Princeton 43, UCLA 41 - The 20th Anniversary

It was twenty years ago tonight, in a building that no longer exists, while some of the maddest that March has ever seen played out around him.

TigerBlog was along the sideline, near where it met the baseline, opposite the Princeton bench. He was kneeling. Andrea Joyce, the venerable broadcaster who was the CBS sideline reporter that night, was kneeling next to him.

Gabe Lewullis had just made his famous layup. The score was Princeton 43, UCLA 41.

TigerBlog's job was to get Pete Carril for CBS if Princeton held on. He and Joyce were stationed opposite Princeton's bench, in case he made a beeline for the lockerroom.

The place was the mammoth RCA Dome. Somewhere, TigerBlog supposes, his former colleague Vinnie DiCarlo still has the "This is not a public entrance to the RCA Dome" sign that he smuggled out of Indianapolis.

There was somewhere between 3.9 and 1.2 seconds left in the game. The officials were looking at replays, trying to figure that part out. And trying to figure out where the ball should be.

That was March 14, 1996.

Today is 20 years to the day later, and TigerBlog still remembers exactly what he was thinking. And so he told Andrea Joyce.

"If they take this away from us," TB said to Joyce, "that's really going to suck."

And he remembers what she said back to him. First she laughed. Then she said this: "not tonight. You'll be fine."

Even typing the words now, TigerBlog is chuckling.

Andrea Joyce was right though. You already knew that.

UCLA got the ball in to Toby Bailey. UCLA was the defending NCAA champ; Toby Bailey was one of the heroes of that 1995 title run.

Now he was trying to get the Bruins to overtime in the first round. UCLA was the fourth seed. Princeton was the 13th seed.

Pete Carril had announced his retirement five days earlier, after Princeton's 63-56 overtime win over Penn in the Ivy League playoff game. Had Princeton not won that game, it wouldn't have been anywhere near Indianapolis the following week.

Between the refs' reviews and the timeouts that were called, it took about seven minutes from the time Lewullis made his layup until play resumed. That was a long time to be kneeling down.

Actually, TB wasn't kneeling that whole time. His attention was diverted for a minute by an unforgettable face from his past, a man named Brian Linky. TigerBlog had grown up with Linky, whose family moved away after middle school.

During those seven minutes, here came Linky. He came down from behind the basket that UCLA would be shooting at, through the Mississippi State bench, who had stayed - along with everyone else in the building - to see what would happen in the Princeton-UCLA game.

The game didn't start out like it was going to be historic for anything other than Carril's last game. No, UCLA ran out to a 7-0 lead and looked unbeatable doing so.

But Princeton didn't fold. Nor did the Tigers play a perfect game. Instead, what they did was make UCLA play a completely imperfect game, hung around enough, took advantage of one huge break and then executed in a major way in the final few minutes to get the epic win.

It was 41-34 UCLA when the Bruins went for the knockout, but Ed O'Bannon left a layup short of a fastbreak. A long Sydney Johnson three made it a four-point game. A Steve Goodrich reverse layup off a nice pass from Chris Doyal, and then Mitch Henderson started another break with a steal that ended when Johnson tied it.

Then there was the intentional foul by Johnson on Cameron Dollar, who missed two foul shots, and a miss in the lane from Kris Johnson, rebound by Goodrich, Princeton ball, shot clock off.

And that ended with the impeccable center-forward play, Johnson to Goodrich to Lewullis - after Lewullis had cut along the baseline once to fake out O'Bannon and then the second time to actually get the pass.

Then came the delay.

Oh, and Linky. That's right.

Linky came down to the court through the Mississippi State band, holding a small instamatic camera. He handed it to the security guard while he yelled "take my picture with that guy," as he gestured to TigerBlog.

Now it was finally time. UCLA was going to inbound the ball. TigerBlog and Joyce were on the opposite side of the court, at the other end.

And now it was 20 years later. Mitch Henderson is no longer a sophomore on that team. Now he is the Princeton head coach.

Pete Carril? He'd had a long second career as an NBA assistant coach. Now he's retired, a common fixture in Jadwin Gym, where the court bears his name.

They are sitting together in Mitch's office. On the flatscreen above them is a replay of the UCLA game.

As they watch, Princeton's video staff of Cody Chruscial and John Bullis are filming them and their reactions. TigerBlog stands in the background.

He figures that in the last 20 years, he's watched the last five minutes more than Carril or Henderson. It certainly comes across that way as he watches them, watching themselves.

The most impressive parts are when they're silent. Why is that? It's not because their comment aren't good. They're actually great.

It's just that when they're silent, it's because they're awed by what they're seeing.

Why wouldn't they be? What they accomplished, along with the rest of the Tigers, was awesome.

TigerBlog considers himself a student of history. The UCLA game ranks very, very close to the top of the list of the greatest moments in Princeton Athletic history.

Maybe the 1965 Final Four in men's basketball tops it. On the other hand, after the close calls that Pete Carril had in the NCAA tournament from 1989-92 without actually winning one (four losses, 15 point total), the significance of having his career stamped with this win cannot be overstated.

There are other moments, of course, that warrant consideration. But the combination of the win and doing it in Carril's last season? A case can be certainly be made for this one.

Anyway, TigerBlog has been rambling a bit. He figures it took you about as long to get to this point as it took the game to resume.

Inbounds to Bailey. Airball.

And right at that moment, an AP photographer snapped the perfect picture, Henderson, leaping in the air, arms exulting in triumph, historic triumph, a triumph that has endured.

Princeton 43, UCLA 41.

Twenty years ago today.

The 15-Mile Loop

TigerBlog took his workout outside yesterday morning.
Instead of riding the exercise bike on D level, TB got on a real bike and set out to do John McPhee's 15-mile loop around town. Mr. McPhee, who rides indoors in the winter with TigerBlog, has been doing this for years, decades actually.

The two started in the Jadwin Gym parking lot and returned a little more than 90 minutes later. The ride went 15 miles and took TigerBlog through parts of Princeton in which he had never before been, as shocking as that was to him.

He even learned a thing or two.

For instance, did you know there used to be a trolley line from Princeton to Trenton? Mr. McPhee - the Pulitzer Prize-winning author, longtime Princeton writing instructor and Faculty Fellow for the men's lacrosse team - used to ride with his mother on that trolley to go shopping for clothes in Trenton when he was a boy.

Today, there's a path behind the Hun School where the trolley line used to be.

It was a fascinating ride. And a tough one. There are more hills than you think along the way.

Oh, and there are a few times where TB and McPhee had to cross some busy streets, like the Princeton Pike and Route 206. And Route 27 on the way back.

In the end it was a way better workout than just riding downstairs. And hey, it was the right day for it.

Even though it's just the second week of March, the temperature in Princeton has touched 70 each of the last two days. When TB was riding yesterday morning, it was already into the 60s.

A little over a week ago, the Princeton area had sleet, then rain, then more sleet, then snow. By the time it was over, there were 12 inches of snow on the ground here. It was worse in Washington, D.C., where so much snow fell that before the Princeton-Maryland men's lacrosse game down there, whole portions of the stadium couldn't be cleared and were closed.

Maryland is at Princeton tomorrow. The forecast? Sunny and 66.

With a forecast like that, TigerBlog ordered a lot of programs for the game. You better make sure you're there to get one. TigerBlog would hate to think he wasted the money.

As midterms end and spring break starts here, most of the spring teams are on the road. The only home game this weekend, for that matter, is that men's lacrosse game.

There's another home game Monday night, at 7, against Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights are unbeaten and ranked in the Top 20 heading into their huge game tonight against another Top 20 team, Stony Brook.

Princeton will begin its home Ivy League season next Saturday, when it hosts Penn. Other than those three men's lacrosse games, there are no other home events until the men's volleyball team is home with NJIT on the 22nd.

There is more to the men's lacrosse game tomorrow than just good weather. The Terps were the NCAA runner-up a year ago, when they lost to Denver, and even though they are 2-2 on the young season, they are still a team that could be playing well into May again.

Princeton finds itself with quite a run to finish up this regular season. After already playing two ranked teams, Princeton has 10 remaining regular season games. Of those 10 games, three are against teams currently in the Top 10, three more are against teams ranked 11-20 and two more are against teams receiving votes.

Every game will be a challenge, which makes every game an opportunity.

This weekend won't see any other teams at home, but that doesn't mean there aren't huge events. The women's lacrosse team is at Notre Dame in a matchup of two Top 10 teams. It's also the opener of a doubleheader that concludes with No. 1 Notre Dame and No. 2 Denver on the men's side.

There are also postseason competitions, including the NCAA fencing regionals at Lafayette.

Cecilia Barowski is at the NCAA indoor track and field indoor championships in Birmingham, where she will be running in the 800 meters. The event is being held at Samford University. TigerBlog was there once; they have great landscaping.

Barowski runs tonight at 8:35 in Heat 1 of 2. The top three in each heat, plus the next two fastest times, advance to tomorrow's final, at 6:40.

The women's hockey team is on its way to Minnesota to play in its second NCAA tournament. The Tigers' season was so good that even a quarterfinal loss to St. Lawrence in the ECAC playoffs wasn't enough to keep them out of the field of eight teams.

Their assignment? The defending NCAA champion Gophers, who are 32-4-1.

You can see the video of the game tomorrow at 5 (Eastern, 4 if you're actually going to the game in Minnesota) for free by clicking HERE.

Lastly, the big story in Ivy League sports yesterday was the addition of the men's and women's basketball tournaments. Princeton could have used both this year, as they finished second in both races.

The women still have a reasonable chance at being the first Ivy team ever to get an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. If not, they will definitely be playing in the WNIT.

The men hope to be getting into the NIT as well.

Actually, either could be a playing at home if they are in their respective NITs. If not, then it's only lacrosse here for awhile.

When 12-2 Is A Little Short

The Princeton men's basketball team defeated Penn 72-71 Tuesday night to finish its regular season at 22-6 overall and 12-2 in the Ivy League.

The Princeton women's team lost in a heart-breaker in the first game of the doubleheader, falling 62-60 to Penn in the winner-take-all women's game. That left Princeton at 23-5 overall, 12-2 in the Ivy League.

Neither Princeton team won an Ivy League championship.

In the entire history of Ivy League men's basketball, only five times has a team gone 12-2 and not gotten at least a share of the championship. Until this year, the last time was in 2003, when Brown did so. Before that, the last time as in 1977.

As for the women, the last time a team went 12-2 and didn't get at least a share of the championship was ... never. This is the first time.

For Princeton, though, it's tough to be on the wrong side of that kind of history. Everyone remembers the great Harvard-Yale men's playoff game a year ago right? How many people remember that both of those teams went 11-3 in the league?
Hey, those are the breaks sometimes. Yale won the men's title and Penn won the women's. Both were 13-1. TigerBlog congratulates them.

The Princeton men, who should at least be in the conversation somewhere for an at-large NCAA tournament bid, hope to at least be headed to the NIT. They'll find out Sunday.

And the women? TigerBlog will get back to them shortly. First, he wants to talk about something else that he couldn't help but notice Tuesday night. 

When Annie Tarakchian's three-pointer splashed through the net, pulling Princeton within one of Penn with 2:38 left, TigerBlog, doing the game on the Ivy League Digital Network and ESPN3 with Dan Loney, remarked that he thought that in the history of Jadwin Gym, it had never been louder for a women's game.

For everything that Courtney Banghart has accomplished with the women's basketball program here, the one that gets overlooked the most is what she's done to the games themselves.

It's easy to focus on the success. Even after Penn held on in a thriller, 62-60, to win the 2016 championship, Banghart has led Princeton to five Ivy League championships, five NCAA tournaments, the first NCAA tournament win in program history, the highest national ranking ever by a women's basketball team in the league, the five highest NCAA seeds in Ivy women's basketball history, a WNIT berth and a WNIT win.

All of this came with a program that had never before played in the NCAA tournament.

By any definition, Banghart is already one of the best coaches in Ivy history. And that's not just in basketball.

As TigerBlog says, though, what she's created at Jadwin Gym that is as impressive.

Attendance at women's basketball games has skyrocketed to unprecedented heights in her tenure. She has put an exciting team on the court year after year, one that has crossed over gender lines to appeal equally to male fans and female fans.

Perhaps she's had help with that in the changing times. Women's basketball is all over television now. Maybe the world is more open to equality in athletics than ever before.

Still, it's come a long way, and Banghart has been the driving force behind it. TigerBlog sees the same faces at Princeton basketball each weekend, whether it's the men or the women at home.

Even better, it's not just the men. It's the boys. There are almost as many of them at Princeton women's basketball games as there are girls.

You'll have to believe TigerBlog on this, but it wasn't always like this. It wasn't really that long ago that the average male fan would have no interest in the women's game. Honestly, if you'd asked TigerBlog 15 years ago if he could ever envision what Princeton women's basketball has become, he would have said no way.

Hey, TigerBlog can't tell you how many times he used to hear those games described as the "girls" game. This wasn't meant to be insulting or demeaning. It was just a subtle way of saying that this game wasn't as important as a men's game, which TigerBlog has never, ever heard referred to as the "boys" game.
The game Tuesday night was one of the best Ivy women's basketball has ever seen. It was fierce and competitive and hard-fought to the end, and the crowd responded as you would think it would.

Make no mistake. This was because of Courtney Banghart.

This, TigerBlog hopes, will be as much a part of her Princeton legacy as all of the winning, whenever her Princeton career comes to a close.

As for her ninth season, there is disappointment that it didn't end in an Ivy title. Sometimes you have to tip your cap to the other team.

The two Princeton-Penn games this year were epics, and Penn won both by two points. It's a razor-thin margin, and little separates these two, but Penn is a worthy champ this year.

So where does this leave Princeton?

On the bubble.

TigerBlog has seen a bunch of NCAA tournament predictions, and it's about 50-50 as to whether or not Princeton will be included in the field.

Should Princeton get in, it would be another piece of history. No Ivy League basketball team - men's or women's - has ever gotten an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.

Whether or not the Tigers do make that history, their season is not over yet. The consolation prize would be a WNIT bid, and Princeton could make a nice run in that tournament.

The NCAA women's Selection Show is Monday at 7. It'll be fascinating viewing for Princeton, that's for sure.

Hey, if nothing else, maybe the committee figures it owes one to the Tigers after their 30-0 regular season a year ago merited only an eighth seed.

20 Years Ago Today

Princeton-Penn 1996 playoff game box score

Of all of the great little anecdotes TigerBlog has from his nearly 30 years at Princeton, perhaps his favorite is the one where Pete Carril was being badgered by a sportswriter after a Penn game at the Palestra.

The writer, by the way, was Brian Dohn, then of the Trentonian. TigerBlog was a big Brian Dohn fan, though he lost touch with him years ago, after Dohn left to go cover the Dodgers.

Anyway, Princeton had just lost to Penn in the final game of the regular season for its eighth straight loss to the Quakers. The outcome of that game left the teams in a tie for the league title and set up a playoff game for the NCAA bid five days later.

It also led to this exchange:

Dohn: "Do you think Penn has your number?"
Carril: "I don't believe in that."
Dohn: "But sometimes a team just has another team's number."
Carril: "Yeah, I don't believe in that."
Dohn: "Yeah, but maybe they just have your number."
Carril: "I'm telling you I don't believe in that."

At that point, another question was asked. This was from Jerry Henry, then of New Jersey Network.

Henry: "Coach, what can you do differently to beat them in the playoff game?"
Carril (looking at Dohn): "Nothing ... if they have our number."

That's a great one. So was the game itself. Princeton 63, Penn 56, in overtime.

That was 20 years ago today.

There haven't been many weeks in TigerBlog's time here to rival the one of 20 years ago. It started with the loss to Penn in the Palestra, continued with the lead up to the playoff game, included that epic night exactly 20 years ago and then culminated a few days later in Indianapolis, when Princeton beat UCLA 43-41 in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

The UCLA win was the 514th and final one of Carril's Princeton career. If you ask any Princeton fan about the biggest days in the history of the men's basketball program, many will start with that game.

TigerBlog has heard several of the players on that team mention that the playoff game was even more special to them. Maybe it doesn't enjoy the lasting fame of the game a few days later. Maybe its highlights aren't shown every year as a symbol of "March Madness."

None of that matters. Without the win over Penn, there would be no UCLA.

TigerBlog's memories of that night 20 years ago are vivid.

The game was played at Lehigh's Stabler Arena, and TigerBlog remembers that it was freezing outside. And packed inside.

Wait. Before he gets into that, let him go back a day earlier. To practice at Jadwin Gym.

Penn did not have Princeton's number. What Penn did have was a psyched out opponent, and Carril and his coaches knew this. By the way, that was one of the greatest coaching staffs ever assembled, with Carril, Bill Carmody (whose Holy Cross team is playing tonight in that same building in the Patriot League tournament final), Joe Scott and John Thompson.

That week of practice was different. It wasn't about X's and O's. It was about, for lack of a better term, toughness. They push? Push back. That was the message.

And that's how the game was.

The biggest strategic difference was to put freshman Gabe Lewullis into the starting lineup, after he had played 12 minutes and did not score in the game at the Palestra. Lewullis would lead Princeton with 15 points, and he would be the only player on either team to play all 45 minutes.

More than just his offense, there was the effect that Lewullis had on defense. Donald Moxley, Penn's leading scorer at the Palestra with 16 points, had none in the playoff game, shooting 0 for 14 from the field.

Princeton jumped out quickly on Penn in the playoff game and led by nine at the break. When pushed, Princeton pushed back. Toughness, on this night, was not a problem.

Penn of course did not go quietly and came all the way back to tie it on a long Ira Bowman three - when nobody picked him up - from the top of the key in the final seconds of regulation. It was a shocking turn, and it left maybe 95 percent of the people in the building convinced that Penn really did have Princeton's number, that overtime would be a formality.

It wasn't.

The two biggest plays in the OT were a Sydney Johnson three-pointer as the shot clock wound down with just under a minute to go and then a steal and two foul shots from Brian Earl.

On any other night, the game would have been the big story. Not on this night though.

Nope.

While the celebration went on, TigerBlog retreated back to where the Princeton locker room was. He knew his responsibility at that moment was to get Carril and a few Princeton players to the interview room, and the celebration was starting to go on for awhile. He knew Lewullis, a graduate of nearby Allentown Central Catholic High School, would be the big story.

Until he walked in the locker room.

The only one in there was Carril. There was an entry room and then a team room off to the left. There was a blackboard to the left as you entered the team room. Carril sat on a bench, and if you didn't know the final score of the game, you wouldn't be able to tell by looking at Carril, who was showing little emotion.

TigerBlog went to stand in the back of the team room. Carril was legendary for taking a long time with the team after games, and on a night like this, TigerBlog's presence in Carril's field of vision might remind him that he had to speed it up a little.

That's when TigerBlog saw it.

Written on the board was a shocking message, written by Carril seconds before TB walked into the room.

"I'm retiring. I'm very happy. Bill Carmody is the new Princeton coach."

From where he stood, TigerBlog could see each player as he came into the room and then could see the reaction as each saw the blackboard.

Then it was off to the interview room, where Carril dropped his bombshell publicly. As TB walked with Carril, he knew what was coming, and that would be a stunned media. And a confused one, which now had to abandon the Lewullis storyline for the Carril one.

The headline the next day in the Trenton Times? "Princeton Wins, Carril Quits."

What followed was the build up to UCLA, which figured to be it, and then the shocking victory that ensured it wasn't.

Maybe the night in Lehigh faded a bit because of the UCLA win. Not maybe. Definitely.

But it was a wild night. A special night. A night when Princeton and Pete Carril made some history.

Have his number? No. Penn didn't.

Pete Carril didn't believe in that.

For good reason.

That was 20 years ago today.

Winner Take All

TigerBlog took a quick look at the game program for tonight's Princeton-Penn women's basketball game, and really everything anyone needs to know was right there on the cover.

Underneath the big Princeton and Penn logos, the whole story is being told. Princeton (23-4, 12-1) vs. Penn (23-4, 12-1).

So yeah, this is a big game. Tip-off is at 5:30, followed by the men's game between Princeton and Penn at 8. Both games can be seen on ESPN3.

For the third time in Ivy League basketball history - all on the women's side - there is a winner-take-all game to end the regular season. Win and you get the big prizes of an outright Ivy League championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Lose, and you play in the WNIT - and as TB said yesterday are probably the best second-place team in Ivy women's basketball history.

Penn defeated Princeton 50-48 in the Ivy League opener for both, back on Jan. 9. Since then, Princeton has gone 12-0, with 11 double-figure wins and one nine-point win. Penn also has 11 double-figure wins - and one loss, 51-46 to Cornell two weeks ago.

As a result, the teams are tied for tonight's game. Had Penn run the table, then Princeton would have had to win tonight to force a playoff this weekend.

Also as TB said yesterday, this is the third time this situation has come up. It's never happened in men's basketball, not once.

In women's basketball, Dartmouth defeated Harvard in 1995 and Penn defeated Princeton two years ago. Dartmouth won both games that year against the Crimson. Princeton had defeated Penn in the first meeting two years ago. Neither winner-take-all game was close.

Want a little more history?

That first Princeton-Penn game this year was the third game in the nine years that Courtney Banghart has been the coach that Princeton the Tigers lost a game in which the winning team didn't score more than 50 points.

The other two were against Rider in Year 1 (45-42) and Year 2 against Dartmouth (43-42).

Penn held Princeton to 48 points and 28% shooting from the field, including 6 for 31 in the first half. That's below 20%.

From start to finish that game was played the way Penn wanted it to be. Low-scoring. Nothing easy.

If you look at the Ivy League stats, you can see why.

Pick an offensive stat, and Princeton leads. Pick a defensive stat, and Penn leads.

Penn didn't exactly light it up in the first game either. The Quakers shot 17 for 62, which is 27.4%.

What Penn did do was grab the early lead, hold it for most of the game and execute when it was needed most.

Does any of that matter this time around? Yes and no. It certainly didn't matter two years ago, when Penn had a 47-point turnaround from Game 1 to Game 2, after losing 84-53 and then winning 80-64 in the last game.

As for Princeton, the Class of 2016 hopes this is the last time it plays at Jadwin. There is the possibility of a home WNIT game for the loser of tonight's game, though neither team wants any part of that.

It's easy to look at the two scores from this past weekend (by 13 over Harvard in a game that was 20 in the fourth quarter and 26 against Dartmouth) and think they were both easy. In reality, Harvard hung around for the first three quarters and was within three when Kenya Holland hit a big three to double that up and begin the push that made the game safe.

There is quick turnaround from a Friday/Saturday weekend to a Tuesday, especially for teams that are used to playing back-to-back and then having six days off. They get into routines for days off and heavier practices, scouting, focusing on Friday's opponent one day and Saturday's another.

Now it's turned around a little. And with a ton on the line.

Princeton will want to push tempo. Penn will want to make everything difficult.

No matter what, it'll be a great scene in Jadwin Gym tonight.

Princeton has won five of the last six Ivy League women's basketball championships. The one they didn't win was their motivating force a year ago, when they went 30-0 in the regular season.

Penn has one starter - Sydney Stipanovich - who started the game two years ago. Princeton has two, Michelle Miller and Alex Wheatley. Annie Tarakchian, who just won her eighth Ivy League Player of the Week award, played 17 minutes off the bench. Amanda Berntsen and Vanessa Smith also played. No other current Penn player other than Stipanovich played in that game.

Does any of that matter? Nope.

Now it's about executing, defending, imposing your will on the game.

And then celebrating.

Again, it's 23-4 Penn against 23-4 Princeton. Both are 12-1 in the league.

Winner take all.

Tip at 5:30.

On Carril Court

TigerBlog sat in the Jadwin Gym East stands, under the basket, at around 7 Saturday evening, as women's basketball warmups before Princeton-Dartmouth went on in front of him.

That he was able to do that at that time is a testament to all of the people who seemingly perfected the art of putting wrestling mats on the basketball court and then pulling them back off as if they were never there.

Carril Court was a busy place this weekend, with the EIWA wrestling championships and two women's basketball games.

The highlight for the Tigers at the EIWA meet was Brett Harner, who won the 197-pound championship, making Harner the first Princeton wrestler to win since Greg Parker in 2003.

In all, Princeton qualified three wrestlers for the NCAA championships, which will be held March 17-19 at the World's Most Famous Arena. That's Madison Square Garden, by the way.

Joining Harner (189) will be classmates Jordan Laster, the fifth-place finisher at 141 who will be making a second straight trip to the NCAAs, and Ray O'Donnell, the fourth-place finisher at 285 who will make his first trip.

As a team, Princeton finished fifth, its best finish since 1978. Again, TigerBlog cannot say enough about the job that Chris Ayres has done with Princeton wrestling.

Back in the arena where TigerBlog works, TigerBlog was in the East stands, marveling at how many people gave their time to turn the arena over from wrestling to basketball. He figures that it's easier to turn a building from hockey to basketball and back, since he figures that's more mechanized.

This was just about a bunch of people carrying really heavy mats around, so that Princeton could host the NCAA-qualifiers for wrestling on the last Ivy basketball weekend. The women's game Saturday was pushed to a 7:30 tip to give time for the turnover, but really the basketball game could have gone off at 6:30. That's how efficient the mat pullers were.

As an aside, longtime ticket manager Stephanie Sutton reminded TigerBlog that all basketball games - men's or women's, Fridays and Saturdays - used to start at 7:30. TigerBlog had forgotten that, though when Stephanie mentioned it, he remember the late starts and the long discussions it took to move them up.

While TigerBlog sat in the stands, he was watching a game on his phone - something that he still marvels at, by the way. The whole technology thing. Every now and then it's still fascinating to think about how much things have changed since TB first started here.

Anyway, the game he was watching was the Yale-Columbia men's basketball game.

After its loss to Harvard Friday night, Princeton's only road to the Ivy League championship required a Columbia win over Yale. The Bulldogs had already clinched at least a share of the title Friday night, but the game in New York City didn't figure to be easy.

It was the last game for Columbia's strong senior class, and it was at home. Yale, though, got out to a big early lead, and Columbia was never able to make it all the way back. Princeton hammered Dartmouth, but the championship went to Yale.

There will be no Ivy League playoff games this season.

Yale has clinched the men's championship, even before Princeton and Penn play tomorrow night. The Tigers will look to finish what has been an outstanding regular season on a high note and then hope to be in the conversation for the Ivy League's first at-large bid to the NCAA tournament or if not then the NIT.

As for the women, both Princeton and Penn won twice this weekend, against Harvard and Dartmouth, by a total of 70 points. As a result, the two enter tomorrow night's game with identical 12-1 league records.

In other words, it's winner take all.

Just for a bit of housekeeping: the women's game is at 5:30, and the men's is at 8. Both games can be seen on ESPN3.

As for what the winner is taking, that would be two huge prizes - the Ivy League championship and the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

There has never in the entire history of Ivy League men's basketball been a winner-take-all regular-season finale. It's never happened.

The game tomorrow night will be the third WTA in Ivy League women's basketball history.

The first was in 1995, when Dartmouth defeated Harvard. The other was two years ago, when Penn defeated Princeton. Neither of those two games was close.

In the 1995 Ivy season, Dartmouth defeated Harvard twice. Two years ago, Princeton defeated Penn and then Penn won the rematch.

That's your limited historical analysis. None of it matters.

Tomorrow's game will have a playoff feel to it, obviously. The winner of the game won't be the best team in Ivy history, but the loser could make a case for being the best runner-up ever.

Not that anyone wants to be that.

After a hugely busy weekend, it'll be a huge Tuesday on Carril Court. It'll be a championship Tuesday for either the Princeton or Penn women.

Such events haven't come up too often in Ivy basketball. Make sure you don't miss it.

Another Busy One

TigerBlog was leaving yesterday afternoon around 5:15 or so when he saw his colleague Cody Chruchiel, who was about to get on the elevator in Jadwin.

TigerBlog had just gotten off that same elevator, uneventfully at that. TB off. Cody on.

Then, a few minutes later, TB got a text - part of a group text actually - with a picture of Cody, who said that he was now stuck on the elevator. TigerBlog promises he did nothing to sabotage things.

In the end, it would take Cody about 20 minutes to free himself from the elevator.

TigerBlog has been stuck in an elevator once, in Ireland, along with about 20 men's lacrosse players. It only lasted about two minutes, but it wasn't exactly fun.

Cody took it all in stride. After all, it was a Thursday afternoon. Those aren't high-stress moments.

It dawned on TigerBlog that in his profession, the time during the week is usually the low stress time. It's the weekends when everything ratchets up.

This weekend is no different.

One of the events this weekend will be the CSA national squash championships. In advance of that, there was a story on goprincetontigers.com about the coming induction into the College Squash Hall of Fame of Princeton alums Yasser El Halaby and Julia Beaver.

When he saw the story, TigerBlog's first thought was "how are they not already in?"

TigerBlog can't think of El Halaby without thinking of the late, great Bob Callahan, the long-time coach of the Tigers who passed away a little over a year ago. When Bob recruited Yasser from Egypt, he came into the Office of Athletic Communications and said that he had recruited the squash version of Bill Bradley.

And he had.

Yasser would win four individual squash national championships before graduating in 2006, becoming the first men's player ever to do so. When TigerBlog saw him play, he marveled at the way he could wear down an opponent with uncanny consistency on every shot. He didn't overpower them physically. He broke them down mentally.

As for Beaver, she was close to El Halaby with three individual titles before she graduated in 2001. Princeton also won two Howe Cup national championships while Beaver was the No. 1 player.

And now they're going to be in the Hall of Fame, which is where they belong.

The Hall of Fame inductions are part of the CSA individual championships, which are part of yet another busy weekend for Princeton Athletics. Well, maybe not as busy as some recent ones, what with only 14 teams who will be competing.

Only 14. Hah.

It's a mix of what it always is this time of year, with postseason events like the squash championships and huge late season events mixed with early season games for spring teams. It's even opening weekend for the baseball team, who plays three games at Louisville.

There will be six teams who play 10 home events between today and Sunday. TigerBlog spoke yesterday about how busy Carril Court at Jadwin Gym will be, beginning tonight with women's basketball and continuing tomorrow with another women's hoops game - including Senior Night - as well as EIWA wrestling.

There will also be other teams at home who are playing with no admission charge: men's tennis, women's tennis, men's volleyball and women's lacrosse.

The women's lacrosse team plays tomorrow at home against Dartmouth in the Ivy League opener. It used to be that Princeton would play Dartmouth and Penn in the same week, but now Dartmouth has moved to the Ivy opener.

The Big Green are 3-1 and receiving votes in the poll after wins over UMass-Lowell, New Hampshire and BU and a 16-6 loss to No. 3 Florida. Princeton is ranked sixth and unbeaten.

It's a pretty big way to jump into the league.

The men's lacrosse team is at Hopkins tomorrow at 1, on ESPN3. Princeton will be playing the first of three straight games against nationally ranked Big Ten teams, with Hopkins away and then Maryland and Rutgers at home.

You could say that this is a tough stretch for the Tigers, but really there isn't any part of the schedule that isn't a tough stretch. Hey, the Ivy League has more Top 10 teams than the Big Ten, and those two - Yale and Brown - are two of Princeton's first three Ivy opponents.

Then there is the men's basketball team.

Princeton left yesterday to go to New England for games at Harvard tonight and Dartmouth tomorrow night. By the time Princeton returns in the wee hours Sunday morning, there will be one of three realities for the Tigers:

1) clinched the Ivy title
2) eliminated from the race
3) race still undecided

With so many possibilities, each game is huge. The Tigers are tied with Yale in losses with one each. Columbia has three and desperately wants to get to tomorrow night at home against Yale with a chance.

This is no time for a team to be looking beyond, as John Thompson has always said, the next possession.

There was an athletic department staff meeting yesterday morning. As he does at every staff meeting, Jon Kurian of the business office was running down a few procedural things. He mentioned that if anyone was submitting an expensed meal, it had to mention everything on the bill individually, not just a total and a tip.

You know, for accounting purposes and all.

"We're very health conscious in the business office," Kurian said to a few laughs.

 That was yesterday morning. By tonight, a big weekend of competition will have begun.

It'll be a bit more serious.

On The Mat, On The Court

TigerBlog can guarantee you that there will be people who compete on Carril Court this weekend who will be heading to the NCAA championships.

He can also guarantee you that there will be others who compete there this weekend who may be heading to the NCAA championships, but then again may not.

And beyond that, he can guarantee you that there will be others who are not heading to the NCAA championships but will work incredibly hard to make sure those who are trying to get there have a venue in which to compete.

Princeton Athletics has a long history of saying "yes." As in, "you want to host this intercollegiate event? Yes. It'll happen."

It doesn't mean it's always easy. Take this weekend, for instance.

Princeton will be hosting the EIWA wrestling championships on Carril Court Saturday and Sunday. Of course, Princeton will also be hosting the women's basketball games against Harvard tomorrow night and Dartmouth Saturday, on the same court, the same exact space.

This is quite an undertaking.

There will be a basketball game tomorrow night. Then there will be wrestling all day Saturday, with four mats on the court. Then it'll be time to clear the mats off the Jadwin floor and get it ready for the next basketball game.

Then it'll time to move the mats back onto the court for Sunday's second day of the wrestling. Finally, when it's over, the mats come back off.

Whew. That's as big an effort as anyone who will be competing there.

Princeton last hosted the EIWA meet in 2012.

It last had an EIWA individual champion in 2003 (Greg Parker, who also won in 2002, when he was an NCAA runner-up) and last finished in the top five in 1978. Princeton is looking to change those to 2016.

In all, there will be 51 NCAA bids awarded to wrestlers who will be at Jadwin this weekend. There are different numbers of NCAA spots available depending on the weight class.

TigerBlog didn't realize this until he listened to the podcast that his colleague Craig Sachson did with Penn's athletic communications wrestling contact Chas Dorman. A rather laid-back man, Chas is very into wrestling. So is Craig.

The podcast is one element of Craig's lengthy, and in-depth, preview of the weekend's event. You can access it HERE.

Princeton sent five wrestlers to the NCAAs a year ago. That happened to be a program record.

What will this year bring?

In between sessions, there will be women's basketball tomorrow night at 7 against Harvard and Saturday at 7:30 against Dartmouth.

The game Saturday night will be senior night, with Princeton's five-member Class of 2016 honored.

TigerBlog would never have imagined that there would be a class at Princeton to rival the Class of 2013, especially with Niveen Rasheed in that class. The Class of 2013 won 96 games during its time at Princeton, a record for any Ivy women's basketball class at the time.

It didn't last long, though, as the Class of 2015 graduated with 98 wins. The Class of 2016 enters this weekend with 95 wins and three regular season games remaining.

Of course, there would be no record for the Class of 2015 had it not been for the Class of 2016. And if all of this begs the question of which class was the best, it's not worth asking.

It's all Princeton women's basketball.

This class, though, is extraordinary. There are five of them - Alex Wheatley, Michelle Miller, Annie Tarakchian, Amanda Berntsen and Taylor Williams.

They've combined for 4,402 career points. TigerBlog will add this one to the list of things to research at some point. Has any class ever scored more?

More than their numbers, they've been winners. That's for sure. They've won two Ivy titles. They've played in two NCAAs - winning the first NCAA game in program history - and they also have a WNIT appearance, which also included a win.

Last year they were key members of the greatest season in Ivy women's basketball history, the 31-1 run that included a 30-0 regular season.

And this weekend? None of that matters.

Princeton and Penn are tied for first in the league with three games left, the third of which is at Jadwin Tuesday between the two. Before that, though, there is Harvard and Dartmouth, neither of which is a gimme.

TigerBlog started out by saying that there will be NCAA qualifiers in Jadwin this weekend. Those will definitely come from wrestling.

They can mathematically come in women's basketball too, though it's unlikely.

But these are still huge games here this weekend, this very busy weekend, this weekend made possible by a group of people who work really hard to be able to say "yes" to events like the EIWA.

A Weekend In Denver

TigerBlog's view of Princeton's men's lacrosse game Saturday at Hofstra was different than the 171 before it.

This past Saturday, for the first time in 12 years, Princeton played a men's lacrosse game that TigerBlog did not attend. His streak ran for 171 straight games, which is a pretty good run.

This time, TigerBlog was 2,000 miles away from Hempstead, watching the videostream of Princeton-Hofstra while he also watched defending NCAA champion Denver host Sacred Heart on the field in front of him.

TigerBlog spent his weekend in Colorado. During his time there, he saw four lacrosse games - the four games of the Face-Off Classic, as Denver and Air Force hosted Sacred Heart and Dartmouth - as well as one basketball game, the one between Denver and North Dakota State.

He drove to the University of Colorado, which he didn't realize was about 30 minutes from Denver. He spent the weekend draped in sunshine with temperatures in the 60s and 70s, all while the snow-capped Rocky Mountains framed his every move in spectacular fashion.

He got to spend time with people he'd met decades ago at Princeton, people who have left indelible marks on him.

And he got to see TigerBlog Jr. play against the defending NCAA champion, his Pioneers against their Pioneers.

When TigerBlog first found out that Sacred Heart would be in Denver, he thought about letting his Princeton lacrosse streak end. It wasn't an easy decision though.

The last time Princeton played a lacrosse game that TigerBlog was not at was in 2004, when the Tigers were at Johns Hopkins in lacrosse and Dartmouth in men's basketball, where a win would clinch an Ivy title. TigerBlog went with basketball over lacrosse that day.

Since then, he hadn't missed a game. Not for any reason. The closest he came was a few years ago at Dartmouth, when he was sick, but he toughed that one out. Even beyond just the actual games, TigerBlog was there when Princeton played games on international trips in Spain, Ireland and Costa Rica.

It was not an easy decision to let that streak end. But there did have to come a day when he'd miss a game, and this seemed like a good reason why.

TigerBlog had been to Denver once before last weekend. That was also back in 2004, for the NCAA basketball tournament, against Texas. He remembered that the weather was surprisingly warm for March, but he didn't really get to see much other than the hotel and the Pepsi Center.

This time it was different.

TigerBlog flew out Friday morning from Philadelphia. About 3.5 hours later, his American Airlines flight made a sweeping right turn on its final approach into Denver International, giving TigerBlog his first look at the unreal beauty that is the Rockies.

With some time to kill, TigerBlog drove out to Boulder to check out the University of Colorado. It's a huge campus, obviously, fitting for a giant state school with an enrollment north of 30,000.

The drive from Denver to Boulder isn't a long one. Driving on Interstate 25, you go past the downtown area, with Coors Field on one side and Sports Authority Field at Mile High on the other. As you come into Boulder, you've reached the foothills of the Rockies, and it looks like you're about to drive into the mountains themselves as you reach the college town.

After his return from Boulder, TigerBlog met up with Joe Scott at a pizza place that he'd found, called Pino's. TigerBlog even got to meet Pino, the owner. TigerBlog remembers Joe from his days as a Princeton basketball player, and he's known him since Scott was on Pete Carril's staff at Princeton. Scott, who would be Princeton's head coach for three years, is now Denver's head coach.

Scott couldn't say enough about how good the pizza is at Pino's, which is saying a lot, because Joe Scott is passionate about good pizza.

That, actually, is Joe Scott in a nutshell. He believes what he believes passionately, whether it's pizza or basketball or people. He is fiercely loyal, and he will never, ever forget where he came from or anyone who is one of "his" guys.

And he cares. You know, about you. About your family. About your work. When he says "how are the kids," he's not doing it to be polite. He's doing it because he genuinely wants to know. 

In a world of superficiality, Joe Scott stands out as one of the most genuine people TigerBlog has ever met. It was great to catch up with him.

It was also great to catch up with the Tierneys, Bill, the greatest lacrosse coach of all time, and his wife Helen, without whom Bill would not be Bill.

Bill won six NCAA titles at Princeton and now has won a seventh at Denver. He's built something incredible at DU, with 1,500 season tickets sold, with both days of the Face-Off Classic sold out, with every DU men's lacrosse game day a big-time event.

TigerBlog was in Denver because of the Tierneys. Without them, he would not have gotten into lacrosse the way he did, and certainly TigerBlog Jr. would not have.

TBJ is a freshman at Sacred Heart. He's living out his dream of playing Division I lacrosse, and nobody - other than TigerBlog - is more responsible for TBJ's love of the sport and his development as a player than Bill Tierney.

Once upon a time, TBJ was a little kid tailing his father around to Princeton events. For whatever reason, he and Bill Tierney clicked right away. When TBJ was six or seven, he referred to the hall-of-fame coach as "my friend Bill." When TBJ needed a helmet or a stick or anything, he got it from Bill.

TBJ's goalie stick broke the day before he had his first tournament to play in, a third/fourth grade tournament. What was the solution? Call "his friend Bill," who told him to go into his garage and pick one.

More than anything else, TBJ got encouragement from Tierney, who let TBJ come to his summer camps at Princeton a few years earlier than he was supposed to. Bill once came to see TBJ play in fourth grade, sitting far away from the rest of the crowd. TigerBlog, TBJ's coach, didn't know if TBJ realized that Bill was there - until TBJ went straight from the handshake line to where Bill was sitting to give him a big hug.

And now here he was, playing Division I lacrosse on Bill's field. How could TigerBlog miss that?

It's been an interesting experience, seeing college sports from the perspective of a parent after all of these years of seeing it from his usual perspective. On the night before Sacred Heart's opener, TigerBlog found himself near the field where his son had first played lacrosse, 11 years ago. He couldn't help but get nostalgic.

Last Saturday in Denver, after Bill's Pioneers beat TBJ's Pioneers 18-7, TigerBlog and Tierney stood outside the SHU lockerroom, waiting for TBJ. Eventually he came out, and TigerBlog took a picture of the two of them together.

This is common after lacrosse games. Pictures, and food. In the world of college lacrosse, it seems like every game has people on the opposing teams who know each other, and there's always the kid in the one jersey with his arm around the kid in the other jersey.

This one was a little different. This wasn't two high school teammates.

This was a little kid who grew up with a dream that he is now living out - and a legendary coach who did so much to help him get there.

It was the highlight of TigerBlog's weekend in Denver.

Another Weekend In Ivy Hoops

They all started out in the beginning thinking they were the one with the resources, organization and support to go all the way, to be the last one standing to the applause at the end.

Little by little, they fell by the wayside, dropping out here and there until now, as March begins, the genuine contenders are the ones left in the hunt for the big prize.

TigerBlog is speaking about the Ivy League basketball races.

What, you thought he was talking about the Presidential primary season?

Today is Super Tuesday in that arena. Next Tuesday could be a super Tuesday in the arena in which TigerBlog works.

But that is getting ahead of things. Way, way ahead of things.

Princeton's two basketball teams have three regular season games remaining. They both play Harvard Friday, Dartmouth Saturday and Penn Tuesday, with the women at home this weekend, the men away this weekend and both in Jadwin Tuesday.

Both Princeton teams won this weekend, sweeping Columbia and Cornell.

An interesting side note for the men's game against Columbia is that it was 88-83, which was the exact score Princeton beat Columbia by in New York earlier this season. Those are the only two 88-83 games in program history, by the way.

TigerBlog doesn't know if either the men or women have ever beaten a team by the same score twice in one season. That would take a lot of research.

The big game for the weekend figured to be the Princeton-Columbia men's game. It was the make-or-break moment for the Lions, who were either going to tie Princeton and move a game back of Yale with a home game against the Bulldogs still to go or fall two games behind both.

The win by Princeton might have kayoed Columbia, who to its considerable credit came back the next night with a big win at Penn. Princeton defeated Cornell 74-60 after leading by three at the break.

The women?

Well, they were in control from start to finish both games, winning by a combined 66 points against the Lions and Big Red.

The race on the women's side was further shaped when Penn lost its first Ivy game, falling to Cornell Friday night. The men's race came really, really, really close to a similar shakeup before Yale survived against Dartmouth in overtime.

So where does that leave everything?

On the women's side, Princeton and Penn are tied for first at 10-1 each. Harvard, at 9-3, can still mathematically get a share of the championship, and it's really not that out of the question that the Crimson could pull it off.

What would it take? Glad you asked.

First, Harvard must sweep. One Harvard loss this weekend and the Crimson are eliminated.

On the other hand, if Harvard can sweep, then all the Crimson would need would be one Dartmouth win to stay alive in the race. If that happened, then Harvard would need the team team that Dartmouth beat to win the Princeton-Penn game and there'd be a three-way tie.

If it's dreaming big, then two Dartmouth wins to go with two Harvard wins would get Harvard a share of the title, with the team that then won the Princeton-Penn game.

At the other end of the spectrum, Princeton and Penn can have a tie for the championship by having one of them lose once this weekend and the other win the head-to-head game. And of course, a Princeton/Penn sweep this weekend sets up a winner-take-all game Tuesday.

So that's the women.

The men?

As with the women, there are three teams mathematically alive - Yale (11-1), Princeton (10-1) and Columbia (9-3). Like with the women, Columbia needs a lot of help; unlike Harvard's women, almost all of it is out of Columbia's control after Princeton's win here Friday.

Again, had Columbia won that game, it would be playing this weekend at home against Brown and Yale knowing that a sweep would mean at least a share of the title. Instead, Columbia would be eliminated if Yale were to beat Cornell Friday.

Even if Columbia sweeps and Yale loses to Cornell, the Lions still need Princeton to go 1-2.

As for Princeton and Yale, they're headed to a playoff game if they both win out, with Princeton obviously with an additional game.

Clearly the road to a championship isn't easy for either Princeton or Yale, both of whom have to win huge games on the road this weekend. And Penn of course is looming out there, loving the thought of denying Princeton a possible title.

That'll be next Tuesday at Jadwin. It could be one game for a championship or two games for a championship - the Super Tuesday part.

Of course, it could also turn out to be meaningless as far as either championship is concerned, depending on this weekend.

It's been a great year of Ivy League basketball. The end is close - but the ending is still very much uncertain.