OPPONENT SPOTLIGHT: Carril still haunting Ivies

ESPN announcer Dick Vitale calls him "the Professor." Princeton men's basketball senior captain Chris Mooney calls him "super-intense." Penn coach Fran Dunphy says "he thinks the game like no one else in coaching." What, then, does oft-praised Princeton coach Pete Carril have to say about himself? "I miss a lot of things, but I always try to improve." That's it? "I miss a lot of things." Apparently Carril knows something the rest of the basketball-speaking world doesn't, because as far as everyone else goes, he's a veritable coaching legend. And after 41 years coaching, 26 of them with the Tigers, he's earned it. Carril's career reads like a virtual Hall of Fame plaque. Twelve Ivy League titles?12 post-season appearances, including an NIT championship in 1975?only one losing record in those 26 years at Princeton, and no losing Ivy League records?nine 20-win seasons?the only coach in the 24 years of Jadwin Gymnasium's existence? The list goes on, and so does Carril. In fact, even without the 469 career victories, the sheer length of his career would speak for itself. Carril seems to agree. "I've been coaching for 41 years," he says, "so I guess one of my strengths is to last a long time." "A long time" ago Carril graduated from Lafayette College and earned a master's degree in educational administration from Lehigh. Then, after successful high school coaching stints in Reading and Easton, Carril moved into the head coaching job with Lehigh. After guiding the Engineers to an 11-12 record in 1966-67, his only year at Lehigh, Carril moved on to the Tiger head coaching post. In a rather ominous development for Princeton's Ancient Eight rivals, Carril led the Tigers to a 20-6 record and a conference championship his very first year. Not much has changed, at least from Princeton's perspective. "Not too many guys do what he has done," Dunphy said. "With that much success, you generally see guys moving to bigger and better positions for more money or whatever. It's a wonderful thing, and I'm sure Princeton is grateful for his perseverance." Perseverance isn't the whole story, though. Carril's success has given him ample opportunity to move on to brighter lights and more famous basketball programs. At the same time, though, he has been attracted by the relative purity of Ivy League athletics. "I don't like what goes on on the other side of the fence," Carril said. "There's a lot of crooked stuff." In return for his extended service, Carril has received the admiration of his players as well as that of the college basketball establishment. "Everybody knows who he is, and he's a legend," Mooney said. "It's an attractive thing to get to play for him, especially now, since he's probably in the latter part of his career." However, Carril himself, who envisions coaching for no more than four more seasons, cares little for attention. "Everybody likes recognition, but it's meaningless really," Carril said. "It doesn't do anything good. Recognition and praise are the cheapest forms of reward?.It's one of the things that comes from longevity. You get your gray hair, you start to lose your hair, and all of the sudden you become a professor-type." Obviously, though, the source of the universal respect Carril has earned is not simply 41 years of devotion, or even his thinning pate. Known as a perfectionist, Carril has devised an equally well-known system that has served him and his teams well. That system is based on constant motion, precise passing and sharp cuts both to the basket and away from it. But even more than the discipline of their offense, it is the Tigers' intense defense that gives opponents fits. As a testament to that prowess, Princeton has led the nation in scoring defense 11 of the past 18 years. "You have to prepare for [Carril] more than you prepare for other teams," Dunphy said. "[The system] is so different and so unique to him." Carril, though, is quick to downplay the more unusual aspects of his coaching philosophy. "We move the ball around. We try to get good shots. We try to play like a team," Carril said. "That, in general, is what everybody else tries to do?.I think it's a little overrated myself. It's not quite as different as people make it out to be." Unique or not, the play of Carril's student-athletes was at its finest between 1988-89 and 1991-92. Over that span, the Tigers won four consecutive Ivy League championships. In the NCAA tournament, Princeton gave four national powerhouses stern tests. Although the Tigers lost all four games, they were outscored by a total of just 15 points. For an Ivy League team, which is suppose to be the whipping boy in the tournament, those numbers are certainly impressive. Or are they? "It wasn't success at all," Carril lamented. "The same thing happened to Penn last year. They had UMass by the proverbials. We had Arkansas. We had Georgetown. We had Villanova. "It's getting tougher and tougher for Ivy League teams. It's like the Buffalo Bills -- it's nice to get there, but you don't feel so good if you don't win once in a while." Dunphy, the coach who "had UMass by the proverbials," completely understands Carril's frustration. "[Carril is] as much a competitor as anybody you've ever met," Dunphy said. "I don't think anybody in this profession wants to come close. Winning is what you're in it for." Perhaps what's left out of that analysis, however, is that as much as anyone else in the country, as much as any of the four coaches who topped Carril in those close contests, Carril has proven that he can win. And he has -- hundreds of times in an astonishing 41-year career.

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