DeCourcy: Can Princeton-based scheme win a title?

Basketball junkies will enjoy this entry from The Sporting News. I found the following quote pretty interesting:

Georgetown needs to look hard at its approach. I’ve long been suspicious about whether a Princeton-based scheme can produce national championship-level teams, and the Hoyas’ two most recent experiences against elite competition didn’t erase my doubts. Against Ohio State in last year’s Final Four, star forward Jeff Green took only five shots in 40 minutes. In this season’s loss to Memphis, center Roy Hibbert shot eight times and didn’t get to the foul line.

When your best players are reduced to peripheral roles in the biggest games, there might be something wrong with the system

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53 Responses to DeCourcy: Can Princeton-based scheme win a title?

  1. redfred2 01/09/2008 at 9:23 PM #

    Yep, all different type players out west there. You couldn’t ever expect find any players like those in the eastern continental United States.

    It’s simple, Herb left, he learned a lesson, and he has changed his tune.

    packgrad93 though, never.

  2. Wulfpack 01/10/2008 at 7:43 AM #

    He has indeed changed his tune. No doubt about it. He has learned from his mistakes.

    Good to see him having some early success. He’s a program builder, and he’s doing the same out west.

    Just don’t get too ticked off if he never beats UCLA. I doubt Sun Devil fans will.

  3. xphoenix87 01/10/2008 at 5:52 PM #

    Note: The Princeton is certainly not a gimmick offense. It’s actually a very fundamentally sound offense based on spacing and cutting. It tends to rely on the three-point shot more often because teams would rather give up wide-open threes than wide-open layups, so as a result it is a less consistent offense, but it isn’t a gimmick or trick offense.

    Not to defend Herb (many of the things that have been said about him are dead on), but when we had the personnel for it, the PO was a good bit more than just the “weave and heave”. Hodge, especially in his last two years, absolutely killed opposing teams by curling to the block and posting up opposing guards (Cam played that role to a lesser extent later on). The offense is also more effective when your big man on point can put the ball on the floor as well as pass, and Ilian couldn’t do that nearly as well after all his injuries, he would pump-fake a guy into the air but more often ended up just stepping into a three instead of taking it into the lane.

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