A year ago, the Princeton men's basketball team was basking in a No. 1 Ivy League preseason ranking, a strong core of returning players, and a new head coach who seemed to be able to do no wrong.
It's been all downhill ever since.
Last season saw the Tigers' first sub-.500 Ivy record in history -- including two humiliating losses to Penn -- and capped years of quiet turmoil on the team.
Princeton had to grapple with a change of leadership in the program during the 2004 off-season when head coach John Thompson III bolted to take the job at Georgetown after four years (and three Ivy titles) with the Tigers. Princeton quickly replaced him with alumnus Joe Scott, and brought Tony Newsom, a former assistant at Holy Cross, to the coaching staff.
Thompson's tenure had not been drama-free, however. It included the loss of star Spencer Gloger to ineligibility -- twice. Thompson also suffered a public relations disaster when Konrad Wysocki quit the team midway through his senior year, saying publicly that players had not been "treated fairly with equal respect and in a way which is appropriate."
While many heralded the arrival of Scott, who had brought Air Force's program to national prominence, the Tigers were not able to adapt easily to Scott's modified version of the Princeton offense. The Tigers were outrebounded by over 100 on the offensive side last year, and the perimeter shooting Princeton is known for was not enough to salvage the season.
The Tigers were also hamstrung by the loss of forward Harrison Schaen, who took the year off for personal reasons.
This season, however, things could be different.
Though the Tigers graduated their top two scorers -- Judson Wallace and Will Venable -- Scott will now be able to coach his own recruits, and the players may finally warm up to his complex defense. In addition, Schaen has returned, and could provide badly needed depth up front.
The Quakers know that Princeton will likely pose different problems than they did last year.
"Everybody knows they graduated a lot of seniors," Penn captain Eric Osmundson said.
He added, though, that a year of experience could make a huge difference for Scott's team.
"The players are going to learn his system, [which] is a lot different than Thompson's, especially their defensive matchups," Osmundson said.
"In that sense, I think it'll be different."
Penn coach Fran Dunphy also felt that the Tigers would field a competitive team.
"They obviously have a wonderful history ... and Joe Scott is a terrific basketball coach," he said.
Nevertheless, the Tigers squandered an early lead last night and fell 54-41 to Drexel in the first round of the preseason NIT tournament.
Obviously, the Tigers have questions to answer. It is still unclear who in the frontcourt will step up to help forward Luke Owings convert in the paint, and the traditionally coherent Princeton defense failed to materialize last night.
Scott emphasized, though, that he would not be running a radically different game plan, even after losing the first game of the season.
"We just tried to simplify some things. We really didn't make any major changes," he said.
And even though the result may have been discouraging, Scott seemed optimistic about the progress of his freshman class.
"I'm happy with where they are," he said. "They've looked good in practice, but practice is not the game."
