HANDS-ON TEACHER: Former Princeton University men’s basketball head coach Pete Carril greets well-wishers in February 2009 before a ceremony where the main court at Jadwin Gym was officially renamed “Carril Court” in his honor. Hall of Famer Carril, who passed away at age 92 on August 15, left an indelible legacy on the players he guided.
By Justin Feil
When Pete Carril returned to watch Princeton University men’s basketball games, the former Tigers head coach sat high in the Jadwin Gym rafters.
Seeing the game was important to him. Being seen was not.
“He taught you how to play, how to see, how to think,” said current Princeton head coach Mitch Henderson, who played two seasons for Carril before he retired in 1996. “There are these incredible gifts that you’re being given and you don’t realize it. And how to work – how to come into the gym early, how to stay late. And his presence … that was what he was. He was a teacher.”
Carril, the Hall of Fame coach who spent so much time teaching players how to see the game the right way, died on August 15 at age 92 after complications following a stroke.
Carril’s coaching tree is one of the fullest in college basketball with six former players currently serving as head coaches, and former players continue to pass along his lessons while adding their own wrinkles to what was branded the “Princeton Offense” because of Carril’s success and since has seen its concepts emulated from high schools to the NBA.
“The reign of Coach Carril did not end in 1996 when he retired,” said former Princeton athletic director Gary Walters. “The reign is still going on in the eyes of all those players who played for him and eventually succeeded him at Princeton.”