Tigers face long climb from cellar

Depending on how the men's basketball team chooses to look at it, a pair of home games this weekend is either a fantastic opportunity or too much, too soon.

Just three days after Tuesday's heartbreaking loss at Penn, the Tigers (10-8 overall, 1-4 Ivy League) jump right back into the fray when they host Cornell (9-10, 4-2) and Columbia (12-7, 3-3) on Friday and Saturday night in Jadwin Gym.

Having games so soon after what head coach Joe Scott '87 called a "traumatic loss" presents the Tigers with an opportunity to put their shocking three-game losing streak behind them.

On Tuesday night, after the loss to Penn, a forlorn-looking Scott stressed the challenging nature of responding to adversity.

"When you have traumatic events you can either let it bring you down, or you can let it be the low point and do nothing but improve," he said.

But for the Tigers to drag themselves out of the Ivy League cellar, they will first need to get past second-place Cornell tonight. Princeton has owned the Big Red in recent years, winning 21 of the teams' past 22 meetings, as well as the past 19 games played at Jadwin Gym. This year, however, the Tigers find themselves in unfamiliar territory behind Cornell in the standings, as the Big Red has won four of its last five conference games.

Cornell is led by versatile junior guard Lenny Collins, who leads the team in scoring with 14.6 points per game. Senior center Eric Taylor leads the team in rebounds and assists, while chipping in 11.5 points per game. As a team, the Big Red shoot a healthy 38 percent from beyond the arc.

Tomorrow night's game against Columbia also pits the Tigers against an opponent they have dominated in recent years. But with the arrival of head coach Joe Jones at the beginning of the 2003-2004 season, the Lions are in the midst of a resurgence, and are no longer the Ivy League's perennial doormat. Columbia is coming off a heartbreaking loss of its own, losing, 54-52, to Brown on a last-second shot by the Bears' point guard Jason Forte.

The Lions are led by former second team All-Ivy forward Matt Preston, who leads the team in scoring (15.1) and rebounding (7.3). Complementing Preston's presence down low is guard Jeremiah Boswell, who shoots 56 percent from the field, including 52 percent from three-point range.

The Tigers have swept the Cornell-Columbia home weekend for each of the past 11 seasons. They will need to do so again this year if they hope to salvage respectability for their season. Although an Ivy title appears completely out of reach, Princeton could still earn the small consolation of a berth in the National Invitational Tournament with a strong finish.

But neither of this weekend's games will be easy for the struggling Tigers, who must reprove that they can play as a cohesive unit for an entire 40 minutes. For Scott, who has stressed putting his team in a position to win, this weekend's games will serve as a good indicator of whether his players are responding to his message.

In a sense, as Scott pointed out on Tuesday night, Princeton begins a new season tonight when they take the floor against Cornell. How they respond after the seemingly unthinkable happened will go a long way toward determining how this season is ultimately remembered.