Over the course of Ivy League history, Princeton and Penn have been the league's two most dominating programs, teaming up to win at least a share of 49 league titles since 1956.

All that success seems like ancient history for a Princeton team that has finished with a losing Ivy record in three of the past four seasons and finished last in the league the past two seasons.

"It's been a rough four years," said senior forward Kyle Koncz, whose class finished 44-68 and 21-35 in league games. "Like coach said, we were right there, we were in games. We were playing hard; we learned a lot of lessons in four years."

That coach, former Princeton standout and assistant coach Sydney Johnson, is not to blame for this mess. Johnson has had only one season to start rebuilding a program that fell on tough times under former coach Joe Scott, who replaced former coach John Thompson -- who moved to Georgetown after Princeton won the 2004 Ivy League championship.

Johnson's first season on the job saw the Tigers lose a school-record 12 straight games early in the season and nine straight Ivy losses on the way to a 3-11 finish in league play.

"It's disappointing. Obviously, it's disappointing," Johnson said. "We lost a lot more games than we thought we would. ... At the same time, there was a competitiveness that began to brew with these young men. And there were some flashes that I've seen that we may be able to build on. I say 'may' just from the aspect that we have a lot of work to do to get where we want to go."

The Tigers will attempt to build without co-captains Noah Savage and Koncz, starting guard Kevin Steuerer, and reserves Zach Woolridge and Matt Sargeant. The rebuilding job will start with a core of sophomores, including center Zach Finley and guards Lincoln Gunn, Marcus Schroeder and Nick Lake, as well as freshman forward Kareem Maddox, who came on late in the season.

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