[81alum]

I thought Tara constantly tweaks their offense and we don’t run a pure Princeton. Does anyone know?

When I tried to educate myself about the Princeton, I learned there actually is no such thing as a pure Princeton.  The more videos I watched the more frustrating it became since there are so many variations.  I am sure that Tara puts bells and whistles on the system to fit the unique personality of each team.

But here is the best I can do to answer.

First, when the other team plays zone, the Princeton usually (though not quite always) gets replaced by a zone offense.  I doubt, for example, that we will be working on the Princeton before we play Oregon, which pretty consistently plays zone.

As far as the Princeton is concerned, I've heard at a chalk talk at some point that what we do are some Princeton-offense elements--not that we necessarily run the entire system all the time.  

For example, the video shared above shows the Princeton in the "High Post series" meaning a series of cuts and moves are conducted with the post up at the elbow looking to feed the ball to whichever player generates a mismatch via all the motion. 

There are a half dozen other "series" in the Princeton and I am unsure how many of these Tara actually uses.  You could say that each such series begins with the main assist positioned in a different spot, and a calculated "series" of movements of the other four players around that person carefully designed to screw up the player-to-player defense.  For example, there is also a "Low Post series."  The "Chin series" begins with a double handoff on one wing--we often open up with that one.

To the spectator, the Princeton typically has two or more players in motion--often in succession while the ball is stationary.  None of the moves is "improvised" and every move is choreographed.  If one "series" fails to produce a mismatch, and if there is enough time, the offense can switch to a different "series" which basically means to reposition the ball and run some different choreography around it to see if it works better.  If time is running out and nothing has worked, then you are reduced to giving the ball to your best improvisational player and seeing how it goes.

The best way to defend the Princeton in the modern era is related to the shot clock.  Full court pressure can slow it down and provide less time for all the series.  As the shot clock has shrunk over the years, the Princeton has become less popular.  Before a shot clock, the Princeton could be absolutely deadly since you could run an endless number of series until the other side eventually got fatigued and failed to keep up.  It made for some very low scoring games.  This is why, I think, Tara only takes elements of the Princeton now--it is not really possible to run the whole elaborate system on a short shot clock and expect it to work.

This is also one reason why we keep hearing at the chalk talks that Tara wants our team to "play with pace" and another good reason to use so much depth.  We want to bring the ball up fast to allow more time to run those series.  And most player-to-player defenses will just get exhausted by the end of the game trying to keep up with all that motion--provided we don't exhaust ourselves running it.  It is a very good offense for a well conditioned team with a lot of depth.

[81alum]

I thought Tara constantly tweaks their offense and we don’t run a pure Princeton. Does anyone know?

When I tried to educate myself about the Princeton, I learned there actually is no such thing as a pure Princeton.  The more videos I watched the more frustrating it became since there are so many variations.  I am sure that Tara puts bells and whistles on the system to fit the unique personality of each team.

But here is the best I can do to answer.

First, when the other team plays zone, the Princeton usually (though not quite always) gets replaced by a zone offense.  I doubt, for example, that we will be working on the Princeton before we play Oregon, which pretty consistently plays zone.

As far as the Princeton is concerned, I've heard at a chalk talk at some point that what we do are some Princeton-offense elements--not that we necessarily run the entire system all the time.  

For example, the video shared above shows the Princeton in the "High Post series" meaning a series of cuts and moves are conducted with the post up at the elbow looking to feed the ball to whichever player generates a mismatch via all the motion. 

There are a half dozen other "series" in the Princeton and I am unsure how many of these Tara actually uses.  You could say that each such series begins with the main assist positioned in a different spot, and a calculated "series" of movements of the other four players around that person carefully designed to screw up the player-to-player defense.  For example, there is also a "Low Post series."  The "Chin series" begins with a double handoff on one wing--we often open up with that one.

To the spectator, the Princeton typically has two or more players in motion--often in succession while the ball is stationary.  None of the moves is "improvised" and every move is choreographed.  If one "series" fails to produce a mismatch, and if there is enough time, the offense can switch to a different "series" which basically means to reposition the ball and run some different choreography around it to see if it works better.  If time is running out and nothing has worked, then you are reduced to giving the ball to your best improvisational player and seeing how it goes.

The best way to defend the Princeton in the modern era is related to the shot clock.  Full court pressure can slow it down and provide less time for all the series.  As the shot clock has shrunk over the years, the Princeton has become less popular.  Before a shot clock, the Princeton could be absolutely deadly since you could run an endless number of series until the other side eventually got fatigued and failed to keep up.  It made for some very low scoring games.  This is why, I think, Tara only takes elements of the Princeton now--it is not really possible to run the whole elaborate system on a short shot clock and expect it to work.

This is also one reason why we keep hearing at the chalk talks that Tara wants our team to "play with pace" and another good reason to use so much depth.  We want to bring the ball up fast to allow more time to run those series.  And most player-to-player defenses will just get exhausted by the end of the game trying to keep up with all that motion--provided we don't exhaust ourselves running it.  It is a very good offense for a well conditioned team with a lot of depth.