BASKETBALL’S RUN & GUN : Up-Tempo Trend Inspired by Loyola Marymount Makes a Quick Transition to High School Ranks

He had attended clinics regarding Loyola Marymount’s fast-break style of basketball. He had made himself familiar with the nuances of Coach Paul Westhead’s system, including the Golden Rule, which states: There is no such thing as a bad shot.

Yet, Hueneme High basketball Coach Howard Davis harbored serious reservations about the system during spring practice last year.

“I was determined to make it work,” Davis said. “But there were some times early on when I had to bite my tongue when kids took certain shots. At first, it seemed like the kids were shooting from just about everywhere on the court, but after a while, the kids know when a shot is makeable and when it’s not.”

Such is life for coaches who junk a half-court offense for the wide-open style that Westhead made popular at Loyola Marymount.

The offense, initially scoffed at as a Westhead gimmick, gained legitimacy during the NCAA tournament last season when the Lions advanced to the final of the West regional before falling to eventual national champion Nevada Las Vegas.

Although Loyola games sometimes resembled a track meet more than a basketball game to the untrained eye, the effectiveness of Westhead’s system, which combined a fast-break offense with a hounding, pressing full-court defense, posed the question: Could it work at the high school level?

Davis, Ed Chevalier of Thousand Oaks, Chris Nikchevich of Crespi, and Wendell Greer of Monroe were just some of the coaches in the Valley region who decided to find out this season.

A few others, such as Buena’s Glen Hannah and Granada Hills’ Bob Johnson, had been running the up-tempo style for several years.

“It takes some getting used to,” said Hannah, who credits former Nevada Reno and Santa Barbara Islanders (Continental Basketball Assn.) Coach Sonny Allen with creating the designated fast break, and lauds Westhead for adapting the full-court press to it. “We struggled with it for the first couple of years, but the third year we had it in there, we started to get the hang of it.”

Statistics support Hannah.

Buena, after averaging 70.5 points a game and finishing 25-4 in the 1984-85 season, switched to the run and gun the following season and its scoring average and record dropped to 62.6 points and 13-10.

The Bulldogs’ average improved to 70.2, 78.8 and 80.2 in the next three seasons, as they finished with records of 15-8, 23-3 and 21-5.

“You have to be out of control at the start,” said Hannah, who switched to the up-tempo style despite the fact that Buena had won consecutive Channel League titles in 1984 and ’85. “That’s hard for a lot of coaches to get used to, but any time you play at a faster tempo than before, things are bound to be out of control for a little while.”

Nikchevich, who played for Westhead at Loyola Marymount during the 1986-87 season, concurred with Hannah. He expected the Celts’ offense to misfire at times early in the season as Crespi adjusted to the new system, but he was dismayed when it continued to sputter in Mission League play.

“I figured we’d use the preleague season to get used to it, then turn it on in league,” Nikchevich said. “Now I realize it’s going to take a season or more to get fully accustomed to it.”

A coach needs to have patience when switching to the fast-break system, and many coaches are unwilling to wait for glitches to be worked out.

Chevalier, for example, had run a set-up offense at Thousand Oaks for 11 seasons before he adopted Westhead’s system for the first half of this season with mixed results.

The Lancers (20-4) broke the school single-game scoring record three times, won the Thousand Oaks and Ventura tournaments for the first time and won 10 of their first 11 games, but Chevalier pulled the plug on the high-voltage system after the Lancers lost two consecutive Marmonte League games in which they surrendered 178 points.

“It worked well early on,” Chevalier said. “But it seemed like once we started league, teams always had five guys falling back on defense.”

Several other factors convinced Chevalier to shun the run and gun.

First, Thousand Oaks was not rebounding well, which is a necessity if a team shoots a lot. Second, a team must play effective defense over the entire court in Westhead’s system and the Lancers failed to do that consistently.

Finally, Lancer center Shane Graham (6-foot-5) improved dramatically once league play began, combining with forward Chris Loll (6-5 1/2) to give the Lancers a strong inside punch.

“It just makes more sense for us to try and work the ball inside now,” Chevalier said.

Although the fast-break offense has a simple, no-frills structure, running it correctly is another matter.

Without a good point guard at the No. 1 position, the system cannot function properly, and even with a good point guard, one needs players at the Nos. 2 and 3 spots on the wings who can hit open shots on a consistent basis.

“The point guard makes or breaks that offense from what I’ve seen,” Nikchevich said. “It’s his responsibility to get the break started and to get the ball to certain players in certain positions. If he doesn’t do that, it won’t work.”

Nikchevich said that one of the hardest things to do is teach point guards to push the ball up court and look for the open man simultaneously. Too often, the point guard gets the ball, looks up the court to see where everyone is, then dribbles.

“It’s a very subtle thing,” Nikchevich said. “But your point guard needs to run and look. Not look and run. . . . Your point guard also has to know who’s hot and who’s not. He’s not doing you any good if he keeps getting the ball to a player who’s cold.”

As Hannah said, “You have to have good shooters to make the system work. It doesn’t matter how many open shots you get if you can’t hit them.”

Despite the problems inherent with switching to the Westhead system, the players rave about its freedom. “I’m totally happy with it. I’m 100% behind it,” said Crespi senior Rasaan Hall, who is averaging 21.2 points and 10.3 rebounds. “It leaves more of the decision making up to the players.”

Buena junior Lance Fay, who plays point guard in the Bulldogs’ offense, believes the offense is responsible for his 21.0 points and 4.5 assists averages.

“You can do whatever you want on the break in the system,” Fay said. “You can pass it to one of the guys on the wing. You can pull up and take the open jumper, or you can pass it inside to one of the trailers if a shot is there.”

For Davis and Hueneme, the switch to Westhead’s style signaled the start of a three-year experiment.

During the 1988-89 season, Davis noticed that there was a promising class of eighth-grade players in the Oxnard junior high leagues. The players were not particularly tall, but they were quick, a trait ideal for Westhead’s offense. “I knew that they would be sophomores this year,” Davis said, “and I thought, ‘Why not introduce them to the offense and see how far they could go with it in three years’ time.’ ”

The initial results have been encouraging--although patience has been required.

Hueneme finished with an 8-16 record, a slight improvement over last season’s 6-18 mark. Sophomores Tony Smith and Wendell Nunnery were the Vikings’ leading scorers, averaging 18.2 and 16.3 points a game, respectively, and sophomore reserve Wayne Revis saw considerable playing time. “We’ve had some problems due to inexperience,” Davis admitted. “We have four sophomores and three juniors on the team, but I think we’re headed in the right direction.”

Nikchevich, one of the staunchest proponents of his former coach’s system at the start of the season, remains so, despite Crespi’s 9-15 record.

“I still think it can work at the high school level,” he said. “We had a lot of injuries at key times this season. We’d get on a little roll and then someone else would go out, and we’d lose that continuity.”

Large numbers of healthy players are needed to run the Westhead system properly because of its relentless pace.

“The optimum number of players would be eight if you have very good athletes,” Nikchevich said, “Otherwise, nine would be required. If you use any more than that, some of your kids will never have time to get into the flow.”

Hannah, who listed 10 or 11 players as ideal, wished he had an overcrowding problem. Buena (14-11) has had only eight players on its roster for most of the season, preventing the Bulldogs from pressing throughout a game. “We can only press for certain periods of time, and that has hurt us,” Hannah said.

Monroe (12-12) benefited from the new scheme. The Vikings won more games this season than they won in the previous four (10).

As Greer notes, “Pressure defense equals up-tempo offense. It’s that simple. The whole purpose of the defense is so you can control the tempo of the game. So you can make the other team play to your pace. Any time you do that, you have an advantage.”

Will Hueneme, Crespi, Monroe and Thousand Oaks continue the system? Davis, Nikchevich and Greer expect to give it another go, and Chevalier plans to keep bits and pieces.

“The system has a lot of good points,” Chevalier said. “We’ll definitely continue to use the fast break when we run.”

THE PAUL WESTHEAD FAST BREAK Each player’s responsibilities No. 1 man: The point guard; always brings the ball up court; shades to the right; has three options: take the open shot; pass to either the No. 2 or No. 3 man on the wings; pass to the No. 4 or No. 5 man trailing on the left side of the free-throw line.

No. 2 man: Usually the shooting guard; generally the best shooter; comes to the right side of the court, just outside the three-point line.

No. 3 man: Usually the second-best shooter on the team; comes to the left side to the court, and goes to the block opposite the No. 2 man.

No. 4 man: Usually the center; takes off down the left side of the court, eventually working his way inside on the right-hand side of the key. His job is to post up for a possible shot or rebound.

No. 5 man: The trailer; inbounds the ball and comes up the middle of the gourt, shading to the left of the No. 1 man. His responsibility is to position himself near the left-hand corner ofthe free-throw line for either a shot or long rebound.

ANATOMY OF AN OFFENSE

Season Record Offense FGA FGM PCT AVG. OPP AVG. 1981-82 9-12 Passing 1,137 493 43.4% 57.1 52.3 1982-83 10-12 Passing 1,197 520 43.4% 56.9 59.5 1983-84 17-8 Passing 1,314 585 44.5% 59.7 56.2 1984-85 25-4 Passing 1,408 695 49.4% 70.5 58.3 1985-86 13-10 Break 1,287 555 43.1% 62.6 60.0 1986-87 15-8 Break 1,410 631 44.8% 70.2 62.9 1987-88 23-3 Break 1,427 721 50.5% 78.8 65.2 1988-89 21-5 Break 1,789 760 42.5% 80.2 69.5 1989-90 17-10 Break 1,769 757 42.8% 75.4 68.2