CSUN STYLE MAKES IMPACT : BIG SKY NOT USED TO MAD PACE.

Byline: Eric Noland Daily News Staff Writer

Bring the ball upcourt uncontested, set up in the half-court offense, lob into the post, kick out for the 3-pointer, jog back down on defense.

This had long been the style of basketball play in the Big Sky Conference. Deliberate. Methodical. Predictable. Comfortable.

Then came Cal State Northridge.

The Matadors, in their debut season in the Big Sky, took the court with a nucleus of kids from the central-city playgrounds of Los Angeles. Their game was steals and breakaways and no-look passes and leaping blocks from behind.

Their influence, as manifested in this past weekend's Big Sky Tournament, could result in a redefinition of how hoops are played in the conference.

``I tell you, that's one of the things that I think surprised people,'' coach Bobby Braswell said Sunday, a day after the Matadors fell 44 seconds and four points short of reaching the NCAA Tournament as the unlikeliest champion the Big Sky could have imagined. ``I think the conference is used to a certain style of basketball, not a style where you're going to find teams putting pressure on you full-court, running like we do. . . .

``They're going to have to get used to it, because that's how we're going to play. That's the kind of excitement we want to bring to the community.''

Northridge's impact was barely evident during the conference season, when the Matadors went 8-8 and finished sixth among nine teams. But it became a roar in the tournament, as they knocked off Montana State and Northern Arizona (the No. 1 seed) before raising a nervous sweat on eventual-champion Montana in the title game Saturday night.

In the season-end accounting, these are some of the shock waves that rattled back through the conference:

CSUN led the Big Sky in steals, averaging 10.5 per game, and forced more turnovers (20.7 per game) than any team in school history.

The Matadors, featuring no player taller than 6-foot-7, nonetheless led the conference in rebound margin, and set a school record for blocked shots.

Northridge also didn't sit back in zones and watch the 3-pointers pass overhead. Its defenders trapped the ball full-court and darted out to the firing line, finishing the season first in the Big Sky in 3-point defense (32.8 percent).

These developments are attributable both to the athleticism Northridge brought to the court and to Braswell's coaching philosophy.

``It's just the way we play,'' he said. ``We take shots away from shooters and drives away from drivers. We spent lot of time working on those things.

``We play a pressure game. After our game with NAU, one of their coaches said to me, `You're relentless.' When teams think they can rest, sit back and enjoy a lead, they have to understand they're not going to be able to do that with us.''

Braswell added, ``We're just not big enough. We can't afford to let them come down and set up in their offense. We get some steals, and get our offense going off of that.''

The introduction of a new style of play was not without its drawbacks for the Matadors. They set a school record for personal fouls with 673.

Over the final two games of the tournament, Northridge was on the unfriendly side of a 59-44 disparity in fouls called.

The Big Sky's officials, like the member teams, seem unaccustomed to the Matadors' rough-and-tumble, ball-hawking style of play - and perhaps to some of the exotic athletic feats, too.

Northridge, which concluded its season at 14-15, loses such key seniors as forward Keith Higgins, center Tom Samson and reserve shooter Gerald Rhoden, but this team also can look ahead to the infusion of talent represented in transfers Mike O'Quinn and Brian Hagens (power forwards from Loyola Marymount and New Orleans, respectively), plus forward Jeffrey Parris, who was academically ineligible his freshman year.

Among the returnees are guards Trenton Cross and Derrick Higgins, the catalysts for much of the success this past weekend.

Last week, a few hours after arriving in Flagstaff, Ariz., for the tournament, Higgins lounged on his hotel bed and gazed at a game that was playing out on TV.

``Watching all these teams going to (the NCAA Tournament),'' Higgins said, ``it looks fun. That's what we want to do.''

The game was Big Ten. It was also big time.

And Cal State Northridge, in its clamorous introduction to the Big Sky Conference, just got a healthy sniff of it.

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Photo: (Color) Guard Trenton Cross, who directed the fastbreak attack, will be a key figure for Cal State Northridge next season.

Jake Bacon/Arizona Daily Sun