Sydney Johnson’s first win as Princeton men’s basketball head coach came in his very first try, a 59-57 victory over Central Connecticut State on November 11. His second win followed soon after, 66-58 against Iona on November 14.

Win number three would take another two and a half months.

In that span, the Tigers lost 12 straight games in just about every way imaginable—blowouts, nail-biters, squanders, overtime heartbreakers. They lost games to everyone from Duke to the University of Evansville. They lost games in Hawaii, West Virginia, and all over New Jersey. From November 19 until January 9, when winter break finally put a temporary halt to the season, Princeton couldn’t buy a win.

Finally, last Sunday, the Tigers broke through, beating Dominican by a score of 60-46.

The Chargers aren’t exactly strong competition; they compete in Division II, and before playing Princeton, faced powerhouses like Felician College and the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. A win, however, no matter how weak the competition, can only be a welcome respite for a team that saw a promising 2-0 start turn into four weeks of defeat.

The players remaining from last year’s team know all about promising starts that abruptly become long losing slides. Going into Ivy League play last season, the Tigers were a respectable 9-4, using a stifling defense to wear down their opponents—Princeton allowed only 39 points to Alabama A&M, and only 28 to Rice.

After a 2005-2006 season that had produced a runner-up finish in the Ivy League to Penn, the Tigers looked like they were on their way to challenge the Quakers once again for the title.

Then, everything fell apart. League play started with a furious back-and-forth game at Columbia that ended with a Princeton loss, followed by a dismal 35-point showing at Cornell the next night. A road trip to Yale and Brown pushed Princeton’s record to 0-4 in Ivy play, and not even a double overtime win over Harvard at home the next weekend could help resuscitate the Tigers’ season. Princeton would win only one more Ivy game for the rest of the year, ending the season with a 2-12 mark in conference play, dead last out of all eight teams.

Head coach Joe Scott left for University of Denver upon season’s end, and a long nationwide coaching search produced Johnson, an assistant at Georgetown under John Thompson III. Johnson was no stranger to success in his four years at Princeton, winning an Ivy Player of the Year award and an Ivy title in 1997, his senior season. So far, however, his winning experience on the court hasn’t translated to success for this current Tigers squad.

The biggest reason for Princeton’s slow start has been a sluggish offense that has apparently not improved since last year. On the season, the Tigers are averaging just over 55 points per game, the lowest mark in the Ivy League by a healthy margin, and are one of the worst shooting teams in the league as well. Look at virtually any offensive category in the Ivy League, and Princeton will be towards the bottom of the rankings.

Part of what’s hampering Princeton’s offense is a lack of production from the two senior captains, Noah Savage and Kyle Koncz. Despite being 6’7”, Koncz relies more on his outside shot than on playing in the low post. Unfortunately for Princeton, that outside shot hasn’t been falling, as Koncz has been abysmal from the three-point line, hitting only 29 percent of his attempts. Savage, meanwhile, has taken only 98 shots in 15 games, and plays the least minutes out of the Princeton starters. For now, the offense is resting on the shoulders of sophomores Zach Finley and Lincoln Gunn. Finley leads the Tigers in rebounding, blocks, and points, while Gunn has been a three-point specialist at point guard.

Despite the best efforts of Finley and Gunn, however, the Tigers are entering Ivy play in bad shape. Against Dominican, there were signs of progress—Princeton shot 60 percent from the field in the first half, dominated the Chargers on the boards, and had an assist on 19 of its 23 baskets. Needless to say, however, the level of play in the Ivy League is far above Dominican, and although Princeton gets a weak Dartmouth team and an average Harvard team to start conference play, the strong play by Cornell and Brown, as well as Yale, leaves little room for error if the Tigers wish to compete for an Ivy championship.

Friday will be Sydney Johnson’s fourteenth game as Princeton’s head coach, and his first try at his fourth win. Hopefully for the Tigers, it won’t take another month to collect a victory.