When Coach Joe Scott and I taped our last one-on-one interview of the season seven days ago, we spent an extra hour after I hit stop on my MiniDisc recorder sitting at the very top of Jadwin Gym talking about the future of Princeton basketball.
The conversation was as candid as it had always been when the tape was no longer rolling.
We discussed recruiting principles and strategies. We discussed ways things needed to be improved. We discussed what Coach Scott felt he could have done differently during the season. The majority of our conversation, however, was about where Princeton basketball was headed with Coach Scott as head coach.
After I got back to my desk I sent Coach Scott an email about an idea I had for a collaborative project that I had forgotten to mention while we were talking. He wrote I should give him a call in April and we could talk in greater detail then.
The man I shook hands with outside of his office was not a man who appeared to be going anywhere but back to work.
Tonight, Coach Scott left Princeton for the University of Denver.
A press conference is scheduled at Denver for 5:00 pm ET on Wednesday.
Coach Scott was quoted on the Trenton Times web site this evening saying "it all started over the weekend."
A source tells me the same detail the Trenton Times is reporting: Coach Scott was not forced out of Princeton. A member of the athletic department I spoke to was caught by surprise by tonight's news, saying simply "I'm completely dumbfounded."
When I was at Jadwin Gym briefly this afternoon, Coach Scott was not around. I didn't think anything of it at the time. Plenty of coaches are on the recruiting trail at this time of year. Two assistants were in the basketball office, and both greeted me warmly.
There was no indication of the news that would drop jaws six hours later.
We will have more on this story as it develops and will be closely following Princeton's third search for a men's basketball coach in seven years.
