John Calipari pens heartfelt tribute to Pete Carril following death
Kentucky head coach John Calipari weighed in on the passing of Hall of Fame basketball coach Pete Carril, discussing a story of how a coaching “giant” bested him on the court with X’s and O’s.
“I coached against Hall of Famer Pete Carril just once in my career and we spent five days saying we weren’t going to get back-doored … and then we got back-doored to death. He was one of the giants of our profession, an unbelievable teacher and a great man,” Calipari tweeted. “RIP, Coach Carril.”
Pete Carril’s legacy will last forever at Princeton
Carril is the ultimate Princeton coach, manning the position for nearly 30 years from the late 1960’s all the way through 1996.
His teams never had much success in the NCAA Tournament, but the Tigers did earn bids 11 different times under Carril’s leadership, though they only ever won two postseason games total over that span. However, they did dominate the Ivy League on the basketball court, winning 13 conference championships under Pete Carril. That also includes four outright titles in a row from 1989-92.
That last stage of Carril’s may have been his best. Obviously, Princeton was a dynasty in the Ivy League and made four straight NCAA Tournaments as a result, despite going 0-4 in them. However, in his final year, 1996, Carril and Princeton upset UCLA in the first round.
It was the style of play that also made Carril’s teams, especially later on, so distinct. He invented the appropriately-named “Princeton offense” which was complicated, required a lot of cutting and ball movement, and was slow. Very slow. Their games usually ended in the 50s.
The last eight years of his career with Princeton, they led the nation in scoring defense, generally allowing opponents to score barely 50 points a game.