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The Smart Take from the Strong: The Basketball Philosophy of Pete Carril | 
 enlarge | Authors: Pete Carril, Dan White
Creator: Bob Knight
Publisher: Bison Books
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
Buy New: $10.10
You Save: $6.85 (40%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 531417
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 205
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.4 x 0.5
ISBN: 0803264488
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.323077
EAN: 9780803264489
ASIN: 0803264488
Publication Date: October 1, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
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Amazon.com
The class and success of Princeton University's basketball program can be traced to two words: Pete Carril. Carril coached the perennial Ivy League powerhouse for 29 seasons before his 1996 retirement, and his hardwood hard line couldn't have been simpler: play smart. Of course, it helped that his players were smart enough--they did get into Princeton--to compensate for any lack of size and talent. Carril preached winning through intelligence, selfless play, and dogged defense. The Smart Take from the Strong is his bible. While it makes a pass here and there at biography, the book's beauty is the keenness of its Carrilion collection of on- and off-the-court parables and beatitudes. How can you turn a deaf ear to eternal verities such as "Bad shooters are always open" and "The ability to rebound is in inverse proportion to the distance your house is from the nearest railroad tracks"? And how can you not love a coach who can suggest, when pondering why the university kept rehiring him, "I think they kept me because some of my players seemed to be better people for the experience," and not have it sound like a crow?
Product Description
“The strong take from the weak, but the smart take from the strong.” So said Pete Carril’s father, a Spanish immigrant who worked for thirty-nine years in a Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, steel mill. His son stood only five-foot-six but nonetheless became an All-State basketball player in high school, a Little All-American in college, and a highly successful coach. After twenty-nine years as Princeton University’s basketball coach, he became an assistant coach with the NBA’s Sacramento Kings. In 1997 he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Coach Carril inspired his teams with his own strength of character and drive to win, and he demonstrated time and again how a smart and dedicated team could compete successfully against bigger programs and faster, stronger, more athletic players. His teams won thirteen conference championships, made eleven NCAA Tournament appearances, and led the nation in defense fourteen times. Throughout his reflections on a lifetime spent on the basketball court and the bench, Carril demonstrates deep respect for the contest, his empathy and engagement with the players, humility with his own achievements, a pragmatic vision of discipline and fundamentals, and an enduring joy in the game. This is an inspiring and wonderful book, even for those who never made a basket.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
Basketball Fan May 16, 2007
For basketball fans and coaches, this book is a must read. It's a short, but graceful and humorous look at basketball through the eyes of one of its coaching deans. Readers get Carril's insight into collegiate basketball and his opinions on various techniques and fundamentals. His dry wit and plainspoken style exemplify Carril at his finest as he discusses the philosophy behind the "Princeton offense" that his teams invented and perfected. If you enjoy college basketball, it's well worth the money.
The train tracks are real June 15, 2005
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
"The closer you live to the wrong side of the train tracks tells me if your gonna be a good rebounder." Reading this book I got blown away about the lessons in it. First off, there's very little your learn in terms of X's and O's, so for that matter go to a basketball camp and learn from a coach live. What you will learn is that life and basketball is about putting forth the expriences you've had into the best possible mold of yourself. I've read about Andrew Carnegy so I know about the town fo Bethlaham PA, but that doesn't give the hardship that Pete Carril grew up in. What I did get was that it doesn't where your from or your who your parents were(your parents and family are important for personal matters), it's what you do with your self that makes the difference. Carrils insight in what made his teams successful are very helpful. Athletes are pampered too much today, what is really needed is honesty and a fair shake. Pete Carril was best in saying that the true stars at Princeton were the ones in the libary. Alot has been said about Carril's teams and their offense but I like the fact that it was always about the "teams" and not individuals. The sad fact is that in the big time college basketball world, there's not enough Pete Carrils. Just look at the graduation rate of college basketball players and ask yourself who's getting the raw end of the deal. Carril's got his deciples out there, John Thompson the younger at Georgetown to name one. Read this book and forget about basketball and take it like a wise bartender or cab driving giving you his life expriences.
'Using El Coco' to Master Basketball and Life June 13, 2005
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
In The Smart Take from the Strong, legendary Princeton coach and Sacramento Kings bench adviser Pete Carril offers an assortment of aphorisms jotted and compiled over the course of his college career. Ranging from one sentence (e.g., "Overcoming Certain Obstacles: A good mind has never handicapped a player") to 6 pages ("You Never Tire of Making Shots"), Carril's end product is part Quotations of Chairman Mao, part Clausewitz, offering dozens, if not hundreds, of pithy insights that are as useful to a successful life as they are to success on the basketball court. He is Yogi Berra turned upside down (or right-side up): elegant, yet intellectual, in utter simplicity.
In early sections of the book, Carril sheds biographical light -- and, in an unassuming style, makes light of it -- on his life growing up in industrial Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The son of Spanish immigrants, Carril learned from his father how craftiness can overcome physical talent. "Every day, before he left for work, [Father] would remind my sister and me how important it is to be smart," Carril writes. "Then, as he was going out the door, he would point his finger at his head and say, 'Use El Coco'"(17). As a young player standing only 5'6, Carril took the simple message to heart -- and, around it, developed an entire doctrine of coaching that guided Princeton to 13 Ivy League titles, an NIT tournament win in 1975 (the only by an Ivy League school) and a classic upset of defending champion UCLA in the 1996 NCAA Tournament. That he did it all in one of America's elite academic institutions, without offering a single scholarship, makes his accomplishments even more remarkable.
Contemporary, NBA-focused readers of Carril's little masterpiece will also come away with a better understanding of the style of basketball that transformed the Sacramento Kings from NBA doormat into a perennial playoff team (and, in the early 2000s, arguably the "greatest show on court", in the words of Sports Illustrated). Sections entitled "Play without the Ball (and the Coach)" and "Cut with Credibility" underscore the primary objective of a good offense: to move the defense. He touches on details ("Every little thing counts. If not, why do it?") such as bounce-passes and jump balls; he discusses his love of the three-pointer and good passers; he considers at length the value of mastering fundamentals such as dribbling, pivoting and layups. Carril is a basketball fundamentalist without hestitation. But, in an interesting contrast to the Kings teams he has helped to coach (with former Princeton star pupil Geoff Petrie), Carril is also a tough-minded, defensive-oriented coach who denounces the "three car garage guys" -- players who come from the rich side of town. "I liked to find players from schools whose names begin with 'bishop' or 'monsignor' -- city Catholic schools -- because they have learned discipline and because they tend to be shrewd, tough, hardworking, loyal to their friends and families" (169). Judging by the struggles with which the Kings have had on defense and rebounding in recent seasons, one wonders whether Coach Carril is still getting enough say in team huddles.
Ultimately, the gold nugget in Carril's treasure is perhaps his simplest point. He writes, "The most important thing you can do is to DO what you are doing well. The word 'focus' does not carry the same weight with me...When you play, PLAY...When you study, STUDY. Then it's not hard to separate the two" (191). In a world of information overload, pressure to multitask, and need to exceed beyond any realistic expecation, it is a valuable lesson for any competitor in life.
Great Coach! One Fantastic book!! March 24, 2003
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I am not a fan of the Princeton Tigers but a Wisconsin Badger basketball fan, Pete Carril is a tough, tenacious basketball coach who beleived in certain principles that went beyond the game of basketball. These principles gained the trust and confidence of his players. Which explains why he was able to coach basketball for so long in an age defined by "image over substance"... shoe contracts, commercials, etc. I wish that I could have played for a coach like this.
 The Smart Take from the Strong (Carril) June 5, 2002
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book is a great look at the "Yoda" of college hoops. Carril's biography is a good look at a blue collar coach who got the absolute most from his players. He reveals no "mysteries" of the game-he stresses hard work around a solid philosophy. It is NOT an X and O book-don't buy it for that reason. It is a great basketball philosophy book. If you love the college game and the personalities that coach in it, buy this book.
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