Simi Valley HS Dribble Drive Motion Offense

Couple of milestones, my first post in 2008, my 200th post so far on this blog. Watching USC dominate and the whole PAC-10 representing well in bowl games today. Back to basketball, I watched some tape delay games from the Torrey Pines Invitational (now called Maxpreps) in California that just concluded on the weekend. The final game was between powerhouse Dominguez HS out of Compton, CA against Simi Valley HS out of Simi Valley, CA.

Dominguez is just an extremely athletic and power team. They have a lot of height, and they have a player that is probably one of the best players in the country, no wonder they are a top 20 team in the nation. Simi Valley, though not nearly as big and athletic, play the Walberg offense extremely well, probably as good as I've seen so far. They press all game, and they have great driving guards. Though they would lose the game on a last second offensive rebound putback, I thought Simi Valley played extremely well and could make a run at the CIF Socals in March. Here is a look at their dribble drive motion offense,



The dribble drive motion offense works because,

- of quick guards that can drive and attack. It is nearly unstoppable when you can breakdown defenders 1v1, eg. Derrick Rose at Memphis.
- of fouls, Pepperdine right now is 3rd in country in FTs attempted despite playing only 13 games this season.
- 3-point shooting. Once you can penetrate the lane and the defense collapses, there will be high quality open shots from the perimeter.

Fake Handoff:

I'm just going to diagram a couple of plays, but the first one I like is the fake handoff. Most dribble drive teams use the handoff alot and one of the best counters is the fake handoff.

You spread the floor, pass up top, your guard comes in and the forward fakes the handoff, then simply pivot and drive to the basket.

Reverse, Attack, Kick-out, Attack:

This is perhaps where this offense really excels. You spread the floor again. You reverse the ball from one side to the other side.

The wing penetrates and draws the defense in, O5 pops out to the corner. O3 kicks it back out to O5.

O5 has the choice, he can shoot the perimeter 3-pointer if open, or use the pick by O3 to drive middle and attack the basket which O5 does here.

Summary:

From what I've read, Simi Valley has been using this offense for at least 2 seasons now. They are aren't particularly big or athletic, but they have great guards that can penetrate and shoot. They press all game, and use pressure defense to force turnovers. Though, Dominguez did a great job breaking the press with their athleticism. The game came down to rebounding, Dominguez was simply too athletic and too big and was able to gain extra possessions.

A new release video that has a lot of good info on perimeter play such as driving and 1v1 moves, take a look at Sean Miller's new DVD on offensive player improvement. Coach Miller is the head coach of upstart Xavier. To discuss the Walberg offense or more of your favorite basketball topics, head over to the X's and O's of Basketball Forum to talk with other coaches from around the world.