Team at Work : Crenshaw Can Really Put On the Pressure

The Crenshaw High School basketball team must be possessed. Or perhaps the players are demons themselves--spirits in gym shoes who swoop from the sky or rise like apparitions from the hardwood, darting in and out, leaving opponents gasping and shaken.

“You know, you’ll have the ball and suddenly they are all over you,” Poway guard Andy Byrne said. “You don’t get a chance to breathe. You turn one way and one’s right in front of you. You turn again and there are two more. It’s no fun going against that press.”

Ah, the press. The ultimate weapon. Trying to crack it is like opening a can of sardines after the key has broken off. Or imagine your fingers pinned in a vise for 32 minutes.

“It’s relentless,” Coach Bob Purdy of Fresno Edison said. “They keep coming and coming. We prepared for the pressure in practice, but we simply weren’t ready for its intensity. It overwhelms you.”

The Cougar press has produced 23 straight victories and a No. 1 ranking in the state, and has lifted Crenshaw to the brink of an undefeated season. Tonight at 8:15, Coach Willie West’s team will take on Logan of Union City (29-4) in the Division I championship game at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

Willie West won his first varsity game in 1970. Last Saturday, he won No. 308, a 100-62 drubbing of Fresno Edison in the Southern California Regional final. There are eight City championship banners tacked to the walls of the Crenshaw gymnasium, and over one basket, a banner symbolic of a state title in 1983.

High school coaches seldom draw the genius label so quickly bestowed upon their college and professional counterparts. Indeed, West, a soft-spoken and mild-mannered individual is self-effacing, usually dismissing his own contributions, pointing instead to the dedication of his athletes.

“I’ve learned a lot over the years,” West said. “I’ve been to clinics and listened and adopted different things. You’re always learning at this, constantly experimenting with things that might work.

“But we’ve had some good athletes, people who have been able to handle what we’ve been trying to do.”

In 1970, West won the City Section title with Donald Aaron and Melvin Arterberry.

“I had success with a fallback zone when I was coaching the JVs, so I didn’t want to change,” West recalled. “But right before the playoffs started, the kids came to me and said, ‘Coach let us out of the cage; let us play man.’ ”

He did and they won, and the story exemplifies West’s malleability. If the shoe fits, wear it. Otherwise, try another shoe.

“My best team (1971-1972) was with Marques Johnson, Maynard Brown, Reynard Murray, Kenneth Daniel, Reginald Mims and Kenny Smith,” he said. “They were big, aggressive and quick. I just turned them loose. But you can’t do certain things if the people can’t do them. Like the press this season. If we couldn’t do it, I’d scrap it and if we can’t do it next year, I’ll drop it.”

The Wizard of 11th Avenue began experimenting with a zone press as early as 1970, but he didn’t like the chemistry. He tried it again briefly in 1979, with mixed results. But then last season with 6-8 prep All-American John Williams on the point, it became a devilish concoction.

“This press demands so much energy that if one person doesn’t put out, it falls apart,” West said. “Last year, John was extremely effective up front. He created a lot of turnovers just on his presence alone. But actually we didn’t have the foot speed we have this year because our center, Jessie Spinner, was a good player, but only adequate on the press.”

After losing to Long Beach Poly, the eventual state champion, in the Southern Regional final, 58-54, West, along with assistants Joe Weakley and Maurice Duckett, went back to the caldron and added two critical ingredients--intensity and desire.

“We talked to them (players) before the season and we talk to them every day about what we want to get done with the press, what we have to get done in order for it to work,” West said. “There are weaknesses in a zone press. It can be defeated easily, if everyone doesn’t rotate.

“In practice, when our reserves work strictly against the press, they turn it into a shambles. But when we turn the starters loose and let them try to score, then it becomes emotional. One gets a steal and a dunk and the others want one, too. It takes hold and suddenly the other side becomes chaotic.

“No one likes to play defense because there is no recognition in defense. It is hard work. You have to pay a high price physically.

“My son was the leading tackler on his youth football team and he wants to be a running back now because he thinks no one appreciated what he did. Our kids are willing to do it, to expend the energy, that’s the key.”

Duckett, who signals in the defenses from the sidelines, sees the press as an art form.

“Some people fail to see that defense can be creative,” he said. “You make the other team do what you want them to do. It also defines your personality. I tell the kids not to lock themselves in. Express yourself.”

Last Saturday, Fresno Edison took a 9-3 lead, cutting through the press effortlessly, almost mockingly, especially when Edison’s Steve McGlothlin rifled a powerful dunk through the net. West, for his part, sat stoically on the bench.

On the court, however, junior forward Dion Brown was angry, having seen enough of Edison’s jive and its corresponding assortment of high fives.

“Stephen (Thompson) and I are on the front wall of the press and we’ve got to control their guards and keep them in front of us,” he said. “We knew we had to tighten up. Those guys were talking, too. I thought it was time to show them we could play.”

Brown and Thompson spun into action. First, Brown stole a pass and leaped to the basket. Taking off near the middle of the lane and soaring high above the basket, he threw down a dunk that Darryl Dawkins would certainly have named. It ignited the team.

“See, when Dion got that dunk, it got me fired up,” said Thompson, a high-flying junior, who averaged 28 points a game during the regular season. “I had to get one for me, too. Then it kind of builds. You saw Stanley (Brundy) out there. He was a warrior on the boards.

“Our fans kind of expect the dunk. When the press starts going, you can see the other team get nervous and then they get that look, like it’s over.”

Guard David Carter, who is quick, has a soft jump shot and runs the offense with the efficiency of a commando leader, smiles when a suggestion is made that the tenacity exhibited on the press is like that shown by sharks at feeding time.

“We work so hard because we want the ball. It’s ours,” said Carter, who shares the team captaincy with fellow senior starters Paul Weakley and Brundy. “Plus, you’ve got to work out there or you let the other guys down. And we’ve got guys on the bench who want our jobs. Coach West never gives anything to you. You have to earn it.”

Three of the most talented reserves are Tracey Freeman, Byron Scott, and Ronald Caldwell.

What is amazing is the enthusiasm shown for a task that is something like a trip to the dentist. It’s similar to a parent’s telling his child that Brussels sprouts are just as good as ice cream and having the child believe it.

Weakley, the son of West’s assistant, describes the philosophy.

“You’ve got to give to get,” he said. “We work so hard on conditioning, and run so much that the games are fun for us. You’ll never see us bend over and catch our breath. We’re not supposed to get tired. I think it gets the other team psyched out.