PHILADELPHIA— It is a scene that most Philadelphia basketball fans have seen before. Bill Carmody sits at the end of the bench, legs crossed, intently watching the action on the floor of a modest college basketball arena.
On the far side of the court, his team executes the vaunted Princeton offensive system. Patiently passing the ball around the perimeter, Carmody's pupils tire their city opponents. Finally, with the shot clock winding down, the center in the high post dishes to a guard coming around at the top of the key. With the center screening defenders off the ball, the guard pulls up at the top of the key and connects with a long-range jumper.
The crowd is hushed, as three points go on the board for the . . . Purple and White?
Has Princeton changed its storied colors? Is this some sort of an all-star game? Or a charity event?
On all counts, no. This is simply the closest thing Carmody will have to a homecoming this season.
Return
Sunday, the former Tiger coach was on the bench in Philadelphia for a team other than Princeton for the first time since 1981. In only his sixth game at the helm of the Northwestern men's basketball team, Carmody brought his squad to Tom Gola Arena for a matchup against La Salle. Despite some success in the early going, the Wildcats dropped the contest, 62-44.
"We're not a very good offensive team," Carmody said. "La Salle had a lot to do with that. I just didn't think we could stop them. They did whatever they wanted to do. If we were going to do anything, it had to be in the first half. But they started off well and had control."
Control — of the ball, and with it, the tempo of the game — is the first rule of the Princeton motion offense. This was among the first lessons Carmody taught his very young team upon his arrival in Evanston. At the same time, the new coach learned about an important aspect of his new team.
'Inside presence'
"I knew right from the first day of practice that we didn't have any guys who could put the ball in the basket," Carmody said. "We don't have an inside presence — we have one guy on the team over [six-feet, seven-inches.] So we have to rely on three-point shooting, and there's not too many three-point [shooters]."
The Wildcats' lack of height and touch from beyond the arc has certainly slowed them this season. They have won three of their first six games, most of which have been against schools that are not exactly household names — like Arkansas-Little Rock and Maryland-Eastern Shore. Nonetheless, the tough start has not dampened the spirit or caustic wit of the coach.
"[La Salle] is not the same caliber team we've been used to seeing," the coach quipped after the game. "We played a lot of teams with hyphens in their name. You have a tendency to win those games. La Salle doesn't have any hyphens."
All kidding aside, Carmody's extremely young squad — freshmen and sophomores played 99.9 percent of all possible minutes during last year's 5-25 season — is beginning to take to the offense. Though there were instances when Northwestern was stagnant in the backcourt, forcing threes or errant passes through a tight Explorer defense, there were also signs of the virtuoso performances Car-mody conducted while at Princeton.
Against La Salle, there were moments when you could have sworn Wildcat center Aaron Jennings was former Tiger Steve Goodrich '98 in the pivot, hitting a soft jump-hook. Was that Brian Earl '99 of Princeton lore feeding Gabe Lewullis '99 on a backdoor cut? Or was it guard Drayton Collier hitting slashing Northwestern backcourt mate Jitim Young?
Either way, it was still Carmody on the sideline, barking orders to his team — never doubting his system.
"I've said before I'm not going to go back to the drawing board because I haven't left it," he said. "We have some work to do. We have to get some size. That will decrease the pressure on our guards and help us inside.
"They run it all, and they understand it. They go where they have to go, but the ball has to go in the basket," Carmody added. "The precision has to get better. It's about where I thought it would be. They're all freshmen — well, actually we have six freshmen and six sophomores, but they're all new to this offense so it takes a little while. I just know we have certain limitations."
Youth movement
In time, the Wildcats' current youth will become a strength — not a hindrance to Carmody and his staff — which includes former Princeton guard Mitch Henderson '98. This core of players — the roster features only two juniors and no seniors — will have time to learn both the basics and vagaries of the Princeton attack. And it will try to challenge the top squads in the Big Ten with basketball played in its simplest form.
Until then, however, Carmody must continue to exude the same patience his offense stresses and work slowly with his young team, so that the next time he returns to Philadelphia, he can depart a winner — as he did so many times with Princeton.
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