Senior on a Stick: 1990.

March 27, 2009 at 10:50 pm
Filed under Basketball, Matt Lapin, Photos, Princeton, Seniors On A Stick

The first Senior on a Stick paid tribute to the lone member of Princeton's class of 1990 - forward Matt Lapin.

Lapin led the nation in three point shooting his senior year, hitting 53.4% of his attempts. His 71 triples are sixth-most in a season by a Tiger, which included eight in a game at Harvard on a team record 15 attempts.

The initial Senior on a Stick was poster-sized, hand-colored and hand-numbered (this one is #181 out of 200).

The text written under the image reads:

"Slapper on a Stick" 181/200 A "14 Club" Production PJB/SGC

How did Matt Lapin get the nickname Slapper anyway?

Permalink

David Lewis said,

March 28, 2009 @ 1:46 am

I know this a basketball site, but I need to vent somewhere. Did anyone see Princeton just lose to Minnesota Duluth in the first round of the NCAA hockey tournament? Princeton blew a two goal lead in the last 39 seconds (the tying goal came with just .8 seconds on the clock) and then lost in sudden death overtime 5-4. The game was on ESPNU. These games make me question why I care so much about sports. Why do I let players I do not even know rip my heart out? How did Princeton blow an 18 point second half lead against Penn at the Palestra? Why did Andre Logan dribble the ball off his foot as time ran out in regulation? This hockey game, however, was the worst loss in Princeton sports history. (I think I remember a football game a few years ago against Holy Cross when Princeton lost on the last play of the game when a Holy Cross player returned a kickoff for a touchdown). Please share your worst and best Princeton sports moments here. It would be interesting to see if anyone can top tonight's game as the worst ever.

Jon Solomon said,

March 28, 2009 @ 10:01 am

David,

While I didn't see the game, I was following it on-line. Unbelievable, but surprisingly similar to the loss to Cornell in the ECAC semis.

I can't think of anything to compare it to.

Mark Disler said,

March 28, 2009 @ 11:58 am

David: This was a very tough, unfortunatee loss but frustration over it should not, in my opinion, override the sensational job Coach Gadowsky and the players have done these past few seasons.

Princeton men's hockey is one of the few Princeton sports programs with a "lifetime" losing record, and this over a 100 plus history. We generally have been a second tier team in the Ivies and the ECAC, with some rare exceptions. Until now. Making back-to-back appearances in the NCAAs, winning the Ivy League and the ECAC tourney last year and garnering an at-large NCAA bid this year-- these two years have constituted one of the great achievements in Princeton sports, in my opinion. This is because we have never been known for hockey prowess and traditionally Harvard and Cornell have been to Ivy hockey what Princeton and Penn have traditionally been to Ivy basketball. I love Baker Rink but it is small compared to some other Ivy and ECAC rinks and we simply don't have the winning tradition of so many of our rivals. We usually were under .500 in the ECAC.

I am guardedly hopeful that Gadowsky and his players have raised the bar for Princeton hockey. By all means, be upset by this loss -- I am, too -- but please put it in context.

Jon Hlafter said,

March 28, 2009 @ 11:58 am

Jerry Price wrote about the origin of "Slapper" a few years ago -- the story was reprinted in the game program during Carril Court weekend:

http://www.ivyleaguesports.com/article.asp?intID=5676

Slapper was my favorite player back then -- I still have an autographed copy of his Senior on a Stick.

Jon Solomon said,

March 28, 2009 @ 12:20 pm

Thanks, Jon. Good find! - JS

David Lewis said,

March 28, 2009 @ 7:11 pm

Mark,
I apologize. I was not trying to disparage the team in any way. It's amazing what this team has done over the last two years. That's what makes it so frustrating. The Tigers dominated much of that game and deserved to win. I anticipate they will have a great season again next year. They just need to learn how to put games away. The other thing that angers me is that western college hockey fans are blogging today that this and Yale's loss proves that the ECAC is lousy and did not deserve three teams in the tournament. This is complete nonsense. The ECAC had its best year in decades and legitimately have some of the best teams in the country. Cornell just beat Northeastern by the way. The main point of my post, however, was more of a philosphical one - why do I (or we) care so much about the outcome of these games? My wife tells me I just need to get a life, but it goes much deeper than that since I suspect that many of the people who read this site are as crazy about Princeton sports as I am. By the way, when does the 2009-2010 schedule come out for basketball?

Mark Disler said,

March 30, 2009 @ 5:03 pm

David:

No need to apologize to me or anyone else, and I did not mean to get on a soap-box. I actually understand your underlying point -- my solution has been: follow all of our teams, we usually have good news sometime during the year.
Any word of the basketball class of 2014?

RSS feed for comments on this post

You must be logged in to post a comment.