Tale of the Tigers

Sporting News, The, March 16, 1998 by Steve Harrison

First there's a backdoor cut, then there's a 3-pointer. How'd they do that? For Princeton, the keys are patience, precision and practice, which make the Tigers the most feared team in the NCAA field.

Princeton coach Bill Carmody and his wise men had tutored me, and still I was lost. With pen and paper, we had dissected Princeton's offense, and all that remained were lines and squiggles and X's and O's and more lines and more squiggles. It looked like something that could hang in the Museum of Modem Art in New York. Like the rest of college basketball, I scratched my head and felt like a chimp.

And then, one January afternoon before Princeton thrashed Brown, assistant coach Joe Scott made it all clear. We used Junior Mints. Yes, the candy. We drew the court on a sheet of paper--just as before--but instead of using X's for the defense and O's for Mitch Henderson, Steve Goodrich, Brian Earl, James Mastaglio and Gabe Lewullis, we used chocolate.

We moved them like chess pieces. We made Earl run behind Goodrich for a handoff at the top of the key so he could squeeze off a 3. We made Mastaglio sprint at another player's man at the free-throw line--not to set a screen, but to create confusion. And we made everyone cut hard and fast to the goal, the signature play.

But what we mostly did was make the offense flow. In so doing, it was easy to see just how hard Princeton is to defend, because every second the Tigers possess the ball, every player--no matter where he is--is a scoring threat.

Its true beauty, however, is that despite all its hypnotic cuts and passes and handoffs--some of it merely decoration--the offense is built on this one principle: If your man lays off, shoot a 3; if he overplays you, burn his eager butt on a backdoor play.

These Tigers, who play UNLV in the first round of the East Regional, have used that one building block to become the Team No One Wants to Play. Not only has the starting five mastered the offense, but, as a bonus, Henderson, Earl, Goodrich, Mastaglio and Lewullis all pass like Magic Johnson, shoot like Larry Bird and are as unselfish as Mother Teresa.

"When our offense is at its best, I don't know if anyone can stop us," says Lewullis. "It's just such a great feeling to hear other coaches yelling, `Backdoor! Backdoor!' and their players get tense. And we still get a layup on them."

This is the story of a team without scholarships-and with only one guy over 6-7--that has gone 26-1. This is who they are, how they do it--and how to stop them.

"To me they have a shot at the Final Four," says Texas coach Tom Penders, who has a warning for Princeton's likely second-round foe Michigan State.

"If you have to play them Saturday or Sunday with just a day to prepare, then forget it"

College basketball's heroes are hanging out in the dining room of a place called Cap and Gown, one of Princeton's eating clubs. For the uninitiated, an eating club is the Ivy League answer to the Delta Chi house, except that it's just a place to hang out and dine. There's also better beer (these Ivy Leaguers drink Heineken instead of Milwaukee's Best) and better company (eating clubs are co-ed).

Goodrich, Lewullis and Earl, along with Sean Gregory, a sub, seem more red-blooded than blue. They are regular guys, guys who like to talk about football and shooting pool and good times. They say they know how to jack around. Still, a Princeton Tiger is not the average athlete student. Who else plays in a jumping joint like the Dean Dome one day and reads Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in class the next?

Watching the players together, it's clear why they have taken the Princeton offense where no other" Princeton offense has gone before. They are naturals; together. Naturals, who, on and off the court, know each other as well as married couples do.

"We pretty much just hang out with each other," Lewullis says. "No one else really understands what we do."

What they have done is knocked off Texas, NC State, Wake Forest and Rutgers. They have treated the Ivy League as Europe has historically treated Poland. They spooked North Carolina so bad that Tar Heels coach Bill Guthridge says they could win the national championship.

And through it all, it's the system that's famous. Faces and personalities are a bonus.

"I'm more recognized in town than I am on campus," Goodrich says.

So please meet ...

* Steve Goodrich, senior center. He's the catalyst in the Princeton offense, and Goodrich has mastered the job. When he plays at the top of the key, he can step back and nail a 3-pointer; when he posts up on the low block, he can spin and make a running hook to his right or left. Goodrich, who has an outside shot to qualify to play in the NBA, is listed as 6-10 but is more like 6-9, maybe 6-8. He could have attended Wake Forest but he laughs and says the Demon Deacons only wanted him for his GPA.

"Goodrich and Kenny Thomas (of New Mexico) are the two best passing centers in college," says Yale coach Dick Kuchen, whose Bulldogs fell to the Tigers, 69-58 and 78-48.