Matt Meltzer: Scott not using offense's strengths

The Princeton basketball team has pulled off an amazing statistical feat: they are first in the country in scoring defense and last in scoring offense.

Despite their 9-7 record, I believe Joe Scott is doing his team a disservice with his coaching scheme. When Scott came to Princeton three years ago, he restored the Princeton offense to its unadulterated form.

Now I am in no way demeaning the Princeton offense. Pete Carril's brainchild was the foundation for 514 wins and 13 Ivy titles.

But while Carril's offense has been admired, it requires certain elements to succeed.

The offense requires spacing, an intelligent read of the defense, exceptional passing, milking the clock, back-door cuts and quality shooters. The offense limits the number of possessions and neutralizes the athleticism of opposing teams.

The only problem is that Scott does not possess the proper parts to make his offensive engine hum true to the Carril method. Scott has been incredibly stubborn, for one of the advantages of the system is its adaptability.

"It is a flexible offense," Penn coach Glen Miller said. "It can be played effectively without good shooters, it becomes more effective with a talented high post player. . It can be utilized by athletes, non-athletes, shooters, non-shooters."

Scott has some athletes, but the team on the whole struggles with three-point shooting, an element necessary for a team that holds the ball until the end of the shot clock. They are hitting from behind the arc at 35.8 percent clip. Scott cannot change his shooters, but he can change his strategy.

Under coach John Thompson III, the Tigers played a more upbeat version of the offense, leading to more possessions and points. Scott emphasizes eating clock rather than taking a shot at the right moment.

Some will argue that having more possessions will lead to more points for the opposition as well. Princeton has always had a great defense because of the limited number of possessions in a game, but that signature defense has not suffered under Thompson or other Princeton-style coaches who have modified it.

Several other Division I programs utilize versions of the Princeton system, including Texas A&M;, Air Force, Georgetown and Northwestern. All are in the top ten in the nation in points allowed.

Unfortunately for Princeton, they do not shoot nearly as well as most of these programs. Where the Tigers convert just 43 percent of their field goal attempts, Georgetown, Air Force and Texas A&M; are all in the top four in that category. The Hoyas hit at 52.3 percent.

Of course, those other teams have more talented players, but they also utilize varieties of the Princeton system, not the pure philosophy Carril devised.

"It's an offense of great spacing, it has tempo, there is never any resetting, one action leads to another," Miller said of Thompson's playbook.

The Tigers are currently 0-2 in conference play and are likely to continue to struggle. Teams like Rice may be surprised by the Tigers, but every Ivy League team knows exactly how to prepare for them. Until Scott factors in some unpredictability, other Ivy squads will know perfectly well what to look for.

Scott has sacrificed the success of his team for the security of the Princeton tradition. However, he can continue to honor the school's basketball heritage while adapting to his players' skills and the opposition they are facing.

Matt Meltzer is a senior political science major from Glen Rock, N.J. His e-mail address is meltzerm@sas.upenn.edu.

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