Scott eyes establishing inside game

Q and A with head coach Joe Scott '87 of the men's basketball team, who enters his third season at the Tiger helm. Scott is still awaiting his first league championship as Princeton head coach. Scott gives his insight as to which of his players may have breakout years and send the Tigers over the top.

At what point does not winning the Ivy League championship become a disappointing season?

Every year. That's always been the case here at Princeton. When I played, if we didn't win the title it was a disappointing season — that's just the way it is around here. The bar's set high, and that's because of all the players and coaches who've coached and played here in the past ... Last year was a little different in that [our second-place finish] was a positive season. We sort of turned things around and pointed them in the right direction, and we have a lot of guys back. It is what it is: disappointment doesn't mean you can't get better from it. Disappointment makes you stronger. It makes you work harder because you know what you have to do to get better — that's just the way it is around here and hopefully that's why the guys came to school here. It's Princeton, that's how we want to play and compete. It doesn't mean you do it every year, obviously, but even last year we put ourselves in a position to win the league, and nobody thought that was going to happen.

[This year's group of guys are] the ones that did that. That's the experience that they had together, putting themselves in position, and they know it. They look back at last year and [think], "Jeez, this little thing here and that little thing there," and that's what it is. That's what winning this league is: this little thing here and that little thing there. If those little things are positive, that's the difference between being ultimately successful or not.

Is there a game you have circled on the calendar?

Friday night.

Which players should we be watching?

Right now, I think [freshman guard Marcus] Schroeder, [freshman guard Lincoln] Gunn and [freshman center Zach] Finley are ahead a little bit. One [Finley] is a center, one [Gunn] is a shooting guard and one [Schroeder] is a point guard, and it's going to be which one's sort of quicker. I think all of them can really make solid contributions, but you can't rely on freshmen too much ... you can rely on them when you know you have older guys that are going to make it easier for them, but right there those three guys are a little bit ahead. [Freshman guard] Blake Wilson, I think he's going to be a really good player [as well].

Freshmen develop in their own ways at different paces, and some guys pick up what we do a little more quickly than other guys. I know [Wilson] is a good basketball player, and I'm going to be looking for him to stick with it, and as the year goes along, maybe we'll say "Hey, we've got to get Blake in there too." If that happens, that's a good thing, because I know we need that going forward.

Do you have any favorite plays you like to run?

One thing I know I'd like to do more is get the ball inside. That's why Finley's so important. If he can develop, he gives us a little bit more of an inside presence. [Senior guard Edwin] Buffmire's going to play, and he's good in the low post. He's a six-foot, four-inch guy with long arms who can score inside, so we can do things that get him the ball in there. [Some of the other] guys, maybe they shoot the ball a little better ... but that's the kind of guy [Buffmire] is, he can get you a basket in different ways. It'll probably be those things that have to be our favorite plays because we just can't be out there saying, "Who's going to make a three point shot?"

What has frustrated you most so far this fall? Anything?

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No, actually I've been really happy — I haven't seen anything frustrating. Learning our defense is hard for freshmen, but again, I know that, so it's not really frustrating. I think, ultimately, how quickly those guys pick those things up and stop making those "freshman mistakes" is going to be key. Overall, I think we've gotten better from the beginning of practice to now. We'll see if that continues.

What have been some of the highlights or proud moments of the fall?

I like the way our upperclassmen have acted. I think it's a testament to their maturity level and how much they've grown [that they've really accepted] our freshmen. Our freshmen aren't freshmen [and the upperclassmen] don't look at them as freshmen. They're players in our program and they know that they have to help us, and I think that's a testament to our freshmen and how they act and compete. Everybody who's come and watched practice so far — whether it's high school coaches from all over the country — everybody who's been here has said the same thing: "Man, we can really tell there's a difference in here." Guys really like each other, they play for each other, they slap each other on the back, they talk to each other — everybody who's been here has said that. I'm hoping that somewhere [in games] that shows up ... and that it shows up really quickly.

Do you have any superstitions or pre-game rituals?

I've got hundreds. I think every coach does. I do the same things. It's sometimes stuff I wear. It depends how we do — superstitions change depending on how you're doing. You eat the same stuff, you dress the same way, you get up at the same time — though with two little boys [sons Ben, age five, and Jack, three] sometimes they ruin the superstitions. They alter the schedule.

What's the hardest part about coaching at Princeton?

I don't know if it's hard. The way I try to coach is, these guys have to be great at the two things that they know are most important to them ... School and academics — that's huge in their life and that's why they're at Princeton — and then basketball.

I try to get them to be as good as they can, to wake up every day being good at those two things. I think that's hard for them ... from 18 to 22 years old, that's the transition from being a boy to a man, because that's what a man does. A man knows, "I've got to be really good at what I do," and that's the thing that separates you in life. That's how you separate yourself: by thinking that way, by acting that way, by working that way, day after day after day in all parts of your life. That's what we try to teach them, and we use basketball as our way to teach them that. And if they are like that, then we'll be pretty good. It's a pretty simple formula.