Tigers' woes don't mean Scott is a bad coach

Three months ago, as the men's basketball team tipped off its season, the Tigers were a mortal lock for another trip to the NCAA tournament and head coach Joe Scott '87 was the basketball messiah.

Three weeks ago, as Princeton began Ivy League play, it all still seemed true.

How quickly times have changed.

Over the past 40 years, Orange and Black faithful have been spoiled rotten. The Tigers are the Yankees of the Ivy League — anything less than a championship is a failure. Instead of outspending its rivals for free agents, Princeton flaunts academics and tradition to nab top recruits.

There's nothing wrong with high standards; the problem lies in what to do when those standards aren't met. Like Yankee fans, Tiger fans don't take it well when things go wrong.

And so, after four straight loses, the finger pointing began. Suddenly, Tiger fans were fleeing the Joe Scott bandwagon even quicker than they hopped on last April. From the taproom pundits of Prospect Avenue to the alumni experts of internet message boards, the consensus was clear: it's all Joe Scott's fault.

But there's an important distinction that must be made, one the finger-pointing experts don't seem to be considering.

Yes, the coaching change is to blame for Princeton's struggles this season.

No, that doesn't make Joe Scott a bad coach.

Let's start from the beginning. If the Tigers' struggles have made one thing clear, it's that John Thompson III '87 never got nearly enough credit while he was here.

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The rap on Thompson was that he was a great recruiter but a poor tactical coach, too willing to stray from the "Princeton offense" and unable to win the big game. After Penn embarrassed Princeton at Jadwin last February, the rumbles grew even louder — a predecessor at the 'Prince' wrote a column essentially calling for Thompson's head.

And what happened? The Tigers steamrolled their final nine Ivy League opponents and propelled themselves right into the NCAA tournament, where they befuddled Texas for a half. Suddenly, Thompson was a hot coaching commodity, off to resurrect the ghosts of Georgetown greatness.

In his first season in D.C., Thompson has worked a miracle. The Hoyas are 16-6 overall and tied with defending national champion Connecticut for third in the Big East. He may well win the national Coach of the Year award.

This all just goes to say that Scott wasn't replacing a bumbling fool. The expectations he inspired, though — immediately elevating the Tiger program to new heights — seemed to assume he was. In retrospect, simply matching Thompson would have been an impressive accomplishment.

Taking over a basketball team is never easy, but when Scott was hired last April, everyone assumed he would immediately and seamlessly pick up where Thompson left off. They're both Princeton alums, the reasoning went, so they must have similar philosophies, similar approaches to the game.

As it turned out, of course, that assumption couldn't have been farther from the truth.

"Everything's different," Scott said on Saturday night, moments after joking — sort of — that he'd gone from being regarded as the best coach in the country to the worst. "Every single aspect of this program is different. That's coaching."

Scott may have understood this sooner than anyone. Having played and coached with Thompson for years, he knew as well as anyone how different their coaching styles and their personalities were. He must have known he'd take some getting used to.

In October, Scott said he felt like he was coaching 15 freshmen. Even as the Tigers played fairly well through their non-conference schedule, he kept hinting that he and the players were still figuring each other out. In the last few weeks, it finally became clear what he was talking about.

The process is far from over, but progress has been made. Facing adversity — together — has surely helped.

"He's learning about us as we learn about him," sophomore point guard Max Schafer, who only recently has dug himself out of Scott's doghouse, said on Saturday night. "We're kids. We're tough to get through to."

Schafer spoke with a grin, seeming to genuinely like the coach who must have made his life hell for the past few months.

A night earlier, after the loss to Cornell, junior point guard Scott Greenman was even more supportive. Greenman looked despondent after the loss, but when a reporter asked if the players and coaches were on the same page, he jumped to his coach's defense as quickly as Scott wants him diving for loose balls.

"I love Coach Scott. He had the least amount to do with this than anybody," Greenman said. "It's the players who are out there. Coach can't make up for us coming out lackadaisical like we did tonight."

Joe Scott is going to be patrolling the sidelines at Jadwin Gym for a long time.

Scott is so right for Princeton that it took just one day to hire him last April.

"We wanted Joe and he wanted us," Director of Athletics Gary Walters '67 said at the time.

So Scott won't be giving up on Princeton any time soon, nor will Walters be giving up on Scott. And indeed, there's good reason not to. Pete Carril lost 261 games at Princeton. Dean Smith was hung in effigy during a rough season early in his tenure at UNC. Mike Krzyzewski suffered two losing seasons in his first three years at Duke.

Scott knows he has the luxury of time. He's building for the long run — evidently at the expense of this season. Perhaps he could have been a little less strict, a little less demanding. Perhaps, then, the Tigers wouldn't be sitting in the Ivy League cellar.

But if he had done so, he wouldn't have been himself. And even as the ship sinks this season, he's not about to change.

"The worst thing I could do is scrap everything," Scott said Friday night. "Then they would walk away knowing the coach gave up on them."

In the end, it's perfectly legitimate to criticize Scott for prioritizing the future over the present, for refusing to budge even an inch when others would have.

But don't say that Joe Scott doesn't know what he's doing or that Joe Scott doesn't have plan.

"It's not a one-year process when you take over a program," he said on Saturday. "You do what you think is right for the program you're going to have."

And as he spoke, record be damned, there was no doubt he still thinks what he's doing is right.

It may take a year, it may take three. One day, though, Tiger fans will agree with him.