Tigers go out with a whimper

In front of a sparse and listless crowd at Jadwin Gym last night, the men's basketball team went out with a whimper.

It wasn't the worst the Tigers have played this season, nor was it the best. It was a thoroughly mediocre performance, really — just enough to stay close, but not quite enough to get over the hump. It was, above all else, one more disappointment in a season full of disappointments.

"We were just missing something tonight," head coach Joe Scott '87 admitted. "We didn't really play well tonight. We just didn't have that spark."

Indeed, that spark — that intangible oomph that always seemed to push Princeton over the top a year ago — was entirely gone. In fact, it's been missing all season.

Scott tried to light the spark on his own early on, spending most of the first half bellowing at the referees like they had just run over his dog.

"I knew I was going to get a T because I wanted to get a T," he said. "I knew he was going to give me one, so what the hell, I might as well get it. I figured maybe it would help us a little bit the way things were going."

It didn't work. Nothing did. Every time Princeton seemed poised to mount a challenge and every time the Tigers cut the Penn lead to one or two possessions, any positive momentum vanished in a cloud of turnovers, missed free throws or otherwise squandered opportunities.

It was fitting, perhaps, the way the season ended — perfectly emblematic of all that had gone wrong.

And yet, once again, what exactly it was that had gone wrong wasn't entirely clear. Afterwards, there would be a few halfhearted attempts to explain it, but in truth, there was no longer any need to try. All that was left, now, was to start the process of coping and improving.

Facing the media in the bowels of Jadwin half an hour after it was over, Scott looked and sounded almost relieved. The daggers that are normally still in his eyes during post-game press conferences were long gone this time, as if all the built-up tension and stress had finally escaped when the final buzzer sounded on the game and the season.

So when he was asked if he had any advice for the coach of the team that will face Penn in the NCAA tournament some time next week, he smiled broadly and knocked the setup line out of the park.

"Don't ask me," he said, laughing heartily right along with everyone else in the room.

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It wasn't all laughs, though.

When talk turned to the future, the intensity quickly returned to his eyes. The weight of this season's frustrations finally might have been lifted from his shoulders, but that didn't mean he was going to forget the disappointment.

"I hope it sits there forever. I hope it's a reminder forever. I hope the record is pinned up on the wall somewhere," he said. "We all have to learn from what happened this year. Our players have to learn from how miserable we are."

Senior co-captains Judson Wallace and Will Venable must have been as utterly miserable as anyone in the building tonight, and yet, when they followed Scott and took their turn in front of the media firing squad, they too looked oddly relieved.

There were no tears, no uncontrolled anger, only a begrudging acceptance of their fate.

"It sucks," Wallace said, as he intently focused on the piece of pizza was consoling himself with. "It makes my life suck."

It might not have been the most eloquent summation of the roller coaster of the past five months, but the crudeness of the words seemed appropriate; their black-and-white bluntness rang true.

There was no happy ending last night, no joy in Jadwin. For five seniors, life goes on. For Joe Scott, it's only beginning.