RETIREMENT PLANS ARE PUT ON HOLD.

Byline: Michael Ventre

He looks like a rumpled college professor who has spent an inordinate amount of time in the dusty archives of one beloved subject. And that's just what he is. Times like this make all the devotion worthwhile.

Pete Carril got his wish. His Princeton Tigers swarmed the UCLA Bruins like gnats. Brainy, methodical, almost geeky, Carril's Tigers mirrored his eccentric demeanor and kept the defending national champions back a grade.

The Bad News Bruins knew it would be tough, but they could do nothing. They were up against a coaching legend, an RCA Dome filled mostly with Cinderella suitors, and a nation of sentimentalists.

Oh, and the marvelous Princeton Tigers, who pulled a rousing upset, 43-41, Thursday night in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

"Maybe we play UCLA 100 times and they would win 99 of them," Carril said. "But tonight, we did."

Carril is set to retire, but the exact date is still unknown. His team has at least one more game to play.

"People expected us to challenge UCLA," said guard Sydney Johnson, "but not win."

Carril has had tremendous success in his 29 years coaching Princeton in the Ivy League. He does so by taking scholars with a modicum of athletic ability and turning them into fundamentally sound models of basketball efficiency. When they falter, it is usually because the disparity in talent with the opponent is too great, or that the other club somehow figures out how to survive the onslaught of painstaking playmaking.

On Thursday night, UCLA ran off to a 7-0 lead. Princeton came back. UCLA built a 41-34 advantage with just under six minutes left. Princeton came back. It was like trying to shake flypaper.

The system. The players and coaches talk about the Princeton system with reverence. Thursday night, the nation found out why.

Because it works.

"To tell you the truth, I always have confidence," said Johnson, who led the Tigers with 11 points, including three three-pointers. "When we got down early, I just tried to make sure that nobody had their heads down.

"We stay true to our system until we get bumped out. I never felt shaken, because I believe in these guys."

Keeping the faith is paramount at Princeton. There are no athletic scholarships. There are lofty academic standards. The players there would be pine brothers elsewhere. What Carril has preached for almost all of his tenure is a method to circumvent the talent chasm.

"When you play games like this," he explained, "no matter what I tell them - that it's a challenge of a lifetime, or give them a sterling pep talk - those things never work unless they believe they can do it."

Perhaps the thunderous crowd reaction from the sizable pro-Carril camp - or anti-UCLA contingent, whichever you prefer - helped matters for the Eastern eggheads. Fans in the cavernous Dome roared each time a Princeton basket occurred. It was as if Carril had a cult following that was suddenly out of the closet because it was safe to start believing a No. 13 seed could dump a No. 4 that also happened to have championship rings.

"You know you'll be remembered as the guy who lost every close game in the NCAA Tournament," Carril cracked.

This one wasn't safe until Toby Bailey's desperation buzzer-beater sailed over the rim. That sent the Tigers into the air.

What put them in a position to pull the upset was a steady climb out of the 41-34 hole. Johnson canned a three-pointer with 5:03 left. Forward Steve Goodrich put in a reverse layup with about four minutes left. And with 2:58 left, Johnson made a fast-break layup in traffic to tie it at 41.

Then came the goosebumps. After UCLA had gone over six minutes without scoring - including two missed free throws by Cameron Dollar with 1:02 left and then a errant drive in the paint by Kris Johnson - Goodrich bounced a pass from the high post to forward Gabe Lewullis for a back-door layup with four seconds left. Princeton was ahead, 43-41, and anyone without a pro-UCLA bent was giddy.

The back-door stunner was particularly fitting, because Carril's Tigers regularly endeavor to lure opponents out toward the perimeter, thereby setting up the slick bypass underneath. It is their specialty.

This time, it ousted UCLA and prolonged the storied career of a master Ivy League lecturer.

"This keeps me from going into retirement," Carril said. "And I'm happy about it."

Judging by the reaction, he isn't the only one.

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Photo Princeton coach Pete Carril complains about a call, but he could hardly argue about his victory over defending national champion UCLA. Associated Press