Knowing what type of offense he intended to employ at Georgia, it’s no accident that Tom Crean settled on Joe Scott as one of his three assistant coaches.

Lessons he learned playing and coaching under Pete Carril at Princeton mesh very closely with his own.

Specifically, Crean’s talking about moving without the ball where passing, cuts and motion is every bit as important as putting the ball through the hoop.

“Well, we’ve run quite a bit of that when I was at Indiana and even some at Marquette because the cutting, the movement, it forces you to move without the ball. It forces you to move the ball quickly,” Crean said. “It forces you to make your cuts, make hard cuts, read defenses and I think that’s so important.”

Scott could not agree more.

“You watch Golden State, all they do is pass and cut and the amazing thing is they’ve got the best guys in the world doing it,” Scott said. “If you can get the best players to move and cut, move the basketball, that’s all the Princeton offense is, five guys who know how to dribble, pass and shoot, where there’s no tension where it’s ‘gimme the ball, gimme the ball.’ It’s five guys knowing they’re going to get the ball, it takes the tension out of the game and if you have guys who can dribble, pass and shoot, you’ve got a chance to be good.”

That’s certainly a different way of playing than Georgia fans have grown accustomed to seeing, especially last year when the offense ran primarily through Yante Maten.

Although Maten averaged over 19 points, there was just one problem. When opposing team were successful in taking Maten out of the flow, there were very few other sets the Bulldogs could consistently run that would free up other players for scoring opportunities.

“We’ve got to continue to be a team that the quicker we understand that all five are extremely important,” Crean said. “There’s not a 20-point guy a game that’s sitting there right now. That doesn’t mean that it won’t happen, but there was one double-figure scorer last year. We want to get to the point where there’s a balance and I think the balance comes from moving so well without the ball, to the precision of the cuts. It’s not an ABCDE offense. The ABCD and the E are in there, but it’s mixed up, it’s all based on reads.”

Crean said he and his staff are working hard to make sure that that point gets across.

“When you’re at a new program and guys are getting better, it’s very, very easy for them to think all of a sudden that you’re the man, that they’re going to make those plays … No, you’re not,” Crean said. “The ball is going to make these plays based on what the defense is giving us and the more that all five on the court at any given point and time have the respect level and know how valuable each guy is, the better we’ll be. That’s what we’re working for. I think that offense gives us a healthy dose of that every day. It fits great with what I like.”

Scott concurs.

“Is there a learning curve as far as skill development? Yeah. Is there a learning curve as far as five guys playing together? Sure. But in the end, it’s basketball, and all we’ve got to do is point to Golden State and the (Philadelphia) Sixers,” he said. “I turned on the summer league last night and said shoot, that’s what they’re doing. I can point to it specifically and say that’s our stuff. The trick is getting our guys at Georgia good at it and making it be who they are and have their comfort level be really high.”