Princeton playing for respect

The men's basketball team can keep alive the hope of finishing the Ivy League season with a winning record with a pair of wins this weekend. But to do so, the Tigers will have to go back on the road, where they have struggled to finish games.

Having finally climbed out of the Ivy League cellar, the Tigers (12-11 overall, 3-6 Ivy League) head out for their last road trip of the season, taking on Columbia (12-11, 3-7) tonight in New York City and then heading to Ithaca, N.Y., to face Cornell (11-12, 6-4) on Saturday night.

It has been a season of what-ifs for Princeton on the road. Three times the Tigers have blown leads of eight or more in the second half, and twice the team was unable to protect double-digit leads in the last 10 minutes. Head coach Joe Scott '87 recognizes his team's struggles, but was pleased with Princeton's play on the road last weekend.

"The road is always tougher," Scott said. "A couple of games we weren't able to hold our leads, but we played okay both games [last] weekend. Hopefully, we can continue to see improvement on that."

Indeed, last Saturday's win at Brown was probably the Tigers' strongest Ivy performance this season. Princeton will try to build on its successful shooting — 65 percent from the field against the Bears — tonight when the team visits Levien Gym to face the Lions.

The Tigers won the teams' previous meeting this season, dispatching Columbia, 63-53, to snap a four-game losing streak on Feb. 12 at Jadwin Gym. While Princeton remained in control for the entire game, the Lions did hang with them for much of the game, as the Tigers could not completely shut the door untill late. Princeton's focus will again be on combating Columbia's physical style and taking advantage of what should be plenty of trips to the foul line. The last meeting saw the teams whistled for a combined 54 fouls.

Tomorrow night in Ithaca, the Tigers will look to avenge a 66-58 home loss to the Big Red. Cornell has continued its strong play since its previous game with Princeton and is currently second behind Penn in the Ivy standings. The Tigers, doomed by poor second-half shooting were outscored by 17 points after the break thanks to a 20-0 Cornell run.

Much of Princeton's recent struggles can be attributed to a lack of flow on the offensive end. Scott emphasized that he believes the team can improve its offensive output but that the Tigers must improve their passing to do so.

"[At Yale], guys were open all over the place, but we didn't throw any passes," he said. "We have to keep moving and stressing that on cuts you have to be looking to take advantage of openings."

But Scott takes a pragmatic approach to his team's struggles on the road and does not believe Princeton's 4-9 road record is indicative of anything more than how difficult it is to win away games in the Ivy League. He also pointed out that the Tigers' past success makes them a tempting mark for opposing teams.

"They're always ready to play their best games of the year against us," Scott said of his Ivy opponents.

The Tigers at least have history on their side. Princeton has owned Columbia recently and is 22-1 against the Lions since 1993. The Tigers have also enjoyed plenty of success against Cornell in the past decade. Still, even after coming up with a strong performance at Brown to get out of last place, the Tigers will need to come up big this weekend if they hope to build on that performance.