THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 16, 1996 TAG: 9603160509
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE CARLSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: INDIANAPOLIS LENGTH: Medium: 93 lines
He shuffled down the hallway at the RCA Dome, reporters in lockstep beside him and cameramen jockeying for position ahead of him.
Pete Carril, college basketball's lovable little guy - both literally and figuratively - had just averted retirement for at least two more days by leading Princeton to a 43-41 upset of defending national champion UCLA in the Southeast Regional. The victory thrust Carril, 65 years old and stepping down after three decades as the Tigers coach, into the national spotlight as the feel-good story of the tournament.
``I'm not interested in being the national story,'' Carril said. ``I'd rather have a good cigar right now.''
Princeton had been close but no cigar so many times before, and had become best known for its famous tournament losses.
Top-seeded Georgetown beat the Tigers 50-49 in 1989. Fourth-seeded Arkansas eked out a 68-64 win the next year, and then Princeton, as a No. 8 seed, lost to Villanova 50-48 in 1991. Syracuse beat the Tigers by eight in 1992, their last tournament appearance.
Thursday night, the Tigers gave their departing coach a retirement present of greater value than any gold watch.
``If we played UCLA 100 times, they might win 99, but tonight we did,'' Carril said.
They played vintage Princeton basketball - passing, moving, screening, boxing out and squeezing every nanosecond off the shot clock.
``We just stayed true to our system,'' guard Sydney Johnson said. ``If we stay with our system, we're going to beat people.''
Still, the fourth-seeded Bruins led 41-34 with 6:13 remaining. But No. 13 Princeton closed the game with a 9-0 run, including the winning basket with 3.9 seconds left on a Carril staple - a backdoor cut.
``We finally won an NCAA game, which is nice,'' said forward Gabe Lewullis, who scored the game winner, leaving UCLA's Charles O'Bannon in his wake and sending the crowd of 31,569 into an uproar.
``You weren't here when we were losing them, what the hell do you know?'' Carril laughed.
The players know.
Center Steve Goodrich - who, like most Princeton players, looks like he was plucked from the set of ``Hoosiers'' - said Carril makes sure of it. Last year when the coach was upset with the performance of his players, he passed out box scores of Princeton classics like the Georgetown game.
``He's always instills a sense of who's played here and trying to live up to the history of the program,'' Goodrich said. ``And he likes the image of an underdog.''
Image would seem to be nothing to the 5-foot-5 Carril, a simple guy from a blue-collar upbringing in Bethlehem, Pa. No Nike swoosh adorned his clothes. He sported no Italian loafers or expensive suits, like many coaches favor.
Thursday the rumpled Carril wore a beige sweater that had seen better days over a golf shirt, slacks and scuffed shoes. He likely will be wearing it all again today when the Tigers (22-6) take on Mississippi State, because Carril said he did not pack for four days in Indy.
``I'll go to the laundry,'' he said.
A TV reporter asked breathlessly where the win over UCLA will rate in Pete Carril's scrapbook.
``Well,'' Carril said, ``I don't have a scrapbook.''
With that, Carril shuffled on down the hall and began to walk into the UCLA locker room. ``Your locker room is down there, coach,'' a tournament said, directing him to another door.
In that locker room, the players reveled in the going away present they had given their coach.
``I think it's important for the guys just to make him happy,'' said all-Ivy Leaguer Johnson, as Carril lit up his cigar in the center of the room.
Johnson wept last weekend when Carril announced his intentions by writing ``I'm retiring'' on a chalkboard in the locker room after the Tigers' conference tournament win over Penn.
There were no Tiger tears in the RCA Dome.
That boisterous locker room fell silent when the TV up in the corner began showing Princeton-UCLA highlights. As the ESPN analysts discussed the game, a bunch of non-scholarship Ivy League kids and an impish coach sat in rapt attention.
Dick Vitale gushed about the venerable Carril, and asked Digger Phelps how many of the Princeton players could get a basketball scholarship at UCLA. ``Zero,'' Phelps said, putting his thumb and index finger together.
``I don't know about that,'' Carril blurted out with delight.
It's true. Otherwise, Carril's chance to light up one more victory cigar would not make such a good story. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
For Pete Carril, 65, Thursday's win over defending NCAA champ UCLA
was better than a gold retirement watch.
by CNB