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GREEN, AND WHITE!
GREEN AND WHITE!
CLAP! CLAP! CLAP!

What does the OFF-SEASON mean to you?

Hopefully you realize that the real work in building yourself into a good basketball player begins in the off-season. During the season practice time is limited, and in the depth of winter it can be difficult to find a good place and time to work on your individual game. That is why the warmer months of the year and the end of team practices is a great time for you to focus on making yourself better for next year.

For the younger players, maybe you need to develop that off-hand in both dribbling and shooting. If you have dreams of playing varsity basketball you must be able to use both hands, its never too early to dribble well with both hands. Plus its more fun when you can score going left or right, whatever way you choose.

For older players, maybe you need to refine your dribbling so you feel more comfortable against game-pressure. Also, its time to develop some moves to make yourself a scoring threat. Even if all you have is a left and right-handed jump-hook that is something. Jump shooters you need to practice a lot, repetition is the key to being a decent jump shooter. When shooting, warm up close and work your way out, DO NOT start at the 3-point line. Shooting is about confidence, start close and go around the world (around the lane) a few times to get yourself in a rhythm. This will make you better.

My suggestion is strictly focus on ONE specific part of your game this offseason. Maybe you realize you are never going to be very tall and you are going to need to develop very good dribbling skills to compete. Maybe you are tall and you need to focus on refining your offensive game near the basket by building an arsenal of solid post-moves. Maybe you want to be a great jump shooter, then spend forty-five minutes to one hour everyday shooting. Remember, do NOT start your warmup at the 3-point line. Start in close and slowly work your way out. The key is to practice and play as much as you can. Watch the pros or college players on TV and continue developing your understanding of the game. Learn by observation and put it into your game with practice.

So have a good off-season! Please check back here at "NORTHRIDGEHOOPS.BLOGSPOT.COM" from time-to-time for VIKING basketball program updates, tips, and basketball video teaching sessions. Make good use of your time, behave yourself, and do ALL of your classwork. Once again, have a good off-season, make the most of this opportunity to improve yourself.

The Northridge Basketball Philosophy

Vikings,

Our Program Motto:

"EVERY POSSESSION, WHETHER OFFENSE OR DEFENSE IS A GAME WITHIN ITSELF, WE WANT TO [WIN] EVERY POSSESSION!"

Our 3 Offensive Strategies:

1) CONTROL THE BALL
2) EXECUTE
3) AND REACT TO SCORE

Our 3 Defensive Strategies:

1) LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
2) CHALLENGE SHOTS AND BOX-OUT
3) WE WANT THE BALL


OFFENSE:
1- We must be able to DRIBBLE the ball and PASS the ball in pressure situations. This may be against a press or a zone, or against a zone press. Every player should develop the ability to comfortably dribble the ball upcourt in a one-on-one situation during a game. Good teams do not allow opponents to force them into turnovers, we must CONTROL THE BALL.
2- Running an offense is more about TIMING and playing SMART than simply playing hard. Good EXECUTION will make a defense work hard until the defense becomes unbalanced somehow, then an opening will appear to score.
3- When that opening in the defense appears, we must REACT TO SCORE. If you want to be a good scorer or even a good passer, you must develop the skills and gain the experience so you can score when the opportunity is there. Most baskets in basketball are not drawn up plays, they are simply players making plays. A good basketball player does not need to think about if he is open or not, he knows it. Know how to REACT TO SCORE.

DEFENSE:
1- What makes for a good business motto, also makes for good DEFENSE, "LOCATION." It is critical to put yourself in the best position to do two things. ONE, to stop the individual opponent you are responsible for guarding, and TWO, to stop the opposing team from scoring. So what scores? The ball going through the basket is what scores. Good DEFENSE occurs when all FIVE teammates on the floor work together to be in the proper LOCATIONS to make it most difficult for the other team to score. Much like scoring, good DEFENSE is also about reacting. A coach can not teach you where to stand every moment of a game, a coach can only give you basic lessons of where to be. Only with experience and hustle can you make sure that you are in the right LOCATION on defense at the right time.
2- As we said at the top, WE WANT TO WIN EVERY POSSESSION. We do this by constantly CHALLENGING the opponent when we are on DEFENSE. Every dribble, every pass, and every shot we want to challenge our opponent, nothing easy, ever! And if our opponent gets a shot off, then we must BOX-OUT. Rebounding aggresively and only allowing our opponent one shot attempt or less per possession is critical. We want to limit all our opponents chances to score by CHALLENING SHOTS AND BOXING-OUT "going after rebounds with wisdom and reckless abandon."
3- Bottom line, WE WANT THE BALL. You have to have the ball in order to score. We must develop the mentality that the ball belongs to us. Every loose ball belongs to the VIKES! Every lazy pass belongs to the VIKES! Every rebound belongs to the VIKES! And everytime we get the ball back, we go right back to CONTROLLING THE BALL, EXECUTING, AND REACTING TO SCORE...

THATS WHAT WE DO!

LETS GO VIKES!!!


VIKING TACTICS:
The offensive and defensive MOTTOs above are the Northridge basketball program's strategies we want to implement for success. Following are the program's tactics for success.

On OFFENSE:

In general, we want to play an up-tempo style, attempting to beat the other team down the floor for easy baskets.

We run two base offenses. The FLEX offense, and the 4-AROUND-1 offense. The FLEX offense is explained by ESPN's Coach Fran Fraschilla on ESPN's Hoops 101 page and is linked to on the right side of this page. Coach Fraschilla also explains the Gonzaga and Maryland twists on the FLEX offense, but for now we do not need to know those, we simply need to focus on the base FLEX offense.

The 4-AROUND-1 offense is built to play a game of matchups. Ideally, all five Northridge players on the floor will have the basic tools to play on the perimeter and also play in the post. Generally, our big-man will occupy the inside spot, roaming around the middle to high post area. The middle man will set a lot of screens, back-picks, and when the opportunity is there, they will post up. The perimeter players in the 4-AROUND-1 are there to move the ball around and make the defense work. After a player passes the ball they will cut to the basket and then filter out to the corner. The perimeter players will pass-cut-and fill until the opportunity to penetrate to the basket presents itself. As stated before, the 4-AROUND-1 is an offense designed to take advantage of matchups. If our point guard has a size advantage over his defender, then the point guard could be placed in the middle looking to post-up his man. Any Northridge player on the floor who can best post their defender up for the score is elgible to play the middle spot in the 4-AROUND-1 offense.

On DEFENSE:

In general, we want to play a very aggresive style of defense. Pressuring on the ball and pressuring every pass with an opportunistic help side defense.

We play the universal forms of defense, MAN-TO-MAN and a 2-3 ZONE. Once again, Coach Fran Fraschilla outlines the basics of MAN-TO-MAN defense and the "Syracuse 2-3 ZONE." Click on the "FLEX Offense" link on the right side of this page, you will be redirected to the ESPN Hoops 101 page. On the right side of the ESPN Hoops 101 page various baskteball tactics are explained, including the MAN-TO-MAN and Syracure 2-3 ZONE defenses. Also, we will implement a 2-2-1 Full Court Press, the expanation for that also appears on the ESPN Hoops 101 page.

At Northridge we play aggresive and we play fast. With lots of practice, these basic offensive and defensive tactics we have just covered will become second-nature. The more comfortable we feel in what we do, the quicker we will REACT to make big plays in game-situations.

Coach Brooks Signing On

Tradition has to begin somewhere. And for near forty years, the Northridge Viking Basketball Program has been a program similar to most; a program filled with some good years and some bad. Now is a new day, a new generation, a moment in time when a strong Northridge basketball program should be supported and supplemented from a strong "GO VIKES!" world wide web source, and this is the one. Welcome to "NORTHRIDGEHOOPS.BLOGSPOT.COM" the place where every aspiring student-athlete has a chance to learn what the sport of basketball is all about. Once again, welcome and GO VIKES!

-COACH BROOKS