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Carmody shifts focus to 2000-01 season
Returnees will have experience, recruits could help
By Justin Feil
Princeton Packet Sports Writer
Monday, March 20, 2000
Bill Carmody didn't waste any time putting the 1999-2000 season behind him.
He concluded his fourth season as head coach of the Princeton University men's basketball team with a loss in the first round of the National Invitational Tournament Wednesday. He started talking about next year in the locker room that night.
"Normally, at this time of the year, I'm worn out," Carmody said. "I'm not though. I'm anxious to get to work, to start the guys working out, to start improving."
Sitting in the Nittany Lions' visitor locker room that night were faces that will return for a team that finished 19-11 overall and 11-3 in the Ivy League. Only senior Mason Rocca, who will graduate this spring with an engineering degree, will be gone. The co-captain played only sparingly over the final half of the Princeton season due to a variety of injuries.
Princeton University trainer Mike Derosier earned his keep. Injuries were the story of the season for the Tigers. Four JV players had to be called up just to fill out the bench.
"It interrupted us at different times this year," Carmody said of the injuries that cost Princeton players 87 total missed games. "That made it difficult to have any evenness about the season. I don't know if too many of them were preventable, but we'll look at it. That's not an excuse though, and we had an all right year.
"What happened is we got more guys in there for more minutes, which is a good thing. We got some experience. Now, what are we going to do to get ready for next year?"
"We'll work individually with the guys," he added. "As a staff, we'll go over all our tapes. We'll look at what we can improve offensively and defensively. We'll look at the players we have coming back and the players we have coming in."
Princeton already has commitments from two highly touted players, Andre Logan of New York and Ed Persia from Texas. Carmody cannot discuss other players the Tigers are recruiting until their acceptance is finalized some time in early April.
"I hope those guys can help," Carmody said. "I think we need some new blood in there. Persia's greatest asset is that he's a leader. He's a point guard and he knows how to run a team. Andre is a very good all-around player. Both of them played for small schools and didn't face the strongest competition. But they played very well against good competition in AAU games, and that's when we saw them.
"We've got a few (other) guys. We're pretty small. You have Chris Young and you have Nate (Walton). But Ray (Robins) is about 6-foot-6. If we can get some bigger guys, it would help. Logan's only about 6-6."
One Tiger who may not be new, but should help Princeton is Chris Krug, who left school in the fall with a preseason illness. The 6-foot-9 forward could return with sophomore eligibility.
"I assume he's coming back," Carmody said. "It seems that way. He seems like he's in pretty good spirits. Chris would definitely help us. I look forward to him coming back."
Krug would give the Tigers immediate size and would help defensively and with his inside rebounding. He could allow Young to play more of a forward position if both are in the game at the same time. Carmody and his staff will work in the off-season to determine where Young is most valuable.
"The guy leads us in every category," Carmody said. "He is a very good player. He still has things to work on and he'll work on them. There's room for him to grow."
The same thing goes for Spencer Gloger, Princeton's prized recruit last year who set a freshman school record for three-pointers this season. But the 6-foot-6 guard fizzled somewhat in the second half of the season.
"I think that happens to most freshmen," Carmody said. "I always think back to Brian Earl. We actually had to take him out of the starting lineup because he was so worn down physically and mentally. You look at Spence — he averaged 12 (points) a game, he shot 41 percent from three-point range, he was our third leading rebounder. I think he had a good year and he's got some things to work on too.
"We recognize that we have to improve. We all have to get better. We have to look at everybody and evaluate. I thought our defense was good. Other teams shot 37 percent against us. Offensively, are we too dependent on Chris Young? Do we take too many threes? I don't know. You look at the (NCAA) tournament, and Seton Hall wins because of their threes. Pepperdine loses because they only make six, and three of them were in the last minute. Those are things we'll look at."
Though Carmody told his team to take a short break after a second straight second-place Ivy finish and NIT appearance, the work has already begun for Princeton in hopes of winning its first league title in three seasons.
"I hope they're disappointed," Carmody said. "I'm disappointed, too. But you can't dwell in your disappointment.
"This place is no different from any other. Guys like to play, to win. Ray was already playing at Dillon on Saturday. Guys are lifting already. There's been keen disappointment. I hope we can do something about it."
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