The Great Jarron Rosa And More

So what would you like to talk about today, with first semester exams underway and no games for more than a week? 

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What was the response of Jon Mozes to TigerBlog's mentioning the line that Mozes used after Parker Hill's late blocked shot against Rhode Island Wednesday night? 

If you forgot, Mozes said "Usually rams are good at climbing hills." The timing was perfect. 

With a day to consider the comment, Mozes had this to say:

Honestly, it was some of my best work. Ever.

By the way, Jon Mozes is a very humble person, so don't ascribe anything boastful to what he said. He also has a very good sense of humor. 

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Xaivian Lee's triple-double against Saint Joseph's included the 16th time a Princeton player has reached double figures in assists (Lee had 10 in that game). Those first 15 double-figure assist nights were accomplished by only six players. Can you name them? The answer is below.

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Bill Belichick, as you may have heard, is now the head football coach at the University of North Carolina. While it may seem like an odd move for the longtime NFL coach, it certainly will be shining a spotlight on Tar Heel football as it moves forward.

Before the story became official, TigerBlog saw a headline in the New York Post sports section that said: "Bill Belichick would be the 'worst college coach I could imagine': ex-NFLer Ross Tucker."

Here is a quote from Tucker, who was speaking on a radio station:

“I mean the idea of the guy that I was around, recruiting, or like going into the living room of a 17-year-old — I want this to happen so bad I can taste it. I mean, if they do it, they’ve gotta have cameras everywhere. The guy, when I was in New England, was like 100 percent negative reinforcement. I would love to just see how quickly those kids go into the transfer portal.”

Ross Tucker, of course, is a Princeton alum, Class of 2001, who then played seven seasons in the National Football League as an offensive lineman. Today he is a hugely successful sports media personality, and he is a huge presence in any room he is in, literally and figuratively. 

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Speaking of Xaivian Lee, he is currently averaging 15.8 points, 6.0 rebounds and 5.6 assists per game. Who was the last Princeton men's basketball player to achieve those numbers? 

It wasn't Jarron Rosa, TB is pretty sure. For starters, Princeton has never had a Jarron Rosa. So who is he? Well, ol' Jarron is the person that ChatGPT suggested is the answer to TB's question. Here is what it had to say:

The last Princeton University men's basketball player to average at least 15.8 points, 5.6 assists, and 6.0 rebounds per game was Jarron Rosa. He accomplished this remarkable feat during the 2000-2001 season. Rosa was known for his all-around game, combining scoring, playmaking, and rebounding to make a significant impact on the court. He was one of the best players in the Ivy League during his time at Princeton and remains one of the program's standout performers in terms of versatility and production.

TB even did a search for "Jarron Rosa Basketball" and it turned up nothing. If you go back to the 2001-01 Princeton season, you'll find that — despite the fact that the Tigers won the Ivy title — that no player averaged 15.8 points OR 5.6 assists OR 6.0 rebounds. Oh well.

The actual answer is "nobody." Who came closest? Tosan Evbuomwan, who averaged 15.1 points, 6.3 rebounds and 5.0 assists for the Sweet Sixteen team of two years ago.

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And the answer is: Billy Ryan (five), Kit Mueller (four), John Thompson III (two), T.J. Bray (two), Spencer Weisz (one), John Lewis (one).  

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Have a great weekend — and if you're a Princeton student, study well.

Usually Rams Are Good At Climbing Hills

TigerBlog is glad he left the ESPN+ broadcast of the women's basketball game against Rhode Island on until the final buzzer last night.

Why's that? Well, had he turned it off before the final minute, he would have missed this gem by play-by-play man Jon Mozes, after Parker Hill emphatically blocked a shot:

"Usually Rams are good at climbing hills." 

TB will have to ask Mozes if he had that planned the whole time or if that just came out, spur of the moment. Dei Lynam, who was doing the game with Mozes, sighed and said "oh, if only I had thought of that."

Hmmm. TigerBlog has done hundreds of games on the radio in his career. He's trying to remember if he ever said anything like that. He must have, maybe even accidentally.

Oh, it was the perfect delivery. Great work, Jon.  

By the way, TigerBlog went onto youtube to try to find a video of a ram as it ran up a hill. Guess what he found instead? Yup, videos of pickup trucks that were driving up steep hills.

Like the Princeton men the night before against Monmouth, the Princeton women bounced back from some well-played, hard-fought but ultimately unsuccessful outings over the weekend to get a 66-54 win over Rhode Island. 

Also like the Princeton men, the Princeton women can take the momentum of a win into what is now a long break due to first semester exams. Next up for both teams will be games Dec. 21, which is a week from Saturday, when the women will be at Jadwin against Vermont and the men will be at the Prudential Center in Newark against Rutgers. 

Fadima Tall was the ESPN+ Player of the Game last night, after she had a 13-point, seven-rebound, five-assist effort. For Tall, the 13 points tied her career high, something she's now done three times, including in back-to-back games. 

The sophomore averaged 3.3 points per game in the first 18 games of her career, which consisted of 15 games last year and the first three this year. Since then? She has put up 72 more points in the last seven games. That's an average of 10.3 per game.

Ashley Chea also continues to make a jump in her own sophomore year. Chea, who had an 18-point, six-assist night against the Rams, has 80 points in the six games since Madison St. Rose was injured, an average of 13.3 per game. She also had her first 20-point game in the win over Rutgers.

Chea averaged six points per game a year ago, when she played in all 30 games. She averaged 11.3 per game for the first four this season. 

Another sophomore is Skye Belker, who averaged 8.5 per game last year and who is now averaging 13.5 per game this year. Belker shot just under 30 percent from three-point range last year; she's at 43.5 percent so far this season. 

Tabitha Amanze is a junior, but her entire freshman season was wiped out by injury. She didn't have any double figure scoring games a year ago or in the first four games this year. 

Since then? She's had four double figure games in the last six, including a career-high 14 last night. Those 14 points came in only 14 minutes.

It's great to see progress like that. 

And with the final buzzer came the start of exam break. If you look at the composite schedule on the webpage, you'll see that there are a lot of empty boxes in the coming days. 

It's fascinating to TB that there are no longer any students at Princeton who ever had first semester exams in the New Year. After all, that was the University policy for, well, TB has no idea how long. 

Relegated to the history of Princeton University is the post-holiday exam period. It was always a long two weeks in January with no sports, and now it feels like nostalgia. 

At least both basketball teams went into exams with wins. It certainly makes the studying easier. 

An NCAA Title, A Home WBB Game — And Bones Writes Another Great Story

There have been 43 NCAA women's soccer tournaments to date. The University of North Carolina has won 22 of them. 

TigerBlog, being the math guy he is, knew instantly that such numbers mean that the Tar Heels have won more than half of the titles. The most recent one came Monday night, when UNC beat Wake Forest in the championship game, 1-0.

You have to feel for Wake. The Demon Deacons were making their second appearance in the NCAA final, and who was waiting there for them? Their biggest nemesis. 

The win improved UNC to 36-2-3 all-time in the series, outscoring Wake 121-15 in that time. That's a rough one. 

UNC is now 153-18-5 in the NCAA tournament (if you're wondering about the five ties, NCAA games that go to penalty kicks are entered as ties officially in the all-time records). Of course, one of those 18 losses came in 2017 to your very own Princeton Tigers, who knocked off UNC 2-1 in overtime on an Abby Givens goal.

Princeton was represented on the current UNC team, as Tiger alum Aria Nagai started all 27 games this year for the Heels as a grad student, finishing with three goals and three assists. She was a three-time All-Ivy League selection at Princeton, including a first-team honor as a senior in 2023. She was also a two-time CSC Academic All-District selection.

Her Princeton coaches were there Monday night to cheer her on:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Princeton Women's Soccer (@princetonwsoc)

Another current Princeton alum who is in her grad season is Kaitlyn Chen, who has started all eight games for UConn as its point guard. Chen, who was the Ivy League tournament Most Outstanding Player three times, is second on the team in assists as the Huskies have won all eight games. 

Could she make it a second Princeton alum with an NCAA title this academic year? 

Chen's former team is home tonight at 7 against Rhode Island. The Rams are an uncharacteristic 4-7 on the year, though they are one year removed from a 21-14 season that took them to the Atlantic 10 final, with a win at home against Princeton early that season. 

Princeton is back on Carril Court after a western swing that saw the Tigers lose at Portland and Utah, though both games could have gone either way. Those two teams, by the way, are now 17-2 between them on the year. 

Today is Dec. 11. When is the next time Princeton will play an away game?

That would be Jan. 20, when the Tigers are at Columbia. 

Between now and then, there will be seven straight home games, beginning with the game tonight and continuing after exams with games against Vermont (Dec. 21) and Middle Tennessee (Dec. 29) before the New Year. After that will be the first three Ivy games, against Cornell, Harvard and Dartmouth. 

Meanwhile, speaking of women's basketball, there is the matter of the Time Magazine story for its 2024 Athlete of the Year. The winner? Who else could it have been other than Caitlin Clark. 

You can read the story HERE.

TigerBlog would have read the story no matter what. When he saw that it was written by Sean Gregory, he was definitely going to read every word — which he did.

Sean Gregory — "Bones," as he was known as a Princeton basketball player on the great teams of the mid- to late-1990s — is a phenomenal writer. 

As you probably know, TigerBlog likes to write long feature pieces. In an impatient world like this one, the audience of readers who have the attention span to go through the whole story can be somewhat limited, though it is definitely worth it.

The story that Sean has written has a notation that it would take 34 minutes to read. It's time well spent. 

Tackling the Caitlin Clark subject is not easy, because of all of the obvious storylines that followed her around during her last two years at Iowa and then her rookie year with the Indiana Fever in the WNBA. Gregory does a great job of presenting all of the sides to her story, without pushing an agenda in any way. 

TB was in Indianapolis in the summer, and he bought a Caitlin Clark jersey in the team store in the Gainbridge Fieldhouse. He wrote about this earlier, but the saleswoman said that upwards of 80 percent of everything sold in that store, which includes the NBA's Indiana Pacers as well as the Fever, was Caitlin Clark stuff.

TB also wrote that the only athlete he can think of who transcended their sport the way that Clark did was Tiger Woods. It is incredible what she has done. It's also a statement on contemporary society the reactions she's drawn. 

And so, to sum up for your Wednesday: 

* congratulations to Aria Nagai
* go UConn
* check out the women's basketball game tonight at 7
* read Sean's story

And there you have it.

Hi Rip

Remember Nutmeg, the dog TigerBlog saw in the lobby of the hotel before the Princeton field hockey team played at Harvard this past season? 

Here he is. What a great face, right? TB doesn't need that good of a reason to bring back Nutmeg.

What did people do before they could simply take a picture on a phone and have it immediately? Or a video for that matter? 

For those too young to know this, there was a time when you had to have an actual camera and load it with actual film and then take it to an actual photo shop (not PhotoShop). They used to have one-hour photo places, though the majority of places you'd take your film to be processed used to take a few days. 

Can you imagine that, young people? You'd take a picture and then you couldn't see it for several days? Or longer, actually, since there were 24 or 36 pictures on a roll of film and you had to take all the pictures before any could be developed.

On the one hand, it's been a great addition to life to be able to immediately document moments that are gone in a blink. On the other hand, how many times do you see something interesting happening and instead of enjoying the moment, every observer has a phone out, filming?

TB will leave it to the philosophers and poets to decipher that.

Meanwhile, TB offers you a picture of another dog, one he saw yesterday: 

And what is this guy's name? It's "Rip." This was the conversation that TB and the owner had:

The Owner: "This is Rip."
TigerBlog: "Rip? Like the guy ..."
The Owner: "... the guy from Yellowstone, yes."

If you have watched the show, then you can understand why someone would want to name a dog Rip. TB did suggest to the woman who was walking the dog that her Rip needed to get a doggie-sized cowboy hat and dark shades to complete the look.

If you haven't been watching Yellowstone, you need to go back and binge. And, if you didn't already know, the character of Beth is played by Kelly Reilly, who is married to former Princeton men's lacrosse player Kyle Baugher, Class of 2002. 

And, given that tonight is the last night in the calendar year of 2024 that there are two home Princeton events and that after tonight there will only be three more events in the next 19 days, you'll have plenty of time to catch up on Yellowstone.

There are two games tonight at Princeton, as the women's hockey team hosts LIU at 6 and the men's basketball team hosts Monmouth at 7. 

As TB wrote yesterday, the two Princeton hockey teams are on a good roll. So too is the women's team at LIU.

The Princeton women have won four straight and seven of eight. The LIU women are 10-5-2 and are 5-0-1 in their last six and 7-1-1 in their last nine, with the only loss during that time a 1-0 setback to the same Quinnipiac team Princeton beat 2-1 in overtime this weekend. 

Monmouth comes to Jadwin Gym tonight with a record of 1-9. Against whom is the lone win? How about Seton Hall? 

The Princeton men's basketball team is back from South Carolina after its 69-63 loss at Furman Saturday. Despite the loss, it was still a big week for Xaivian Lee, who had the first official triple-double in Princeton men's basketball history in the win over Saint Joseph's a week ago tonight with an 18-point, 13-rebound 10-assist outing and who averaged 17.0 points, 10.0 rebounds, 7.5 assists and 1.5 steals for the two games. 

As a result? He was the Ivy League Player of the Week. 

TB's natural curiosity led him to wonder who the last Princeton player was to average those numbers across two games. For the first time in his entire life, therefore, he consulted ChatGPT, and this is what he found out:

The last time a Princeton men's basketball player averaged 17.0 points, 10.0 rebounds, 7.5 assists, and 1.5 steals across two games was Tosan Evbuomwan during the 2022-2023 season. In back-to-back games on March 18 and 19, 2023, in the NIT Tournament, Evbuomwan put up impressive all-around numbers in wins over Kent State and UNC Greensboro.

This performance helped highlight Evbuomwan's versatility and his pivotal role in Princeton's success that season. He was a dynamic force, contributing not just as a scorer, but also as a playmaker and defender. Would you like to dive deeper into those games or discuss another player from Princeton's history?

Well, that's certainly not what TB was expecting. He really, really, really doesn't want to get too into the AI world and would never use it to write anything, but maybe, just maybe, this will help with research. Hey, it took TB a long time until he got his own smartphone — and now he's going around taking pictures of dogs.

Is that progress?

Tis The Princeton Hockey Season

Your week on TigerBlog starts with great moments in advertising.

TigerBlog was driving down the highway the other day when he saw an epic billboard. It had a picture of a guy dressed up like Santa Claus, with huge letters that spelled out the following: 

"Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer? Call The Law Office Of So-and-So and So-and-So." 

Now that's funny. 

Tis the season and all. What kind of season will this end up being for Princeton Hockey? Well, it was a pretty good weekend for the Tiger men and women.

The two combined for a 3-0 weekend, with a huge overtime win for the women over No. 7 Quinnipiac and a sweep of Union and RPI for the men. 

How did the game against Quinnipiac go? Here's the first sentence from the story on goprincetontigers.com, by TB's colleague Chas Dorman:

The nation's No. 2-ranked offense (Princeton) and No. 2-ranked defense (Quinnipiac) did battle at Hobey Baker Rink in a crucial ECAC contest, and ultimately Princeton had Sarah Paul and the Bobcats didn't in a 2-1 overtime win for the Tigers.

Paul, if you haven't figured it out, scored both Princeton goals in the game. 

Princeton has the nation's top power play unit, and Paul's first goal of the game added to that. It came with 13:33 left in the third period, after Quinnipiac had gone up 1-0 with a goal in the second. 

Paul's second won it 2:06 into the overtime, with her goal set up beautifully by Jane Kuehl, who pounced on a loose puck, carried it around the goalie and fed it to the backside to a wide-open Paul.

2:54 (OT) TIGERS WIN!

Sarah Paul Times Two!

Her 2nd of the day picks up another Top-10 win for Princeton!@ecachockey | @NCAAIceHockey | @IvyLeague pic.twitter.com/jAMB4QQojq

— Princeton Women's Ice Hockey (@PWIH) December 7, 2024

The women have now won four straight and seven of their last eight. In addition to the win over Quinnipiac, Princeton also owns an 8-1 win over Boston University, who was ranked No. 13 at the time, and a 4-3 win over No. 5 Colgate.

Princeton has one more game left in the calendar year, and that's tomorrow at 6 against LIU at Hobey Baker Rink, before first semester exams begin. After that, the next game isn't until Jan. 4 — and the next home game isn't until Jan. 24. 

As for the men, it was only 10 days ago that Princeton was 1-4-1 after being swept at Colgate and Cornell. Since then? Princeton is 4-0, first with a sweep of then-No. 12 Ohio State last weekend and then an ECAC sweep of Union (2-1) and RPI (6-2) this past weekend.

All four games were at Baker Rink.

TB wrote this last Thursday: 

It'll be interesting to see how much momentum and confidence the Tigers take into those games after taking down the Buckeyes. 

As it turned out, the answer was "a lot."

All three goals Friday night came in the second period, the two from Princeton by Luc Pelletier and Noah de la Durantaye. Arthur Smith did the rest, making 27 saves. 

He made 24 more Saturday night, when Princeton found itself with much more margin of error, as five different Tigers had multiple-point nights. 

Getting back to Smith, he has been in goal for all four Princeton wins in a nine-day stretch. His numbers for those games? How about 118 saves and four goals against?

Is that good? It certainly sounds good. 

Suddenly, Princeton finds itself in fifth place in the ECAC standings, tied with Cornell and just two points out of fourth.

Like the women, the men now have a big break, first for exams and then for Christmas. In fact, it'll be 21 days between games for the men, who play again at Army on Dec. 28.

Hey, if you're not going to play for three weeks — if you're studying for exams for the first half of that time — you might as well be able to enjoy how things went going to the break. 

For Princeton's two hockey teams, that's certainly the case. 

And if Grandma got run over by a reindeer? You know whom to call. 

West Coast Weekend

Apparently, people seemed to enjoy the Fun Fact Thursday that TigerBlog presented yesterday.

He'll have to do it again at some point. Here's another fact, though it's not quite as much fun as the ones yesterday, which is why TB held it until today:

The Ivy League held four conference tournaments this fall, in field hockey, men's soccer, women's soccer and women's volleyball. Princeton won two of them (men's soccer, women's soccer) and was the runner-up in the other two. 

The fun fact is this: Only one other Ivy school qualified for all four tournaments. Can you name the school? 

TB will give you a few paragraphs to do so. 

In the meantime, it's the dawn for a busy weekend, especially for Princeton teams on the West Coast.

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The men's water polo team is at No. 4 Stanford today at 5 Eastern in the NCAA tournament quarterfinals. The entire quarterfinal round will be held there today, beginning with No. 1 UCLA and Salem (W.Va.) and followed by No. 2 Southern Cal and California Baptist and No. 3 Fordham and Long Beach State. 

The semifinals are tomorrow, with the winner of the Princeton-Stanford game to take on the UCLA-Salem winner at 5 Eastern. The final will be Sunday at 6 Eastern.

Stanford is led by Riley Pittman and Soren Jensen, who are tied for the team lead with 87 points each. Princeton's leading scorer is senior Roko Pozaric, who has 115 points on 73 goals and 42 assists. 

Pittman, by the way, appears to be a fairly menacing-looking player, at least according to the first action picture on his bio page, which you can see HERE.

Pozaric (from Croatia) and Pittman and Jensen (both from California) will meet in the same pool after growing up about 7,000 miles apart. That's a fun fact, actually. TB should have thought of that yesterday. 

Stanford allows only 8.84 goals per game. Princeton averages better than 16. In fact, Princeton is 23-5 when reaching double figures and 0-3 when it does not. 

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If you're on the West Coast but a bit too far north to see the water polo tournament, then you can go see Princeton at Portland women's basketball game, with tip-off at 9 Eastern. 

Princeton and Portland have never met — though Sandi Leland, Princeton's second all-time leading scorer does live in Portland. The Tigers have won three straight games, defeating Rutgers, Seton Hall and Temple since the wildly unfortunate injury to leading scorer Madison St. Rose. 

How is Portland doing? Well, the Pilots, who have played in the last two NCAA tournaments, are currently 8-0, with all eight wins by double figures. That's impressive stuff. 

Princeton is at Utah at 4 Sunday. That's Mountain Time, so not quite West Coast. Utah is 7-2 entering the weekend, with losses to Northwestern and Mississippi State.

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What else is going on this weekend? All kinds of things, including on the Princeton campus, where there are men's hockey games against Union tonight and RPI tomorrow (both at 7), as well as the Big Al Invitational men's and women's swimming and diving meet. 

The Big Al Invitational continues to honor the memory of Alan Ebersole, a Princeton swimmer who passed away in an accident in Florida in October 2004. TB never met Ebersole, but he remembers the outpouring of grief at his loss and the way the Princeton swimming community rallied around the Ebersole family. Having this event, which has grown into one of the best early-season meets in the country, has to be very special to everyone who knew him. 

HERE is the complete Princeton Athletics schedule for the weekend.

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The answer to TB's question? It's Brown, who qualified for all four Ivy tournaments this fall. While TB is on the subject of Ivy fall tournaments, he'd like to give a shoutout to the league staff for undertaking all of these events and having them be so well done. 

Here's a picture of Rachel Schermick of the Ivy office at the women's volleyball tournament with TB. For whatever reason, Rachel is the Ivy contact for the sports TB covers, and TB can vouch for what a good job she does, especially with social media content around the tournaments that the athletes really enjoy.

The entire Ivy communications and event staff has made these tournaments what they have quickly become. It reminds TB of when the Office of Athletic Communications consisted of people hired mostly for their ability to do publications and then quickly had shift to learn social media when it first came around. 

Well done, Ivy office. 

Fun Fact Thursday

In honor of Xaivian Lee's triple-double against Saint Joseph's Tuesday night, welcome to TigerBlog's Thursday of Fun Facts.

Lee's triple-double consisted of 18 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists. As TB watched the end of the game on TV, knowing how close Lee was to the triple-double, he kept audibly groaning when Lee would go to the basket rather than dish. 

He does acknowledge, of course, that Lee needed to do that to win the game, which is what Princeton did, by a 77-69 count. In fact, it ended up being the best of all worlds: Lee got his history-making achievement and Princeton got a big win. 

Lee was extraordinary all night. He is an amazing player, one who obviously makes everyone around him better — and that is the best thing you can say about any player in any sport. He also has an innate ability to take over games at crunch time, which is what he did against the Hawks.  

It really was inevitable that he'd get one at some point of his career. In fact, if you had to guess, do you think he'll have one for his career or he'll get at least one more? 

TB would go with the latter.

Fun Fact No. 1 for today: It is the first documented triple-double ever by a Princeton men's basketball player. As TB wrote yesterday, assists were not kept as an official stat until 1974, which means that there were some great Princeton players who never really had a chance at the achievement. 

And so that brings TB to the second Fun Fact for today.

Bill Bradley played in 83 basketball games at Princeton. Do you know how many times he had a double-double? The answer is 60. 

That equates to a double-double in 72 percent of the games he played as a Tiger. Perhaps one day TB will go back and watch the video of all 83 of those games and see how many triple-doubles, if any, Bradley would have had.

Shifting gears, here is Fun Fact No. 3 for today: Princeton has 38 varsity teams, and exactly half of them — 19 — have won their most recent conference title. 

Think about that. Let that sink in. TB's thought when he first saw that was "yikes."

Fun Fact No. 4: Princeton won five Ivy League championships (field hockey, women's soccer, men's and women's cross country, women's volleyball) and one non-Ivy title (men's water polo) this fall. No other league school won more than one. 

That total of six championships, by the way, doesn't include the Ivy League tournament championship won by the men's soccer team. 

Fun Fact No. 5: Messages from the human brain travel on nerves at speeds up to 200 miles per hour. That has nothing to do with Princeton Athletics — or does it? Remember when Pete Carril always said the biggest thing a player needs to do is "see it." 

Seeing it is a direct result of messages from the human brain. And they need to move at that speed, or faster, to make a player pass like current head coach Mitch Henderson did. 

Also, it reminds TB of something he heard Carril once yell in a practice at one of his best players when that player was a freshman: "Ya gotta see it. What's that matter? Can't see it? I had a guy once who couldn't see it. Had to get rid of him. Couldn't do much with him."

TB will not be revealing the identity of the player at whom Carril yelled. Just know that yes, he could definitely see it.

What's the next fun fact. Hmmmm. 

Fun Fact No. 6: The men's water polo team is in California now getting ready for its NCAA quarterfinal matchup tomorrow against fourth-seeded Stanford, the host school for the tournament. Princeton and Stanford will play in the second match of the day in Palo Alto, with start time at 5 pm Eastern. 

The winner of that match gets the winner of No. 1 UCLA and Salem (from West Virginia) in Saturday's semifinals. The final will be Sunday. 

Fun Fact No. 7: The Princeton men's hockey team was the College Hockey News Team of the Week this week after its 3-1, 3-1 sweep of then-No. 12 Ohio State last weekend. 

The Tigers are back on the ice at Hobey Baker Rink this weekend against Union and RPI, with face-off both nights at 7. It'll be interesting to see how much momentum and confidence the Tigers take into those games after taking down the Buckeyes. 

Fun Fact No. 8: Victor Hugo’s novel Les Miserable contains a sentence that is 823 words long.

Do you hear the people sing? 

Hey, this was fun. 

A Lot Can Happen In A Day

OFFICIAL TAGD WEBSITE

And that's a wrap for TAGD 2024.

The 11th annual Tiger Athletics Give Day went on for 24 hours yesterday. Once again, the support given to Princeton Athletics and its 38 varsity teams was overwhelming, and TigerBlog joins all of his colleagues to offer his thanks. 

It was a day of celebration and a day of outreach. TAGD, as it always does, showcased the great loyalty that defines Princeton Athletics and the unbreakable connection that exists between those who coach and play here now and those who have done so in the past. 

If you followed the day on social media, you saw what an amazing day it was. Did you see this video, produced by Drew Miller of the multimedia team?

A Lot Can Happen In 24 Hours.

The generous support of @PVCTIGERS on #TAGD is what makes the memories and moments possible for our Tigers.

Thank You, Tiger Nation!

🔗: https://t.co/PAecT8sMit pic.twitter.com/skATBgmq0w

— Princeton Tigers (@PUTIGERS) December 3, 2024

That was a lot for one day, right? If you recall that day, it was well-chronicled as one of the busiest Princeton Athletics has ever had, especially with hosting two Ivy League tournaments. The way that Drew captured it gives a pretty good idea of everything that can happen in a day.

It was entitled "A Lot Can Happen In A Day." The same was true of yesterday. A lot happened in one day.

There were all kinds of posts yesterday, from professionally produced videos to others that were filmed on iPhones. There were pictures of all kinds, some with the Tiger himself as he made an appearance at Cannon Club during lunch. 

One of the people who took a lead in churning out content was Gracie McGowan, a senior who just completed her field hockey career. Gracie, who is a veteran in social media in addition to her sport, sent TB a schedule of what to post and when, along with what caption was necessary. 

Gracie produced video salutes from many of her teammates, all of which spoke to a different part of the TFH experience. Here's an example, with senior Lily Webb:

Our next Golden Moment is our Senior Day win against Dartmouth that secured us the Ivy League Regular Season Title! #tfh #TAGD

More info: https://t.co/MPfUEyMAH5 pic.twitter.com/qaJZoctuII

— Princeton FH (@TigerFH) December 3, 2024

TB could offer up all kinds of examples across every sport. The theme was "Golden Moments," and TB even included the Ithaca hotel "Cayuga Blu" as part of the men's lacrosse moments, in conjunction with last year's second-straight Ivy League tournament championship (by the way, the 2025 Princeton men's lacrosse schedule has been released).

There will be follow ups as well, with thank yous and final totals and the winners of each bracket. There have already been thank-yous, including from the athletes, many of whom reached out directly to existing members of the Friends' Groups.

It was, after all, a day of celebration — and again, to everyone who generously donated, know that your kindness is greatly appreciated. 

Of course, since a lot can happen in a day, TAGD was not the only news of the day in Princeton Athletics. There was also Xaivian Lee. 

The Princeton men's basketball team played at Saint Joseph's last night, and it was clear early on that Lee, the junior guard, was chasing history. What kind? In the entire history of Princeton men's basketball, there had never been a triple-double. 

Would Lee change that last night? 

By halftime he had six points, seven assists and eight rebounds. He reached double figures in points and rebounds early in the second half. All that was left was assists. He had eight of them with 17:33 left. 

So now there were two pieces of drama. Would Princeton pull out what was a back-and-forth game down the stretch? And would Lee get his two assists?

For 15 minutes or so, he was stuck on eight assists. Oh sure, he started scoring, hitting a big three, getting free in the lane, helping Princeton build a slight lead. But the assists. Would they happen?

Well, with just over two minutes to go, Lee picked up assist No. 9, on Philip Byriel's sixth three-pointer of the night, making it 71-65 Tigers. 

After the Hawks answered to make it 71-67, Lee brought the ball into the lane, looked all the world like he was going to the hoop and instead found Caden Pierce, whose reverse layup did indeed go down. Assist No. 10.

History.

Okay, it's very likely that there would have been a triple-double had assists been officially kept before 1974. Bill Bradley probably would have a bunch by himself. 

But the reality is that no Tiger man had done so since 1974, and that's 50 years — and a ton of great players. 

In the end, Princeton got itself a huge win, taking down the Hawks 77-69. 

Lee finished with 18 points, 13 rebounds and the 10 assists. 

Yup. A lot happened yesterday.

TAGD 11

TAGD WEBSITE

TigerBlog had lunch with his kids the other day.

It's a bit of a rarity these days, what with both of them out in the world, making their own ways. It's always something he enjoys very much. 

There was a time that doesn't seem all that long ago when his two little children were regulars on the Princeton campus, at games and camps and preschool and who can remember what else? 

Well, TB can remember. How he could he forget? They were among the absolute best times of his entire life.

Today they're both in their 20s, with TigerBlog Jr. not all that far away from 30. How did that happen? If you've been reading TB since he first began doing this back in 2009, you're probably shaking your own head at that as well.

Miss TigerBlog, as you probably know, went from growing up on the Princeton campus to being a student on the same campus. She graduated in 2022 with a degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and as a four-time letterwinner for the women's lacrosse team. MTB ’22.

Today? She works in aerospace engineering while working on her master's degree in the same field. TB is impressed with his daughter. 

Why bring this up today? 

Because it's Tiger Athletics Give Day, that's why. 

What does one have to do with the other? That's simple. 

It's TB's belief that his daughter would not have been able to plow through the grueling major she chose the way she did without the balance that being a varsity athlete brought. That experience has left her with valuable life-lessons — and when TB says "life-lessons," he's not using that as a throwaway term but in a real, tangible, visible way — that she is applying now and will forever.

To have a life-changing experience like that is an immeasurable asset. Forget the championships (and Princeton won the Ivy women's lacrosse championship each of her years). It's that experience that is the biggest part of what Princeton Athletics is all about.

And that experience is what an investment in TAGD is all about. 

Giving financial support is always about what you are investing in and believing in the positives that your investment will bring. In this case, you can be 100 percent certain that your investment is having a big impact. 

TigerBlog is partial to his daughter's experience, of course. You can pick any team you want, though. Pick any player at random you want.

They all benefit from what happens today. And that benefit is then paid off in a big way by their lifetime contributions to society. 

Princeton Athletics has produced aerospace engineers, and so much more. There are doctors, lawyers, educators, coaches, business professionals, military leaders. They all draw every day on what they learned as Princeton athletes. 

TAGD began in 2014 as a way of celebrating the 150th anniversary of the first Princeton intercollegiate athletic event, a 27-16 win over Williams in a baseball game on Nov. 22, 1864. Full disclosure: TB forgot that this past Nov. 22 was the 160th anniversary.

As TB thinks back to the planning for that first TAGD, he remembers tons of ideas that were thrown around, any number of different names that were considered. Who would have guessed where it would have gone from there. 

Where has it gone? 

TAGD has grown from Year 1, when nobody in those meetings had any idea of what to expect, to now, where it is a wildly successful annual event that has helped provide the kind of experience that Princeton Athletics prides itself on being able to provide, for every athlete who comes through every program. 

As always, TAGD's rules are the same this year. Only gifts that are given from now through midnight tonight will count towards the challenges of total donors and total dollars. 

Today is a day of fun for all of those involved. There will be social media posts and friendly competition between the various Friends' Groups. There will be phone banks and outreach directly from the athletes. There will be celebrations of Princeton teams, past and present. 

Underneath it all, though, will be the real benefit of TAGD. 

Pick the team. Pick the athlete. Go back and look to those athletes from 2014, when TAGD first started, and see what they're doing today. Look ahead to what they'll be doing 10 more years from now, 20 more years from now. 

That's what your gift is supporting.

Big Weekend At Baker

Tomorrow will be the 11th edition of TAGD, the 24-hour Tiger Athletics Give Day fundraising challenge that has been so overwhelming well-received and successful in its first full decade. TigerBlog will have much more on TAGD tomorrow.

For now, HERE is the link to the TAGD website. Keep in mind that only gifts received in the 24 hours beginning at 12:01 am tomorrow will count in the various challenges. 

So how was your Thanksgiving weekend? TigerBlog hopes it was full of family, friends, fun and food. Oh, and football.

TigerBlog watched a lot of football the last four days. He saw some astonishing things, such as an NFL coach and quarterback who both failed to call timeout until it was way too late. Now the coach has taken that timeout with him as he begins unemployment. 

There was the craziness of an eight-overtime game between Georgia and Georgia Tech, a game that TB watched all the way until the end and still isn't sure which team he wanted to see win (Georgia finally did 44-42). It was wildly dramatic stuff, though TB did come away wondering what's wrong with a tie after a certain number of OTs? Football, it seems, still hasn't figured out the perfect way to conduct overtime.

There were four separate Saturday college rivalry games that ended up with "flag planting" controversies. If you're keeping score, those four were: Arizona State-Arizona, North Carolina State-North Carolina, Florida-Florida State and of course Michigan-Ohio State.

In all four games, the visitor won the game and attempted to gather at midfield to "plant" its flag in the home team's logo. All four times, the home team objected — strenuously. The result? Ugliness. 

It was not a great weekend to be an Ohio State fan. The Buckeyes came into Michigan game ranked No. 2 in the country with only a close loss to No. 1 Oregon. There weren't too many who thought the Wolverines could extend their winning streak in the series to four games, and yet that's what happened. Michigan, 6-5 heading into the game, wiped out Ohio State's offense in the second half, shutting the Bucks out for the final two quarters and not even allowing a first down for the final 20 minutes to win 13-10.

If that wasn't enough, the OSU men's hockey team game into its two-game weekend series at Princeton ranked 12th nationally with a 9-2-1 record. Both of those losses, by the way, were to Michigan State, the top-ranked team in the country. 

Ohio State also brought a top 10 scoring offense to Baker Rink. So what happened? 

Arthur Smith happened, that's what. The sophomore goalie had a huge weekend, stopping 66 of 68 shots he saw over two games. The result was a pair of Princeton wins, both by 3-1 counts. 

Oh, and by the way, TB watched the ESPN+ broadcast and the announcers — Cody Chrusciel and Sean Kase — were excellent. What sport can't Cody do well? 

It wasn't just the Arthur Smith show of course,. Princeton went up 3-0 Friday night before a late Ohio State goal, and freshman Jake Manfre figured in each of the three Tiger goals, with two power-play goals and an assist. 

Manfre added another assist Saturday night, giving him two goals and two assists for the weekend after he had one goal and one assist for the first six games. 

The second game was scoreless after two periods before David Ma put Princeton on top 13 seconds into the third. It became a 2-0 game when Alex Konovalov scored his first career goal (you could see his beaming smile through his facemask afterwards), but the key moment came when Ohio State went man-up for seven straight minutes, the first five non-releasable. 

Would the Buckeyes take advantage? Actually, OSU would score one goal, which was the same as the Tigers, as Brendan Gorman scored shorthanded. 

All in all, it was a great performance by a Princeton team in its first season under head coach Ben Syer, who is looking to establish his style, his culture, his way of doing things. The best way to measure progress is by wins, and the Princeton team that might have been a bit uncertain Friday pregame was an obviously much more confident one by Saturday postgame. 

These are the kinds of moments that define programs, especially rebuilding ones. It's one thing to see your team is getting better in practice. It's another to do so against a team like Ohio State. 

And that was the weekend in men's hockey. 

And remember — tomorrow is TAGD. Don't make your gift until after midnight tonight.