Joe Scott: Rock star

If you're Joe Scott, you can't help but smile.

A year ago, he was doing about as bad as a Princeton basketball coach can do. The Tigers had a D-III embarassment on the books and the program was still reeling from a tumultuous season and a half. Scott might have been looking at the Air Force program he left -- and which somehow ended up in the NCAA Tournament with a 13 seed -- with longing eyes. I know I would be.

But then again, I'm no rock star.

Just like the down-on-his-luck rocker, Scott ditched his old gigs and brought in a new backing band. The old gigs were senior Patrick Ekeruo and sophomores Geoff Kestler and Alex Okafor, none of whom are now with the team. With a huge freshman class and just one graduating senior, that was to be expected.

The new band, for now, seem to be a pair of freshman guards who are wowing the crowds all by themselves. Marcus Schroeder and Lincoln Gunn have each started all eight games for Princeton, and they are 1-2 on the Tigers in minutes played. Together, the two account for 12.4 points, no small potatoes on a team that scores only 54.2 per game. Schroeder, who did not even get into Princeton until Regular Decision, also leads the team in assists by a wide margin, with 26.

So rocker and the band are there. What's left? Another vocalist, of course, and it came in the form of another fresh face, 6-9 center Zach Finley.

Finley was the centerpeice of Scott's recruiting class last year, and Tigers fans saw him as a point center throwback from the Pete Carril era. The jury is still out on that, but Finley has filled in nicely for the injured Justin Conway and could be a valuable energy player down the stretch. Throw in the unrecruited freshmen Pawel Buczak and Nick Lake, each of whom has a roster spot, and Scott has really cleaned house.

Of course, there is always an odd man out, and right now it looks to be junior Noah Savage, who was second on the team in scoring his first few years but is now lucky to get 15 minutes in a game.

But the ultimate test of greatness for any rock star is simple: can he keep selling albums after the original lineup is gone?

Princeton has won its past three games by a total of five points. That could be construed as a good or bad sign, but the way I look at it, the Tigers are winning close games. That has been a major achilles heel of Penn in recent years.

And it was the Tigers' ability to find ways to win that helped them mount a resurgence during Ivy League play last year, including a big overtime win over the Quakers. That resurgence helped Scott take on the same aura he had when he first left Air Force for Old Nassau, and he has been working on it since.

With Penn-Princeton at the Palestra just over two months away, it's already shaking up as a chance for a certain rock star to bust out his newest material and take more than a few onlookers by suprise.