TigerBlog has been trying to think if there are other songs that he believes are universally liked other than the two he mentioned earlier in the week, "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey and "Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond.
If you want to find someone who doesn't like "Sweet Caroline," by the way, ask a Yankees fan. Failing that, yeah, have you ever heard anyone say they don't like the song?
About the only other song that he came up with on that level might be, maybe, "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen. Even if you're not a Queen fan, you probably like the song, most likely because of the incredible, operatic voice of lead singer Freddie Mercury.
Check out THIS version.
Ah, TigerBlog would love to be able to sing like that.
Would you put an Aretha Franklin song on that list? Maybe "Respect," or "You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman?"
TB doesn't think so. One of the appeals of the first three is that they span every age group. Miss TigerBlog's high school field hockey team used to sing "Bohemian Rhapsody" on the bus.
Did you ever hear the Steely Dan song "Hey Nineteen?" It has this lyric: "Hey 19. That's 'Retha Franklin. She don't remember the Queen of Soul."
Aretha Franklin was unique talent though. The Queen of Soul, as she was known, died yesterday at the age of 76. She had her share of iconic songs, and she certainly was given a voice like few others have ever had.
Not a lot of people have ever been able to sing like THIS.
Well, here it is, the last Friday of the summer before Princeton Athletic events begin. The women's soccer team opens its season one week from today, somewhat insanely, as the defending Ivy champion and 2017 NCAA quarterfinalist is at New Hampshire.
There will be seven games in the month of August involving four Princeton teams - women's soccer, men's soccer, field hockey and women's volleyball. By one month from today, there will have been 44 athletic events played already.
In other words, it's going to get very busy, very quickly.
The home opener is a women's soccer game two weeks from today against St. Joe's, after the women's soccer team plays at BU next Sunday, after the New Hampshire game.
If you work in college athletics, then you're used to this cycle. There are a little short of 10 months of games, and then two months of quiet. Then it starts all over again.
It's somewhat similar to being a teacher, TB supposes. If you view the coming of the new school year with dread, then you're in the wrong profession.
Around here, if you view the starting of events with dread, then you're also doing the wrong thing.
For TigerBlog, by the way, this will be his 30th academic year covering Princeton sports. Yikes.
As TigerBlog has said, he'll feel old when the child of someone he covered here starts playing here as well.
With the start of the new year just ahead, TigerBlog received a note suggesting that perhaps he should make some predictions for 2018-19. That's not a terrible idea.
Here's one prediction - a team that finished in sixth place or lower in the Ivy League last year will win a championship. Maybe he'll make some others at some point.
Here's another - TigerBlog will watch the Major League Lacrosse championship game tomorrow night. It'll be the Dallas Rattlers against the Denver Outlaws, and Denver got to the championship game by defeating Chesapeake 13-12 behind four goals and nine ground balls from Princeton alum Zach Currier.
TB is definitely rooting for Currier to get a championship this year, after he came so close with the Canadians at the World Championships in Israel earlier this summer.
The game starts at 7 tomorrow and can be seen on ESPNEWS.
And, you know, that'll be that for the summer, at least around here. Many college teams are already playing real games, with a lot more to start this weekend.
Yes, summer technically continues for three weeks into September. And yes, unofficially it'll go to Labor Day.
Here, though, it's just about done. And that's fine with TB.
After all, the games, and seeing the athletes compete, is the best part of working here.
Anyway, have a great summer weekend.
Friday, August 17, 2018
Thursday, August 16, 2018
Pure Genius
Every now and then, it's good to take a quote completely out of context.
For today, TigerBlog offers this, from a story that he read yesterday that included words from Princeton head football coach Bob Surace.
"We’re not this group of geniuses," Surace says.
TigerBlog won't even bother explaining. You can read it for yourself HERE.
Pete Carril once poo-pooed the concept of a coach as a genius with this quote: "When I think of a genius, I think of a guy like Einstein." What always fascinated TigerBlog about that was the way he threw in "a guy like," as opposed to simply "Einstein," as if there are a whole bunch of Einsteins running around out there.
Carril also said things like "I'll take that up with God when I get there" and "God is indifferent to the plight of man" and "A hundred years from now I'll be dead and two guys will walk past my grave and one will say 'that guy never won a national championship' and I won't hear a word they say."
There's genius to that, no?
It's better, of course, to have others think you're a genius than to think it yourself, right Wile E. Coyote?
Surace had his annual pre-preseason picnic Tuesday night. TigerBlog couldn't make it, but he had to chuckle when he saw that it was a rainy, stormy night. It always seems to be that way for Surace's event each year.
Genius or no, Surace is a unique football coach. For starters he doesn't seem to need to use the word "football" in every sentence. He's also very easy to talk to, and he laughs easily. He's also not wound too tightly at all times, and he seems to recognize that football is a game, not a metaphor for life.
Most importantly, Surace is, as TB has said before, the perfect coach for Princeton football. He's smart and innovative, and in that story that TB linked to before, there's a reference to the need to get your best athletes on the field, regardless of traditional roles for players.
Also, Surace buys into Princeton. He's an alum, and a loyal one at that. He understands the place. He understands that the football coach is never going to be the one who drives the whole school, and he's fine with that.
The combination of those things are why he's been so successful here.
This will be Surace's ninth season as Princeton's head coach. His record is 38-42, which is extraordinary considering he was 2-20 to start out.
That leaves him at 36-22 for his last 58 games. He started out with a .091 winning percentage and has gone to a .621 winning percentage since.
Remind you of anyone? Say, a women's basketball coach, perhaps. Courtney Banghart started out 16-37 and has gone 216-56 since.
Or, maybe, a men's lacrosse coach from awhile ago? Bill Tierney went 8-21 his first two years and then 230-65 for his next 20 years at Princeton.
Banghart, by the way, has taken on another challenging schedule for the 2018-19 season. The schedule was announced yesterday, and you can see it HERE.
By the way, the opener is Nov. 6? That's like in a little more than two months.
Courtney tweeted this yesterday:
Actually, as TB just looked, in each of those six seasons, Princeton has won either five or eight games. Never anything else. In fact, in his first eight years, Surace's teams have won either one, five or eight games.
That's odd.
Only four coaches in Princeton's long history have ever won more games that Surace already has. Those four are:
Bill Roper 89
Steve Tosches 78
Dick Colman 75
Charlie Caldwell 70
That's it. Surace is next.
Roper was Princeton's coach from 1906-08, 1910-11 and 1919-30. Can Surace make a run at 89?
He's 51 away from it as he enters 2018. If he averages five wins a year for 10 years, that 1) certainly is doable and 2) puts him right there.
The question is how long will he want to be doing this and doing it here. As TB said, he's the perfect head football coach for Princeton.
Five wins a year for 10 years. If he gets six a year, he can do it less than nine.
On the other hand, that's like nine or 10 more pre-preseason picnics at his house in the rain.
For today, TigerBlog offers this, from a story that he read yesterday that included words from Princeton head football coach Bob Surace.
"We’re not this group of geniuses," Surace says.
TigerBlog won't even bother explaining. You can read it for yourself HERE.
Pete Carril once poo-pooed the concept of a coach as a genius with this quote: "When I think of a genius, I think of a guy like Einstein." What always fascinated TigerBlog about that was the way he threw in "a guy like," as opposed to simply "Einstein," as if there are a whole bunch of Einsteins running around out there.
Carril also said things like "I'll take that up with God when I get there" and "God is indifferent to the plight of man" and "A hundred years from now I'll be dead and two guys will walk past my grave and one will say 'that guy never won a national championship' and I won't hear a word they say."
There's genius to that, no?
It's better, of course, to have others think you're a genius than to think it yourself, right Wile E. Coyote?
Surace had his annual pre-preseason picnic Tuesday night. TigerBlog couldn't make it, but he had to chuckle when he saw that it was a rainy, stormy night. It always seems to be that way for Surace's event each year.
Genius or no, Surace is a unique football coach. For starters he doesn't seem to need to use the word "football" in every sentence. He's also very easy to talk to, and he laughs easily. He's also not wound too tightly at all times, and he seems to recognize that football is a game, not a metaphor for life.
Most importantly, Surace is, as TB has said before, the perfect coach for Princeton football. He's smart and innovative, and in that story that TB linked to before, there's a reference to the need to get your best athletes on the field, regardless of traditional roles for players.
Also, Surace buys into Princeton. He's an alum, and a loyal one at that. He understands the place. He understands that the football coach is never going to be the one who drives the whole school, and he's fine with that.
The combination of those things are why he's been so successful here.
This will be Surace's ninth season as Princeton's head coach. His record is 38-42, which is extraordinary considering he was 2-20 to start out.
That leaves him at 36-22 for his last 58 games. He started out with a .091 winning percentage and has gone to a .621 winning percentage since.
Remind you of anyone? Say, a women's basketball coach, perhaps. Courtney Banghart started out 16-37 and has gone 216-56 since.
Or, maybe, a men's lacrosse coach from awhile ago? Bill Tierney went 8-21 his first two years and then 230-65 for his next 20 years at Princeton.
Banghart, by the way, has taken on another challenging schedule for the 2018-19 season. The schedule was announced yesterday, and you can see it HERE.
By the way, the opener is Nov. 6? That's like in a little more than two months.
Courtney tweeted this yesterday:
Anyway, back at Surace, he has 38 career wins in nine years. For the last seven, he's averaged six wins a year.Iron sharpens iron. 🐯💍 chasers are all about scheduling the best. Go hard or stay home. This season brings Penn State, Depaul, Syracuse, Kansas State, George Washington, Quinnipiac, Seton Hall, Villanova, Marist- and so many more. https://t.co/6angFU23NG— Courtney Banghart (@CoachBanghart) August 15, 2018
Actually, as TB just looked, in each of those six seasons, Princeton has won either five or eight games. Never anything else. In fact, in his first eight years, Surace's teams have won either one, five or eight games.
That's odd.
Only four coaches in Princeton's long history have ever won more games that Surace already has. Those four are:
Bill Roper 89
Steve Tosches 78
Dick Colman 75
Charlie Caldwell 70
That's it. Surace is next.
Roper was Princeton's coach from 1906-08, 1910-11 and 1919-30. Can Surace make a run at 89?
He's 51 away from it as he enters 2018. If he averages five wins a year for 10 years, that 1) certainly is doable and 2) puts him right there.
The question is how long will he want to be doing this and doing it here. As TB said, he's the perfect head football coach for Princeton.
Five wins a year for 10 years. If he gets six a year, he can do it less than nine.
On the other hand, that's like nine or 10 more pre-preseason picnics at his house in the rain.
Wednesday, August 15, 2018
By The Rules
You won't find too many people TigerBlog likes more than Christian Swezey, one of the top lacrosse writers there has ever been.
TB and Christian go way back, all the way to Princeton's first NCAA title, back in 1992. Christian has created something of a lacrosse board game, one that enables one great team from one year to play another from another year.
He tweeted about a game he ran the other night, when the 1996 Virginia Cavaliers took on the 1992 Princeton Tigers. Princeton won the NCAA title in 1992 and 1996 (and 1994, 1997, 1998 and 2001), and the 1996 title came in OT against Virginia.
The 1996 Virginia team is the best team TigerBlog has ever seen that did not win the NCAA title. The Cavs were led by Michael Watson, the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament, as well as Doug Knight and Tim Whiteley, who were great players who TB is guessing are still bothered by the fact that they lost to Princeton in the final that year, and in 1994.
Princeton won both of those championship games in overtime, on goals by Kevin Lowe (1994) and Jesse Hubbard (1996). Princeton also need OT to win in 1992 (Andy Moe) and 2001 (B.J. Prager).
In Christian's simulation, the ’96 Cavs beat the ’92 Tigers 13-10. TigerBlog could believe that.
The 1992 Tigers went 13-2, defeating Syracuse 9-8 in the final. In five games that year, Princeton gave up at least 10 goals, including in a 16-14 win over North Carolina in the semifinal and a 15-13 win over UVa in the regular season.
In other words, more than 25 years ago, teams could play high scoring games. The rules back then were radically different, with stalling permitted but the requirement to keep it in the restraining box if the refs put a stall warning on.
Princeton, by a huge margin, was the best back then at running out the clock while keeping the ball in the box. The Tigers could move the ball in a small space almost indefinitely, and it's a tactic that came in very helpful in more than one fourth quarter of an NCAA tournament game.
Eventually, the keep-it-in rule was replaced by a timer-on rule, one that put a 30-second shot clock on when the refs decided the offensive team was stalling. That was sort of a compromise between the competing voices calling either for a shot clock or no shot clock.
This past week, the NCAA men's lacrosse rules committee came up with some radical rules changes. The most radical, by the way, is the one lacrosse people are talking about the least.
The one getting all the attention is pretty radical as well, as the game has finally gone to a full shot clock on every possession. Teams will now have 20 seconds to advance the ball past midfield (as opposed to 30 seconds to get it into the restraining box), and then a 60-second shot clock will start as soon as the ball crosses into midfield.
The shot clock rule has caused everyone TigerBlog knows to formulate an opinion, and these opinions basically fall into two camps: 1) about time or 2) this is the worst thing that ever happen to the game.
The "about time" group talks about how the pace of the game needs improving, how effective the shot clock has been in the women's game and how Major League Lacrosse has one. They point to what they perceive to be the worst part of the current game, where a team will clear the ball, get it behind the cage, sub off its D middies for O middies while the defense does the opposite and then pass it around once or twice before starting an offense. This is a 30-second process.
The "worst thing ever" group envisions a game now where defenses will play tight zones, offenses won't have enough time to get good opportunities and there will be endless possessions that end with the ball rolled into the corner.
TigerBlog's take? Wait and see.
He didn't think there was anything wrong with the pace of the game, but he had a major problem with the way the shot clock was put on before. It just made it way too subjective for the officials.
And could you call the game the exact same way when it was 2-1 five minutes in and 11-10 with five minutes left? Now all of that subjectivity is gone, which is good. And the last minute of a one-goal game is sort of the same now, minus the part where everyone yells "shot clock."
As for the result, TB isn't sure. If he had to guess, he'd think there will be more possessions, good and bad. Teams are going to have to move quicker than they have in the past, and the teams with the best quarterbacking attackmen - you know, like Michael Sowers - will have an advantage.
Also, the shot clock will lead to more possessions. Will it lead to more goals like it has in the women's game? If it does, then it'll lead to more face-offs, which seems to make FOGOs more important. On the other hand, though, the ability to win a face-off, have a two-minute possession, score and repeat is gone now, so maybe winning face-offs won't have the same impact as in the past.
The shot clock has gotten the most attention. So has the return of the crease dive.
If the point of the rule change is to create more transition, then it's a different rule that's going to do that. It seems innocuous enough - the substitution box is now half the size of what it was.
This, though, is going to make subbing in transition really hard, which is going to lead to more up-and-down and the need for two-way middies. Yes, there will still be a need for shortstick D middies, but they're going to be way more valuable if they can shoot too. The same is true for longstick midfielders.
TigerBlog's biggest fear for all these rules is that they're going to change again in two years with the next cycle. That's the big issue, that the way the game is played is changed radically and then changed radically again and then changed radically again. Let the game breathe now and see what happens.
If nothing else, these rule changes will make next year even more fascinating.
TigerBlog is looking forward to it.
TB and Christian go way back, all the way to Princeton's first NCAA title, back in 1992. Christian has created something of a lacrosse board game, one that enables one great team from one year to play another from another year.
He tweeted about a game he ran the other night, when the 1996 Virginia Cavaliers took on the 1992 Princeton Tigers. Princeton won the NCAA title in 1992 and 1996 (and 1994, 1997, 1998 and 2001), and the 1996 title came in OT against Virginia.
The 1996 Virginia team is the best team TigerBlog has ever seen that did not win the NCAA title. The Cavs were led by Michael Watson, the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament, as well as Doug Knight and Tim Whiteley, who were great players who TB is guessing are still bothered by the fact that they lost to Princeton in the final that year, and in 1994.
Princeton won both of those championship games in overtime, on goals by Kevin Lowe (1994) and Jesse Hubbard (1996). Princeton also need OT to win in 1992 (Andy Moe) and 2001 (B.J. Prager).
In Christian's simulation, the ’96 Cavs beat the ’92 Tigers 13-10. TigerBlog could believe that.
The 1992 Tigers went 13-2, defeating Syracuse 9-8 in the final. In five games that year, Princeton gave up at least 10 goals, including in a 16-14 win over North Carolina in the semifinal and a 15-13 win over UVa in the regular season.
In other words, more than 25 years ago, teams could play high scoring games. The rules back then were radically different, with stalling permitted but the requirement to keep it in the restraining box if the refs put a stall warning on.
Princeton, by a huge margin, was the best back then at running out the clock while keeping the ball in the box. The Tigers could move the ball in a small space almost indefinitely, and it's a tactic that came in very helpful in more than one fourth quarter of an NCAA tournament game.
Eventually, the keep-it-in rule was replaced by a timer-on rule, one that put a 30-second shot clock on when the refs decided the offensive team was stalling. That was sort of a compromise between the competing voices calling either for a shot clock or no shot clock.
This past week, the NCAA men's lacrosse rules committee came up with some radical rules changes. The most radical, by the way, is the one lacrosse people are talking about the least.
The one getting all the attention is pretty radical as well, as the game has finally gone to a full shot clock on every possession. Teams will now have 20 seconds to advance the ball past midfield (as opposed to 30 seconds to get it into the restraining box), and then a 60-second shot clock will start as soon as the ball crosses into midfield.
The shot clock rule has caused everyone TigerBlog knows to formulate an opinion, and these opinions basically fall into two camps: 1) about time or 2) this is the worst thing that ever happen to the game.
The "about time" group talks about how the pace of the game needs improving, how effective the shot clock has been in the women's game and how Major League Lacrosse has one. They point to what they perceive to be the worst part of the current game, where a team will clear the ball, get it behind the cage, sub off its D middies for O middies while the defense does the opposite and then pass it around once or twice before starting an offense. This is a 30-second process.
The "worst thing ever" group envisions a game now where defenses will play tight zones, offenses won't have enough time to get good opportunities and there will be endless possessions that end with the ball rolled into the corner.
TigerBlog's take? Wait and see.
He didn't think there was anything wrong with the pace of the game, but he had a major problem with the way the shot clock was put on before. It just made it way too subjective for the officials.
And could you call the game the exact same way when it was 2-1 five minutes in and 11-10 with five minutes left? Now all of that subjectivity is gone, which is good. And the last minute of a one-goal game is sort of the same now, minus the part where everyone yells "shot clock."
As for the result, TB isn't sure. If he had to guess, he'd think there will be more possessions, good and bad. Teams are going to have to move quicker than they have in the past, and the teams with the best quarterbacking attackmen - you know, like Michael Sowers - will have an advantage.
Also, the shot clock will lead to more possessions. Will it lead to more goals like it has in the women's game? If it does, then it'll lead to more face-offs, which seems to make FOGOs more important. On the other hand, though, the ability to win a face-off, have a two-minute possession, score and repeat is gone now, so maybe winning face-offs won't have the same impact as in the past.
The shot clock has gotten the most attention. So has the return of the crease dive.
If the point of the rule change is to create more transition, then it's a different rule that's going to do that. It seems innocuous enough - the substitution box is now half the size of what it was.
This, though, is going to make subbing in transition really hard, which is going to lead to more up-and-down and the need for two-way middies. Yes, there will still be a need for shortstick D middies, but they're going to be way more valuable if they can shoot too. The same is true for longstick midfielders.
TigerBlog's biggest fear for all these rules is that they're going to change again in two years with the next cycle. That's the big issue, that the way the game is played is changed radically and then changed radically again and then changed radically again. Let the game breathe now and see what happens.
If nothing else, these rule changes will make next year even more fascinating.
TigerBlog is looking forward to it.
Tuesday, August 14, 2018
Don't Stop Believing
TigerBlog would not have guessed that the Eagles sold twice as many records as Journey.
He would have thought the Eagles would have edged out Journey perhaps, but not doubled them up. A little research, though, reveals that the Eagles sold 150 million to the 75 million for Journey.
TigerBlog once saw both on the same day, by the way, back in JFK Stadium in Philadelphia.
The list of record sales that TB saw also says that AC/DC sold more records than the Rolling Stones. It says nobody sold more than the Beatles.
And have Bruno Mars and Justin Bieber really sold more than Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band? The Boss, by the way, is tied with the Bee Gees.
Music is a very subjective thing, of course, though TigerBlog is confident that the music of his youth is way, way, way better than the music of his kids' youth.
What got TB started on this? He heard a Journey song yesterday - Separate Ways - and it started him wondering where a group like Journey stood in the all-time rankings. He considered that the group was close to but not exactly the Eagles, and he stays with that analysis, even if the Eagles outsold them two to one.
Journey does have a claim that TigerBlog has made before. It's TB's contention that there are two songs that are universally loved, two songs of which nobody has ever said "I hate that song."
One of then is "Sweet Caroline," by Neil Diamond, who is right at the midway point in sales between the Eagles and Journey.
The other is "Don't Stop Believing," Journey's No. 1 hit.
TB is pretty sure you were about to sing really loudly "Good times never seemed so good," until you read "Don't Stop Believing," which means that "Hold onto that feeling" will be rolling around your head all day, which is fine.
Speaking of believing, Chad Kanoff made believers out of many in Week 1 of the NFL preseason. Kanoff, who went undrafted after his record-setting year last year as the Princeton quarterback, is in camp with the Arizona Cardinals, who used their No. 1 pick on another quarterback - UCLA's Josh Rosen.
Like Kanoff, Rosen also has a Princeton connection, though not as directly. You may recall that Rosen's mother, Elizabeth (Wiz) Lippincott, was a two-time first-team All-Ivy League lacrosse player at Princeton. She was also the captain of the team in 1982, her senior year.
And she played against Harvard's Chris Sailer, who herself has a long Princeton connection.
Rosen is the quarterback that Arizona is hoping can start right away. Kanoff is looking for a roster spot, or to impress enough in the preseason that another team picks him up in Arizona releases him.
For Day 1, Kanoff looked pretty good. You can see for yourself HERE. And HERE.
Kanoff finished the game going 3 for 5 for 66 yards and the touchdown. His deep ball to fellow rookie Jalen Tolliver, from Arkansas-Monticello, was perfect, though who is Charles Kanoff?
THIS, by the way, is where Tolliver played his home games in college, where he had 30 touchdown receptions in 22 games the last two years. Kanoff, like Tolliver, put up huge collegiate numbers, graduating as Princeton's all-time leading passer and the Ivy League's single-season passing leader.
Both need to battle for a place on the team.
For Kanoff, he is one of four quarterbacks currently on the roster. The other three are very familiar names - and former high draft picks - with Rosen, Sam Bradford and Mike Glennon.
Of course, that could work in Kanoff's favor, depending on how much money the veterans Bradford and Glennon are owed. Or, he can just keep playing the way he played the other day.
If you watched Kanoff play at Princeton last year, then you saw that he has the ability to make every throw there is. Translating that to the NFL game, of course, is another story, though TB was surprised that Kanoff went undrafted.
One way to make a team is to make that one play that everyone remembers, the one that says that you can be successful on that level. Kanoff already has that in his back pocket.
It's a long road to becoming an NFL starting quarterback when you're not drafted. Kanoff knows that.
But he's doing what he needs to do to keep himself in the conversation to make his dream come true.
Hey, don't stop believing, right?
He would have thought the Eagles would have edged out Journey perhaps, but not doubled them up. A little research, though, reveals that the Eagles sold 150 million to the 75 million for Journey.
TigerBlog once saw both on the same day, by the way, back in JFK Stadium in Philadelphia.
The list of record sales that TB saw also says that AC/DC sold more records than the Rolling Stones. It says nobody sold more than the Beatles.
And have Bruno Mars and Justin Bieber really sold more than Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band? The Boss, by the way, is tied with the Bee Gees.
Music is a very subjective thing, of course, though TigerBlog is confident that the music of his youth is way, way, way better than the music of his kids' youth.
What got TB started on this? He heard a Journey song yesterday - Separate Ways - and it started him wondering where a group like Journey stood in the all-time rankings. He considered that the group was close to but not exactly the Eagles, and he stays with that analysis, even if the Eagles outsold them two to one.
Journey does have a claim that TigerBlog has made before. It's TB's contention that there are two songs that are universally loved, two songs of which nobody has ever said "I hate that song."
One of then is "Sweet Caroline," by Neil Diamond, who is right at the midway point in sales between the Eagles and Journey.
The other is "Don't Stop Believing," Journey's No. 1 hit.
TB is pretty sure you were about to sing really loudly "Good times never seemed so good," until you read "Don't Stop Believing," which means that "Hold onto that feeling" will be rolling around your head all day, which is fine.
Speaking of believing, Chad Kanoff made believers out of many in Week 1 of the NFL preseason. Kanoff, who went undrafted after his record-setting year last year as the Princeton quarterback, is in camp with the Arizona Cardinals, who used their No. 1 pick on another quarterback - UCLA's Josh Rosen.
Like Kanoff, Rosen also has a Princeton connection, though not as directly. You may recall that Rosen's mother, Elizabeth (Wiz) Lippincott, was a two-time first-team All-Ivy League lacrosse player at Princeton. She was also the captain of the team in 1982, her senior year.
And she played against Harvard's Chris Sailer, who herself has a long Princeton connection.
Rosen is the quarterback that Arizona is hoping can start right away. Kanoff is looking for a roster spot, or to impress enough in the preseason that another team picks him up in Arizona releases him.
For Day 1, Kanoff looked pretty good. You can see for yourself HERE. And HERE.
Kanoff finished the game going 3 for 5 for 66 yards and the touchdown. His deep ball to fellow rookie Jalen Tolliver, from Arkansas-Monticello, was perfect, though who is Charles Kanoff?
THIS, by the way, is where Tolliver played his home games in college, where he had 30 touchdown receptions in 22 games the last two years. Kanoff, like Tolliver, put up huge collegiate numbers, graduating as Princeton's all-time leading passer and the Ivy League's single-season passing leader.
Both need to battle for a place on the team.
For Kanoff, he is one of four quarterbacks currently on the roster. The other three are very familiar names - and former high draft picks - with Rosen, Sam Bradford and Mike Glennon.
Of course, that could work in Kanoff's favor, depending on how much money the veterans Bradford and Glennon are owed. Or, he can just keep playing the way he played the other day.
If you watched Kanoff play at Princeton last year, then you saw that he has the ability to make every throw there is. Translating that to the NFL game, of course, is another story, though TB was surprised that Kanoff went undrafted.
One way to make a team is to make that one play that everyone remembers, the one that says that you can be successful on that level. Kanoff already has that in his back pocket.
It's a long road to becoming an NFL starting quarterback when you're not drafted. Kanoff knows that.
But he's doing what he needs to do to keep himself in the conversation to make his dream come true.
Hey, don't stop believing, right?
Monday, August 13, 2018
Hockey In China
TigerBlog continues to rack up miles on his new bike.
One time last week, as he was pedaling along, he happened to notice the last three letters of the license plates of two consecutive cars that went past him. The first was "GPT." The second was "HYP."
That's very Princetonian stuff.
The "GPT?" That's for goprincetontigers.com. The "HYP?" You better know that one.
As with any academic year, there figures to be a lot of big games between P and H and Y.
TigerBlog has been watching "Billions," which he thinks is very good, though great. Okay, very, very good. Just not quite great.
Maybe that's because there's a lot of Yale connections, and scenes from the Yale Club, of all places. TigerBlog wonders how many Yale and Princeton alums from the 1950s and 1960s ever imagined a day when both schools would have female Directors of Athletics, as is now the case.
Of course there's also a Princeton mention, and a reference to an eating club in one episode. So there's that.
The 2018-19 athletic year is approaching quickly. Princeton's fall teams will be starting practices this week, and pretty soon a very quiet campus will be exploding with activity.
TigerBlog walked into Jadwin Gym Friday with women's soccer assistant coach Mike Poller. There was very little activity around the Caldwell Field House as they walked in, which, again, will be changing very, very quickly.
TB and Poller were talking about how most of Division I had already started practicing and scrimmaging. Princeton will join in soon, as practice begins tomorrow.
Princeton, of course, is the defending Ivy women's soccer champion. The Tigers reached the NCAA quarterfinals last year, with a gigantic win over North Carolina in the Sweet 16.
Did anyone see that coming 52 weeks ago? Yeah, Princeton figured to be pretty good, but again, the Tigers also had to replace Tyler Lussi, the all-time leading scorer in the sport - for men or women - at Princeton.
One of TB's favorite parts of Princeton Athletics is that you never know from one year to the next what the biggest story is going to be. Heading into this year, it could come from anywhere, any team.
Princeton has won 47 Ivy titles in the last four years. Of Princeton's 33 teams who compete for an Ivy title, there were 25 who won at least one in those four years.
And of course one of the eight who hasn't taken an Ivy title provided the other huge story for Princeton Athletics in 2017-18. That was the men's hockey team, two years removed from a last-place finish in the ECAC, who nevertheless won the ECAC tournament championship last year to advance to the NCAA tournament.
The architect of the turnaround is head coach Ron Fogarty, whose success in four years has been extraordinary. Princeton has gone from a team that knew it would be on the road in the first round of the ECAC playoffs each year to one that can play with anyone in the country.
Princeton men's hockey has become must-see stuff, with an exciting and high-scoring team that scores goals in bunches and is never out of any game. The intensity level at Baker Rink has gone up dramatically of late, and the result has been a championship and NCAA berth long before anyone might have anticipated either.
Fogarty recently returned from spending two weeks in Beijing, where he ran a hockey camp well in advance of the city's role as the host for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. You can read a story about the camp HERE.
In the story, Fogarty talks about what a great experience he had there, along with assistant coach Kevin Moore and former Princeton player Ian McNally, now the head coach at the Hun School of Princeton. There was a second camp later in Shenzhen, run by McNally and current Tiger Alex Riche, whose mother is Chinese.
Beijing, by the way, will become the first city to host the Summer and Winter Games, after it already had the 2008 Summer Olympics. That's pretty impressive.
In fact, TigerBlog read that the building that hosts the ice hockey events for the 2022 Winter Games will be the same one that hosted the swimming events in 2008. Efficient.
Closer to home, Princeton will host Forgaty's old team, Division III Adrian, in a scrimmage on Oct. 13. Opening day is at Penn State on Oct. 26.
Fogarty went 167-23-10 at Adrian, and when he came to Princeton, he had the highest winning percentage of any coach in NCAA history. He also knew that wouldn't last, taking over a program that was in need of rebuilding.
It's not easy to walk away from your standing as the best ever. You have to be comfortable and confident and willing to undertake the project, as opposed to simply continuing what you've already built.
The ECAC title shows you what kind of coach Fogarty is. So does his recent trip to China.
They don't ask you to do things like that if your team isn't winning.
One time last week, as he was pedaling along, he happened to notice the last three letters of the license plates of two consecutive cars that went past him. The first was "GPT." The second was "HYP."
That's very Princetonian stuff.
The "GPT?" That's for goprincetontigers.com. The "HYP?" You better know that one.
As with any academic year, there figures to be a lot of big games between P and H and Y.
TigerBlog has been watching "Billions," which he thinks is very good, though great. Okay, very, very good. Just not quite great.
Maybe that's because there's a lot of Yale connections, and scenes from the Yale Club, of all places. TigerBlog wonders how many Yale and Princeton alums from the 1950s and 1960s ever imagined a day when both schools would have female Directors of Athletics, as is now the case.
Of course there's also a Princeton mention, and a reference to an eating club in one episode. So there's that.
The 2018-19 athletic year is approaching quickly. Princeton's fall teams will be starting practices this week, and pretty soon a very quiet campus will be exploding with activity.
TigerBlog walked into Jadwin Gym Friday with women's soccer assistant coach Mike Poller. There was very little activity around the Caldwell Field House as they walked in, which, again, will be changing very, very quickly.
TB and Poller were talking about how most of Division I had already started practicing and scrimmaging. Princeton will join in soon, as practice begins tomorrow.
Princeton, of course, is the defending Ivy women's soccer champion. The Tigers reached the NCAA quarterfinals last year, with a gigantic win over North Carolina in the Sweet 16.
Did anyone see that coming 52 weeks ago? Yeah, Princeton figured to be pretty good, but again, the Tigers also had to replace Tyler Lussi, the all-time leading scorer in the sport - for men or women - at Princeton.
One of TB's favorite parts of Princeton Athletics is that you never know from one year to the next what the biggest story is going to be. Heading into this year, it could come from anywhere, any team.
Princeton has won 47 Ivy titles in the last four years. Of Princeton's 33 teams who compete for an Ivy title, there were 25 who won at least one in those four years.
And of course one of the eight who hasn't taken an Ivy title provided the other huge story for Princeton Athletics in 2017-18. That was the men's hockey team, two years removed from a last-place finish in the ECAC, who nevertheless won the ECAC tournament championship last year to advance to the NCAA tournament.
The architect of the turnaround is head coach Ron Fogarty, whose success in four years has been extraordinary. Princeton has gone from a team that knew it would be on the road in the first round of the ECAC playoffs each year to one that can play with anyone in the country.
Princeton men's hockey has become must-see stuff, with an exciting and high-scoring team that scores goals in bunches and is never out of any game. The intensity level at Baker Rink has gone up dramatically of late, and the result has been a championship and NCAA berth long before anyone might have anticipated either.
Fogarty recently returned from spending two weeks in Beijing, where he ran a hockey camp well in advance of the city's role as the host for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. You can read a story about the camp HERE.
In the story, Fogarty talks about what a great experience he had there, along with assistant coach Kevin Moore and former Princeton player Ian McNally, now the head coach at the Hun School of Princeton. There was a second camp later in Shenzhen, run by McNally and current Tiger Alex Riche, whose mother is Chinese.
Beijing, by the way, will become the first city to host the Summer and Winter Games, after it already had the 2008 Summer Olympics. That's pretty impressive.
In fact, TigerBlog read that the building that hosts the ice hockey events for the 2022 Winter Games will be the same one that hosted the swimming events in 2008. Efficient.
Closer to home, Princeton will host Forgaty's old team, Division III Adrian, in a scrimmage on Oct. 13. Opening day is at Penn State on Oct. 26.
Fogarty went 167-23-10 at Adrian, and when he came to Princeton, he had the highest winning percentage of any coach in NCAA history. He also knew that wouldn't last, taking over a program that was in need of rebuilding.
It's not easy to walk away from your standing as the best ever. You have to be comfortable and confident and willing to undertake the project, as opposed to simply continuing what you've already built.
The ECAC title shows you what kind of coach Fogarty is. So does his recent trip to China.
They don't ask you to do things like that if your team isn't winning.
Friday, August 10, 2018
Two Weeks Notice
There are two weeks until a big moment around here.
The start of the 2018-19 athletic year? That does start in two weeks, as the 13th-ranked women's soccer team plays at New Hampshire.
That, though, is not what TigerBlog is talking about here. Nope. He's talking instead about the reopening of that tiny little stretch of road between Washington Road and the Jadwin Gym parking lot on Faculty Road that has been closed all summer.
TB mentioned this before, but just that little quarter-mile stretch turns getting to Jadwin into a nightmare. No longer can you simply drive up Washington Road and make the right at the light and zoom into the parking lot.
Nope. There's really no good way to get here now. TigerBlog has spent all summer trying to find the best route, and he's concluded that there isn't one.
It was especially problematic yesterday, when he had a meeting to which he was running late, largely because he rode his bike and thought the meeting started a half-hour later than it did. Of course the fact that it was with Mollie Marcoux Samaan made it a bit more stressful than if it had been with pretty much anyone else in the building.
Anyway, he'd like to apologize to the guy he honked his horn at for stopped in front of him while the bus was next to him, slowing him down by another 45 seconds or so.
Besides, two more weeks and that road reopens. It'll be back to business as usual, which will be tremendous.
As TB said, the athletic year begins in two weeks as well. Another summer flying by, right?
You'd think this summer would be dragging about, since it's been so hot and humid throughout, with more than its share of thunderstorms. But not. August is a third of the way over already.
TigerBlog is often asked if he works in the summer. He does. It's just that there are no events, so it's much quieter in the summer.
It's the dog days of the baseball season, of course. TigerBlog used to be a huge baseball fan, back in the days before he realized that lacrosse existed.
Now he hardly pays attention. He roots for the Phillies because of Tom McCarthy, the former Princeton play-by-play announcer who now does the Phils games on TV.
He looked at the baseball standings yesterday for the first time all year. The American League seems sort of set, no? It'll be a wild card game between either Seattle or Oakland at the Yankees, with the divisions going to the Red Sox, Indians and Astros.
The National League is much closer. The division leads in the AL are by five, nine and 10 games. In the National League, the three division leads combined are just two games. The Phils, though, are in first place, which is good.
There is one team currently outside of the wild card that is within 10 games in the AL. There are six such teams in the National League.
TB listened to the "Politics and Polls" podcast yesterday by Woodrow Wilson School professor Julian Zelizer, who is an Academic Athletic Fellow for the football and men's basketball teams. This edition was entitled "Baseball and the Presidency."
It was with former Presidential speechwriter Curt Smith, and it was pretty good, with some interesting information and some humor. You can listen for yourself HERE.
Here's a trivia question that TB learned from the podcast: William Howard Taft became the first President to throw out the first pitch for a Major League Baseball game, and President Trump has yet to do so. In between, only one President never threw out a first pitch. Can you name him?
TigerBlog will give you a few paragraphs.
In the meantime, TB thinks that the Princeton Athletics will be expanding its own podcast offerings this coming fall. The ones that have been done so far have been very well received, and the format is perfect for reaching people who are most interested in getting questions answered and hearing those answers directly from the coach or the athlete or the administrator.
At some point in the near future, Princeton Athletics will have a podcast released each day, at the same time each day. That could possibly be as soon as this winter.
TigerBlog certainly likes doing them. They're informal and informative, which is a very good combination.
Oh, and the answer is Jimmy Carter.
In the meantime, enjoy your summer weekend. And remember that opening day is creeping up here.
This is your two weeks notice.
The start of the 2018-19 athletic year? That does start in two weeks, as the 13th-ranked women's soccer team plays at New Hampshire.
That, though, is not what TigerBlog is talking about here. Nope. He's talking instead about the reopening of that tiny little stretch of road between Washington Road and the Jadwin Gym parking lot on Faculty Road that has been closed all summer.
TB mentioned this before, but just that little quarter-mile stretch turns getting to Jadwin into a nightmare. No longer can you simply drive up Washington Road and make the right at the light and zoom into the parking lot.
Nope. There's really no good way to get here now. TigerBlog has spent all summer trying to find the best route, and he's concluded that there isn't one.
It was especially problematic yesterday, when he had a meeting to which he was running late, largely because he rode his bike and thought the meeting started a half-hour later than it did. Of course the fact that it was with Mollie Marcoux Samaan made it a bit more stressful than if it had been with pretty much anyone else in the building.
Anyway, he'd like to apologize to the guy he honked his horn at for stopped in front of him while the bus was next to him, slowing him down by another 45 seconds or so.
Besides, two more weeks and that road reopens. It'll be back to business as usual, which will be tremendous.
As TB said, the athletic year begins in two weeks as well. Another summer flying by, right?
You'd think this summer would be dragging about, since it's been so hot and humid throughout, with more than its share of thunderstorms. But not. August is a third of the way over already.
TigerBlog is often asked if he works in the summer. He does. It's just that there are no events, so it's much quieter in the summer.
It's the dog days of the baseball season, of course. TigerBlog used to be a huge baseball fan, back in the days before he realized that lacrosse existed.
Now he hardly pays attention. He roots for the Phillies because of Tom McCarthy, the former Princeton play-by-play announcer who now does the Phils games on TV.
He looked at the baseball standings yesterday for the first time all year. The American League seems sort of set, no? It'll be a wild card game between either Seattle or Oakland at the Yankees, with the divisions going to the Red Sox, Indians and Astros.
The National League is much closer. The division leads in the AL are by five, nine and 10 games. In the National League, the three division leads combined are just two games. The Phils, though, are in first place, which is good.
There is one team currently outside of the wild card that is within 10 games in the AL. There are six such teams in the National League.
TB listened to the "Politics and Polls" podcast yesterday by Woodrow Wilson School professor Julian Zelizer, who is an Academic Athletic Fellow for the football and men's basketball teams. This edition was entitled "Baseball and the Presidency."
It was with former Presidential speechwriter Curt Smith, and it was pretty good, with some interesting information and some humor. You can listen for yourself HERE.
Here's a trivia question that TB learned from the podcast: William Howard Taft became the first President to throw out the first pitch for a Major League Baseball game, and President Trump has yet to do so. In between, only one President never threw out a first pitch. Can you name him?
TigerBlog will give you a few paragraphs.
In the meantime, TB thinks that the Princeton Athletics will be expanding its own podcast offerings this coming fall. The ones that have been done so far have been very well received, and the format is perfect for reaching people who are most interested in getting questions answered and hearing those answers directly from the coach or the athlete or the administrator.
At some point in the near future, Princeton Athletics will have a podcast released each day, at the same time each day. That could possibly be as soon as this winter.
TigerBlog certainly likes doing them. They're informal and informative, which is a very good combination.
Oh, and the answer is Jimmy Carter.
In the meantime, enjoy your summer weekend. And remember that opening day is creeping up here.
This is your two weeks notice.
Thursday, August 9, 2018
Lights On
TigerBlog was walking into Jadwin yesterday when he saw a job he could never do.
There was a guy on a very high lift who was either checking or changing the lights on the Finney-Campbell practice field. Those are the practice fields next to Princeton Stadium.
TB isn't exactly sure how high the top of the light poles get, though he'd guess that, using what he remembers from Mrs. Mancuso's geometry class, they're really, really high. TB isn't a huge fan of heights, something that he's really only overcome once, and that was to zipline from Spain into Portugal two years ago.
Speaking of Mrs. Mancuso, it's been 40 years since he took her geometry class. Geometry was easy for TB, and he remembers his teacher as being pretty nice, pretty fair and pretty challenging.
What's interesting to him is that he still refers to her as "Mrs. Mancuso." He can't imagine that any of the teachers who were there when he was a high school student are still there, but maybe somebody has lasted all this time.
If he were to see any of his high school teachers, would he refer to them as "Mr." and "Mrs.," like he did back then? It would be odd, even now, to refer to them by their first names.
Of course, every teacher he had in high school could come walk in his office door right now and he probably wouldn't recognize any of them.
Meanwhile, back on top of the light poles, TB wouldn't be able to go up to the top of the ladder, let alone fix the lights themselves. He certainly wouldn't have been able to look down while he climbed up, though looking up would be no thrill either.
It was pretty warm to be up on the top of the lift yesterday for whoever was brave enough to do it. TigerBlog will remember that when he walks out of Jadwin one night in a few months, when it's chilly and raining and the football team is out there practicing anyway.
There are 12 NFL preseason games tonight, including TigerBlog's favorite team at New England. The other team he's considering rooting for hosts Atlanta tomorrow night.
While Princeton is still not quite starting practice yet, its season too is just on the horizon. Opening day is Sept. 15 in Indianapolis against Butler, with the home opener one week later against Monmouth.
Princeton has never played either before, so that makes those games more interesting. Monmouth reached the FCS playoffs last year.
There are some fascinating storylines for Princeton football in 2018.
First, there's the defense, which was essentially wiped out by injuries a year ago. TigerBlog cannot remember another team here that has ever been besieged by bad luck the way Princeton's defense was last year, and a repeat of that isn't possible.
Princeton returns players like Kurt Holuba, Mike Wagner and Mark Fossati, who were among the hurt last year, along with the ones who stayed healthy, including four now-sophomore defensive backs and first-team All-Ivy linebacker Tom Johnson.
There's also the matter of the top-ranked recruiting class, not just in the Ivy League but also in all of the FCS. You've heard about incoming quarterback Brevin White, but he is not a one-man class. How many of the others will play right away?
Still, for everything Princeton football has going on heading into the new year, the main story is still the quarterback position. To recap:
* John Lovett was the Ivy League's Bushnell Cup winner as the offensive player of the year in 2016 and a first-team All-America but then missed all of 2017 due to injury
* Chad Kanoff was the 2017 Bushnell Cup winner after he had as good a season as any Ivy quarterback ever has; Kanoff is now with the Arizona Cardinals
* White turned down basically everyone, most notably Alabama, to come to Princeton
As you know, Princeton loves to use multiple quarterbacks on the field at one time, something it was unable to do last year as much without Lovett. Two years ago, Lovett put up numbers that are extraordinary, including a program-record 20 rushing touchdowns, to go with 10 passing TDs and a receiving TD.
His numbers were ridiculous, but it's not just the touchdowns that mattered during the Tigers' Ivy title run. It's the way he could turn 3rd-and-1 into another set of downs or, even better, on fourth down, when Princeton was an astonishing 15 for 23 in 2016. Plus, just having him on the field with Kanoff together messed with the collective psyche of the defense, which never knew what was coming next.
The question for 2018 is what role will Lovett have? If you want him to do what he did two years ago, then you need another quarterback who can do what Kanoff did. Who is that QB? And is it putting too much pressure on White to expect him to step right into college and perform at a high level?
Anyway, those are some of the issues facing Princeton football in 2018.
The answers will be available soon enough.
There was a guy on a very high lift who was either checking or changing the lights on the Finney-Campbell practice field. Those are the practice fields next to Princeton Stadium.
TB isn't exactly sure how high the top of the light poles get, though he'd guess that, using what he remembers from Mrs. Mancuso's geometry class, they're really, really high. TB isn't a huge fan of heights, something that he's really only overcome once, and that was to zipline from Spain into Portugal two years ago.
Speaking of Mrs. Mancuso, it's been 40 years since he took her geometry class. Geometry was easy for TB, and he remembers his teacher as being pretty nice, pretty fair and pretty challenging.
What's interesting to him is that he still refers to her as "Mrs. Mancuso." He can't imagine that any of the teachers who were there when he was a high school student are still there, but maybe somebody has lasted all this time.
If he were to see any of his high school teachers, would he refer to them as "Mr." and "Mrs.," like he did back then? It would be odd, even now, to refer to them by their first names.
Of course, every teacher he had in high school could come walk in his office door right now and he probably wouldn't recognize any of them.
Meanwhile, back on top of the light poles, TB wouldn't be able to go up to the top of the ladder, let alone fix the lights themselves. He certainly wouldn't have been able to look down while he climbed up, though looking up would be no thrill either.
It was pretty warm to be up on the top of the lift yesterday for whoever was brave enough to do it. TigerBlog will remember that when he walks out of Jadwin one night in a few months, when it's chilly and raining and the football team is out there practicing anyway.
There are 12 NFL preseason games tonight, including TigerBlog's favorite team at New England. The other team he's considering rooting for hosts Atlanta tomorrow night.
While Princeton is still not quite starting practice yet, its season too is just on the horizon. Opening day is Sept. 15 in Indianapolis against Butler, with the home opener one week later against Monmouth.
Princeton has never played either before, so that makes those games more interesting. Monmouth reached the FCS playoffs last year.
There are some fascinating storylines for Princeton football in 2018.
First, there's the defense, which was essentially wiped out by injuries a year ago. TigerBlog cannot remember another team here that has ever been besieged by bad luck the way Princeton's defense was last year, and a repeat of that isn't possible.
Princeton returns players like Kurt Holuba, Mike Wagner and Mark Fossati, who were among the hurt last year, along with the ones who stayed healthy, including four now-sophomore defensive backs and first-team All-Ivy linebacker Tom Johnson.
There's also the matter of the top-ranked recruiting class, not just in the Ivy League but also in all of the FCS. You've heard about incoming quarterback Brevin White, but he is not a one-man class. How many of the others will play right away?
Still, for everything Princeton football has going on heading into the new year, the main story is still the quarterback position. To recap:
* John Lovett was the Ivy League's Bushnell Cup winner as the offensive player of the year in 2016 and a first-team All-America but then missed all of 2017 due to injury
* Chad Kanoff was the 2017 Bushnell Cup winner after he had as good a season as any Ivy quarterback ever has; Kanoff is now with the Arizona Cardinals
* White turned down basically everyone, most notably Alabama, to come to Princeton
As you know, Princeton loves to use multiple quarterbacks on the field at one time, something it was unable to do last year as much without Lovett. Two years ago, Lovett put up numbers that are extraordinary, including a program-record 20 rushing touchdowns, to go with 10 passing TDs and a receiving TD.
His numbers were ridiculous, but it's not just the touchdowns that mattered during the Tigers' Ivy title run. It's the way he could turn 3rd-and-1 into another set of downs or, even better, on fourth down, when Princeton was an astonishing 15 for 23 in 2016. Plus, just having him on the field with Kanoff together messed with the collective psyche of the defense, which never knew what was coming next.
The question for 2018 is what role will Lovett have? If you want him to do what he did two years ago, then you need another quarterback who can do what Kanoff did. Who is that QB? And is it putting too much pressure on White to expect him to step right into college and perform at a high level?
Anyway, those are some of the issues facing Princeton football in 2018.
The answers will be available soon enough.
Wednesday, August 8, 2018
Starting At 13
TigerBlog has never, ever had a cup of coffee.
He's told you that before. He knows that the overwhelming majority of people his age can't function until they've had their morning coffee, but he just never got into drinking it.
He's not 100 percent sure why. Maybe it has something to do with the smell?
As TB understands it, Wawa is a big coffee spot for people in the morning. Wawa, by the way, is the name for a convenience store, often accompanied by a gas station. These stores are found almost exclusively in the Mid-Atlantic states, and there are 800 of them in all.
The name comes from a municipality outside Philadelphia that was the site of the original dairy farm to which the company can trace its roots.
TigerBlog read a great story about coffee buying at Wawa yesterday. There was a third-grade teacher in South Jersey who makes a point each week of buying coffee for a stranger at her local Wawa, and when she stumbled on a guy who didn't have any cash last Friday, she immediately jumped in to pay for him.
And who was the guy?
Keith Urban, the country music superstar.
TigerBlog used to drink a lot of soda, but he's given that up now. These days, his beverage of choice is Hint flavored water. It comes in all kinds of flavors - his favorites are black cherry, cherry and peach.
Where is TigerBlog going with all this? He has no idea.
It's August, after all.
TigerBlog really had no idea what to write about until early afternoon yesterday, when he saw the United Soccer Coaches' Division I women's soccer preseason poll had come out. That gave him some actual Princeton stuff worth discussing.
Princeton is ranked 13th in the preseason, which is a great starting point obviously. Just as obviously, much of that is based on where Princeton finished last year, in the NCAA quarterfinals.
Princeton is the only Ivy League school that is ranked. In fact, Princeton is the only school among ranked teams and those receiving votes, which totals a list of 43 schools.
Does this mean Princeton will soar to the Ivy title without a sweat? Of course not.
Mostly what it means is that Princeton had a great 2017, heading into 2018. And that's clearly the case.
Princeton won the Ivy League championship and then three NCAA tournament games, including the win over North Carolina in the Round of 16 that set up a quarterfinal date at UCLA, where the Tigers would fall 3-1.
Do you watch "PTI" on ESPN? You know the show. On a side note, it's the sports talk commentary show that is by far the best, for a number of reasons.
Anyway, they often have a "Fill in the Blank" segment. Applying that to Princeton women's soccer, you have these two examples:
"The win over North Carolina in the 2017 NCAA Sweet 16 was the ___________________ win in program history."
"The win over Washington in the 2004 NCAA quarterfinal was the ___________________ win in program history."
TigerBlog would go with "best" for the first one and "biggest" for the second.
The one in 2004 was the biggest in that in put Princeton into the Final Four (still the only such appearance by an Ivy school) and also led directly to the construction of Roberts Stadium.
The one last year was the best, because of who North Carolina is in the sport. The Tar Heels have won 21 NCAA titles and have dominated women's soccer to a greater degree than UConn has dominated women's basketball.
Princeton began the 2005 season ranked 21st but did not repeat its success of the previous year, due largely to the graduation of a huge senior class. The 2005 Tigers went 5-2 in the league and had the league's Player of the Year (Emily Behncke), but the team did not win the league or get to the NCAA tournament.
The 2018 Tigers do not have the graduation losses that the 2005 team had to deal with (of the 44 goals Princeton scored last year, Princeton returns players who accounted for 37 of them), but there will still be plenty of challenges. Princeton is chasing its third Ivy title in four years, and only Princeton or Harvard has won the league championships since 2010.
Opening day for the women's soccer team, and for Princeton Athletics in 2018-19, is a little more than two weeks away. The first Ivy game is Sept. 22 at Yale, by which time Princeton will have played eight non-league games, including a rematch of the NCAA second-round game against North Carolina State, which will be on Myslik Field on Sept. 2.
Starting at 13 is nice. It's a statement about where the program is and the respect the Tigers have earned.
In the end, of course, it's not about where you start.
He's told you that before. He knows that the overwhelming majority of people his age can't function until they've had their morning coffee, but he just never got into drinking it.
He's not 100 percent sure why. Maybe it has something to do with the smell?
As TB understands it, Wawa is a big coffee spot for people in the morning. Wawa, by the way, is the name for a convenience store, often accompanied by a gas station. These stores are found almost exclusively in the Mid-Atlantic states, and there are 800 of them in all.
The name comes from a municipality outside Philadelphia that was the site of the original dairy farm to which the company can trace its roots.
TigerBlog read a great story about coffee buying at Wawa yesterday. There was a third-grade teacher in South Jersey who makes a point each week of buying coffee for a stranger at her local Wawa, and when she stumbled on a guy who didn't have any cash last Friday, she immediately jumped in to pay for him.
And who was the guy?
Keith Urban, the country music superstar.
Now that's a cute story.My favorite story of the day is how my 3rd grade teacher thought @KeithUrban was down on his luck and couldn’t pay for his wawa snacks so she bought them for him. What an angel. pic.twitter.com/mJccVOQWtp— Olivia Rose Prouse (@liverdiverz) August 4, 2018
TigerBlog used to drink a lot of soda, but he's given that up now. These days, his beverage of choice is Hint flavored water. It comes in all kinds of flavors - his favorites are black cherry, cherry and peach.
Where is TigerBlog going with all this? He has no idea.
It's August, after all.
TigerBlog really had no idea what to write about until early afternoon yesterday, when he saw the United Soccer Coaches' Division I women's soccer preseason poll had come out. That gave him some actual Princeton stuff worth discussing.
Princeton is ranked 13th in the preseason, which is a great starting point obviously. Just as obviously, much of that is based on where Princeton finished last year, in the NCAA quarterfinals.
Princeton is the only Ivy League school that is ranked. In fact, Princeton is the only school among ranked teams and those receiving votes, which totals a list of 43 schools.
Does this mean Princeton will soar to the Ivy title without a sweat? Of course not.
Mostly what it means is that Princeton had a great 2017, heading into 2018. And that's clearly the case.
Princeton won the Ivy League championship and then three NCAA tournament games, including the win over North Carolina in the Round of 16 that set up a quarterfinal date at UCLA, where the Tigers would fall 3-1.
Do you watch "PTI" on ESPN? You know the show. On a side note, it's the sports talk commentary show that is by far the best, for a number of reasons.
Anyway, they often have a "Fill in the Blank" segment. Applying that to Princeton women's soccer, you have these two examples:
"The win over North Carolina in the 2017 NCAA Sweet 16 was the ___________________ win in program history."
"The win over Washington in the 2004 NCAA quarterfinal was the ___________________ win in program history."
TigerBlog would go with "best" for the first one and "biggest" for the second.
The one in 2004 was the biggest in that in put Princeton into the Final Four (still the only such appearance by an Ivy school) and also led directly to the construction of Roberts Stadium.
The one last year was the best, because of who North Carolina is in the sport. The Tar Heels have won 21 NCAA titles and have dominated women's soccer to a greater degree than UConn has dominated women's basketball.
Princeton began the 2005 season ranked 21st but did not repeat its success of the previous year, due largely to the graduation of a huge senior class. The 2005 Tigers went 5-2 in the league and had the league's Player of the Year (Emily Behncke), but the team did not win the league or get to the NCAA tournament.
The 2018 Tigers do not have the graduation losses that the 2005 team had to deal with (of the 44 goals Princeton scored last year, Princeton returns players who accounted for 37 of them), but there will still be plenty of challenges. Princeton is chasing its third Ivy title in four years, and only Princeton or Harvard has won the league championships since 2010.
Opening day for the women's soccer team, and for Princeton Athletics in 2018-19, is a little more than two weeks away. The first Ivy game is Sept. 22 at Yale, by which time Princeton will have played eight non-league games, including a rematch of the NCAA second-round game against North Carolina State, which will be on Myslik Field on Sept. 2.
Starting at 13 is nice. It's a statement about where the program is and the respect the Tigers have earned.
In the end, of course, it's not about where you start.
Tuesday, August 7, 2018
RIP Oge
TigerBlog received a few responses to his suggestion that he find a new NFL team to root for yesterday, since he's giving up on the Giants because they didn't hire Marc Ross as their GM.
One suggestion was the Jets, though that came with the disclaimer that "I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy." Another didn't really offer a solution, just a warning label about rooting for the Redskins as long as Dan Snyder owns the team.
"The days of Joe Gibbs are over," it said.
TigerBlog covered a few NFL preseason games and wrote some training camp stories during his newspaper days, when the overwhelming majority of what he covered was high schools (1983-89) or college (1989-94).
He never wanted to cover pro sports. They seemed too, well, professional. He's confident that he found the right place for himself, Princeton University, long ago.
Before he ever covered a Princeton game, though, he definitely enjoyed his time on the high school beat. He wrote a lot about schools in Bucks County, Pa., never really imagining that both of his kids would one day play for and against those teams he was covering, primarily in a sport - lacrosse - that he knew nothing about back then.
Most of the high school stuff he covered, though, was in Mercer County, the county that includes Princeton, the state capital of Trenton and a high school sports-crazed town called Hamilton. There's a charm to covering high schools, and TB covered a lot of great games played by a lot of great athletes under the watch of a lot of great coaches in those years.
He saw a lot of familiar faces from those days yesterday at the funeral of George O'Gorman, a long-time sportswriter for the Trentonian. In a world where major cities no longer have multiple newspapers that print each day, the city of Trenton continues to print two papers - the Trentonian and the Times of Trenton.
That's a shocking situation in the current media climate, and it's another story for another day. The short version is that TigerBlog thinks that much of it is driven by the market for high school sports coverage in the area.
George O'Gorman - "Oge" to everyone who knew him, which meant pretty much everyone in Mercer County - spent more than 40 years covering high school sports, though he did much more than that, including covering the Giants during much of that time.
In addition to writing, he was active in just about everything that went on in local youth and high school sports, especially in soccer.
TigerBlog isn't sure when he first met Oge. It was definitely early on. He knows they covered a lot of the same games way back when.
Everyone liked Oge, and everyone respected how hard he worked. There's nobody who can dispute that. He covered a lot of games, often on the same day.
He cared deeply about the athletes and their experience, and he did whatever he could to help them. He had so many behind-the-scenes jobs that TB can't be certain of what they all were. He definitely was involved at Mercer County Park.
He covered some Princeton games through the years. His cousin, Joe O'Gorman, covered a lot more of the Tigers than Oge did before he recently retired. TB saw Joe briefly at the funeral, and it's always good to see him. Like his cousin, he's one of the good guys.
The funeral yesterday was a who's who of people who have covered sports in Mercer County, including Joe. Among those who currently cover the Tigers regularly, Bob Nuse was there. So was Bill Alden. And Kyle Franko.
Ray Clark was there. He and TigerBlog go back to his first day in the newspaper business.
There were many others. The common denominator was that they all liked Oge.
He was a hard guy not to like. He was a big man with a deep voice. He was one of those guys who knew everyone but who always made it seem like you were special to him.
He had a stroke a few years ago and had been battling health issues since. It was Joe who told TB that Oge wasn't doing well a few weeks ago, and then TB saw of his death first from Tom McCarthy, the former Princeton football and basketball announcer who mentioned Oge's passing during a Phillies' telecast.
Oge was 73 when he died.
Maybe the changing media world will eventually catch up with Trenton too, and one or both of the papers will cease to print. It'll be a sad day if it ever comes to that.
As for the glory days, they were back in the 1980s for TB. He'd go to a game, and there'd usually be someone from the Trentonian there as well. Often it was George O'Gorman, and when it was, TB knew he'd be getting a very nice, very genuine "how are you" from the man everyone called Oge.
The world of local sports has lost a really, really good man.
One suggestion was the Jets, though that came with the disclaimer that "I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy." Another didn't really offer a solution, just a warning label about rooting for the Redskins as long as Dan Snyder owns the team.
"The days of Joe Gibbs are over," it said.
TigerBlog covered a few NFL preseason games and wrote some training camp stories during his newspaper days, when the overwhelming majority of what he covered was high schools (1983-89) or college (1989-94).
He never wanted to cover pro sports. They seemed too, well, professional. He's confident that he found the right place for himself, Princeton University, long ago.
Before he ever covered a Princeton game, though, he definitely enjoyed his time on the high school beat. He wrote a lot about schools in Bucks County, Pa., never really imagining that both of his kids would one day play for and against those teams he was covering, primarily in a sport - lacrosse - that he knew nothing about back then.
Most of the high school stuff he covered, though, was in Mercer County, the county that includes Princeton, the state capital of Trenton and a high school sports-crazed town called Hamilton. There's a charm to covering high schools, and TB covered a lot of great games played by a lot of great athletes under the watch of a lot of great coaches in those years.
He saw a lot of familiar faces from those days yesterday at the funeral of George O'Gorman, a long-time sportswriter for the Trentonian. In a world where major cities no longer have multiple newspapers that print each day, the city of Trenton continues to print two papers - the Trentonian and the Times of Trenton.
That's a shocking situation in the current media climate, and it's another story for another day. The short version is that TigerBlog thinks that much of it is driven by the market for high school sports coverage in the area.
George O'Gorman - "Oge" to everyone who knew him, which meant pretty much everyone in Mercer County - spent more than 40 years covering high school sports, though he did much more than that, including covering the Giants during much of that time.
In addition to writing, he was active in just about everything that went on in local youth and high school sports, especially in soccer.
TigerBlog isn't sure when he first met Oge. It was definitely early on. He knows they covered a lot of the same games way back when.
Everyone liked Oge, and everyone respected how hard he worked. There's nobody who can dispute that. He covered a lot of games, often on the same day.
He cared deeply about the athletes and their experience, and he did whatever he could to help them. He had so many behind-the-scenes jobs that TB can't be certain of what they all were. He definitely was involved at Mercer County Park.
He covered some Princeton games through the years. His cousin, Joe O'Gorman, covered a lot more of the Tigers than Oge did before he recently retired. TB saw Joe briefly at the funeral, and it's always good to see him. Like his cousin, he's one of the good guys.
The funeral yesterday was a who's who of people who have covered sports in Mercer County, including Joe. Among those who currently cover the Tigers regularly, Bob Nuse was there. So was Bill Alden. And Kyle Franko.
Ray Clark was there. He and TigerBlog go back to his first day in the newspaper business.
There were many others. The common denominator was that they all liked Oge.
He was a hard guy not to like. He was a big man with a deep voice. He was one of those guys who knew everyone but who always made it seem like you were special to him.
He had a stroke a few years ago and had been battling health issues since. It was Joe who told TB that Oge wasn't doing well a few weeks ago, and then TB saw of his death first from Tom McCarthy, the former Princeton football and basketball announcer who mentioned Oge's passing during a Phillies' telecast.
Oge was 73 when he died.
Maybe the changing media world will eventually catch up with Trenton too, and one or both of the papers will cease to print. It'll be a sad day if it ever comes to that.
As for the glory days, they were back in the 1980s for TB. He'd go to a game, and there'd usually be someone from the Trentonian there as well. Often it was George O'Gorman, and when it was, TB knew he'd be getting a very nice, very genuine "how are you" from the man everyone called Oge.
The world of local sports has lost a really, really good man.
Monday, August 6, 2018
Let's Go Someone Other Than The Giants
TigerBlog is loving his new bike.
It's tremendous. Either that, or his old bike was such a piece of, um, low-end that anything would seem like an amazing improvement.
TigerBlog's original bike cost $80 at Target. It has a lot of miles on it, that's for sure.
His new one cost $700. He did some research and found the right brand, and then he bought one a few levels up from their intro model.
He is, of course, left to wonder what the $2,000 models are like to ride.
TigerBlog's car recently decided that at 115,000 miles, the transmission had gone far enough, leaving TB with the choice to either dump $4,000 into fixing the old one or getting out from under it and buying a new one. Or, in the case of what he eventually did, a pre-owned one.
As he rides his new bike, it dawns on him that to buy the car, he went to one dealer and drove two cars, choosing one. When it came to buying the bike, he went to three places, rode five bicycles and bought one.
While TigerBlog was churning out miles on his new bike this weekend, his colleague Warren Croxton was in Canton, Ohio, for the Hall of Fame induction of Brian Dawkins, the longtime Philadelphia Eagles great.
TigerBlog didn't pay that close attention to the ceremony at all. He knows that Ray Lewis was inducted. He's always felt like Ray Lewis - the on-field Ray Lewis - was similar to Ronnie Lott, the former San Francisco 49ers safety, in that TB thought they were both vastly overrated.
It's not that they were bad players or anything. It's just that it seems like every highlight of them is a late hit or cheap shot and that they were both overinflated by the media.
Then there is the opinion of Ross Tucker, at one time a Princeton defensive lineman who became an offensive lineman who became a longtime NFL offensive lineman and is now one of the best in football media.
Hey, he must be doing something right. He has 182,000 Twitter followers.
Ross, who is a very loyal former Tiger, Tweeted this about Lewis:
The NFL preseason began with the Hall of Fame game last week. TigerBlog didn't watch any of it.
He did finish Season 6 of "Orange Is The New Black," which he will sum up this way: The first 10 minutes of the first episode were borderline unwatchable, there were too many new characters who added nothing and the last three or four episodes weren't bad.
TigerBlog needs a new series to watch. He's started "Billions," which is off to a good start.
He also needs a new NFL team to root for, he thinks.
TigerBlog has only ever rooted for one NFL team, the New York Giants. He started out as a fan when they were awful in the 1970s, and he's stayed a fan through four Super Bowl wins, three of which came when the team was a dramatic, unthinkable underdog.
TigerBlog's two favorite NFL players have been Giants' quarterbacks, Phil Simms and Eli Manning. The only jersey he ever bought was back in the early 1980s, when he owned a Lawrence Taylor jersey.
Now, though, he's done with the Giants. His only allegiance left to the team is Manning, and he only has a few more years left.
So why the animus?
It has nothing to do with how bad the team was last year. It has nothing to do with how insufferable Odell Beckham Jr. is. It has nothing to do with any of the other nonsense the team has.
It has to do with loyalty.
Given the opportunity to hire Princeton alum Marc Ross as its GM, the Giants instead let him go. That's unforgivable to TigerBlog.
No Marc Ross. No TigerBlog.
Marc Ross was a great wide receiver at Princeton, and he still holds a few school records, most notably yards per reception in a season (20.2 in 1993). He also answered the phones at basketball games. TB has stayed in touch with Ross through the years and rooted hard for him. He's smart. He's experienced. He's helped build two Super Bowl champions.
Anyway, TigerBlog is done with the Giants because of how they treated Ross. It's that simple.
In fact, he won't wear his Giants' sweatshirt anymore. Or his Giants' longsleeve T.
The NFL now goes down the path of its four weeks of preseason games, followed by the start of the 2018 season. The Philadelphia Eagles, for the first time since 1961, enter the season as the defending NFL champ.
TigerBlog doesn't mind the Eagles, but he can't exactly jump on the Super Bowl bandwagon, can he?
No, he's pretty sure his new team will be the Washington Redskins.
That was MotherBlog's team. She was more into the Redskins than TB was ever into the Giants. She loved John Riggins almost as much as she loved Steve McQueen.
Yeah. The Redskins it is.
Or whatever team is smart enough to hire Marc Ross.
It's tremendous. Either that, or his old bike was such a piece of, um, low-end that anything would seem like an amazing improvement.
TigerBlog's original bike cost $80 at Target. It has a lot of miles on it, that's for sure.
His new one cost $700. He did some research and found the right brand, and then he bought one a few levels up from their intro model.
He is, of course, left to wonder what the $2,000 models are like to ride.
TigerBlog's car recently decided that at 115,000 miles, the transmission had gone far enough, leaving TB with the choice to either dump $4,000 into fixing the old one or getting out from under it and buying a new one. Or, in the case of what he eventually did, a pre-owned one.
As he rides his new bike, it dawns on him that to buy the car, he went to one dealer and drove two cars, choosing one. When it came to buying the bike, he went to three places, rode five bicycles and bought one.
While TigerBlog was churning out miles on his new bike this weekend, his colleague Warren Croxton was in Canton, Ohio, for the Hall of Fame induction of Brian Dawkins, the longtime Philadelphia Eagles great.
— Warren Croxton (@WarrenCroxton) August 4, 2018Now you have to be a serious fan to do that.
TigerBlog didn't pay that close attention to the ceremony at all. He knows that Ray Lewis was inducted. He's always felt like Ray Lewis - the on-field Ray Lewis - was similar to Ronnie Lott, the former San Francisco 49ers safety, in that TB thought they were both vastly overrated.
It's not that they were bad players or anything. It's just that it seems like every highlight of them is a late hit or cheap shot and that they were both overinflated by the media.
Then there is the opinion of Ross Tucker, at one time a Princeton defensive lineman who became an offensive lineman who became a longtime NFL offensive lineman and is now one of the best in football media.
Hey, he must be doing something right. He has 182,000 Twitter followers.
Ross, who is a very loyal former Tiger, Tweeted this about Lewis:
So, yeah, that means something.Not many players more synonymous with a city than Baltimore & Ray Lewis.— Ross Tucker (@RossTuckerNFL) August 5, 2018
He's the best defensive player I ever played against. So prepared calling out our plays and impeccable technique. Unblockable. At least for me. 😀
The NFL preseason began with the Hall of Fame game last week. TigerBlog didn't watch any of it.
He did finish Season 6 of "Orange Is The New Black," which he will sum up this way: The first 10 minutes of the first episode were borderline unwatchable, there were too many new characters who added nothing and the last three or four episodes weren't bad.
TigerBlog needs a new series to watch. He's started "Billions," which is off to a good start.
He also needs a new NFL team to root for, he thinks.
TigerBlog has only ever rooted for one NFL team, the New York Giants. He started out as a fan when they were awful in the 1970s, and he's stayed a fan through four Super Bowl wins, three of which came when the team was a dramatic, unthinkable underdog.
TigerBlog's two favorite NFL players have been Giants' quarterbacks, Phil Simms and Eli Manning. The only jersey he ever bought was back in the early 1980s, when he owned a Lawrence Taylor jersey.
Now, though, he's done with the Giants. His only allegiance left to the team is Manning, and he only has a few more years left.
So why the animus?
It has nothing to do with how bad the team was last year. It has nothing to do with how insufferable Odell Beckham Jr. is. It has nothing to do with any of the other nonsense the team has.
It has to do with loyalty.
Given the opportunity to hire Princeton alum Marc Ross as its GM, the Giants instead let him go. That's unforgivable to TigerBlog.
No Marc Ross. No TigerBlog.
Marc Ross was a great wide receiver at Princeton, and he still holds a few school records, most notably yards per reception in a season (20.2 in 1993). He also answered the phones at basketball games. TB has stayed in touch with Ross through the years and rooted hard for him. He's smart. He's experienced. He's helped build two Super Bowl champions.
Anyway, TigerBlog is done with the Giants because of how they treated Ross. It's that simple.
In fact, he won't wear his Giants' sweatshirt anymore. Or his Giants' longsleeve T.
The NFL now goes down the path of its four weeks of preseason games, followed by the start of the 2018 season. The Philadelphia Eagles, for the first time since 1961, enter the season as the defending NFL champ.
TigerBlog doesn't mind the Eagles, but he can't exactly jump on the Super Bowl bandwagon, can he?
No, he's pretty sure his new team will be the Washington Redskins.
That was MotherBlog's team. She was more into the Redskins than TB was ever into the Giants. She loved John Riggins almost as much as she loved Steve McQueen.
Yeah. The Redskins it is.
Or whatever team is smart enough to hire Marc Ross.
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