More Ivy poison?

Victoria Sun

Thursday, Dec. 2, 1999 | 10:47 a.m.

The prospect of playing teams such as Kentucky, North Carolina and Cincinnati gives most college basketball coaches nightmares.

For those not in the know, Princeton is definitely on the same blacklist.

Princeton, a patsy Ivy League school known more for its academics than athletics?

That's the one.

The pesky Tigers knocked out defending champion UCLA, 43-41, in the first round of the 1996 NCAA Tournament.

Hitting closer to home, Princeton knocked out 1998 WAC champion UNLV in the first round of the tourney, 69-57.

Princeton frustrates every opponent by running down the shot clock before attempting to score and often executes an offense so simple -- its staple has been the seventh-grade backdoor move -- that many teams falter in trying to defend it.

On Friday at 4 p.m., UNLV will have its patience tested when it plays Princeton in the Food Lion MVP Classic in Charlotte, N.C. North Carolina and College of Charleston will meet in the second game with the winners meeting on Saturday.

"They shoot it well, they execute their stuff and they're always hard to prepare for," UNLV coach Bill Bayno said. "You have to play 35 seconds of defense every trip up the court.

"They're a very physical team."

Still, the Rebels, who have averaged 93.5 points in four consecutive victories, have no intention of slowing things down.

"We've gotta push it against them," Bayno said. "We want to be patient defensively against them, but we still want to run."

Running, or running over Princeton, might not be as big of a problem for the Rebels this season as it was in 1998.

The Tigers are 1-3 so far and their only win was a 37-35 victory over mighty Monmouth on Nov. 20.

Princeton's youth and inexperience have been the focal point of Tigers coach Bill Carmody's worries.

Junior Nate Walton, son of basketball commentator and Hall of Famer Bill Walton, is the oldest player in the starting lineup.

But the best player on the team is sophomore Chris Young. The 6-foot-11 center is the only player on the team to average double digits this season at 12.8 points a game.

Although Bayno calls Young "an NBA player" and possibly "the best center in the program's history," Carmody knows playing UNLV will be an uphill battle.

"They're certainly an explosive team, a real passing team," said Carmody, the former longtime assistant under Princeton coaching legend Pete Carrill who was elevated to head coach when Carrill retired after the 1996 season. "It just looks like they don't have any players who are selfish.

"Right now we're working on our own stuff. From what I've seen, I don't think you can stop them from running. That's the trouble right there. I'm really more concerned with our own guys.

"We're really not a very good team right now."

That won't bother any of the Rebels who were part of the 1998 tournament loss.

"They ended our season," said UNLV junior Kaspars Kambala. "It's a rematch.

"Not that many people get the chance to play a team they lost to again so quickly. This is our chance to show that we are improved. That we can go out and play good against them."

UNLV leads the all-time series against Princeton 2-1.