Smart Take from the Strong: The Basketball Philosophy of Pete Carril

On March 14, 1996, before a national television audience, Pete Carril's Princeton University Tigers defeated the heavily favored defending national champion UCLA Bruins, 43-41, in the first round of the NCAA tournament. To the casual observer, it was a shocking upset. But to those in the basketball world, Princeton's triumph was no surprise. For twenty-nine years, Pete Carril had led his teams to more than 500 victories and thirteen Ivy League championships. After the victory over UCLA, Carril announced his retirement from the ranks of college ball, but not before penning this witty, memorable, and insightful collection of vignettes espousing his philosophy of the game. In this era of basketball as raw athleticism, size, and power, how was Pete Carril able to maintain such a level of success throughout his career? In The Smart Take from the Strong, Carril lays bare his philosophy for basketball success. A great teacher and a terrific motivator, Carril has shown that practice, hard work, and determination help shape a winning basketball squad; Carril's teams have demonstrated that even in an age of skywalkers and long-range bombers, there is still merit in discipline, intelligence, and the ageless patterns of the game.