VANCE WALBERG, the renowned head coach who has extensively handled American high school, college and professional basketball teams, and who is the creator of the latest rage in basketball systems that Gilas Pilipinas runs, will be in Manila for a series of clinics.
The clinics will run on June 18 and 19 to teach the offense firsthand to Filipino coaches and players.
Walberg is hoping to see and possibly work with the national team.
“I know your national team runs the dribble drive motion [DDM] offense,” Walberg said. But Gilas Pilipinas would be training abroad at that time to prepare for the Olympic Basketball Qualifiers from July 5 to 10 at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.
The clinics, organized by Splash Hoops International, have moved to the previously announced Gatorade Hoops Center to the Kerry Sports Arena at Shangri-La at the Fort.
The 59-year-old American developed the offense while he was coaching Clovis West high school in Fresno, California, and later still as Fresno City College, where he won multiple titles.
The offensive system gained more traction when John Calipari famously ran it first with the University of Memphis and then with University of Kentucky, where he won a national championship.
The DDM is essentially about proper spacing on the court where a player attacks the basket and will react based on what the defense gives him. The option is to either finish strong or to pass out to an open player or to drop a pass to a teammate who comes in to take advantage of the collapsing defense.
In the National Basketball Association, the DDM has caught on with the Miami Heat, Memphis Grizzlies and Denver Nuggets, to name just a few teams.
“There have been a lot of changes to the DDM since my days in Clovis West but the main concepts have stayed the same. I have added a lot of little things to improve the offense and its efficiency,” Walberg said.
“Coach Calipari had success with it at Memphis and Kentucky but I would say very few teams understand the concepts and especially how to implement them,” Walberg added.