South Bay Cagers Listed Among Nation’s Best

Clifford Allen of Carson High and David Whitmore of St. Bernard have received “high honorable mention” for Street & Smith’s Basketball Yearbook high school All-American team, putting them among the top 112 players in the country on Street & Smith’s list.

Two more South Bay players earned honorable mention: 6-6 Redondo senior Steve Florentine and 6-6 Carson senior Anthony January.

Allen, a 6-10 senior impressive in summer leagues, is considered one of the best big men in the country. Whitmore is more of a surprise as the 6-4 junior comes off a season in which he showed spectacular jumping ability but had not completely harnessed his talents.

Two Southland players made Street & Smith’s select 20--Crenshaw guard Stevie Thompson was named to third team and St. Monica guard Earl Duncan was named to the fourth team. Both can be seen in action this season against South Bay teams.

Other Southland players named include 6-7 Fairfax junior Sean Higgins and Long Beach Poly guard Chris Roscoe, who was also a Street & Smith preseason football All-American.

The San Pedro Sportswalk will honor its latest inductees Nov. 4 with a noon ceremony aboard the S.S. Azure Seas after the unveiling of the plaques on 6th Street.

This year’s inductees are jockey Willie Shoemaker, boxing great Sugar Ray Robinson and football player Don Shinnick, a San Pedro High graduate who went on to star at UCLA and later with the Baltimore Colts. He set an NFL record that still stands with 37 interceptions from his linebacking position. He is now linebacker coach for the New England Patriots.

Robinson, 65, and Shoemaker, 53, are expected to be on hand for the 11 a.m. unveiling of their plaques. Robinson, five-time middleweight and one-time welterweight champ, is considered by some fight experts the greatest boxer ever. Now associated with the Sugar Ray Youth Foundation in Los Angeles, Robinson fought in 88 amateur bouts and 202 pro fights.

Shoemaker, who has ridden 8,482 winners, is still active but is currently sidelined by an injury suffered in July at Del Mar.

The three inductees bring the total in the Sportswalk to 27 since its 1978 inception.

The banquet is open to the public at $20 per person. Tickets are available at the San Pedro Peninsula Chamber office, 390 West 7th St.

Three new rules drafted by the National Federation Basketball Rules Committee should be noticeable on high school courts this season. The one with the most impact will be a change in jump balls, which will occur only at the start of the game and any overtime. Otherwise, the ball will be awarded out of bound on an alternating basis, as is done in college ball.

Two rules will have an effect on the sidelines, especially the one that mandates: “Coaches must remain seated on the benches . . . except for limited specific situations.” There are veterans of 15 or 20 years who have yet to sit under any situation.

The other sideline rule requires players on the bench to remain seated while the clock is running “except to spontaneously react to an outstanding play or to report to the scorer’s table.” Some teams recently have taken to standing for long periods as a sign of spirit or support for teammates on the floor--to the dismay of spectators sitting behind the bench.

How sure is a 2-0 lead in a best-of-five volleyball match? And how hard is it to come back from a 0-2 deficit? The West Coast Athletic Conference has figured out this breakdown on its women’s season: When up 2-0, WCAC teams are 22-1. When down 0-2, only four teams have come back for a 4-35 mark. In particular, U.S. International University needs an early lead. USIU is 4-3 in matches in which it won the first game, 0-5 when its opponent won first.

Loyola Marymount, 9-9 overall, is another team that plays better with a lead. The Lions are 3-1 when they take a 1-0 lead, 2-4 when their opponent takes the lead and 1-3 after losing the first two games. The Lions are also 1-2 in five-game matches.