Joe Scott was escorted to his new job by an eye-catching cheerleader with CBS's NCAA Tournament theme song blasting in the background.
He may have thought he was dreaming, but he wasn't.
And there was plenty more where that came from at Denver's Magness Arena yesterday, where Scott was introduced as Denver's new basketball coach.
"Many programs are looking for the next Joe Scott," said Denver Vice Chancellor for Athletics Peg Bradley-Doppes. "We're pleased to bring the original. He's here, he's back home, and he's a Pioneer."
Scott will have an awful lot of pioneering to do, as he takes over at a school that finished with only four wins and had the second-worst ratings percentage index in the nation last year.
Goals are high, however.
"We are committed to being the premier team in the Rocky Mountain region," Bradley-Doppes continued, adding that Scott was "a coach who had a history of building teams the right way. Not the easy way, the right way. The DU way."
The former Princeton coach was rumored to be on the hot seat after submitting the Tigers' worst Ivy record in history.
But he insisted that his departure had nothing to do with his performance in New Jersey.
"To me, at Princeton, I felt really good about what we were doing," he said. "I've said numerous times - what we were going through this year was years two and three at Air Force."
In year No. 4 at Air Force, Scott went 22-7 and took the Falcons to their first-ever NCAA Tournament. There will be no fourth year in Old Nassau, though, as Scott brought his rebuilding process to a shocking and unexpected conclusion.
Instead, Scott will be "returning home" - a twist of irony that even the coach himself appreciated. Scott left Air Force to go "home" to Princeton, his alma mater; now, he's going back to Colorado, but he says the tables have turned.
"I really do feel like I'm coming home to Colorado," he said. "You know you're coming home when you get a phone message from someone saying . 'Joe, great to hear the news, great to have you coming back. How many pies should I bring to the press conference?'
"And that's pizza pies."
But fresh off of wearing out his welcome at Princeton in three years, it's wins, not pies, that Scott will worry about.
