TigerBlog had a small black-and-white TV in his room as a kid.
He used to watch a lot of pro sports then, a lot more pro sports than he does now, for that matter. He didn't have cable - there was no cable yet - and most of what he saw was on channel 9 out of New York. Or channel 11.
Those were great times to be a sports fan. He got to see Red Holtzman's Knicks, not knowing that some day he would come to associate Bill Bradley much more with Princeton than in the NBA. He watched ABA games too, with Dr. J on the Nets.
And he saw hockey. Lots of hockey. First the Rangers, and then, after 1972, the Islanders as well.
TigerBlog has always liked hockey. He's never been a "hockey guy" per se, but he watched a lot of NHL games when he was younger. If you're in TigerBlog's age range, you remember Peter Puck from the NHL Game of the Week.
He's always loved going to Baker Rink for Princeton hockey. There isn't a vantage point in the rink that is bad, and the game moves at a lightning pace. It's especially great for kids, who can't tell the difference between that and the NHL when they sit with their faces pressed to the glass.
Princeton hockey starts soon. Before that, though, Princeton alums are already playing, including one - goaltender Mike Condon - who is one of the better stories of the young NHL season, after he earned a spot as the Montreal Canadiens backup.
TigerBlog couldn't do justice to Condon's NHL debut, which was Sunday night, in a 3-1 win over Ottawa. Princeton hockey contact Kristy McNeil volunteered to blog about the game, and here are her thoughts:
I have to admit, Sunday night I was nervous. There are still times I get nervous when one of my Princeton teams play, usually big games. NCAA games, games with Ivy League titles on the line.
This time it was because Mike Condon ’13 was making his NHL debut with the Montreal Canadiens.
It was announced just last week that Condon had made the Canadiens roster, during a press conference with general manager Marc Bergevin.
I couldn’t have been happier for Condo. His dream was coming true.
I remember back to my first road trip as the Princeton hockey SID. It was 2011, the first road trip of the year and we were in Providence. The team was at pre-game meal and telling jokes. Captain Marc Hagel – who signed with the Minnesota Wild this summer – told the team to keep them clean because there was a woman in the room.
That’s one of my worst fears, making a team feel uncomfortable because I’m a woman. I want them to be at ease and as though I’m not even there. And with that I decided I need to set the tone. “Hey I have a joke,” I said. It was R-rated, and I think I shocked most of the players. But then Condon broke the silence with his huge laugh and said “she’s way funnier than Yariv!” – the former SID.
My most memorable Condon performance in the Orange & Black came in 2012 at Union. Union was ranked No. 8 in the country at the time. The game recap that night says it all:
The talk at the end of the game wasn't about No. 8 Union defeating Princeton men's hockey 3-0. It was the unbelievable game by the Tigers' netminder junior Mike Condon. Condon who made a career high 57 saves, crushing his previous best mark of 43 set earlier this season at Yale.
Condon's night ranks fourth all-time in Princeton history. The last time a Princeton goalie made 50+ saves in a game was Eric Leroux when he stopped 52 at Harvard in a 5-4 overtime loss on Feb. 10, 2006. Walter McDonough holds the record of 61 that was stopped in a game versus Rensselaer in 1984.
Reading on about what I had written four seasons ago…
With six minutes left in the second, Condon put on a show but making a great toe save on the far post and than immediately flew to the other save to stop a shot by Shawn Stuart. He made some great moves again on Princeton's second penalty kill as he was on his back followed by a quick stick save to deflect the puck wide. Seconds later he nearly did a split to get a leg save on the right post. At the end of the second, he had made 41 saves.
Condon is the first goaltender in Princeton history to play in the NHL and the 12th player in program history to play in the Big Show.
After his senior season ended, like most players he signed an amateur tryout agreement. Some players will play a short while as teams in the East Coast Hockey League scoop up collegiate players during spring breaks and then release them when classes resume. Condon, however, made his mark with the Ontario Reign, and had a little luck too.
The Houston Aeros, the then-AHL affiliate of the Minnesota Wild, had some injuries and needed a competent goaltender right away. Ontario had just the guy, and sent Condon on loan. They never got him back.
Condon went 3-0 with a 2.39 GAA and a .919 save percentage and played three more games in the Calder Cup playoffs. A couple of weeks later, he signed to a two-year contract with Montreal.
He spent most of 2013-14 with Wheeling (ECHL) while making a few starts with Hamilton (AHL) and being named the third goalie for Monteal in the NHL playoffs. Last year he became Hamilton’s starter and posted a .921 earning him a two-year contract extension with Montreal.
It was preseason this year that Condon impressed the front office. He did not allow a goal during his two preseason appearances, which included a 17-save shutout against Toronto. In practices, he continued to be the make his mark and got the nod as backup to Hart Trophy winner Carey Price in place of Dustin Tokarski.
One of the best parts about Condon’s first press conference following the announcement that he had made the roster was his reference to former Prineton teammate Sean Bonar. The two redheads battled it out for a starting position while at Princeton, and Condon said it was that experience that has him primed for his time now as the backup to Carey Price.
I never had to worry about Condon in any interview during his time as a Tiger. He’s well spoken, intelligent and a people person. His personality made him one of my early favorites when I started with the team. He always made me feel welcome, looked out for me and made me feel like a part of the team.
The guy who made the warm-up mix, the one who told me I wasn’t allowed to choose bus movies anymore after an admittedly bad blind Netflix choice – back when you got them via red envelope. He would get me coffee on his own pre-game trips to Starbucks on the road – and never let me pay him back (almost like a reverse NCAA violation).
I remembered all of those moments on Sunday night, when I pulled out the file to create the image that will adorn one of the glass window panes of historic Hobey Baker Rink.
Condon was spectacular in his debut. He finished with 20 saves – one without his goalie stick - and gave the Montreal faithful something to talk about. The NHL Network named him the second star of the game.
It couldn’t have been a better debut for Condon.
-KMac
Wednesday, October 14, 2015
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
October Madness
It appears the big story in the Major League Baseball playoffs is no longer about how well the Princeton alums have been doing.
Well, maybe that never was the big story to the rest of the world. To TigerBlog it was.
Princeton has three alums in the Major League Baseball postseason, and all three have done very well to date.
And then Chase Utley had to go and ruin it for everyone. And especially Ruben Tejada, whose leg he broke with a hard "slide" into second base to break up a double play.
It was 2-1 Mets in the bottom of the seventh Saturday night when the play happened. There was one out, with first and third, Utley on first, when a soft line drive was hit behind second. Daniel Murphy fielded it and flipped it to the shortstop Tejada, who caught it awkwardly, appeared to tag second while turned around, tried to get the throw off to first and then got wiped out by Utley well behind the bag.
As you might know by now, Utley was originally ruled out at second, which would have made it 2-2, with two outs and a runner on first.
While Tejada reeled on the ground, the Dodgers challenged the play, saying Tejada had not touched second. The umps agreed, putting Utley back on second with one out. A blink of an eye later and it was 5-2 Dodgers, series tied 1-1.
Then Major League Baseball got involved, and everything really got messed up. First Joe Torre, who oversees all this stuff, said that Utley had done nothing wrong and that the replay showed Tejada hadn't touched the bag, which meant it was irrelevant that Utley hadn't. BUT - had the Mets tagged Utley, he would have been out.
On its face, this is nuts. The Mets had no reason to tag Utley, because he was called out, and oh by the way, the guy with the ball also happened to break his leg.
Perhaps, TigerBlog thought, Torre's position would have been different had it been a decade ago and it was Derek Jeter with the broken leg after someone on the Red Sox had taken him out nowhere near the bag.
Anyway, that notwithstanding, Torre then turned around and suspended Utley for two games. Then the suspension was appealed.
So yeah, Major League Baseball really messed it up.
What really annoys TigerBlog is the use of replay. Had the original call stood, and it was 2-2, two out, runner on first, that would have been that. Instead, there was the use of the replay, which to TigerBlog still doesn't conclusively show that Tejada missed the bag.
But even if he did, so what? Do you know how many big postseason baseball games would have been different had every middle infielder who didn't touch quite touch second base had the play overturned?
It just looked awful, the way Utley was awarded second while Tejada had a broken leg, caused by Utley, who had no interest in finding the base. And why did he get the base? Because it looked like maybe, possibly Tejada didn't touch it.
Again, replay on its face is a good idea. In reality, it never, ever works out that way. It's not to fix glaringly wrong errors. It's to be used as a crutch by coaches or managers to try to get microscopic rulings overchanged as a last resort, and the flow of the game be damned.
The outcome of a replay ruling should be clarity. That's the last thing that existed in this case. There was zero consensus on anything. Did Tejada get the bag? Was Utley out of the baseline? Could he have touched second? Was it interference? Depending on who your team is, that's what your opinion was.
Replay was supposed to solve all that.
The other problem is that the series turned on that call. The Mets were in control to that point, having won the first game and being reasonably in control of the second. Suddenly it was all even.
So what happened next? Every Mets fan wanted to see Utley in the town square in stocks. Or drilled with some sort of retaliation. It looked like the suspension was possibly to keep Utley from playing in Citi Field, where some sort of brawl was likely.
And how did it play out? The appeal didn't happen before the game. Utley was eligible to play. The Dodgers didn't play him anyway. They played 18 players in the 13-7 Mets win last night. Not Utley.
As a result, there was no brawl. Wining, as one Met said, was the best revenge.
Maybe tonight though, in Game 4, right?.
Meanwhile, Princeton's alums are all still alive.
Chris Young and his Kansas City Royals came close to elimination yesterday before evening the series at 2-2 with a big rally against the Astros. Young has pitched in one game in the series, striking out seven in four innings while allowing one run.
For Young, it was his second postseason appearance in his career. His numbers in those two games: 10 2/3 innings, seven hits, one run, four walks, 16 strikeouts. That's not too bad.
As for the other two, they're both on the Texas Rangers, who are also in a 2-2 series, with a deciding game to come against the Blue Jays.
Ross Ohlendorf pitched a 1-2-3 bottom of the 14th to save Game 2 in the series. That was 1-2-3, as in three strikeouts, by the way.
Then he pitched another scoreless inning in long relief yesterday. This time, he only struck out two.
If you add it up, between Young and Ohlendorf, they've struck out 12 in six innings.
Will Venable has seen limited action in the series, though he did get a hit in his first postseason at-bat.
Princeton is tied with three other schools - TigerBlog thinks they're Stanford, Texas A&M and Georgia Tech - for the most alums in the MLB playoffs.
That's a pretty good stat. And it was getting Princeton a lot of attention - until Chase Utley came along.
Well, maybe that never was the big story to the rest of the world. To TigerBlog it was.
Princeton has three alums in the Major League Baseball postseason, and all three have done very well to date.
And then Chase Utley had to go and ruin it for everyone. And especially Ruben Tejada, whose leg he broke with a hard "slide" into second base to break up a double play.
It was 2-1 Mets in the bottom of the seventh Saturday night when the play happened. There was one out, with first and third, Utley on first, when a soft line drive was hit behind second. Daniel Murphy fielded it and flipped it to the shortstop Tejada, who caught it awkwardly, appeared to tag second while turned around, tried to get the throw off to first and then got wiped out by Utley well behind the bag.
As you might know by now, Utley was originally ruled out at second, which would have made it 2-2, with two outs and a runner on first.
While Tejada reeled on the ground, the Dodgers challenged the play, saying Tejada had not touched second. The umps agreed, putting Utley back on second with one out. A blink of an eye later and it was 5-2 Dodgers, series tied 1-1.
Then Major League Baseball got involved, and everything really got messed up. First Joe Torre, who oversees all this stuff, said that Utley had done nothing wrong and that the replay showed Tejada hadn't touched the bag, which meant it was irrelevant that Utley hadn't. BUT - had the Mets tagged Utley, he would have been out.
On its face, this is nuts. The Mets had no reason to tag Utley, because he was called out, and oh by the way, the guy with the ball also happened to break his leg.
Perhaps, TigerBlog thought, Torre's position would have been different had it been a decade ago and it was Derek Jeter with the broken leg after someone on the Red Sox had taken him out nowhere near the bag.
Anyway, that notwithstanding, Torre then turned around and suspended Utley for two games. Then the suspension was appealed.
So yeah, Major League Baseball really messed it up.
What really annoys TigerBlog is the use of replay. Had the original call stood, and it was 2-2, two out, runner on first, that would have been that. Instead, there was the use of the replay, which to TigerBlog still doesn't conclusively show that Tejada missed the bag.
But even if he did, so what? Do you know how many big postseason baseball games would have been different had every middle infielder who didn't touch quite touch second base had the play overturned?
It just looked awful, the way Utley was awarded second while Tejada had a broken leg, caused by Utley, who had no interest in finding the base. And why did he get the base? Because it looked like maybe, possibly Tejada didn't touch it.
Again, replay on its face is a good idea. In reality, it never, ever works out that way. It's not to fix glaringly wrong errors. It's to be used as a crutch by coaches or managers to try to get microscopic rulings overchanged as a last resort, and the flow of the game be damned.
The outcome of a replay ruling should be clarity. That's the last thing that existed in this case. There was zero consensus on anything. Did Tejada get the bag? Was Utley out of the baseline? Could he have touched second? Was it interference? Depending on who your team is, that's what your opinion was.
Replay was supposed to solve all that.
The other problem is that the series turned on that call. The Mets were in control to that point, having won the first game and being reasonably in control of the second. Suddenly it was all even.
So what happened next? Every Mets fan wanted to see Utley in the town square in stocks. Or drilled with some sort of retaliation. It looked like the suspension was possibly to keep Utley from playing in Citi Field, where some sort of brawl was likely.
And how did it play out? The appeal didn't happen before the game. Utley was eligible to play. The Dodgers didn't play him anyway. They played 18 players in the 13-7 Mets win last night. Not Utley.
As a result, there was no brawl. Wining, as one Met said, was the best revenge.
Maybe tonight though, in Game 4, right?.
Meanwhile, Princeton's alums are all still alive.
Chris Young and his Kansas City Royals came close to elimination yesterday before evening the series at 2-2 with a big rally against the Astros. Young has pitched in one game in the series, striking out seven in four innings while allowing one run.
For Young, it was his second postseason appearance in his career. His numbers in those two games: 10 2/3 innings, seven hits, one run, four walks, 16 strikeouts. That's not too bad.
As for the other two, they're both on the Texas Rangers, who are also in a 2-2 series, with a deciding game to come against the Blue Jays.
Ross Ohlendorf pitched a 1-2-3 bottom of the 14th to save Game 2 in the series. That was 1-2-3, as in three strikeouts, by the way.
Then he pitched another scoreless inning in long relief yesterday. This time, he only struck out two.
If you add it up, between Young and Ohlendorf, they've struck out 12 in six innings.
Will Venable has seen limited action in the series, though he did get a hit in his first postseason at-bat.
Princeton is tied with three other schools - TigerBlog thinks they're Stanford, Texas A&M and Georgia Tech - for the most alums in the MLB playoffs.
That's a pretty good stat. And it was getting Princeton a lot of attention - until Chase Utley came along.
Monday, October 12, 2015
Spreading The Wealth
From his view in the PA booth, TigerBlog could see the receiver get free and make the catch in the end zone.
Then she went into a little dance. Yeah. She.
This was during the Fifth Quarter, which followed the first four on Powers Field at Princeton Stadium Saturday. This was shortly after Princeton's 44-20 win over Colgate, one that improved the Tigers to 4-0 on the year.
It's the first time Princeton is perfect through four weeks since the 2006 season, which ended in a co-championship. Before that, it was 1995, the previous 4-0 start.
There was the 1995 team on Powers Field Saturday, out there with their children, stretching from 15-yard line to 15-yard line. That's a lot of people.
That was at halftime, though, when the 1995 team was honored on the 20th anniversary of their outright Ivy League championship.
TigerBlog wants to start with the Fifth Quarter. He's not sure who the girl was, but from far away she looked to be about 7 or 8. She was running a pass route against what looked like her brother, and she lost him just long enough to have her dad get her the ball.
It was a beautiful All-American scene, the kind that the Fifth Quarter is supposed to produce. And it came on a picture perfect, couldn't-beat-it early fall day for football.
The part that made TigerBlog chuckle was when he thought he should look on the roster to see if she was on it. Certainly enough other players whose names he hadn't called before had gotten on Powers Field. Why not her?
Princeton was without several of its top players due to injuries. And the best way to overcome injuries is the way that Princeton football does it. Play a lot of people all the time. Then you have players ready to step up when the need arises.
TigerBlog has no idea how many players Princeton used in the win over Colgate. And he's not talking about players who went into the game in the last few minutes.
He's talking about the first quarter. The first half. How many rotated through all over the field?
Princeton had three players throw a pass, five players carry from scrimmage and 10 players catch a pass.
If TigerBlog counted correctly, then 24 players made at least one tackle. Twenty-four? That's a ton.
Play after play, there were new numbers on the field. TigerBlog isn't sure how many times he had to go check to see who someone was.
It's not always an easy way to play. For starters, people have to buy into it.
Roles are important in sports. If you have a team where everyone thinks they should be playing more, that's a problem.
More than any other team TigerBlog has seen, Princeton football under Bob Surace has done a great job of getting buy-in into the share-the-wealth philosophy. It helped Princeton roll up the Ivy League's top offense of all time in 2013, when the Tigers won their most recent league championship.
Now, through four games, Princeton is averaging 36.5 points per game and 447.8 yards per game, numbers that are skewed down by last week's 10-5 win over Columbia in the driving rainstorm.
Minus that game, and Princeton is averaging 516 yards per game. And 45.3 points. Both of those numbers exceed the 2013 record totals.
Those numbers have come on a team where nobody has more than 55 carries or caught more than 11 passes. Yet seven players have at least 10 carries, and 16 players have caught a pass.
Princeton's offense is fun to watch.
TigerBlog's favorite play is the one where one quarterback hands it to another, who then throws to a third. In general, there's the idea of having two or three quarterbacks on the field together.
It's remarkably simple, yet nobody in football really does it. The premise is that there are multiple players who are able to run and throw and catch, and it makes it harder to defend.
Of course, you need players who can do all three. And yes, you're opening up your quarterbacks to more hits than most teams like.
But how did it work against Colgate? Princeton had nearly 600 yards of offense, and John Lovett scored four touchdowns. On most teams, he'd be the No. 2 or No. 3 quarterback and as such maybe never get on the field.
Up next for Princeton is a game at Brown, the start of six Ivy games in six weeks.
Princeton, Harvard and Dartmouth are all unbeaten, and all three have looked like the best team in the league at various times. Princeton plays at Harvard in two weeks and at Dartmouth on the final Saturday of the season.
The 2015 season won't end like the 1995 season did, with a tie in the last game.
Princeton is hoping that the other part - the championship part - repeats itself. There's still a long way to go.
Through four weeks, though, Princeton is unbeaten - and a lot of fun to watch.
Then she went into a little dance. Yeah. She.
This was during the Fifth Quarter, which followed the first four on Powers Field at Princeton Stadium Saturday. This was shortly after Princeton's 44-20 win over Colgate, one that improved the Tigers to 4-0 on the year.
It's the first time Princeton is perfect through four weeks since the 2006 season, which ended in a co-championship. Before that, it was 1995, the previous 4-0 start.
There was the 1995 team on Powers Field Saturday, out there with their children, stretching from 15-yard line to 15-yard line. That's a lot of people.
That was at halftime, though, when the 1995 team was honored on the 20th anniversary of their outright Ivy League championship.
TigerBlog wants to start with the Fifth Quarter. He's not sure who the girl was, but from far away she looked to be about 7 or 8. She was running a pass route against what looked like her brother, and she lost him just long enough to have her dad get her the ball.
It was a beautiful All-American scene, the kind that the Fifth Quarter is supposed to produce. And it came on a picture perfect, couldn't-beat-it early fall day for football.
The part that made TigerBlog chuckle was when he thought he should look on the roster to see if she was on it. Certainly enough other players whose names he hadn't called before had gotten on Powers Field. Why not her?
Princeton was without several of its top players due to injuries. And the best way to overcome injuries is the way that Princeton football does it. Play a lot of people all the time. Then you have players ready to step up when the need arises.
TigerBlog has no idea how many players Princeton used in the win over Colgate. And he's not talking about players who went into the game in the last few minutes.
He's talking about the first quarter. The first half. How many rotated through all over the field?
Princeton had three players throw a pass, five players carry from scrimmage and 10 players catch a pass.
If TigerBlog counted correctly, then 24 players made at least one tackle. Twenty-four? That's a ton.
Play after play, there were new numbers on the field. TigerBlog isn't sure how many times he had to go check to see who someone was.
It's not always an easy way to play. For starters, people have to buy into it.
Roles are important in sports. If you have a team where everyone thinks they should be playing more, that's a problem.
More than any other team TigerBlog has seen, Princeton football under Bob Surace has done a great job of getting buy-in into the share-the-wealth philosophy. It helped Princeton roll up the Ivy League's top offense of all time in 2013, when the Tigers won their most recent league championship.
Now, through four games, Princeton is averaging 36.5 points per game and 447.8 yards per game, numbers that are skewed down by last week's 10-5 win over Columbia in the driving rainstorm.
Minus that game, and Princeton is averaging 516 yards per game. And 45.3 points. Both of those numbers exceed the 2013 record totals.
Those numbers have come on a team where nobody has more than 55 carries or caught more than 11 passes. Yet seven players have at least 10 carries, and 16 players have caught a pass.
Princeton's offense is fun to watch.
TigerBlog's favorite play is the one where one quarterback hands it to another, who then throws to a third. In general, there's the idea of having two or three quarterbacks on the field together.
It's remarkably simple, yet nobody in football really does it. The premise is that there are multiple players who are able to run and throw and catch, and it makes it harder to defend.
Of course, you need players who can do all three. And yes, you're opening up your quarterbacks to more hits than most teams like.
But how did it work against Colgate? Princeton had nearly 600 yards of offense, and John Lovett scored four touchdowns. On most teams, he'd be the No. 2 or No. 3 quarterback and as such maybe never get on the field.
Up next for Princeton is a game at Brown, the start of six Ivy games in six weeks.
Princeton, Harvard and Dartmouth are all unbeaten, and all three have looked like the best team in the league at various times. Princeton plays at Harvard in two weeks and at Dartmouth on the final Saturday of the season.
The 2015 season won't end like the 1995 season did, with a tie in the last game.
Princeton is hoping that the other part - the championship part - repeats itself. There's still a long way to go.
Through four weeks, though, Princeton is unbeaten - and a lot of fun to watch.
Friday, October 9, 2015
The Film Session, Starring Bob Surace
Miss TigerBlog's high school field hockey season is past the two-thirds point.
Her team is doing well, with a 9-4 record. It's been a bit frustrating to watch some of the losses, since her team scored first in three of them.
At one point, TigerBlog asked the father of another player on the team - a man whose older son TB had coached in youth lacrosse - why it doesn't seem to bother the players on the team that they let those games get away.
His response: "It's not as important to the girls as it is to the boys."
TigerBlog hates to think that's the case. He coached many of these same girls in basketball when they were younger, and, despite being told that he couldn't coach girls the same way as boys, he tried to do so anyway.
If you're going to play, you have to play the right way. It doesn't matter if it's men's or women's, boys' or girls' sports.
Despite the unbelievable gains women have made in the sports world, there is still a large segment of the population that views women's (and girls' ) athletics as less valuable, less interesting, less worthy than those of their male counterparts.
The shocking part is how many women feel this way. TigerBlog has seen this up close with MTB's sports, with many of the mothers and girls who compete who view it as something of an extension of a social activity, rather than a competition.
TigerBlog wasn't stunned to hear on the radio - sports talk, and politics station - that so many men didn't like having Jessica Mendoza as an ESPN analyst for the Yankees-Astros playoff game the other night. He was stunned that women who called didn't like her either.
TigerBlog watched almost none of the game, but he did hear enough to think that Mendoza - a four-time All-America softball player at Stanford - knew her stuff and conveyed it well.
One thing TB likes about Mendoza is that he has no idea what she looks like. If nothing else, it means she's not on TV simply because of her looks.
TigerBlog thinks that very few people have set back the cause of women being taken seriously in sports as sideline reporters. You know, the ones who say "so and so told me that ..." Why do viewers need to know that the coach told her that?
TB heard one exchange last week that went like this:
Sideline report: You told me that you're not interested in sack stats, but how do you get more pressure on the quarterback?
Coach: We have to have 11 guys playing together.
Then he ran off. Wow. TigerBlog felt so informed after that one.
There will be no TV for the Princeton-Colgate football game tomorrow. Princeton looks to run its record to 4-0 in its final non-league game, while Colgate looks to get back to .500.
The Raiders bring a 2-3 record to Princeton, though it was 0-3 two weeks ago. In defense of the Raiders, they have played a tough schedule, with losses to Navy, New Hampshire and Yale before wins over Holy Cross and Cornell.
There will be a bigger crowd at the game than there was at the last one. Of that, TigerBlog is certain.
The last one, if you forgot, was a 10-5 Princeton win over Columbia in the first 10-5 game in program history. The week before that Princeton beat Lehigh in the first 52-26 game in program history.
The week before that, Princeton beat Lafayette in the second 40-7 game in program history, though the first win. TigerBlog is going to guess that whatever the final score of the game tomorrow, it won't be the first time in program history that that score comes up.
Anyway, TigerBlog doesn't want to talk about Princeton's football game. He wants to talk about Princeton's football coach, Bob Surace.
In case you didn't realize it yet, Surace isn't your average football coach.
What your average football coach doesn't do is take time out of his gameweek preparations to appear in a video with the University mascot, a spoof of a video at that.
And what your average football coach especially doesn't do is refilm the video two days later to make it a little better. And what your average football coach really especially doesn't do is push back a staff meeting 15 minutes to do the refilming.
That, of course, is exactly what Bob did earlier this week.
Bob appears in the fourth episode of "Who's The Tiger," in a video entitled "The Film Session."
The video is currently on goprincetontigers.com.
You can see all four of the videos through the links in that story. There will be two more next week, and several others will follow those.
As for Surace's performance, TigerBlog gives him high marks. He could have played it low-key, but he went all in with his delivery.
If you don't know Surace, that's him in a nutshell. Do the video? Sure. Do it again? Sure. Do it now? Okay, let me just move my meeting.
If you don't know him, he's a fun guy, a nice guy, a team guy, a solid guy.
Oh, and a really good coach.
Her team is doing well, with a 9-4 record. It's been a bit frustrating to watch some of the losses, since her team scored first in three of them.
At one point, TigerBlog asked the father of another player on the team - a man whose older son TB had coached in youth lacrosse - why it doesn't seem to bother the players on the team that they let those games get away.
His response: "It's not as important to the girls as it is to the boys."
TigerBlog hates to think that's the case. He coached many of these same girls in basketball when they were younger, and, despite being told that he couldn't coach girls the same way as boys, he tried to do so anyway.
If you're going to play, you have to play the right way. It doesn't matter if it's men's or women's, boys' or girls' sports.
Despite the unbelievable gains women have made in the sports world, there is still a large segment of the population that views women's (and girls' ) athletics as less valuable, less interesting, less worthy than those of their male counterparts.
The shocking part is how many women feel this way. TigerBlog has seen this up close with MTB's sports, with many of the mothers and girls who compete who view it as something of an extension of a social activity, rather than a competition.
TigerBlog wasn't stunned to hear on the radio - sports talk, and politics station - that so many men didn't like having Jessica Mendoza as an ESPN analyst for the Yankees-Astros playoff game the other night. He was stunned that women who called didn't like her either.
TigerBlog watched almost none of the game, but he did hear enough to think that Mendoza - a four-time All-America softball player at Stanford - knew her stuff and conveyed it well.
One thing TB likes about Mendoza is that he has no idea what she looks like. If nothing else, it means she's not on TV simply because of her looks.
TigerBlog thinks that very few people have set back the cause of women being taken seriously in sports as sideline reporters. You know, the ones who say "so and so told me that ..." Why do viewers need to know that the coach told her that?
TB heard one exchange last week that went like this:
Sideline report: You told me that you're not interested in sack stats, but how do you get more pressure on the quarterback?
Coach: We have to have 11 guys playing together.
Then he ran off. Wow. TigerBlog felt so informed after that one.
There will be no TV for the Princeton-Colgate football game tomorrow. Princeton looks to run its record to 4-0 in its final non-league game, while Colgate looks to get back to .500.
The Raiders bring a 2-3 record to Princeton, though it was 0-3 two weeks ago. In defense of the Raiders, they have played a tough schedule, with losses to Navy, New Hampshire and Yale before wins over Holy Cross and Cornell.
There will be a bigger crowd at the game than there was at the last one. Of that, TigerBlog is certain.
The last one, if you forgot, was a 10-5 Princeton win over Columbia in the first 10-5 game in program history. The week before that Princeton beat Lehigh in the first 52-26 game in program history.
The week before that, Princeton beat Lafayette in the second 40-7 game in program history, though the first win. TigerBlog is going to guess that whatever the final score of the game tomorrow, it won't be the first time in program history that that score comes up.
Anyway, TigerBlog doesn't want to talk about Princeton's football game. He wants to talk about Princeton's football coach, Bob Surace.
In case you didn't realize it yet, Surace isn't your average football coach.
What your average football coach doesn't do is take time out of his gameweek preparations to appear in a video with the University mascot, a spoof of a video at that.
And what your average football coach especially doesn't do is refilm the video two days later to make it a little better. And what your average football coach really especially doesn't do is push back a staff meeting 15 minutes to do the refilming.
That, of course, is exactly what Bob did earlier this week.
Bob appears in the fourth episode of "Who's The Tiger," in a video entitled "The Film Session."
The video is currently on goprincetontigers.com.
You can see all four of the videos through the links in that story. There will be two more next week, and several others will follow those.
As for Surace's performance, TigerBlog gives him high marks. He could have played it low-key, but he went all in with his delivery.
If you don't know Surace, that's him in a nutshell. Do the video? Sure. Do it again? Sure. Do it now? Okay, let me just move my meeting.
If you don't know him, he's a fun guy, a nice guy, a team guy, a solid guy.
Oh, and a really good coach.
Thursday, October 8, 2015
Winter's Coming, But Not Here Yet
Basketball practice started already? Wow, that was quick.
You know, from summer to the start of basketball practice. That used to seem like such a long time. Not anymore.
Now the unmistakable sound of basketball practice emanates from Jadwin's courts every day. It's a familiar scene, the women on the main court, the men on the side court, then swapped the next day. And then swapped again the day after that.
The men's and women's basketball teams start their seasons on the same day, Nov. 13. That's a Friday night. That's five Fridays from tomorrow, to be exact.
Perhaps you remember a year ago, when the women's team went 31-1 and finished ranked 13th nationally? Courtney Banghart's team opens at home against American. The men are at Rider that night.
Of course, that same night, the women's hockey team will be playing its seventh game and the men's team will be playing its fifth game. Yeah, winter is on the way.
The men's hockey team will be led by an American citizen this year after being led by a Canadian last year. There has been no coaching change, though.
Ron Fogarty, entering his second year as head coach, became an American citizen this past off-season. It's a huge moment for anyone, and with immigration being the issue it is these days, there should be nothing about having someone become an American citizen that should be taken lightly.
So congratulations to Ron. He's facing a big turnaround, but there's something about him and his staff that gives off the vibe that they're going to get it done.
Speaking of Princeton hockey, Mike Condon, a 2013 grad, made the Montreal Canadiens as their backup goalie. That's quite an accomplishment. HERE is more on that story.
When TigerBlog first started working here, the start of basketball practice always seemed like it coincided with the coming of colder weather, shorter days and the inevitability of winter. The days are in fact getting shorter, and winter is coming. The weather? It's still perfect.
There are other signs that winter is coming, like the fact that TigerBlog got his flu shot yesterday. TB gets one every year, always at the University's "Flu Fest." Shouldn't it be "Anti-Flu Fest?"
Still, it's not exactly wintery yet. The lowest the temperature has gotten around here has been the high 40s, which just so happened to be in a driving rainstorm while the last home football game was going on. But hey, what can you do? Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody ever does anything about it. Who said that? Ben Franklin? Mark Twain? One of them.
So winter is out there on the horizon, but not quite here yet. Hey, TigerBlog hasn't even seen his first Christmas commercial. And he still fast-forwards past Christmas songs on his iTunes.
And can it be winter yet if the baseball playoffs have just started? TigerBlog watched fewer than nine innings combined of the regular season on TV, and he hardly watched any of the Yankees-Astros game the other night. He's glad the Yankees lost, but hating the Yankees has lost some of its luster.
He's rooting for the Royals, with Chris Young, and the Rangers, with Will Venable. Any other team without a Princeton connection can go away.
If it can't be one of those two, then okay, let the Mets win.
The Princeton connection in the Major Leagues has skyrocketed in recent weeks. Now Princeton fans can include the Cleveland Indians and Boston Red Sox, both of who named Princeton alums as their General Managers recently.
In Cleveland, that's Mike Chernoff, a 2003 graduate. In Boston, it's Mike Hazen, a 1998 grad.
That's probably more impressive than having players reach the Majors. Two GM's in two weeks?
Actually, maybe it's not the baseball program here that gets the credit. Maybe it's Ben Badua, the baseball contact here in the Office of Athletic Communications.
Ben came to Princeton from Amherst. While he was there, there were three Amherst alums who became Major League GM's.
Today is the annual College Athletic Administrators of New Jersey awards luncheon. Princeton will again be honored with the CAANJ Cup, given to the top athletic programs in New Jersey in the Division I/II ranks, Division III ranks and JUCO ranks.
The cups are awarded to the teams that finish highest in the Directors' Cup the previous year. Princeton was the highest in New Jersey at 41st. Rutgers was second, at 104th.
Princeton also swept the scholar-athlete awards for Division I/II, as Cameron Porter and Julia Ratcliffe were the winners. The requirements are a 3.5 GPA and a very accomplished athletic resume.
The annual CAANJ event is a TB favorite, as he used to be the president of the organization. It's always held this time of year.
Pretty soon it'll be Halloween. And then Thanksgiving. Then Christmas.
Winter isn't here yet. But the signs that it's on the way are.
You know, from summer to the start of basketball practice. That used to seem like such a long time. Not anymore.
Now the unmistakable sound of basketball practice emanates from Jadwin's courts every day. It's a familiar scene, the women on the main court, the men on the side court, then swapped the next day. And then swapped again the day after that.
The men's and women's basketball teams start their seasons on the same day, Nov. 13. That's a Friday night. That's five Fridays from tomorrow, to be exact.
Perhaps you remember a year ago, when the women's team went 31-1 and finished ranked 13th nationally? Courtney Banghart's team opens at home against American. The men are at Rider that night.
Of course, that same night, the women's hockey team will be playing its seventh game and the men's team will be playing its fifth game. Yeah, winter is on the way.
The men's hockey team will be led by an American citizen this year after being led by a Canadian last year. There has been no coaching change, though.
Ron Fogarty, entering his second year as head coach, became an American citizen this past off-season. It's a huge moment for anyone, and with immigration being the issue it is these days, there should be nothing about having someone become an American citizen that should be taken lightly.
So congratulations to Ron. He's facing a big turnaround, but there's something about him and his staff that gives off the vibe that they're going to get it done.
Speaking of Princeton hockey, Mike Condon, a 2013 grad, made the Montreal Canadiens as their backup goalie. That's quite an accomplishment. HERE is more on that story.
When TigerBlog first started working here, the start of basketball practice always seemed like it coincided with the coming of colder weather, shorter days and the inevitability of winter. The days are in fact getting shorter, and winter is coming. The weather? It's still perfect.
There are other signs that winter is coming, like the fact that TigerBlog got his flu shot yesterday. TB gets one every year, always at the University's "Flu Fest." Shouldn't it be "Anti-Flu Fest?"
Still, it's not exactly wintery yet. The lowest the temperature has gotten around here has been the high 40s, which just so happened to be in a driving rainstorm while the last home football game was going on. But hey, what can you do? Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody ever does anything about it. Who said that? Ben Franklin? Mark Twain? One of them.
So winter is out there on the horizon, but not quite here yet. Hey, TigerBlog hasn't even seen his first Christmas commercial. And he still fast-forwards past Christmas songs on his iTunes.
And can it be winter yet if the baseball playoffs have just started? TigerBlog watched fewer than nine innings combined of the regular season on TV, and he hardly watched any of the Yankees-Astros game the other night. He's glad the Yankees lost, but hating the Yankees has lost some of its luster.
He's rooting for the Royals, with Chris Young, and the Rangers, with Will Venable. Any other team without a Princeton connection can go away.
If it can't be one of those two, then okay, let the Mets win.
The Princeton connection in the Major Leagues has skyrocketed in recent weeks. Now Princeton fans can include the Cleveland Indians and Boston Red Sox, both of who named Princeton alums as their General Managers recently.
In Cleveland, that's Mike Chernoff, a 2003 graduate. In Boston, it's Mike Hazen, a 1998 grad.
That's probably more impressive than having players reach the Majors. Two GM's in two weeks?
Actually, maybe it's not the baseball program here that gets the credit. Maybe it's Ben Badua, the baseball contact here in the Office of Athletic Communications.
Ben came to Princeton from Amherst. While he was there, there were three Amherst alums who became Major League GM's.
Today is the annual College Athletic Administrators of New Jersey awards luncheon. Princeton will again be honored with the CAANJ Cup, given to the top athletic programs in New Jersey in the Division I/II ranks, Division III ranks and JUCO ranks.
The cups are awarded to the teams that finish highest in the Directors' Cup the previous year. Princeton was the highest in New Jersey at 41st. Rutgers was second, at 104th.
Princeton also swept the scholar-athlete awards for Division I/II, as Cameron Porter and Julia Ratcliffe were the winners. The requirements are a 3.5 GPA and a very accomplished athletic resume.
The annual CAANJ event is a TB favorite, as he used to be the president of the organization. It's always held this time of year.
Pretty soon it'll be Halloween. And then Thanksgiving. Then Christmas.
Winter isn't here yet. But the signs that it's on the way are.
Wednesday, October 7, 2015
Overshadowing Caraun
TigerBlog didn't see Caraun Reid's touchdown on Monday Night Football as it happened.
Actually, he didn't watch any of the game played Monday between Reid's Detroit Lions and the Seattle Seahawks. It wasn't until he woke up yesterday that he was greeted with a text message from his colleague Craig Sachson that said that Reid had scored.
Craig's text came at 11:10. At 11:28, he had posted a story on goprincetontigers.com, complete with a like to the video. That's a pretty good effort.
TigerBlog met Reid a few times but doesn't know him well. What he does know that is that he's easy to root for and that he's an incredibly impressive young man.
Reid came into the Office of Athletic Communications one day, and TigerBlog's first reaction was "that's the same kid who is such a force when he plays football?" Hey, look at the picture Craig used with the story about the touchdown. Reid looks a bit vicious, no?
Reid is soft-spoken, and his glasses and demeanor make him look more like a teacher - or a minister, which is the family business.
When TigerBlog read Sachson's text about Reid, it made him wonder who the last Princeton player to score a touchdown in the NFL was. He would have guessed Keith Elias and wouldn't have been surprised if it had been Zak Keasey.
As it turned out, it was neither of them. It was Bob Holly, who scored for the Washington Redskins 30 years ago yesterday.
It's a shame that Reid's TD didn't get him more attention, the way it would have had Detroit actually won the game, the way it probably should have.
So yes, there appeared to be a different story from the game other than Reid's touchdown, though, at least for non-Princeton fans.
You might have heard that Detroit sort of got robbed by the back judge. Calvin Johnson had the ball stripped by Seattle's Kam Chancellor just before the goal line as he headed in for what probably would have been the winning points. K.J. Wright then slapped the ball out of the back of the end zone.
Only you're not allowed to intentionally bat the ball out of the end zone. It should have been half the distance to the goal, which would have made it 1st-and-goal inside the one with 1:45 left in the fourth quarter. Instead it was called a touchback.
Seattle was given the ball on the 20 and was able to run out the clock on a 13-10 win. On the other hand, the only two players in the game to score touchdowns were Reid and Seattle's Doug Baldwin, who caught his 17th career TD pass.
As the world of fantasy sports continues to spiral out of control, there were probably long odds against Reid and Baldwin as your touchdown scorers from that game.
And don't get TigerBlog started on the world of fantasy sports, something TB has never once played, nor ever will. Just go with "it's gambling" and leave it at that.
There are two things that are infuriating to TigerBlog about the Lions-Seahawks game. The first is that Reid's touchdown got overshadowed.
He'll just have to score another one this week, against the Cardinals.
The other torturous thing is the whole replay situation.
TigerBlog hates the use of replay in games, but if it's going to be used, can it be used to correct something like what happened at the end of the game? Isn't that the whole point, to correct egregious errors?
Yes, it's a judgement call. So what? Isn't the placement of the football a judgement call? Isn't a judgement of whether or not a player got two feet inbounds or had possession of the ball? Those get reviewed all the time.
NFL replay is a disaster. It takes forever as refs analyze microscopic differences from camera angles that can actually distort what was reality. And destroy the flow of the game as they do it, though not nearly as bad as in basketball, which is 100 times worse.
And yet something as clear as day here at the end of the Monday night game can't be reviewed?
NFL teams play 16 games. Each one is hugely important.
Detroit almost surely would have won the game had the right call been made. It had no chance when the wrong call was made.
Why can't a judgement call be reviewed? Afraid to hurt the back judge's feelings that his judgement was proven to be awful on that play? TigerBlog can't imagine there's anyone who would rather have gotten that correct than the ref who blew it.
Anyway, it's not to be. And Detroit lost.
At least Caraun Reid scored.
That was a good Princeton moment. By one of Princeton's best young alums.
Actually, he didn't watch any of the game played Monday between Reid's Detroit Lions and the Seattle Seahawks. It wasn't until he woke up yesterday that he was greeted with a text message from his colleague Craig Sachson that said that Reid had scored.
Craig's text came at 11:10. At 11:28, he had posted a story on goprincetontigers.com, complete with a like to the video. That's a pretty good effort.
TigerBlog met Reid a few times but doesn't know him well. What he does know that is that he's easy to root for and that he's an incredibly impressive young man.
Reid came into the Office of Athletic Communications one day, and TigerBlog's first reaction was "that's the same kid who is such a force when he plays football?" Hey, look at the picture Craig used with the story about the touchdown. Reid looks a bit vicious, no?
Reid is soft-spoken, and his glasses and demeanor make him look more like a teacher - or a minister, which is the family business.
When TigerBlog read Sachson's text about Reid, it made him wonder who the last Princeton player to score a touchdown in the NFL was. He would have guessed Keith Elias and wouldn't have been surprised if it had been Zak Keasey.
As it turned out, it was neither of them. It was Bob Holly, who scored for the Washington Redskins 30 years ago yesterday.
It's a shame that Reid's TD didn't get him more attention, the way it would have had Detroit actually won the game, the way it probably should have.
So yes, there appeared to be a different story from the game other than Reid's touchdown, though, at least for non-Princeton fans.
You might have heard that Detroit sort of got robbed by the back judge. Calvin Johnson had the ball stripped by Seattle's Kam Chancellor just before the goal line as he headed in for what probably would have been the winning points. K.J. Wright then slapped the ball out of the back of the end zone.
Only you're not allowed to intentionally bat the ball out of the end zone. It should have been half the distance to the goal, which would have made it 1st-and-goal inside the one with 1:45 left in the fourth quarter. Instead it was called a touchback.
Seattle was given the ball on the 20 and was able to run out the clock on a 13-10 win. On the other hand, the only two players in the game to score touchdowns were Reid and Seattle's Doug Baldwin, who caught his 17th career TD pass.
As the world of fantasy sports continues to spiral out of control, there were probably long odds against Reid and Baldwin as your touchdown scorers from that game.
And don't get TigerBlog started on the world of fantasy sports, something TB has never once played, nor ever will. Just go with "it's gambling" and leave it at that.
There are two things that are infuriating to TigerBlog about the Lions-Seahawks game. The first is that Reid's touchdown got overshadowed.
He'll just have to score another one this week, against the Cardinals.
The other torturous thing is the whole replay situation.
TigerBlog hates the use of replay in games, but if it's going to be used, can it be used to correct something like what happened at the end of the game? Isn't that the whole point, to correct egregious errors?
Yes, it's a judgement call. So what? Isn't the placement of the football a judgement call? Isn't a judgement of whether or not a player got two feet inbounds or had possession of the ball? Those get reviewed all the time.
NFL replay is a disaster. It takes forever as refs analyze microscopic differences from camera angles that can actually distort what was reality. And destroy the flow of the game as they do it, though not nearly as bad as in basketball, which is 100 times worse.
And yet something as clear as day here at the end of the Monday night game can't be reviewed?
NFL teams play 16 games. Each one is hugely important.
Detroit almost surely would have won the game had the right call been made. It had no chance when the wrong call was made.
Why can't a judgement call be reviewed? Afraid to hurt the back judge's feelings that his judgement was proven to be awful on that play? TigerBlog can't imagine there's anyone who would rather have gotten that correct than the ref who blew it.
Anyway, it's not to be. And Detroit lost.
At least Caraun Reid scored.
That was a good Princeton moment. By one of Princeton's best young alums.
Tuesday, October 6, 2015
A Disjointed Tuesday
TigerBlog decided to watch the first episode of the new season of "Modern Family" last week.
He lasted somewhere around two minutes before he couldn't take it anymore. That show used to be really funny. Now? It isn't.
It's not easy to constantly churn out something creative year after year. In the sitcom world, what makes the characters funny in the first place gets stale after awhile, but it's really hard to figure out how to have sitcom characters evolve.
The normal tact is usually to make it more about the storyline then, rather than the characters themselves. As a result, sitcoms turn into soap operas that are minimally funny. Or the main character is turned into a caricature of what made it funny in the first place and the show suffers as a result. TigerBlog offers Sheldon from "The Big Bang Theory" as proof.
In the case of "Modern Family," there hasn't been any of that, at least from what TigerBlog has watched of the last few years. Instead, the show has just trotted out the same tired jokes time after time after time until there's nothing remotely funny about them anymore.
And that's basically what the first two minutes of this season were. So TigerBlog immediately switched off.
Then there is Season 5 of "Homeland," which debuted Sunday night.
More than any other show that TigerBlog has ever seen, "Homeland" has done a remarkable job of reinventing itself through the years. It appears this season will be no different.
Season 1 of "Homeland" is the single best season of any television show TigerBlog has ever seen. It was his first experience with binge watching, as it were, as he watched all 12 episodes of that season in about four days. Before that, he'd never even heard of the show.
The first season was powerful, from the first scene through the last episode. It was gut-wrenching, with unreal character development across the board.
The show stuck with the Brody character a little longer than it needed to, but at least it recognized that that situation would ultimately drown the entire series. So instead it made a radical change in characters, location, plot, everything - and came back with a really, really strong Season 4 (other than a disappointing last episode).
The first show of Season 5 takes "Homeland" down what appears to be a radically new path. It has he main characters - Carrie, Saul and Quinn - but they're in a different setting, with a different relationship dynamic. The first episode was merely setting up the rest of the season, but it was still very strong.
TigerBlog didn't watch much football this weekend on TV.
He didn't, for example, see Caraun Reid's touchdown in the Lions' rather controversial loss to the Seahawks. TB's colleague Craig Sachson did, though. He had THIS STORY up on goprincetontigers.com less than a half hour after the TD.
TigerBlog did see the end of the Cowboys-Saints game, and as he's said before, when you pull within one on a touchdown late in a game, why not go for two? Win it or lose it there.
In this case, it was Jason Garrett, the Princeton alum and Cowboys' coach. Go for it. His team kicked the extra point and then ran only one snap after that, a kneel-down after New Orleans missed a field goal in the final seconds.
Had Dallas gone for two and not made it, Jason would have been ripped everywhere. Now? Nobody is blaming the coach, but his team lost the game nonetheless.
TigerBlog said two weeks ago, when the Giants were 0-2, that he wouldn't be shocked to see the team go 9-7, squeak into the playoffs and go on another postseason run. Now they're 2-2.
Because Princeton played on Friday night, TB was able to watch as much football as he might have wanted Saturday. Though he chose not to, it's not because there was a shortage of games on. He lost track, but it was well over 20.
At least in college football, the regular season games means something. In college basketball, they don't mean much, since it's all about March - first the conference tournaments and then the NCAA tournament.
In the world of Ivy League football, there are 10 games in 10 weeks. It's not quite binge watching, but it's pretty fast for a football season.
There are currently nine undefeated teams in the Football Championship Subdivision, which used to be much easier when it was just Division I-AA.
Of those nine unbeaten teams, four are in the Ivy League, where Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth and Harvard are all 3-0. That number has to shrink by at least one this weekend, when Yale is at Dartmouth.
Princeton is home against Colgate Saturday at 1.
Before then, Princeton has two home non-league soccer games, tonight when the men host Seton Hall and tomorrow when the women host Army West Point. That's how Army wants to be known these days, by the way. Army West Point. Navy is just Navy. And the Army-Navy game is still the Army-Navy game, not the Army West Point-Navy game.
The men's soccer team lost its Ivy opener at Dartmouth Saturday 1-0. The Tigers are now 3-3-1, and if they can manage to tie Seton Hall, then they'll be 3-3-2, just like they were after eight games in 2014.
Then they went 8-0-1 the rest of the way. So, yeah, losing to Dartmouth wasn't a great start, but there's a lot of season to go.
As for the women, they're 2-0-0 in the Ivy League, as is Harvard. The Tigers have league games against Brown this weekend (away) and Columbia next weekend (home) before traveling to take on the Crimson. There's also a non-league home game against Lehigh next Wednesday as well.
In the meantime, Mimi Asom was the Ivy Rookie of the Week for the third straight time after scoring twice in Princeton's 3-2 OT win over Dartmouth.
Check out the highlights HERE.
Asom's goals? Pretty sweet.
Summing up: "Modern Family?" Bleh. "Homeland?" Lots of intrigue. Great to see Caraun Reid score, even if only on the highlights. Jason should have gone for two. The Giants are looking good. There's a lot of college football on TV. Princeton has two good home soccer games the next two nights.
And that's it for today. A little more disjointed than usual, no?
He lasted somewhere around two minutes before he couldn't take it anymore. That show used to be really funny. Now? It isn't.
It's not easy to constantly churn out something creative year after year. In the sitcom world, what makes the characters funny in the first place gets stale after awhile, but it's really hard to figure out how to have sitcom characters evolve.
The normal tact is usually to make it more about the storyline then, rather than the characters themselves. As a result, sitcoms turn into soap operas that are minimally funny. Or the main character is turned into a caricature of what made it funny in the first place and the show suffers as a result. TigerBlog offers Sheldon from "The Big Bang Theory" as proof.
In the case of "Modern Family," there hasn't been any of that, at least from what TigerBlog has watched of the last few years. Instead, the show has just trotted out the same tired jokes time after time after time until there's nothing remotely funny about them anymore.
And that's basically what the first two minutes of this season were. So TigerBlog immediately switched off.
Then there is Season 5 of "Homeland," which debuted Sunday night.
More than any other show that TigerBlog has ever seen, "Homeland" has done a remarkable job of reinventing itself through the years. It appears this season will be no different.
Season 1 of "Homeland" is the single best season of any television show TigerBlog has ever seen. It was his first experience with binge watching, as it were, as he watched all 12 episodes of that season in about four days. Before that, he'd never even heard of the show.
The first season was powerful, from the first scene through the last episode. It was gut-wrenching, with unreal character development across the board.
The show stuck with the Brody character a little longer than it needed to, but at least it recognized that that situation would ultimately drown the entire series. So instead it made a radical change in characters, location, plot, everything - and came back with a really, really strong Season 4 (other than a disappointing last episode).
The first show of Season 5 takes "Homeland" down what appears to be a radically new path. It has he main characters - Carrie, Saul and Quinn - but they're in a different setting, with a different relationship dynamic. The first episode was merely setting up the rest of the season, but it was still very strong.
TigerBlog didn't watch much football this weekend on TV.
He didn't, for example, see Caraun Reid's touchdown in the Lions' rather controversial loss to the Seahawks. TB's colleague Craig Sachson did, though. He had THIS STORY up on goprincetontigers.com less than a half hour after the TD.
TigerBlog did see the end of the Cowboys-Saints game, and as he's said before, when you pull within one on a touchdown late in a game, why not go for two? Win it or lose it there.
In this case, it was Jason Garrett, the Princeton alum and Cowboys' coach. Go for it. His team kicked the extra point and then ran only one snap after that, a kneel-down after New Orleans missed a field goal in the final seconds.
Had Dallas gone for two and not made it, Jason would have been ripped everywhere. Now? Nobody is blaming the coach, but his team lost the game nonetheless.
TigerBlog said two weeks ago, when the Giants were 0-2, that he wouldn't be shocked to see the team go 9-7, squeak into the playoffs and go on another postseason run. Now they're 2-2.
Because Princeton played on Friday night, TB was able to watch as much football as he might have wanted Saturday. Though he chose not to, it's not because there was a shortage of games on. He lost track, but it was well over 20.
At least in college football, the regular season games means something. In college basketball, they don't mean much, since it's all about March - first the conference tournaments and then the NCAA tournament.
In the world of Ivy League football, there are 10 games in 10 weeks. It's not quite binge watching, but it's pretty fast for a football season.
There are currently nine undefeated teams in the Football Championship Subdivision, which used to be much easier when it was just Division I-AA.
Of those nine unbeaten teams, four are in the Ivy League, where Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth and Harvard are all 3-0. That number has to shrink by at least one this weekend, when Yale is at Dartmouth.
Princeton is home against Colgate Saturday at 1.
Before then, Princeton has two home non-league soccer games, tonight when the men host Seton Hall and tomorrow when the women host Army West Point. That's how Army wants to be known these days, by the way. Army West Point. Navy is just Navy. And the Army-Navy game is still the Army-Navy game, not the Army West Point-Navy game.
The men's soccer team lost its Ivy opener at Dartmouth Saturday 1-0. The Tigers are now 3-3-1, and if they can manage to tie Seton Hall, then they'll be 3-3-2, just like they were after eight games in 2014.
Then they went 8-0-1 the rest of the way. So, yeah, losing to Dartmouth wasn't a great start, but there's a lot of season to go.
As for the women, they're 2-0-0 in the Ivy League, as is Harvard. The Tigers have league games against Brown this weekend (away) and Columbia next weekend (home) before traveling to take on the Crimson. There's also a non-league home game against Lehigh next Wednesday as well.
In the meantime, Mimi Asom was the Ivy Rookie of the Week for the third straight time after scoring twice in Princeton's 3-2 OT win over Dartmouth.
Check out the highlights HERE.
Asom's goals? Pretty sweet.
Summing up: "Modern Family?" Bleh. "Homeland?" Lots of intrigue. Great to see Caraun Reid score, even if only on the highlights. Jason should have gone for two. The Giants are looking good. There's a lot of college football on TV. Princeton has two good home soccer games the next two nights.
And that's it for today. A little more disjointed than usual, no?
Monday, October 5, 2015
First And 10-5
The final score of Princeton's win over Columbia Friday night was 10-5.
The last time Princeton football played a 10-5 game before Friday? How about never.
Princeton has played 1,246 football games, starting with the first football game ever played, back in 1869. Never before had Princeton played a 10-5 game, win or lose, before this past Friday.
Before that, how long do you think it had been since Princeton had played a football game that had a final score that the program had never before had?
Think about that. All those decades. Surely almost any combination must have come up before, right? Yes, there have been a lot of 31-17s, and 24-10s, and 28-21s and every other normal combination.
What about the abnormal ones? Like a touchdown, extra point and field goal for one team and a field goal and safety for the other.
It had to have been awhile, right?
Well, it went all the way back to the week earlier. Princeton defeated Lehigh in Week 2 this year, and it was the first 52-26 game in program history as well. Never before had Princeton played a game win or lose by that score.
And Week 1? Well, that was nothing new. Sort of.
Princeton 40, Lafayette 7. That was the second 40-7 game in program history, after the 1942 game against Army. Of course, Princeton lost that one, so the win over Lafayette was the first 40-7 win in program history.
TigerBlog finds all of this fascinating. He's not sure most people share his love for the trivial.
So that's one interesting thing about Friday night's game.
As for the rest of it? Well, it was, uh, well, er, um ... a win.
There was nothing stylish about it. There's nothing pretty about it. Princeton scored a touchdown midway through the first quarter, and neither team would cross the goal line again. Princeton led 10-0 at the end of the first quarter and wouldn't score again, and Columbia would manage only a short field goal and a blocked punt for a safety that came really close to being a touchdown.
The game was played in awful conditions, on a Friday night, on national TV. If you were interested in the game, you probably stayed home and watched it.
Attendance was listed as 3,694, which makes it the smallest crowd in Princeton Stadium history. And it's understandable why. It was pouring. It was freezing. It was windy. Yuck.
Hey, the official goprincetontigers.com recap of the game referred to the fans as "dedicated," and they certainly were. They never have to prove their loyalty again.
As for Princeton, the game might not have been pretty, but it was a must-win. The Tigers are now 3-0 on the young season, and the game Friday was the Ivy opener.
Princeton is one of four teams in the league who won their league opener, along with Harvard, Yale and Dartmouth. The last two play this coming weekend in Hanover.
The four 1-0 teams rank 1-2-3-4 in the league in both scoring offense and scoring defense. Yes, it's very, very early, but those four seem to be the front-runners at this point.
Princeton has more than its share of injuries through the early part of the season. The Tigers also play with more depth than basically any football team on the planet, which, among other things, helps offset such injuries.
Princeton leads the Ivy League in rushing offense with 226.3 yards per game, with three of the league's top 10 rushers in DiAndre Atwater, Joe Rhattigan and Dre Nelson. The Tigers are 18th in the FCS in rushing yards per game.
In recent years, the Tigers have become known for offensive balance and for offensive trickery. Against Columbia in the awful weather, Princeton ran it 43 times and threw it just 16.
So you can't really take much away from the outcome of this one, other than that it was a win.
The last time Princeton had a crowd so small was in the snow game against Cornell in 2011. But there's something a bit more fun about a game in the snow than it rain and biting wind.
Oh, and you know what used to be great about games in rain like the kind that fell Friday? The mud. The uniforms would get filthy. Nobody's number would be visible. Everyone would be covered in grain stains and caked on mud and all of that stuff that makes 1960s and 1970s NFL highlights so much fun, before artificial turf ruined all of that.
TigerBlog has been to a bunch of those in his life, especially at high schools when he was starting out in the newspaper business. And some college ones. He remembers a 1990 game between Trenton State (now the College of New Jersey) and Ramapo that was played in a total monsoon. Or Princeton at Bucknell in 1996, under similar conditions.
Now, with FieldTurf, there's none of that great mud and all.
Anyway, Princeton has six Ivy games to go, starting with back-to-back trips to Brown and Harvard later this month.
First, though, is the last non-league game, this coming Saturday, at 1, against Colgate.
The weather will be better, much better, than it was last week. TigerBlog doesn't even have to check to know that.
The last time Princeton football played a 10-5 game before Friday? How about never.
Princeton has played 1,246 football games, starting with the first football game ever played, back in 1869. Never before had Princeton played a 10-5 game, win or lose, before this past Friday.
Before that, how long do you think it had been since Princeton had played a football game that had a final score that the program had never before had?
Think about that. All those decades. Surely almost any combination must have come up before, right? Yes, there have been a lot of 31-17s, and 24-10s, and 28-21s and every other normal combination.
What about the abnormal ones? Like a touchdown, extra point and field goal for one team and a field goal and safety for the other.
It had to have been awhile, right?
Well, it went all the way back to the week earlier. Princeton defeated Lehigh in Week 2 this year, and it was the first 52-26 game in program history as well. Never before had Princeton played a game win or lose by that score.
And Week 1? Well, that was nothing new. Sort of.
Princeton 40, Lafayette 7. That was the second 40-7 game in program history, after the 1942 game against Army. Of course, Princeton lost that one, so the win over Lafayette was the first 40-7 win in program history.
TigerBlog finds all of this fascinating. He's not sure most people share his love for the trivial.
So that's one interesting thing about Friday night's game.
As for the rest of it? Well, it was, uh, well, er, um ... a win.
There was nothing stylish about it. There's nothing pretty about it. Princeton scored a touchdown midway through the first quarter, and neither team would cross the goal line again. Princeton led 10-0 at the end of the first quarter and wouldn't score again, and Columbia would manage only a short field goal and a blocked punt for a safety that came really close to being a touchdown.
The game was played in awful conditions, on a Friday night, on national TV. If you were interested in the game, you probably stayed home and watched it.
Attendance was listed as 3,694, which makes it the smallest crowd in Princeton Stadium history. And it's understandable why. It was pouring. It was freezing. It was windy. Yuck.
Hey, the official goprincetontigers.com recap of the game referred to the fans as "dedicated," and they certainly were. They never have to prove their loyalty again.
As for Princeton, the game might not have been pretty, but it was a must-win. The Tigers are now 3-0 on the young season, and the game Friday was the Ivy opener.
Princeton is one of four teams in the league who won their league opener, along with Harvard, Yale and Dartmouth. The last two play this coming weekend in Hanover.
The four 1-0 teams rank 1-2-3-4 in the league in both scoring offense and scoring defense. Yes, it's very, very early, but those four seem to be the front-runners at this point.
Princeton has more than its share of injuries through the early part of the season. The Tigers also play with more depth than basically any football team on the planet, which, among other things, helps offset such injuries.
Princeton leads the Ivy League in rushing offense with 226.3 yards per game, with three of the league's top 10 rushers in DiAndre Atwater, Joe Rhattigan and Dre Nelson. The Tigers are 18th in the FCS in rushing yards per game.
In recent years, the Tigers have become known for offensive balance and for offensive trickery. Against Columbia in the awful weather, Princeton ran it 43 times and threw it just 16.
So you can't really take much away from the outcome of this one, other than that it was a win.
The last time Princeton had a crowd so small was in the snow game against Cornell in 2011. But there's something a bit more fun about a game in the snow than it rain and biting wind.
Oh, and you know what used to be great about games in rain like the kind that fell Friday? The mud. The uniforms would get filthy. Nobody's number would be visible. Everyone would be covered in grain stains and caked on mud and all of that stuff that makes 1960s and 1970s NFL highlights so much fun, before artificial turf ruined all of that.
TigerBlog has been to a bunch of those in his life, especially at high schools when he was starting out in the newspaper business. And some college ones. He remembers a 1990 game between Trenton State (now the College of New Jersey) and Ramapo that was played in a total monsoon. Or Princeton at Bucknell in 1996, under similar conditions.
Now, with FieldTurf, there's none of that great mud and all.
Anyway, Princeton has six Ivy games to go, starting with back-to-back trips to Brown and Harvard later this month.
First, though, is the last non-league game, this coming Saturday, at 1, against Colgate.
The weather will be better, much better, than it was last week. TigerBlog doesn't even have to check to know that.
Friday, October 2, 2015
Welcome Back, Al
TigerBlog learned an interesting fact yesterday.
He currently ranks 19th among Department of Athletics employees in tenure. This doesn't count the time he worked at the newspaper and was here all the time. Just the time since he was actually hired by Princeton.
Who's No. 1? It's currently a tie between men's track and field coach Fred Samara and women's track and field coach Peter Farrell, both of whom started on Sept. 1, 1977. That's a long time ago.
It's really remarkable, one of the most remarkable stories in Princeton athletic history, actually. Peter and Fred, working side-by-side for nearly 40 years, coaching the same sport, having all kinds of success. With the size of the track and field rosters and their longevity, they've both coached more Princeton athletes than any other coach ever, TB assumes.
And TB has written this before. They're different people with different personalities (Fred's a bit more serious with a dryer sense of humor; Peter's sense of humor is a bit more in your face), but they have this incredible bond from having started on the same day and from spending so much time together.
So they're No. 1 and 1A.
TigerBlog wonders if he'll ever be No. 1 on that list. Will there come a day when he's worked here more than anyone else?
If you worked here about 10 years or so ago, then you know who was referred to as "the New Guy." That would be Jon Kurian of the business office, who earned that nickname in his earliest days as the "350-hour pain in the butt."
Kurian came here needing 350 hours of an internship to finish his master's degree (or GED or whatever) and just sort of stayed around for more than a decade.
Now? The New Guy ranks 40th in longevity. That means more than 100 people are behind him. Ah, time marches on.
That became apparent to TigerBlog yesterday, when he was asked to write a story for the Colgate football game program on the 20th anniversary of the 1995 Ivy League football championship. He was able to quickly churn out nearly 1,200 words on the subject, all from memory, and yet it has been 20 years.
TigerBlog was the football contact in 1995, and in fact he'll put his 1995-96 academic year up there with any that any Ivy League athletic communications person has ever had. Who can beat this: 1) an outright Ivy football title, 2) the playoff win over Penn and NCAA win over UCLA in men's basketball and 3) an overtime win over Virginia in the NCAA men's lacrosse championship game.
That's a pretty good 10 months.
Ah, but enough nostalgia.
Fast-forwarding to the present, it's the Ivy League football opener for Princeton tonight as the Columbia Lions comes to Powers Field at Princeton Stadium. Kick-off is at 7, and the game will be televised on NBC Sports Network.
The big story in Ivy League football this off-season, or possibly any off-season ever, was the Al Bagnoli story. You know, the one where he went from coaching Penn, to retiring, to coaching Columbia.
Bagnoli was actually honored here at Princeton a year ago, when he brought Penn here for the final time.
In fact, it made TigerBlog wonder when the last time someone coached on Powers Field in consecutive years, so he looked it up. The answer is Andy Coen of Lehigh, who coached here in 2007 and 2008. Colgate's Dick Biddle did it too, in 2002 and 2003.
As for the game itself, Princeton is 2-0, and Columbia is 0-2. This is the first league game for both, and it is a huge one for both.
Princeton has rolled up 92 points in two games (40-7 over Lafayette, 52-26 over Lehigh) and is thinking about making a big run into November. Columbia has lost 23 straight games, but the Lions were very competitive in Weeks 1 and 2 (losses to Fordham and Georgetown).
And there is no denying the optimism that Bagnoli has brought to Columbia in his first season there. He is heading into a place where he has had success in his career and in his first Ivy game with his new school on top of that. Certainly motivation will be no issue.
Princeton hosts Colgate next Saturday. A loss in the league opener would sting, especially with back-to-back road trips after that, to Brown and Harvard.
As for Bagnoli, it'll be odd for TigerBlog to see him in Columbia colors, on the Columbia sideline. That will go away after kickoff for everyone though.
It's game night. The Ivy opener.
Oh, and the last time an Ivy League coach was here two years in a row? How about Pete Mangurian, when Cornell played here in 1998 and 1999.
And it was Mangurian who was Columbia's coach last year before Bagnoli.
He currently ranks 19th among Department of Athletics employees in tenure. This doesn't count the time he worked at the newspaper and was here all the time. Just the time since he was actually hired by Princeton.
Who's No. 1? It's currently a tie between men's track and field coach Fred Samara and women's track and field coach Peter Farrell, both of whom started on Sept. 1, 1977. That's a long time ago.
It's really remarkable, one of the most remarkable stories in Princeton athletic history, actually. Peter and Fred, working side-by-side for nearly 40 years, coaching the same sport, having all kinds of success. With the size of the track and field rosters and their longevity, they've both coached more Princeton athletes than any other coach ever, TB assumes.
And TB has written this before. They're different people with different personalities (Fred's a bit more serious with a dryer sense of humor; Peter's sense of humor is a bit more in your face), but they have this incredible bond from having started on the same day and from spending so much time together.
So they're No. 1 and 1A.
TigerBlog wonders if he'll ever be No. 1 on that list. Will there come a day when he's worked here more than anyone else?
If you worked here about 10 years or so ago, then you know who was referred to as "the New Guy." That would be Jon Kurian of the business office, who earned that nickname in his earliest days as the "350-hour pain in the butt."
Kurian came here needing 350 hours of an internship to finish his master's degree (or GED or whatever) and just sort of stayed around for more than a decade.
Now? The New Guy ranks 40th in longevity. That means more than 100 people are behind him. Ah, time marches on.
That became apparent to TigerBlog yesterday, when he was asked to write a story for the Colgate football game program on the 20th anniversary of the 1995 Ivy League football championship. He was able to quickly churn out nearly 1,200 words on the subject, all from memory, and yet it has been 20 years.
TigerBlog was the football contact in 1995, and in fact he'll put his 1995-96 academic year up there with any that any Ivy League athletic communications person has ever had. Who can beat this: 1) an outright Ivy football title, 2) the playoff win over Penn and NCAA win over UCLA in men's basketball and 3) an overtime win over Virginia in the NCAA men's lacrosse championship game.
That's a pretty good 10 months.
Ah, but enough nostalgia.
Fast-forwarding to the present, it's the Ivy League football opener for Princeton tonight as the Columbia Lions comes to Powers Field at Princeton Stadium. Kick-off is at 7, and the game will be televised on NBC Sports Network.
The big story in Ivy League football this off-season, or possibly any off-season ever, was the Al Bagnoli story. You know, the one where he went from coaching Penn, to retiring, to coaching Columbia.
Bagnoli was actually honored here at Princeton a year ago, when he brought Penn here for the final time.
In fact, it made TigerBlog wonder when the last time someone coached on Powers Field in consecutive years, so he looked it up. The answer is Andy Coen of Lehigh, who coached here in 2007 and 2008. Colgate's Dick Biddle did it too, in 2002 and 2003.
As for the game itself, Princeton is 2-0, and Columbia is 0-2. This is the first league game for both, and it is a huge one for both.
Princeton has rolled up 92 points in two games (40-7 over Lafayette, 52-26 over Lehigh) and is thinking about making a big run into November. Columbia has lost 23 straight games, but the Lions were very competitive in Weeks 1 and 2 (losses to Fordham and Georgetown).
And there is no denying the optimism that Bagnoli has brought to Columbia in his first season there. He is heading into a place where he has had success in his career and in his first Ivy game with his new school on top of that. Certainly motivation will be no issue.
Princeton hosts Colgate next Saturday. A loss in the league opener would sting, especially with back-to-back road trips after that, to Brown and Harvard.
As for Bagnoli, it'll be odd for TigerBlog to see him in Columbia colors, on the Columbia sideline. That will go away after kickoff for everyone though.
It's game night. The Ivy opener.
Oh, and the last time an Ivy League coach was here two years in a row? How about Pete Mangurian, when Cornell played here in 1998 and 1999.
And it was Mangurian who was Columbia's coach last year before Bagnoli.
Thursday, October 1, 2015
Soccer Doubleheader
Sorry. TigerBlog is still trying to figure out how 27 times as many people can follow Pitbull on Twitter than Bruce Springsteen.
If you missed yesterday, TB was talking about Twitter followers. That's the one he really can't get past.
There's no explaining it. That would be like finding 27 times as many people who are bigger fans of, oh, Zach Randolph or someone like that than of Michael Jordan.
Okay, TigerBlog is going to have to come to grips with it. Sigh.
So where does he want to start today?
Oh yeah, Tyler Lussi.
There will be as many Princeton teams who play at Dartmouth Saturday as there will be teams that play in Princeton. The women's volleyball team will be in Hanover, as will the two soccer teams.
The two soccer games are both huge. Let's start with the women's game, and with Lussi.
In the middle of her third season at Princeton, Lussi already has 36 career goals, which ties her with the great Jen Hoy for fourth all-time. And TigerBlog means great. Hoy was a scoring machine, and she put up 36 in four season.
Lussi has done it in 2.5. She trails only Esmeralda Negron (47), Linda DeBoer (41) and Emily Behncke (39).
On the men's side at Princeton, only two players have ever scored more than 36 goals. That would be Steven Davidson (41) and Yuri Fishman (40).
And that's it. Only five players in Princeton soccer history have more goals than Lussi, and she still has 1.5 seasons left to play. It's possible that, with all due respect to Negron and the others, that Lussi might be the best finisher ever to play soccer at Princeton.
Meanwhile, her eight goals this season rank her 14th in Division I in goals per game. She's only second in the Ivy League, though, behind Dartmouth's Lucielle Kozlov, who has nine in 10 games, to the eight in nine games that Lussi has.
Dartmouth is unbeaten in its last eight games, going 6-0-2 in that stretch. Unfortunately for the Big Green, one of those two ties came in its only Ivy League game to date, a 0-0 tie with Brown a week ago.
Princeton is 1-0 in the Ivy League after its 3-0 win over Yale last weekend. The other two teams that won their Ivy opener were Cornell and Harvard.
Can a team play a make-or-break game this early in the Ivy season? The answer is yes, but it might not realize it at the time.
The Princeton men's soccer team is 52 weeks removed from its 2-1 overtime loss to Dartmouth in its Ivy opener a year ago. What was the repercussion from that game?
Well, Princeton and Dartmouth ended up tied for the Ivy League title, but that win - on Oct. 4 - gave Dartmouth the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Princeton would be the team with the highest RPI not to get an at-large bid.
Is this a make-or-break game for Princeton? There's no way to know how the race is going to play out, though with only one trip through the league in the round-robin and no league tournament, every game is huge.
The NCAA tournament for men's soccer starts a week later than the women's tournament, and as such so does the Ivy League men's soccer season. As a result, there is currently an eight-way tie at 0-0-0.
TigerBlog's first look at the Ivy men's standings was a bit surprising. There are four teams who have only one win each - Harvard, Penn, Cornell and Yale. Columbia has the best non-league record at 4-1-1, and Princeton is next at 3-2-1. The lone tie came Tuesday night on ESPNU, against American.
Dartmouth is at .500 at 3-3-1. Brown is 4-3.
TigerBlog isn't going to pretend he knows what any of these team's strength of schedule has been. Right now it doesn't matter anyway.
As he said, they're all 0-0-0 in the league.
Yeah, it's a relatively big weekend in Hanover for Princeton soccer.
If you missed yesterday, TB was talking about Twitter followers. That's the one he really can't get past.
There's no explaining it. That would be like finding 27 times as many people who are bigger fans of, oh, Zach Randolph or someone like that than of Michael Jordan.
Okay, TigerBlog is going to have to come to grips with it. Sigh.
So where does he want to start today?
Oh yeah, Tyler Lussi.
There will be as many Princeton teams who play at Dartmouth Saturday as there will be teams that play in Princeton. The women's volleyball team will be in Hanover, as will the two soccer teams.
The two soccer games are both huge. Let's start with the women's game, and with Lussi.
In the middle of her third season at Princeton, Lussi already has 36 career goals, which ties her with the great Jen Hoy for fourth all-time. And TigerBlog means great. Hoy was a scoring machine, and she put up 36 in four season.
Lussi has done it in 2.5. She trails only Esmeralda Negron (47), Linda DeBoer (41) and Emily Behncke (39).
On the men's side at Princeton, only two players have ever scored more than 36 goals. That would be Steven Davidson (41) and Yuri Fishman (40).
And that's it. Only five players in Princeton soccer history have more goals than Lussi, and she still has 1.5 seasons left to play. It's possible that, with all due respect to Negron and the others, that Lussi might be the best finisher ever to play soccer at Princeton.
Meanwhile, her eight goals this season rank her 14th in Division I in goals per game. She's only second in the Ivy League, though, behind Dartmouth's Lucielle Kozlov, who has nine in 10 games, to the eight in nine games that Lussi has.
Dartmouth is unbeaten in its last eight games, going 6-0-2 in that stretch. Unfortunately for the Big Green, one of those two ties came in its only Ivy League game to date, a 0-0 tie with Brown a week ago.
Princeton is 1-0 in the Ivy League after its 3-0 win over Yale last weekend. The other two teams that won their Ivy opener were Cornell and Harvard.
Can a team play a make-or-break game this early in the Ivy season? The answer is yes, but it might not realize it at the time.
The Princeton men's soccer team is 52 weeks removed from its 2-1 overtime loss to Dartmouth in its Ivy opener a year ago. What was the repercussion from that game?
Well, Princeton and Dartmouth ended up tied for the Ivy League title, but that win - on Oct. 4 - gave Dartmouth the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Princeton would be the team with the highest RPI not to get an at-large bid.
Is this a make-or-break game for Princeton? There's no way to know how the race is going to play out, though with only one trip through the league in the round-robin and no league tournament, every game is huge.
The NCAA tournament for men's soccer starts a week later than the women's tournament, and as such so does the Ivy League men's soccer season. As a result, there is currently an eight-way tie at 0-0-0.
TigerBlog's first look at the Ivy men's standings was a bit surprising. There are four teams who have only one win each - Harvard, Penn, Cornell and Yale. Columbia has the best non-league record at 4-1-1, and Princeton is next at 3-2-1. The lone tie came Tuesday night on ESPNU, against American.
Dartmouth is at .500 at 3-3-1. Brown is 4-3.
TigerBlog isn't going to pretend he knows what any of these team's strength of schedule has been. Right now it doesn't matter anyway.
As he said, they're all 0-0-0 in the league.
Yeah, it's a relatively big weekend in Hanover for Princeton soccer.
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