With a revamped adaptation of a fabled offensive strategy, senior leadership and underclassmen development, the DU men’s basketball is preparing for the season with realistic Summit League Championship aspirations, a feat that would send them to the NCAA Tournament.
Denver head coach, Joe Scott, played for the Princeton University Tigers in the 1980s and served as their head coach from 2004 to 2007.
From his Ivy League days, Scott employs an increasingly unique game plan: the Princeton offense. This offense is what could potentially separate the Pios from the Summit League competition.
The strategic goal of the Princeton offense is to slow down the pace of the game and break down the opposing defense with deft passing and shrewd cuts to the basket, which will result in easy shots.
The Pios’ tempo can be sluggish at times, (they were ranked last out of 351 NCAA teams last year in offensive tempo, according to KenPom.com), but the passing intelligence at the end of the long possessions will please any basketball fan.
A team like DU’s squad, which lacks a lot of physical size, is able to exploit that disadvantage through the Princeton offense. The Pioneers perform better with passing skills, superior agility and the lack of reliance of one or two offensive players, which can be troublesome for teams if foul trouble or injuries strike.
More intrinsically, Scott emphasized that the Princeton offense is about execution, precision and understanding. Creativity, an invaluable basketball trait, comes from the discipline of the system. The more team-centric the offensive is, the more the individuals will thrive.
With 13 of 17 players being underclassmen and a relatively short average player height of 6’4”, this team is rather young and undersized, but Scott believes that through discipline and maturation, the Pios can compete with anyone.
“When you’re [disciplined and mature], you don’t care who you play against. You never look at the jersey of the other team, you don’t care what conference they’re from, because you know that if you execute you can play against anybody in the country,” said Scott.
To become the most disciplined team they can be, the Pios will need senior leadership to foster maturation of the myriad underclassmen on the squad.
The likeliest of leaders will be seniors Marcus Byrd (Highlands Ranch, CO) and Nate Engesser (Colorado Springs), two players who also double as the team top breakout candidates.
These two sharp shooters will not only open up the floor for their teammates, but will be the strong, guiding voices in the locker room that are so vital for a young team.
“We need them to be solid, we need them to execute, we need them to be older, we need them to have the discipline we’re looking for and they need to do it everyday,” said Scott regarding the underclassmen.
If the Pioneer basketball squad improves each day and continually builds on its success, we could see a dangerous team come February and March, one that potentially could make the NCAA Tournament.
The Pios will start their season on Nov. 13 with the Santa Clara Cable Car Classic, a mini-tournament in which DU will play the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Santa Clara University and Lipscomb University.
Denver’s first home game is scheduled for Nov. 18 against Utah Valley University. Remember, admission to games is free with your DU ID card, so come out at support your Pios. The schedule and statistics can be found on the DU men’s basketball page on DenverPioneers.com.
