SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Hall of Fame coach Pete Carril just can't stop teaching.
The 78-year-old former Princeton coach rejoined the Sacramento Kings on Thursday as a consultant. Carril spent 10 seasons as an assistant coach with the Kings after retiring from his 30-year college coaching career, leaving the club in 2006 to spend more time at his home in New Jersey.
But with the Kings (8-28) mired in a miserable season under interim coach Kenny Natt, Carril accepted Geoff Petrie's offer to return to the club as a consultant.
"He's really excited about rejoining the club and adding some of his experience and understanding of the game," said Petrie, who played for Carril at Princeton before becoming the Kings' vice president of basketball operations. "I look forward to seeing him back here."
Carril is the winningest coach in Ivy League history, going 514-263 at Princeton while winning 13 conference titles and appearing in 11 NCAA tournament appearances. He also coached one season at Lehigh.
Carril retired in 1996 after his Tigers upset defending champion UCLA in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Princeton will honor him next month by naming the game floor at Jadwin Gymnasium "Carril Court."
His famed motion offense was adapted by former Kings coach Rick Adelman to great effect early in the decade, when Sacramento won two Pacific Division titles and reached the 2002 Western Conference finals with one of the NBA's most exciting teams.
Carril left the Kings when Adelman was fired, but he showed up in Sacramento at times since then, attending a game against the Los Angeles Lakers last month.
"Coach Carril brings a lot of winning experience and knowledge about basketball in general," Natt said in a statement. "As a young head coach, I will be able to utilize his experience and knowledge about getting the best out of our players. I'm looking forward to his input. It's exactly what I need at this point."
Sacramento has lost four straight and 10 of 11 heading into Friday night's home game against Miami.
