On Tap with ... Nick (Pugie) and Matt (Pugitang) Pugliese

Q: What was your welcome-to-college moment?

Nick: They read a passage from “Catcher in the Rye” alongside the Bible and the Quran in the opening exercises. I thought that was just the craziest, “we’re-not-in-Kansas-anymore” thing ever.

Matt: Can Econ 101 be considered a moment?

Q: What is the greatest highlight of your sports career?

N: Last year some water polo website credited me with scoring a crucial goal in a game against Navy, which I thought was pretty impressive considering I was on the bench at the time.

M: Beating Navy last year and listening to a leaked recording of the Navy coach’s locker-room rant after they lost. That was pretty awesome.

Q: What’s the funniest story you have about your coach?

N: Luis [Nicolao] will be in the middle of explaining a crucial play to the team and instantly drop it to trade bizarre insults with [men’s swimming coach] Rob Orr. As soon as it’s clear that he’s losing, he’ll get mad at Rob for interrupting such an important part of practice.

M: Luis calls one of our pool managers ‘Bruce’ because the last one was named Bruce, and he doesn’t want to bother with remembering too many names.

Q: Who is your quirkiest teammate and why?

N: Probably [sophomore center] Connor [Still].

M: How would you describe Connor’s quirkiness?

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

N: I mean, he wears socks with sandals.

M: But that barely scratches the surface. He has an odd pregame ritual involving a bar of soap.

N: They’re all pretty quirky.

Q: What’s the best part about being a polo player on campus?

M: The chlorine turns your hair blonde and people think you’re from California.

N: People in my precepts automatically assume I’m more intelligent because I’m an athlete.

Q: What’s the worst part about being a polo player on campus?

M: The chlorine turns your hair blonde and people think you’re from California.

Q: Who has the most game outside the pool?

M: Definitely not [junior attack] Augusto [Leal].

N: I would say as a renowned igloo builder and the President of SPA, obviously myself.

Q: If you could have one superpower what would it be and why?

N: [Senior center] Mike Helou won’t stop talking about fire walking, so I guess I’d like to try that.

M: Dominance over both arm rests no matter where I am sitting.

Q: Name one goal on your Princeton bucket list.

M: Mine would be to get a clapper and put it on the roof of Nassau Hall.

N: I’d say to bring back the Nude Olympics.

Q: Do you have any odd pregame rituals?

M: I mostly just delay getting in the pool as much as I possibly can.

Q: What is your most embarrassing moment at Princeton?

N: Let’s just say it involved an elf costume, bad decisions and all of the food I had eaten that day.

M: I tried searching for a girl’s Facebook one time and accidentally made her name my status. I don’t really get embarrassed that easily.

Q: What is your favorite eating club theme night?

N: T.I. Vice President [senior] Norm Bonnyman has suggested renting the giant rat from Nassau Street, and I’m still waiting for T.I. to follow through on “Jazz and Turtlenecks.”

M: Last year’s Jedi theme.

Q: What’s your favorite thing to do when you’re not practicing?

N: Sing sea shanties.

M: Playing guitar with Connor Still and watching hours of stupid YouTube videos.

Q: What is your favorite music to dance to?

M: The DeLoreans at T.I. lawnparties.

Q: What is the most embarrassing song on your iPod?

N: My iPod was stolen from T.I. last year, so that guy is probably listening to a lot of Justin Bieber and old pirate music right now.

M: I have a lot of ABBA on my iPod that I’m not ashamed of.

Q: What is your favorite class you’ve taken at Princeton?

M: FRS 140: The Art of Science, the Science of Art with Janet Vertesi. We went on a tour of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory that was really incredible and studied the ways non-scientists perceive science.

N:COM 312: Violence and Moving Images: Politics, Aesthetics, Spectators with Matthew Lazen, because I got to have an academic conversation about “Terminator 2.”

Q: What is it like having a brother on the same campus and same team?

N: You go first.

M: I feel like I love it a lot more than he does.

[laughter]

N: The constant joy of people coming up to me and saying “I met your brother last night” and not knowing quite what to expect. I don’t like that people call him by my nickname.

Q: What is your craziest memory together?

M: There are so many. My life is flashing before my eyes right now.

Q: If you weren’t a polo player, what sport would you play?

N: Only swimming could possibly quench my insatiable desire to spend four hours a day in a freezing cold pool.

M: I could say rugby, but then all the rugby guys would be like, “Play rugby in the spring.”

N: No they won’t. They’ll be like, “We don’t read the ‘Prince,’ and we’re moving on with our lives.”

Q: If you could be coach for a day, what would you do?

M: Probably have an organized scrimmage against the girls’ cross country team. That, or have the freshmen repeatedly do ‘birthday jumps’ off the 10m diving platform while we get some target practice in by pelting balls at them.

N: Start every swim set on the next top.

Q: Who would be the last man standing in the pool?

M: Absolutely [sophomore goalie Tyler Amina], who is Hawaiian and can see in the dark. Not that that has anything to do with the question, but he’s got ninja moves.

N: [Senior attack] Dave Aynat would definitely think he could, but [sophomore center] Ford Spencer is a large man who can move a lot of water.