We cannot lose the toughness edge

          I think most observers, even the sympathetic ones such as I am, recognize the fact that Steve Shields' offensive schemes could use some work. We might not all necessarily agree on why they do not work, but we agree we need some help. This year's team looks to be a very good 3-point team, and I expect we will milk that for what it is worth, which is good, because that will be our strength, and you need to play to your strength. Hopefully Steve will recognize that.
          For several years I have followed teams that ran the Princeton offense because I admired how they milked the clock to look for good shots, and how they relied on precision and teamwork rather than raw athleticism: the "thinking man's offense," you might say. However, I have in the last couple of years become less thrilled with it for this reason: Princeton teams generally are "soft" teams. Perhaps because their offense is so cerebral, they tend to be "white collar" teams that do not want to get their hands dirty doing the tough things it takes to win, like hard-nosed defense and rebounding, for example.
          I hate it, but three-point shooting is the protected princess of college basketball. You do not have to bang inside, you do not have to get your hands dirty, just bomb away from the perimeter. The announcer even rewards you for taking a low-percentage shot with a drawn-out THREEEEEE POINTS. The shot even has extra free throw protection so that no one will interfere with it. After all, we would not want to get any dirt on our glamor shooters, right? (Sort of like the ridiculous protection the rules give clean-uniform shotgun quarterbacks these days.) But like it or not, that is the game these days, and it will be what we are good at this year, so we need to do it. We ought to be really strong from the arc.
          But three-point teams do not have to get their uniforms dirty, so to speak, so they sometimes tend to become soft. We cannot let that happen to us. Shields' stamp on this team, more than anything else, is tough half-court defense. That is the fiber of his teams. That is Trojan basketball. No matter how many three-pointers we attempt this year, we MUST preserve the defensive toughness the program has become known for. We cannot let the softness on the offensive end carry over to the defensive side - and sadly, that happens far too often.