Basketball Without Big Men Has Reduced Crespi to Small Time

Until this season, Crespi High basketball was characterized by clout. A game would be close and-- bang --a Joe Carrabino or Brian Capp would sink a jumper. After a missed shot-- pow --a Mike Yoest or Steve Tanin would grab the rebound.

The result: Four Del Rey League titles in the past five seasons and a 10-year record under Coach Paul Muff of 169-75.

The Crespi football team, for 10 years without clout, was led this season by 6-5, 220-pound, senior co-captains Sean Howard and John Carpenter. As offensive linemen, they opened big holes for Russell White. As linebackers, they plugged them.

The result: A 13-1 record and Big Five Conference championship after being 45-53-4 the past 10 years.

But now it’s the basketball team’s turn to be clout-less. Crespi begins league play Saturday with a record of 1-8. No Celt had varsity experience before this season.

Jason Ringler and Mike Kennedy are the team’s best players and the only seniors who start. Ringler leads in scoring with 13.3 points per game, but this isn’t Jason and the Scorchers. No Celt is shooting 50%.

“This has been a big adjustment,” Muff said. “Things I’ve taken for granted in the past have to be explained over and over. People look at me like, ‘He’s going to go crazy.’

“We’ve been intimidated in front of big crowds on the road and are nervous at home. I understand and sympathize, but we’re at a point now where I can’t mother the players.”

How could a program as solid as Crespi’s turn out a team only a mother could love?

The answer begins with those clout-carriers, Howard and Carpenter. This time two years ago they were hard guys on the hardwood, the mainstays of the junior varsity basketball team.

Howard was most valuable player on the freshman basketball team and most improved player for the junior varsity as a sophomore. Carpenter led both the freshman and junior varsity teams in rebounds. Then, before their junior season, they quit.

Said Howard: “Basketball at Crespi is demanding and I was set on helping rebuild the football program. At the varsity level, playing both sports would have been almost impossible.”

Said Carpenter: “My heart was in football while my body was in basketball. I couldn’t have made the type of commitment Coach Muff demands.”

It’s hard to argue that they shouldn’t have hung up their high tops. Howard is a USA Today first-team All-American linebacker and Carpenter a first-team Times All-Valley tight end. And each figures to receive a Division I football scholarship.

Now they walk around campus with as many medals as a five-star general hanging from their letter jackets. But their basketball-playing schoolmates hang their heads.

“The record is frustrating and the inexperience is frustrating,” Ringler said. “I’m not sure how much Sean and John would have helped us. For sure they’d help our rebounding.”

Muff knew he was losing about 20 rebounds and 20 points per game, but he put up no resistance to their decision. “Coach Muff wanted what was best for me,” Howard said. “He was fully supportive.”

Both players said the same wasn’t true for their parents.

“I always thought John could do both,” said Fred Carpenter, John’s father. “I’ll admit it. I liked watching him play. Coach Muff told me we had to respect John’s decision. That man is a real gentleman.

“And you know, the way it worked out, it’s almost like the kids knew what they were doing.”

The decision worked out so well that other promising basketball players who also play football have done the same. All-Valley lineman Steve Puryear, the only junior on the varsity basketball team last season, bypassed the sport this season to bulk up for track, where he is defending league shot put champion.

Rob O’Byrne, a starting guard on the junior varsity last season, also quit to concentrate on his duties as quarterback of the football team. Troy Thomas, a defensive back, was starting point guard on the freshman basketball team three years ago but hasn’t played since.

“Not only have several top players opted for football,” Muff said, “but because they did play at the lower levels, they took playing time away from other kids. We are thin and inexperienced.”

After coaching what amounted to an honors class for several years, Muff is back to basics.

Improvement has been slow. Inglewood clobbered the Celts, 79-36, last week in the Glendale tournament, the worst loss of Muff’s career at Crespi. The Celts have taken leads into the fourth quarter of five games and lost four. The young team turns the ball over in the final minutes as if to say, “Here, take it. We aren’t sure how to win.”

The turnovers are due in large part to turnover. Last season’s senior-laden Celts were 20-5 and did not lose at home. Every player on this team was on junior varsity or a lower level a year ago.

“It’s tried my patience but we are at a point where I should be a little less patient,” he said.

Twice Crespi was called for having six players on the floor against Calabasas in the Celts’ first home game. Moments such as those and a sequence against Compton in the Tournament of Champions have Muff exhibiting priest-like forgiveness.

Crespi had trailed Compton with a minute left, 43-39. Kenny Lynch stole a pass and fed Kennedy, who pulled up for a 10-footer. The shot clanked off the rim and Kennedy fouled the Compton player who grabbed the rebound, assuring that Crespi would lose.

From his seat on the bench Muff smiled at Kennedy and said, “It’s OK, Mike.”

The coach knelt before the team during a timeout seconds later. In a tolerant tone, he said: “You can never tell what’s going to happen. If you’re gonna give up, tell me now and sit beside me on the bench. We’re learning. Hands together . . .” Lowered heads lifted, the players put their palms together and managed to yell, “Crespi.”

Hundreds of people, including family and friends, will be yelling Saturday night when Bosco Tech (10-3) visits Crespi in the league opener. “I hate to think of our first league game being that important, but for us it really is,” Muff said. “Bosco Tech is a team we should beat on our home court.”

So, the team that doesn’t know how to win will be expected to win for the first time.

“This is what I looked forward to since the sixth grade,” Ringler said. “The other teams in our league have been winning but not against the level of opponents we play. I definitely think we will do well in league.”

Said Howard: “No one is putting these guys down around campus. I’m sure they want to live up to the great teams.”

In more ways than one, the Celts are victims of their celebrated past. Invitations to the three nonleague tournaments they played in are reserved for the big boys. Muff didn’t want to bow out of, say, the Tournament of Champions, because he wants another invitation next season when his team will be more experienced.

“We play a tougher preseason schedule than any team in the Valley,” Muff said. “This is Crespi’s down year. Everyone gets a shot at us now, but we will be on solid ground next year.”

Reasons for the optimism are junior guards Matt Turner and Mike Tilkian, junior forward Lance Smith and Lynch, a sophomore center. “All our guys have talent,” Ringler said. “We’ve played enough games where some of it should start to show.”

Lynch (6-3, 185) is the first player Muff has coached to have gone from the freshman team to a starting spot on varsity in one season. Is he the most nervous 15-year-old in Encino? “He’s too young to be nervous,” Muff said.

“I can’t hardly wait for Saturday night,” said Lynch through a broad grin. “I think we will win league. We are much better than we’ve shown.”

The feeling that the team will instantly get well with the beginning of league games pervades the campus. Even if the team has doubters, Muff has none.

“You have to take into consideration that Paul Muff is a great coach,” John Carpenter said. “Everyone has a feeling that the team will get its act together by league.”

Jason Turner, a Times All-Valley guard last season as a Crespi senior, watches the team because his brother, Matt, is the point guard. He’s seen the embarrassing moments and believes better times are ahead. “Coach Muff will have them prepared,” he said. “Ringler and Kennedy are good shooters. I can almost guarantee they will make the playoffs.”

Winning, of course, is expected. Over the past five years, Crespi basketball teams at each level (varsity, junior varsity, sophomore and freshman) have won 15 of 20 league titles.

Winning is also something that brings clout, as the football team has learned. “Crespi is a basketball school turned into a football school,” Puryear said.

Maybe in a turnabout-is-fair-play move, Muff could induce Russell White to switch over to basketball. After rushing for 2,354 yards and 31 touchdowns this season, the Crespi sophomore might need a new thrill. Anyway, Jason Turner says he can play.

“Russell played in our lunch league last year,” Turner said. “One time he caught a pass at half court, took off 10 feet from the basket and nearly dunked it after double-pumping. It was spectacular.”

Muff, of course, doesn’t want to get into a tug-of-war with football Coach Bill Redell.

“When a kid gets to his junior year I’ll be the first to encourage him to play only one sport,” Muff said. “There is such an overlap between football and basketball seasons and there is more to high school than athletics.”

When it comes to losing players, Muff has been Mr. Nice Guy. He may have to draw the line next time. After watching the basketball team practice, Puryear had a thought.

“Man, Kenny Lynch would make a great tight end,” he said. “I’m going to try to get him to play football.”

If Lynch switches sports, there will be no doubt who has the clout at Crespi.