A FRONT ROW VIEW: Nothing bland about Carril

The best thing about Penn-Princeton was the part the paying crowd never got to see. It was when Pete Carril slowly walked into the interview room, cigar in hand, and enjoyed talking about anything other than the game he painfully watched. There were more tangents in Carril's monologue than in a high-school geometry class. One minute Carril asked trivia -- Hey Steve Goodrich, can you name the five state capitals that begin with the letter 'A'? The next minute, Carril suggested he may give injured guard Mitch Henderson a fife and American flag, wrap some bandages around his head, put him in a boat and send him across the Delaware River. Finally, as he chewed on his cigar, Carril posed the question: 'What if 20 years from now they actually find out smoking is good for you?' It was all too much for one radio man who had a front-row seat right by the one-piece orchestra -- another cackling reporter. Carril enjoyed the laughter, then said the amused man was as objective as Newt Gingrich. It was all a diversionary tactic though. Talk about Pete Carril and you're not talking about his team. That is good this year, because Carril's team is not. The Tigers are not bad. Just not typical Princeton. Not that Penn is typical Penn either, which explains the lopsided final score. Princeton, which is one of only six teams to hit a three-pointer in every game since the rule was enacted in 1986, was in danger of not hitting one. The only threes the Tigers had at halftime were in the foul column on the scoresheet next to the names: Goodrich, Hielscher and Johnson. One Penn student actually felt badly for Princeton. "I think I'm too kind-hearted to watch basketball," the misguided Daily Pennsylvanian editor said. But she wasn't that far off. Take two intense rivals, fill the Palestra to capacity and you come to expect competition. In boxing they stop the fight when one side can't respond. But there was no cry of No m