AND THE SEASON’S BEST (46) : Keep Your Eye on the Ball: Scoring Just One Item in Kiti’s Repertoire

Rafid Kiti is coming upcourt with the ball. Don’t trust him. Keep your eye on the ball. Don’t watch his eyes, head or shoulders.

One slip and . . .

You took your eye off the ball. Now watch him drive inside for the easy layup. That’s all you can do anyway--watch.

Don’t feel bad. Plenty of Grossmont League players know the feeling. They’ve felt the breeze as Kiti, Valhalla High School’s junior tornado of a guard, made one of his fancy moves and whipped past them for a basket.

And when Kiti doesn’t shoot, he passes.

“He’s creative,” said Tony Clark, a Valhalla teammate. “He does anything he wants to simultaneously on the court. You never know what he is going to do. It all depends on the moment.”

Kiti, 6-feet 5 1/2-inches tall, is just as likely to shoot from three-point range as he is to take it inside. From wherever he might be shooting, he is averaging 22 points a game.

He hit his peak on Feb. 5 when he scored 46 points, the most this season in the county, against Granite Hills.

Kiti was 20 of 28 from the field, including 1 of 3 from three-point range, and 5 of 6 on free throws. He had 13 layups, three of them dunks. He had 6 assists, 6 rebounds and 6 steals.

This was not bad for a guy who four years ago only played basketball in physical education class and at recess. He said he really just was not interested in the sport.

Then in the eighth grade, Kiti--who moved to San Diego from Iraq when he was 3--was convinced by some classmates to go out for the team. He figured he would give it a try.

“I was terrible,” he recalled.

But his interest was piqued enough that he decided to play in a summer league at Valhalla. Soon he was hooked. He became a gym rat, spending every weekend looking for an open gym. In ninth grade, he averaged 23 points for the freshman team.

“I really started getting into it,” Kiti said. “I was playing every day. I kept getting interested, and it’s something that just clicked.”

The weekend pickup games are where Kiti developed his creative style. At first, he would just mess around--pass behind the back, toss up an alley-oop. But the more he did it, the better his ballhandling became.

“He has excellent court vision,” said Manny Silva, Valhalla coach. “As soon as he gets the ball, he’s looking. He’s always thinking about the next move before it happens. That is something you don’t teach. Maybe it’s because you play so much or you are aware of what the game is all about that allows you to do that.”

All of this keeps Kiti’s teammates constantly alert. At first, they were as baffled by Kiti’s moves as his opponents were.

“They would have a hard time catching the ball because he would throw it, and they wouldn’t be ready,” Silva said. “They would be open, but they would be surprised by the pass. Of course, now that they have been playing with him all year, they are ready all of the time for the pass.”

At times, Kiti’s passing can be hilarious. During one game this season, he drove toward an easy basket on a fast break. But instead of laying the ball in, he bounced it off the backboard. Clark was right behind him and followed with a slam.

You can’t take anything for granted around him.

“He keeps my head in the game,” Clark said. “He does do things that make me react. Instead of going by the book all of the time, he tries to keep things interesting. As soon as he catches the ball, he knows what he is going to do with it. You really have to watch him all of the time.”

Said Kiti: “I think that stuff makes your teammates better players. I have the ability to drive, dribble, shoot or pass.”

Last year, Kiti’s skills were not as evident. He was much more undisciplined as a sophomore, Silva said, one of the reasons he was used as a seventh man. He didn’t like sitting and decided to stay away from the bench his junior year.

He played in a summer league. A fall league. And he kept up the weekend outings to the open gyms with Clark.

“He’s very dedicated,” Silva said. “A lot of it was maturity.”

Kiti said he put his mind to it that he was going to be the best. Also tucked into the back of his mind was the fact that he knew he was capable of a big offensive night such as the one against Granite Hills.

“Deep down inside, I knew I was capable of doing something like that this year,” Kiti said. “I didn’t want to say anything because people would say that I was bragging. So I was just waiting for it to come out.”

Before the Granite Hills game, Silva walked over to Kiti and said: “I can feel it, this is going to be your night.”

In warmups, Kiti was right on. He stood on the three-point arc and couldn’t miss. He stood at the free throw line and sank nearly everything. He drove for the layup and everything felt right.

It all carried over to the game. Kiti was unaware that he was headed on a pace of 40-plus points. At halftime, someone mentioned 26. It didn’t really register.

“I didn’t really have time to focus on that,” Kiti said.

His time was spent working the fast break. Although they hadn’t discussed anything, Clark knew what to do. As soon as he got the rebound, he would turn and fire downcourt to Kiti on the run.

“He stayed at the top of the key a lot that night,” Clark said. “As soon as the ball goes up he releases. He’s always thinking fast break. He had 13 that night. It was incredible.”

After the game, everyone was trying to get Kiti’s attention. He still had no idea he had scored that many points.

“It really came as a surprise because I wasn’t keeping track of my points,” Kiti said. “After that, I figured I could do it every other game.”

He was wrong.

The next game, he was held to six as Valhalla was upset by Helix, 27-24. John Singer, Helix’s coach, took away Valhalla’s fast break by having his team hold the ball.

“That game was really frustrating on the offensive side,” Kiti said.

The next game, against El Cajon Valley, Kiti was right back on pace, scoring 43 points in a 99-66 victory, including eight three-pointers.

“You have to try and get the win any way you can,” he said. “It doesn’t mean that much in the win or loss column how much you score, just as long as you win.”

Besides, Kiti’s having too much fun just playing the game. At practice, he’s picked up the tag as a hot dog.

He loves it.

He’ll whip passes behind his back, between his legs. He’ll double-pump, try finger-tip rolls. He is anything but routine.

“He will do a lot of creative things out on the court,” Silva said. “He doesn’t do all of those crazy things in the games, but when he gets bored, he will do that in practice.”

Said Kiti: “I like to have fun. Other players are tense all of the time. But I figure that I play the game every day, so I have to make it fun out there.”