Men's Basketball Program Featured in Sports Illustrated

Coach Billy Lee and the Fighting Camel men's basketball program was featured prominently in the Feb. 17 issue of Sports Illustrated. In a nine-page feature on the popular growth of the "Princeton offense," Coach Lee was interviewed and quoted by writer Grant Wahl about CU's installation of the scheme that was devised by former Princeton head coach Pete Carril.
According to the publication, 26 men's programs – including the Camels -- are now running the offense among the 327 NCAA Division I members. Coach Carril implemented the scheme during his 29 years at Princeton from 1967-96 and passed the offense down to assistant coaches and players who have used it at Northwestern (Bill Carmody), Columbia (Armond Hill), Air Force (Joe Scott) and continued to use it at Princeton under current head coach John Thompson III.
In 1996, Jimmy Tillette began to study the scheme while an assistant at Atlantic Sun Conference member Samford, then brought the offense to the league when he was appointed head coach prior to the 1997-98 season. The Bulldogs won the A-Sun crown and advanced to the NCAA Tournament in both 1999 and 2000.
According to Wahl, "In its purest form, [the offense] requires a center who can shoot from the outside and deliver one-handed bounce passes on a dime to backdoor cutters. It requires an agile power forward who can cut, pass and shoot, since the offense makes no distinctions between its four nonpost players. Not least, it requires selfless players who can think."
Coach Lee's link to the offense was Division III Muskingum head coach Jim Burson, who has also tutored Larry Hunter (associate head coach) and Herb Sendek (head coach) of North Carolina State, as well as Jim Larranaga of George Mason and Charlie Coles of Miami (Ohio) in the ways of the intricate system.
"Certainly this was tremendous exposure for our program and University to be featured in a Sports Illustrated article," said Coach Lee. "I just can't believe that they didn't choose me to be in the swimsuit issue!"