Princeton has posted a 2006-07 roster on its athletics website, and there are some noteworthy inclusions and exclusions. Unrecruited freshman Pawel Buczak is with the varsity, as is a new name: freshman Nick Lake of Rancho Sante Fe, CA. Gone is junior Harrison Schaen, who left the team back in the spring, as well as senior Patrick Ekeruo and sophomores Geoff Kestler and Alex Okafor.

Slant: With just one senior graduating from a full roster and seven freshmen joining the program, some cuts were necessary, and everyone knew this. As a matter of fact, Scott will need to make at least two additional cuts — or at least leave players off the travel squad — to get down to the maximum travel roster size of 15. But it’s the identities of the players missing from the roster that makes this newsworthy.

Schaen’s exit from the program was known — and not the least bit surprising after he barely saw the floor the second half of his first season under Joe Scott. However, the others all were expected back this season, and it’s pretty shocking to see unrecruited players like Buczak and Lake on the team in place of Okafor and Kestler — sophomores recruited by Scott last year. Ekeruo was a starter in seven games last season before seeing his playing time plummet following the Carnegie Mellon game. He was going to have a tough time finding minutes at center this year behind Justin Conway and Zach Finley, though his status as a senior made his departure unexpected.

Last year, Scott’s roster cuts made waves. It will be interesting to see if there are similar effects this season, or whether a better buy-in from the team prevents a repeat scenario. It’s interesting to note that after the problems in past seasons with players quitting the program, cuts were required the last two years. For all the Internet message board claims of Tiger players unhappy with life under the current regime, the list of players who have quit the team under Scott is a very short one.