TAMPA, Fla. — Fifteen years ago, as a key player in Princeton’s shocking upset of defending champion UCLA in the NCAA Tournament, Sydney Johnson was on the bottom of a pile similar to the mosh pit last weekend when Princeton stunned Harvard on a last-second shot to advance to the NCAA Tournament.He understands this is a big moment for his program, its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2004 and a chance at the national spotlight on CBS. None of that is lost on him.So by no means is he going to let the big stage frighten his team from playing Princeton basketball and trying to win a game against Kentucky in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.”It’s our moment against Kentucky, and we’re not going to spoil it,” said Johnson, Princeton’s fourth-year head coach. “I can’t tell you if we’re going to be perfect out there. I know mistakes are part of the game, but we’re not going to waste this opportunity. I won’t allow them to do that.”Princeton advanced to the NCAA Tournament by way of the Ivy League’s automatic berth. The Tigers stunned Harvard on a Douglas Davis buzzer beater in a one-game playoff for the league’s championship. Thursday’s game will mark the program’s 24th NCAA Tournament berth, but few are giving Princeton a chance with Kentucky riding a six-game winning streak entering the tournament.Count Kentucky head coach John Calipari as one of the few Princeton supporters.”Princeton can beat us,” Calipari said. “They can beat just about anybody. They shoot it, they’re long. I’ll bet Princeton is bigger than we are. They’ve got more size than we do. Their guard play is outstanding. Their best player (Kareem Maddox) comes off the bench. He’s really good, and people are going to find that out.”How much of that is coach’s speak, let the reader be the judge, but Johnson is willing to concede that Princeton is indeed overmatched from an athletic standpoint.”We’re the underdog,” Johnson said. “I think when you’re the underdog, you have to show people how good you are. … With Kentucky, everybody realizes how good of a program they are and they’re the favorites, and we take no offense to that. But now we’ve got to prove as the underdog that we belong, that we belong in this tournament, that we belong on that floor at 2:45 p.m. tomorrow.”But how does a team that knows it’s overmatched physically and understands it must play a near flawless game overcome it? What’s the game plan?”I can’t give away any secrets about how we’re going to stop that,” senior Princeton guard Dan Mavraides said.Mavraides was willing to reveal one perceived advantage: experience. Princeton’s top four leading scorers are made up of juniors and seniors. Meanwhile, Kentucky is paced offensively by three freshmen – Brandon Knight, Terrence Jones and Doron Lamb – although junior guard/forward Darius Miller has picked his scoring load up of late and has scored in double figures in nine straight games.”I really don’t think that’s a big deal, honestly,” Miller said of UK’s lack of veterans. “We had freshmen last year and we made it pretty far. I don’t think that’s going to be a big focal point or anything like that. If we come out and play like we can, we’re one of the best teams in the country.”If experience isn’t the difference, then what gives Princeton the idea that it can overcome a handicap of inferior speed, athleticism and skill that Johnson and his players conceded to?”There’s certain ways to neutralize that,” Johnson said. “You’ve got to take care of the ball. You can’t turn it over and let them capitalize on getting out in transition. We have to shoot the ball at a high clip. If we do that, if there’s limited possessions but we’re shooting it well, all of a sudden all that athleticism gets neutralized. That’s easier said than done.”Maddox was quick to point out that Princeton has some athletes, too. In an attempt to play to his players’ strengths, Johnson ditched the old slow-it-down style of the Princeton offense and injected some more run-and-gun techniques along with some traditional pick-and-roll concepts.”It’s very flexible,” Maddox said. “We have our sets and our plays that we run, but you can run them as fast or as slow as you want.”The core and traditional spacing of the Princeton offense isn’t completely gone. There are still backdoor cuts, handoffs and an emphasis on rotation around the perimeter, but it’s a faster version of it.Think of it as the Princeton offense on steroids, with a continued emphasis to get the best possible shot. The only difference is it doesn’t matter when it comes in the shot clock or what set – half court of transition – it’s in.As a result, Princeton’s 69.6 points per game is the program’s highest scoring average since the 1971-72 team averaged 79.7 points per game.”It’s a little variation from the traditional Princeton, but you’ll see times and possessions throughout the game where we’re grinding throughout the shot clock and getting a backdoor layup or an open shot with four seconds left on the shot clock,” Mavraides said. “It’s something I think we, as a team, found a pretty good balance in terms of how much we want to push it, when we’re getting stops and how much we want to slow the game down and take it possession by possession like the most traditional Princeton teams.”Another Ivy League team’s Sweet 16 run of a year ago, Cornell, gives the Tigers some confidence heading into tournament play that they can pull of a similar feat. But the Princeton players are pointing to their development from a six-win team in 2007-08 to an NCAA Tournament team this year as a reason for belief.”We’ve played big games in our four years here,” Mavraides said. “We’ve had a handful of those, so we’re going about Kentucky the same way we did every team on our schedule. It’s obviously a bigger stage … but when the jump comes, it’s going to be the same thing.” Princeton has a penchant for living up to the spotlight in the NCAA Tournament. In addition to the upset of UCLA in 1996, the Tigers also own the distinction as being the closest a 16 seed has ever come to knocking off a No. 1 seed. It nearly happened in 1989 when Princeton lost 50-49 to Georgetown.As far as this Princeton team, they’ve welcomed the big stage. As a group that has experienced uncharacteristic difficulties in Ivy League the prior three years, this team full of veterans was ready for a big game like Saturday’s Harvard matchup and a shot at the NCAA Tournament.We all know now how that turned out.”It worked out nicely,” Johnson said, “and maybe there’s a little bit more of that to come.”