It’s Samford, not Stanford, and it’s easy to make fun of a team from the Trans America Athletic Conference that is making its first-ever trip to the NCAA Tournament.
But before the St. John’s players and fans start poking fun at their first-round opponent, here’s a sobering thought: Samford coach Jimmy Tillette has his team running Princeton’s system and it’s one that most teams hate to play against.
The Red Storm (25-8), seeded third in the South Regional, meet Samford (24-5), seeded 14th, Thursday in a first-round game in Orlando. The winner meets the winner of the Indiana-George Washington game. George Washington is where St. John’s coach Mike Jarvis spent the last eight years.
Tillette got the idea of copying Princeton’s style in 1995 when Samford and Princeton played in the Iowa State Holiday Bowl Classic. Tillette went out to dinner with then-Princeton coach Pete Carril and his assistant Bill Carmody.
Since Carmody took over for Carril two years ago, he has received two visits from Tillette.
When Tillette took over as the Samford coach last season, he started to install the most disciplined system in college basketball. The problem was, he had a team with five freshmen and five sophs. Samford, located in Birmingham, Ala., went 14-13 last season.
“We were babies,” Tillette told a national magazine this season. “But I wanted to start teaching this offense because I knew the kids would be back.”