Allen Has a Craving to Succeed : Benching Revives Aztec’s Interest

Five games into his senior season, San Diego State center Leonard Allen said he lost his appetite for the game of basketball. Three games later, Aztec Coach Smokey Gaines lost his patience with Allen.

On Dec. 22, the Aztecs were 7-0. They were home to face a physical University of Texas team. Early in the game, the Longhorn front line was pushing the 6-10, 215-pound Allen around. As had been his pattern then, Allen was not playing as aggressively as Gaines wanted him to.

Gaines replaced Allen with sophomore Gerald Murray, who had 11 points and 5 rebounds. Allen had just 5 points and 3 rebounds in a season-low 16 minutes of play.

“Gerald will play more,” Gaines told Allen following the Aztecs’ 71-65 win. “I also told Leonard it was a shame to have to bench a kid in his senior year.”

Gaines’ psychological ploy was just the tonic needed to wake the sleeping giant.

“After the first five games, I got content with myself and wasn’t playing as strong as I can,” Allen said. “It was like I lost my appetite for the game.

“Smokey kind of opened my eyes after that game. He said, ‘We need you, big fella.’ Since then, I’ve gotten hungry again.”

Allen has scored 20 points in three straight Western Athletic Conference victories. He was named Western Athletic Conference Player of the Week for scoring 40 points and grabbing 18 rebounds in wins over Utah and BYU last week.

As the Aztecs (12-2 overall and 4-0 in the WAC) head into this week’s conference road games against New Mexico on Friday and Texas-El Paso on Saturday, Allen is averaging 13.2 points and a league-leading 7.9 rebounds per game. He leads the WAC in blocked shots with 37.

“I’m still not at the point where I want to be,” Allen said, “but I think I’m playing better now than I did at the beginning of the season.”

Point guard Creon Dorsey, the acknowledged team leader, took it upon himself to help get Allen going.

“I try to get on him real hard when we’re on the floor and try to get him to outplay himself,” Dorsey said. “He’s concentrating better now, and he seems to want it a little more.

“He doesn’t look as sloppy as he did. He goes to the basket with a little more grace.”

Allen was happy to hear Dorsey say that.

“Woo, that sounds good,” he said. “Me, a finesse player? I thought people thought of me as more of a timid player--as being shy around the basketball.”

People still might think of Allen in those terms, but he no longer does. That’s the main reason he is playing well. He’s confident and he’s playing like a guy who realizes he has only 14 regular-season college games left.

He is blocking layups at one end of the floor and tearing down offensive rebounds on the other end. And he’s doing it enthusiastically.

At Air Force two weeks ago, Allen hit 14 of 15 free throws and blocked three shots early in the game to intimidate the Falcons and set the tone for an easy Aztec victory. After the game, he ran into the locker room with his fist raised high in the air. He had come full circle from apathy to exuberance.

At the start of the season, Allen was concerned he might become the answer to the trivia question, “Who unsuccessfully replaced Michael Cage at center for the Aztecs?”

Now, Allen smiles at the irony when he realizes the Aztecs have a legitimate shot at the conference championship this year with him, not Cage, in the pivot.

“The only thing I really regret is that we didn’t win at least one WAC championship when Michael was here,” Allen said. “But I think that hearing that we wouldn’t do that well because Michael was gone made us want to work harder. I’m not that surprised at how well we’re doing.”

Allen would like to join Cage, a forward for the Clippers, in the National Basketball Assn.

“Physically, I think I have what it takes to play in the NBA,” Allen said. “I can jump, rebound and block shots. I’ve played against some players that made it, and I did pretty well against them.”

But Allen admits the pro scouts haven’t been lining up to speak with him.

“What I have to do is get the mental part together and work hard,” he said. “It comes down to how much I want to make it. There are a lot of people who haven’t made it who should have. I hope I’m not one of those players.”