody is one of TigerBlog's all-time heroes. Carmody was a longtime assistant to Pete Carril and then the head coach here for the four years after Carril retired, before he left to coach Northwestern.
Last week, at the age of 63, he became the head coach at Holy Cross.
TigerBlog could write for two weeks and not tell all of the great - and mostly hilarious - stories he saw first-hand from Carmody. And yet he can sum Carmody up in two words, two words that can be applied to any situation in the world, not only basketball, two words that cut through all of the nonsense in the world and get right to the practical heart of every matter, which is what Carmody was so great at.
The two words? Make shots. If you want to add a third word, it's "just make shots."
What does it mean? It means don't try to con him or BS him. Don't make things more complicated than they are. Don't pretend you're doing something so difficult that you can't succeed. Just make shots. Everything else falls into place.
Holy Cross finished sixth in the Patriot League, which is as balanced a league as there is in the country. TB is wishing Carmody all the best, and, just as when he was at Northwestern, TB will be rooting for him.
You can read about his introduction at Holy Cross HERE. These quotes are exactly who he is and how he is.
Okay Andrew, what else is there today?
There's the change to the softball schedule.
Princeton was to play Brown and Yale home this weekend, but the incessantly awful weather the last few weeks have scoffed at that plan. It's actually been the worst it could possibly be, with snow and below freezing temps, followed by warming, followed by more snow and freezing. And now rain the last two days.
The Tigers will sort of be at home against Brown, at least in terms of being in New Jersey and batting last. The games tomorrow have been moved to Bordentown High School, which is in Burlington County, the next county from Mercer, which is the county where Princeton is located.
Bordentown is about 30 minutes from Princeton. It was also, for what it's worth, the site of the second game TigerBlog ever covered in his newspaper days. The first was a football game on a Friday between Pennington and Academy of the New Church. The next day was Maple Shade at Bordentown. TB thinks it was 33-0 Maple Shade.
As for the Yale games, they're being moved to April 22, which TB believes is a Wednesday.
The baseball team is still going to try to play at home this weekend, or at least Sunday against Brown and Monday against Yale. The weather should actually be decent by then.
It'll be sunny and near 50 Sunday when Princeton faces off against Brown in men's lacrosse.
This is a big one, as both teams are unbeaten in the Ivy League. It also has the potential to be a total track meet, in the mold of Albany's 21-17 win over Harvard Wednesday night.
That win moved Albany past Brown into the top spot in scoring offense in Division I men's lacrosse. Brown, at 16.88 goals per game, is second.
Princeton scores them in bunches too. This could be really high scoring.
Brown is led by Dylan Molloy, who has 41 goals in eight games. He had eight Tuesday night against Marist, when the Bears blew and 11-2 lead and then won in overtime anyway, 16-15.
Who else has blown a big lead this year and won 16-15 in overtime? Princeton, who led Johns Hopkins 7-0 and then ultimately needed Gavin McBride's OT goal to get the W.
Speaking of Ws, no team with three of them in the Ivy League has ever failed to make the league tournament since it began in 2010. Princeton currently has two Ivy wins - over Penn and Yale.
Princeton is 2-0, as is Cornell. Brown and Dartmouth are 1-0. Yale, Penn and Harvard are all 0-2.
After missing the Ivy tournament last year, Princeton's first goal is to get into it this year. And then the NCAA tournament.
Forgetting that, though, this game offers the potential for a lot of goals. Princeton and Brown average nearly 30 per game between them. If you factor our each team's one off day this year - both teams have one loss, Princeton to Maryland, Brown to Bucknell - then they average 32 per game.
The Class of 1952 Stadium record for goals in one game is 31. That was in Princeton's 17-14 win over Hofstra in the first game of the 2010 season, which was Chris Bates' first game as Tiger head coach.
Anything else?
Oh yeah, Courtney Banghart found herself in some incredible company in Fortune magazine.
The way he responded made TB think Borders would be great at the round in "Family Feud" where they play for the big money at the end. TigerBlog can see it now:
Steve Harvey: "We'll give you 20 seconds to answer these questions. Say 'pass' if you'd like to pass."
Andrew: "Okay, Steve, but I won't need more than 10 seconds. I remember one time when I was asked what my colleague should write about one day, and I said 'Bill Carmody' in less than one second."
Steve Harvey: "Okay then."
So, in deference to Andrew, TigerBlog starts today with Bill Carmody.
Those who have been loyal readers know that Bill Carmody is one of TigerBlog's all-time heroes. Carmody was a longtime assistant to Pete Carril and then the head coach here for the four years after Carril retired, before he left to coach Northwestern.
Last week, at the age of 63, he became the head coach at Holy Cross.
TigerBlog could write for two weeks and not tell all of the great - and mostly hilarious - stories he saw first-hand from Carmody. And yet he can sum Carmody up in two words, two words that can be applied to any situation in the world, not only basketball, two words that cut through all of the nonsense in the world and get right to the practical heart of every matter, which is what Carmody was so great at.
The two words? Make shots. If you want to add a third word, it's "just make shots."
What does it mean? It means don't try to con him or BS him. Don't make things more complicated than they are. Don't pretend you're doing something so difficult that you can't succeed. Just make shots. Everything else falls into place.
Holy Cross finished sixth in the Patriot League, which is as balanced a league as there is in the country. TB is wishing Carmody all the best, and, just as when he was at Northwestern, TB will be rooting for him.
You can read about his introduction at Holy Cross HERE. These quotes are exactly who he is and how he is.
Okay Andrew, what else is there today?
There's the change to the softball schedule.
Princeton was to play Brown and Yale home this weekend, but the incessantly awful weather the last few weeks have scoffed at that plan. It's actually been the worst it could possibly be, with snow and below freezing temps, followed by warming, followed by more snow and freezing. And now rain the last two days.
The Tigers will sort of be at home against Brown, at least in terms of being in New Jersey and batting last. The games tomorrow have been moved to Bordentown High School, which is in Burlington County, the next county from Mercer, which is the county where Princeton is located.
Bordentown is about 30 minutes from Princeton. It was also, for what it's worth, the site of the second game TigerBlog ever covered in his newspaper days. The first was a football game on a Friday between Pennington and Academy of the New Church. The next day was Maple Shade at Bordentown. TB thinks it was 33-0 Maple Shade.
As for the Yale games, they're being moved to April 22, which TB believes is a Wednesday.
The baseball team is still going to try to play at home this weekend, or at least Sunday against Brown and Monday against Yale. The weather should actually be decent by then.
It'll be sunny and near 50 Sunday when Princeton faces off against Brown in men's lacrosse.
This is a big one, as both teams are unbeaten in the Ivy League. It also has the potential to be a total track meet, in the mold of Albany's 21-17 win over Harvard Wednesday night.
That win moved Albany past Brown into the top spot in scoring offense in Division I men's lacrosse. Brown, at 16.88 goals per game, is second.
Princeton scores them in bunches too. This could be really high scoring.
Brown is led by Dylan Molloy, who has 41 goals in eight games. He had eight Tuesday night against Marist, when the Bears blew and 11-2 lead and then won in overtime anyway, 16-15.
Who else has blown a big lead this year and won 16-15 in overtime? Princeton, who led Johns Hopkins 7-0 and then ultimately needed Gavin McBride's OT goal to get the W.
Speaking of Ws, no team with three of them in the Ivy League has ever failed to make the league tournament since it began in 2010. Princeton currently has two Ivy wins - over Penn and Yale.
Princeton is 2-0, as is Cornell. Brown and Dartmouth are 1-0. Yale, Penn and Harvard are all 0-2.
After missing the Ivy tournament last year, Princeton's first goal is to get into it this year. And then the NCAA tournament.
Forgetting that, though, this game offers the potential for a lot of goals. Princeton and Brown average nearly 30 per game between them. If you factor our each team's one off day this year - both teams have one loss, Princeton to Maryland, Brown to Bucknell - then they average 32 per game.
The Class of 1952 Stadium record for goals in one game is 31. That was in Princeton's 17-14 win over Hofstra in the first game of the 2010 season, which was Chris Bates' first game as Tiger head coach.
Anything else?
Oh yeah, Courtney Banghart found herself in some incredible company in Fortune magazine.
Thursday, March 26, 2015
Mo'Ne Davis Is Right
Well, TigerBlog supposes there's nothing left to say about the women's basketball team. For now at least.
It's supposed to rain today. And tomorrow. Because of all the snow, including some from last week, most fields in this area are completely unplayable, forcing a major scramble by colleges, high schools, Little Leagues - everyone who's trying to play baseball or softball.
Hey, even lacrosse isn't immune. Miss TigerBlog is 0-2 in her first high school lacrosse season - as in two games scheduled, two unable to be played because of field conditions.
The end of the women's basketball season left only the six men's swimmers at the NCAA championships for winter sports at Princeton. Of course, "spring" for TB began on Feb. 14, when Princeton opened its men's lacrosse season.
So what to talk about right now?
Well, TigerBlog was struck by the story about the Bloomsburg baseball player who was kicked off the team after his really, really stupid tweet about Mo'Ne Davis.
If you missed it, a player from Bloomsburg said something very unfortunate about Davis, the girl who stole the show at the Little League World Series last year. TigerBlog isn't going to repeat what he said.
Let's start out by saying that in no way is TigerBlog defending what the baseball player did. It's just that, well, is this really what college is supposed to be about, purging someone for making a mistake?
TB doesn't know the kid at all. He has no idea if he was on double secret probation or had a perfectly clean record.
He does know that Bloomsburg took his name off the roster, from the this year and last. And he knows that the kid is simply gone from the baseball team.
So how did Davis - who is 13, keep in mind - react? She wrote a really nice email to the Bloomsburg president asking him to give the player another chance.
As far as TB can see, Bloomsburg did not.
So that's it? He's done?
College kids live in a tough world these days. They're old enough to be out on their own, often late at night. They have access at all times to phones, tablets, laptops - whatever is necessary to constantly stay connected.
That's great on a lot of levels. On a few it's not great.
And the way it's the worst is that there is no filter between an 18- to 22-year-old and the ability to say something life-changingly dumb. Athletes. Non-athletes.
When TigerBlog was their age, the message coming from society was to work hard, go to a good college and get ahead, because that's the way to success. What do these young people see? The short cut to fame and fortune, which is to be as outrageous and shameless as possible in as public a forum as possible.
Geez, TB sounds old.
Of course, it makes TB cringe that someone can lose everything with what they say. Why? Because who decides when the line is crossed? Who decides when someone is edgy and cutting edge and then in the next instant toxic.
TigerBlog doesn't think for a minute that the baseball player at Bloomsburg is an awful person who honestly believes what he said about a 13-year-old. He assumes, for that matter, that the two young men who tweeted the atrocious comments about Curt Schilling's daughter are not terrible people.
No, they're people who did something that was really dumb. They did it thinking "what's the big deal, everyone today says stuff like this."
Or, more likely, they said something a little tamer last time, and even tamer the time before that. Each time, they pushed it a little more.
It's one thing to say something at a party. It's another thing to tweet it. That's the problem these days.
As TigerBlog has told a lot of Princeton athletes, to get in trouble you used to have to say something stupid and have someone who can repeat it. Now? Anyone can get in trouble any time they want.
So what is the responsibility for a college and its athletic department in these cases?
That's the big question. TB's advice to all the Princeton athletes he talks to is to make sure they understand that whatever they put out there will be seen by, oh, their coaches, teammates, parents, friends, professors, people on the admissions board at their dream grad school, potential employers. All of that.
Again, though, what is the college to do?
The instinct is to distance itself from the person who is bringing all the heat to the institution. TigerBlog gets that. It's the easy thing to do. The hard thing to do is say "hey, he made a mistake, but he's ours and we're not giving up on him."
But isn't Mo'Ne Davis right? Doesn't he deserve a second chance?
Shouldn't college be about learning and maturing? Think that baseball player at Bloomsburg would ever do something like that again? Think he'd ever take it for granted that he gets to play college baseball?
Instead, he's tarnished forever now.
TigerBlog gets it. He just doesn't like it.
Would Princeton do anything differently? TB doesn't know.
And he hopes to never find out.
It's supposed to rain today. And tomorrow. Because of all the snow, including some from last week, most fields in this area are completely unplayable, forcing a major scramble by colleges, high schools, Little Leagues - everyone who's trying to play baseball or softball.
Hey, even lacrosse isn't immune. Miss TigerBlog is 0-2 in her first high school lacrosse season - as in two games scheduled, two unable to be played because of field conditions.
The end of the women's basketball season left only the six men's swimmers at the NCAA championships for winter sports at Princeton. Of course, "spring" for TB began on Feb. 14, when Princeton opened its men's lacrosse season.
So what to talk about right now?
Well, TigerBlog was struck by the story about the Bloomsburg baseball player who was kicked off the team after his really, really stupid tweet about Mo'Ne Davis.
If you missed it, a player from Bloomsburg said something very unfortunate about Davis, the girl who stole the show at the Little League World Series last year. TigerBlog isn't going to repeat what he said.
Let's start out by saying that in no way is TigerBlog defending what the baseball player did. It's just that, well, is this really what college is supposed to be about, purging someone for making a mistake?
TB doesn't know the kid at all. He has no idea if he was on double secret probation or had a perfectly clean record.
He does know that Bloomsburg took his name off the roster, from the this year and last. And he knows that the kid is simply gone from the baseball team.
So how did Davis - who is 13, keep in mind - react? She wrote a really nice email to the Bloomsburg president asking him to give the player another chance.
As far as TB can see, Bloomsburg did not.
So that's it? He's done?
College kids live in a tough world these days. They're old enough to be out on their own, often late at night. They have access at all times to phones, tablets, laptops - whatever is necessary to constantly stay connected.
That's great on a lot of levels. On a few it's not great.
And the way it's the worst is that there is no filter between an 18- to 22-year-old and the ability to say something life-changingly dumb. Athletes. Non-athletes.
When TigerBlog was their age, the message coming from society was to work hard, go to a good college and get ahead, because that's the way to success. What do these young people see? The short cut to fame and fortune, which is to be as outrageous and shameless as possible in as public a forum as possible.
Geez, TB sounds old.
Of course, it makes TB cringe that someone can lose everything with what they say. Why? Because who decides when the line is crossed? Who decides when someone is edgy and cutting edge and then in the next instant toxic.
TigerBlog doesn't think for a minute that the baseball player at Bloomsburg is an awful person who honestly believes what he said about a 13-year-old. He assumes, for that matter, that the two young men who tweeted the atrocious comments about Curt Schilling's daughter are not terrible people.
No, they're people who did something that was really dumb. They did it thinking "what's the big deal, everyone today says stuff like this."
Or, more likely, they said something a little tamer last time, and even tamer the time before that. Each time, they pushed it a little more.
It's one thing to say something at a party. It's another thing to tweet it. That's the problem these days.
As TigerBlog has told a lot of Princeton athletes, to get in trouble you used to have to say something stupid and have someone who can repeat it. Now? Anyone can get in trouble any time they want.
So what is the responsibility for a college and its athletic department in these cases?
That's the big question. TB's advice to all the Princeton athletes he talks to is to make sure they understand that whatever they put out there will be seen by, oh, their coaches, teammates, parents, friends, professors, people on the admissions board at their dream grad school, potential employers. All of that.
Again, though, what is the college to do?
The instinct is to distance itself from the person who is bringing all the heat to the institution. TigerBlog gets that. It's the easy thing to do. The hard thing to do is say "hey, he made a mistake, but he's ours and we're not giving up on him."
But isn't Mo'Ne Davis right? Doesn't he deserve a second chance?
Shouldn't college be about learning and maturing? Think that baseball player at Bloomsburg would ever do something like that again? Think he'd ever take it for granted that he gets to play college baseball?
Instead, he's tarnished forever now.
TigerBlog gets it. He just doesn't like it.
Would Princeton do anything differently? TB doesn't know.
And he hopes to never find out.
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Final Thoughts
TigerBlog had a picture emailed to him yesterday of Princeton
University president Christopher L. Eisgruber as he watched the women's
basketball team's NCAA tournament game against Maryland Monday night.
President Eisgruber is with a group of students and professor Sandra Bermann, the master at Whitman College. They're eating pizza and drinking soda and watching the Tigers.
TigerBlog's first thought - what does the University president like on his pizza? TB can't tell from the picture.
And TB's second thought?
This is what a great athletic team in a major sport can do for a university. In a way that maybe nothing else can.
A school like Princeton prides itself on how diverse its campus community is, both the student body and those who work to support them. With such diversity in background comes a diversity of interest, which is understandable.
Again, a look at the main princeton.edu website is proof of this. At any given moment, the University could be showcasing almost anything - educational, cultural, artistic, service, international - anything.
So what can bring this entire extended family together? Rooting for something under the "Princeton" banner.
And who better to root for than the 2014-15 women's basketball team?
That's certainly what happened this time around.
It's what happens when a team can excel so much at its sport while also being a part of the greater University as a whole. The women on Princeton's basketball team could be anyone - from your dorm, in your class, thanking you for whatever service you provide on campus.
They are not hidden away in a dorm near the gym, being steered to the easiest classes. They are accomplished across the entire spectrum of what Princeton has to offer, which is part of the reason that they were so wildly embraced.
Yes, there is something to being undefeated through the regular season and nationally ranked, in a sport where Ivy League schools rarely achieve such status.
But this was different. There was such a genuineness to the team that it became so incredibly likeable. And Princeton took notice. Across the board.
As TigerBlog said a week ago, mentions of the women's basketball team drew the loudest response at the University's employee recognition luncheon.
When it appeared that Princeton had a chance to host the NCAA tournament, Princeton Athletics was required to fill dozens on volunteer positions.
It was a pretty daunting task - until TB sent an email to the email list for all of the communications offices on campus. He ended up with nearly 40 volunteers in less than a day.
Most of the people who responded said they didn't know much about sports but would love to help out. Or that they had seen a game or two and couldn't get enough of the team.
TigerBlog isn't sure if he should be surprised that a women's team generated this level of affection or if this level of affection was generated because it was a women's team, not just on this campus but everywhere.
Maybe there is the appearance of a greater purity to the women's game, and maybe the national audience was responding to that.
There was a time not that long ago when a male audience never would have gotten behind a women's team like this. That's one of TigerBlog's big takeaways from this team, how many men - adults and students - went to watch the Tigers play.
It really does show how far women's athletics have come. TigerBlog has written several times in the last few weeks that the attention this team received rivaled that of the 1997-98 Princeton men's team. In fact, they were incredibly similar.
Both teams had the best record in Division I. Both received tough draws. Both had monstrous hurdles to climb in the second round. And both received a ton of media attention, from across the country, from sports outlets and non-sports outlets.
Had you told him in 1998 that the next time this would happen at Princeton that it would involve a women's team, TB would have said there's no chance of that. But it did.
And that's a big part of the story.
But not the biggest.
No, the biggest part of the story of this team was the team itself. It was a team completely unfazed by all of the attention. They stayed down-to-earth, approachable and likeable.
They seemed to genuinely be enjoying the moment, rather than feeling the pressure of reaching 30-0.
In the end, they settled for 31-1.
It might not have been perfect, but it was darn close.
President Eisgruber is with a group of students and professor Sandra Bermann, the master at Whitman College. They're eating pizza and drinking soda and watching the Tigers.
TigerBlog's first thought - what does the University president like on his pizza? TB can't tell from the picture.
And TB's second thought?
This is what a great athletic team in a major sport can do for a university. In a way that maybe nothing else can.
A school like Princeton prides itself on how diverse its campus community is, both the student body and those who work to support them. With such diversity in background comes a diversity of interest, which is understandable.
Again, a look at the main princeton.edu website is proof of this. At any given moment, the University could be showcasing almost anything - educational, cultural, artistic, service, international - anything.
So what can bring this entire extended family together? Rooting for something under the "Princeton" banner.
And who better to root for than the 2014-15 women's basketball team?
That's certainly what happened this time around.
It's what happens when a team can excel so much at its sport while also being a part of the greater University as a whole. The women on Princeton's basketball team could be anyone - from your dorm, in your class, thanking you for whatever service you provide on campus.
They are not hidden away in a dorm near the gym, being steered to the easiest classes. They are accomplished across the entire spectrum of what Princeton has to offer, which is part of the reason that they were so wildly embraced.
Yes, there is something to being undefeated through the regular season and nationally ranked, in a sport where Ivy League schools rarely achieve such status.
But this was different. There was such a genuineness to the team that it became so incredibly likeable. And Princeton took notice. Across the board.
As TigerBlog said a week ago, mentions of the women's basketball team drew the loudest response at the University's employee recognition luncheon.
When it appeared that Princeton had a chance to host the NCAA tournament, Princeton Athletics was required to fill dozens on volunteer positions.
It was a pretty daunting task - until TB sent an email to the email list for all of the communications offices on campus. He ended up with nearly 40 volunteers in less than a day.
Most of the people who responded said they didn't know much about sports but would love to help out. Or that they had seen a game or two and couldn't get enough of the team.
TigerBlog isn't sure if he should be surprised that a women's team generated this level of affection or if this level of affection was generated because it was a women's team, not just on this campus but everywhere.
Maybe there is the appearance of a greater purity to the women's game, and maybe the national audience was responding to that.
There was a time not that long ago when a male audience never would have gotten behind a women's team like this. That's one of TigerBlog's big takeaways from this team, how many men - adults and students - went to watch the Tigers play.
It really does show how far women's athletics have come. TigerBlog has written several times in the last few weeks that the attention this team received rivaled that of the 1997-98 Princeton men's team. In fact, they were incredibly similar.
Both teams had the best record in Division I. Both received tough draws. Both had monstrous hurdles to climb in the second round. And both received a ton of media attention, from across the country, from sports outlets and non-sports outlets.
Had you told him in 1998 that the next time this would happen at Princeton that it would involve a women's team, TB would have said there's no chance of that. But it did.
And that's a big part of the story.
But not the biggest.
No, the biggest part of the story of this team was the team itself. It was a team completely unfazed by all of the attention. They stayed down-to-earth, approachable and likeable.
They seemed to genuinely be enjoying the moment, rather than feeling the pressure of reaching 30-0.
In the end, they settled for 31-1.
It might not have been perfect, but it was darn close.
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
31-1
The greatest season ever by an Ivy League women's basketball team and one of the greatest seasons by any Princeton team in any sport ended last night when Princeton lost to Maryland 85-70 in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
If Princeton had decided to spend a sizable portion of its endowment to buy positive publicity for the institution, it couldn't have done better than what came of fielding the lone women's basketball team in Division I to reach the NCAA tournament unbeaten.
The 2014-15 Princeton women represented everything that is great about Princeton Athletics and the University as a whole.
First of all, the team won. It won big. It won bigger than any Ivy League team - men's or women's - ever has before, at least record-wise.
The Tigers went 30-0 in the regular season and then pushed that to 31-0 with an 80-70 win over Green Bay in the opening round Saturday. It was only the second NCAA tournament win by an Ivy League women's basketball team.
Princeton destroyed basically everyone who got in its way. Of its 31 wins, 29 were by double figures. Most of those weren't remotely competitive.
Way back in the regular season, attendance at Jadwin Gym skyrocketed, with crowds exceeding 2,000 by the end. And why? Because this team was fun to watch.
This team was great on both ends of the court, and it played at a pace that joined both ends of the court relatively quickly. The teams on the schedule couldn't keep up.
Keep in mind where this team began - as the Ivy League co-favorite along with Penn. It began the year two seasons removed from the graduation of Niveen Rasheed and the rest of the Class of 2013, the one that won four league titles and played in four NCAA tournaments after the program had never played in the NCAA tournament prior to its arrival.
When the 2013-14 regular season ended, the balance of power in the league appeared to have shifted to Penn, who came to Jadwin and handled Princeton to win the Ivy title. Was the run over with the graduation of Rasheed and her classmates?
That's where Princeton was when the season started.
Then the winning started. And kept going. And going and going and going.
It was more than that though. This team is made up incredibly likable players who excel in so many other areas than basketball. And, at a school like Princeton, they have been given the opportunity to do so.
And so you have a Shapiro Prize for Academic Excellence winner (Michelle Miller), a Scholar in the Nation's Service Initiative honoree (Alex Wheatley), a two-sport athlete (Blake Dietrick), a player who speaks a bunch of languages (Annie Tarakchian) and the niece of the President of the United States (Leslie Robinson).
If you went to a Princeton game, you saw these players and all the others interact with fans young and old. You saw them be approachable. You saw them smile. You saw how much they loved playing with each other and for Princeton.
Because Princeton was winning every game, the team started to generate incredible media attention.
The more times Princeton's players spoke into a microphone, the better Princeton looked. Every time, every word, every interview. It didn't matter which player it was.
Every time someone on that team spoke, the more impressive they all looked.
And at the forefront of it all was their coach, Courtney Banghart. If the players were really good in front of microphones, Courtney is one of the best that's ever been at it.
She said all the right things every time. TigerBlog has known her since the first day she was hired here, and he can tell you that there are few people who more competitive than she is.
She took over a program that had never played in the NCAA tournament. She is now a regular there. For her, an NCAA tournament appearance isn't good enough. She wants to win and then win again.
The result of the 30-0 regular season was an eighth seed, one that angered pretty much the entire national women's basketball audience. The reward was a tough first round game with Green Bay and then an even tougher second round game against the Terps.
The first half last night was played at a lightning pace, and Princeton appeared to get worn down. It didn't help that Maryland couldn't miss, knocking down 12 of 20 three-point shots. That's the number that Princeton needed to win, not the other way around.
Dietrick finished with 26 points in her final game as a Tiger. Princeton competed really hard, but ultimately the Terps - 32-2, winners of 26 straight, undefeated in the Big Ten, undefeated at home, one of the very few teams that can stay on the court with UConn - were too physical and, on this night, way too accurate.
It wasn't a fair draw for the Tigers.
What they deserved was to play at home, in Jadwin, as a fourth seed. What they deserved was to get Maryland in the next round, on a neutral court.
It didn't get that. And so it ended last night in Maryland.
The final number is 31-1. It's an incredible accomplishment.
All of Princeton - athletics and non-athletics - embraced this team.
Of course. How could it be any different?
Teams like this do not come along too often. They are to be cherished when they do, and that's what happened with the 2014-15 Princeton Tigers.
Cherished.
For what they did. And how they did it.
If Princeton had decided to spend a sizable portion of its endowment to buy positive publicity for the institution, it couldn't have done better than what came of fielding the lone women's basketball team in Division I to reach the NCAA tournament unbeaten.
The 2014-15 Princeton women represented everything that is great about Princeton Athletics and the University as a whole.
First of all, the team won. It won big. It won bigger than any Ivy League team - men's or women's - ever has before, at least record-wise.
The Tigers went 30-0 in the regular season and then pushed that to 31-0 with an 80-70 win over Green Bay in the opening round Saturday. It was only the second NCAA tournament win by an Ivy League women's basketball team.
Princeton destroyed basically everyone who got in its way. Of its 31 wins, 29 were by double figures. Most of those weren't remotely competitive.
Way back in the regular season, attendance at Jadwin Gym skyrocketed, with crowds exceeding 2,000 by the end. And why? Because this team was fun to watch.
This team was great on both ends of the court, and it played at a pace that joined both ends of the court relatively quickly. The teams on the schedule couldn't keep up.
Keep in mind where this team began - as the Ivy League co-favorite along with Penn. It began the year two seasons removed from the graduation of Niveen Rasheed and the rest of the Class of 2013, the one that won four league titles and played in four NCAA tournaments after the program had never played in the NCAA tournament prior to its arrival.
When the 2013-14 regular season ended, the balance of power in the league appeared to have shifted to Penn, who came to Jadwin and handled Princeton to win the Ivy title. Was the run over with the graduation of Rasheed and her classmates?
That's where Princeton was when the season started.
Then the winning started. And kept going. And going and going and going.
It was more than that though. This team is made up incredibly likable players who excel in so many other areas than basketball. And, at a school like Princeton, they have been given the opportunity to do so.
And so you have a Shapiro Prize for Academic Excellence winner (Michelle Miller), a Scholar in the Nation's Service Initiative honoree (Alex Wheatley), a two-sport athlete (Blake Dietrick), a player who speaks a bunch of languages (Annie Tarakchian) and the niece of the President of the United States (Leslie Robinson).
If you went to a Princeton game, you saw these players and all the others interact with fans young and old. You saw them be approachable. You saw them smile. You saw how much they loved playing with each other and for Princeton.
Because Princeton was winning every game, the team started to generate incredible media attention.
The more times Princeton's players spoke into a microphone, the better Princeton looked. Every time, every word, every interview. It didn't matter which player it was.
Every time someone on that team spoke, the more impressive they all looked.
And at the forefront of it all was their coach, Courtney Banghart. If the players were really good in front of microphones, Courtney is one of the best that's ever been at it.
She said all the right things every time. TigerBlog has known her since the first day she was hired here, and he can tell you that there are few people who more competitive than she is.
She took over a program that had never played in the NCAA tournament. She is now a regular there. For her, an NCAA tournament appearance isn't good enough. She wants to win and then win again.
The result of the 30-0 regular season was an eighth seed, one that angered pretty much the entire national women's basketball audience. The reward was a tough first round game with Green Bay and then an even tougher second round game against the Terps.
The first half last night was played at a lightning pace, and Princeton appeared to get worn down. It didn't help that Maryland couldn't miss, knocking down 12 of 20 three-point shots. That's the number that Princeton needed to win, not the other way around.
Dietrick finished with 26 points in her final game as a Tiger. Princeton competed really hard, but ultimately the Terps - 32-2, winners of 26 straight, undefeated in the Big Ten, undefeated at home, one of the very few teams that can stay on the court with UConn - were too physical and, on this night, way too accurate.
It wasn't a fair draw for the Tigers.
What they deserved was to play at home, in Jadwin, as a fourth seed. What they deserved was to get Maryland in the next round, on a neutral court.
It didn't get that. And so it ended last night in Maryland.
The final number is 31-1. It's an incredible accomplishment.
All of Princeton - athletics and non-athletics - embraced this team.
Of course. How could it be any different?
Teams like this do not come along too often. They are to be cherished when they do, and that's what happened with the 2014-15 Princeton Tigers.
Cherished.
For what they did. And how they did it.
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