Princeton Offense
From Hoopedia
The Princeton Offense is a five-part play that typically takes fifteen seconds to run. The goal of the Princeton offense is not to run clock. The goal is to break a defense down because of lack of discipline. It is named after the Princeton University system perfected by Princeton's renowned head coach, Pete Carril.
Second, the system is not designed to make nonathletic players compete with athletic players, as this would be impossible because of the large number of isos and ball screens run for guards. If the opposing players were that much more athletic, the guards would be trapped off the screens, and the play would break down.
Third, the Princeton offense was created by Pete Carril to beat Ivy League teams like Dartmouth and Yale, not UCLA or Florida. All Ivy League teams run some sort of ball control offense, meaning that Princeton needed to develop a system to match their common opponents.
Finally, the Princeton offense works against both man to man and zone defenses, and not just against man, as many think.
As touched on earlier, the Princeton offense is a five-part play that typically takes around fifteen seconds to run. The whole offense is predicated on discipline and preparation by the offensive team, as Princeton coaches spend lots of time doing studies on individual players and their defensive habits. There is maybe one set defensive play per game that a well-coached Princeton offense won’t recognize from its scouting.
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Part One
Part one of the Princeton offense is a high post entry and a strong side over the top cut. In fact, everything runs through the high post entry and through down screens.
Part Two
Part two is ball screening, although ninety percent of the time the guy with the ball will try and break his cheating defender down by faking towards the screen and going the opposite direction. The goal of this tactic is to either lead to an open lay-up or cross-court kick out for an open three pointer. A key point is that there are no dribble drives and a very small amount of the mid-range game in the Princeton offense.
Part Three
Part three of the Princeton offense involves the guards posting up on other guards, as Carril and his staff believed that guards in the NCAA are not coached on how to defend a guard who posts up. All guards in the Princeton offense are taught to shoot hook shots off the post.
Part Four
Also, speaking of something each player in the Princeton offense must be capable of, part four is simply the following: Every player on the floor is able to shoot three pointers.
Part Five
Finally, part five of the Princeton offense doesn’t even involve the offense. It’s the Princeton defense, or a matchup zone. Much in the same manner as on offense, players who run the true Princeton system are taught every thing about their opponent’s offensive tendencies. There is not a play an opponent will run that a true Princeton team will not know how to defend. The general conception of ball-control and a slow down game that are associated with the Princeton offense are actually due to the Princeton defense. A player who is struggling on the offensive end will often try to make up for it on the defensive side.
