Less grind and more glide.

It’s these simple words that got Samford head coach Jimmy Tillette to sell his players to a offense they had never seen live and was unique to its region of the country.

Explaining the Princeton-style offense in the middle of Dixie country became similar to teaching a foreign language.

“What ended up happening is that when you really learn it and try to explain it, we became better as teachers,” Tillette said. “That’s the whole point of coaching, to teach.”

The Bulldogs are the only school in the Ohio Valley Conference to use the system and less than a handful use the entire package on offense.

“I think what makes it so successful for a Samford is that no other school in your league runs it,” said Seth Davis, a CBS college basketball analyst and Sports Illustrated staff writer.

The offense is based on all five players touching the ball, cutting without the basketball but with little screening and outside shooting.

“They might not shoot nothing but three’s and layups the entire night,” Tennessee Tech head coach Mike Sutton said. “But they’ll beat you doing that because they execute it so comfortably.”

The system normally runs 15 to 20 seconds off the shot clock before a shot is taken and slows the overall tempo of the game down. This technique is difficult to simulate in the week of game preparation for the Bulldogs.

“You can walk through it all you want but we know that we can’t do it they way they can,” Sutton said. “You just have to be willing to play 35 seconds of defense every time down the floor.”

The irony is a number of schools including Georgetown, Vanderbilt and North Carolina State are beginning to simulate certain principles and aspects of the Princeton-style to their offensive sets with more athletic players.

“I think you’re definitely starting to see it run even better by teams with athletes,” Davis said. “You can run a lot of variations without putting in the entire kitchen sink.”

Tillette studied the concepts live from Princeton legend and Hall of Fame coach Pete Carill.

Tillette is one of the few people with no ties to the Princeton family who was granted access to how they teach it.

“I saw them play it and fell in love with it,” Tillette said. “With the kind of character kids we get here, I was confident it would work.”

The current “Princeton Tree” of coaches that use the system is Princeton head coach Joe Scott, Air Force head coach Jeff Bzdelik, former Princeton head coach and current Georgetown coach John Thompson III and another former Princeton head coach and current Northwestern head coach Bill Carmody. Tillette would the first to admit it’s no coincidence these kinds of institutions are running it.

“One of the most important things we do at Samford is accurately interpret reality with our recruits,” Tillette said. “We are a very different school with rigorous academic standards and a religious atmosphere. This is the best plan for success here and at those schools with the same ideas.”

The average ACT scores for accepted Samford applicants is 26 and the average first-year freshmen receives a 3.6 GPA. The Bulldogs have a policy to red-shirt all freshmen in order to get them acclimated to an aggressive schedule of class and athletics. This plan gives the player five years in the program.

“They don’t get enough credit for the players they have because it’s not normal to play against three, four or even five fifth-year seniors,” Sutton said.

According to Tillette, their style of offense goes together with its recruiting philosophy.

“The kids that can do it all and have unlimited ability are going to go to Duke or Vanderbilt,” Tillette said. “Once you throw them out and begin to identify specific skills we need, but with gaps in their games, it’s easy to identify who we recruit.”

The best plan doesn’t come without struggles however.

Kids who were local stars in high school are forced to learn a slow-down offense based on what seem like frustrating fundamental principles.

“Coming in as a freshman I had no clue what I was doing or where I was supposed to go,” said junior guard Joe Ross Merritt. “I kept wondering, ‘Am I just getting worse at a basketball player? Now I understand this is how I was meant to play the game.”

The Bulldogs, with its Princeton-style offense, intend to make up for a missed opportunity last season.

Ahead 33-32 at halftime in the OVC Tournament Championship last March against Murray State, Samford was 20 minutes away from its first trip to the NCAA Tournament since joining the league in 2003.

The Bulldogs went cold from the field in the second half and were defeated 74-57 but the preseason favorites in 2006-207 haven’t forgotten that feeling.

“We have a lot of regrets over how last season ended and every one of us understands it’s the team that stays the toughest and sticks together who’ll win this thing,” said senior guard Randall Gulina.