(Photo by Bill Allen/NJ SportAction)
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(Photo by Bill Allen/NJ SportAction) |
It seemed like business as usual when the Princeton University men's basketball team gathered for a post-season meeting before the recent spring break.
Princeton head coach Joe Scott detailed what he wanted from his charges in the off-season, laying things out in his no-nonsense, detailed manner.
But just days later with the players scattered around the country for break, the offseason took a surprising turn as the news broke on March 20 that Scott had resigned his Princeton post to take the head coaching job at the University of Denver.
While Princeton's dismal season, which saw it go 11-17 overall and plummet to its first-ever last place finish in the Ivies with a 2-12 league mark, had put Scott under fire, most thought the fiery coach would be back to try to right the ship.
Junior forward Noah Savage was certainly taken by surprise. "I heard about it on ESPN.com and some people called me," said Savage, who was vacationing on the east coast.
"I was definitely surprised. We had a meeting the week before and all coach was talking about was what we needed to work on to improve."
Some 3,000 miles away in northern California, freshman point guard Marcus Schroeder had much the same reaction.
"It was Tuesday night around 9 Eastern Time and one of my teammates, Chris Petrie, called and asked me if I had heard the reports about Coach Scott," recalled Schroeder.
"I went on ESPN.com, I was kind of shocked. It came out of the blue; I've never been through a coaching change before. He called me later that night and told me he hadn't wanted us to find out about this over the net. I'm glad he called; I respect his decision."
Scott himself hadn't planned to make a move. "There was no plan, it just sort or materialized," said Scott, who is still a popular figure in Colorado basketball circles after having rebuilt Air Force from a perennial loser into an NCAA tournament participant in just four seasons.
"We know them and they know me. I looked into it and the more I found out, the better it looked. It's a great opportunity, personally and professionally. They have a strong commitment to basketball and great facilities. They want to build a strong sustainable program; they saw what I did at Air Force."
Building a strong program at Denver will take some work as the Pioneers went 4-25 overall in 2006-07, going 3-15 in Sun Belt Conference play.
Scott, a hoops star at Princeton in the 1980s and an eight-year assistant coach at his alma mater, acknowledged that it wasn't easy to leave his basketball home.
"It was an emotional thing on all fronts," said Scott, who posted a 38-45 mark in his three seasons at the helm of the Tiger program and maintained that nobody in the Princeton athletic administration pressured him to leave.
"The hardest part was the players, the guys that I had coached for three years and the younger guys that I brought in. I'm happy with these guys and what they have become."
Longtime assistant coach Howard Levy was sorry to see Scott's Princeton tenure come to end. "I was sad for a variety of reasons," said Levy, a fixture in the basketball program who starred for the program in the mid-1980s and has been an assistant coach for the Tigers for the last 11 seasons.
"I'm sad because Joe is one of my closest friends and also because he is a wonderful coach. He was in the middle of a process that was going to bear fruit. I'm sad that I won't have the chance to coach with him."
Despite his disappointment, Levy understands why Scott made the move west. "There were a lot of factors that went into this situation," added Levy. "It's a good move. He's going into a situation where expectations aren't as high. You need time to build a program and he will get that."
Senior forward Luke Owings, for his part, believes Scott's decision makes sense for the coach and players. "I think it is for the best," said Owings, who found out the news while toiling away on his senior thesis in Firestone Library.
"It became a pressure vacuum, everybody was under so much stress and the stress kept multiplying. It's better for him to be in an environment where he doesn't know everybody. It's good for the returning players to get a different coach and a fresh start."
While Scott's in-your-face demeanor put pressure on his players, some thrived under the approach. "You have to be able to take a little criticism; he made that clear when he was recruiting me," said Schroeder, a starter from day one who led Division I players in minutes played per game this season. "If you're not challenged, you're not going to improve. I grew as a player, I learned a lot this year."
Junior Kyle Koncz said that he benefitted from Scott's intensity on and off the court. "I learned a lot from him about caring about what you are doing, being tough, and doing things with passion," said Koncz. "Those are things I'll take with me off the court."
Now Princeton will be looking to find a new coach who cares for the program and its winning tradition which has seen the Tigers win 25 Ivy titles and make 23 appearances in the NCAA tournament.
Director of Athletics Gary Walters, who is currently busy overseeing the NCAA tournament in his role as the chairman of the NCAA Division I men's basketball committee, certainly has plenty of options in the so-called Princeton basketball family.
The potential candidates include current top assistant Mike Brennan, former PU assistant and current Georgetown assistant Rob Burke, former PU star and current Brown head coach Craig Robinson, and Chris Mooney, anther PU hoops great who is currently the head coach at Richmond.
Two Princeton standouts from the mid-1990s, Sydney Johnson, an assistant at Georgetown, and Mitch Henderson, an assistant at Northwestern, could also be in the running.
Levy, for his part, is rooting for Brennan. "Mike is interested in the job; I hope he gets great consideration," said Levy. "I think he's already a fantastic coach; I think he deserves the job."
Schroeder would be happy with a Brennan choice. "Coach Brennan has applied, he knows us and he would follow up what Coach Scott was doing," said Schroeder. "He also helped recruit the incoming freshmen."
In the meantime, the players know they can't sit around during the selection process. "Right now, the sense is that the players need to be responsible," said Savage, noting that coaches Brennan, Levy, and Tony Newsom are still guiding the Tiger offseason program.
"We don't have a coach but that doesn't mean it's time to take it easy. As a team, we need to focus on getting better. Spring is a good time to do that, the pick-up games are better since we have been playing with each other all season and we have time to really work out."
And the players and all who follow the Princeton program can only hope that things work out better for whomever follows Scott.
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