Guest TigerBlog - Big Green Alert Talks Pete Carril

TigerBlog is always interested in what others have to say about pretty much any issue related to Princeton Athletics. The Guest TigerBlogs are always entertaining, and TB loves to see the perspectives of those who want the floor.

Today's guest entry comes from Bruce Wood, whom you would know as the Big Green Alert guy. Bruce has covered Dartmouth athletics since before TB first came to Princeton, and the two have developed a good friendship over the years. There have been a lot of games they've both covered, both in Princeton and Hanover.

Today's guest entry belongs to Bruce:

The recent TigerBlog column about Pete Carril’s most memorable quotes got me thinking about both the first time I saw the great man on the sidelines and the last.

The first was as a fan on March 13, 1976, when I traveled from New Jersey to Providence, R.I., with a car full of friends to watch the Tigers take on Phil Sellers and the undefeated Scarlet Knights in the first round of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. My buddies were all relieved when Rutgers escaped with a 54-53 win over Armond Hill, Frank Sowinski and Barnes Hauptfuhrer. Me? I kept it to myself on the long drive back home but I was a disappointed Princeton fan after the front end of a one-and-one that might have given the Tigers the win rimmed out with four seconds remaining.

Pete and I would chat briefly about that game two decades later.

As the beat writer covering Dartmouth sports for the Valley News I was on press row at Jadwin Gym on Feb. 23, 1996 for what would be the final Princeton-Dartmouth game of Carril’s storied career. With players like Sea Lonergan, Brian Gilpin and Kenny Mitchell, this was one of the best Big Green teams I would write about, but once again on this Friday night it was simply no match for the NCAA-bound Tigers led by Steve Goodrich, Sydney Johnson, Gabe Lewullis and Mitch Henderson. I remember like it was yesterday the tremendous difficulty Dartmouth had putting the ball in the basket that night and giddy Princeton fans chanting as halftime approached, “No double figures. No double figures.”

Dartmouth escaped that ignominious fate to close out the half with 16 points but never challenged in a 65-39 loss.

After getting lost briefly in the bowels of Jadwin Gym after the game I made it to the press room and asked Carril about shutting down a usually potent Dartmouth offense. He wasted no words explaining what we had all just seen. “They have defendable players,” the old coach said, “and we defended them.”

I was on deadline and unlike TigerBlog I’ve never been a fast writer. But while I needed to grab a desk and get to work on my story that would have to wait. I had always regretted as a grad student in journalism at Penn State not standing and applauding after the final class with the best professor I ever had, who was retiring that spring. While I wasn’t about to publicly clap for Carril, who I knew was approaching the end of a long road, I wanted to tell him quietly and privately how much I appreciated everything he had taught us about the right way to play basketball.

So I pulled him aside and thanked him the way I wished I had that journalism professor years earlier.

Before I ducked out of the room I told Pete that I was at the 1976 Princeton-Rutgers tournament game and given how the bracket broke I’ve always believed his team would have taken the Scarlet Knight’s path all the way to the Final Four that year.

Carril sighed and said, “I’ve always thought so, too.”

Not a classic Carrilism, but one I’ll never forget.