The ride from Princeton to Providence isn't TigerBlog's favorite, largely because of the neverending (okay, a little more than 100 mile) stretch that is I95 in Connecticut.
One time, TB was driving to Brown for a football game, back when TB swore he'd leave by 11 am each football Friday when he had to go to New England, ended up leaving around 2 and ended up getting destroyed in traffic the whole way.
This time, it was 1995, and typical of TB and Tom McCarthy and whoever else went that day, it was a late start.
Now, when you have to drive to New England from here, there are all kinds of options.
TB likes to avoid the Cross Bronx Expressway at all costs, which usually means the Henry Hudson to the Saw Mill to the Cross County to the Merritt and cross over to 95 after the helicopter factory (though the Merritt isn't always a bargain either).
On that 1995 day, TB was following that route when traffic came to a complete stop. And stayed that way.
Eventually, a helicopter landed not far in front of where the line of cars was. An accident?
Nope. It was the Pope.
Anyway, by the time the Pope was all settled into the church where he was speaking, it ended up taking eight hours to get from Princeton to Providence.
TB makes the ride again this weekend, as he heads to Rhode Island for the Princeton-Brown men's lacrosse game.
Since 1995, TB has found a nice sandwich shop in Northern Connecticut, where he got a great turkey club hoagie the first time he was there and then an even-better roast beast, roasted red pepper, onion one the next time.
TB will be on the road this weekend.
Not many others in orange and black will be.
Between the end of the basketball doubleheader against Penn on March 6 and this coming Friday, there have been seven home events on the Princeton campus. For the record, there were two men's volleyball matches, two men's tennis matches, one men's lacrosse game, one women's lacrosse game and one crew race.
And this weekend?
There will be no fewer than 15 home events between Friday and Sunday, spread across seven sports.
And there is no admission charge for any of them.
This weekend marks the home openers and the Ivy openers for the baseball and softball teams, as both host Dartmouth and then Harvard.
In softball, that's Friday/Saturday.
In baseball, that's Saturday/Sunday.
Princeton had its worst Ivy League baseball record ever two years ago and then came back to win the league last year, defeating Dartmouth in three dramatic games in the Ivy League championship series.
The Ivy League format has two four-team divisions (Cornell, Columbia and Penn are in with Princeton) for baseball and softball. Each team plays the other four teams twice and then plays four games against each of the teams in its division.
At the end, the two division winners meet for the Ivy title and automatic NCAA tournament berth.
The women's lacrosse team hosts Cornell, one of four Ivy teams in the Top 20, as the Big Red are ranked 17th, followed by Princeton at 19th. Dartmouth (ninth) and Penn (10th) are also looming out there for the Tigers.
In other words, it's a big game.
There is also a visit from Penn State in men's volleyball as Sam Schweisky's team is home twice this weekend, as well as rowing and tennis.
The full schedule for Princeton games this weekend is here.
For the first time in awhile, it has a lot of events in bold.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Fencing Lessons
TigerBlog is learning more and more about fencing every day.
Among the things he's learned? Princeton is really good at it. And so is Jonathan Yergler.
What else does TB know now about the sport?
There are three weapons - the epee, sabre and foil. There are subtle differences in the swords themselves and also in where on the opponent's body where a touch equals a point.
Still, fencing remains mostly foreign to TB, though he can appreciate the job that Zoltan Dudas and his staff have done in establishing Princeton as a national power.
Princeton had its highest finish ever in the NCAA championships in their current format (the 1964 men won the title), finishing second to Ohio State. Yergler became an NCAA individual champion, as he won the epee title.
It's a huge accomplishment - and it's one that leaves the door open to take the last step.
The women's team would have taken that step each of the last two years had there been separate championships for the men and women. Instead, the NCAA fencing championships combine the two sexes into one, so Princeton had to settle for second behind the Buckeyes.
Princeton's women actually tied Ohio State on points. A year ago, Princeton's women would have been outright champ.
As for Yergler, he qualified for the individual championship by essentially point differential after his 23 bouts during the team event.
TB also learned about this.
Each team could qualify two fencers per weapon, for a total of 12 per team. There are 24 fencers per weapon, and they all go head-to-head, with bouts up to five points.
The top four fencers in the standings for each weapon go to the semifinals for the individual championships.
Yergler was tied for fourth after 23 bouts but got in on the tiebreaker, which is the scoring of each of the 23 bouts (think point differential). Once there, he won the title.
Here's another thing TB learned from the fencing championships:
Twitter is great.
TB kept checking Twitter on his iPhone to see how Princeton was doing. No muss. No fuss. Simple and easy.
Yeah, there are too many retweets going on that clutter up the medium, but TB doesn't follow that many people.
TB thinks that Princeton isn't using its Twitter feed enough. For that matter, he's not using his own TB Twitter feed enough.
Moving forward, we'll have to look into it and see what can be done.
Of course, TB also fears that the 140-character limit is having really negative effects on the way that people write, use grammar, spell and all.
For a college athletic department, though, Twitter is here to stay and needs to be maximized. It was great for the EIWA wrestling and the national squash championships as well.
As for fencing, it's a pretty fascinating sport.
TB wonders what kind of specific athletic skills are necessary to be a great fencer and how they'd carry over to other sports.
In the meantime, Princeton continues to excel at the sport, with an NCAA individual champion and an NCAA runner-up finish.
At least that's what it said on Twitter.
Among the things he's learned? Princeton is really good at it. And so is Jonathan Yergler.
What else does TB know now about the sport?
There are three weapons - the epee, sabre and foil. There are subtle differences in the swords themselves and also in where on the opponent's body where a touch equals a point.
Still, fencing remains mostly foreign to TB, though he can appreciate the job that Zoltan Dudas and his staff have done in establishing Princeton as a national power.
Princeton had its highest finish ever in the NCAA championships in their current format (the 1964 men won the title), finishing second to Ohio State. Yergler became an NCAA individual champion, as he won the epee title.
It's a huge accomplishment - and it's one that leaves the door open to take the last step.
The women's team would have taken that step each of the last two years had there been separate championships for the men and women. Instead, the NCAA fencing championships combine the two sexes into one, so Princeton had to settle for second behind the Buckeyes.
Princeton's women actually tied Ohio State on points. A year ago, Princeton's women would have been outright champ.
As for Yergler, he qualified for the individual championship by essentially point differential after his 23 bouts during the team event.
TB also learned about this.
Each team could qualify two fencers per weapon, for a total of 12 per team. There are 24 fencers per weapon, and they all go head-to-head, with bouts up to five points.
The top four fencers in the standings for each weapon go to the semifinals for the individual championships.
Yergler was tied for fourth after 23 bouts but got in on the tiebreaker, which is the scoring of each of the 23 bouts (think point differential). Once there, he won the title.
Here's another thing TB learned from the fencing championships:
Twitter is great.
TB kept checking Twitter on his iPhone to see how Princeton was doing. No muss. No fuss. Simple and easy.
Yeah, there are too many retweets going on that clutter up the medium, but TB doesn't follow that many people.
TB thinks that Princeton isn't using its Twitter feed enough. For that matter, he's not using his own TB Twitter feed enough.
Moving forward, we'll have to look into it and see what can be done.
Of course, TB also fears that the 140-character limit is having really negative effects on the way that people write, use grammar, spell and all.
For a college athletic department, though, Twitter is here to stay and needs to be maximized. It was great for the EIWA wrestling and the national squash championships as well.
As for fencing, it's a pretty fascinating sport.
TB wonders what kind of specific athletic skills are necessary to be a great fencer and how they'd carry over to other sports.
In the meantime, Princeton continues to excel at the sport, with an NCAA individual champion and an NCAA runner-up finish.
At least that's what it said on Twitter.
Monday, March 26, 2012
An Epic In New Haven
TigerBlog should have known that Saturday was going to be a bit different when he ran into Megan or Maggie or whatever the name of the little girl who was selling Girl Scout cookies outside the bagel place at 7:30.
TB couldn't tell her name, since she spoke only in whispers. He also could barely tell what she was saying when she asked "would you like to buy some cookies," and in fact he's just assuming that's what she said, since she was somewhat shy and inaudible.
So TB said in a loud voice "What'd you say?"
Then, seeing that she was a bit startled, TB said he was only kidding and then coughed up the $4 for Thin Mints.
And then it was off to New Haven, armed with a bacon and egg on a plain for the way up and Thin Mints for the way back.
As he drove, TB though about how many times he'd made this trip, for how many different sports, in how many different decades. He concluded that a defining moment of his life is going to be how much of it he spent driving back and forth to watch Princeton play, always on the same roads, always to the same destinations.
He thought about all the games he went to that are now a blur to him, with fuzzy details of who scored, what the final score was, what the big play was.
As he drove back, he was struck by another interesting thought.
One of the great aspects of his job is that he never knows when he's going to stumble on an all-time great game.
It could happen at any time, without any warning.
Like Saturday, for instance.
TB expected another Princeton-Yale lacrosse game - close, competitive, and then on to the next.
What he got was one of the best games he's ever seen.
Yes, Princeton's 10-9, five-overtime win over Yale was the longest game in the history of either program, ended on Alex Capretta's goal after 18:21 of OT.
Oh, the game lacked the historical significance necessary to put it over the top. There was no NCAA championship at stake, no championship of any kind.
Still, TB has seen hundreds of lacrosse games. Few have been able to match this one for drama.
Princeton led Yale by three with four minutes to go and by two with a minute to go before Greg Mahony tied it with 21 seconds to go.
Then it got exciting.
Keep in mind what was at stake here.
Princeton had won back-to-back games coming into this one and was looking to get to 5-2, 2-0 in the Ivy League. Yale had lost three straight and was looking to get to .500 overall and in the league.
For Princeton, it was especially huge, considering where the team was a year ago and where it hope to be heading this year.
And so whoever scored next was going to have accomplished something huge for its season.
TigerBlog cannot remember too many games that had this kind of back-and-forth "we've got it, no we've lost it, no we've got it back, no we've lost it" momentum swings.
Both teams had great chances in all five OTs.
Both goalies played great.
Both lineups were filled with players who made huge plays - and with players who just missed ending it.
The second-longest game in Princeton history - now, anyway - was the 1999 15-14 win over Syracuse, which ran 73:25 before Josh Sims won it for the Tigers.
That game in Syracuse featured a total of 11 shots in the four OTs.
The game Saturday featured 28 shots in the five OTs.
That's 28 shots in a little more than 18 minutes.
Prorated over a 60-minute game, that would have been 92 shots.
Colgate (apparently) leads Division I with 44.5 shots per game. TB couldn't find another team averaging more than 40.
The overtimes were a track meet, back and forth, shot after shot, any of which could have ended it and each of which added to the drama.
In the end, it was Capretta's shot that finally brought it to a conclusion.
Capretta, by the way, is the possessor of a cannon of a shot who is finally putting all of his potential together and having a strong senior year. Through seven games, Capretta has eight goals and seven assists while playing in the midfield; he had 10 points through his first three years.
If you weren't there, you couldn't possibly sense just how exciting and dramatic it was, and ultimately how draining it was for both teams when it ended.
TB was in the Princeton team room after the game, and the emotions there rivaled those of a championship win.
It wasn't, of course.
Just a huge win in late March.
In a game that reminded TigerBlog why he loves what he does so much.
You never know what the next game has in store.
TB couldn't tell her name, since she spoke only in whispers. He also could barely tell what she was saying when she asked "would you like to buy some cookies," and in fact he's just assuming that's what she said, since she was somewhat shy and inaudible.
So TB said in a loud voice "What'd you say?"
Then, seeing that she was a bit startled, TB said he was only kidding and then coughed up the $4 for Thin Mints.
And then it was off to New Haven, armed with a bacon and egg on a plain for the way up and Thin Mints for the way back.
As he drove, TB though about how many times he'd made this trip, for how many different sports, in how many different decades. He concluded that a defining moment of his life is going to be how much of it he spent driving back and forth to watch Princeton play, always on the same roads, always to the same destinations.
He thought about all the games he went to that are now a blur to him, with fuzzy details of who scored, what the final score was, what the big play was.
As he drove back, he was struck by another interesting thought.
One of the great aspects of his job is that he never knows when he's going to stumble on an all-time great game.
It could happen at any time, without any warning.
Like Saturday, for instance.
TB expected another Princeton-Yale lacrosse game - close, competitive, and then on to the next.
What he got was one of the best games he's ever seen.
Yes, Princeton's 10-9, five-overtime win over Yale was the longest game in the history of either program, ended on Alex Capretta's goal after 18:21 of OT.
Oh, the game lacked the historical significance necessary to put it over the top. There was no NCAA championship at stake, no championship of any kind.
Still, TB has seen hundreds of lacrosse games. Few have been able to match this one for drama.
Princeton led Yale by three with four minutes to go and by two with a minute to go before Greg Mahony tied it with 21 seconds to go.
Then it got exciting.
Keep in mind what was at stake here.
Princeton had won back-to-back games coming into this one and was looking to get to 5-2, 2-0 in the Ivy League. Yale had lost three straight and was looking to get to .500 overall and in the league.
For Princeton, it was especially huge, considering where the team was a year ago and where it hope to be heading this year.
And so whoever scored next was going to have accomplished something huge for its season.
TigerBlog cannot remember too many games that had this kind of back-and-forth "we've got it, no we've lost it, no we've got it back, no we've lost it" momentum swings.
Both teams had great chances in all five OTs.
Both goalies played great.
Both lineups were filled with players who made huge plays - and with players who just missed ending it.
The second-longest game in Princeton history - now, anyway - was the 1999 15-14 win over Syracuse, which ran 73:25 before Josh Sims won it for the Tigers.
That game in Syracuse featured a total of 11 shots in the four OTs.
The game Saturday featured 28 shots in the five OTs.
That's 28 shots in a little more than 18 minutes.
Prorated over a 60-minute game, that would have been 92 shots.
Colgate (apparently) leads Division I with 44.5 shots per game. TB couldn't find another team averaging more than 40.
The overtimes were a track meet, back and forth, shot after shot, any of which could have ended it and each of which added to the drama.
In the end, it was Capretta's shot that finally brought it to a conclusion.
Capretta, by the way, is the possessor of a cannon of a shot who is finally putting all of his potential together and having a strong senior year. Through seven games, Capretta has eight goals and seven assists while playing in the midfield; he had 10 points through his first three years.
If you weren't there, you couldn't possibly sense just how exciting and dramatic it was, and ultimately how draining it was for both teams when it ended.
TB was in the Princeton team room after the game, and the emotions there rivaled those of a championship win.
It wasn't, of course.
Just a huge win in late March.
In a game that reminded TigerBlog why he loves what he does so much.
You never know what the next game has in store.
Friday, March 23, 2012
Final Buzzer
TigerBlog, somewhat shockingly, watched more CBI basketball than NCAA basketball so far this week. He's sure that will change as the weekend goes along, though right now the score is "CBI games watched on TV since Monday 2, NCAA tournament games watched in the same span 1."
Princeton's men's basketball season ended with a loss to Pitt in the CBI Monday (TB listened to that one on the radio), and it was a week ago that the women were in Bridgeport getting ready for their NCAA game.
Still, before the book is closed on the 2011-12 Princeton basketball seasons, TB has one more thought on each team.
Let's start with the women.
TigerBlog was minding his own business when he got an email yesterday that had the subject line of "WBCA Announces Finalists for the 2012 RUSSELL ATHLETIC/WBCA DI Coach of the Year Award."
TB opened the email and read the first paragraph:
Muffet McGraw of Notre Dame, Brenda Frese of Maryland, Tom Collen of Arkansas, Curt Miller of Bowling Green, Kim Mulkey of Baylor, Coquese Washington of Penn State, Reagan Pebley of Utah State and Tara VanDerveer of Stanford are the 2012 RUSSELL ATHLETIC/WBCA National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Regional Coaches of the Year, the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association announced today.
Okay, good for them.
And as TB read further, he saw that there was one finalist for each region nationally, which meant that Frese was the representative of this region.
This is knock on Frese, whose Terrapin team is 30-4 and playing in the Sweet 16 against Texas A&M this weekend.
Still, TB has a hard time believing that anyone in this region deserves it more than Princeton's Courtney Banghart.
Go ahead. Call TB a shill.
After all, he did spend the first 14 games of year as the women's basketball contact. And he isn't exactly objective in all this, given that this is Princeton's blog.
Even with all that, how can anyone be more deserving than Banghart?
Yes, Maryland has had a great year. Of course, Maryland also is one of the elite programs in women's basketball, a team that has won an NCAA title and is more likely than not to win 30 games and go to the Sweet 16.
Sure, Frese built all that. Her team won 10 games her first year, a decade back.
It's just that this year is essentially what Maryland women's basketball is supposed to be.
And Princeton?
The Tigers had never played in the NCAA tournament in women's basketball before Banghart arrived. This year was the third straight time the Tigers were in the tournament.
Princeton went 24-5 this year, lost its NCAA game by three points, had three players reach 1,000 career points and was the only team in Division I - men or women - to go undefeated in its league while winning every game by double figures.
Of Princeton's 14 Ivy League wins, 12 were by at least 25 points.
To go from seven wins her first year to Ivy titles and NCAA tournament appearances in her third, fourth and fifth is remarkable.
Still, if that was all there was to it, then it would just be a nice job in a non-power league.
What Princeton did this year was break into the national Top 25, coming in at No. 24 in the final regular season poll. No Ivy League women's basketball team had ever accomplished that.
Yes, Coach of the Year often goes to the coach of the best team, rather than the coach who did the most compared to what reasonable expectations might be. If it was the other way around, then Banghart would be on the list. No question.
On the men's side, Douglas Davis finished his career with 1,550 career points, second-best all-time at Princeton.
Davis scored 51 points in two CBI games to pass Kit Mueller, who had 1,546.
Davis played in 13 more games in his career than Mueller, but their career minutes were fairly similar. Davis also is second all-time at Princeton in three-pointers made with 276, five off the school record held by assistant coach Brian Earl.
What put Davis over the top as a scorer was his ability to create his own shot, especially driving into the lane and pulling up from 10-15 feet. Very few Princeton players have ever had that skill, certainly not to Davis' extent.
Davis is one of three players (among 30) in program history to score 1,000 points and not be named first-team All-Ivy League. The other two? Bob Roma and Dan Mavraides.
Maybe it's a testament to his consistency. Davis wasn't a spectacular player for Princeton. He was just a very solid, very consistent, very reliable one.
Oh, and he did make one of the two biggest shots in school history.
Barring injury or some other member of what Bill Carmody always called "The Whammy" family, Davis will get to enjoy being the No. 2 scorer in Princeton history for one season, until Ian Hummer passes him next year.
Hummer has 1,170 career points and scored 515 this year. If he does that next year, then he'll have 1,685, or two more than Sandi Bittler (now Leland) scored in her Princeton career.
Right now, Bittler ranks second behind Bill Bradley among points scored at Princeton. Niveen Rasheed, as an aside, will enter her senior year with 1,134 points, leaving her 549 away from Bittler; Rasheed had 490 this year.
Bradley scored 2,503, in three years, without a three-point shot. Just for some context.
Had Bradley not destroyed the record book, then there would have been a great deal of drama to Davis' pursuit of Mueller and now Hummer's pursuit of Davis.
Because of Bradley, Davis' climb was more steady and a bit under the radar, as was the player himself during his career.
It's his accomplishments that are spectacular.
The same goes for Courtney Banghart.
Princeton's men's basketball season ended with a loss to Pitt in the CBI Monday (TB listened to that one on the radio), and it was a week ago that the women were in Bridgeport getting ready for their NCAA game.
Still, before the book is closed on the 2011-12 Princeton basketball seasons, TB has one more thought on each team.
Let's start with the women.
TigerBlog was minding his own business when he got an email yesterday that had the subject line of "WBCA Announces Finalists for the 2012 RUSSELL ATHLETIC/WBCA DI Coach of the Year Award."
TB opened the email and read the first paragraph:
Muffet McGraw of Notre Dame, Brenda Frese of Maryland, Tom Collen of Arkansas, Curt Miller of Bowling Green, Kim Mulkey of Baylor, Coquese Washington of Penn State, Reagan Pebley of Utah State and Tara VanDerveer of Stanford are the 2012 RUSSELL ATHLETIC/WBCA National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Regional Coaches of the Year, the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association announced today.
Okay, good for them.
And as TB read further, he saw that there was one finalist for each region nationally, which meant that Frese was the representative of this region.
This is knock on Frese, whose Terrapin team is 30-4 and playing in the Sweet 16 against Texas A&M this weekend.
Still, TB has a hard time believing that anyone in this region deserves it more than Princeton's Courtney Banghart.
Go ahead. Call TB a shill.
After all, he did spend the first 14 games of year as the women's basketball contact. And he isn't exactly objective in all this, given that this is Princeton's blog.
Even with all that, how can anyone be more deserving than Banghart?
Yes, Maryland has had a great year. Of course, Maryland also is one of the elite programs in women's basketball, a team that has won an NCAA title and is more likely than not to win 30 games and go to the Sweet 16.
Sure, Frese built all that. Her team won 10 games her first year, a decade back.
It's just that this year is essentially what Maryland women's basketball is supposed to be.
And Princeton?
The Tigers had never played in the NCAA tournament in women's basketball before Banghart arrived. This year was the third straight time the Tigers were in the tournament.
Princeton went 24-5 this year, lost its NCAA game by three points, had three players reach 1,000 career points and was the only team in Division I - men or women - to go undefeated in its league while winning every game by double figures.
Of Princeton's 14 Ivy League wins, 12 were by at least 25 points.
To go from seven wins her first year to Ivy titles and NCAA tournament appearances in her third, fourth and fifth is remarkable.
Still, if that was all there was to it, then it would just be a nice job in a non-power league.
What Princeton did this year was break into the national Top 25, coming in at No. 24 in the final regular season poll. No Ivy League women's basketball team had ever accomplished that.
Yes, Coach of the Year often goes to the coach of the best team, rather than the coach who did the most compared to what reasonable expectations might be. If it was the other way around, then Banghart would be on the list. No question.
On the men's side, Douglas Davis finished his career with 1,550 career points, second-best all-time at Princeton.
Davis scored 51 points in two CBI games to pass Kit Mueller, who had 1,546.
Davis played in 13 more games in his career than Mueller, but their career minutes were fairly similar. Davis also is second all-time at Princeton in three-pointers made with 276, five off the school record held by assistant coach Brian Earl.
What put Davis over the top as a scorer was his ability to create his own shot, especially driving into the lane and pulling up from 10-15 feet. Very few Princeton players have ever had that skill, certainly not to Davis' extent.
Davis is one of three players (among 30) in program history to score 1,000 points and not be named first-team All-Ivy League. The other two? Bob Roma and Dan Mavraides.
Maybe it's a testament to his consistency. Davis wasn't a spectacular player for Princeton. He was just a very solid, very consistent, very reliable one.
Oh, and he did make one of the two biggest shots in school history.
Barring injury or some other member of what Bill Carmody always called "The Whammy" family, Davis will get to enjoy being the No. 2 scorer in Princeton history for one season, until Ian Hummer passes him next year.
Hummer has 1,170 career points and scored 515 this year. If he does that next year, then he'll have 1,685, or two more than Sandi Bittler (now Leland) scored in her Princeton career.
Right now, Bittler ranks second behind Bill Bradley among points scored at Princeton. Niveen Rasheed, as an aside, will enter her senior year with 1,134 points, leaving her 549 away from Bittler; Rasheed had 490 this year.
Bradley scored 2,503, in three years, without a three-point shot. Just for some context.
Had Bradley not destroyed the record book, then there would have been a great deal of drama to Davis' pursuit of Mueller and now Hummer's pursuit of Davis.
Because of Bradley, Davis' climb was more steady and a bit under the radar, as was the player himself during his career.
It's his accomplishments that are spectacular.
The same goes for Courtney Banghart.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Voices From The Past
The decision to put the NCAA men's basketball tournament games on four different CBS-controlled networks was a great one.
Now, instead of being at the mercy of the having to watch the game in your region, viewers simply watch what they want, as every game was on last weekend.
TigerBlog used to hate the way the network would switch from one game to another. Not the concept, mind you, but the execution.
For whatever reason, CBS would always stay with games too long, keeping the viewer locked in until the final buzzer of games that were close but had deteriorated into foul shooting, all while the ticker showed that there was a two-point game with three minutes to go that you were missing.
Of course, with eight first weekend sites comes the need for eight broadcast teams.
Some of them TB likes; some he doesn't like. It's personal preference.
The ones that TB finds unlistenable might just be your favorite.
And the sideline reporters? TB doesn't like the whole concept, as he's said many times before.
Aside from the fact that they offer nothing that can't simply be relayed to the broadcast team and that everything has to start with "I spoke to Coach Boeheim" or "Coach Williams told me," there's the whole degrading, exploitative aspect of "we have to find an unbelievably attractive woman to be our sideline reporter."
If TB were a female journalist, he'd be horribly offended by it all. Actually, TB's a guy and he's horribly offended by it.
Of course, no offense to the sideline reporters themselves. Especially Tracy Wolfson, who is TB's all-time favorite sideline reporter.
Wolfson, for those who never knew it, began her career at WZBN, the tiny cable station in Hamilton, which is two towns away from Princeton.
Tracy used to come here and do interviews and features and reports on Princeton athletes across many sports, back maybe 12-14 years ago, somewhere in that range.
Back then, TB remembers her as being friendly, funny, good-natured, well-prepared - and short, very short.
And there she was on CBS last weekend, where she's been for about 10 years, looking exactly the same as she did when she was at WZBN, interviewing coaches and players who were nearly two feet taller than she is.
The last time TB saw her at Princeton, she was doing a feature on something (TB can't remember), and she was very, very pregnant with one of her three sons. In other words, it appears that it's all worked out well for Tracy Wolfson, and TB wishes her continued success and happiness.
Seeing her on TV last weekend got TB to thinking about the others who used to cover Princeton sports who have hit it big.
There's a pretty good list.
There's Walter Perez (Uncle Walt to TigerBlog Jr. and Little Miss TigerBlog), who went from doing color on Princeton football in Palmer Stadium to a career in TV that now sees him as an anchor/reporter on Channel 6 in Philadelphia.
There's Tom McCarthy, who was Walt's play-by-play partner for football and who also did Princeton basketball for years. Tom moved up to do the Phillies on the radio, the Mets on the radio and now the Phillies on TV.
One of TB's favorite memories of the two of them is the time that TB trudged up the wooden steps in Palmer Stadium to the top level, where radio and TV would broadcast. As he put down a stat sheet or the out-of-town scores, he heard McCarthy say this:
"Washington [as in Marc Washington, former Princeton running back] up the middle for seven and Walt, don't even think about eating my cookie."
Tom - or Boog, as he is known - has reached the top of his profession and has gotten TB to root for the Phillies. There is nobody nicer than Boog, and TB couldn't be happier for him, though he does miss the days when he was do his ESPN-radio Tom McCarthy Show from courtside at Jadwin before a Friday Tiger game.
Who else?
Grant Wahl went from being a student-worker in the OAC and the author of an astonishing piece on former Princeton running back Billy Jordan for the Daily Princetonian to being a staff writer at Sports Illustrated. Hey, SI is stocked with Princetonians, including Alex Wolff, who was just inducted into the basketball Hall of Fame.
Howard David used to be the voice of Princeton football before he became a national NFL voice. David Brody, who took over for David (if TB remembers the progression correctly), went from Princeton to be the host of a national sports talk show out of Las Vegas.
Mike Mayock, of the NFL Network and Notre Dame football broadcasts, used to be the color commentator for Princeton football on, TB believes, New Jersey Network.
Sean Gregory, a former Princeton basketball player, wrote a great piece for the 1998 men's basketball media guide about the team's preseason trip to Spain. Today he writes for Time.
There is an army of people who went from writing and broadcasting Princeton sports to other opportunities. Maybe some of the current voices are headed to the same path.
TB is sure he's left a few out, and as always, he apologizes (and welcomes anyone who can offer a few names).
Anyway, the games in the NCAA tournament resume tonight.
And if there have to be sideline reporters, let it be someone who got her start at Princeton.
Now, instead of being at the mercy of the having to watch the game in your region, viewers simply watch what they want, as every game was on last weekend.
TigerBlog used to hate the way the network would switch from one game to another. Not the concept, mind you, but the execution.
For whatever reason, CBS would always stay with games too long, keeping the viewer locked in until the final buzzer of games that were close but had deteriorated into foul shooting, all while the ticker showed that there was a two-point game with three minutes to go that you were missing.
Of course, with eight first weekend sites comes the need for eight broadcast teams.
Some of them TB likes; some he doesn't like. It's personal preference.
The ones that TB finds unlistenable might just be your favorite.
And the sideline reporters? TB doesn't like the whole concept, as he's said many times before.
Aside from the fact that they offer nothing that can't simply be relayed to the broadcast team and that everything has to start with "I spoke to Coach Boeheim" or "Coach Williams told me," there's the whole degrading, exploitative aspect of "we have to find an unbelievably attractive woman to be our sideline reporter."
If TB were a female journalist, he'd be horribly offended by it all. Actually, TB's a guy and he's horribly offended by it.
Of course, no offense to the sideline reporters themselves. Especially Tracy Wolfson, who is TB's all-time favorite sideline reporter.
Wolfson, for those who never knew it, began her career at WZBN, the tiny cable station in Hamilton, which is two towns away from Princeton.
Tracy used to come here and do interviews and features and reports on Princeton athletes across many sports, back maybe 12-14 years ago, somewhere in that range.
Back then, TB remembers her as being friendly, funny, good-natured, well-prepared - and short, very short.
And there she was on CBS last weekend, where she's been for about 10 years, looking exactly the same as she did when she was at WZBN, interviewing coaches and players who were nearly two feet taller than she is.
The last time TB saw her at Princeton, she was doing a feature on something (TB can't remember), and she was very, very pregnant with one of her three sons. In other words, it appears that it's all worked out well for Tracy Wolfson, and TB wishes her continued success and happiness.
Seeing her on TV last weekend got TB to thinking about the others who used to cover Princeton sports who have hit it big.
There's a pretty good list.
There's Walter Perez (Uncle Walt to TigerBlog Jr. and Little Miss TigerBlog), who went from doing color on Princeton football in Palmer Stadium to a career in TV that now sees him as an anchor/reporter on Channel 6 in Philadelphia.
There's Tom McCarthy, who was Walt's play-by-play partner for football and who also did Princeton basketball for years. Tom moved up to do the Phillies on the radio, the Mets on the radio and now the Phillies on TV.
One of TB's favorite memories of the two of them is the time that TB trudged up the wooden steps in Palmer Stadium to the top level, where radio and TV would broadcast. As he put down a stat sheet or the out-of-town scores, he heard McCarthy say this:
"Washington [as in Marc Washington, former Princeton running back] up the middle for seven and Walt, don't even think about eating my cookie."
Tom - or Boog, as he is known - has reached the top of his profession and has gotten TB to root for the Phillies. There is nobody nicer than Boog, and TB couldn't be happier for him, though he does miss the days when he was do his ESPN-radio Tom McCarthy Show from courtside at Jadwin before a Friday Tiger game.
Who else?
Grant Wahl went from being a student-worker in the OAC and the author of an astonishing piece on former Princeton running back Billy Jordan for the Daily Princetonian to being a staff writer at Sports Illustrated. Hey, SI is stocked with Princetonians, including Alex Wolff, who was just inducted into the basketball Hall of Fame.
Howard David used to be the voice of Princeton football before he became a national NFL voice. David Brody, who took over for David (if TB remembers the progression correctly), went from Princeton to be the host of a national sports talk show out of Las Vegas.
Mike Mayock, of the NFL Network and Notre Dame football broadcasts, used to be the color commentator for Princeton football on, TB believes, New Jersey Network.
Sean Gregory, a former Princeton basketball player, wrote a great piece for the 1998 men's basketball media guide about the team's preseason trip to Spain. Today he writes for Time.
There is an army of people who went from writing and broadcasting Princeton sports to other opportunities. Maybe some of the current voices are headed to the same path.
TB is sure he's left a few out, and as always, he apologizes (and welcomes anyone who can offer a few names).
Anyway, the games in the NCAA tournament resume tonight.
And if there have to be sideline reporters, let it be someone who got her start at Princeton.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Winter Wonderland
Well, the long harsh winter is officially over. And now it's spring.
Of course, living here in the tropics, it's hard to differentiate between the two.
TigerBlog remembers when he used to live in an area of the country where there was a change of seasons, where each season flowed one to the other and the coming of spring was a time of rejuvenation and rebirth.
Of course, TB still lives in the same area.
This year, winter lasted from the overnight hours of Oct. 29 until the early evening of the same day. During that time, about five inches of snow fell on Princeton, and it destroyed what would have otherwise been some well-attended events, such as Princeton-Cornell football and Heps cross country.
Within three days of the snowstorm, temperatures reached the 50s, the snow disappeared, and spring was essentially here.
Oh, sure, there were a few flurries here and there, though nothing that required a snow shovel.
Spring lasted through December, January and February. And of course, now it's summer. High temperatures today, tomorrow and Friday will be in the 80s.
And there is the whole tropical nature to Central New Jersey as well, since it rains overnight and into the early morning, clears up and becomes sunny and hot - just like it does in the Virgin Islands.
If you're keeping score, TigerBlog wore his heavy winter coat once in the months that used to be considered winter. He cannot remember one day where he walked outside and said "holy shimolly, it's freezing out here."
In fact, there were probably more "no jacket" days than "jacket" days.
And there's your weather update.
The winter athletic season isn't quite over, and it could go out in a big way.
The NCAA fencing championships begin tomorrow at Ohio State, and Princeton has as good a chance as anyone to bring home the biggest trophy.
TigerBlog isn't exactly a fencing expert, but he did learn how the championships work.
Basically, there are three fencing weapons: sabre, epee and foil. Each weapon has 24 fencers who qualify for the NCAA event, and no school can have more than two fencers per weapon.
The men and women are counted together, and there is one NCAA team championship. That means the maximum number of fencers a school can qualify is 12 (two men and two women per weapon times three weapons), and Princeton is one of five schools to have qualified the maximum (St. John's, Harvard, Ohio State and Notre Dame are the other four).
Each fencer has a bout against the other 23 fencers in that weapon, and the first one to five touches wins a point for his/her team. Add up all the points, and there's your winner.
The top four in each weapon advance to the individual weapon championships.
The job that Princeton's fencing staff of Zoltan Dudas, Hristo Hristov and Szilvia Voros have done is remarkable. The Tigers have won five Ivy titles in the last three years between the men's and women's programs, and they head to Columbus with a legitimate chance of winning the NCAA title.
TB wonders how some of these athletes got into fencing in the first place. He knows little about the sport, and he wonders what the specific skills that it requires.
Fencing 23 bouts in two days seems like a lot. Is it? Is it an endurance contest, or are they so quick that 23 bouts is pretty much standard?
TB knows the answer to none of those questions. Seems like a pretty interesting sport, though, no?
In fact, basically all he knows about fencing is that he's rooting for the Tigers.
Of course, living here in the tropics, it's hard to differentiate between the two.
TigerBlog remembers when he used to live in an area of the country where there was a change of seasons, where each season flowed one to the other and the coming of spring was a time of rejuvenation and rebirth.
Of course, TB still lives in the same area.
This year, winter lasted from the overnight hours of Oct. 29 until the early evening of the same day. During that time, about five inches of snow fell on Princeton, and it destroyed what would have otherwise been some well-attended events, such as Princeton-Cornell football and Heps cross country.
Within three days of the snowstorm, temperatures reached the 50s, the snow disappeared, and spring was essentially here.
Oh, sure, there were a few flurries here and there, though nothing that required a snow shovel.
Spring lasted through December, January and February. And of course, now it's summer. High temperatures today, tomorrow and Friday will be in the 80s.
And there is the whole tropical nature to Central New Jersey as well, since it rains overnight and into the early morning, clears up and becomes sunny and hot - just like it does in the Virgin Islands.
If you're keeping score, TigerBlog wore his heavy winter coat once in the months that used to be considered winter. He cannot remember one day where he walked outside and said "holy shimolly, it's freezing out here."
In fact, there were probably more "no jacket" days than "jacket" days.
And there's your weather update.
The winter athletic season isn't quite over, and it could go out in a big way.
The NCAA fencing championships begin tomorrow at Ohio State, and Princeton has as good a chance as anyone to bring home the biggest trophy.
TigerBlog isn't exactly a fencing expert, but he did learn how the championships work.
Basically, there are three fencing weapons: sabre, epee and foil. Each weapon has 24 fencers who qualify for the NCAA event, and no school can have more than two fencers per weapon.
The men and women are counted together, and there is one NCAA team championship. That means the maximum number of fencers a school can qualify is 12 (two men and two women per weapon times three weapons), and Princeton is one of five schools to have qualified the maximum (St. John's, Harvard, Ohio State and Notre Dame are the other four).
Each fencer has a bout against the other 23 fencers in that weapon, and the first one to five touches wins a point for his/her team. Add up all the points, and there's your winner.
The top four in each weapon advance to the individual weapon championships.
The job that Princeton's fencing staff of Zoltan Dudas, Hristo Hristov and Szilvia Voros have done is remarkable. The Tigers have won five Ivy titles in the last three years between the men's and women's programs, and they head to Columbus with a legitimate chance of winning the NCAA title.
TB wonders how some of these athletes got into fencing in the first place. He knows little about the sport, and he wonders what the specific skills that it requires.
Fencing 23 bouts in two days seems like a lot. Is it? Is it an endurance contest, or are they so quick that 23 bouts is pretty much standard?
TB knows the answer to none of those questions. Seems like a pretty interesting sport, though, no?
In fact, basically all he knows about fencing is that he's rooting for the Tigers.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
It's Mandatory
The man at the door to the big conference room at the Carl Fields Center - the greeter, if you will - had a scalp full of staples, a reminder that he was a week removed from brain surgery.
Only you couldn't see any of them. Not a single one.
Instead, he had a full head of hair covering any sign that something was amiss. He was his usual self, Bob Callahan was, funny and modest and soft-spoken and genuine and concerned for everyone else.
It's been quite a few months for Callahan.
First, there was the incident in December, when Callahan's car was hit by a power line that snapped, incinerating the vehicle seconds after Callahan had gotten out of it.
Then there was February, when Callahan's team had a dream weekend at Jadwin Gym, where Princeton ended Trinity's 13-year run as national champion.
And then the dream quickly turned to a nightmare.
Not that you could tell by Callahan's original email.
TigerBlog will summarize Callahan's first correspondence this way: He basically said he had something little to take care of, nothing worse than a common cold or root canal, and that he'd be back soon good as new.
And sure enough, there he was, not too long after having a mass removed from his brain, at the monthly athletic department staff meeting, first standing at the door getting hugged from everyone and then taking about three or four minutes to talk to everyone.
In typical Bob fashion, he included this:
"When people asked me why I was here, I told them that it's the monthly meeting. After all, it's mandatory."
Every workplace with more than a handful of people has, TB assumes, a similar dynamic to the one that exists here.
There are the people you like. There are the people you don't like. There are different groups by age, experience, position and so on who hang together more than the people from the other group.
It's just the nature of a large organization of people.
And then there's the Bob Callahan type, the person in your organization that you can't possibly find someone to say something bad about. The one everybody loves.
TB has liked Bob - and Gail Ramsay, the women's coach - since Day 1 here.
They are both such great role models, such great educators, such team players, such funny people - such great people.
They have encouraged TB and all of the other people here who have gotten involved in playing squash almost like proud parents whose kids have decided to enter the family business. They instruct, they laugh, they're patient with beginners.
They seem to love their place here at Princeton, as the well-respected, ultra-successful coaches of a sport that usually operates far from the mainstream.
Any Princeton fan would have been fired up to beat Trinity. That it was Bob Callahan whose team did it made it even better.
And then there was his email, nonchalant, about not a cold or a bad tooth but about a brain tumor, and imminent surgery to remove it.
It was shocking to read; even more shocking to process.
And then there he was the meeting, there to reassure everyone, to talk about how lucky he was in his life, to talk about the sheer joy of waking up and being able to move his arms and legs and speak and see his five Princeton-educated sons and his wife and how no matter what, he'd be back and indeed, as good as new.
It's hard to describe the emotion of a moment like that. TB knows he was smiling with each word that came out of Bob's mouth, that he was shocked at how good he looked (Bob, not TB), that it was all so comforting to find him so, well, normally himself.
And then there was also some envy. Not of the tumor, obviously.
Of the man himself.
Envy at the site of a person so rock solid, someone who long ago learned to cherish every day, who learned what was important in his life, who sees only the good in people and things, who is so genuine in what he says and does.
He's a wonderful man, Bob Callahan. To know him is to like him, to love him, to love to be around him, to be overwhelmed by his gentle humor, humility and character.
He's not all the way there yet. But he'll get there.
And as he goes through this, he knows that everyone here is pulling for him.
Rooting for Bob Callahan?
It's mandatory.
Monday, March 19, 2012
This Much Is True
TigerBlog doesn't understand the car commercial with the Spandau Ballet song.
Clearly, it's about a system in a car that does something that helps out with the ride and the fuel efficiency. The problems are:
1) TB saw it 1,000 times this weekend and can't remember which car it's for, which isn't what you want out of your fancy commercial
2) the guy driving mumbles the name of the system, so you can't tell what he's saying
3) are they marketing solely to dorks?
TB has always liked the song "True," the Spandau Ballet song featured in the commercial, ever since he first heard it a million times somewhere in the early ’80s.
It's just that the four people in the car in the commercial don't come across as exactly the coolest kids in the class.
Anyway, that's one thing from Weekend 1 of the NCAA basketball tournament that TB saw and didn't quite comprehend.
Another was Lehigh's win over Duke.
Actually, TB missed the first 35 minutes of the game, since he was at Little Miss TigerBlog's school play of "Honk Jr.," a musical version of "The Ugly Duckling" in which LMTB played one of the cats. In case you're looking for a review: 1) some of the kids are really talented, 2) the cuteness quotient was off the charts and 3) the bullfrog stole the show.
While the play was going on, TB was stealing updates on the Duke-Lehigh game on his iPhone, which by the way has gone from "TB doesn't need one of those" to "how did TB get along without one of those as long as he did" in about three weeks.
By the time TB was in front of television, Lehigh was up and in control, and Duke was in full panic mode. Ultimately, the Mountain Hawks scored one of the great upsets in NCAA tournament history.
And it was no fluke. Lehigh looked like it had the quickness to play with Duke, and maybe even was a the faster team. C.J. McCollum was the best player on the court, even with a Duke team that features more than one lottery pick.
Maybe the whole Jeremy Lin thing shows that it's all about getting a chance and not about the label of "ACC player" or "Ivy League player" or "Patriot League player." Maybe Duke has so many advantages when playing at home that come tournament time, it's a whole new world for the team.
Whatever it means, a team that lost to William & Mary and Cornell during the regular season and came in second in the Patriot League thumped the biggest name in college basketball.
And, as an aside, TB still thinks that Lehigh didn't belong there and that Bucknell actually earned the chance to represent the league in the NCAA tournament by winning the league championship. Or maybe he thinks a 2 vs. 3, winner plays 1 event wouldn't be a bad idea, but he remains completely anti-conference tournament.
Anyway, Lehigh almost got to the Sweet 16 after putting up a big effort against Xavier. Norfolk State couldn't follow up its win over Missouri with a similar effort against Florida, but for one day, Lehigh and Norfolk State showed why people love this event so much.
And hey, Ohio is in the Sweet 16. And N.C. State, not Duke, is there, after knocking off Georgetown in a game that was frustrating for TB to watch.
So was the Denver-Notre Dame lacrosse game, which was on at the same time as Gtown-NC State, but that's for another day.
TB was rooting for both Georgetown and Denver, and neither won.
The one that stung the most for TB this weekend wasn't it men's basketball or men's lacrosse.
It was in women's basketball.
TB really, really wanted Princeton to beat Kansas State and stamp its season with an NCAA tournament victory.
After two years in which Princeton was essentially never in its NCAA tournament game, this year's Tigers clawed all the way to the end before falling 67-64 to Kansas State, a team from one of the two top women's basketball conferences.
While the men's tournament shows that anything is possible, the women's tournament shows that the gap between the top teams and the next level teams is still huge.
In the men's tournament, nine double figure seeds won their first game, including a 12, a 13 and two 15s. In the women's tournament, only three double figure seeds won their first game, two 11s and a 13 (Marist, whom Princeton beat in the regular season).
For Princeton, a No. 9 seed, the challenge was a big physical K-State team, one whose regular-season results suggested that it would be close.
At least, now looking back on it, Princeton doesn't have to be kicking itself about not playing hard or playing well or letting it get away.
Princeton's women's basketball team can look back on a 24-5 season, another 14-0 Ivy season, the league's first-ever national ranking and so many other high notes.
Princeton fans can look ahead to another season of Niveen Rasheed, the best all-around women's basketball player in Ivy history and quite possibly the greatest female athlete in Princeton history. At least the case can be made for both, which says a lot.
And Princeton can look back on its own season, which, as with the other statements, could make this the best Ivy League women's basketball team ever.
The Princeton-K State contest was one of those great NCAA tournament games, against which sits a rather cruel, harsh reality - if you play hard and well and tough for 40 minutes and don't win, you go home.
It's such a brutal way for it all to end, given the stakes.
A few more shots fall, and Lehigh is a Sweet 16 team.
A few more shots fall and Princeton is playing UConn tonight.
Instead, it's just over, just like that.
It's not a fun way for a great season to end.
To quote Spandau Ballet, TigerBlog knows this much is true.
Clearly, it's about a system in a car that does something that helps out with the ride and the fuel efficiency. The problems are:
1) TB saw it 1,000 times this weekend and can't remember which car it's for, which isn't what you want out of your fancy commercial
2) the guy driving mumbles the name of the system, so you can't tell what he's saying
3) are they marketing solely to dorks?
TB has always liked the song "True," the Spandau Ballet song featured in the commercial, ever since he first heard it a million times somewhere in the early ’80s.
It's just that the four people in the car in the commercial don't come across as exactly the coolest kids in the class.
Anyway, that's one thing from Weekend 1 of the NCAA basketball tournament that TB saw and didn't quite comprehend.
Another was Lehigh's win over Duke.
Actually, TB missed the first 35 minutes of the game, since he was at Little Miss TigerBlog's school play of "Honk Jr.," a musical version of "The Ugly Duckling" in which LMTB played one of the cats. In case you're looking for a review: 1) some of the kids are really talented, 2) the cuteness quotient was off the charts and 3) the bullfrog stole the show.
While the play was going on, TB was stealing updates on the Duke-Lehigh game on his iPhone, which by the way has gone from "TB doesn't need one of those" to "how did TB get along without one of those as long as he did" in about three weeks.
By the time TB was in front of television, Lehigh was up and in control, and Duke was in full panic mode. Ultimately, the Mountain Hawks scored one of the great upsets in NCAA tournament history.
And it was no fluke. Lehigh looked like it had the quickness to play with Duke, and maybe even was a the faster team. C.J. McCollum was the best player on the court, even with a Duke team that features more than one lottery pick.
Maybe the whole Jeremy Lin thing shows that it's all about getting a chance and not about the label of "ACC player" or "Ivy League player" or "Patriot League player." Maybe Duke has so many advantages when playing at home that come tournament time, it's a whole new world for the team.
Whatever it means, a team that lost to William & Mary and Cornell during the regular season and came in second in the Patriot League thumped the biggest name in college basketball.
And, as an aside, TB still thinks that Lehigh didn't belong there and that Bucknell actually earned the chance to represent the league in the NCAA tournament by winning the league championship. Or maybe he thinks a 2 vs. 3, winner plays 1 event wouldn't be a bad idea, but he remains completely anti-conference tournament.
Anyway, Lehigh almost got to the Sweet 16 after putting up a big effort against Xavier. Norfolk State couldn't follow up its win over Missouri with a similar effort against Florida, but for one day, Lehigh and Norfolk State showed why people love this event so much.
And hey, Ohio is in the Sweet 16. And N.C. State, not Duke, is there, after knocking off Georgetown in a game that was frustrating for TB to watch.
So was the Denver-Notre Dame lacrosse game, which was on at the same time as Gtown-NC State, but that's for another day.
TB was rooting for both Georgetown and Denver, and neither won.
The one that stung the most for TB this weekend wasn't it men's basketball or men's lacrosse.
It was in women's basketball.
TB really, really wanted Princeton to beat Kansas State and stamp its season with an NCAA tournament victory.
After two years in which Princeton was essentially never in its NCAA tournament game, this year's Tigers clawed all the way to the end before falling 67-64 to Kansas State, a team from one of the two top women's basketball conferences.
While the men's tournament shows that anything is possible, the women's tournament shows that the gap between the top teams and the next level teams is still huge.
In the men's tournament, nine double figure seeds won their first game, including a 12, a 13 and two 15s. In the women's tournament, only three double figure seeds won their first game, two 11s and a 13 (Marist, whom Princeton beat in the regular season).
For Princeton, a No. 9 seed, the challenge was a big physical K-State team, one whose regular-season results suggested that it would be close.
At least, now looking back on it, Princeton doesn't have to be kicking itself about not playing hard or playing well or letting it get away.
Princeton's women's basketball team can look back on a 24-5 season, another 14-0 Ivy season, the league's first-ever national ranking and so many other high notes.
Princeton fans can look ahead to another season of Niveen Rasheed, the best all-around women's basketball player in Ivy history and quite possibly the greatest female athlete in Princeton history. At least the case can be made for both, which says a lot.
And Princeton can look back on its own season, which, as with the other statements, could make this the best Ivy League women's basketball team ever.
The Princeton-K State contest was one of those great NCAA tournament games, against which sits a rather cruel, harsh reality - if you play hard and well and tough for 40 minutes and don't win, you go home.
It's such a brutal way for it all to end, given the stakes.
A few more shots fall, and Lehigh is a Sweet 16 team.
A few more shots fall and Princeton is playing UConn tonight.
Instead, it's just over, just like that.
It's not a fun way for a great season to end.
To quote Spandau Ballet, TigerBlog knows this much is true.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Thanks Pete
TigerBlog isn't sure why the refs were in on it in the Syracuse game yesterday.
What did UNC Asheville do to them?
Oh well. In the NCAA men's basketball tournament, still no No. 16 seed has ever beaten a No. 1.
Yesterday wasn't much of a day in the tournament. There weren't any epic games, no great upsets. The Syracuse-UNC Asheville game was probably the best one, given the 1 vs. 16 aspect of it.
Baylor-South Dakota State was good, except for the Baylor uniforms.
TB didn't see any of the VCU-Wichita State game. In fact, TB hardly saw any of any games.
He'll go out of his way today to watch Georgetown and hope that the Hoyas don't become the big powerhouse to fall early. TB doesn't think they will; in fact, he thinks they're pretty well positioned for a good run.
Anyway, even though the games themselves weren't great yesterday, there were still 16 of them, all on TV, starting at noon and running deep into the night.
And today, it repeats itself.
The tournament's drama obviously builds to next weekend, when the stakes go way up with Final Four bids at stake.
And obviously, the Final Four itself is huge, and ultimately a champion emerges on Monday night, which is one of the great nights on the sports calendar.
Still, the best days of the tournament are yesterday and today.
In fact, TigerBlog heard from more than one person yesterday that the two days of the first round (okay, the second round) of the NCAA tournament are their favorite sports days of the year.
TigerBlog might not put them at the top, but they're very, very close.
And you know whom you can thank for that?
Pete Carril.
Yup, Princeton's former basketball coach.
Or Kit Mueller and Bob Scrabis and George Leftwich and Matt Eastwick and Matt Lapin and Jerry Doyle and Troy Hottenstein and the rest of the 1989 Princeton Tigers.
In case you don't remember or never knew, the Ivy League champion put up the following results in the NCAA tournament between 1986-88:
1986 - Syracuse 101, Brown 52
1987 - North Carolina 113, Penn 82
1988 - Arizona 90, Cornell 50
If you don't want to do the math, the average score was 101.3-61.3, or an average margin of defeat by the Ivy League champ of 40 points per game.
Princeton won the 1989 Ivy League title, but went just 11-3 in the league. The Tigers earned the No. 16 seed in the East and were matched against the No. 1 team in the country, the Georgetown Hoyas.
It seemed like another 40-point beating was in the offing for the Ivy League, especially in the face of Alonzo Mourning and the relentless pressure that Georgetown was going to throw at Princeton.
Before the game, there was talk about taking away the automatic bid from leagues like the Ivy League, because it was considered to be a waste. Who would want to watch this?
Well, the idea was that nobody would. The first rounds weren't even part of the network deal, only on ESPN, which at the time was nothing near the same thing as it is now.
So what happened?
Princeton, as you probably heard, played one of the epic games in the history of college basketball, falling to the Hoyas 50-49.
In fact, if you watch a replay of the game now, Princeton really had it and let it get away. The Tigers protected the ball (Princeton had only seven turnovers, including only one from Leftwich, who went all 40 minutes), controlled the tempo, got an unreal performance from Mueller (nine points, eight assists, two turnovers, 40 minutes), had Bob Scrabis go for 15 points - and shut down every Hoya except for Mourning who went for 21 points and 13 rebounds.
In the end, Mourning blocked two shots in the final six seconds, one each from Scrabis and Mueller, and the Hoyas held on.
Or maybe the two Tigers were fouled?
As Carril famously said: "I'll take that up with God when I get there."
The shock waves from Princeton's performance were felt the next day on TV and in the newspapers (but not on the web, which didn't exist yet).
And they continued way beyond.
Instead of eliminating bids for leagues like the Ivy, the whole concept of the "mid-major" was born.
Instead of not caring about the early rounds of the tournament, CBS instead invested billions of dollars, beginning in 1991, for every game.
If Princeton had been blown out by Georgetown, who knows what might have happened? It's possible that there might be Division IA and Division IAA basketball today.
Instead, we have what many consider the two best days of the athletic calendar.
And the hope that one day, the No. 16 will beat the No. 1.
And the idea that for the first two days of the NCAA tournament, you don't want to look away, because you never know what massive underdog is going to win.
For that, join TigerBlog in thanking Pete Carril and the 1989 Tigers.
What did UNC Asheville do to them?
Oh well. In the NCAA men's basketball tournament, still no No. 16 seed has ever beaten a No. 1.
Yesterday wasn't much of a day in the tournament. There weren't any epic games, no great upsets. The Syracuse-UNC Asheville game was probably the best one, given the 1 vs. 16 aspect of it.
Baylor-South Dakota State was good, except for the Baylor uniforms.
TB didn't see any of the VCU-Wichita State game. In fact, TB hardly saw any of any games.
He'll go out of his way today to watch Georgetown and hope that the Hoyas don't become the big powerhouse to fall early. TB doesn't think they will; in fact, he thinks they're pretty well positioned for a good run.
Anyway, even though the games themselves weren't great yesterday, there were still 16 of them, all on TV, starting at noon and running deep into the night.
And today, it repeats itself.
The tournament's drama obviously builds to next weekend, when the stakes go way up with Final Four bids at stake.
And obviously, the Final Four itself is huge, and ultimately a champion emerges on Monday night, which is one of the great nights on the sports calendar.
Still, the best days of the tournament are yesterday and today.
In fact, TigerBlog heard from more than one person yesterday that the two days of the first round (okay, the second round) of the NCAA tournament are their favorite sports days of the year.
TigerBlog might not put them at the top, but they're very, very close.
And you know whom you can thank for that?
Pete Carril.
Yup, Princeton's former basketball coach.
Or Kit Mueller and Bob Scrabis and George Leftwich and Matt Eastwick and Matt Lapin and Jerry Doyle and Troy Hottenstein and the rest of the 1989 Princeton Tigers.
In case you don't remember or never knew, the Ivy League champion put up the following results in the NCAA tournament between 1986-88:
1986 - Syracuse 101, Brown 52
1987 - North Carolina 113, Penn 82
1988 - Arizona 90, Cornell 50
If you don't want to do the math, the average score was 101.3-61.3, or an average margin of defeat by the Ivy League champ of 40 points per game.
Princeton won the 1989 Ivy League title, but went just 11-3 in the league. The Tigers earned the No. 16 seed in the East and were matched against the No. 1 team in the country, the Georgetown Hoyas.
It seemed like another 40-point beating was in the offing for the Ivy League, especially in the face of Alonzo Mourning and the relentless pressure that Georgetown was going to throw at Princeton.
Before the game, there was talk about taking away the automatic bid from leagues like the Ivy League, because it was considered to be a waste. Who would want to watch this?
Well, the idea was that nobody would. The first rounds weren't even part of the network deal, only on ESPN, which at the time was nothing near the same thing as it is now.
So what happened?
Princeton, as you probably heard, played one of the epic games in the history of college basketball, falling to the Hoyas 50-49.
In fact, if you watch a replay of the game now, Princeton really had it and let it get away. The Tigers protected the ball (Princeton had only seven turnovers, including only one from Leftwich, who went all 40 minutes), controlled the tempo, got an unreal performance from Mueller (nine points, eight assists, two turnovers, 40 minutes), had Bob Scrabis go for 15 points - and shut down every Hoya except for Mourning who went for 21 points and 13 rebounds.
In the end, Mourning blocked two shots in the final six seconds, one each from Scrabis and Mueller, and the Hoyas held on.
Or maybe the two Tigers were fouled?
As Carril famously said: "I'll take that up with God when I get there."
The shock waves from Princeton's performance were felt the next day on TV and in the newspapers (but not on the web, which didn't exist yet).
And they continued way beyond.
Instead of eliminating bids for leagues like the Ivy, the whole concept of the "mid-major" was born.
Instead of not caring about the early rounds of the tournament, CBS instead invested billions of dollars, beginning in 1991, for every game.
If Princeton had been blown out by Georgetown, who knows what might have happened? It's possible that there might be Division IA and Division IAA basketball today.
Instead, we have what many consider the two best days of the athletic calendar.
And the hope that one day, the No. 16 will beat the No. 1.
And the idea that for the first two days of the NCAA tournament, you don't want to look away, because you never know what massive underdog is going to win.
For that, join TigerBlog in thanking Pete Carril and the 1989 Tigers.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Let The Second Round Begin
Okay, why would it be so bad to call the games today and tomorrow the opening round and the games that preceded them the play-in round?
Why does this have to be the second round and then the next set of games have to be the third round? Seems somewhat silly, no?
As you might have heard, the most over-analyzed, over-discussed sporting event in American culture gets going for real today.
And then once it starts, it serves as a reminder why there's nothing quite like it.
The NCAA basketball tournament suffers through months and months of meaningless "bracketology," not to mention the beating to death of the actual brackets once they're announced. People can't get enough of whom so-and-so thinks is the most likely 12 to beat a five, or the big sleeper for the Sweet 16.
Everywhere you turn, there's another "expert" offering up opinion that anyone who watches TV can match. Another "expert" referring to the "kid from St. Bonaventure" or "the guard from San Diego State," as if they know or have ever seen any of these people before.
In the next breath, there's another coach, being hailed as a genius for taking this team to the tournament this year, when for the most part, he either got hot for three days in his conference tournament or didn't mess up a good situation in a power conference.
As Pete Carril used to say, genius is a word that should be reserved for "a guy like Einstein."
TigerBlog isn't sure why that line always fascinated him. It has something to do with the fact that he didn't say "Einstein," he said "a guy like Einstein."
Anyway, the NCAA tournament is worse than the Super Bowl in terms of pre-event hype. And yet, just like the Super Bowl, all the hype can't ruin the tournament once it gets going.
The problem with college basketball is that it's the only major sport where the coaches and refs are more well-known than the players. Go ahead, name 10 players in the NCAA tournament, excluding Harvard.
If you can name 10, can you name 10 more?
Coaches? Everyone knows them. The game is all about the coaches, or at least protecting the myth that somehow these are super genius coaches who pull magical strings that others can't.
TB hates to break it to anyone, but he could coach at Kentucky or Carolina or Syracuse.
Gary Walters weighed in on the topic of John Calipari and his one-and-done philosophy at Kentucky last week in a USA Today article.
As for TB, that - and the appearance of Calipari and Jim Boeheim on ESPN after the selection show - got him to wondering why it is that there seems to be so little interest in the day-to-day slop of sports - college basketball and others - on the part of the general public.
He's not talking about things like Jerry Sandusky or Plaxico Burress or George Huguely. Those types of situations clearly generate attention.
No, TB is talking the less visible, the less spectacular. He's talking about all of the stories that come out that barely are worth the time to write the headlines, about drugs or academic fraud or poor graduation rates or one-and-done.
TB was talking about this with a co-worker on the squash court yesterday.
The question is this: Do people not care about all that stuff because all they care about are the games themselves, or are they just desensitized to it all?
TB's co-worker said that he has a wife, a child, another on the way, a mortgage and job and all. He just wants to be entertained by sports.
TB? he's not sure.
He thinks there's a level of desensitizing that has gone on, and this is the result. He thinks that the media is a big culprit in it, because of the fawning - or is it fearful? - way that it usually covers big-time football and men's basketball coaches.
TB is still waiting for the press conference where these coaches are started to be called on all this, when media members ask legitimate questions about off-field conduct or athletic/educational balances or conference realignments and all of it.
Will it happen? Who knows.
TB is as phony as anyone else. He'll still watch the tournament, root for Georgetown, root against a team he always roots against.
Still, a part of him will be glad that he works at a place that doesn't usually have to clean up the slop.
Princeton and the Ivy League aren't above it all.
They're just a little different.
It's a difference TB grew to appreciate a long time ago.
Why does this have to be the second round and then the next set of games have to be the third round? Seems somewhat silly, no?
As you might have heard, the most over-analyzed, over-discussed sporting event in American culture gets going for real today.
And then once it starts, it serves as a reminder why there's nothing quite like it.
The NCAA basketball tournament suffers through months and months of meaningless "bracketology," not to mention the beating to death of the actual brackets once they're announced. People can't get enough of whom so-and-so thinks is the most likely 12 to beat a five, or the big sleeper for the Sweet 16.
Everywhere you turn, there's another "expert" offering up opinion that anyone who watches TV can match. Another "expert" referring to the "kid from St. Bonaventure" or "the guard from San Diego State," as if they know or have ever seen any of these people before.
In the next breath, there's another coach, being hailed as a genius for taking this team to the tournament this year, when for the most part, he either got hot for three days in his conference tournament or didn't mess up a good situation in a power conference.
As Pete Carril used to say, genius is a word that should be reserved for "a guy like Einstein."
TigerBlog isn't sure why that line always fascinated him. It has something to do with the fact that he didn't say "Einstein," he said "a guy like Einstein."
Anyway, the NCAA tournament is worse than the Super Bowl in terms of pre-event hype. And yet, just like the Super Bowl, all the hype can't ruin the tournament once it gets going.
The problem with college basketball is that it's the only major sport where the coaches and refs are more well-known than the players. Go ahead, name 10 players in the NCAA tournament, excluding Harvard.
If you can name 10, can you name 10 more?
Coaches? Everyone knows them. The game is all about the coaches, or at least protecting the myth that somehow these are super genius coaches who pull magical strings that others can't.
TB hates to break it to anyone, but he could coach at Kentucky or Carolina or Syracuse.
Gary Walters weighed in on the topic of John Calipari and his one-and-done philosophy at Kentucky last week in a USA Today article.
As for TB, that - and the appearance of Calipari and Jim Boeheim on ESPN after the selection show - got him to wondering why it is that there seems to be so little interest in the day-to-day slop of sports - college basketball and others - on the part of the general public.
He's not talking about things like Jerry Sandusky or Plaxico Burress or George Huguely. Those types of situations clearly generate attention.
No, TB is talking the less visible, the less spectacular. He's talking about all of the stories that come out that barely are worth the time to write the headlines, about drugs or academic fraud or poor graduation rates or one-and-done.
TB was talking about this with a co-worker on the squash court yesterday.
The question is this: Do people not care about all that stuff because all they care about are the games themselves, or are they just desensitized to it all?
TB's co-worker said that he has a wife, a child, another on the way, a mortgage and job and all. He just wants to be entertained by sports.
TB? he's not sure.
He thinks there's a level of desensitizing that has gone on, and this is the result. He thinks that the media is a big culprit in it, because of the fawning - or is it fearful? - way that it usually covers big-time football and men's basketball coaches.
TB is still waiting for the press conference where these coaches are started to be called on all this, when media members ask legitimate questions about off-field conduct or athletic/educational balances or conference realignments and all of it.
Will it happen? Who knows.
TB is as phony as anyone else. He'll still watch the tournament, root for Georgetown, root against a team he always roots against.
Still, a part of him will be glad that he works at a place that doesn't usually have to clean up the slop.
Princeton and the Ivy League aren't above it all.
They're just a little different.
It's a difference TB grew to appreciate a long time ago.
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