3 Reasons to Learn the Princeton Offense
3 REASONS TO USE THE PRINCETON OFFENSE WITH YOUR BASKETBALL TEAM
  1. Efficient – The most efficient offense in basketball. The Princeton Offense uses the reading the defense concepts of a true motion offense combined with the advantage of rehearsed set plays. This is the happy medium you have been searching for on offense. Remember when your scout team defends your new set better than any team you will face all year? Teams learn how to defend specific actions very quickly, and, with the innovation of scouting and video technology, the ability to use set plays is even more difficult. What is the answer? Mixing set plays with good spacing and driving opportunities combined with a player’s ability to read the defense and a coaches’ ability to determine where the ball should go at any point in the game.

  2. Beautiful – Ok, so I am partial to the beautiful game and seeing good shots passed over for great shots. The San Antonio Spurs pass the ball more than any team playing with a 24 second shot clock. If an NBA team can pass up shots in a time window of only 24 seconds, then why can’t high school coaches emphasize this to their teams? Unless your team features the best players in the state, and even then it would work, you should focus on adding parts of the Princeton Offense to your playbook. There are many versions of this offense and many different reads that coaches can use to get shots for their players. When executed at the highest level, which is possible for any team, it makes a team play better than the individual parts. In other words, on paper, your team should lose, but after the game, your team has just pulled off one of the biggest basketball upsets in the area. If you have the time, you should watch Pete Carril’s Princeton Tigers defeat defending NCAA Champion UCLA on a backdoor layup to win 43-41.


  3. Adaptable – Predictability will kill your practices and get you beat in games. This offense will allow a coach to determine the best way to attack a defense. After scouting or during a game, if a coach sees a particular defender overplaying, or against a switching defense, or if a team is defending your cuts a certain way, your team will have the advantage because, in this package, you get all of the counters to anything the defense can throw at you. One of the biggest timewasters a coach can face is installing new and changing sets throughout the year. It is frustrating to constantly add new plays instead of focusing on execution and fundamental basketball. If you install the Princeton Offense, you can continue to develop your offense without making constant changes. Time is something each team has, and if you use your time more efficiently, your team will be more prepared at the end of the season when it matters most.