Scott learns it's hard to come home again

The expectations placed on the 2004-05 men's basketball team were remarkably high, but they weren't unfounded — not on paper, at least.

Thanks to a unique combination of change and continuity, the Tigers appeared poised to breeze to an Ivy League title. Four starters returned from the 2003-04 squad that won the league, including All-Ivy senior co-captains Judson Wallace and Will Venable. The ballyhooed new head coach, Joe Scott '87, was fresh off guiding Air Force to a season of unprecedented success. Every other team in the league faced significant question marks. What, Orange and Black faithful gleefully wondered, could possibly go wrong?

Suffice to say, things did not go as planned.

Princeton jumped to a 9-5 start in non-conference play, an opening that included respectable road showings against national powerhouses Syracuse and Duke, as well as a 53-40 thrashing of local rival Rutgers in the home opener on Dec. 8. But when the Tigers reached Ivy League play, the wheels fell off, beginning with a home loss to Brown in the Ivy opener. A comeback win the following night over Yale left Princeton hoping the Brown game was just an aberration, but the worst was yet to come. The Tigers lost to Dartmouth and Harvard on the road the following weekend, then hit their nadir at The Palestra in Philadelphia on Feb. 8. After playing 32 minutes of nearly flawless basketball, Princeton blew an 18-point lead and lost in overtime, 70-62, falling to 1-4 in the Ivy League.

By the time it was all over, the Tigers would finish with a 6-8 league record (15-13 overall), their first losing season in 50 years of Ivy basketball.

Recurring problems

Princeton suffered many of the same problems throughout the season, most damagingly an inability to put away opponents late in games. The problem first appeared in a double overtime loss to Wyoming on Nov. 23 before flaring up at The Palestra. Because the Tigers entered that game believing a win would turn around their season, the loss to Penn seemed to take much of the wind out of their sails. Just three days later, Princeton blew another second half lead when Cornell went on a 20-0 run en route to a 66-58 win, the Big Red's first in Jadwin Gym in 19 years. Hopelessly out of the Ivy race, the Tigers rebounded to win six of their final nine games, starting with a thumping of Columbia on Feb. 12. But that stretch also included another disappointing loss to Penn in the season finale at home on March 8, after the Quakers had already clinched the Ivy League title.

Perhaps the root of Princeton's woes was the more difficult than expected process of the players adapting to Scott's more restricting version of the Princeton Offense — and vice-versa. Unlike his predecessor John Thompson III '88, Scott did not put as much a premium on speed and slashing, reducing the offensive production from Venable and senior forward Andre Logan.

The Tigers' greatest success came on the defensive end, thanks to Scott's aggressive trapping matchup-zone system. Princeton finished tied for third in the nation in points allowed, giving up just 54.3 per game.

Individually, both Venable and Wallace joined the 1,000 point club, and both once again earned All-Ivy honors — Venable second team and Wallace honorable mention. Wallace led the team in scoring and rebounding with 12.2 and 4.9 per game, respectively, despite being hampered throughout the Ivy slate by a painfully inflamed lower back.

The team also got strong performances from younger players who will be asked to fill the void left by Wallace and Venable's graduation. Junior point guard Scott Greenman was third on the team in scoring with 8.6 ppg and led the team with 52 three-pointers. Sophomore forward Luke Owings and freshman forward Noah Savage also established themselves as starters, logging heavy minutes all season.

With a well-regarded incoming recruiting class, the Tigers will be among the contenders for the 2005-06 Ivy title — though far from the odds-on favorites they were this season. Scott's players have a year of his system under their belts, and Scott has had a chance to recruit the kind of players he needs to be successful.

It's a recipe for success, but if this season taught Tiger fans anything, it's that great expectations don't always turn into great results.