NCAA BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP : INDIANA VS. SYRACUSE : Knight’s California Connection: Dean Garrett and Joe Hillman

It may not be a trend, but Indiana Coach Bob Knight has established a California connection with his basketball program.

Knight once viewed California prospects as surfer-types, who were presumably too laid back for his rigid approach to the game.

But Knight has mellowed in the sense that Californians are now welcomed in Hoosier country, and if they happen to be junior college transfers, that’s also acceptable.

For many years, Knight wouldn’t look at a junior college player, much less recruit one. However, that was before his team finished seventh in the Big Ten in 1984-85 while some other conference teams were benefiting from JC transfers.

So Knight radically changed his recruiting philosophy, and now two of his key players--center Dean Garrett and guard Keith Smart--are junior college transfers.

Moreover, Garrett is a a native of Southern California. He grew up in San Clemente before enrolling at City College of San Francisco.

Without Garrett and Smart, it’s doubtful that Indiana would be playing Syracuse tonight at the Superdome for the NCAA championship.

Garrett is only the second Californian ever recruited by Knight at Indiana. The other player was Joe Hillman, a prolific scorer from Glendale Hoover High and now a reserve guard. Hillman’s father, Pete Hillman, played for USC in the early ‘60s.

Hillman played a key role in Indiana’s 97-93 semifinal victory over Nevada Las Vegas Saturday, finishing with 7 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists in 17 minutes.

Even though Hillman was aware of Knight’s aversion to California athletes, he rejected scholarship offers from other schools to go to Indiana.

Garrett, a 6-foot 10-inch postman who is averaging 15 points and 9 rebounds a game in the tournament, compared to season averages of 11.2 and 8.3, said he wasn’t ready to attend a four-year school when he graduated from San Clemente High School.

“I stood 6-8 and weighed only 180 pounds, and even though I was recruited by UC Irvine, Cal State Fullerton and Arizona, I didn’t think I was ready for anything like that,” Garrett said Sunday.

When Garrett’s mother moved to San Francisco, he followed her because he didn’t want her to be alone.

He averaged 19 points, 9 rebounds and 5.5 blocked shots in 1985-86 at CCSF under Coach Brad Duggan, a relationship that prepared him for Knight’s personality.

“There were no surprises. They go about things exactly the same way,” Garrett said. “I had been with Brad Duggan for two years, and his mouth is a little worse than Bobby Knight’s mouth. Brad could get away with some of those things, because he’s not in the media spotlight as much as Coach Knight is.”

Knight laughs when he recalls that Garrett once told him: “Since I’ve played for Coach Duggan, you and Mother Teresa should get the Nobel peace prize.”

Garrett said he didn’t give a second thought to any other school when he found out that Indiana was interested in him.

“Coach Knight never explained to me why he was suddenly recruiting JC players, and I didn’t ask him,” Garrett said. “Just having a chance to play for him was something I couldn’t pass up.”

There was another factor in his decision to go to Indiana, one that is contributing to the declining prestige of West Coast basketball.

“When you’re watching TV, all you see is the East. You don’t see the Pac-10 or PCAA,” he said. “I wanted to become a better player and have a chance to go one step further, which is the NBA. I felt the only way I could do that was get some exposure, and exposure is not on the West Coast.

“Also, I didn’t want to stay on the West Coast. I wanted to see something different. I had never seen snow falling until I got to Indiana.”

There was also pressure on Garrett to perform both athletically and academically as a JC transfer. Andre Harris, a previous JC recruit who played for Knight in 1985-86, was scholastically deficient and is now playing for Austin Peay.

Knight carefully monitors how his athletes are doing in class and in his own classroom, which is often a double session.

“Basketball is the only thing you think about at Indiana,” Garrett said. “There’s not much of a social life. If you’re not out of town, you’re in Assembly Hall practicing sometimes to all hours of the night.

“We have an academic counselor, Buzz Kurpius, and she keeps a close eye on all of us. There is no chance for any of us to slip. Anything we do, the coach knows about it just like that.”

Asked to evaluate Knight as a teacher, Garrett said: “He’s the best teacher without a doubt. He takes so much time explaining what he wants done. He only has to tell you once because he never changes his mind on what he wants done for the whole season.”

All-American guard Steve Alford, the all-time leading scorer at Indiana, gets most of the attention from the media, and Garrett says that’s the way it should be. “Steve earns all the recognition he gets,” Garrett said. “He probably gets yelled at more than anyone else. He gets more heat. When the team messes up, we don’t hear it. Steve hears it. He is the one who has to go into meetings with Coach Knight, not us.”

So now Indiana is on the brink of a championship, and Garrett calls it a dream season.

“It has been like a Cinderella story, not just for me but for Steve Alford. He had never been on a Big Ten championship team until this year,” Garrett said. “And to go as far as we have this year, I think they’ll make a movie of this one.”

Garrett’s role, though, might have more impact in the future. Indiana has recruited another player from CCSF, Mark Robinson.

“He’s going to surprise a lot of players,” Garrett said. “He has the jumping ability of Keith Smart and he can play guard or forward.

“If Keith and I hadn’t done a great job this year playing-wise and grade-wise, the coach might not have recruited Mark.”