On the basketball beat
If you go to a Princeton men's basketball game, you can expect to see at least two things: a 3-point basket and Jon Solomon. The Tigers have converted at least one 3-pointer in every game since 1986, and Solomon, the founder and editor of princetonbasketball.com and an honorary member of the Class of 1976, has covered Princeton's last 101 Ivy League games at home and on the road -- a streak that dates back to the 2000-01 season.
From the bleachers of out-of-town arenas or his regular seat in the second row of section S4 at Jadwin Gym, Solomon documents the details of each contest on his clipboard and posts stories, audio clips, and photos on his Web site afterward. He has followed the Tigers since childhood, when he faithfully read local newspaper accounts. Back then, Solomon assumed that all writers traveled with the team. Now, on many road trips, he's the only Princeton reporter waiting outside the locker room. "I like the idea of the old-school beat reporter," he says. "I take pride in being a constant." (Away from the gym, Solomon has been a near-constant on the radio, hosting WPRB's 24-hour Christmas marathon, from Christmas eve to Christmas day, in 19 of the last 20 years.)
For basketball games, Solomon rarely travels alone -- his wife, Nicole, and his parents are Princeton fans as well -- and he has a few favorite stops in each Ivy League city, from falafel in Providence to Thai food in Ithaca. Watching road games has had its rewards: Solomon says that two of the most memorable games in his Ivy streak took place away from Jadwin. In 2001, Kyle Wente ’03 hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to top Harvard near the beginning of Princeton's league championship run, and five years later, Scott Greenman ’06 hit two long-range shots in a double-overtime win at Cornell.
Solomon's 100th consecutive Ivy game was played at Jadwin Feb. 1, and the Tigers did not disappoint, taking a 7-point lead late in the second half against Dartmouth and holding the Big Green at arm's length in a 57-53 win. The next night, Princeton again played well in the second half, topping Harvard, 68-54. With a 2-0 league record, the Tigers will continue their Ivy schedule against Cornell (4-0) at Newman Arena Feb. 8. Solomon plans to be there.
Ibsen's
'female Hamlet'
Irene Lucio ’08, front, and Rob Grant ’08 rehearse scene from Henrik Ibsen's "Hedda Gabler" in preparation for a Feb. 8 debut at the Lewis Center for the Arts. Critics have compared the title character to Shakespeare's Hamlet. Click here for more information about the Princeton production.
Photo by Frank Wojciechowski
Saturday is for science
The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory launched its annual Science on Saturday program last month, and this week, Iain Couzin, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton, will deliver the fifth installment, covering "Collective Motion and Decision-making in Animal Groups."
The 2-hour lectures start at 9:30 a.m. in the Gottlieb Auditorium on the Forrestal Campus. The program is "geared toward high school students," according to a University release, but all are invited to attend. This year, selected sessions also will be broadcast live to the "interactive theater" at the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City.
For more information, including a complete schedule and links to videos of past lectures, visit the Science on Saturday Web site.
Names in the News
Brooke Shields ’87, star of NBC's Lipstick Jungle, told Newsday that sees parallels between the women in the show and some of her Princeton classmates. "When I look at the people I went to school with -- those who graduated when we graduated - they are all CEOs of major, major companies," she said. "They were pretty hungry, all of them. In their way, they had passions that were very distinct." ... Former Sen. Bill Frist ’74 tried his hand at acting in a Super Bowl commercial for Coca-Cola that featured him side-by-side with Democratic strategist James Carville. The Associated Press declared Coke a winner in the cola ad wars, but USA Today's ad-meter ranked the Frist-Carville spot 29th out of 55 commercials. ... The New York Giants' Super Bowl win was sweet for Marc Ross ’95, who joined the team as its college scouting director last spring. Before the game, Ross was quoted in a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story about his team's powerful offensive guards. ... TV commentator and former NFL lineman Ross Tucker ’01 answered questions about the Giants' upset victory in a Feb. 4 Washington Post online chat. ... The soccer magazine 90:00 will run an extended interview with U.S. national soccer team coach Bob Bradley ’80 in February, written by Giles Morris ’97. When asked about what makes a player great, Bradley said: "The yardstick is always the game. You can try as many tricks as you want and if you win games there [are] no issues. The game doesn't lie."