Carril: No clear heir to Scott

The Godfather of Princeton basketball has spoken. But, like every other Tiger fan, he doesn't have any idea as to who will replace Joe Scott '87 as the head coach of the men's basketball team next winter.

"I've been gone for so long, I don't really know what's going on," said Princeton coaching legend Pete Carril, who led the Tigers from 1967 to 1996.

Much like the rest of the college basketball world, Carril has been caught up in the NCAA Tournament. Television cameras caught Carril in the stands for the Elite Eight matchup between Georgetown and North Carolina on March 25, cheering on protege and former Tiger head coach John Thompson III '88, who steered the Hoyas past the Tar Heels into the Final Four.

Also on the Georgetown bench that evening were two of the most often-mentioned candidates for the Princeton head coaching vacancy — Hoya assistants Robert Burke and Sydney Johnson '97 — who helped lead Georgetown in a magnificent tournament run that ended in the semifinals against Ohio State on Saturday.

Princeton Director of Athletics Gary Walters '67, meanwhile, is the chair of the NCAA Tournament selection committee and is not expected back on campus until today, following the last night's championship game between Florida and Ohio State.

With so many of the major pieces in Princeton's coaching puzzle otherwise occupied, can the Tigers afford this delay in their coaching search?

"If it's going to take time, this is the period," Carril said. "It's sort of a dead period. You can't recruit, so you're not losing anything. If you're in recruiting season, though, it's hard."

Walters thus expects to take his time; he predicted a one-month timeline at the time of Scott's departure two weeks ago. For the first time in recent history, finding a new basketball coach isn't a no-brainer like it was when was Scott was given the position after leading Air Force to the NCAA Tournament in 2004.

While Carril did admit that he had notions as to who the best hire would be, he declined to give specific names. But having spent so much time watching Thompson's Georgetown squad of late, Carril did have plenty of good things to say about the Hoya assistants.

"Being the kind of coach that [Thompson] was there, [Johnson and Burke] were included in all the decisions," Carril said. "He took opinions and suggestions very well, so I'm sure they were a very large part of what was accomplished there."

Regardless of who takes over the Tigers, Carril said he feels confident that the team will improve, in part because of the rapidly maturing young players in the program.

"They were making progress, but they were very young," Carril said. "Hopefully, it'll turn around really quickly for the new guy."

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That inexperience, which was Scott's bane, could turn into the future head coach's boon. For Carril, it was unfortunate that things turned out the way they did for Scott.

"It wasn't as successful as it should have been for a guy with his talent," Carril said. "You take it game by game. There were so many [games] that went down to the last minute [this season]— a missed foul shot here and a missed box out here — it kept them from winning all the close games. Last year, it was my understanding that they won all the close games."

There is no telling how differently the Tiger season would have progressed if those free throws had been made or if those rebounds had been grabbed.

All that the Godfather can be certain of, at least for now, is that Walters has the ball in his court.

"It's going to be Gary's decision to make with the help of the committees and the organizers," Carril said.

While Tiger fans sit at the edge of their seats, waiting for the final decision, they can only cross their fingers and hope that Walters will find the second coming of the Godfather.