TigerBlog doesn't use any notes or anything during his podcasts.
He just starts the conversation and sees where it goes. Usually, this makes for a better, more informal presentation. Sometimes it means he leaves out something that he should have included.
Take yesterday for instance. TB had just finished his podcast with Carla Berube when she reminded him of something that he'd meant to bring up (and had mentioned here earlier in the week) and forgot to during the conversation.
Carlie Littlefield is 14 points away from 1,000 for her career.
TB should have included that in the podcast. If Littlefield gets her 14 points this weekend, he'll definitely mention it next week.
Either way, it's a huge accomplishment for the junior point guard from Iowa who was a first-team All-Ivy League selection a year ago. You don't necessarily think offense first for Littlefield, whose all-around game is so strong and whose tenacity has always been what has defined her.
Closing in on 1,000 points by the end of her junior year suggests someone who knows how to score, of course.
In some ways, Littlefield reminds TB of Sydney Johnson, the 1997 Ivy League Player of the Year (and now doing a really good job as an ESPN commentator). Had there been an Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year Award back then, Johnson would have won a few of them.
Still, he is also a 1,000-point scorer (1,044, to be exact). At least that's what TB thinks off the top of his head. Let him go check ...
... Yup. 1,044. Why does TB remember that?
Anyway, if you look at the Princeton record book, you'll see that Johnson finished with one more point than Amir Bell did. He's another player in the Littlefield mode - all-around players who are much more than just whatever offensive numbers they put up but who nevertheless reached 1,000 career points.
Actually, you figure Littlefield will get way past just 1,000, with one year to go.
As TB wrote yesterday, this is a big weekend in basketball for the men and women, though next weekend would seem to be bigger at this point, as both teams will be in the Ivy League tournament, playing for automatic NCAA tournament bids.
Speaking of playing for automatic NCAA tournament bids, there's the wrestling team this weekend.
The Tigers, who won the Ivy League championship this year, will be competing for 44 automatic NCAA tournament bids at the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association tournament. The event will be held at Lehigh, who is the defending champion.
In addition to the 44 automatic bids, there will also be at-large bids awarded after each conference tournament.
Princeton has three former champions in its lineup. Patrick Glory was the 2019 103-pound champ as a freshman, and he is currently ranked third nationally at the same weight. Matthew Kolodzik has won two championships at 149, though he didn't win last year. Patrick Brucki won at 197 last year.
Glory and Brucki are top-seeded for the tournament. Kolodzik is the fourth seed at his weight.
Princeton has four other seeded wrestlers, including second-seeded Quincy Monday at 157. There are also two six-seeds (Grant Cuomo at 165, Travis Stefanik at 184) and a seventh-seed (Kevin Parker at 174).
If you want to read some pretty comprehensive previews of the EIWA event, you have two great options - the goprincetontigers.com one HERE and the EIWA one HERE.
The wrestling at Lehigh starts tomorrow at 11, and the finals are Saturday afternoon, all at Lehigh's Stabler Arena.
The wrestling team has already had a magical season, with the Ivy League championship that ended Cornell's 18-year run at the top. Princeton went unbeaten in the Ivy League, and the win over Cornell that clinched it came in front of a huge crowd in Jadwin Gym - and just happened to be the 500th Ivy title for Princeton.
The last few years have seen the Tigers regularly send a large contingent on to the NCAA wrestling championships. This year, the Tigers would love to make a run at the EIWA title along the way, with the top three figured to be Princeton, Cornell and Lehigh in any order.
The NCAA championships will be held in Minneapolis March 19-21.
The Tigers would love to have someone win the big prize there. The road to that best of all possible endings to this dream year begins this weekend at Lehigh.
Thursday, March 5, 2020
Wednesday, March 4, 2020
More Records
TigerBlog was talking about record-chasers yesterday.
Those were career record-chasers, by the way. One of the best parts about sports is that you never know when someone is going to have a huge game, one that lands that particular person in the record books themselves.
The women's lacrosse team defeated Columbia 19-7 in its Ivy League opener this past Saturday. Sophomore Gaby Hamburger had five assists for the Tigers in that one.
For Hamburger, they were her first five career points. They also left her one assist away from the school single-game record of six, and they left her as one of nine players in program history to have at least five in a game.
Hamburger had five assists in less than 20 minutes, which has to be fairly close to a record, even though such records don't exist. Most impressively, she had assists to five different players - Kari Buonnano, Kyla Sears, Katie Reilly, Grace Taukus and Annie Cory.
That could be a record, assists to five players in a women's lacrosse game. Maybe TB will look that up at some point.
Speaking of records, TB mentioned yesterday that Bella Alarie of the women's basketball team was closing in on the all-time scoring record for Princeton. As she heads into this weekend's trip to Columbia and Cornell, she has 1,680 career points, leaving her three away from the record of Sandi Bittler Leland that has stood since 1990.
Alarie has played 104 career games, and she has missed 17 games due to injury the last two years. At her scoring rate the last two years, that would be 267 additional points, which would have her closing in on 2,000, something only three Ivy League women's basketball players have ever done (Diana Caramanico, Penn, 2,415; Allison Feaster, Harvard, 2,312; Hana Peljto, Harvard, 2,109).
Of course, Niveen Rasheed missed half of a season with her own injury and finished with 1,617. Had she been healthy all that time, she might have made a run of her own at 2,000.
And none of that takes into account how many times both Alarie and Rasheed played fewer than 30 minutes of games that were long decided. Still, you can only go by what the actual numbers are.
Alarie is actually going after another record this weekend. Alarie was named the Ivy League Player of the Week again this week, marking the 20th time in her career she has been so honored. The Ivy League record is 21, by Feaster.
By the way, both Alarie and Feaster were Ivy Rookie of the Week nine times each.
TB saw that in the Ivy League record book. He also saw that four times in Ivy women's basketball history, a team has had three first-team All-Ivy League selections. Of those four, Princeton did it three times:
1977-78 C.B. Tomasiewicz, Margaret Meier, Jackie Jackson
2010-11 Devona Allgood, Lauren Edwards, Addie Micir
2014-15 Blake Dietrick, Annie Tarakchian, Alex Wheatley
The fourth was from Harvard's 1992-93 team.
Princeton has already clinched the Ivy League women's basketball championship and the No. 1 seed in next weekend's Ivy League tournament. Princeton, Penn and Columbia have all clinched Ivy tournament spots, but Princeton could play either Penn, Columbia, Harvard and Yale in the semifinals.
As for the men, Princeton goes into the final weekend of the regular season knowing that it is already in the Ivy tournament. The Tigers could still tie for the league championship with a sweep of Columbia and Cornell at home, a Dartmouth win over Yale, a Harvard win over Yale and a Harvard loss to Brown.
Princeton, Yale and Harvard have all clinched their tournament spots. Penn and Brown enter the final weekend tied, though Penn holds the tiebreaker.
It figures to be an exciting event in Cambridge next weekend. There is no clear-cut definitive favorite on the men's side, and you can make a case for pretty much any of the five teams still in the running.
Before that, you have this weekend.
It's Princeton-Columbia Friday night at 7, and then it's Senior Night at Jadwin Saturday for the Cornell game (tip-off at 6).
It's March now, and you know what that means. It's almost time for Madness, and both Princeton teams are looking to make the most of their opportunities.
Those were career record-chasers, by the way. One of the best parts about sports is that you never know when someone is going to have a huge game, one that lands that particular person in the record books themselves.
The women's lacrosse team defeated Columbia 19-7 in its Ivy League opener this past Saturday. Sophomore Gaby Hamburger had five assists for the Tigers in that one.
For Hamburger, they were her first five career points. They also left her one assist away from the school single-game record of six, and they left her as one of nine players in program history to have at least five in a game.
Hamburger had five assists in less than 20 minutes, which has to be fairly close to a record, even though such records don't exist. Most impressively, she had assists to five different players - Kari Buonnano, Kyla Sears, Katie Reilly, Grace Taukus and Annie Cory.
That could be a record, assists to five players in a women's lacrosse game. Maybe TB will look that up at some point.
Speaking of records, TB mentioned yesterday that Bella Alarie of the women's basketball team was closing in on the all-time scoring record for Princeton. As she heads into this weekend's trip to Columbia and Cornell, she has 1,680 career points, leaving her three away from the record of Sandi Bittler Leland that has stood since 1990.
Alarie has played 104 career games, and she has missed 17 games due to injury the last two years. At her scoring rate the last two years, that would be 267 additional points, which would have her closing in on 2,000, something only three Ivy League women's basketball players have ever done (Diana Caramanico, Penn, 2,415; Allison Feaster, Harvard, 2,312; Hana Peljto, Harvard, 2,109).
Of course, Niveen Rasheed missed half of a season with her own injury and finished with 1,617. Had she been healthy all that time, she might have made a run of her own at 2,000.
And none of that takes into account how many times both Alarie and Rasheed played fewer than 30 minutes of games that were long decided. Still, you can only go by what the actual numbers are.
Alarie is actually going after another record this weekend. Alarie was named the Ivy League Player of the Week again this week, marking the 20th time in her career she has been so honored. The Ivy League record is 21, by Feaster.
By the way, both Alarie and Feaster were Ivy Rookie of the Week nine times each.
TB saw that in the Ivy League record book. He also saw that four times in Ivy women's basketball history, a team has had three first-team All-Ivy League selections. Of those four, Princeton did it three times:
1977-78 C.B. Tomasiewicz, Margaret Meier, Jackie Jackson
2010-11 Devona Allgood, Lauren Edwards, Addie Micir
2014-15 Blake Dietrick, Annie Tarakchian, Alex Wheatley
The fourth was from Harvard's 1992-93 team.
Princeton has already clinched the Ivy League women's basketball championship and the No. 1 seed in next weekend's Ivy League tournament. Princeton, Penn and Columbia have all clinched Ivy tournament spots, but Princeton could play either Penn, Columbia, Harvard and Yale in the semifinals.
As for the men, Princeton goes into the final weekend of the regular season knowing that it is already in the Ivy tournament. The Tigers could still tie for the league championship with a sweep of Columbia and Cornell at home, a Dartmouth win over Yale, a Harvard win over Yale and a Harvard loss to Brown.
Princeton, Yale and Harvard have all clinched their tournament spots. Penn and Brown enter the final weekend tied, though Penn holds the tiebreaker.
It figures to be an exciting event in Cambridge next weekend. There is no clear-cut definitive favorite on the men's side, and you can make a case for pretty much any of the five teams still in the running.
Before that, you have this weekend.
It's Princeton-Columbia Friday night at 7, and then it's Senior Night at Jadwin Saturday for the Cornell game (tip-off at 6).
It's March now, and you know what that means. It's almost time for Madness, and both Princeton teams are looking to make the most of their opportunities.
Tuesday, March 3, 2020
Record Chasers
TigerBlog received several emails yesterday that pointed out his math errors regarding the women's basketball team, and to those who corrected him, he says "thank you."
Seriously. If there are errors, they should be corrected.
TB also received some emails yesterday about one of the four goals that Alexander Vardaro scored in the men's lacrosse team's 18-11 win over Johns Hopkins Saturday afternoon. The basic premise of those emails was that Vardaro's goal should not have had an assist on the play.
You can see the goal here:
The play starts with Michael Sowers behind the goal trying to feed the crease, or possibly even Vardaro up top. The ball is tipped, though, and it rolls to Vardaro, who picks it up, splits two defenders and rips it into the cage.
For the record, TigerBlog did NOT give Sowers as an assist on the play. Sowers still had seven other assists on the day, along with two goals, but he did not get an assist on that play.
TB just wanted to clear that little misinformation up. Nobody is padding anyone's stats around here.
As for Sowers, here are two more notes about his amazing start to his senior year, and his career in general:
1) Sowers is averaging 6.46 points per game for his career; the NCAA career record is 6.47, set by Tony Asterino of Siena, who played from 1978-81.
2) Sowers tied the school career record for points with 247 at the end of the second-to-last game a year ago. Since then, he has played five games - and he now has 50 more points than the old record. That's 50 points in five games.
It became clear early on that Sowers was going to destroy the Princeton record book. It's always fun to see athletes who identify themselves from the start as ones who have a shot at all-time records.
As you probably know, Bella Alarie is three points away from the school's 30-year-old career record for points by a women's basketball player. Alarie has 1,680, three away from Sandi Bittler Leland, with a minimum of four more games to go.
TB likes her chances.
Then there are two other Princeton women.
Before that, though, the women's hockey team played an epic series with Quinnipiac in the ECAC playoffs this weekend. Princeton scored four goals in the first 10:53 of the best-of-three quarterfinal. Would this be easy? Hardly. Princeton then scored six more the rest of the weekend, which went more than just three full games.
The Tigers took Game 1 by a 5-1 score, and the Bobcats evened things with a 3-2 win in Game 2 on a goal less than two minutes into overtime.
That set the stage for a winner-take-all Game 3, and that one also went longer than 60 minutes. And longer than 80 minutes.
Princeton actually looked to be in good shape up 2-0 in the third period before Quinnipiac rallied dramatically, making it 2-1 with 3:50 to go and then tying it 2-2 with 1:27 to go.
Then the teams, playing to get to the ECAC final four and the NCAA tournament beyond that, went through all of one overtime and more than halfway through a second before Sarah Fillier ended it on a rebound after a three-on-one break for Princeton.
The series was a bit reminiscent of the one the men's team played against Colgate in 2017, when the Tigers won their opening round series in three dramatic games with each team's getting an OT win along the way.
The details weren't exactly the same - Princeton lost Game 1 in OT and then won Game 2 after tying it with one second in regulation and winning it in OT - but the common denominator was serious drama.
The game-winning goal by Fillier advanced Princeton to the league semifinals against Clarkson at Cornell Saturday at 4. Cornell plays Harvard in the other semi, and the final is at Cornell Sunday at 2.
Fillier now has 111 career points, which leaves her more than halfway to the school's career record of 218, which Kathy Issel set 25 years ago. Extra credit if you know whose record Issel broke, by the way.
Another record-chaser is Kyla Sears of the women's lacrosse team, who went over the 200-point mark for her career this past weekend at Columbia. Sears was the Ivy League's Offensive Player of the Week after her nine-goal, 13-point week in wins over Villanova and Columbia.
Sears now has 202 career points, making her the eighth Princeton women's lacrosse player to reach 200. She is 83 points away from Olivia Hompe's career record of 285, and at her current scoring pace of the first four games, Sears would get to the end of the regular season with 274 - with any possible postseason and then her whole senior season to go.
Oh, and the one whose record Issel broke? That would have been Mollie Marcoux Samaan.
Seriously. If there are errors, they should be corrected.
TB also received some emails yesterday about one of the four goals that Alexander Vardaro scored in the men's lacrosse team's 18-11 win over Johns Hopkins Saturday afternoon. The basic premise of those emails was that Vardaro's goal should not have had an assist on the play.
You can see the goal here:
Loose ball ☑️
Splits D with the toe drag ☑️
Goes top shelf ☑️
Alexander Vardaro really did all that. 😩 @TigerLacrosse pic.twitter.com/RsMf4IF2uo— Dan Aburn (@Dan_Aburn) March 2, 2020
The play starts with Michael Sowers behind the goal trying to feed the crease, or possibly even Vardaro up top. The ball is tipped, though, and it rolls to Vardaro, who picks it up, splits two defenders and rips it into the cage.
For the record, TigerBlog did NOT give Sowers as an assist on the play. Sowers still had seven other assists on the day, along with two goals, but he did not get an assist on that play.
TB just wanted to clear that little misinformation up. Nobody is padding anyone's stats around here.
As for Sowers, here are two more notes about his amazing start to his senior year, and his career in general:
1) Sowers is averaging 6.46 points per game for his career; the NCAA career record is 6.47, set by Tony Asterino of Siena, who played from 1978-81.
2) Sowers tied the school career record for points with 247 at the end of the second-to-last game a year ago. Since then, he has played five games - and he now has 50 more points than the old record. That's 50 points in five games.
It became clear early on that Sowers was going to destroy the Princeton record book. It's always fun to see athletes who identify themselves from the start as ones who have a shot at all-time records.
As you probably know, Bella Alarie is three points away from the school's 30-year-old career record for points by a women's basketball player. Alarie has 1,680, three away from Sandi Bittler Leland, with a minimum of four more games to go.
TB likes her chances.
Then there are two other Princeton women.
Before that, though, the women's hockey team played an epic series with Quinnipiac in the ECAC playoffs this weekend. Princeton scored four goals in the first 10:53 of the best-of-three quarterfinal. Would this be easy? Hardly. Princeton then scored six more the rest of the weekend, which went more than just three full games.
The Tigers took Game 1 by a 5-1 score, and the Bobcats evened things with a 3-2 win in Game 2 on a goal less than two minutes into overtime.
That set the stage for a winner-take-all Game 3, and that one also went longer than 60 minutes. And longer than 80 minutes.
Princeton actually looked to be in good shape up 2-0 in the third period before Quinnipiac rallied dramatically, making it 2-1 with 3:50 to go and then tying it 2-2 with 1:27 to go.
Then the teams, playing to get to the ECAC final four and the NCAA tournament beyond that, went through all of one overtime and more than halfway through a second before Sarah Fillier ended it on a rebound after a three-on-one break for Princeton.
The series was a bit reminiscent of the one the men's team played against Colgate in 2017, when the Tigers won their opening round series in three dramatic games with each team's getting an OT win along the way.
The details weren't exactly the same - Princeton lost Game 1 in OT and then won Game 2 after tying it with one second in regulation and winning it in OT - but the common denominator was serious drama.
The game-winning goal by Fillier advanced Princeton to the league semifinals against Clarkson at Cornell Saturday at 4. Cornell plays Harvard in the other semi, and the final is at Cornell Sunday at 2.
Fillier now has 111 career points, which leaves her more than halfway to the school's career record of 218, which Kathy Issel set 25 years ago. Extra credit if you know whose record Issel broke, by the way.
Another record-chaser is Kyla Sears of the women's lacrosse team, who went over the 200-point mark for her career this past weekend at Columbia. Sears was the Ivy League's Offensive Player of the Week after her nine-goal, 13-point week in wins over Villanova and Columbia.
Sears now has 202 career points, making her the eighth Princeton women's lacrosse player to reach 200. She is 83 points away from Olivia Hompe's career record of 285, and at her current scoring pace of the first four games, Sears would get to the end of the regular season with 274 - with any possible postseason and then her whole senior season to go.
Oh, and the one whose record Issel broke? That would have been Mollie Marcoux Samaan.
Monday, March 2, 2020
That's One For Carla And 47 For Fred
TigerBlog ran into Andrei Iosivas in the lobby of Jadwin Gym a few weeks ago.
It was one of those moments where you know who it is who is saying hello to you but can't immediately place that person. So you just nod and say "hey," instead of something more personal, like, in this case, "hello Andrei."
It wasn't until Iosivas was out the door of the gym that TB realized who it was. In this case, he has a good reason why - he hadn't seen Iosivas since he'd cut his very long hair, which now was very short. He looked like a completely different person.
Iosivas is a wide receiver on the football team in the fall. TB has a bunch of pictures of him from the fall where his hair flows out of his helmet.
That gives you a sense of what he looked like in the fall.
Here's what he looked like yesterday:
In case you can't make out what the plaque says, Iosivas was the Most Outstanding Field Performer at the Ivy League Heptagonal championships yesterday as he won the indoor Heptathlon championship for the second straight year. A Heps win at the Heps, as it were.
Iosivas had a personal-best 5,534 points in the event, which consists of the 60 meter dash, the long jump, the shot put, the high jump, the 60 meter hurdles, the pole vault and 1,000 meter run. He won by nearly 200 points over his Princeton teammate Gabriele Montefalcone, and they combined to give Princeton 18 points in the event.
The Tigers ran away from the field to win their sixth straight indoor Heps title. Princeton totaled 173 points, followed by Harvard with 116. No one else reached 100 points.
The compete recap of the meet can be seen HERE. Princeton had great performances up and down the lineup, including a meet-record performance in the 60 hurdles by Joey Daniels.
The big number for these Heps was 47, as in the number of Heptagonal championships Fred Samara has now won as Princeton's head coach for either cross country, indoor track and field or outdoor track and field.
Princeton's indoor track and field title this weekend was the 503rd overall in school history. Samara has won 47 of those.
That's 9.34 percent of all of those championships. That's insane.
Title No. 502 went to the women's basketball team, which wrapped things up Friday night with an 81-39 win over Brown and a Yale win over Penn. That gave the Tigers the outright championship and the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Ivy League tournament at Harvard.
Princeton then took down Yale 64-49 Saturday night to improve to 24-1 overall and 12-0 in the league. For the second straight time Princeton defeated Yale by double figures after falling behind early by a relatively large number.
In the game at New Haven, Yale led 12-0 before Princeton won 55-39. This time it was 8-0 Bulldogs before Princeton scored.
In other words, Yale led 20-0 in the two games combined, and then Princeton outscored Yale 119-68 the rest of the way.
The Ivy League championship comes in Year 1 under head coach Carla Berube. Princeton has won all 12 of its league games by at least 14 points, and nine of the 12 have been by at least 20.
It's been a dominant season for the women's basketball team to date. The only loss is in overtime at Iowa, who is ranked 18th in the country.
The Ivy League championship is the first step in a process that the Tigers hope will reach the NCAA tournament, where anything is possible.
The game against Yale was also Senior Night, the final Jadwin Gym appearance for Bella Alarie and Taylor Baur. Alarie ended the weekend with 1,680 career points, leaving her three away from tying Sandi Bittler Leland's career record, one that has stood since 1990.
Carlie Littlefield will enter next weekend with 986 career points, leaving her 14 away from 1,000.
Princeton finishes the regular season at Columbia and Cornell, and then it's the postseason. In addition to Princeton, the field of four for the ILT will definitely feature Penn and Columbia, and Yale will be there too unless it gets swept by Dartmouth and Harvard and Harvard also defeats Brown.
It was a two-championship weekend for Princeton.
Whether it's your first or your 47th, they're all special.
It was one of those moments where you know who it is who is saying hello to you but can't immediately place that person. So you just nod and say "hey," instead of something more personal, like, in this case, "hello Andrei."
It wasn't until Iosivas was out the door of the gym that TB realized who it was. In this case, he has a good reason why - he hadn't seen Iosivas since he'd cut his very long hair, which now was very short. He looked like a completely different person.
Iosivas is a wide receiver on the football team in the fall. TB has a bunch of pictures of him from the fall where his hair flows out of his helmet.
Here's what he looked like yesterday:
Iosivas had a personal-best 5,534 points in the event, which consists of the 60 meter dash, the long jump, the shot put, the high jump, the 60 meter hurdles, the pole vault and 1,000 meter run. He won by nearly 200 points over his Princeton teammate Gabriele Montefalcone, and they combined to give Princeton 18 points in the event.
The Tigers ran away from the field to win their sixth straight indoor Heps title. Princeton totaled 173 points, followed by Harvard with 116. No one else reached 100 points.
The compete recap of the meet can be seen HERE. Princeton had great performances up and down the lineup, including a meet-record performance in the 60 hurdles by Joey Daniels.
The big number for these Heps was 47, as in the number of Heptagonal championships Fred Samara has now won as Princeton's head coach for either cross country, indoor track and field or outdoor track and field.
Princeton's indoor track and field title this weekend was the 503rd overall in school history. Samara has won 47 of those.
That's 9.34 percent of all of those championships. That's insane.
Title No. 502 went to the women's basketball team, which wrapped things up Friday night with an 81-39 win over Brown and a Yale win over Penn. That gave the Tigers the outright championship and the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Ivy League tournament at Harvard.
Princeton then took down Yale 64-49 Saturday night to improve to 24-1 overall and 12-0 in the league. For the second straight time Princeton defeated Yale by double figures after falling behind early by a relatively large number.
In the game at New Haven, Yale led 12-0 before Princeton won 55-39. This time it was 8-0 Bulldogs before Princeton scored.
In other words, Yale led 20-0 in the two games combined, and then Princeton outscored Yale 119-68 the rest of the way.
The Ivy League championship comes in Year 1 under head coach Carla Berube. Princeton has won all 12 of its league games by at least 14 points, and nine of the 12 have been by at least 20.
It's been a dominant season for the women's basketball team to date. The only loss is in overtime at Iowa, who is ranked 18th in the country.
The Ivy League championship is the first step in a process that the Tigers hope will reach the NCAA tournament, where anything is possible.
The game against Yale was also Senior Night, the final Jadwin Gym appearance for Bella Alarie and Taylor Baur. Alarie ended the weekend with 1,680 career points, leaving her three away from tying Sandi Bittler Leland's career record, one that has stood since 1990.
Carlie Littlefield will enter next weekend with 986 career points, leaving her 14 away from 1,000.
Princeton finishes the regular season at Columbia and Cornell, and then it's the postseason. In addition to Princeton, the field of four for the ILT will definitely feature Penn and Columbia, and Yale will be there too unless it gets swept by Dartmouth and Harvard and Harvard also defeats Brown.
It was a two-championship weekend for Princeton.
Whether it's your first or your 47th, they're all special.
Friday, February 28, 2020
What Did They Have Against February?
Did you ever wonder why February has only 28 days in most years when every other month has 30 or 31?
Why not give February 30 and take a day away from two of the 31-day months?
TigerBlog did some research on this yesterday, and he learned some interesting stuff. Back about six centuries BC or so, the Roman calendar consisted of 10 months and 304 days, with a period in winter that was unnamed. Eventually, the Roman king Numa Pompilius added January and February to the mix.
There's a legend that said February originally had 29 days and August had 30 but that Augustus Caesar moved a day from February to August because it was named for him.
Can you imagine if you had been born during the time that had no months or days? "When is your birthday?" "Well, it's between December and March, but I'm not exactly sure when, and even if I knew exactly when, it has no date assigned to it anyway." "Okay, well, we'll just get you a cake at some random time when it's cold out."
Tomorrow, of course, is Feb. 29, which comes along once every four years (except in years divisible by 100, 200 or 300 but not 400, which explains why there was a Feb. 29, 2000, but won't be a Feb., 29, 2100).
TigerBlog already knew that part. He wrote about it four years ago on Feb. 29, when he said this:
As everyone knows, there's only one of these every four years. The reason? It takes the Earth 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes, and 16 seconds to make one complete revolution around the sun.
Did you know that there is no Feb. 29 in years that are divisible by 100, unless they're also divisible by 400? That's why there was a Feb. 29 in 2000, though there won't be one in 2100.
Do you know anyone who was born on Feb. 29? TigerBlog doesn't.
He assumes that everyone who was born on Feb. 29 makes the same "today is my 10th birthday" if they're 40 joke. That's okay. If you only get to have one of every four birthdays on your actual birthday, you get to make that joke.
To Frederic, from the "Pirates of Penzance," it was no joke. He was to be an apprentice until his 21st birthday, and when he thinks he's reached it and is free, he finds out he was actually born on Feb. 29, which meant that he had 63 more years to go. Don't worry, it worked out just fine for Frederic and Mabel. That's how it works in Gilbert and Sullivan operettas.
TigerBlog has always wondered why they decided to make February have a 29th. Now that he thinks about it, why does February have only 28 days in the first place.
Who decided that? What did they have against February.
Anyway, there's something mildly interesting about Feb. 29. It's something different.
Today usually marks the end of the poorly treated month of February, and tomorrow is a day unlike any other day. Whatever month it is, it features some huge events, with championships and postseason on the line.
As TB said yesterday (and if you didn't see the video about the Alaries, then you need to stop reading and go check it out), the women's basketball team can clinch an eighth Ivy League title in 11 years with a win either tonight against Brown or tomorrow against Yale (or next week against either Columbia or Cornell). Nothing is ever to be taken for granted until it actually happens, but use the preferred words of former Ford Family Director of Athletics Gary Walters, TigerBlog is "cautiously optimistic" about Princeton's chances.
The Tigers are 10-0, with a three-game lead on Penn with four games to play.
As for the men's basketball team, the Tigers are at Brown tonight and Yale tomorrow night. Princeton, with the same four games to play, could do anything from win an outright Ivy League title to not make the Ivy League tournament.
Princeton is 7-3, tied with Harvard and a game back of 8-2 Yale. Brown is 6-4, followed by 5-5 Penn.
Elsewhere, this weekend is Heps indoor track and field championship weekend, as the men's and women's events will be held at Cornell. Princeton's men are going for a sixth-straight indoor title, and it will not be easy, as Penn and Harvard appear ready to make a serious challenge.
Speaking of the men's track and field team, Sam Ellis recently broke the school record for the indoor mile, running 3:57.66 at a meet at Boston University. Ellis broke the record of 3:58.70, set 29 years ago by Bill Burke; TigerBlog interviewed Burke at halftime of the men's basketball game the next night on WHWH radio.
The men's swimming and diving team is at Harvard for the Ivy League championships. The men's squash team is also at Harvard for the team national championships.
The women's hockey team is home in the quarterfinals of the ECAC playoffs against Quinnipiac in a best-of-three series. Gametime today, tomorrow and if necessary Sunday is at 3.
Princeton is the No. 2 seed in the ECAC playoffs, behind top-seeded Cornell. Of the top 12 teams in the Pairwise rankings, six of them are in the ECAC, so this event is fairly loaded. And Princeton, like the others, is playing for a chance to get back to the NCAA tournament for the second straight year.
Also, it's been 28 years since Feb. 29 fell on a Saturday, and that makes tomorrow the first time that the men's lacrosse team will play a game on a Feb. 29, since the season didn't start until March 1 until about 10 years ago. Princeton hosts Johns Hopkins at 1, after the Tigers moved from unranked to the top 10 by virtue of a 16-12 win over defending NCAA champ Virginia last weekend.
The women played a game on Feb. 29, 2012, which was a Wednesday. Princeton, who lost that one 11-10 to Rutgers, is at Columbia tomorrow at noon in its Ivy League opener.
There are also a million other events, including baseball's opener, more softball, the men's hockey regular season finales (at home, so there could be as many as five hockey games at Baker Rink this weekend), home men's volleyball, women's water polo and early season tennis.
The complete composite schedule is HERE.
And enjoy Feb. 29. It's not something you get to do very often.
Why not give February 30 and take a day away from two of the 31-day months?
TigerBlog did some research on this yesterday, and he learned some interesting stuff. Back about six centuries BC or so, the Roman calendar consisted of 10 months and 304 days, with a period in winter that was unnamed. Eventually, the Roman king Numa Pompilius added January and February to the mix.
There's a legend that said February originally had 29 days and August had 30 but that Augustus Caesar moved a day from February to August because it was named for him.
Can you imagine if you had been born during the time that had no months or days? "When is your birthday?" "Well, it's between December and March, but I'm not exactly sure when, and even if I knew exactly when, it has no date assigned to it anyway." "Okay, well, we'll just get you a cake at some random time when it's cold out."
Tomorrow, of course, is Feb. 29, which comes along once every four years (except in years divisible by 100, 200 or 300 but not 400, which explains why there was a Feb. 29, 2000, but won't be a Feb., 29, 2100).
TigerBlog already knew that part. He wrote about it four years ago on Feb. 29, when he said this:
As everyone knows, there's only one of these every four years. The reason? It takes the Earth 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes, and 16 seconds to make one complete revolution around the sun.
Did you know that there is no Feb. 29 in years that are divisible by 100, unless they're also divisible by 400? That's why there was a Feb. 29 in 2000, though there won't be one in 2100.
Do you know anyone who was born on Feb. 29? TigerBlog doesn't.
He assumes that everyone who was born on Feb. 29 makes the same "today is my 10th birthday" if they're 40 joke. That's okay. If you only get to have one of every four birthdays on your actual birthday, you get to make that joke.
To Frederic, from the "Pirates of Penzance," it was no joke. He was to be an apprentice until his 21st birthday, and when he thinks he's reached it and is free, he finds out he was actually born on Feb. 29, which meant that he had 63 more years to go. Don't worry, it worked out just fine for Frederic and Mabel. That's how it works in Gilbert and Sullivan operettas.
TigerBlog has always wondered why they decided to make February have a 29th. Now that he thinks about it, why does February have only 28 days in the first place.
Who decided that? What did they have against February.
Anyway, there's something mildly interesting about Feb. 29. It's something different.
Today usually marks the end of the poorly treated month of February, and tomorrow is a day unlike any other day. Whatever month it is, it features some huge events, with championships and postseason on the line.
As TB said yesterday (and if you didn't see the video about the Alaries, then you need to stop reading and go check it out), the women's basketball team can clinch an eighth Ivy League title in 11 years with a win either tonight against Brown or tomorrow against Yale (or next week against either Columbia or Cornell). Nothing is ever to be taken for granted until it actually happens, but use the preferred words of former Ford Family Director of Athletics Gary Walters, TigerBlog is "cautiously optimistic" about Princeton's chances.
The Tigers are 10-0, with a three-game lead on Penn with four games to play.
As for the men's basketball team, the Tigers are at Brown tonight and Yale tomorrow night. Princeton, with the same four games to play, could do anything from win an outright Ivy League title to not make the Ivy League tournament.
Princeton is 7-3, tied with Harvard and a game back of 8-2 Yale. Brown is 6-4, followed by 5-5 Penn.
Elsewhere, this weekend is Heps indoor track and field championship weekend, as the men's and women's events will be held at Cornell. Princeton's men are going for a sixth-straight indoor title, and it will not be easy, as Penn and Harvard appear ready to make a serious challenge.
Speaking of the men's track and field team, Sam Ellis recently broke the school record for the indoor mile, running 3:57.66 at a meet at Boston University. Ellis broke the record of 3:58.70, set 29 years ago by Bill Burke; TigerBlog interviewed Burke at halftime of the men's basketball game the next night on WHWH radio.
The men's swimming and diving team is at Harvard for the Ivy League championships. The men's squash team is also at Harvard for the team national championships.
The women's hockey team is home in the quarterfinals of the ECAC playoffs against Quinnipiac in a best-of-three series. Gametime today, tomorrow and if necessary Sunday is at 3.
Princeton is the No. 2 seed in the ECAC playoffs, behind top-seeded Cornell. Of the top 12 teams in the Pairwise rankings, six of them are in the ECAC, so this event is fairly loaded. And Princeton, like the others, is playing for a chance to get back to the NCAA tournament for the second straight year.
Also, it's been 28 years since Feb. 29 fell on a Saturday, and that makes tomorrow the first time that the men's lacrosse team will play a game on a Feb. 29, since the season didn't start until March 1 until about 10 years ago. Princeton hosts Johns Hopkins at 1, after the Tigers moved from unranked to the top 10 by virtue of a 16-12 win over defending NCAA champ Virginia last weekend.
The women played a game on Feb. 29, 2012, which was a Wednesday. Princeton, who lost that one 11-10 to Rutgers, is at Columbia tomorrow at noon in its Ivy League opener.
There are also a million other events, including baseball's opener, more softball, the men's hockey regular season finales (at home, so there could be as many as five hockey games at Baker Rink this weekend), home men's volleyball, women's water polo and early season tennis.
The complete composite schedule is HERE.
And enjoy Feb. 29. It's not something you get to do very often.
Thursday, February 27, 2020
Meet The Alaries
Where to start today?
How about with a great video about Bella Alarie?
As you probably know, Alarie is already a two-time Ivy League women's basketball Player of the Year, and she's led Princeton to two NCAA tournaments in her first three years.
As you also probably know, she is the daughter of Mark Alarie, the former Duke star who played five years in the NBA. The video tells the story of how Bella came to play at Princeton, and it includes great interviews with father and daughter, including advice that Mark Alarie threw out there for all fathers of daughters (and something that TigerBlog can attest to first hand).
There are also great family pictures of her and her family, including her grandfather Norman, a member of the Princeton Class of 1957 who also got a Masters' degree at Princeton and later taught here.
If you've been an Alarie fan for the last four years, it's a must-see video.
TigerBlog remembers Bella's first game at Princeton, when she started on Day 1 as a freshman and put up 24 points and seven rebounds in her debut game against Rider. As hard as it is to believe, this weekend is her final Jadwin Gym appearance, as the Tigers will host Brown tomorrow (6) and then Yale Saturday (5, Senior Night).
Alarie comes into this weekend with 1,643 career points, which leaves her third all-time at Princeton in women's basketball and fourth all-time among male or female basketball players. The list goes like this:
1. Bill Bradley 2,503
2. Sandi Bittler 1,683
3. Meagan Cower 1,671
4. Bella Alarie 1,643
With four regular season games left and then, presumably, two postseason games at a minimum, Alarie's chances of catching Bittler are pretty good. Bittler had a great run with the record, which has lasted 30 years.
Alarie had a 21-point night against Penn Tuesday in what was one of the most dominant performances the Tigers have had in Alarie's four years. Princeton won that game 80-44, using a 20-0 first-half run to sprint away from the Quakers.
Keep in mind, Penn came into the game 17-5 and one of the top defensive teams in the country, not to mention still in the hunt for a league title and a national top 50 team.
If you think Princeton is just Alarie, then the game Tuesday showed you otherwise. In fact, Alarie wasn't even named the Player of the Game, which instead went to Ellie Mitchell, a freshman who had 13 points and eight rebounds.
Oh, and she also had six steals. She played incredibly hard the entire night, and she essentially imposed her will on the game.
Abby Meyers came off the bench for 11 points in 19 minutes, and on any given night, it could be anyone who reaches double figures.
What makes Princeton head coach Carla Berube smile the most, though, is what happens at the other end of the court.
In the game Tuesday night, Princeton held the Quakers to 1 for 10 shooting in the second quarter, and for the night the Tigers allowed one assist while forcing 19 turnovers. Everything Penn did was hounded, as you would expect from the team that ranks first in Division I in scoring defense at 48 points per game, making Princeton the only team in the country allowing fewer than 50 per game.
Princeton is 22-1, with 18 straight wins now. They are on the verge of an Ivy League championship, something that the Tigers would clinch at least a share of with a win tomorrow night and would win outright with two wins this weekend.
And there's still next weekend's trip to Columbia and Cornell.
After that is the Ivy League tournament, in which Princeton has already clinched its spot. This is the exciting time of year for the Tigers.
When it finally ends, wherever that is, Alarie will move into her place among the greatest athletes ever to compete at Princeton.
This weekend, though, is the last home weekend for her and her roommate Taylor Baur.
What would be tremendous would be to see Alarie get the scoring record at Jadwin. She'd have to go way above what she did against this weekend's opponents the first time around, as she had a 25-point weekend, including a nine-point night against Yale in New Haven that marks the only Ivy game in the last two years that Alarie has not reached double figures.
And before any of that, check out the video above.
If you're a Princeton fan, you're guaranteed to love it.
How about with a great video about Bella Alarie?
As you probably know, Alarie is already a two-time Ivy League women's basketball Player of the Year, and she's led Princeton to two NCAA tournaments in her first three years.
As you also probably know, she is the daughter of Mark Alarie, the former Duke star who played five years in the NBA. The video tells the story of how Bella came to play at Princeton, and it includes great interviews with father and daughter, including advice that Mark Alarie threw out there for all fathers of daughters (and something that TigerBlog can attest to first hand).
There are also great family pictures of her and her family, including her grandfather Norman, a member of the Princeton Class of 1957 who also got a Masters' degree at Princeton and later taught here.
If you've been an Alarie fan for the last four years, it's a must-see video.
TigerBlog remembers Bella's first game at Princeton, when she started on Day 1 as a freshman and put up 24 points and seven rebounds in her debut game against Rider. As hard as it is to believe, this weekend is her final Jadwin Gym appearance, as the Tigers will host Brown tomorrow (6) and then Yale Saturday (5, Senior Night).
Alarie comes into this weekend with 1,643 career points, which leaves her third all-time at Princeton in women's basketball and fourth all-time among male or female basketball players. The list goes like this:
1. Bill Bradley 2,503
2. Sandi Bittler 1,683
3. Meagan Cower 1,671
4. Bella Alarie 1,643
With four regular season games left and then, presumably, two postseason games at a minimum, Alarie's chances of catching Bittler are pretty good. Bittler had a great run with the record, which has lasted 30 years.
Alarie had a 21-point night against Penn Tuesday in what was one of the most dominant performances the Tigers have had in Alarie's four years. Princeton won that game 80-44, using a 20-0 first-half run to sprint away from the Quakers.
Keep in mind, Penn came into the game 17-5 and one of the top defensive teams in the country, not to mention still in the hunt for a league title and a national top 50 team.
If you think Princeton is just Alarie, then the game Tuesday showed you otherwise. In fact, Alarie wasn't even named the Player of the Game, which instead went to Ellie Mitchell, a freshman who had 13 points and eight rebounds.
Oh, and she also had six steals. She played incredibly hard the entire night, and she essentially imposed her will on the game.
Abby Meyers came off the bench for 11 points in 19 minutes, and on any given night, it could be anyone who reaches double figures.
What makes Princeton head coach Carla Berube smile the most, though, is what happens at the other end of the court.
In the game Tuesday night, Princeton held the Quakers to 1 for 10 shooting in the second quarter, and for the night the Tigers allowed one assist while forcing 19 turnovers. Everything Penn did was hounded, as you would expect from the team that ranks first in Division I in scoring defense at 48 points per game, making Princeton the only team in the country allowing fewer than 50 per game.
Princeton is 22-1, with 18 straight wins now. They are on the verge of an Ivy League championship, something that the Tigers would clinch at least a share of with a win tomorrow night and would win outright with two wins this weekend.
And there's still next weekend's trip to Columbia and Cornell.
After that is the Ivy League tournament, in which Princeton has already clinched its spot. This is the exciting time of year for the Tigers.
When it finally ends, wherever that is, Alarie will move into her place among the greatest athletes ever to compete at Princeton.
This weekend, though, is the last home weekend for her and her roommate Taylor Baur.
What would be tremendous would be to see Alarie get the scoring record at Jadwin. She'd have to go way above what she did against this weekend's opponents the first time around, as she had a 25-point weekend, including a nine-point night against Yale in New Haven that marks the only Ivy game in the last two years that Alarie has not reached double figures.
And before any of that, check out the video above.
If you're a Princeton fan, you're guaranteed to love it.
Wednesday, February 26, 2020
Happy Anniversary
TigerBlog went yesterday to get his picture taken with some other people who will be celebrating their 25th anniversaries of working at Princeton at a luncheon next month.
TB is actually closing in on 26 years of working at Princeton and, with his five years at the newspaper, this is his 31st season of covering Princeton Athletics.
Because his start date back in 1994 came after the cut-off for last year's recognition, he had to wait until this year to be a part of it. Along with an invitation to the luncheon, when you reach 25 years (and each subsequent five-year anniversary after that), you get to choose a gift.
For his 25th gift, TB chose the rocking chair. He's excited about it.
Yesterday was photo day for those who have been here for 25 and the subsequent five-year groups. It was nice, to be around people from around the University who have been here for as long as TB has, in departments all over the campus.
There was even someone there who has been here for, if TB heard correctly, 50 years. Is that possible?
For TigerBlog, he has had seven different titles since he started here all those years ago. It's been quite a run from 1994 to now, with almost nothing about working for Princeton Athletics the same as it was back then except for the pride of being a part of it.
Hey, the current generation of athletes weren't even born yet when TB began working here.
Neither were his own children.
If you've been reading TB since the beginning, you read a bit about the two of them, starting back when they were just children, way back to when his son played the national anthem at a men's basketball game on his saxophone when he was 11.
The blog didn't start until then, though, so you missed a lot of their earliest years.
Maybe if you work for 25 years in the corporate world, then that side of your life stays a bit more separated from the rest of it. If you work in college athletics for that long, especially here, then the line between personal life and professional life hardly exists.
TigerBlog has always loved that, and he loves the fact that his children grew up essentially on this campus. They both went to nursery school here, and they both spent five years attending the summer camp at Dillon before they both worked there once they got too old.
They went to sports camps here, and they stayed in the dorms here before they were teenagers. They were both ballkids at Princeton basketball.
TB can't count the number of events that they both attended here before they were 12 or so. Miss TigerBlog, of course, became Miss TigerBlog ’22, and she is currently a member of the women's lacrosse team.
TigerBlog Jr. went a different route, and he became a four-year member of the men's lacrosse team at Sacred Heart University. He now works in Washington, D.C., and so it was that last weekend that TB got to spend some time with his son on the way to the men's lacrosse game at Virginia.
The highlight of the weekend was when father and son did the radio broadcast for the game. It was not when the bartender, the manager and the karaoke guy all knew his name when he and his friends walked into the happy hour they always attend, and it wasn't even when TB sang "The Summer Wind" in his karaoke debut.
It was definitely when the two of them were on the radio together.
TB remembers back to when Tom McCarthy used to do his radio show from the Jadwin courtside before men's basketball games, and TBJ - around age 5 or so - would sit next to him, with a headset on, so he could listen.
He also remembers a time that TBJ - maybe around 8 or 9 - went to the men's lacrosse game at Syracuse, only to have the radio station at the time go off the air as it changed ownership, meaning there would be no broadcast. TBJ put on a headset and spoke into it for the entire game at the Carrier Dome, possibly unaware that nobody could hear him.
This time, they were doing the game together, with an actual audience. On the ride from D.C. to Charlottesville TB gave TBJ some pointers, and hey, as it turned out, TBJ was really good.
Or maybe TigerBlog is just biased.
In 25 years, there have been a lot of highlights for TigerBlog, a lot of championships, a lot of travel, a lot of amazing experiences, the chance to meet a lot of awesome people.
Beyond all of that, though, there have been so many great times when Princeton Athletics brought TB closer to one or both of his children. Doing the radio with TBJ was yet another one of those.
How many people get to say that about their job?
TB is actually closing in on 26 years of working at Princeton and, with his five years at the newspaper, this is his 31st season of covering Princeton Athletics.
Because his start date back in 1994 came after the cut-off for last year's recognition, he had to wait until this year to be a part of it. Along with an invitation to the luncheon, when you reach 25 years (and each subsequent five-year anniversary after that), you get to choose a gift.
For his 25th gift, TB chose the rocking chair. He's excited about it.
Yesterday was photo day for those who have been here for 25 and the subsequent five-year groups. It was nice, to be around people from around the University who have been here for as long as TB has, in departments all over the campus.
There was even someone there who has been here for, if TB heard correctly, 50 years. Is that possible?
For TigerBlog, he has had seven different titles since he started here all those years ago. It's been quite a run from 1994 to now, with almost nothing about working for Princeton Athletics the same as it was back then except for the pride of being a part of it.
Hey, the current generation of athletes weren't even born yet when TB began working here.
Neither were his own children.
If you've been reading TB since the beginning, you read a bit about the two of them, starting back when they were just children, way back to when his son played the national anthem at a men's basketball game on his saxophone when he was 11.
The blog didn't start until then, though, so you missed a lot of their earliest years.
Maybe if you work for 25 years in the corporate world, then that side of your life stays a bit more separated from the rest of it. If you work in college athletics for that long, especially here, then the line between personal life and professional life hardly exists.
TigerBlog has always loved that, and he loves the fact that his children grew up essentially on this campus. They both went to nursery school here, and they both spent five years attending the summer camp at Dillon before they both worked there once they got too old.
They went to sports camps here, and they stayed in the dorms here before they were teenagers. They were both ballkids at Princeton basketball.
TB can't count the number of events that they both attended here before they were 12 or so. Miss TigerBlog, of course, became Miss TigerBlog ’22, and she is currently a member of the women's lacrosse team.
TigerBlog Jr. went a different route, and he became a four-year member of the men's lacrosse team at Sacred Heart University. He now works in Washington, D.C., and so it was that last weekend that TB got to spend some time with his son on the way to the men's lacrosse game at Virginia.
The highlight of the weekend was when father and son did the radio broadcast for the game. It was not when the bartender, the manager and the karaoke guy all knew his name when he and his friends walked into the happy hour they always attend, and it wasn't even when TB sang "The Summer Wind" in his karaoke debut.
It was definitely when the two of them were on the radio together.
TB remembers back to when Tom McCarthy used to do his radio show from the Jadwin courtside before men's basketball games, and TBJ - around age 5 or so - would sit next to him, with a headset on, so he could listen.
He also remembers a time that TBJ - maybe around 8 or 9 - went to the men's lacrosse game at Syracuse, only to have the radio station at the time go off the air as it changed ownership, meaning there would be no broadcast. TBJ put on a headset and spoke into it for the entire game at the Carrier Dome, possibly unaware that nobody could hear him.
This time, they were doing the game together, with an actual audience. On the ride from D.C. to Charlottesville TB gave TBJ some pointers, and hey, as it turned out, TBJ was really good.
Or maybe TigerBlog is just biased.
In 25 years, there have been a lot of highlights for TigerBlog, a lot of championships, a lot of travel, a lot of amazing experiences, the chance to meet a lot of awesome people.
Beyond all of that, though, there have been so many great times when Princeton Athletics brought TB closer to one or both of his children. Doing the radio with TBJ was yet another one of those.
How many people get to say that about their job?
Tuesday, February 25, 2020
Sowers And Brown
Being the men's lacrosse contact when Michael Sowers plays has to be sort of like what it was to be the men's basketball contact when Bill Bradley played.
It's a pretty good comparison, minus, of course, the blog, the social media, the website and all that.
Bradley did to the men's basketball record book 55 years ago what Sowers is doing to the men's lacrosse record book now. Like Bradley, Sowers broke the existing school scoring record as a junior, which means that every point of their senior years made their records that much harder to break.
Bradley scored 2,503 points (keep in mind, he did this in three years with no three-point shot), and the next best total in program history is 1,625, scored by Ian Hummer. That means that Bradley scored 1.54 times as many points as anyone who has ever played at Princeton.
The old record at Princeton in men's lacrosse was 247 points, set by Hall-of-Famer Kevin Lowe. Sowers would have to get to 380 points to reach the same ratio as Bradley, and it's unlikely he'll get quite that far.
On the other hand, if he keeps up at his current pace, he will. Sowers is leading Division I averaging 11 points per game (that would rank 19th in the Ivy League in points per game in men's basketball, by the way). If he keeps going at that rate, he'd get past 380.
That, of course, is asking a lot. No matter what, though, it's hard to imagine someone coming along to ever break Sowers' records at Princeton. Who knows? Maybe it can be done. Maybe it will be done. Maybe some day someone will beat Bradley's records, for that matter.
It's just that in 55 years nobody has. And in 25 years, nobody came with 15 points of Lowe with the men's lacrosse team.
For now, here are a few Sowers notes:
* his 6.4 points per game are the second-most in Division I history, trailing only Siena's Tony Astertino's 6.47 (1978-81)
* he is currently 18th all-time in Division I history in total points
* he is currently 11th all-time in Division history in total assists
* he currently has 116 goals and 172 assists; only five other players in Division I history have ever finished their careers with that many of each
* with 12 more points he would become the 16th player in Division I history to reach 300 points; he has currently played 45 career games, while the average number of games played by the 15 in the 300-point club is 66.5
Those are all extraordinary.
Sowers has been amazing since Day 1 at Princeton. He's definitely upped his game this year.
Princeton, led by Sowers, has gone from unranked to the top 10, anywhere from fifth to tenth, depending on which poll you like. The Tigers, best of all, showed with Saturday's 16-12 win over Virginia that they are more than just a one-man show, with speed and depth on all sides of the field.
And for as great as Sowers has been, TigerBlog wants to make sure to mention Chris Brown, the junior who reached the 100-point mark for his career with four goals and an assist against UVa.
Brown has played 30 games in his Princeton career, and he has at least one goal in all 30. It's more than twice as long as any similar streak to start a career at Princeton, and he is the only junior or senior in the country who has at least one goal in every game.
Brown is now the second Princeton player to have a streak of at least 30 straight games with at least one goal. The record is 46, held by the great Chris Massey.
It's easy to be overshadowed by what Sowers is doing, but that wouldn't be fair to Brown, who is having an incredible career in his own right.
The next challenge for Princeton is handling the success. Next up is Johns Hopkins, a team that can beat any other team in the country. It should be a great one on Sherrerd Field Saturday at 1.
Princeton's goal is to get back to the postseason, both the Ivy and NCAA tournament varieties. The Tigers have clearly taken a huge step in that direction with the win over Virginia, but there is a very, very long way to go still.
The ride is going to be fun to watch.
It's a pretty good comparison, minus, of course, the blog, the social media, the website and all that.
Bradley did to the men's basketball record book 55 years ago what Sowers is doing to the men's lacrosse record book now. Like Bradley, Sowers broke the existing school scoring record as a junior, which means that every point of their senior years made their records that much harder to break.
Bradley scored 2,503 points (keep in mind, he did this in three years with no three-point shot), and the next best total in program history is 1,625, scored by Ian Hummer. That means that Bradley scored 1.54 times as many points as anyone who has ever played at Princeton.
The old record at Princeton in men's lacrosse was 247 points, set by Hall-of-Famer Kevin Lowe. Sowers would have to get to 380 points to reach the same ratio as Bradley, and it's unlikely he'll get quite that far.
On the other hand, if he keeps up at his current pace, he will. Sowers is leading Division I averaging 11 points per game (that would rank 19th in the Ivy League in points per game in men's basketball, by the way). If he keeps going at that rate, he'd get past 380.
That, of course, is asking a lot. No matter what, though, it's hard to imagine someone coming along to ever break Sowers' records at Princeton. Who knows? Maybe it can be done. Maybe it will be done. Maybe some day someone will beat Bradley's records, for that matter.
It's just that in 55 years nobody has. And in 25 years, nobody came with 15 points of Lowe with the men's lacrosse team.
For now, here are a few Sowers notes:
* his 6.4 points per game are the second-most in Division I history, trailing only Siena's Tony Astertino's 6.47 (1978-81)
* he is currently 18th all-time in Division I history in total points
* he is currently 11th all-time in Division history in total assists
* he currently has 116 goals and 172 assists; only five other players in Division I history have ever finished their careers with that many of each
* with 12 more points he would become the 16th player in Division I history to reach 300 points; he has currently played 45 career games, while the average number of games played by the 15 in the 300-point club is 66.5
Those are all extraordinary.
Sowers has been amazing since Day 1 at Princeton. He's definitely upped his game this year.
Princeton, led by Sowers, has gone from unranked to the top 10, anywhere from fifth to tenth, depending on which poll you like. The Tigers, best of all, showed with Saturday's 16-12 win over Virginia that they are more than just a one-man show, with speed and depth on all sides of the field.
And for as great as Sowers has been, TigerBlog wants to make sure to mention Chris Brown, the junior who reached the 100-point mark for his career with four goals and an assist against UVa.
Brown has played 30 games in his Princeton career, and he has at least one goal in all 30. It's more than twice as long as any similar streak to start a career at Princeton, and he is the only junior or senior in the country who has at least one goal in every game.
Brown is now the second Princeton player to have a streak of at least 30 straight games with at least one goal. The record is 46, held by the great Chris Massey.
It's easy to be overshadowed by what Sowers is doing, but that wouldn't be fair to Brown, who is having an incredible career in his own right.
The next challenge for Princeton is handling the success. Next up is Johns Hopkins, a team that can beat any other team in the country. It should be a great one on Sherrerd Field Saturday at 1.
Princeton's goal is to get back to the postseason, both the Ivy and NCAA tournament varieties. The Tigers have clearly taken a huge step in that direction with the win over Virginia, but there is a very, very long way to go still.
The ride is going to be fun to watch.
Monday, February 24, 2020
On The Bus
TigerBlog's first experience with a happy bus ride home from a Princeton athletic event was the ride back from Dartmouth in 1991, after the men's basketball team finished off a perfect 14-0 Ivy record.
That ride seemed like it took about a half hour or so, even though it actually took the usual five-plus. Because it was a night game, the Tigers didn't leave Hanover until 10 or so that night, so the bus didn't roll back into the Jadwin parking lot until after 3 am.
In the time in between, the Tigers - and their coaches, including Pete Carril - sang and laughed and basically loved the moment for the entire ride back. When the bus did arrive, the team even serenaded its driver with a "Steve Is The Man" chant.
TigerBlog has spent much more time driving to games on his own than he has on the bus. He has usually preferred to be on his own schedule rather than the team's, and it's usually been more convenient to simply drive.
Lately, though, he's enjoyed going on the men's lacrosse bus. It's a great way to see what the players are like away from the just the games or their stats, and it's an equally great way to get a good feel for the pulse of the coaches.
As bus rides go, the one Saturday back from Virginia was a pretty good one for the men's lacrosse team. The Tigers had just knocked off the defending NCAA champion and second-ranked Virginia Cavaliers 16-12, making a huge early statement about the 2020 Tigers.
Princeton presumably will be moving into the national rankings when they're announced today, and possibly even vaulting all the way into the top 10. There's a long way to go in a season in which the Ivy League looks like the best league in men's college lacrosse, and every test will be huge, beginning Saturday when Big Ten-foe Johns Hopkins comes to Sherrerd Field.
As you might have been able to guess, TB will have a bit more on lacrosse as the week goes on.
For today, he's more focused on the ride back, a trip that usually can take a little more than five hours and instead took nearly seven after the major traffic caused by two accidents, first on I-66 in Virginia and then I-495 in that area of Rockville, Chevy Chase, Silver Springs where the highway was probably built with traffic already on it.
The team was a pretty happy group when it got on the bus, and when it got off. In between there were two movies, some food, a quick jump off at a rest stop in Maryland, some music, a lot of laughs and even some sleeping.
For TigerBlog, that run from almost four until almost 11 gave him the chance to follow the evening in Princeton Athletics on his phone. It was a pretty good evening at that.
First up, there was the women's basketball game, which tipped at 6 (and not 5, which TB thought). The first piece of information he saw on the game was that Bella Alarie had left the game, which of course made for about the worst possible scenario.
TB texted his colleague Warren Croxton at the game to find out how Bella was, but by the time he did, she'd already come back into the game. That was the best possible scenario. Then she tore up Dartmouth, which was an even better scenario.
The game was 16-16 at the end of first and 34-32 at the half. Dartmouth had put up almost as many points in the first half as most teams have all game against the Tigers.
Then came the 31-11 third quarter. By the time the game ended, it was 87-55 Tigers, and Princeton had its 17th straight win, improving to 21-1 on the year and staying unbeaten in the Ivy League.
Alarie finished with 28 points and 12 rebounds, and she now has 1,622 career points, which leaves her 61 away from Sandi Bittler Leland's 30-year-old school record of 1,683. Princeton has five regular season games and then whatever the postseason has in store.
The next game is tomorrow night, when Penn comes to Jadwin, followed by home games against Brown and Yale this weekend. Princeton is 9-0 in the league, followed by 7-2 Penn, so obviously the game tomorrow is huge.
By the time the women's game ended, the men were pretty far along in their game at Dartmouth. TB was also following along the Ivy League women's swimming and diving championships, as it began to look like that was going to be a big Princeton win.
As it turned out, it was. Princeton put up 1,569 points, topping Harvard by 107 en route to the 23rd title in program history and the first for head coach Bret Lundgaard. How did recruiting go this year?
There were three swimmers in the meet who won the maximum 96 points, and two of them were Tigers - Nikki Venema and Ellie Marquardt, both freshmen.
And oh, that made for 501 Ivy League championships all-time for Princeton.
As the swim meet was winding down, the basketball game was coming down the stretch. TB was watching it on his phone and checking Twitter for lacrosse information, and while on Twitter he saw the women's squash team had reached the national final, where the Tigers would fall to Harvard yesterday.
The men's basketball game, meanwhile, was high drama, and Dartmouth, who had beaten Penn Friday, was going for the sweep while the Tigers, after a loss at Harvard Friday, were looking for the bounce back.
Dartmouth had a chance for the win the final seconds, but the potential winning shot rolled out, allowing the Tigers to have their own good bus ride back after a 65-62 win.
That win left the league standings at Yale at 8-2, Princeton and Harvard at 7-3, Brown at 6-4 and Penn at 5-5. Nobody has clinched an Ivy tournament spot yet, but Princeton looks to be in great shape with two wins over Penn and one already over Brown.
The Tigers will be at Brown and Yale this weekend as they play to get into the tournament and for a possible league title.
Anyway, that's an effective use of time for a long bus ride, no? While riding back from a huge win with one group of Tigers, TB was able to follow all the other Tigers who were competing in their own events.
That ride seemed like it took about a half hour or so, even though it actually took the usual five-plus. Because it was a night game, the Tigers didn't leave Hanover until 10 or so that night, so the bus didn't roll back into the Jadwin parking lot until after 3 am.
In the time in between, the Tigers - and their coaches, including Pete Carril - sang and laughed and basically loved the moment for the entire ride back. When the bus did arrive, the team even serenaded its driver with a "Steve Is The Man" chant.
TigerBlog has spent much more time driving to games on his own than he has on the bus. He has usually preferred to be on his own schedule rather than the team's, and it's usually been more convenient to simply drive.
Lately, though, he's enjoyed going on the men's lacrosse bus. It's a great way to see what the players are like away from the just the games or their stats, and it's an equally great way to get a good feel for the pulse of the coaches.
As bus rides go, the one Saturday back from Virginia was a pretty good one for the men's lacrosse team. The Tigers had just knocked off the defending NCAA champion and second-ranked Virginia Cavaliers 16-12, making a huge early statement about the 2020 Tigers.
Princeton presumably will be moving into the national rankings when they're announced today, and possibly even vaulting all the way into the top 10. There's a long way to go in a season in which the Ivy League looks like the best league in men's college lacrosse, and every test will be huge, beginning Saturday when Big Ten-foe Johns Hopkins comes to Sherrerd Field.
As you might have been able to guess, TB will have a bit more on lacrosse as the week goes on.
For today, he's more focused on the ride back, a trip that usually can take a little more than five hours and instead took nearly seven after the major traffic caused by two accidents, first on I-66 in Virginia and then I-495 in that area of Rockville, Chevy Chase, Silver Springs where the highway was probably built with traffic already on it.
The team was a pretty happy group when it got on the bus, and when it got off. In between there were two movies, some food, a quick jump off at a rest stop in Maryland, some music, a lot of laughs and even some sleeping.
For TigerBlog, that run from almost four until almost 11 gave him the chance to follow the evening in Princeton Athletics on his phone. It was a pretty good evening at that.
First up, there was the women's basketball game, which tipped at 6 (and not 5, which TB thought). The first piece of information he saw on the game was that Bella Alarie had left the game, which of course made for about the worst possible scenario.
TB texted his colleague Warren Croxton at the game to find out how Bella was, but by the time he did, she'd already come back into the game. That was the best possible scenario. Then she tore up Dartmouth, which was an even better scenario.
The game was 16-16 at the end of first and 34-32 at the half. Dartmouth had put up almost as many points in the first half as most teams have all game against the Tigers.
Then came the 31-11 third quarter. By the time the game ended, it was 87-55 Tigers, and Princeton had its 17th straight win, improving to 21-1 on the year and staying unbeaten in the Ivy League.
Alarie finished with 28 points and 12 rebounds, and she now has 1,622 career points, which leaves her 61 away from Sandi Bittler Leland's 30-year-old school record of 1,683. Princeton has five regular season games and then whatever the postseason has in store.
The next game is tomorrow night, when Penn comes to Jadwin, followed by home games against Brown and Yale this weekend. Princeton is 9-0 in the league, followed by 7-2 Penn, so obviously the game tomorrow is huge.
By the time the women's game ended, the men were pretty far along in their game at Dartmouth. TB was also following along the Ivy League women's swimming and diving championships, as it began to look like that was going to be a big Princeton win.
As it turned out, it was. Princeton put up 1,569 points, topping Harvard by 107 en route to the 23rd title in program history and the first for head coach Bret Lundgaard. How did recruiting go this year?
There were three swimmers in the meet who won the maximum 96 points, and two of them were Tigers - Nikki Venema and Ellie Marquardt, both freshmen.
And oh, that made for 501 Ivy League championships all-time for Princeton.
As the swim meet was winding down, the basketball game was coming down the stretch. TB was watching it on his phone and checking Twitter for lacrosse information, and while on Twitter he saw the women's squash team had reached the national final, where the Tigers would fall to Harvard yesterday.
The men's basketball game, meanwhile, was high drama, and Dartmouth, who had beaten Penn Friday, was going for the sweep while the Tigers, after a loss at Harvard Friday, were looking for the bounce back.
Dartmouth had a chance for the win the final seconds, but the potential winning shot rolled out, allowing the Tigers to have their own good bus ride back after a 65-62 win.
That win left the league standings at Yale at 8-2, Princeton and Harvard at 7-3, Brown at 6-4 and Penn at 5-5. Nobody has clinched an Ivy tournament spot yet, but Princeton looks to be in great shape with two wins over Penn and one already over Brown.
The Tigers will be at Brown and Yale this weekend as they play to get into the tournament and for a possible league title.
Anyway, that's an effective use of time for a long bus ride, no? While riding back from a huge win with one group of Tigers, TB was able to follow all the other Tigers who were competing in their own events.
Friday, February 21, 2020
Another Weekend, Another 31 Events
If you like the sound of TigerBlog's voice, this was a good week for you.
He did four podcasts - women's basketball, men's and women's lacrosse and even football - and tomorrow he'll be doing radio for men's lacrosse at Virginia.
He started out the women's lacrosse podcast with a story about one of the current Tiger captains, Katie Reilly, whom TB saw in the Jadwin Gym lobby the other afternoon. She waved at TB, who was talking to an older man, who instinctively waved back, even though he didn't know who it was who was waving at him.
It's human nature. Someone waves in your direction. You wave back. Someone says hi in your direction. You say hi back.
Even if they're waving or saying hi to the person behind you. It's okay. Don't feel bad next time it happens to you.
Anyway, TB then went up to Reilly to ask her if she knew who the other guy was, and she said no. Then TB explained who it was.
Pete Carril.
She said his name was familiar. This got TB to thinking, and then on the podcast talking to Chris Sailer (herself a Hall-of-Fame coach, like Carril) about how the current generation of athletes don't necessarily know who the people who came before them are.
And that's normal, TB supposes. It was just pretty fascinating in the moment.
Reilly and her teammates have an important early season game tomorrow against Virginia in a match-up of top 10 teams - Princeton at No. 9 and UVa at No. 8. Beyond that, it's also the lone home game for the women's lacrosse team from the start of the season last week and March 24, as seven of the first eight are away.
The women's game is part of just another typical weekend here in crossover season, one that will see Princeton teams compete in 31 different events between today and Sunday.
The Ivy League women's swimming and diving championships are among the marquee events, as Princeton is in second place, two points back of Harvard, after two days. Here's a good sign for the future of Princeton women's swimming - the four swimmers (Ellie Marquardt, Nicole Venema, Amelia Liu and Addison Smith) who set the school record in the 800 free relay are all freshmen.
This is also the final weekend of the regular season in women's hockey. The Tigers are home tonight at 6 (Brown) and tomorrow at 3 (Yale), and they know they'll be home next weekend in the first round of the ECAC playoffs.
They also know if they win that round, they'll be at Cornell for the league semifinals, unless Cornell loses a first round series.
What Princeton doesn't know is its seed, which would be two with two wins and could still be two without two wins but could be as low as four if things don't go well.
Princeton is looking to get back to the NCAA tournament for the second straight year.
The court that is named for Pete Carril in Jadwin Gym will also be busy, this weekend and in fact for the next eight days, during which time five games will be played there by the women's basketball team..
The Tigers, back in the national rankings, host Harvard tonight and Dartmouth tomorrow (both at 6), and then Penn Tuesday (7), Brown next Friday (6) and Yale a week from tomorrow (5).
Should the Tigers win those five games, they'd be the Ivy League champion. Right now Princeton is two games up on Penn and three up on Yale and Harvard, while Columbia is one game back of Yale and Harvard for the fourth Ivy tournament spot.
On the men's side, it's a five-team race for both first place and for the four Ivy tournament spots. Right now, Princeton and Yale are both 6-2, and Brown, Penn and Harvard are all 5-3.
Princeton spends its weekend at Harvard and Dartmouth. Every game is huge.
If you're looking for sunny and near 60 for your February weekend, you can go to Charlottesville tomorrow to see Princeton-UVa men's lacrosse. The teams played an OT game on Sherrerd Field a year ago before Virginia won - and then went on to win the NCAA title.
Sorry to have to be brief here, but there's just too many events to go in depth on all of them. The full schedule is HERE.
Oh, one more - your Ivy League champion wrestling team is back in Jadwin Sunday at 6 against Rutgers in what is always a great match.
Ivy League champion wrestling team. That sounds pretty good.
He did four podcasts - women's basketball, men's and women's lacrosse and even football - and tomorrow he'll be doing radio for men's lacrosse at Virginia.
He started out the women's lacrosse podcast with a story about one of the current Tiger captains, Katie Reilly, whom TB saw in the Jadwin Gym lobby the other afternoon. She waved at TB, who was talking to an older man, who instinctively waved back, even though he didn't know who it was who was waving at him.
It's human nature. Someone waves in your direction. You wave back. Someone says hi in your direction. You say hi back.
Even if they're waving or saying hi to the person behind you. It's okay. Don't feel bad next time it happens to you.
Anyway, TB then went up to Reilly to ask her if she knew who the other guy was, and she said no. Then TB explained who it was.
Pete Carril.
She said his name was familiar. This got TB to thinking, and then on the podcast talking to Chris Sailer (herself a Hall-of-Fame coach, like Carril) about how the current generation of athletes don't necessarily know who the people who came before them are.
And that's normal, TB supposes. It was just pretty fascinating in the moment.
Reilly and her teammates have an important early season game tomorrow against Virginia in a match-up of top 10 teams - Princeton at No. 9 and UVa at No. 8. Beyond that, it's also the lone home game for the women's lacrosse team from the start of the season last week and March 24, as seven of the first eight are away.
The women's game is part of just another typical weekend here in crossover season, one that will see Princeton teams compete in 31 different events between today and Sunday.
The Ivy League women's swimming and diving championships are among the marquee events, as Princeton is in second place, two points back of Harvard, after two days. Here's a good sign for the future of Princeton women's swimming - the four swimmers (Ellie Marquardt, Nicole Venema, Amelia Liu and Addison Smith) who set the school record in the 800 free relay are all freshmen.
This is also the final weekend of the regular season in women's hockey. The Tigers are home tonight at 6 (Brown) and tomorrow at 3 (Yale), and they know they'll be home next weekend in the first round of the ECAC playoffs.
They also know if they win that round, they'll be at Cornell for the league semifinals, unless Cornell loses a first round series.
What Princeton doesn't know is its seed, which would be two with two wins and could still be two without two wins but could be as low as four if things don't go well.
Princeton is looking to get back to the NCAA tournament for the second straight year.
The court that is named for Pete Carril in Jadwin Gym will also be busy, this weekend and in fact for the next eight days, during which time five games will be played there by the women's basketball team..
The Tigers, back in the national rankings, host Harvard tonight and Dartmouth tomorrow (both at 6), and then Penn Tuesday (7), Brown next Friday (6) and Yale a week from tomorrow (5).
Should the Tigers win those five games, they'd be the Ivy League champion. Right now Princeton is two games up on Penn and three up on Yale and Harvard, while Columbia is one game back of Yale and Harvard for the fourth Ivy tournament spot.
On the men's side, it's a five-team race for both first place and for the four Ivy tournament spots. Right now, Princeton and Yale are both 6-2, and Brown, Penn and Harvard are all 5-3.
Princeton spends its weekend at Harvard and Dartmouth. Every game is huge.
If you're looking for sunny and near 60 for your February weekend, you can go to Charlottesville tomorrow to see Princeton-UVa men's lacrosse. The teams played an OT game on Sherrerd Field a year ago before Virginia won - and then went on to win the NCAA title.
Sorry to have to be brief here, but there's just too many events to go in depth on all of them. The full schedule is HERE.
Oh, one more - your Ivy League champion wrestling team is back in Jadwin Sunday at 6 against Rutgers in what is always a great match.
Ivy League champion wrestling team. That sounds pretty good.
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