Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Princeton and the Backdoor
If you're in your 20s or older your one lasting memory of Princeton has to be their first round win against UCLA in 1996. Patience and precision have long been the staples of the Princeton offense, a scheme so synonymous with the university — and so well-known in hoops circles — that it has its own Wikipedia page. The offense was the brainchild of then Princeton coach Pete Carril and is a scheme based on constant movement of player and ball, a measured approach that typically runs plays deep into the shot clock, then looks for buckets on backdoor cuts. Coach Sydney Johnson played on that 1996 Princeton team and hasn't fully abandoned it.
This isn't your father's Princeton, though. But it's not so far removed. “We've made major, major strides defensively,” Johnson said. “We can pressure people, we can turn people over or we can just grind it out in the halfcourt defensively, and so that allows us to get out and go a little bit more.”
“They can run back-cuts, but they also do a lot of post-up basketball; they'll do pick-and-roll basketball,” UK coach John Calipari said Monday. “So it's not just straight Princeton, even though they'll have principles of it.”
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