Cats say their bodies are ready for NCAA Tournament; they'll need their heads vs. Princeton

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Broken hand and all, Arizona center Oumar Ballo says he’s definitely playing. And guard Kerr Kriisa, though still wearing a red wrap around his cut-up right hand, says his shoulder is better at least.

“It’s very good,” Kriisa said.

For the Wildcats and their tight seven-man rotation, that’s good news. Good upper-body news.

Except Arizona is playing Princeton. Which means, if reputation holds to form, the Wildcats’ feet will be the focal point of their NCAA Tournament first-round game Thursday.

Long known for an offense that features backdoor cuts, movement, spacing and maybe an open 3-pointer once a defense wears down, the Tigers famously defeated defending national champion UCLA in the first round of the 1996 NCAA Tournament as a 13th seed.

Their scheme was so distinct, so eye-opening, that it became known as the Princeton Offense. You can see elements of it today in other teams all over the country, even the one that UA forward Cedric Henderson played in at Campbell for three seasons before joining the Wildcats as a grad transfer this season.

“We have to be prepared for cuts,” Henderson warned Wednesday about Princeton. “They run a well-run offense. We have to be solid.”

It’s been nearly three decades since former Princeton coach Pete Carril led the Tigers to that 1996 upset, but UA coach Tommy Lloyd still spent the week fielding questions about the Princeton Offense.

It started immediately after the Wildcats picked up their No. 2 tournament seed on Sunday at St. Phillips Plaza, and by Wednesday, it was clear Lloyd had found a way to answer the question in characteristically humorous fashion.

“Somebody asked me the other day, `Is Princeton running the Princeton offense?’ “ Loyd said. “I’m like, `Yeah, they run the Princeton offense every year no matter what they’re running because it’s the Princeton offense.’ ”

Pah-dum. After his podium interview ended, Lloyd ran the Wildcats through a public shooting session at Golden 1 Center, taking a brief break to chat with a few Tucson-based reporters sitting on the sidelines.

“Whatever they run,” Lloyd reminded everyone, grinning, “it’s the Princeton offense.”

True enough. But the truth is that what the Tigers run now is something of a modern-day Princeton Offense. The Tigers don’t run at a plodding pace, ranking slightly above average in adjusted tempo, and they rank just 240th nationally in the ratio of assists to made field goals (240).

But they’re still, well, Princeton. Run by a coach, Mitch Henderson, who actually was a key player on that 1996 Tiger team, and inspired by, according to forward Tosan Evbuoman, the legendary Carril.

“I think it’s definitely evolved,” Evbuoman said. “We play probably a little bit faster. We try to push the ball when we can.

“I think some of the same kind of themes still exist in terms of just playing, limiting play calls, guys having the freedom to play off one another, the selfless style of basketball that we play on offense. Some big themes remain, but it definitely has evolved.”

UA assistant coach Steve Robinson has been in a unique position this week, scouting the Tigers while also having the historical knowledge of playing against them regularly as a Cornell assistant for two seasons in the mid-1980s.

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He still sees some of the same stuff, deep down within Princeton’s modernized system.

“They have that kind of movement, they will have some backdoor cuts, they’ll do what Princeton does,” Robinson said. “They play probably a little faster than Princeton back in the ‘80s did. But you see the layers that they have still built into how they play.”

So maybe the Wildcats will need their heads, their feet and their hands in full form Thursday. Ballo says that won’t be a problem with him, even though he only delicately used his left hand during the Wildcats’ public shooting session Wednesday.

“I literally will just play the way I was playing last game against UCLA,” Ballo said. “I will not think about it. I will just keep playing basketball.”

Ballo actually logged 26 minutes in UA’s Pac-12 Tournament championship game against the Bruins last Saturday after hurting his hand the night before against USC. Ballo said Wednesday he suffered the break with contact at the rim, though he didn’t know it right away.

“At first I got hit, and then a couple of possessions later I could feel it, the bone,” Ballo said.

Ballo said the hand didn’t swell up afterward or cause any unusual problems during the week, but he’s also the same guy who went to the hospital three times after New Year’s with a bacterial infection — and came back to play 34 minutes against Washington on Jan. 5.

“It wasn’t swelled up or big, anything like that,” Ballo said. “It was just a little bit of pain. But I’ll be fine.”

So says Kriisa, even though the UA point guard took just three shots and had no assists against UCLA while suffering a cut to his right hand.

“Just a regular cut,” Kriisa said. “I don’t know really how it happened, but it’s not really a factor.”

Maybe so. Of the three shots he did take Saturday, two were 3-pointers that Kriisa put through the net.

So, with whatever offense Princeton throws at them, the Wildcats say they are ready.

They have to be.

“It’s March,” Ballo said.”I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s played through injuries. This time of the year, it’s important for any players to be lucky enough to come to this stage. So I’m not gonna take that for granted.”

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