TigerBlog was driving along on a two-lane road yesterday morning when he came to a little construction spot.
This meant one lane was shut off and there were people on either end with signs that said "stop" on one said and "slow" on the other. You've seen this a million times.
There was a line of cars in front of him that were moving, slowly, and nobody behind him. Just before TB was able to move into the other lane, the sign was changed to "stop."
"Seriously?" TigerBlog said. Out loud. To no one, since he was alone.
And then he heard a chirp and a voice say "how can I help you?"
It was Siri. TigerBlog had to laugh at that.
He also didn't stay mad at the guy with the sign very long. That's because the first car that came through while TB waited had its trunk open, and the guy with the sign had to chase after the driver to point that out. That put him pretty much even with TigerBlog's car, and he and TB just laughed.
Siri then said "what's so funny?"
Actually, no she didn't.
So what do you do when you're in your car and you're by yourself? None of you text, right?
Here's a question - if you have a child who is a relatively new driver and you need to get in touch with them while they may be driving, what do you do? You don't want to text or call, because you don't want them to answer if they're driving. But what if, say, they're 15 minutes late for something? Then what?
Anyway, what do you do when you're alone. Listen to the radio? Talk on the phone? Sing?
TigerBlog likes to sing. Loudly. One time he heard Siri say "please stop."
What TB has learned is that more people than he would have thought like to listen to podcasts. At least that's how it seems ever since he's started doing them.
The amount of feedback he's gotten from them has far exceeded what he expected, first with men's lacrosse coach Matt Madalon and then with women's basketball coach Courtney Banghart.
Now there's Chris Sailer, the women's lacrosse coach. TB and Chris did the first episode of "The Chris Sailer Show" earlier this week, and the response to that has been tremendous as well.
You can listen to it HERE.
TigerBlog really likes the podcast format, because of it's informality. And because you can get into a lot of different subjects beyond just the next game.
Of course, for Sailer and her team, the next game is a huge. Any game in May is.
Princeton is the host for the Ivy League women's lacrosse tournament this weekend, beginning today with a pair of semifinal games and then concluding Sunday with the final. Here is the schedule:
Today
No. 2 Penn vs. No. 3 Dartmouth - 4
No. 1 Princeton vs. No. 4 Columbia - 7
Sunday
Championship game - 11
The Ivy tournament decides only who will get the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, not who is the champion. That distinction will remain with Princeton and Penn, who tied for the regular season title at 6-1. Princeton is the host by virtue of its win over Penn two weeks ago.
Princeton a week ago played Columbia, winning a 22-16 game. TigerBlog will guess that fewer goals will be scored this time around.
Columbia is making its first Ivy tournament appearance. This is the ninth Ivy tournament, and Princeton and Penn have won three each. Dartmouth and Cornell have won one each.
This weekend will see Ivy League champions crowned in men's and women's outdoor track and field, at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.
The Princeton men are going for an eighth "triple crown" of Heps championships in cross country and indoor and outdoor track and field. The other big subplot of this event is the host Penn Quakers, who are looking to become the first school not named "Princeton" or "Cornell" to win the men's outdoor title in the last 15 years.
You can get all of the men's information HERE. You can get all of the women's information HERE.
Friday, May 4, 2018
Thursday, May 3, 2018
Ping Kiang ’70
So there was TigerBlog, minding his own business, trying to figure out what to write for today, and then out of nowhere he got an email from BrotherBlog.
And then, just like that, a topic appeared.
The gist of the email was that someone was offering someone else congratulations for new responsibilities at work. TB had to read it a few times before he realized that it's BrotherBlog who has the new gig.
Apparently, BrotherBlog is now the Executive Director of the Asian Law Center and the Center for Law, Science and Global Health at the University of Washington School of Law. Who knew?
TB certainly didn't. So he called his brother, who was walking across the UDub campus on what was a sunny, 59 degree day in the Pacific Northwest, which made it 30 degrees cooler there than here at the time.
Interestingly, the two brothers both work in college education, and yet they do such wildly different things. Even more interestingly, one went to college to be an engineer while the other went to college thinking about being a lawyer. Neither one followed the original plan.
Anyway, as BrotherBlog walked, he and TB had this actual conversation:
TB: Hi.
BB: Hi.
TB: What's new?
BB: Nothing. What's new with you?
TB: Nothing.
BB: Good.
TB: You have new responsibilities?
BB: Yes.
TB: For how long?
BB: A week and half.
TB: Mazel Tov.
The interesting part isn't BrotherBlog's new title, though TB is proud of him. No, it's the person who emailed BB - and the attachment to the email.
The person was Ping Kiang. Turns out that Ping is a member of the Princeton Class of 1970.
Beyond that, he was also a member of the tennis team, with a pretty good story to tell. He was the No. 18 player on the ladder as a freshman and then was the manager his sophomore and junior years, both of which were championship seasons for Princeton men's tennis. Then, as a senior, he earned a spot in the starting lineup.
The attachment to the email was a picture of a life pass that Ping was given at graduation. TB isn't exactly sure what the qualifications were for those life passes, but he remembers them from when he first started working here. Actually, he's pretty sure that Chuck Yrigoyen, who worked in the Office of Athletic Communications before TB, signed them.
There's one fairly subtle but fairly fascinating thing on the pass. It has "Mr." imprinted on it next to a blank space for the name of the person. That was the exact time, of course, that Princeton first admitted women, and women's athletics would begin within a year. TB surmised that the pass was from the last batch printed with "Mr." on them.
The one that Ping has has two signatures on the bottom. The pass is from the "Princeton University Council on Athletics," which is a term that TB hasn't seen used in his time here.
The title of the person who signed it on the right is "Chairman." TB can't make out the name.
The other signature is above where it says "Director of Athletics." TigerBlog recognizes that signature: R. Kenneth Fairman, who was the AD here from 1941-1972. In fact, he was the first of five people to have the title of Director of Athletics, followed by Royce Flippen, Bob Myslik, Gary Walters and now Mollie Marcoux Samaan.
According to Ping's email, he's used his pass once, at a men's basketball game against North Carolina. That was on Dec. 6, 1971, and Princeton defeated the top-ranked Tar Heels 89-73 at relatively new Jadwin Gym.
Ping's email to BrotherBlog mentions that he's attended many sporting events here through the years, in fact most recently just two weeks ago, when Princeton defeated Dartmouth 24-13 in men's lacrosse.
TB was doing stats at that game.
BrotherBlog of course mentioned his niece, who will be in the Class of 2022, and of course Ping was excited about that.
Hopefully next time Ping is around, he'll stop in and say hello. Lifetime pass or not, TB will find a way to get him a game.
Ping is a loyal alum. That much is obvious.
This is what Princeton breeds. No matter where you go or what you do, it's always with you.
TigerBlog has said this many times before. If you went to school here, you take it for granted. If you didn't (and if you haven't spent nearly 30 years on this campus), then you can't really understand it.
And then, just like that, a topic appeared.
The gist of the email was that someone was offering someone else congratulations for new responsibilities at work. TB had to read it a few times before he realized that it's BrotherBlog who has the new gig.
Apparently, BrotherBlog is now the Executive Director of the Asian Law Center and the Center for Law, Science and Global Health at the University of Washington School of Law. Who knew?
TB certainly didn't. So he called his brother, who was walking across the UDub campus on what was a sunny, 59 degree day in the Pacific Northwest, which made it 30 degrees cooler there than here at the time.
Interestingly, the two brothers both work in college education, and yet they do such wildly different things. Even more interestingly, one went to college to be an engineer while the other went to college thinking about being a lawyer. Neither one followed the original plan.
Anyway, as BrotherBlog walked, he and TB had this actual conversation:
TB: Hi.
BB: Hi.
TB: What's new?
BB: Nothing. What's new with you?
TB: Nothing.
BB: Good.
TB: You have new responsibilities?
BB: Yes.
TB: For how long?
BB: A week and half.
TB: Mazel Tov.
The interesting part isn't BrotherBlog's new title, though TB is proud of him. No, it's the person who emailed BB - and the attachment to the email.
The person was Ping Kiang. Turns out that Ping is a member of the Princeton Class of 1970.
Beyond that, he was also a member of the tennis team, with a pretty good story to tell. He was the No. 18 player on the ladder as a freshman and then was the manager his sophomore and junior years, both of which were championship seasons for Princeton men's tennis. Then, as a senior, he earned a spot in the starting lineup.
The attachment to the email was a picture of a life pass that Ping was given at graduation. TB isn't exactly sure what the qualifications were for those life passes, but he remembers them from when he first started working here. Actually, he's pretty sure that Chuck Yrigoyen, who worked in the Office of Athletic Communications before TB, signed them.
There's one fairly subtle but fairly fascinating thing on the pass. It has "Mr." imprinted on it next to a blank space for the name of the person. That was the exact time, of course, that Princeton first admitted women, and women's athletics would begin within a year. TB surmised that the pass was from the last batch printed with "Mr." on them.
The one that Ping has has two signatures on the bottom. The pass is from the "Princeton University Council on Athletics," which is a term that TB hasn't seen used in his time here.
The title of the person who signed it on the right is "Chairman." TB can't make out the name.
The other signature is above where it says "Director of Athletics." TigerBlog recognizes that signature: R. Kenneth Fairman, who was the AD here from 1941-1972. In fact, he was the first of five people to have the title of Director of Athletics, followed by Royce Flippen, Bob Myslik, Gary Walters and now Mollie Marcoux Samaan.
According to Ping's email, he's used his pass once, at a men's basketball game against North Carolina. That was on Dec. 6, 1971, and Princeton defeated the top-ranked Tar Heels 89-73 at relatively new Jadwin Gym.
Ping's email to BrotherBlog mentions that he's attended many sporting events here through the years, in fact most recently just two weeks ago, when Princeton defeated Dartmouth 24-13 in men's lacrosse.
TB was doing stats at that game.
BrotherBlog of course mentioned his niece, who will be in the Class of 2022, and of course Ping was excited about that.
Hopefully next time Ping is around, he'll stop in and say hello. Lifetime pass or not, TB will find a way to get him a game.
Ping is a loyal alum. That much is obvious.
This is what Princeton breeds. No matter where you go or what you do, it's always with you.
TigerBlog has said this many times before. If you went to school here, you take it for granted. If you didn't (and if you haven't spent nearly 30 years on this campus), then you can't really understand it.
Wednesday, May 2, 2018
Hey, It's May
It's May. Actually, it's May 2nd, but it's still May.
You know what that means?
It means that TigerBlog can talk about the weather again. He said two weeks ago that he wouldn't talk about how weird the April weather was anyway, and he didn't.
So what if it rained, snowed, sleeted, sizzled, everything in the last month. It's up there with the wildest weather months TB can remember actually.
It ended somewhat fittingly, at least for TigerBlog, who was standing on a field on April 30, wearing a sweatshirt with two layers under it as the sun came and went and the wind whipped and stopped, all while it occasionally drizzled. He wasn't sure if he should put on sunscreen or another layer, and he ended up putting on both.
Now that's it's May, the forecast, of course, is for close to 90 the next few days. If you were looking for what you might consider a perfect spring day, there haven't been many of them, at least around here.
As May has arrived, it's also the last full month of the 2017-18 athletic year. Already there are spring teams who are finished for the year, and others who are winding down quickly.
On this day next month, the men's heavyweight and men's and women's lightweight rowing teams will be competing on the final day of their national championships at Mercer County Park, and the only events left after that will be the men's and women's NCAA track and field championships.
That means that there are a lot of huge events coming up this month. This weekend is particularly big.
The Ivy League Heptagonal track and field championships will be held Saturday and Sunday at Franklin Field. Should Princeton's men win, it would mean another "triple crown" of Heps titles in cross country and indoor and outdoor track and field.
Princeton has won eight of these "triple crowns," six by the men and two by the women. No other Ivy school has ever done it on either side.
Fred Samara, the head men's track and field coach, is already past 40 in terms of Ivy League championships won in a career. That's a lot, by the way.
The fire still burns with him, though. Maybe that's why he's still winning championships, because he is so competitive and so focused on continuing to put out the best possible program he can each year. It's very impressive.
If you've never been to a Heps track and field championship, it's definitely worth attending. TB is always fascinated by the way those who really understand the math behind the event know exactly who is positioned well and who isn't at all times.
The Ivy League awards championships in 33 sports during an academic year. Of those 33, there have been 26 that have already been won.
Princeton has won nine of them - men's cross country, field hockey, women's soccer, women's volleyball, women's basketball, men's indoor track and field, women's tennis, women's golf and last weekend women's lacrosse. As a reminder, the Tigers host the Ivy League tournament this weekend, with the semifinals between Penn and Dartmouth (4) and Princeton and Columbia (7) on Friday and then the championship game Sunday at 11 between the winners.
The remaining seven Ivy titles to be won are in baseball and softball - Princeton will not be in the Ivy League championship series in either - the two track and fields and then men's heavyweight, women's open and men's lightweight rowing.
Princeton has reached double figures in Ivy League titles 24 times. Harvard has done it 10 times; no other school has ever done it. Princeton has finished with nine Ivy titles four other times, most recently in 2006-07 and 2007-08.
Round numbers being what they are, getting to 10 titles would be a great accomplishment. It is a great goal for the athletic department each year, or at least for TigerBlog, who has relatively little to do with the outcomes of course.
The rowing championships, by the way, will be held next Sunday, with the women's open in Pennsauken and the men's heavyweights and lightweights in Worcester. That'll be it for Ivy League championships.
Two days before that, by the way, will be the first round of the NCAA women's tennis tournament. Princeton, the Ivy champ, will be taking on Illinois in Lubbock, Texas. Here was the team's reaction to the selections yesterday:
In the meantime, there's Heps this weekend. And the Ivy women's lacrosse tournament here, even though that doesn't affect who is considered the Ivy League champion. That will be Princeton and Penn, who tied for first and will be co-champs regardless.
Still, there is the NCAA tournament automatic bid on the line.
Plus, it's May. It's a time for nice weather and big games. You should have both this weekend on Sherrerd Field.
You know what that means?
It means that TigerBlog can talk about the weather again. He said two weeks ago that he wouldn't talk about how weird the April weather was anyway, and he didn't.
So what if it rained, snowed, sleeted, sizzled, everything in the last month. It's up there with the wildest weather months TB can remember actually.
It ended somewhat fittingly, at least for TigerBlog, who was standing on a field on April 30, wearing a sweatshirt with two layers under it as the sun came and went and the wind whipped and stopped, all while it occasionally drizzled. He wasn't sure if he should put on sunscreen or another layer, and he ended up putting on both.
Now that's it's May, the forecast, of course, is for close to 90 the next few days. If you were looking for what you might consider a perfect spring day, there haven't been many of them, at least around here.
As May has arrived, it's also the last full month of the 2017-18 athletic year. Already there are spring teams who are finished for the year, and others who are winding down quickly.
On this day next month, the men's heavyweight and men's and women's lightweight rowing teams will be competing on the final day of their national championships at Mercer County Park, and the only events left after that will be the men's and women's NCAA track and field championships.
That means that there are a lot of huge events coming up this month. This weekend is particularly big.
The Ivy League Heptagonal track and field championships will be held Saturday and Sunday at Franklin Field. Should Princeton's men win, it would mean another "triple crown" of Heps titles in cross country and indoor and outdoor track and field.
Princeton has won eight of these "triple crowns," six by the men and two by the women. No other Ivy school has ever done it on either side.
Fred Samara, the head men's track and field coach, is already past 40 in terms of Ivy League championships won in a career. That's a lot, by the way.
The fire still burns with him, though. Maybe that's why he's still winning championships, because he is so competitive and so focused on continuing to put out the best possible program he can each year. It's very impressive.
If you've never been to a Heps track and field championship, it's definitely worth attending. TB is always fascinated by the way those who really understand the math behind the event know exactly who is positioned well and who isn't at all times.
The Ivy League awards championships in 33 sports during an academic year. Of those 33, there have been 26 that have already been won.
Princeton has won nine of them - men's cross country, field hockey, women's soccer, women's volleyball, women's basketball, men's indoor track and field, women's tennis, women's golf and last weekend women's lacrosse. As a reminder, the Tigers host the Ivy League tournament this weekend, with the semifinals between Penn and Dartmouth (4) and Princeton and Columbia (7) on Friday and then the championship game Sunday at 11 between the winners.
The remaining seven Ivy titles to be won are in baseball and softball - Princeton will not be in the Ivy League championship series in either - the two track and fields and then men's heavyweight, women's open and men's lightweight rowing.
Princeton has reached double figures in Ivy League titles 24 times. Harvard has done it 10 times; no other school has ever done it. Princeton has finished with nine Ivy titles four other times, most recently in 2006-07 and 2007-08.
Round numbers being what they are, getting to 10 titles would be a great accomplishment. It is a great goal for the athletic department each year, or at least for TigerBlog, who has relatively little to do with the outcomes of course.
The rowing championships, by the way, will be held next Sunday, with the women's open in Pennsauken and the men's heavyweights and lightweights in Worcester. That'll be it for Ivy League championships.
Two days before that, by the way, will be the first round of the NCAA women's tennis tournament. Princeton, the Ivy champ, will be taking on Illinois in Lubbock, Texas. Here was the team's reaction to the selections yesterday:
The @PrincetonTennis women are headed to Lubbock to face Illinois in the first round of the #NCAATennis tournament! 🔊🤗⬇️ pic.twitter.com/MYraMASto6— Princeton Tigers (@PUTIGERS) May 1, 2018
In the meantime, there's Heps this weekend. And the Ivy women's lacrosse tournament here, even though that doesn't affect who is considered the Ivy League champion. That will be Princeton and Penn, who tied for first and will be co-champs regardless.
Still, there is the NCAA tournament automatic bid on the line.
Plus, it's May. It's a time for nice weather and big games. You should have both this weekend on Sherrerd Field.
Tuesday, May 1, 2018
An Extraordinary Performance From George Baughan
TigerBlog starts today as he did yesterday, with a story from his Sunday bike ride.
Bryce Chase was there as well. He wanted to ask TigerBlog the same questions that he'd already been asked the night before by one person and would be asked again later by another:
"Is there anyone you could compare George Baughan to, and has there been a better defensive performance than Baughan's against Cornell?"
Baughan is a freshman defenseman on the Princeton men's lacrosse team. He had an epic game Saturday in Princeton's 14-8 win over Cornell in what was one of the best individual performances TigerBlog has seen from any athlete in his nearly 30 years of doing this.
His task was to guard Cornell's Jeff Teat, who was leading Division I in points per game this year and who had the highest per game scoring average by a Division I player in 37 years (Princeton's Michael Sowers was second in both cases, by the way).
To top it all off, Teat destroyed Princeton a year ago, racking up five goals and seven assists. Its possible that no other player has ever had more points in a game against Princeton than Teat's 12; at least, TigerBlog can't remember anyone who did.
In addition, this was a huge game for Cornell. The Big Red were locked into the No. 2 spot in the Ivy League regardless, but there was NCAA seeding, the chance to possibly play at home and simply solidifying its spot in the tournament field at stake.
As for Princeton, the odds of getting into the postseason weren't great, even with a win, but it was still Princeton-Cornell.
The pregame buildup was about Sowers and Teat, who are two of the most exciting players to come into college lacrosse in a long time. As TB said, they are the top two per game scorers in Division I since 1981, and they are fifth and sixth all-time.
Everyone in college lacrosse has heard of Sowers and Teat. Almost nobody has heard of Baughan. Or had heard of him before the game at least.
Baughan is from Wyndmoor, outside of Philadelphia. He went to Springfield High School, but not the one that won the Pennsylvania state championship. He was hurt in the preseason, which slowed him in getting onto the field.
His first big moment came when he held Yale's Ben Reeves - likely the Ivy Player of the Year over Sowers and Teat and the fourth pick in the Major League Lacrosse draft - without a goal or assist for more than three quarters before Reeves got two late goals. He also had a big performance against Harvard's MLL draftee Morgan Cheek.
Teat, though, was to be a different kind of challenge. So what happened?
The first time Teat touched the ball, Baughan was all over him. Teat tried to get free, and Baughan wouldn't let him go. Teat tried again, and against Baughan didn't let him go. Then Teat got rid of the ball. The tone was set.
By the time the game ended, Princeton had itself a five-game winning streak to end the year. Baughan held Teat without a goal or assist. Teat took just one shot, and he had only one pass in the game that would have been a goal had the subsequent shot gone in.
Baughan would cause four turnovers and pick up four ground balls. To top it all off, he would also outscore Teat with a goal of his own, late in the first quarter. It was an extraordinary performance.
The honors started to roll in for Baughan yesterday, as he was named the Warrior/US Lacrosse National Player of the Week and the Ivy League Rookie of the Week. He will be on the USILA Team of the Week when it is released today, TB assumes.
Quint Kessenich wrote this in his weekly Top 20 column on Inside Lacrosse, when he ranked Cornell 11th: "Who is Princeton defender George Baughan? And how did he neutralize Cornell's Jeff Teat? "
And now, to answer the questions he was asked by Bryce and others, the performance is similar to Damien Davis' in 2003 at the Carrier Dome in an 11-10 win over Syracuse, when he shut out Mikey Powell, holding him without a goal or assist, and then scoring one of his own.
The difference? Davis was a senior, a first-team All-America and one of the biggest names in lacrosse that year.
Of course, Teat has at least two more chances against Baughan, and Powell certainly got his revenge in the rematch against Princeton, when he put up four goals and four assists in a 15-5 Syracuse win in the NCAA quarterfinals.
Is there another performance that TB can think of? Not like that one. Baughan was extraordinary in the game Saturday.
As for whether or not there's another player whom TB could compare Baughan to, the answer is yes, there is.
Princeton has had some great defensemen through the years. In TB's conversations about Baughan, a bunch of those names were bounced back and forth, but there was really only one who came to mind.
Baughan is intense at all times on the field. He is wildly athletic. He seems to take his matchup personally. He plays, to use a word TB has used before to describe Baughan, nasty, which appears to contrast his off-field persona, where he doesn't seem to say much.
He's also No. 17.
Add those pieces together, and it comes to David Morrow, the two-time first-team All-America and the 1993 Division I Player of the Year. Is Baughan that good? It's too soon to say. His potential, though, is limitless.
If nothing else, Baughan's performance against Cornell has put him on the national map a bit. It's also made him one of the pieces that has the Princeton men's lacrosse team pretty well positioned for the future.
Princeton will return Baughan and, among others, its star (Sowers), its leading goal scorer and the Division I leader in shooting percentage (Phillip Robertson), the only player on the team with at least one goal in every game this year (Chris Brown), a starting midfielder (Connor McCarthy), the only shortstick defensive middie who played in every game the last two years (Chase Williams), the top longstick midfielder who had his own breakout year (Andrew Song) and a two-year starter on defense (Arman Medghalchi). And all of them are freshmen or sophomores.
TigerBlog was in Jadwin Gym a little more than 30 years ago, for the last game of the 1988 men's basketball season. Princeton had been eliminated from the Ivy League race with three straight one-point losses in midseason, and Cornell came to Jadwin having already clinched the championship.
Final score: Princeton 79, Cornell 58. It was never close.
When TigerBlog left Sherrerd Field Saturday, he thought back to that game, or actually what happened next. Princeton won the next four Ivy titles.
Will the same thing happen in men's lacrosse? Who knows. That's not the point.
No, the point is that Princeton is definitely pointed in the right direction.
Bryce Chase was there as well. He wanted to ask TigerBlog the same questions that he'd already been asked the night before by one person and would be asked again later by another:
"Is there anyone you could compare George Baughan to, and has there been a better defensive performance than Baughan's against Cornell?"
Baughan is a freshman defenseman on the Princeton men's lacrosse team. He had an epic game Saturday in Princeton's 14-8 win over Cornell in what was one of the best individual performances TigerBlog has seen from any athlete in his nearly 30 years of doing this.
His task was to guard Cornell's Jeff Teat, who was leading Division I in points per game this year and who had the highest per game scoring average by a Division I player in 37 years (Princeton's Michael Sowers was second in both cases, by the way).
To top it all off, Teat destroyed Princeton a year ago, racking up five goals and seven assists. Its possible that no other player has ever had more points in a game against Princeton than Teat's 12; at least, TigerBlog can't remember anyone who did.
In addition, this was a huge game for Cornell. The Big Red were locked into the No. 2 spot in the Ivy League regardless, but there was NCAA seeding, the chance to possibly play at home and simply solidifying its spot in the tournament field at stake.
As for Princeton, the odds of getting into the postseason weren't great, even with a win, but it was still Princeton-Cornell.
The pregame buildup was about Sowers and Teat, who are two of the most exciting players to come into college lacrosse in a long time. As TB said, they are the top two per game scorers in Division I since 1981, and they are fifth and sixth all-time.
Everyone in college lacrosse has heard of Sowers and Teat. Almost nobody has heard of Baughan. Or had heard of him before the game at least.
Baughan is from Wyndmoor, outside of Philadelphia. He went to Springfield High School, but not the one that won the Pennsylvania state championship. He was hurt in the preseason, which slowed him in getting onto the field.
His first big moment came when he held Yale's Ben Reeves - likely the Ivy Player of the Year over Sowers and Teat and the fourth pick in the Major League Lacrosse draft - without a goal or assist for more than three quarters before Reeves got two late goals. He also had a big performance against Harvard's MLL draftee Morgan Cheek.
Teat, though, was to be a different kind of challenge. So what happened?
The first time Teat touched the ball, Baughan was all over him. Teat tried to get free, and Baughan wouldn't let him go. Teat tried again, and against Baughan didn't let him go. Then Teat got rid of the ball. The tone was set.
By the time the game ended, Princeton had itself a five-game winning streak to end the year. Baughan held Teat without a goal or assist. Teat took just one shot, and he had only one pass in the game that would have been a goal had the subsequent shot gone in.
Baughan would cause four turnovers and pick up four ground balls. To top it all off, he would also outscore Teat with a goal of his own, late in the first quarter. It was an extraordinary performance.
The honors started to roll in for Baughan yesterday, as he was named the Warrior/US Lacrosse National Player of the Week and the Ivy League Rookie of the Week. He will be on the USILA Team of the Week when it is released today, TB assumes.
Quint Kessenich wrote this in his weekly Top 20 column on Inside Lacrosse, when he ranked Cornell 11th: "Who is Princeton defender George Baughan? And how did he neutralize Cornell's Jeff Teat? "
And now, to answer the questions he was asked by Bryce and others, the performance is similar to Damien Davis' in 2003 at the Carrier Dome in an 11-10 win over Syracuse, when he shut out Mikey Powell, holding him without a goal or assist, and then scoring one of his own.
The difference? Davis was a senior, a first-team All-America and one of the biggest names in lacrosse that year.
Of course, Teat has at least two more chances against Baughan, and Powell certainly got his revenge in the rematch against Princeton, when he put up four goals and four assists in a 15-5 Syracuse win in the NCAA quarterfinals.
Is there another performance that TB can think of? Not like that one. Baughan was extraordinary in the game Saturday.
As for whether or not there's another player whom TB could compare Baughan to, the answer is yes, there is.
Princeton has had some great defensemen through the years. In TB's conversations about Baughan, a bunch of those names were bounced back and forth, but there was really only one who came to mind.
Baughan is intense at all times on the field. He is wildly athletic. He seems to take his matchup personally. He plays, to use a word TB has used before to describe Baughan, nasty, which appears to contrast his off-field persona, where he doesn't seem to say much.
He's also No. 17.
Add those pieces together, and it comes to David Morrow, the two-time first-team All-America and the 1993 Division I Player of the Year. Is Baughan that good? It's too soon to say. His potential, though, is limitless.
If nothing else, Baughan's performance against Cornell has put him on the national map a bit. It's also made him one of the pieces that has the Princeton men's lacrosse team pretty well positioned for the future.
Princeton will return Baughan and, among others, its star (Sowers), its leading goal scorer and the Division I leader in shooting percentage (Phillip Robertson), the only player on the team with at least one goal in every game this year (Chris Brown), a starting midfielder (Connor McCarthy), the only shortstick defensive middie who played in every game the last two years (Chase Williams), the top longstick midfielder who had his own breakout year (Andrew Song) and a two-year starter on defense (Arman Medghalchi). And all of them are freshmen or sophomores.
TigerBlog was in Jadwin Gym a little more than 30 years ago, for the last game of the 1988 men's basketball season. Princeton had been eliminated from the Ivy League race with three straight one-point losses in midseason, and Cornell came to Jadwin having already clinched the championship.
Final score: Princeton 79, Cornell 58. It was never close.
When TigerBlog left Sherrerd Field Saturday, he thought back to that game, or actually what happened next. Princeton won the next four Ivy titles.
Will the same thing happen in men's lacrosse? Who knows. That's not the point.
No, the point is that Princeton is definitely pointed in the right direction.
Monday, April 30, 2018
Coming This Weekend To Sherrerd Field
TigerBlog was out on the bike yesterday, on John McPhee's 15-mile loop around Princeton.
There are some pretty steep parts of it, places that don't look like they would be brutal but are, especially when the wind is whipping in your face. Very little of the ride is actually on the Princeton campus, though the exact midway point is the Streicker Bridge, the one that goes over Washington Road.
Just before that, there is one lap around the concourse of the football stadium. As they reached that part of the ride, John asked how long it takes to take down the bubble.
Hey, the bubble was gone. TigerBlog hadn't even noticed it. And yet it was gone, stored somewhere until the end of next football season.
And with that, the first year of the bubble has come and gone. As TB has said before, the bubble is amazing on the inside, and there's the strange sensation of knowing you're standing on the middle of Powers Field without having any realization that you're in the middle of the football stadium.
The bubble accomplished everything it was meant to do, offering outdoor teams a home when the weather was awful, for practice or for conditioning. The athletes TB talked to about it universally loved having it there, and there were numerous occasions when teams were able to get things done that they otherwise would have had no chance of doing if they'd had to be outside.
It doesn't seem all that long ago that the two lacrosse teams were doing individual workouts in the bubble, waiting for practice to start. Now the regular season for both has come and gone.
Both teams are playing their best right now. Only one has a chance to keep it going. The men have been blisteringly hot in April, going 5-0 - all by at least five goals, including a 14-8 win over sixth-ranked Cornell Saturday - while trying to climb out of an 0-3 Ivy start. In the end, Princeton finished in a three-way tie for third with Penn and Brown but didn't have the tiebreaker on either of them.
As a result, Princeton is excruciatingly not part of the Ivy tournament this weekend at Columbia.
As for the women, they're playing their best right now and will have their season continue. And it will continue on the Tigers' home turf.
Princeton has won six out of seven, with the only loss by one goal to defending champ Maryland. Included in that run was a 21-8 win over Penn last Wednesday in what was a must-win for the Tigers to have a shot at an Ivy title.
Of those six wins, five came in the month of April, leaving Princeton lacrosse a combined 10-1 in the month. That's pretty good.
The Penn win set up this past weekend, the final one in the regular season. Heading into it, Princeton was tied with Penn and Dartmouth for first place in the league, while Columbia and Cornell were alive for the fourth spot in the tournament.
On the women's side, the tournament was still going to be played at the home of the highest seeded team.
Princeton entered the game with scenarios by which it could win and not host the tournament and lose and still host the tournament. As it turned out, the one that played out saw Princeton and Penn win and Dartmouth lose. And Cornell lose to Harvard.
When it all unfolded, Princeton and Penn were the Ivy League co-champs, and Princeton's win last week over Penn put the tournament on Sherrerd Field.
Princeton will immediately turn around and play Columbia again, since Columbia finished ahead of Cornell. If it's anything like the first game, expect lots and lots of offense, since it was 22-16 Princeton Saturday.
The rematch will be the second of Friday's doubleheader, which starts with Penn, the two seed, and third-seeded Dartmouth at 4.
The winners meet Sunday for the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The final will be at 11.
If you're looking for some individual news, freshman Kyla Sears had six goals in the game the other day, giving her 53 for the season. That's sixth all-time on Princeton's single-season list, one back of tying Olivia Hompe for fifth (and tying the men's record for a single-season, set in 2017 by Gavin McBride). It's also the most ever by a Princeton freshman, male or female. Michael Sowers holds the men's record at 41, by the way.
As for Chris Sailer, this was Ivy League championship No. 14. That's one more than Pete Carril won in basketball and equal to the number Bill Tierney won in men's lacrosse.
Sailer is hoping to come out of next weekend with her 25th NCAA tournament appearance. That's another insane number.
First, though, there's the Ivy League women's tournament, this weekend on Sherrerd Field. Once again, that's Penn-Dartmouth Friday at 4, followed by Princeton-Cornell at 7. The winners meet Sunday at 11.
The winner of that is assured a spot in the NCAA tournament.
There are some pretty steep parts of it, places that don't look like they would be brutal but are, especially when the wind is whipping in your face. Very little of the ride is actually on the Princeton campus, though the exact midway point is the Streicker Bridge, the one that goes over Washington Road.
Just before that, there is one lap around the concourse of the football stadium. As they reached that part of the ride, John asked how long it takes to take down the bubble.
Hey, the bubble was gone. TigerBlog hadn't even noticed it. And yet it was gone, stored somewhere until the end of next football season.
And with that, the first year of the bubble has come and gone. As TB has said before, the bubble is amazing on the inside, and there's the strange sensation of knowing you're standing on the middle of Powers Field without having any realization that you're in the middle of the football stadium.
The bubble accomplished everything it was meant to do, offering outdoor teams a home when the weather was awful, for practice or for conditioning. The athletes TB talked to about it universally loved having it there, and there were numerous occasions when teams were able to get things done that they otherwise would have had no chance of doing if they'd had to be outside.
It doesn't seem all that long ago that the two lacrosse teams were doing individual workouts in the bubble, waiting for practice to start. Now the regular season for both has come and gone.
Both teams are playing their best right now. Only one has a chance to keep it going. The men have been blisteringly hot in April, going 5-0 - all by at least five goals, including a 14-8 win over sixth-ranked Cornell Saturday - while trying to climb out of an 0-3 Ivy start. In the end, Princeton finished in a three-way tie for third with Penn and Brown but didn't have the tiebreaker on either of them.
As a result, Princeton is excruciatingly not part of the Ivy tournament this weekend at Columbia.
As for the women, they're playing their best right now and will have their season continue. And it will continue on the Tigers' home turf.
Princeton has won six out of seven, with the only loss by one goal to defending champ Maryland. Included in that run was a 21-8 win over Penn last Wednesday in what was a must-win for the Tigers to have a shot at an Ivy title.
Of those six wins, five came in the month of April, leaving Princeton lacrosse a combined 10-1 in the month. That's pretty good.
The Penn win set up this past weekend, the final one in the regular season. Heading into it, Princeton was tied with Penn and Dartmouth for first place in the league, while Columbia and Cornell were alive for the fourth spot in the tournament.
On the women's side, the tournament was still going to be played at the home of the highest seeded team.
Princeton entered the game with scenarios by which it could win and not host the tournament and lose and still host the tournament. As it turned out, the one that played out saw Princeton and Penn win and Dartmouth lose. And Cornell lose to Harvard.
When it all unfolded, Princeton and Penn were the Ivy League co-champs, and Princeton's win last week over Penn put the tournament on Sherrerd Field.
Princeton will immediately turn around and play Columbia again, since Columbia finished ahead of Cornell. If it's anything like the first game, expect lots and lots of offense, since it was 22-16 Princeton Saturday.
The rematch will be the second of Friday's doubleheader, which starts with Penn, the two seed, and third-seeded Dartmouth at 4.
The winners meet Sunday for the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The final will be at 11.
If you're looking for some individual news, freshman Kyla Sears had six goals in the game the other day, giving her 53 for the season. That's sixth all-time on Princeton's single-season list, one back of tying Olivia Hompe for fifth (and tying the men's record for a single-season, set in 2017 by Gavin McBride). It's also the most ever by a Princeton freshman, male or female. Michael Sowers holds the men's record at 41, by the way.
As for Chris Sailer, this was Ivy League championship No. 14. That's one more than Pete Carril won in basketball and equal to the number Bill Tierney won in men's lacrosse.
Sailer is hoping to come out of next weekend with her 25th NCAA tournament appearance. That's another insane number.
First, though, there's the Ivy League women's tournament, this weekend on Sherrerd Field. Once again, that's Penn-Dartmouth Friday at 4, followed by Princeton-Cornell at 7. The winners meet Sunday at 11.
The winner of that is assured a spot in the NCAA tournament.
Friday, April 27, 2018
The Weekend In Lax
If the question is "what was the score," the answer usually is met with something along the lines of "oh."
Every now and then, though, you get more than "oh." You get "wow." That was the case Wednesday night after the women's lacrosse game.
Princeton 21, Penn 8? Wow. That'll get everyone's attention.
For starters, Penn was the lone unbeaten team in the Ivy League, while Princeton had one loss. That made it something of a championship game, or at least a "have a shot at a championship game" for Princeton.
For another, Princeton and Penn are huge rivals.
For another, there's the possibility of a rematch not that long from now.
Princeton, Penn and Dartmouth will all be in the Ivy League tournament next weekend. The questions remaining are: 1) who will join them, 2) where will it be and 3) how many teams will enter as the league champ?
The answer to one is Columbia (if it beats Princeton tomorrow or if Harvard beats Cornell) or Cornell (if it wins and Columbia loses). Yale can finish in a three-way tie with Cornell and Columbia at 3-4, but Yale has lost to both.
The answer to the third is that Princeton, Penn and Dartmouth (who plays Brown) are all 5-1. Should they all win or all lose, they'd be tri-champs. If two win, they'd be co-champs. If one wins, it would be the outright champ.
As for the last question, should there be co-champions, then the tournament would be hosted by Princeton (if it's tied with Penn), Dartmouth (if it's tied with Princeton) and Penn (if it's tied with Dartmouth). If there's a three-way tie at 6-1, then Princeton would host, since it has the edge in goal differential. If there's a three-way tie at 5-2, well, then TB isn't sure, because he's not sure what order the tiebreakers go.
If it's goal differential before how you did against the other teams going down the standings, then it would still be Princeton. If it's how you did against the other teams in the standings, then it would be Penn, because Columbia would be fourth, Princeton would have lost to Columbia, Penn and Dartmouth have already beaten the Lions and Penn beat Dartmouth.
Still, TB has a really hard time imagining it would get to three teams at 5-2.
Meanwhile, there's the small matter of what happens if Princeton and Penn play again. Well, let's see what happened a year ago. Penn beat Princeton 17-12 during the regular season. Then, a little more than two weeks later, Princeton beat Penn 17-8 in the Ivy semifinals.
So yeah, the game the other night doesn't guarantee anything in the future.
Anyway, it'll all be sorted out tomorrow. The same is true on the men's side, where Yale will be the top seed, Cornell will be the second seed and then four teams are left for the last two spots, including Princeton, who can only get in should Dartmouth defeat Brown.
Princeton hosts Cornell tomorrow at 1. The game will showcase two players who have done extraordinary things in their first two years of college lacrosse.
It's not fair to say the game is Michael Sowers against Jeff Teat. They won't be guarding each other. You can't even say that whoever has the most points had a better game, since there are a lot of factors involved.
What you can do is simply enjoy their talents.
Right now, Teat is averaging 6.12 points per game for his career, slightly ahead of Sowers at 5.96. Does that sound impressive? Do you want some context?
Well, for all of the great players in college lacrosse right now, that makes Teat No. 1 and Sowers No. 2 among current scorers. And that also makes Teat No. 5 all-time and Sowers No. 6 all-time in career points per game. That's in NCAA history - and no player since 1981 has averaged more for a career.
That's extraordinary.
Sowers and Teat are also 1-2 in points per game this year (Teat first) and 1-2 in assists per game this year (Sowers first). They're also on pace to finish 1-2 all-time in the Ivy League in points scored in a career.
Sowers will enter the game needing three points to tie the Princeton single-season record for points of 82. Of course, Sowers already has that record, which he set last year as a freshman.
Beyond the two super sophs, it's also Senior Day for the Princeton men. And there will be a halftime ceremony honoring Cookie Krongard, a longtime supporter of the program, a 1961 first-team All-America, a 1985 US Lacrosse Hall of Fame inductee and 70-something year old who still jumps in as a goalie in the annual alumni game.
Actually, TB has watched Cookie play in those games. The players start out shooting gingerly, but then instinct takes over and they start firing away. It's quite a sight.
Every now and then, though, you get more than "oh." You get "wow." That was the case Wednesday night after the women's lacrosse game.
Princeton 21, Penn 8? Wow. That'll get everyone's attention.
For starters, Penn was the lone unbeaten team in the Ivy League, while Princeton had one loss. That made it something of a championship game, or at least a "have a shot at a championship game" for Princeton.
For another, Princeton and Penn are huge rivals.
For another, there's the possibility of a rematch not that long from now.
Princeton, Penn and Dartmouth will all be in the Ivy League tournament next weekend. The questions remaining are: 1) who will join them, 2) where will it be and 3) how many teams will enter as the league champ?
The answer to one is Columbia (if it beats Princeton tomorrow or if Harvard beats Cornell) or Cornell (if it wins and Columbia loses). Yale can finish in a three-way tie with Cornell and Columbia at 3-4, but Yale has lost to both.
The answer to the third is that Princeton, Penn and Dartmouth (who plays Brown) are all 5-1. Should they all win or all lose, they'd be tri-champs. If two win, they'd be co-champs. If one wins, it would be the outright champ.
As for the last question, should there be co-champions, then the tournament would be hosted by Princeton (if it's tied with Penn), Dartmouth (if it's tied with Princeton) and Penn (if it's tied with Dartmouth). If there's a three-way tie at 6-1, then Princeton would host, since it has the edge in goal differential. If there's a three-way tie at 5-2, well, then TB isn't sure, because he's not sure what order the tiebreakers go.
If it's goal differential before how you did against the other teams going down the standings, then it would still be Princeton. If it's how you did against the other teams in the standings, then it would be Penn, because Columbia would be fourth, Princeton would have lost to Columbia, Penn and Dartmouth have already beaten the Lions and Penn beat Dartmouth.
Still, TB has a really hard time imagining it would get to three teams at 5-2.
Meanwhile, there's the small matter of what happens if Princeton and Penn play again. Well, let's see what happened a year ago. Penn beat Princeton 17-12 during the regular season. Then, a little more than two weeks later, Princeton beat Penn 17-8 in the Ivy semifinals.
So yeah, the game the other night doesn't guarantee anything in the future.
Anyway, it'll all be sorted out tomorrow. The same is true on the men's side, where Yale will be the top seed, Cornell will be the second seed and then four teams are left for the last two spots, including Princeton, who can only get in should Dartmouth defeat Brown.
Princeton hosts Cornell tomorrow at 1. The game will showcase two players who have done extraordinary things in their first two years of college lacrosse.
It's not fair to say the game is Michael Sowers against Jeff Teat. They won't be guarding each other. You can't even say that whoever has the most points had a better game, since there are a lot of factors involved.
What you can do is simply enjoy their talents.
Right now, Teat is averaging 6.12 points per game for his career, slightly ahead of Sowers at 5.96. Does that sound impressive? Do you want some context?
Well, for all of the great players in college lacrosse right now, that makes Teat No. 1 and Sowers No. 2 among current scorers. And that also makes Teat No. 5 all-time and Sowers No. 6 all-time in career points per game. That's in NCAA history - and no player since 1981 has averaged more for a career.
That's extraordinary.
Sowers and Teat are also 1-2 in points per game this year (Teat first) and 1-2 in assists per game this year (Sowers first). They're also on pace to finish 1-2 all-time in the Ivy League in points scored in a career.
Sowers will enter the game needing three points to tie the Princeton single-season record for points of 82. Of course, Sowers already has that record, which he set last year as a freshman.
Beyond the two super sophs, it's also Senior Day for the Princeton men. And there will be a halftime ceremony honoring Cookie Krongard, a longtime supporter of the program, a 1961 first-team All-America, a 1985 US Lacrosse Hall of Fame inductee and 70-something year old who still jumps in as a goalie in the annual alumni game.
Actually, TB has watched Cookie play in those games. The players start out shooting gingerly, but then instinct takes over and they start firing away. It's quite a sight.
Thursday, April 26, 2018
Next Stop
TigerBlog can speak for, presumably, a great number of listeners of WFAN sports radio in New York City when he says the following three things:
First, he can say that he can't stand Mike Francesa, who is nothing but a gigantic ego maniac who knows about 20 percent of what he thinks he knows.
Second, he used to listen to Francesa a lot.
Third, he never once has listened to the show that replaced him after Francesa retired.
There. That about sums up why Francesa is coming back to WFAN.
Even if you're not from the New York area, you're probably familiar with Mike Francesa and Christopher Russo. They were "Mike and Mad Dog," and they were the ones who started sports talk - radio and TV, and ultimately social media - down the path it has gone.
Francesa is all the things that TigerBlog said he is. He's also the best who ever did sports talk, or at least he and Russo are.
Without him, rating went down on WFAN. TigerBlog certainly doesn't listen anymore. He'd rather sing show tunes as he leaves work.
The big news earlier this week was that Francesa was coming back to save WFAN. Apparently, from what TB read, Francesa's ego has taken over, he made a big power grab, he didn't care about the three people who replaced him, blah, blah, blah.
The bottom line, though, is that if Francesa is back on in the afternoon, TigerBlog will probably listen again. So will, he presumes, much of the audience WFAN lost when Francesa left.
Someone that TigerBlog knows listened to "Mike and the Mad Dog" was Joe Scott, who himself would be really good at doing sports talk radio, now that TigerBlog thinks about it. Scott actually would be a natural at it.
Instead, Scott is a basketball coach. His career has been the kind that coaches often have, with a lot of stops along the way.
Scott played for Pete Carril at Princeton before graduating in 1987. He then went to law school before starting down the path of his coaching career. In fact, according to a story that TigerBlog just read, Scott has been in the coaching profession for 27 years.
Carril spent 29 years as the head coach at Princeton. In his 27 years as a coach, Scott has gone from:
Monmouth to Princeton to Air Force (head coach) to Princeton (head coach) to Denver (head coach) to Holy Cross and now to his latest stop, Georgia, where he was just hired as an assistant coach.
Scott's most recent position, at Holy Cross, was under former Princeton head coach Bill Carmody. Now he moves on to the Southeastern Conference with, TB presumes, the hopes of getting a head coaching job again.
Joe Scott is one of TigerBlog's favorite people. He's a driven, competitive guy, but he also has depth to him that very few people TB has met can match. He's a very deep thinker, and he's extremely loyal. And he's hilarious.
Coaching isn't the easiest profession. Scott has been lucky actually, since so many other coaches spend a year here, two years there, another year someplace else, and never get to be a head coach.
Carril could have left Princeton during his nearly 30 years here. He chose not to, and it's part of what his legend is. TigerBlog has often said that he's not willing to concede that John Wooden was a better college coach than Pete Carril, and he'd love to somehow know what Princeton basketball would have looked like had Wooden been its coach for those 29 years.
Instead, Carril stayed loyal to Princeton, where he coached players who benefited from the way Carril ran his program - tough, no BS, everything earned.
Would Carril have stayed for 29 years if he got here today?
It's been 22 years since Carril retired from Princeton. That alone is sort of whacky.
Since then, Princeton has had Bill Carmody, John Thompson, Joe Scott, Sydney Johnson and now Mitch Henderson as its head men's basketball coach. Each time they were hired, TB thought they'd be here as long as Carril. He still thinks there's a chance Henderson will be.
The first four, though, all left to become head coaches someplace else. It's just how it works, TB supposes.
If you're looking for someone who could be Carril-like, it might be Courtney Banghart. She's already been here 11 seasons, and she's built a program that has won six Ivy titles and played in seven NCAA tournaments and two WNITs. Carril, if you forgot, won 13 Ivy titles and played in 11 NCAAs and two NITs (winning it in 1975).
Banghart is starting to get in the neighborhood of those numbers.
At the same time, it's a lot to imagine a coach who stays at the same place for nearly 30 years. Who knows? In another 19 years, it wouldn't really shock TB if Banghart is still here. Then again, it also wouldn't shock him if she was a United States Senator.
In the meantime, Joe Scott is off to another stop along his road.
And TigerBlog can now add Georgia to the list of teams he'll be rooting hard for come next basketball season.
First, he can say that he can't stand Mike Francesa, who is nothing but a gigantic ego maniac who knows about 20 percent of what he thinks he knows.
Second, he used to listen to Francesa a lot.
Third, he never once has listened to the show that replaced him after Francesa retired.
There. That about sums up why Francesa is coming back to WFAN.
Even if you're not from the New York area, you're probably familiar with Mike Francesa and Christopher Russo. They were "Mike and Mad Dog," and they were the ones who started sports talk - radio and TV, and ultimately social media - down the path it has gone.
Francesa is all the things that TigerBlog said he is. He's also the best who ever did sports talk, or at least he and Russo are.
Without him, rating went down on WFAN. TigerBlog certainly doesn't listen anymore. He'd rather sing show tunes as he leaves work.
The big news earlier this week was that Francesa was coming back to save WFAN. Apparently, from what TB read, Francesa's ego has taken over, he made a big power grab, he didn't care about the three people who replaced him, blah, blah, blah.
The bottom line, though, is that if Francesa is back on in the afternoon, TigerBlog will probably listen again. So will, he presumes, much of the audience WFAN lost when Francesa left.
Someone that TigerBlog knows listened to "Mike and the Mad Dog" was Joe Scott, who himself would be really good at doing sports talk radio, now that TigerBlog thinks about it. Scott actually would be a natural at it.
Instead, Scott is a basketball coach. His career has been the kind that coaches often have, with a lot of stops along the way.
Scott played for Pete Carril at Princeton before graduating in 1987. He then went to law school before starting down the path of his coaching career. In fact, according to a story that TigerBlog just read, Scott has been in the coaching profession for 27 years.
Carril spent 29 years as the head coach at Princeton. In his 27 years as a coach, Scott has gone from:
Monmouth to Princeton to Air Force (head coach) to Princeton (head coach) to Denver (head coach) to Holy Cross and now to his latest stop, Georgia, where he was just hired as an assistant coach.
Scott's most recent position, at Holy Cross, was under former Princeton head coach Bill Carmody. Now he moves on to the Southeastern Conference with, TB presumes, the hopes of getting a head coaching job again.
Joe Scott is one of TigerBlog's favorite people. He's a driven, competitive guy, but he also has depth to him that very few people TB has met can match. He's a very deep thinker, and he's extremely loyal. And he's hilarious.
Coaching isn't the easiest profession. Scott has been lucky actually, since so many other coaches spend a year here, two years there, another year someplace else, and never get to be a head coach.
Carril could have left Princeton during his nearly 30 years here. He chose not to, and it's part of what his legend is. TigerBlog has often said that he's not willing to concede that John Wooden was a better college coach than Pete Carril, and he'd love to somehow know what Princeton basketball would have looked like had Wooden been its coach for those 29 years.
Instead, Carril stayed loyal to Princeton, where he coached players who benefited from the way Carril ran his program - tough, no BS, everything earned.
Would Carril have stayed for 29 years if he got here today?
It's been 22 years since Carril retired from Princeton. That alone is sort of whacky.
Since then, Princeton has had Bill Carmody, John Thompson, Joe Scott, Sydney Johnson and now Mitch Henderson as its head men's basketball coach. Each time they were hired, TB thought they'd be here as long as Carril. He still thinks there's a chance Henderson will be.
The first four, though, all left to become head coaches someplace else. It's just how it works, TB supposes.
If you're looking for someone who could be Carril-like, it might be Courtney Banghart. She's already been here 11 seasons, and she's built a program that has won six Ivy titles and played in seven NCAA tournaments and two WNITs. Carril, if you forgot, won 13 Ivy titles and played in 11 NCAAs and two NITs (winning it in 1975).
Banghart is starting to get in the neighborhood of those numbers.
At the same time, it's a lot to imagine a coach who stays at the same place for nearly 30 years. Who knows? In another 19 years, it wouldn't really shock TB if Banghart is still here. Then again, it also wouldn't shock him if she was a United States Senator.
In the meantime, Joe Scott is off to another stop along his road.
And TigerBlog can now add Georgia to the list of teams he'll be rooting hard for come next basketball season.
Wednesday, April 25, 2018
Big Games On Sherrerd Field
The Princeton men's lacrosse team is in an odd spot as it heads into the final weekend of the regular season.
The Tigers can win and not reach the Ivy League tournament. The Tigers can lose and still reach the Ivy League tournament.
As Princeton heads into its regular-season finale Saturday against Cornell on Sherrerd Field (1 face-off), its reality is that it cannot get into the Ivy tournament at all if Dartmouth does not defeat Brown. The Big Green, who have lost 22 straight Ivy games, did push Penn to overtime a week ago.
If Dartmouth beats Brown, then Princeton is in the Ivy tournament with a win over Cornell or a Harvard loss to Yale. Simple, right?
Well, no. There are all kinds of possibilities, including three-way and four-way ties at 3-3, and Princeton is on the short end of the tiebreakers for most of those situations.
Basically, it comes down to the fact that Princeton doesn't hold the tiebreaker with Penn or Brown, because of losses earlier in the season. Princeton would have the tiebreaker with Harvard in a head-to-head situation after last week's win, but then Princeton and Harvard could only end up in a three-way tie and Brown would get to 3-3 with a win over Dartmouth and Penn is already 3-3 and on and on and on. It gives TB a headache. The bottom line is that Dartmouth has to win.
Yale is locked in at No. 1. Cornell is locked in at No. 2. Dartmouth will not be in the tournament.
That leaves Princeton in a battle with Penn, Brown and Harvard for the last two spots.
The Ivy League men's coaches voted to add a few layers to the tiebreaking procedures from years past, with the goal to eliminate ever having to rely on a random draw. You can read the tiebreakers HERE.
Princeton would have benefited greatly from a slight change in the order of those tiebreakers, at least for this year. If the goal-differential tiebreaker had been inserted before, instead of after, the one about how teams did against the team at the top of the standings and then on down, then Princeton would be in great shape.
Oh well. Even if Dartmouth doesn't come up with a win, TigerBlog is still in favor of tiebreakers that don't include random draws. There should never be one of those.
Meanwhile, the women's side is a bit different.
Princeton hosts Penn tonight (7) on Sherrerd Field. The Tigers know they will be in the Ivy tournament next weekend regardless of what happens tonight, or what happens Saturday at Columbia.
What Princeton doesn't know is where the Ivy tournament will be. And whether or not they'll win a championship this year.
The Ivy women's tournament will either be at Princeton, Penn or Dartmouth. Right now, Penn is 5-0, followed by 5-1 Dartmouth and 4-1 Princeton. Should Princeton win out and Penn and Dartmouth win Saturday (Penn is at Yale, Dartmouth is at Brown), then there'd be a three-way tie for the championship.
Where would the tournament be in that case?
Well, it would be an unbreakable tie, since the teams would all be 1-1 against each other and then unbeaten against everyone else, and, like last year when it was Princeton with Penn and Cornell, it would come down to goal differential between those three.
Penn has already beaten Dartmouth 13-11. Dartmouth has already beaten Princeton 15-12. The math is somewhat obvious at that point. Princeton needs to win by at least five tonight to take the lead head-to-head on goal differential.
Right? Maybe it's not obvious. Anyway, TB is pretty sure that's the case. Dartmouth is plus-1 (beat Princeton by three, lost to Penn by two). Princeton is currently minus-3. Penn is plus-2. Princeton, TB is pretty sure, would lose the tiebreaker to Dartmouth with a win over Penn that puts the Tigers even with the Big Green, because they lost the game to them earlier this season.
On the other hand, if Penn wins tonight, then it clinches at least a share of the title and would be the host team for the tournament. Princeton would then be locked into the third seed and would definitely play Dartmouth in the Ivy semifinals, no matter what happened Saturday.
By the way, if you're wondering when the last time there was a year in Ivy women's lacrosse where one of either Princeton, Penn or Dartmouth didn't win at least a share of the title, it was 1992. In fact, Princeton, Penn and Dartmouth have combined to win 15 Ivy titles in the last 10 years.
Princeton, also by the way, has won the most Ivy League championships of any women's lacrosse team with 13.
Anyway, there are two huge games this week on Sherrerd Field, tonight against Penn for the women and Saturday against Cornell for the men.
Will there be others beyond that on that field?
You'll have a better sense after tonight's game.
The Tigers can win and not reach the Ivy League tournament. The Tigers can lose and still reach the Ivy League tournament.
As Princeton heads into its regular-season finale Saturday against Cornell on Sherrerd Field (1 face-off), its reality is that it cannot get into the Ivy tournament at all if Dartmouth does not defeat Brown. The Big Green, who have lost 22 straight Ivy games, did push Penn to overtime a week ago.
If Dartmouth beats Brown, then Princeton is in the Ivy tournament with a win over Cornell or a Harvard loss to Yale. Simple, right?
Well, no. There are all kinds of possibilities, including three-way and four-way ties at 3-3, and Princeton is on the short end of the tiebreakers for most of those situations.
Basically, it comes down to the fact that Princeton doesn't hold the tiebreaker with Penn or Brown, because of losses earlier in the season. Princeton would have the tiebreaker with Harvard in a head-to-head situation after last week's win, but then Princeton and Harvard could only end up in a three-way tie and Brown would get to 3-3 with a win over Dartmouth and Penn is already 3-3 and on and on and on. It gives TB a headache. The bottom line is that Dartmouth has to win.
Yale is locked in at No. 1. Cornell is locked in at No. 2. Dartmouth will not be in the tournament.
That leaves Princeton in a battle with Penn, Brown and Harvard for the last two spots.
The Ivy League men's coaches voted to add a few layers to the tiebreaking procedures from years past, with the goal to eliminate ever having to rely on a random draw. You can read the tiebreakers HERE.
Princeton would have benefited greatly from a slight change in the order of those tiebreakers, at least for this year. If the goal-differential tiebreaker had been inserted before, instead of after, the one about how teams did against the team at the top of the standings and then on down, then Princeton would be in great shape.
Oh well. Even if Dartmouth doesn't come up with a win, TigerBlog is still in favor of tiebreakers that don't include random draws. There should never be one of those.
Meanwhile, the women's side is a bit different.
Princeton hosts Penn tonight (7) on Sherrerd Field. The Tigers know they will be in the Ivy tournament next weekend regardless of what happens tonight, or what happens Saturday at Columbia.
What Princeton doesn't know is where the Ivy tournament will be. And whether or not they'll win a championship this year.
The Ivy women's tournament will either be at Princeton, Penn or Dartmouth. Right now, Penn is 5-0, followed by 5-1 Dartmouth and 4-1 Princeton. Should Princeton win out and Penn and Dartmouth win Saturday (Penn is at Yale, Dartmouth is at Brown), then there'd be a three-way tie for the championship.
Where would the tournament be in that case?
Well, it would be an unbreakable tie, since the teams would all be 1-1 against each other and then unbeaten against everyone else, and, like last year when it was Princeton with Penn and Cornell, it would come down to goal differential between those three.
Penn has already beaten Dartmouth 13-11. Dartmouth has already beaten Princeton 15-12. The math is somewhat obvious at that point. Princeton needs to win by at least five tonight to take the lead head-to-head on goal differential.
Right? Maybe it's not obvious. Anyway, TB is pretty sure that's the case. Dartmouth is plus-1 (beat Princeton by three, lost to Penn by two). Princeton is currently minus-3. Penn is plus-2. Princeton, TB is pretty sure, would lose the tiebreaker to Dartmouth with a win over Penn that puts the Tigers even with the Big Green, because they lost the game to them earlier this season.
On the other hand, if Penn wins tonight, then it clinches at least a share of the title and would be the host team for the tournament. Princeton would then be locked into the third seed and would definitely play Dartmouth in the Ivy semifinals, no matter what happened Saturday.
By the way, if you're wondering when the last time there was a year in Ivy women's lacrosse where one of either Princeton, Penn or Dartmouth didn't win at least a share of the title, it was 1992. In fact, Princeton, Penn and Dartmouth have combined to win 15 Ivy titles in the last 10 years.
Princeton, also by the way, has won the most Ivy League championships of any women's lacrosse team with 13.
Anyway, there are two huge games this week on Sherrerd Field, tonight against Penn for the women and Saturday against Cornell for the men.
Will there be others beyond that on that field?
You'll have a better sense after tonight's game.
Tuesday, April 24, 2018
In The Nation's Service
TigerBlog will get to the video he saw on goprincetontigers.com yesterday in a second.
First, there was huge news out of Princeton yesterday.
The academic calendar is changing, after a vote by the faculty. You can read the University's official story HERE.
The main change, of course, is that beginning in the 2020-21 academic year, first semester exams will no longer be after the holidays. They'll be in December instead, like they are essentially everywhere else. There's more to it than just that, but that's the most notable part of the change.
If you're a Princeton alum, then you spent four years going home for the holidays and then coming back to campus for reading period and then final exams. This was your ritual each of your four years, when all of your friends who went to other schools had already taken their exams.
This, of course, probably leaves you with some pretty strong feelings about the change of the calendar. Did you love it? Hate it? Do you love the fact that it was something very unique to Princeton? Did you want your winter break back?
Miss TigerBlog will, hopefully, be a junior in the 2020-21 academic year, which means she'll have two years the old way and two years the new way. Perhaps after graduation she'll write a guest TigerBlog about what she thought of each.
TigerBlog, of course, went to Penn, which has long had a traditional academic calendar. He only knew having first-semester exams before the holidays, and that was fine with him.
Since he's been at Princeton all this time, he's gotten used to the way the academic calendar has been. And one of the more unique components of it was the way it impacted athletic schedules.
Most college teams shut down their athletic programs for first semester exams in December. At Princeton, that break came in January.
As you know as a Princeton fan, this would mean that there would be no athletic events during basically a three-week stretch in January. It's always meant that the winter season was broken up into completely separate components - and that Princeton would be sidelined while the rest of the college athletic world would be at its busiest.
What will the effect be on the athletic calendar? TigerBlog isn't sure. He hasn't talked to enough people - coaches, administrators - to get a real feel for things.
He does know that he'll miss the winter breaks. They come at a very good time and have always provided a natural break for those who work here.
Of course, he also got to take his exams before Princeton, so what does he know? Actually, one thing he does know is that the post-holiday exam break went back decades and decades and that he's not sure exactly when it first started to be like that. Maybe it goes back centuries.
And now it'll be changing. That's huge stuff.
And now he can talk about the video.
TB's colleague John Bullis did a piece on two Princeton female athletes who are also in ROTC, sophomore Casey Bersh of the women's water polo team and junior Mikayla Blaska of the softball team. You can watch the video HERE.
By the way, TigerBlog puts links to stories and videos here all the time. He always has the links bold and italicized. Do people click on them?
Anyway, Bersh and Blaska talk in the video about their decisions to take a path that most college kids would never even consider. It's a calling for them, and they are embracing that piece of their experience. They also talk about the connection to their athletic experience at Princeton.
The University's official motto is "In the Nation's Service and the Service of All Humanity." In the Department of Athletics, the goal is to give those who compete here the opportunity to "Achieve, Serve, Lead." These two young women clearly buy into both aspects.
TigerBlog especially liked when they talked about what they were going to do in the future, after graduation, when they're in the Army. Blaska talks about active duty and the infantry. Bersh talks about military intelligence or the JAG Corps, which is military law and justice.
The best part is the way both smile as they say the words. They are very serious and very proud of what they want to do - but at the end they both sneak in a small smile, one that says they're really looking forward to it.
They're definitely special. That's for sure.
First, there was huge news out of Princeton yesterday.
The academic calendar is changing, after a vote by the faculty. You can read the University's official story HERE.
The main change, of course, is that beginning in the 2020-21 academic year, first semester exams will no longer be after the holidays. They'll be in December instead, like they are essentially everywhere else. There's more to it than just that, but that's the most notable part of the change.
If you're a Princeton alum, then you spent four years going home for the holidays and then coming back to campus for reading period and then final exams. This was your ritual each of your four years, when all of your friends who went to other schools had already taken their exams.
This, of course, probably leaves you with some pretty strong feelings about the change of the calendar. Did you love it? Hate it? Do you love the fact that it was something very unique to Princeton? Did you want your winter break back?
Miss TigerBlog will, hopefully, be a junior in the 2020-21 academic year, which means she'll have two years the old way and two years the new way. Perhaps after graduation she'll write a guest TigerBlog about what she thought of each.
TigerBlog, of course, went to Penn, which has long had a traditional academic calendar. He only knew having first-semester exams before the holidays, and that was fine with him.
Since he's been at Princeton all this time, he's gotten used to the way the academic calendar has been. And one of the more unique components of it was the way it impacted athletic schedules.
Most college teams shut down their athletic programs for first semester exams in December. At Princeton, that break came in January.
As you know as a Princeton fan, this would mean that there would be no athletic events during basically a three-week stretch in January. It's always meant that the winter season was broken up into completely separate components - and that Princeton would be sidelined while the rest of the college athletic world would be at its busiest.
What will the effect be on the athletic calendar? TigerBlog isn't sure. He hasn't talked to enough people - coaches, administrators - to get a real feel for things.
He does know that he'll miss the winter breaks. They come at a very good time and have always provided a natural break for those who work here.
Of course, he also got to take his exams before Princeton, so what does he know? Actually, one thing he does know is that the post-holiday exam break went back decades and decades and that he's not sure exactly when it first started to be like that. Maybe it goes back centuries.
And now it'll be changing. That's huge stuff.
And now he can talk about the video.
TB's colleague John Bullis did a piece on two Princeton female athletes who are also in ROTC, sophomore Casey Bersh of the women's water polo team and junior Mikayla Blaska of the softball team. You can watch the video HERE.
By the way, TigerBlog puts links to stories and videos here all the time. He always has the links bold and italicized. Do people click on them?
Anyway, Bersh and Blaska talk in the video about their decisions to take a path that most college kids would never even consider. It's a calling for them, and they are embracing that piece of their experience. They also talk about the connection to their athletic experience at Princeton.
The University's official motto is "In the Nation's Service and the Service of All Humanity." In the Department of Athletics, the goal is to give those who compete here the opportunity to "Achieve, Serve, Lead." These two young women clearly buy into both aspects.
TigerBlog especially liked when they talked about what they were going to do in the future, after graduation, when they're in the Army. Blaska talks about active duty and the infantry. Bersh talks about military intelligence or the JAG Corps, which is military law and justice.
The best part is the way both smile as they say the words. They are very serious and very proud of what they want to do - but at the end they both sneak in a small smile, one that says they're really looking forward to it.
They're definitely special. That's for sure.
Monday, April 23, 2018
Championships For Women's Golf And Women's Tennis
TigerBlog starts today with men's lacrosse. Navy men's lacrosse.
Actually, it's not a men's lacrosse story. It' s a heartwarming story.
It's actually one of the nicest moments TigerBlog has ever seen in a sporting event.
Navy played at Syracuse Saturday. The Mids had the lead for most of the first three quarters, trailed by two in the fourth and then tied it with 9. 5 seconds to play. That set up the final drama and ultimately the heartwarming part.
The two face-off men in the game were brothers. Joe Varello took all 27 face-offs for Navy. Dan Varello took all 27 for Syracuse. Joe is the older one.
Joe would win 16 of them, including the last one. It set up this (and you need to watch it all the way until the end):
And that's all TigerBlog has to say about lacrosse today. He'll be back with more lax another day.
For today, he wants to talk about Ivy League championships won by Princeton this weekend.
Princeton won two Ivy titles, in women's golf and women's tennis. They are the seventh and eighth Ivy championships of the academic year for the Tigers.
As a reminder, Princeton has also won Ivy titles in 2017-18 in field hockey, women's soccer, women's volleyball, men's cross country, men's indoor track and field and women's basketball.
The women's tennis team won the Ivy title for the fourth time in five years with wins over Harvard Saturday and Dartmouth yesterday. The Tigers went into the weekend at 5-0 in the league, tied with Harvard, which meant that the match Saturday wasn't quite winner-take-all but might as well have been.
Princeton and Harvard could have finished in a tie for the championship had the winner of Saturday's match lost yesterday and the loser of that match won yesterday. Regardless, the winner Saturday was headed to the NCAA tournament.
With that on the line, Harvard started out the day winning the doubles point, which meant Princeton needed to win four of the six singles matches to get the team win. And that's what the Tigers did, with wins by two sophomores (Clare McKee, Gaby Pollner), a freshman (Nathalie Rodilosso) and a senior (Katrine Steffensen).
You can see a video of the celebration HERE.
Princeton then defeated Dartmouth yesterday 5-2 to wrap up a perfect run through the league. That is not easy to do in women's tennis.
Princeton head coach Laura Granville is one of the best collegiate women's tennis players ever, with two NCAA singles championships when she played at Stanford. She was also a long-time touring pro.
This is her sixth year at Princeton. She is completely humble and understated, always with a smile and a sincere "how are you?", and she and assistant coach Elizabeth Begley just continue to churn out championship teams year after year. And run a program that represents all of the good things that Princeton Athletics special.
As for the women's golf team, Erika DeSanty has a lot of the same friendly qualities that Granville does. DeSanty is in her fourth season as the Princeton head coach. She led Princeton to its first Ivy title in 12 years when the 2017 Tigers sprinted away from the league, defeating second-place Harvard by 31 strokes. That was just one off the record for the largest margin of victory in Ivy women's golf history.
This year, it was Princeton in first and Harvard in second, though it was quite a bit closer than it was a year ago. Like, tied after 54-holes close.
Princeton and Harvard were tied for second heading into Sunday's third round, and they were tied for first after it. Both teams shot a six-over 294 Sunday, going from three back of Brown to six ahead of Brown in the process.
And did you see the round-by-round scores?
Harvard shot a 313 for the first round; Princeton shot a 314. That's a one-shot difference. Then, in Round 2, it was Princeton 303, Harvard 304.
So Princeton lost by a shot in the first round and then won by a shot in the second round. Then Princeton and Harvard tied in the third round.
TigerBlog finds that extraordinary.
It set up a playoff for the championship, with four golfers from each team on the same hole. Amazingly, two teams that were inseparable for 54 holes were then separated by six shots on the 55th, as Princeton's four shot two-under and the Harvard four shot four over.
Championship to Princeton.
Actually, for this weekend, it's two championships for Princeton.
Actually, it's not a men's lacrosse story. It' s a heartwarming story.
It's actually one of the nicest moments TigerBlog has ever seen in a sporting event.
Navy played at Syracuse Saturday. The Mids had the lead for most of the first three quarters, trailed by two in the fourth and then tied it with 9. 5 seconds to play. That set up the final drama and ultimately the heartwarming part.
The two face-off men in the game were brothers. Joe Varello took all 27 face-offs for Navy. Dan Varello took all 27 for Syracuse. Joe is the older one.
Joe would win 16 of them, including the last one. It set up this (and you need to watch it all the way until the end):
Is that great or what? If it doesn't touch you, then you need to rethink some things.Why we love lacrosse & sports today: @navymlax Joe Varello wins faceoff vs younger brother Dan, scores game winning goal with 0.2 seconds left to upset #9 @CuseMLAX. The brothers then share an embrace at the end of the game (video courtesy ACC Network Extra) pic.twitter.com/s9p7JzZDwK— Lax Sports Network (@LaxSportsNet) April 21, 2018
And that's all TigerBlog has to say about lacrosse today. He'll be back with more lax another day.
For today, he wants to talk about Ivy League championships won by Princeton this weekend.
Princeton won two Ivy titles, in women's golf and women's tennis. They are the seventh and eighth Ivy championships of the academic year for the Tigers.
As a reminder, Princeton has also won Ivy titles in 2017-18 in field hockey, women's soccer, women's volleyball, men's cross country, men's indoor track and field and women's basketball.
The women's tennis team won the Ivy title for the fourth time in five years with wins over Harvard Saturday and Dartmouth yesterday. The Tigers went into the weekend at 5-0 in the league, tied with Harvard, which meant that the match Saturday wasn't quite winner-take-all but might as well have been.
Princeton and Harvard could have finished in a tie for the championship had the winner of Saturday's match lost yesterday and the loser of that match won yesterday. Regardless, the winner Saturday was headed to the NCAA tournament.
With that on the line, Harvard started out the day winning the doubles point, which meant Princeton needed to win four of the six singles matches to get the team win. And that's what the Tigers did, with wins by two sophomores (Clare McKee, Gaby Pollner), a freshman (Nathalie Rodilosso) and a senior (Katrine Steffensen).
You can see a video of the celebration HERE.
Princeton then defeated Dartmouth yesterday 5-2 to wrap up a perfect run through the league. That is not easy to do in women's tennis.
Princeton head coach Laura Granville is one of the best collegiate women's tennis players ever, with two NCAA singles championships when she played at Stanford. She was also a long-time touring pro.
This is her sixth year at Princeton. She is completely humble and understated, always with a smile and a sincere "how are you?", and she and assistant coach Elizabeth Begley just continue to churn out championship teams year after year. And run a program that represents all of the good things that Princeton Athletics special.
As for the women's golf team, Erika DeSanty has a lot of the same friendly qualities that Granville does. DeSanty is in her fourth season as the Princeton head coach. She led Princeton to its first Ivy title in 12 years when the 2017 Tigers sprinted away from the league, defeating second-place Harvard by 31 strokes. That was just one off the record for the largest margin of victory in Ivy women's golf history.
This year, it was Princeton in first and Harvard in second, though it was quite a bit closer than it was a year ago. Like, tied after 54-holes close.
Princeton and Harvard were tied for second heading into Sunday's third round, and they were tied for first after it. Both teams shot a six-over 294 Sunday, going from three back of Brown to six ahead of Brown in the process.
And did you see the round-by-round scores?
Harvard shot a 313 for the first round; Princeton shot a 314. That's a one-shot difference. Then, in Round 2, it was Princeton 303, Harvard 304.
So Princeton lost by a shot in the first round and then won by a shot in the second round. Then Princeton and Harvard tied in the third round.
TigerBlog finds that extraordinary.
It set up a playoff for the championship, with four golfers from each team on the same hole. Amazingly, two teams that were inseparable for 54 holes were then separated by six shots on the 55th, as Princeton's four shot two-under and the Harvard four shot four over.
Championship to Princeton.
Actually, for this weekend, it's two championships for Princeton.
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