Allen Finally Has a Chance to Live Up to His Reputation, and He Does

The great basketball prospect who never played finally got his chance last week, and the results were not disappointing: 32 points, 18 rebounds, 5 blocked shots.

But who would have thought that center Clifford Allen would end his potentially outstanding high school career with an 0-1 record, and playing in a Southern Section 1-A wild-card game at that?

This is the same player, after all, that Nevada Las Vegas assistant Mark Warkentien labled as an “impact type of player who can take a team to the Final Four” in a television interview earlier this season. Other college coaches agree that Allen is, indeed, a major talent.

Unfortunately, there was as much attention focused on his problems as his potential, about how his early life consisted of foster homes and detention centers and of the latest brush with the law that cost him a chance, once and for all, to play at Carson. He landed at El Paso de Robles, an all-boys juvenile detention school of 560 students near Paso Robles in San Luis Obispo County, although the exact nature of the conviction can not be disclosed because he is a minor.

According to assistant basketball coach Tom Goodman, Allen has been at the school since December, but he began practicing with the team only a couple weeks ago when his transcripts and eligibility were cleared.

His first-ever appearance in an in-season high school game last Wednesday at Santa Ynez had none of the attention his name previously attracted. It seemed all that was left for him was to play. And finally he did.

El Paso de Robles lost, 72-69, to Santa Ynez, but only after letting an 11-point lead slip away in the final 5:10. Allen’s performance, however, was definitely playoff caliber.

“When I first met him, I was more concerned with his behavior than anything,” Goodman said. “I already knew he was a great ballplayer. But he acted like a first-class gentleman in terms of handling both the pounding Santa Ynez gave him and the loss.

“They were double- and triple-teaming him for most of the game and hitting him with forearms and punches in the back. He played extremely well and very much under control considering the circumstances. The opposing center tried to get him into a fight. He called him (Allen) out and started screaming at him and calling him names. Clifford just walked away.

“I’m sure he was a little frustrated because the timing was off in terms of getting the ball to him on any alley-oop kind of thing. We’re basically a run-and-gun team, but in about three days we went from that to, ‘OK, let’s work the ball into the big guy.’ ”

But certainly not because Allen couldn’t handle a fast-break pace.

“He looked like he could go all day,” Goodman said. “He definitely maintained his physical fitness.”

The last three years of Allen’s life have not been according to the script of the “normal” high school star, and it looks as though the next 18 months or so won’t either.

He is playing on the Spartan baseball team and should graduate in June, Goodman said. But his sentence at the California Youth Authority-run school, does not expire until June of 1987, which puts his letter of intent with UNLV, signed last November, in limbo.

According to Dutch Baughman, an assistant commissioner of the Southwestern Conference who has worked with letters of intent for several years for the College Coaches Assn., Allen can defer his scholarship and still be eligible to play for the Runnin Rebels after his release if approved by the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. But UNLV also has the option to declare the letter invalid.

Who’s on first?: Craig Raub, coach of the top-seeded Granada Hills Kennedy girls’ basketball team, is upset because the Golden Cougars’ first-round playoff game against Carson, a wild-card entrant after not winning a game in league, was cancelled last week. City administrator Lee Joseph said the game was never scheduled in the first place. Carson Coach Jay Park said he never even had an indication that the Colts were being considered for a playoff spot.

Joseph said Carson, like Manual Arts and Granada Hills, would not be allowed in the playoffs after going 0-10 in league and winning only three of 18 decisions overall. As he put it: “Why should Carson play them (Kennedy)? Why program for failure?”

But Raub, citing previous examples under similar circumstances, doesn’t go for that explanation.

“It was just changed based on the opinion of someone who had the power to do it,” he said. “Crenshaw is the No. 1 seed for the boys’, and they’re playing a wild-card team. Hell, Carson played El Camino Real (in the football playoffs last season), and that’s 1-8 against a nationally ranked team. Give me a break.”

So instead of playing, Raub, whose team has won 80 straight league games and is 19-2 this season, scouted other teams.

Prep Notes Harvey Mason of Crescenta Valley in La Crescenta won the Southern Section scoring title with an average of 28.5 points a game and also had the high-game with 53. Jeff Fryer of Corona del Mar was second at 27.8 and Steve Ward of Calabasas third at 27.5. South Pasadena’s Eric McArthur led the section in rebounding with an average of 18.7 a game, followed by Steve Friendly of Downey Warren at 17.1 and Charles White of Monrovia at 15.9. In girls’ competition, Michelle Carter of Anaheim Magnolia averaged 30.3 points and 18.2 rebounds to lead in both categories. Judy Mosley of La Puente (29.4) and Cindy Vyskocil of Whittier Christian (29.2) finished two-three in the points’ standings while a pair of sophomores, Robin Seabrook of La Habra and Shaunda Greene of Inglewood Morningside, both averaged 16.1 rebounds to tie for second in that race.