Princeton University Athletics
Monday TigerBlog - Six To Go
February 09, 2026 | Tiger Blog
TigerBlog is tired of hearing about all the anticipation around Super Bowl commercials.
So in case you want to debate which Super Bowl commercial you thought was the best, the answer is "none of them." They haven't been good in forever. They're overhyped, over-acted, silly and completely unfunny.
Or maybe TigerBlog and anyone who was watching the Super Bowl in 1984 has been forever spoiled by this:
Nothing will ever approach that commercial — especially since its prognostication was accurate.
If you aren't sold on that one, how about this one, which is from 1997 and is the only one that even remotely has come close:
That's GI Joe and Barbie, who broke Ken's heart as they pulled away in their Nissan.
As for the game itself, it was hardly a classic and in fact was one of the worst. It felt like a Sunday night regular season game in October — and not because it was a defensive struggle for the most part. TB doesn't mind a good defensive struggle. This was just dull, that's all, even when New England (briefly) tried to rally.
Like the commercials that played during the broadcast, this one will hardly be remembered through the years.
And with that, TigerBlog segues to Ivy League basketball.
There are 16 Ivy League teams between the men and women, all of whom have six more Ivy games to play before the top four advance to Cornell for the league tournament.
Of those 16 teams, only six currently are above .500. Another four are at .500. The women's field seems on the verge of being set. The men's field?
Who knows.
If you look at the men's standings, Harvard and Yale are both 6-2. Brown is 1-7. The other five teams are bunched, with four at 4-4 and one at 3-5.
For the record, you have Princeton, Penn, Cornell and Dartmouth at 4-4, with Columbia the team at 3-5. And this is with only six games left.
Princeton and Penn added another classic to their history Saturday in the Palestra, where the Quakers won 61-60 despite a late Tiger comeback. Incredibly, Princeton had beaten Penn 30 straight times prior to that between the men's and women's teams.
The 30th win in that streak came Friday night in Jadwin Gym, where Princeton's women trailed by two at the half before winning 69-50. Princeton's women are now 8-2 when trailing at the half, which is the best record in Division I (according to TB's good friend Duncan Yin, Class of 1982; TB trusts that Duncan did not just make that up).
Princeton is in first place alone at 7-1, with Columbia and Harvard next at 6-2 each. Brown is in fourth at 5-3, two games up on Penn at 3-5. It's starting to look very much like those four will be in Ithaca next month.
Back in the present, junior Olivia Hutcherson led Princeton with 19 points in the win Friday, along with seven rebounds and five steals. Hutcherson has made a huge jump this year, both by the numbers and by the eye test.
Hutcherson played in nine games as a freshman and scored four points. She improved those numbers to 4.2 points and 4.3 rebounds last year, when she started 23 games.
This year? She is up to 12.5 points and 6.0 rebounds. She shot 47.3 percent from the field last season and has improved that to 55.7 percent this season.
Only five players in the Ivy League are currently shooting better than 50 percent. Nobody is ahead of Hutcherson.
As TB said, though, you don't need to see the numbers to see how much she has elevated her game. You just have to pay attention. As much as anything, she's playing with such obvious confidence, and that's translating to her on-court success.
Next up for both Princeton teams are Cornell and Columbia this coming weekend. The men are home Friday at 7 against the Big Red and Saturday at 6 against Columbia.
The women are at Columbia Friday at 6 (that game is on ESPNU) and then at Cornell Saturday at 5.
